That Triathlon Life Podcast - *Live* podcast in Las Vegas from That Triathlon Life Base Camp!

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

This week we had a blast recording the podcast in front of a live audience of TTL campers in Lake Las Vegas. We opened it up to the crowd, letting them ask questions and steer the conversation wherever they wanted to take it.A big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And you're listening to our triathlon podcast. We are coming to you from Lake Las Vegas in front of a live audience, who luckily, I hope, is going to treat us really nice with some questions that they brought. These are 100% live questions that we'll be passing around a little microphone.

If you didn't listen last week, we are here for TTL Base Camp. The first time we've ever done a camp experience with TTL, and we are super excited, and we just came back from the most incredible ride ever. I want Paula to tell us about the ride we did today. Why? Because I dare you to complain about it. Here's a little secret. Because usually I don't really like bike riding or long bike rides, but today was amazing. And I do think that having people around the SAG support, the perfect roads with no cars, it looks.

like checked all the boxes of what I like about bike riding. But honestly, the biggest thing was the low traffic because I get freaked out on my bike when there's a lot of cars or when the road condition's bad. But I think we lucked out on all fronts with like weather, low traffic, smooth roads. Sacks support. Remind me of St. George. Amazing Sags support. Leaprogging us so we could get water at any 10K that we needed it.

So yeah, I hope everyone else had a fun time too. We have a super awesome crew here. Everyone's very positive, so it's hard to be negative, right? Yep. And it's really cool to see all the matching kits, too, when you see these, like, lining up the road. Yes. We looked real good. Yeah, that was good.

I really enjoyed that. Okay, so what did we talk about, what do the people not here know about what we've done so far? We did a swim, we did a bike, we did a run, a trail run. And then today we did this epic bike. We have more swimming. We have more running. and we have more biking coming up too. Yeah, once we wrap up this podcast,

a couple of Brave Souls may go do a little open water swim. Some people may go to the strip later this evening and experience actual Las Vegas. And then tomorrow, more big fun activities. As far as I'm concerned, this is actual Las Vegas. We're gambling with our lives and our fitness here. Yeah, I think it's insane that we were doing that ride and we were in Las Vegas.

I don't know if anyone thought of that. When people think of Vegas, they think of the strip and they think of gambling and they think of partying. but we were out in the middle of this crazy nature, and it's, you know, an hour away from the strip. So cool spot, Jordan. Thanks for bringing us here. Jordan, thank you so much.

It's just so far, 10 out of 10. 11 out of 10, I might even say. Okay, well, unless there's anything else we want to touch on, I think we could open this up to audience questions. What do you think? Yeah, we also welcome games. Oh, games. On the spot games.

See if Eric's spelling skills are just a ruse or if there's a... No, it's true. He's unbelievable. It's spelling. He's unbelievable. And if you want to think of a game while you're sitting here and do it last, that's fine, too. Yeah, that sounds great. But yeah, don't be shy. We're going to open up the floor. Okay, let's do hands up for a question. Then Jordan's going to pick a completely random person and hand over the mic. Anyone? Hands up. I asked you guys before. Okay, great. Okay. As you're walking over, I want to say usually the way we field questions is through the website, that triathlonlife.com. slash podcast today we're doing it live so let's do our first question here name location well location

is here i imagine but uh sean jennings uh normally not here but normally in upstate new york i just as i just saracuse so i'm happy to be here because there's no snow um but my question is thinking about some of the things that you guys have talked about that you want to do in the future um like utmb stuff with eric uh just the epic swim run that we've been told you've been old is going to happen. Yeah, right. What are some of those, like, next level things that you want to do after that? It doesn't even have to be athletic, but, like, what are those things that you're still

kind of thinking about a year or two, three years from now that you're kind of in the back of your head thinking, man, I really would like to do that at some point. I can kick it off. For me, I wanted to do it last year, but a lot of racing and this hip issue that I've been dealing with kept me from doing Padigan Man, which is part of the X-Try series. it involves Norseman and it's in Patagonia. And I've been wanting to do that for several years and I still want to be able to do that. So should I successfully get my hip taken care of and everything,

maybe that'll be on the 2027 lineup of activities. Yeah, that isn't exciting undertaking that would require all of your skills. Yeah, for sure. It's an iron distance event, but an incredibly beautiful course and you jump off of a boat, just like Alcatraz type vibes and the run is on gravel roads. And so that kind of fires me up in all the ways. If I were to design an event so that you would have the best chance of success, what would that look like? Is it this for me?

Yeah. No, there would be probably more gravel riding because it is still a TT bike ride. It's very hilly, but it's still a TT bike ride on the road. Okay. Good question. Yeah. Paula, Horizons, futures. I don't know.

I think after I retire from triathlon, competitive. I don't have any events that are like, I must do this or I must. I'm just not as adventurous as these two. I think something I might be good at is like an uphill short-ish running race. VKs. Yeah. But that's only because I have all this fitness from triathlon. So after I retire from triathlon, if I'm not as fit, maybe it wouldn't be as fun.

How much do you see that really receding, though? I can't imagine you not training and running. Well, I'll never be this fit. I'm not going to train 25 hours a week. Right. But I just really like exercising. Like I don't need to go for a five-hour bike ride to like check my box of satisfaction. I hope I can run for a long time after I retire.

But that's all pending injuries and everything. But yeah, in terms of events, I mean, honestly, I love crewing and supporting Eric at his ultras and everything. So if I can retire and be at his races and be a crew, that actually gives me like almost the same. thrill is racing myself, so it's very fun. I don't want to, Eric, stop me if this should not be made public, but on your birthday next year, there's a thing happening? Yeah, on my birthday is the Portland Bridge swim, which is... What is that?

It's 11 miles, and you swim from, like, the furthest down bridge in Portland to, like, the other end of Portland underneath all of the bridges. Yeah, but... Slightly downstream. Yeah. Ever so slightly. Yeah. So I might actually be able to do that this year, even if I have some, you know, you know,

bum-hip stuff going. Yeah, that could be really fun. It's on the tentative schedule. Love it. Great. Okay. Next question. I'm Sarah.

Bring the mic close to your face. Oh, yes. No, you're okay. Thank you. Just eat it. That's funny, of all people, for her to say that to you. It must be egregious. So this one is a little bit towards Eric,

just because I've heard it the most throughout, like, listening to the podcast from, like, just downloading all of it. what do you think has kind of been like this biggest shift? I feel like your language has shift, the adventure has shift, more like big grand ideas are coming. Yeah, I think a big part of that is getting closer to the age of retirement from competitive on-road triathlon. And Eric kind of has already made that transition. So that kind of has allowed him to, I'm answering for you a little bit, but, dream about all these things that he wanted to do when he was racing competitively and trying

to make it to the Olympics and trying to win 70.3s, but he couldn't because he was so focused on the on-road stuff. So in my opinion, I think that sort of feeling like he's a bit retired from that phase of his racing life has allowed him to think about it these new things. And there's not a lot of triathletes that race on the road who are as good at trail running and mountain biking as Eric is. So it does offer this cool opportunity to go and be competitive at those things. Yeah, being on the trail yesterday. I was like, this is very impressive to be able to. It is really impressive.

I can't do it. So Heather Jackson made that transition really successfully, and I think Eric's really similar to Heather in that way. Yeah, as far as, I mean, I have always liked the outside and everything, but all three of us do. Yeah. Get a lot of joy out of it, and I'm sure all of us too. It's been really cool to see the transition.

It's been good. Yeah, I mean, why don't you answer for Paula? I mean, I was just, all I was going to add is that it has helped a lot that Paula has had to had such great success with her racing and I had hit a point for sure where it's like I can go to this race and really try as hard as I can and we can fight the entire week and I can go from getting fifth place to fourth place meanwhile like trying to optimize her race experience she could go from getting second to winning it and like that is a much bigger deal and and just like she said about crewing me at an ultra like I really enjoy trying to be supportive at her events so yeah yeah yeah

Great question. Thank you. Chaudan? I don't know why you're French. No, Jordan. I'm sorry. Chorda. Chorda. Hey, I'm Kevin. I'm from Washington, D.C. My question is about the mental side of the sport and mental training. So it seems like successful races, you tend to need to dig deep and go somewhere that you often don't go. And my question is sort of about that spectrum between not going to that well too often

versus sort of callousing the mind and going there commonly so that that race experience is almost every day. I'm just sort of wondering where each of you sit on that spectrum and where you find the most success. Eric, it also reminds me of something that you told me when you were, like living in San Diego and racing as a pro, as a new pro, you're saying you get to the start line and you're thinking, I'm supposed to string together the best swim I've had this block, the best bike I've had this block, and the best run I've had this block just to be in the running for the front. How do I even mentally get around that? So do you think there's truth to this callous yourself in training thing?

No, you can do it, or is there a little bit of ignorance as bliss? I wish I didn't know what I had to do today. I think there's definitely some ignorance as bliss, at least for me. I, my very first coach drilled into me, like, always feel like you can do one more rep at the end of a hard workout. And I think, you know, it's like, you think maybe I could do one more rep. but don't ever leave it to the point of that was completely to failure. And then I like showing up to a race having a little bit of a,

I wonder what, you know, that last rep effort where that will get me and having a little bit of like going into a race with this curiosity of like, I don't actually know the ceiling yet. And this is the day that I get to find the ceiling. Great question. Thank you. Thank you. Giordano, now you're Italian.

Yes, next question. Here we go. Hey, I'm Christina from Tampa. I was listening to another triathlon podcast recently, and I think Greg Harper was talking about open water swimming and how some pros, some people could be not as fast in the pool, but be crazy good in open water. And he says, like, some people have that dog in them, so I'm curious.

Yeah, and you were mentioning, I think in the recent podcast. But Eric's like, the delta between those two is unbelievable. Yeah, so I'm curious, sort of each of you, like, what your style is. Do you have that dog in you? Are you take no prisoners in a race? Or are you like protect your space, mind your own business? And then if you can add a race story as well, like an open water swim like duking an out story too. Yeah, that's definitely me.

I've always a big part of his flip turns. If you're a really good flip turner, like, and I'm not. And so I was always catching up to everybody. So if I'm swimming at two flat 200 or whatever, I'm working so much harder in between the walls. So maybe that's got a little bit to do with it. But then also, yeah, definitely like a mental space of like owning your space and attacking an open water swim versus I know a lot of people. I have talked to people who swim incredibly in the pool and then they get in the open water and they have this idea of like, I don't know what's wrong. I just like dove in and things happened to me and I got pushed around.

It's like, no, you need to go in there and you need to make things happen. And yes, your hand's going to hit somebody else and you just need to keep moving no matter what. I also think there's some sort of an element of having kind of a crappy. looking stroke where you just have like a high turnover and sometimes the most beautiful strokes that are long and stretched out in the pool and super efficient just fall apart if there's turbulence in the water you could touch somebody else etc so i don't i'm not sure you can like train that necessarily but scrappiness for sure when we were at the pool altogether yesterday after we had done this big set of 50s you were saying i think i think age rupers should be doing more of this and i don't think

most of us do with like 50-50s. Do you think there's some truth of that? Because my gut tells me I should be doing more 800s, more 1Ks. Because that's where it falls apart for me. I'm okay for the first 300 in the race. And then all of a sudden I'm like, my shoulders are sore.

I'm like gasping for air. Yeah, I think basically the point that I was trying to make was doing an 800 where you fall apart, which feels productive to you. But the last 300 of it, you're swimming like crap. Right. Is that you're reinforcing bad habits versus if you broke that 800 into

50s and actually swam good form the entire way through. And maybe you did more 50s, but you still get to the point of feeling very muscularly tired, but you can keep your form together for the entire 50. Right, right. Do you have a story, a race story with open water swimming? I mean, I think of Alcatrazum. I think of you swimming well, but. Yeah, I beat Javier Gomez out of the water at Cape Town World Cup in 2013.

Yeah, that's nice. It's a great picture. Yeah. Weren't you on Yon's feet out of the water once, too, at a race? Yeah, Yon and I came out of the water. at Oceanside a minute and 15 seconds ahead of third place. My first Oceanside 70.3? That must have felt pretty

nice. That felt pretty nice. And then like 20K later, Lionel came by like Yeah, like a train. I was like, don't look. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Paula, what about you? Open water swim versus pool? I don't think I'm very good at either, but

I think in open water I don't like when I can't see and I'm not aware of my surroundings as well as a pool. I'm just so used to pool swimming. I grew up competitive swimming and seeing a line, knowing exactly where I am, where other people are is really comforting. And then when you get into open water and you're trying to be on someone's feet, but you don't actually know how far you are from their feet and there's bubbles and the water's not clear. It freaks me out a little bit. So the more you do it, the easier it gets. We try to

incorporate open water swimming into our weekly schedule because I think if you just do it in races, it is scary and it feels so different than what we're used to. So if you have the opportunity to get to a lake or a river as often as you can in training, I think it is more useful than even going to the pool and doing drills or a threshold swim. It is very, very specific to our sport that we do. Sighting is a big thing. I think a lot of people, when they cite, their hips drop, so it makes open water really hard. It's more common that people are good in the pool and not in open water than what you were saying about being great in open water and less in the pool. So, yeah, it's like a lot of practice. And swimming in a wetsuit,

I think if you want to take your wetsuit to the pool, that's good too sometimes. It feels way different than swimming in a bathing suit. So I've only brought my wetsuit to the pool once, but I could not believe how much faster it is, especially when I think how slow I am in open water. I'm like, what would happen without a wetsuit? I was just like a disaster. Yeah, disaster. Do you have any an open water swim story that you can think of? Like something that, like, you like overcame?

No, I try to forget every single. Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. Immediately. That's fair. No stories. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Great.

Is anyone out there have a good open-wanted story? No, we all try to forget. Yeah, we all try to forget. Yeah, great question. Thank you. I'm Chelsea from Philly, go birds. My question is mostly for Paula. When your partner is such a good bike mechanic,

like how do you maintain being like a strong, independent woman? Like, I had to do my bike for the first time. And like, my husband and I are still married, but like, just. So how does that work for me? What a great question. I have no deep down desire to be a strong independent bike mechanic.

I'm like fix it. I don't even want to know what's wrong. But I mean, in our household, the dynamic is very balanced, I think, in terms of Eric knows that's kind of his role. And he takes that on and make sure our bikes are running smoothly. And I go to the grocery store and walk Flynn and do the laundry and a lot of the house stuff I take on. So there's no sort of. of guilt associated with it because while he's doing that, I feel like I'm contributing to the household in a different productive way. But I do think it is good to know basics on the

bike. I just get frustrated and I don't really enjoy it. But I do think when I watch Eric working in the garage on bikes, it's kind of therapeutic for him and he enjoys it a lot. So I just let him do all my bikes. I don't know. Do you think that's true? I love the or whatever. The balance. The balance that we have. We each have our roles around the house, and I'm feeling extremely fortunate that mine is working on the bikes. Yeah. I had a broad kind of question for you about this. I think people look at you, and you're one of the best athletes in the world at what you do. And I think there is a, you have a presence and weight to you that does feel strong and independent. There's an independence to you, a strong independence that you have. But my feeling, as one of your closest friends, is that it's not something that you think about. It's not something that you think, how am I being compromised right now or how do I need to state what I want right now?

It feels like you just are. Am I wrong? Is it something you think about your role in the world as a woman? Is that something you think about? Oh, my gosh. That's a deep question. I think that being a triathlet requires like a certain level of independence and being strong. and, you know, dealing with obstacles by yourself.

But I don't really have a problem asking Eric for help ever. I think I just, like, trust him, and I know he's a lot better at a lot of things than me. But there are some of our friends, like, they want to do their own bikes, and they'll figure it out and watch YouTube videos. And that's great, too, but I just don't want to. Yeah. I think it's important to have enough of a grasp to, like, get yourself out of a sticky situation. And we had to deal with that when we were racing ITU, and you just, it's a... like you by yourself in Mexico.

And if your railroad or rail isn't working, you can't race. So you have to be able to get yourself out of that situation. But building the bikes, yeah, I don't know. And I don't, I think that's what's awesome about Paula says she doesn't try. Totally. It's just, no, that's what I mean, though. She just is confident and in a strong personality. Yeah, that's great.

I love that. Love that. All right. Here we're going again? I'm stealing the mic. Okay. Oh, wow. Wow.

Wow. You're looking very kind of like foreboding and ominous. Yeah, no. Okay. So we have a mystery guest in the audience today, right? Mystery guests who will not be revealed. There's one of our team Devo athletes came to camp with us today. And it's a great opportunity to just reflect on why you guys do the Team Devo program every year. But the real question I have here is going forward, you guys leave sport, whatever. What would you love other industry leaders like yourself, maybe those with a lot more money, and what would you like to see them lead behind for other athletes?

Like, what would you envision the perfect situation from those in the industry to actually do for athletes like you guys do in a small capacity? I mean, I think it's been really cool to see like a few other development teams pop up this year. And, you know, and I won't lie, there was a little tinge of jealousy when we first saw someone. It was like, oh, that was our thing. we were but ultimately if there are five or six different pro triathlet development teams out there and each one has seven or eight athletes on it that's we're looking at like 60 athletes who are getting a little bit of support to make that jump and that was the goal that we started out with so I think there are quite a few things that we've that we've invested in at TTL a little bit ahead of the curve and they've kind of caught on YouTube being one of them and it's been nothing but positive for the sport just like rising time carries all ships and like any sort of, you know, copying is like a good form of flattery. And I guess like ultimately when I personally set out to do YouTube, that was what I was hoping would happen, was that Trathlon would have better, richer content in it and I could selfishly

get to consume more of it myself. And yeah, I don't know. Leaving an impact is really special in whatever way that ends up being. I feel like, you know, as a non-pro, but something that I have a transferable, that I've been going through, which I enjoy, is making it more about the process instead of the finish line, which is at the core of Look for Things where you can find in the film that Eric and I made. But I wonder if there's, it's easy to capitalize on markers like a finish line. But I wonder if there's a space to nurture and grow and somehow also make money in the, like what we're doing here, which is we're talking to each other, we're going on beautiful rides,

we're enjoying the outdoors. Maybe there's a race in the future, but maybe not. Maybe this is the point, like this moment is the point. I wonder if there's more of that instead of this type A, laser vision finish line kind of thing. Okay, next question. Okay, going back to the type A, best from New Orleans. So age groupers, right, we don't know where we are in terms of like how many people are ahead of us, who's behind us, So if you could give us advice, like, to get the best out of ourselves while we're racing,

because it's essentially like a TT, right? We don't know where we are. But if we want to be top five, top ten, top ten, like tips or tricks or mental games, like what would you do if you're in the same position? I won't lie. I would struggle a lot. I think a huge part of triathlon for me starting out was mass starts. and knowing where I was relative to the adults as I was a kid.

So I'm going to have to think about that one for a little minute. I got a hack for you that happened to me right here at T-100 Lake Las Vegas, which was I had people on course. I didn't even ask them, but they were telling me where I was. You're like, you're sixth in your age group, something like that. So if you can have with no, I know. Bring a crew of people to give you splits. Yeah, there is, I know that you're married, for example, Beth.

So you could have someone tell you that. And the apps, the Iron Man app, for example, is designed so that it's not hard. It's not, is it the greatest app in the world? No, but you can tell where you are in your age group. So having someone else put that on for you. But you know, that could be kind of cool from Iron Man. When you pass over a timing mat, your race number comes up and your age group position comes up. And maybe if you're top 20 overall or whatever, you also get that.

I like that. I know Iron Man people listen to this podcast, so you're welcome. Yeah. I think I would ultimately end up playing, like, games of, okay, can I pass 10 people in the next two minutes? Or, you know, like making these little micro goals that mean nothing, but, like, keep you engaged the whole time, since you don't know exactly who anybody is. Or, like, I'm going to not let more than three people pass me in the next five minutes

or whatever it is, making up things that seem inconsequential, but can help you stay focused? Yeah. Stuff, because you really can't control who shows up in races that day. That's the other part of it. Great. Okay, next question. Yes. In the back here. I'm Seth Ditting from Rosalind, British Columbia in Canada. I'm curious how each of you incorporate strength training in your training, if you do. And part B, has it changed as you've become more mature? Yes, it has. I think Paula is the best.

of the three of us. I'm probably the worst, yeah. But I, like, personally, since I'm holding onto the mic right now and Paul and I are sharing a mic, it's made a big difference for me. And when I'm able to actually stick to it, doing a lifting twice a week, there's a specific, like, four or five exercises that really seem to feel good for me. It feels like it almost kind of reset some of the bad habits that I've built up, like motor patterns due to some of the injuries that I've had through my life. And the seasons that I really do a good job of, it through the winter time when it's you know gets dark at four o'clock and there's not much to do anyway i have an incredible first half of the race season it's it's so hard to keep incorporating

and you just have to be like gentle with yourself through race season in the middle of the year um as traveling and everything kicks up but wintertime is a great time to uh kick off a good habit there yeah i i do it twice a week at a gym close to our house someone one of our friends gives us the keys to his gym. And I think convenience is the biggest thing here. If you can set up a little gym even in your own house that has all the stuff you need to do a 30-minute routine, it's so much better than nothing. But I think the barrier of getting to the gym is often the hardest part, especially when we're trying to swim, bike and run and work and have a family. It's the first thing to go for Eric and I, usually, just because of the time it takes.

but as we get older and I have had this weird knee injury at Christmas and he's got hip stuff. I mean, injuries are becoming more and more prevalent and the more you can keep on top of that stuff as you age. I think just longevity is really good for you. Yeah. How about you, Nick? You do kettlebells. Yeah, I go in and out of strength stuff, but Seth, you're an orthopedic surgeon. Is that right?

Yes. So I actually would be curious about what you think. someone in our position, both as an age grouper and as professionals, what kind of exercises should we be doing? And let's talk realistic, too, right? Like, at home, should we be incorporating flexibility as well, or is that not really as helpful? What would you suggest? Well, I obviously have a skewed opinion, and my athletic background was gymnastics, so that kind of also skews my view somewhat. But I think it really makes a difference for both performance and injury prevention. And as both Erica and Paula alluded to, I think consistency is the key. And it doesn't have to be

this intricate program, 20, 30 minutes to maybe three times a day is the ticket and just week after week making sure you just tick that box. And it doesn't matter as much of like, oh, I like to lift heavy or I like to go high rep or I do isometrics or I do a lot of flexibility. You think moving those muscles in a different pattern is the key. The specificity is not as important. I think there's a lot of individual variation and what your injury history is like and what your goals are like, what are your races that you're doing. So there's a lot of nuance. Yeah. Got it. For sure. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Seth. Who does gym regularly here? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I actually love doing it. Like,

When I'm in there and I get started, I really enjoy it. It's like way different than pushing yourself on a run or in the pool. It's hard, but it's over and then it feels good after. I don't know. It's like a really satisfying activity, but somehow it's like hard to do, hard to get started. It's just less of a direct line to you're going to run faster. You're going to bike faster, you know, than biking. Yeah, but it actually will make you faster.

Yeah, yeah. It would be a lot easier for me if our coach actually built it into the training plan, you know, versus it feels like an extracurricular thing that we're trying to fit in. So, I'm just called a coach. Yeah, right. Great. Thanks for the question, Seth. Okay.

Oh, we already got it. Perfect. I'm Meredith. I'm also. My husband Matt is here. We are from Phoenix, Arizona. And, you know, we tossed around a bunch of questions. But one of the things that we really thought would be helpful in our space is that, you know,

we've really enjoyed it's only day three. We think this is pretty incredible and an incredible community that the three of you have created. And I don't think there's anybody here that doesn't feel like, like, these are our people, right? We feel really fortunate. And so we kind of want to know what's next. Like, are we doing this again? Do we have the opportunity? Will there be more TTLers?

So, I mean, there's obviously things on the horizon. So we're curious what is next and what could, you know, the audience anticipate the came about pretty quickly, and it seemed like suddenly December, we were, had this opportunity and we felt like we had to jump on it, but what is next? It's funny, because you say that. Eric's been talking about this for like three years. I do wish that we had given people more notice, for sure. It was a little bit tight of a timeline.

My mom said that. She's like, you're giving people like one month to make a, but she's very critical. But it's amazing that we filled up, that all that you were here on that short of notice. just shows how much people do want to be here and be part of the community. And it's amazing here in Las Vegas. The weather's perfect. I think the next time I'd love to have a camp and bend where we know the roads and can kind of show people where we're from.

But yeah, the camp thing is so cool. I'm still trying to train at a high level and get ready for Oceanside and try to do my first Ironman. So I'm very selfishly focused still. So I was honestly hesitant coming here. I'm like, am I going to be able to do what I need to do? Because that's just how my brain works all the time. But it's been so amazing. And just seeing what Eric and I and Nick have built over the years is really cool.

And I think it means more than maybe finishing one place higher at Oceansides. So it's pretty cool. Even though I complain a lot, sorry, I guess. Eric, is there something that when she asked that, that what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Yeah, we would like to have some sort of like a race. is maybe not quite the right word, but an event experience where, you know, there's a course and you need to finish it.

There is a finish line. Many components of a race are involved, yeah. I don't know. It's like Jordan and I have tossed around a lot of ideas and we actually have like a very specific thing in mind that we would love to have come together. But very experience-based. I think everything that we've done, you know,

we kind of put the energy and the experience first versus just like, the experience is finishing. So this is like the first sort of a thing in that direction. You know, like Nick and I put out our big film project last year. That was a huge thing that I've been wanting to do. And I think the part of TTL that is most gratifying for us is when, you know, we talk to you guys and you say you had an incredible day and you're going to remember it forever, that's the kind of thing we would want to get across the line with like an event of some sort to be able to curate the ultimate.

one-day experience would be very cool. Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Yes, we put this out on the podcast that came out today for all the people listening a week from now for the remote listeners. But the chances of doing another camp is like as close to 100% as possible, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we absolutely need Jordan.

There will be an internal debrief because I need to find out exactly how many hours Jordan actually slept the last month. his eyes twitching i don't know why we're having an incredible time there's been a lot of banter and chit chat about some sort of a gravel and trail running focused camp more like camping camp so i mean we are not short on ideas we are relatively short on time and we'll just be yeah there'll be more things yes awesome okay do we have another question yes we do uh josh from alana uh if each of you could do a collaboration with somebody not specific to triathlon or maybe specific to triathlon. Alive or Dead,

who would it be? So Nick, maybe music, Eric, somebody in film, and Paula, maybe something with design, who would it be? And what would you do with it? What kind of a collaboration?

Whatever your dream is. Yeah. Blank check, you can do design. Oh, I would definitely do like interior design house stuff. Hey, Paula, could you bring the mic up closer to your mouth? Shut up, Nick. No, I love.

I don't have any training or anything specific with interior design, but it is something I love doing and looking for cool furniture and lights and making the house cool. So any kind of a collab with a interior designer, but I don't know any. That'd be my fun thing. Yeah, I would like to work with. There's a few different cinematographers that I would like to work with. Ty Evans. Rupert Walker.

Rupert Walker is Brandon Seminox cinematographer. Ty Evans shot all the ant farm stuff. Some of the most multi-million dollar skate films that have been made. He has this like Michael Bay sort of thing where he puts like a shot over like $300,000 camera on the front of his Cadillac and like goes flying by a set of stairs with a 700 millimeter lens just like so over the top. That would be pretty fun. I like seeing how other like creators could potentially interpret my sport. Yeah, I wonder if, like, is there a way we could all three through design, film, and music, do something? I don't know.

Like, could that ever, like, you know, mind-meld creates, I mean, I guess making the film was a little bit like that. Yeah. But we didn't utilize Paul as skills as much as we could have for that. And for me, I actually can't think of someone that really, I can think of a few people. Jacob Collier is this multi-instrumentalist. Chris Thiele is this mandolin player that's like I think one of the best musicians that are alive, but I kind of like appreciating them

from afar. I don't think I could really add to what's going on there. I would love to talk to them, but to work with them, I feel like would be a misuse of their time. I'm not saying that I don't bring something, but just at that level, I feel like I do get to work with people I want to work with like. I work with Eric, I work with, I work with,

I work with Trixie, I work with some friends, and that feels like a more even thing where you feel more open to share ideas and less even self-judged for it. Do we have another question here? Yes, perfect. Hi, Betsy Bowman from the middle of nowhere, Minnesota. Which do you each prefer more

the training process or actual racing? I feel like my highest highs have been during racing, but on average I enjoy the process of training more. I think I enjoy the racing more. I was going to say neither, but that's like I have a weird relationship with the sport in general. I don't dislike the training, but I don't love it. And I really get nervous for racing. But I think the feeling after you race is,

my favorite part, which I'm sure a lot of all of us can relate to, especially when it's gone well. So I think that's like the addicting feeling that I'm chasing when it gets hard. It's not relief, though, or is it partially relief? I mean, it's relief. It's usually happiness or satisfaction that I've done a hard thing. And I don't know. Yeah. For me, it's very often relief and it's not joy when I finish a race, honestly. And so I tried to teach myself to like the training more. And I'm totally successfully. Now I love the training and the racing is just kind of a consequence. You guys love the training a lot. I can tell. Yeah. Yeah. There's this really good book that I like. It's called Relentless and it's by Michael Jordan's trainer. And there's a quote in there

of him saying like the best the best athletes in the world have like Paula's mindset. Like you don't have to love the process. You just have to want the victory so bad that it doesn't matter what you have to go through. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. You would think it's the opposite, but it almost always is not. You're just a killer, and you must win. It's like Kobe. He didn't like to win. He just hated losing. Nothing else will work. Yeah, yeah. Great question.

Okay, we have another one. Yes. Julia. My name's Julia. I'm from Warren, New Jersey, and I have a bike tech with Eric question. Bike tech with it? Okay, I'll put that in there. Thank you for singing it, though. I appreciate that. The question is, what advancements in whether it's gear or rules do you foresee happening in the world of triathlon?

Whether it's like short-term, I guess. Like we've just seen the rule change with drafting at 20 meters, whether it's something like that or gear related. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to imagine bike technology going much further without just a complete abandonment of UCI regulations, which would just be wildly expensive for most. bike brands. But I think that's it. Like the Cheetah that Natasha Bodman rode back in the day, or like the Zip 2001, I think is what the bike was called. Like these wing bikes, like those are faster. They are incredibly fast. And if they don't have to be sold to UCI teams and like be mass produced and triathlon is a big enough space to like warrant the R&D, then that. Basically what you're saying is the bike right now to save money has to be designed for both

pro cycling and triathlon to separate those two is just too much R&D cost and maybe even like manufacturing costs. Right. So there are a couple. Yeah. I mean, I don't know about lots. I mean,

they used to be like Fenton had the thing and then there's, there were, we could say the best bike manufacturers in the world are not doing a triathlon. Right. Completely no holds barred bike. What was the actual question? What does Eric think or any of us think? is going to change in terms of technology or rules around technology on the bike?

To make it faster. Or just what could change? Like maybe they say, you know what? No more praying mantis bars. That's not going to happen. I think a lot of bike frames are going in the direction of less integrated hydration and everything. And now everyone's strapping bottles to the outside of their frames because it's like a faring. So that type of thing is changing quickly as well as hand positions on arrow bars.

That's going to continue to evolve, I think. it used to be just like everyone rode flat bars that came with their bike and now everyone's getting custom tilted bars and have bottles between their arms and everything. So I don't know if the frames will change much, but I think what people are strapping onto them is changing. What do you think is causing this trend in pro triathlon to be higher up on the bike, to be less small, less tucked in? I think it's like wider hip angle so you can run better off the bike.

It makes up for... it's easier to eat. Yeah. Oh, make easier to eat and drink. Oh, yeah, I can see that. Yeah, maybe. But I still think, like,

Eric had such an aggressive flat position back in the day, and I still think that looks better than any of these, like. But looks, it doesn't matter what you look like, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But also everyone has access to aerodynamic testing now, whereas before maybe a couple pros would do it, literally everyone is doing it now. So there's just more accessibility.

which is creating quicker changes, I think. It does make you wonder, though, how are bike manufacturers going to continue to make bikes that seem alluring to us? How much faster are they than they were four or five years ago? I feel like the technology kind of changed a lot. Now there's this convergence of bike frames, at least on the road bike size. On the road bike size.

I think forever we're all was going to want new nice things. That's what's going to drive it. It's like our consumeristic kind of mind. It doesn't matter if it's that much different. It's new and shiny. Ooh, new colorway? Yes, please. Exactly.

It's the paint. Yeah, the paint does make a difference, yeah. Great. Okay, yes, next question here. Ricardo from Mexico City. Hi, I'm Ricardo from Mexico City. I nailed it. Who was your favorite athlete when you were growing up?

Oh, my God. I was in love with Tyra Lipinski, the figure skater, when I was like five. I used to have dreams about jumping in front of a bullet for her. I saved you, T. I really liked Paula Radcliffe because we have the same name. She was like Marathon World Record. I've always looked up to Simon Whitfield

as one of my favorite athletes. He's a friend of ours now, but he's Olympic gold medalist several times and he was in the Triathlon Canada pipeline as I was coming through as a junior, so a lot of his success trickled down to help me be successful, ultimately. and now he's just a super insightful, smart guy that is so interesting to talk to

and doesn't really do the sport anymore, but I think he's probably still one of my favorite athletes. He had the most viral line from our film about open water swimming. Incredible dude. For me, it would be in swimming, Lenny Kraselberg, he was a hunter backstroker, 100, 200 meter backstroker, just dominant. and I was a backstroker growing up, so I thought he was the best. And then Hunter Kemper was the top American triathlet when I was growing up,

and I thought he walked on water. Yeah. Isn't that funny? Yeah. What I think is interesting is not to diminish from this, but I've never heard of either of those people. Isn't it... It's way before your time.

I know, but isn't it cool that you can have this pining for this person that seems so larger than life and like, I'll never get there? And then eventually this regression to the mean, history kind of forgets. And like a Hunter Kemper's final season, I got to race him two times. It's pretty sweet. Pretty sweet. Yeah. Crazy.

So cool. Great. Thanks for the question, Ricardo. Great question. Okay. We have more. We have ten more minutes. This is actually a quick lightning round.

Nice. You made it. Yeah. Good job. And I love the T-shirt. That's the TTL Trail shirt. I'm Pat from Montana. And the first thing I want to do is make sure I thank you for everything you've done.

since I started following you in 2020, your creativity, your innovation, you are role models as both human beings and entrepreneurs. And this community is amazing. So I do hope there's a lot to come because this should be spread throughout the world. And now for the lightning around. The psychologists all tell us when we face barriers and challenges, we need to reframe. So I'm going to give each of you a setting. And if you would share for us how you would reframe it. Wow, I love this already.

This is great. Going deep. All right. So we'll start with you, Nick. You're at the pool. Already is not in a good place. You do not want to swim. Let's say you're not even at the pool yet.

You're in your apartment in Santa Monica. It's a beautiful day. And you're, you know, the music is just flowing. But you got to get the swim, man. Right. So what is the reframe? It's funny. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately is that for me it is because of a multitude of reasons, I think it is good for me and probably most of us to do these things that are not viscerally enjoyable in the moment.

Don't just give us this instant dopamine that is maybe unearned the way that we get when we pull out our phone, right? So I try to remind myself that not only is it good for me to do this thing, and most of the time I suffer through the whole swim. Only sometimes towards the end do I feel like, oh, I'm feeling good, this is good, and it's largely based on if I'm swimming quickly that day. But I also remember that it is such a privilege for this to be the thing that is hard. Swimming in the pool outdoors in the sun, like a lot of people alive today, in LA County who deal with much worse adversity than I don't want to swim today. And then, you know, it's still annoying and painful, but puts it into perspective to reframe it like that. And then Paula, you're in the house.

You've got a really good decorating vibe going. You're organizing, you're reorganizing the furniture arrangement, but you've got to get your long ride in. How do you read it? Yeah, I have this really bad habit where before I leave for a long ride, I want the house to be like 100% clean. Everyone, everything's put away. The floor is vacuumed. And then when I come back from the ride, the house is perfect and I can chill.

But it's kind of a toxic trait because it makes me like busy and doing things nonstop until I get out the door for the thing that I'm actually supposed to do that matters the most. So I think what helps is when I have someone that I'm meeting to ride and like having. up a training partner. We're riding at 11 and you don't need to put away all the laundry before you leave. But yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's not even necessarily, it's, it's, it's kind of an obsessive habit. It's not even something that I've thought about too much, but have you noticed? Have you noticed? Eric just did a spit take. I'm like, helmet on, shoes on, vacuuming the whole house. I don't know if I answered the question, but. You did. I need to reframe that. I need to work on that.

All right, Eric, you and Nicker on your phones and you're talking away about your next big idea. However, you've got like a threshold run that you have to get in. How do you reframe it? This is like you just tapped into this is Eric. This is like big ideas, but things have to get done. How does he do it? I guess, like when I'm thinking about going to a race or when I'm thinking about a workout, I have this kind of like story that I play in my head. Like when I was racing and doing Alcatraz, the race that kind of like launched my career a bit, I was having this like inner dialogue, a little bit of a story in my mind that was going on.

And I recognized how epic it would be if I like caught back up to Andy Potts. And I even heard my coach's voice in my head saying like, you let that old man beat you. Like what the heck? say that. And so, like, I kind of developed this storyline. And for me, I always, if I'm getting too creative or doing too much time on, like, laptop or whatever, I remind myself that the best story is doing well at an event. So, like, if I can go nail this tempo run, that puts me in the position to potentially go win that Xtera, which would just be the best story of the year. And I can, like, start to piece together this tempo run being part of the equation for that. And I can actually

tell the story of that tempo run. So I like reframe that creativity into involving the workout and just like the flow of my life. That was a great answer. Thank you. That's going to be so helpful. All three will be helpful, but that will be very helpful. Thanks, Patricia. Okay, we have probably time for one final question here. So let's go, Zach. Zach from Kentucky. On your old's first, I guess, lab recording podcast where you call people in, you called me. I was going to pool. I asked you what your favorite parts of the sport were. Paula, you said going to the Olympics. Eric, I think he said when you won Alcatraz and Nick, you said when you met them. What has been the hardest part and how did you get over it? The hardest part of the sport.

Hardest experience. I actually said the Olympics was my favorite part. Wow, I'm surprised I said that because it was actually the hardest part as well. And I think as I've distanced myself from going to the Olympics in 2012. I've appreciated it more that that's really cool to be an Olympian and to have had that experience. But I was going into the 2012 Olympics as a medal favorite. I was ranked first in the world in 2011. I was pretty young. And there weren't a lot of races that I had lost. So I came into the Olympics with an injury and ended up coming in the last place, like barely finished. So coming back from that mentally and rebuilding myself was probably the hardest thing I've done in life or in the sport. But then, yeah, reflecting back now, I guess it was also the thing I'm the

most proud of was getting there and finishing the race. And I really wish that I had the opportunity to go back to a second Olympics. I tried really hard, but didn't qualify. So I do appreciate that that was, yeah, one of the life experiences I had in the sport, although it was hard. I think my hardest time in the sport was before I turned professional. I was under a coach that I'd been with since I started the sport when I was 11, 12 years old. I was 18. I was getting ready to go to U23 World Championships. And like two weeks out from the event, I won't get into like completely why my coach decided that I was not committed enough,

broke up with me in the middle of a track workout, told me he wasn't going to coach me anymore. And I had to go through the last like three weeks leading into this race without a coach. and that left a huge impact on me of somebody calling into a question like my work ethic and how hard, you know, how much I wanted it and he basically claimed that he wanted it more than I did. And that was like an incredibly scarring and formative thing for me. But I'm also like, I guess, thankful for it in a way where it set me up for a healthy coach relationship with my next coach and really, I guess, made me reconnect or like dwell on why I was doing what I was doing. Like, ultimately, when somebody you care about tells you that, you go, like, is this true? And I had to reflect. Well, was it true, though? It was, it was not true. I can get really fully into the depths of, like, why this was, but he was wrong.

That's TCL after dark, yeah. Yeah. This is the thing. So the lesson learned here is not as much about why he left, but that how other people function. Potentially. Yeah, for sure. And I've witnessed this a couple other times. we have a development team and we talk to the athletes and stuff and there are some coaches at the

I'm not going to say like just at the not elite level that think that they're pretty good and have a pretty negative impact on some athletes as they're approaching pro because they let their ego get in the way of what's best for the athlete and it's just I mean like I'm I'm not a you know perfect so I can't pretend like I would do an incredible job but it's it's a hard thing and now if you think about the long term about that that difficulty do you feel like you're a best? athlete and a better person because of that difficult experience or you're just now more callous. Yeah. I don't know.

I wouldn't change it. But it's hard to say if I would have been who I am today without it or whatever. Yeah, right. We'll never know. Right. And then for me, I was thinking that I guess it's more of the overall experience of time. What? Is it when you DNFed Wisconsin?

No, it's not. No, it does. That was a positive experience, honestly. The bike was horrendously, like, awful. But honestly, because of the TTL community, it was a very positive experience. I had no emotional recovery from that. It was, like, two days later. I was just reading all these messages from people who were sharing their DNF stories.

And there was a guy who had DNF, like, Chattanooga, four years in a row and got it on the fifth time. You know, I'm like, okay. And then so much love. You know, it really makes it feel better. But I think the only, and I wonder if other people relate, but there's this concept called onism where you think about all the different lives that you could be living or what your life is like and how I'm never going to experience what it feels like to live in D.C. and to be an accountant, to be a doctor, to work in the Arctic, whatever, and you're kind of missing out on these life experiences.

and I think as wonderful as triathlon is and as much as it feels such a part of us, you are collapsing all these potential realities into a single one when you're training 20 hours a week. You are giving up on some of those alternative universes of experience that you could have. And so sometimes I feel a bit of loss around that, especially when it starts to cannibalize some of the creative work that I want to do. And I think about, oh, I could spent the Saturday working on a song that I get to take with me forever. Instead, I'm writing back with my friends, which I love. But there's a bit of a loss of a potential there. I think that's the, and it comes up in my mind quite often.

Good answer, Nick. Thanks. Okay. I mean, I think that's, that's. Does anyone have any burning questions? We could fit one more in. A light one. Yeah, let's do a light one. Let's do a light one. Perfect. Let's finish on a light note. Good idea. What's your favorite scary movie? Oh, well, the ring really screwed me up when I was a kid. I don't watch scary movies. I swear, I'm sorry. Every time I close my eyes, that was terrible.

Yeah, I avoid scary movies, so I don't even have an answer. Eric? Paula doesn't like scary movies, so we don't watch them. I'm drawing a complete blank. What's this? I mean, there's that, I think it's in Spanish, the orphanage or the orphan. That was really a great one. But I also kind of tend to stay away from scary movies.

I kind of just watch suspense movies. The first thing that just came to mind is like, I am legend. It's like suspenseful and you're afraid something's going to jump out. And then it's actually, it's generally okay. But I'm not like a, I'm definitely not a saw guy. I think I made it like three minutes. Saw was good though. Saw was good.

Saw was good. That twist ending is like amazing. Or six cents. That was, that's a good ending too. Yeah, not a, not a, I, we don't watch that many movies, right? Like, I have this. I have this thing where like, I can't stop a movie in the movie. middle of it. I have to watch the whole movie, so I really have to have like three hours set

aside to watch a movie and that just rarely happens. It hurts me to turn off a movie at an hour and a half in. Okay, what about your favorite comedy? Favorite comedy? We have this running thing going where we like try to quote Big Lobowski as often as possible podcast. Some people really picked up on it, but I'm sure there's some people who have no idea. Yeah, you better all go watch the Big Loboski and then you can be in on the joke. Paula's never even seen the whole thing. Yeah, I have. You did with us? I thought we started it, but we didn't finish it. Yeah.

You finished it. Okay, great. Allegedly. Well, thank you everyone for being here. I'm getting joked up. Thank you everyone for being here. Thank you for everyone listening at home. This has been so fun.

We're still got so many fun activities to share it together. So we're stoked. Thanks to you guys for being here. And we're looking forward to the next couple days. And, yeah, thanks for listening at home. Adios. Adios.