That Triathlon Life Podcast - Managing peak fitness, running shoe vs metal band, the pro triathlon lifestyle, naps, and much more!!!

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

We get into managing peak fitness as a professional vs amateur triathlete, the stresses of being a professional triathlete outside of training and racing, as well as introducing a new segment called "this or that". For this week's iteration, Eric & Paula have to guess if a weird name is a running shoe, or a metal band. Check out http://www.thattriathlonlife.com for much more.

Hey everyone, welcome to That Triathlon Life Podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is where we answered your questions about triathlon, life, dogs, really anything. Eric and I are pro triathletes. Nick is a musician, amateur triathlete, and just overall general, so much knowledge and is hilarious. So here we go. Number four. I hit rot bottom today when I bit the inside of my cheek this morning while having a gourmet donut. So anything better than that, I'm like really happy. A gourmet donut from where? Yeah, it was, it was from sidecar. Is that place, and you guys were here, we went and that kid recognized you guys, do you guys? Yes, we ordered about 10 donuts. Yes. We also got instant shit from someone on Instagram for eating so many donuts in San Monica. And we're like, sugar. Sugar is bad for you.

Dude, we, you can have a donut. It's okay. Calm down. Donuts fine. And it was after you, guys had raced, right? Like you had just raced L.A. Try. The day after a race. I won Oceanside four days later, so I think the donuts were okay. Anyway. So, by the way, just quick story, I just went out for a little ride because I got my brakes bled. My rear brake was bled, and I just wanted to make sure it still works. So there's the bike path here along the ocean. So I was riding along the bike path. And actually, right after I was FaceTiming with you guys, I get to the end and I turn around and I hear a sound that we're all familiar with. which is just that

sound. I immediately think it's my tire, but then I turn around and what I see, I just saw the saddest thing. So, first of all, I hear that,

and then I hear it six more times. What? So it was, you know those teeth that certain parking lots have? They're like directional teeth? If you drive over them one way, they sink into the ground,

but theoretically, if you drive back over them, the other way, they like shred your tires. Yes. I've always wondered if they work. They work because this guy in like this big van with the U-Haul behind him towing the U-Haul drove over it with all four sets of tires. Oh my gosh.

Oh my God. I'm just envision this guy who just like, he drove here from like Idaho and he's like California, man. It's the best. And yeah, I just got here. It's really late at the sunset. But I just needed to go straight to the beach and he pulls into the parking lot at the ocean and just gets. How many one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight flat tires. Oh, my gosh.

I'm just going to say that's worse than a bike flat tire. Yeah. It's a thousand times worse. Definitely eight times worse and harder to fix. Well, anyway. Glad it wasn't your tire, though. No, it was not. Thank God.

Although, you know, we all have that like PTSD tire sound that your heart just sinks every time you hear it. Yeah. Especially if it's in a race. Knock on wood. Anyway, you might hear that Eric and Polo sound a little different. this week. We're having a little problem with the mic setup, but we'll be back to normal next week. Hopefully it's not too much of a disturbance. Yeah. So I wanted to know what you guys are like this week.

How was your training this week? How is your training today? Training's been pretty good, actually. This week was, I think we had about 22 hours, which is not like an outstanding amount of training, but it kind of crept up on us quickly. And we basically started in on bike training, like specific hard workouts, hill repeats, and that was the biggest thing. differentiated two weeks ago from this week. Yeah. When we count our hours, it's like real hours of training. We're not counting like our gym sessions and our yoga.

Not that that's not real training. Oh, really? Oh, I definitely count those. No, they do count for sure. But what we say, like 22 hours of swim bike run, basically. So it added up. And especially considering I'm not really running that much. So I think I rode 14 hours, like kind of did a significant amount of riding.

And the weather has been so beautiful here. it's basically springtime. We're so glad we didn't go south to Tucson because we can ride outside every day and it's been awesome. Yeah, kind of a byproduct of that increased training load too. I just got to, I guess, give a formal apology to everybody who showed up to watch the YouTube show on Sunday morning. I didn't do the best job of putting out a notification that I was going to not be doing it. But with that amount of training load and we had a little photo shoot with Castelli and it was just a, the week just flew by so fast and I just totally ran out of time to do any sort of show. Basically, we got to Friday and we hadn't done any filming and we were trying to

think about what we could film and edit and throw together all on Saturday with three workouts and it just seemed completely daunting. And in order to train properly, sometimes you just have to make a little bit of sacrifice. So that was the vlog this week. You got to Friday and you were fried. Yeah. Yeah, like the biggest thing was I was going to build my bike for the show and then the bike kind of got delayed three extra days because of weather coming over the mountain, and then it just, the weekend was full on with training. So anyway, we will be back this Sunday. Nice.

I kind of didn't know about this whole thing, but you posted on Sunday, in lieu of posting a new video, you kind of linked people towards an old video of yours, which was the Overland Triathlon film that you made. How long ago was that, by the way? I think that was four years ago now, at least. It would have been like 2016 or 17. Eric Lagerstrom, for anyone who, I mean, it's, it's so well done. It's so cool. I just thought that whole process was really cool. I don't know if you want to like briefly explain what happened

there, but. Sure, yeah. Paul is just rolling your eyes. I'm not really sure what for. We can cut it. Real quick, the overland triathlon was a thing that I dreamed up with my dad where we, we rode our, we rode bikes with a few friends, up the side of Mount Hood, parked them, ran a little ways around this lake called Timothy Lake, and then we swam back across it. It was like the coolest, purest version of a gravel triathlon now that we're calling it that, that I could come up with. And we call it the Overland Triathlon because two totally different transition zones, and we moved across terrain and everything. And it was, it was like a dream thing for me to put together. Yeah, that's awesome. I loved it. So I have a game here. I feel like last

week's spelling bee was a smashing success. It was way better than I ever imagined it would be. We listened to it so many times. Very funny sound effects, Nick. Thank you. I think Eric's spelling skills were one of the biggest shocks of 2022 so far. Totally. Anyway, so this is a game that I'm going to call, and you know what, I'll do a little theme song for it. We're going to call it this or that. So did we just hear the theme music? We just heard it. Wow, it was amazing. Q laughing hysterically. Yeah. Yeah, canned laughter.

Okay, so I feel like we could do this a few different times, but for this or that, it's going to be, I'm going to say a name of something, and you guys are going to have to guess if it's a model of a running shoe or a metal band. I feel like this is a little bit of a, like our world's clashing here. That's funny, okay.

Okay. Okay. So, and there is one of these that is both. And these aren't just like, these aren't just random metal bands. These are like very well-known metal bands, right? Because you can find musicians, like any one of these could be a band name, but these are like well-known metal bands, okay. Okay, okay.

Okay. So the first one will start, E-R-R-A. I'm going to say band. Shoe. Band it is. One-O-E-R-E-K. Okay. Next we have the Exodus.

I feel like that could be both. Shoe. Okay, that is the Sockney Exodus, spelled X-O-D-U-S, okay? Okay. Okay, what about? Not a band. Not a band. And I checked, they're not a band.

Nova blast. That's a shoe. That's definitely going to be a shoe. It's the A-6 Nova Blast. That's correct. What about recover, R-E-K-O-V-R? That's probably a shoe, but it would be a good band name. It is a shoe. It is a shoe. Yep. Topo recover. Okay, we have static X. It's static hyphen X.

Band. I'm going to go band on that one. Yes, metal band. How about arch enemy? Band. Band. Yes, the arch can be kind of confusing, I think, you know, like. Totally. That would be an unfortunate name for the shoe. Having enemy in there, bad marketing. Yeah, right, right, right. If it was. spelled like N.M.Y. Then it might be a shoe. I see. All the acronyms. Rebellion. I think that's a shoe. And a band. That sounds like a Brooks shoe. The Brooks

Rebellion. It's the Mizuno Wave Rebellion. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you were said wave, it would have given it away. Yeah, that's why I didn't say wave. I asked my friend, I was like, is it cheating if I don't say wave? He's like, no, you have to, you can just say rebellion. Yeah. Okay, okay, this is great. I love But what about chiros, K-A-I-R-O-S? My first reaction is metal band, but I don't know. It's probably like a shoe or something. It's a 361, Kairos.

It is a run-l-l-o. I was going to say, it's probably some kind of obscure brand of shoe. Yeah, yeah. Actually, 361 is kind of popular. What about Vol-Bet, V-O-L-B-E-A-T? Blybush band Band Right

Sounds like a German German hardcore band What about Ghost Oh Brooks Yeah Brooks It's also a very famous metal band So it is a trick question That's both of them

It's both Oh wow Yeah it's both It's both So yeah I had here These are all the shoes I'll tell you We don't have to go through all them

But Exodus Nova Blast Recover Spire Hyros, Hiero, Nitral, and Wave Rebellion, and Ghost. Those are all the shoes. And the metal bands are Era, Danzig, Static X, Volbeat, Arch Enemy, Trivium. Those? They could all just be the same.

I mean, it's insane how much they sound exactly the same to me. So lesson here is if you're a shoe company, can't think of your next shoe. Yeah, just go through the Billboard charts. New Metal lists. Nick, did you make this game up? A little peek behind the curtain here. I was searching on Reddit for like fun games to play on podcasts. Yeah.

And I saw one that said, someone played this game that you have to guess if it's IKEA furniture or a famous Scandinavian author. That was their game. So I was like, oh, that's good. I was like, good.

First thing, good luck trying to pronounce any, either one of those, right? Right, right. But I thought, oh, how can we make it more like that triathlon life focus? That was hilarious. I thought my world's music, your world running.

So good. Clever, clever. So we have that. And now we'll move on to some questions. First of all, we want to remind everyone that we love getting your questions. Paula reads all of them, and it makes her day, right, Paula? It really does, truly. And I actually have a specific folder on the TTL email for podcasts.

So they go straight into there, and I just spend, I love reading them. But we are getting fewer and fewer. So this is a gentle reminder to please send your questions. We love getting them. and you will most likely be answered. That's right. That email address is That Triathlon Life brand at gmail.com. So send us your questions.

We'll give you a little shout out on the pod. Yes. Or on Instagram too. I'll check that. Great. So the first one is this one's from a few weeks ago, actually. We just hadn't gotten to it, but I think it's really interesting, specifically for YouTube.

But now it's seeming like every pro triathlete is figuring out things that they need to do that are not just training and racing. So this is a question from Rolf. He said, how much do you have to prioritize training over the other legitimate parts of being a pro triathlete, the apparel, the show, and now the podcast? Yeah, well, this is a bit related to skipping the vlog this week because it is a very fine balancing act.

And I feel like Eric and I in particular take a little bit more on than most other pro triathletes in terms of social media and video and podcast and all of that because we recognize its importance. and we also really enjoy it. But I think as the race season approaches, the balance tips a bit. And you do have to put obviously a lot more focus into training and training hours get up. And not just the amount of time you put into training, but the fatigue that that brings makes it a lot more difficult to do other things.

So it is a very fine balancing act. I let Eric talk about it more because he truly does more than I do on the show and the merchandise side of things. I don't really have that much to add, to be honest. Paula pretty much nailed it there. The big thing for me with making the YouTube channel and everything is that's, I feel like creative energy and the energy that you need to bring to like a hard workout in triathlon or just any sport really are very, very similar. Like it doesn't take too much out of me to answer emails and I can always just kind of sit down and knock a couple of those out. But to sit down and like edit or conceptualize what the show is going to be about this week, that really,

It feels a bit more draining. Yeah. So like she said, this week took a little bit of time off of it. But for the most part, I think we do a pretty good job of kind of like bringing the camera along on things we're doing anyway. So it's not like we head out and do this crazy film excursion just for the show. I pride myself a lot on being able to work it into what we're doing anyway. Totally, yeah. Something that I've noticed in creating things that are like truly original the way that the show is for you guys is that if someone tells me, hey,

I need you to film me biking on this road. That's like, okay, you already gave me the direction I'm going to do it. That's easy. But having the question to ask yourself, what do I need to like creatively bring into existence that does not exist this week? That's the hard creative thing. It's like, okay, I need to tell a story this week. What story am I telling?

If you're just like filming yourself going out running, that's easy. But you guys always like wrap it up into like a, each little show has an arc to it. And that's what I feel like can be exhausting. Totally. So, which leads me to ask you this, do you feel like if you didn't have the show, do you think your training would be potentially any better? Do you think it would be potentially worse?

Like, does the show actually make you more excited to train ever? I'd say I can go both ways. I've definitely, you know, I've been in the sport for 10 years as a professional, and I only started doing the YouTube show the last three years, seriously. And in the years where I wasn't doing, doing it, I would have for sure times where like training was going super well. I didn't have anything to think about. All I did was like watch a Netflix show, go to bed. But then I feel like there were also low times in there where I didn't have quite as the sense of purpose that I have

these days with the show. And I do get really excited thinking about, oh, what we told the story last week of our bike workout to be really great this week. If, you know, we built on that and then the next week we won a race, like that would just be so epic in terms of a story. And I like really latch on to that. So I think, yes, I could probably train two, three percent better maybe if I had a little bit more energy, but also I get so excited about like cool stories and winning races because of that, that, you know, I might get some of that percentage back. Cool. Okay, next question. This is from Noel. And she said, I'm loving the new podcast. My husband and I are your biggest fans. We are bleeding TTL gear everywhere. House Van, Pain, Cave.

We love to hear that. And so great meeting all of you. And Flynn at 70.3 worlds at one of your pop-ups at the reservoir. Oh, that was fun. Yeah, that was a great time. I have a couple of questions for you all. Number one, Eric and Paula, how did you first meet? And Nick went and how did you come into the picture because you're the best. The OGBFF everybody needs in their life.

I just read that verbatim, by the way. I know that sounds like I put that in there, but that is exactly what Noel said. No, it is. Can confirm. That is what it says. It feels like we've known Nick forever, but we've really only known Nick for like a year and a half. So that's crazy. But Eric and I both met in 2017 at the Beijing International Triathlon, which is kind of a unique race where they bring eight or ten women and men over to

Beijing to race this invitational triathlon. And you're there for almost a week altogether. And the whole idea of it is they're kind of building a show around the tourism of Beijing. So they take us in these tour buses to go visit like the Buddha and the Great Wall of China and long, long time on the bus, long commute to the pool every day. It's not like the perfect buildup to race optimally because it is a lot of like, you know, traveling time, but you're all in it together. So it's a really good place to get to know the people that you're there with. And Eric and I were definitely aware of each other's existence before this because we both

raced on the ITU circuit. But that's where we really started like talking, basically because there's just so much time in the bus. So, yeah, that's where we met. And then a few months after that, Eric flew up to Canada actually to like. have our first date, I guess, in person after we've been like talking on FaceTime a lot and all this. And yeah. Had to see about a girl.

Oh my God. You did not just quote Goodwill hunting to me. That's cheesy. That's cheesy. No, it's not. I love it. So wait, Paula, was Eric kind of like, was he like making moves on you? Was he like, hey, I'm into you?

No, no, no. A little bit. Or was he nice and shy? It wasn't like that, really. What's the courting Eric Lagerstrom like? I think he had like explosive diarrhea from having food poisoning. Okay, yeah, in Beijing. He was like...

In Beijing, I had just come from Czechoslovakia from a race there. Or Slovakia. I had just come from this race and like this three quarters of the race got food poisoning her. You know, just like awful, awful stomach problems from the water there. in the lake that we swam in. So like, Paul and I actually had a hotel room. We were like side by side and I desperately wanted to like talk to her more than I did. But most of the time I was like sprinting to get to the room just to like get to the room as quickly as possible.

And then skipping dinner. Yeah. So we didn't actually hang out that much in Beijing. But the conversations we did had carried over to talking a little bit on Instagram, which turned into texting, which turned into FaceTime, which turned into him visiting me. So nothing happened in Beijing. Wow. Really?

A lot happened in Beijing. It's just between Eric and himself. I actually ended up racing pretty well considering all of that. Oh, yeah. You know what's funny? After the Overland Triathlon video, I saw that YouTube came up with the Beijing race. But it was one that you got sixth in. Because you had another one where you did really even better, right?

We've been there so many times. We both won it. Yeah, we both wanted it different times. But anyway, that was how we met. And then I'll let... That's fun. I'll let Eric tell the story about how Nick came into our lives because it was...

It blossomed through Instagram message. It was a real whirlwind, wasn't it? I don't even... I don't remember the exact original message, but I could probably go back and find it. We found it when we were in St. George. Do you remember? Yeah.

It was something along the lines of... I started watching the show in 2019 when I was racing at Indian Wells. and your little tour of Indian Wells video came up. Yes. And I saw that and I was like, oh, this is cool. And I wasn't watching triathlon YouTube. So that was my introduction to it.

And then I think a few months later, I was just like, this has happened to me many times in my life where I'm like, this is such a cool thing. And I've let it kind of like pass me by. I'm like, this is so cool. And then like a year later, it really becomes a really well-known thing. This has always happened with musical acts. people that were small and I'm like this is really cool

and then they blow up really huge and I was like I need to at least try to contribute whatever I can so I message Eric on Instagram and I said love the show I would love to create some original music for you if you want to play it you don't need to give me credit or anything I just like I want to be part of this thing that's that's I find so cool

and that's where it started but then Eric and I have a lot of funny things in common even though he's one of the best triathletes in the world and I am not But other than that, I feel like we're both kind of like half creative, half athletes. And it's less common than I think most people would imagine to have people that are kind of split down the middle like that. When you guys get texting or talking, it just goes on and on and on. Like every time I look over in Eric, if he's texting someone, it's probably Nick.

So you guys have so much in common. And I think Eric just really values your advice and opinion on things and you with him. So anytime you guys create something, you're like, of the first person that Eric shows stuff to for like approval or your thoughts or whatever. So it's just been a really cool back and forth creative. And then also the triathlon obviously is what originally linked us together. So this is a whole bunch of why Nick and I are really good friends. But the way we initially met, you definitely said something about you're a musician and maybe you could contribute some music to the show at some point in time.

And I just happened to be going through Instagram Messenger and saw this and decided. Decided I would respond to this dude. Just in the off chance you happened to make okay. music. Because a couple of people said this before and I've gotten some folders and it's like, ooh, sweet, dude. But you had like awesome stuff and then we just, you know, the rest of history, we hit it off. Hit it off. Fun question. Yeah, that's good. So number two from Noel, oh boy. We're like halfway into the podcast. We're at number two of the first question. It's okay. Well, that was an important question. We'll streamline them. We'll make them a little faster here. What are your

favorite types of swim bike run workouts. I feel like you two have very different types of favorite types. But go ahead. Why don't you give it a quick little answer? I like all tempo things. So like longer swims at like 80% intensity, longer bike ride intervals, like 30 minute intervals and tempo runs. Are my favorites. I prefer shorter, faster, harder stuff. Just because I feel like it brings me a lot more satisfaction after like doing five by four minutes hard on the bike. That's what we did on Saturday uphill. It is so hard in the moment, but the workout's done in 80 minutes, and I feel really good about it after. So that's my favorite short heartstone. Yeah. And in case you're wondering what my favorites are. We are. It's like, if my training were like go out and do 10 second

sprints, like 20, 10 second sprints, I would be so happy. Yeah. It's never that. But I just did, actually, I just ran 20 miles yesterday. I was going to say. Nice and slow. And it's just, if I don't have company. It's like so hard for me. It's hard for anybody, dude. It's just so you're out there for so long. Yeah. Okay, next question.

Oh, boy. I don't know what this name is. Matildi? M-A-T-H-I-L-D-E. Do we think that's Matilda? Matilda. Maybe. Where are they from?

Math-I-I-L-D. It's not Math-I-I-L-E-L-E-E-L-E. We could do like in Zoolander and just say Matil. Wait, it's... I don't remember. Wow. Sorry, Matil. Oh, my God. Yeah, sorry, Matil. Matil. So, first things first, congrats on the launch of this new medium. I love the podcast, love the format, can't wait for the special episode featuring Trixie. Trixie has now been brought up in every single episode of this podcast.

It's going to line up. It's unavoidable at this point. My question goes to all of you, but maybe more Paula, since she's had her fair share of injury last year. How do you deal mentally with being injured when your partner gets to train? healthy. Obviously, one is happy for the other's good health, but I'm currently double injured, shoulder and ankle, and get quite envious slash frustrated slash grumpy that my boyfriend gets to run and swim, and I just feel like a couch potato, even though I still get to ride, obviously, but I'm doing less than him and less than I used to. Thanks in advance for sharing any tip and how to deal with that serenity, if you have any. If not, just sending much love from across the pond. Okay, so. It doesn't sound familiar at all. Yeah, that is 100% me.

I'm like, Eric, I hate you. I'm, because I can't run. So we're getting divorced. Who keeps one? Okay. No, that is a really good question because it's something that I've had to deal with a lot. Obviously, Eric is practically never injured, and I am injured a lot and can't run as a result. So how I get through it is I'll usually do an activity while he's running, whether that's doing

an extra bike ride. This may not be the healthiest way to get through it, but this is how I deal with it. Or I'll take Flynn for a long walk or I'll do a gym workout. So if Eric's doing a hard run, like, I don't know. I also have come to terms with the fact that I don't need to run quite as much as Eric to run well or quite as much as anyone. Like everyone has different volumes that they need to run to get the best out of themselves. And mine, thankfully, is kind of lower. So although I'd love to be doing every single workout and all the kilometers that Eric does running, I can't. So yeah, it does make me grumpy at times. But what also brings me happiness sometimes is like riding beside him and helping him with his workout. Because at this point in our careers, we really are doing this as a team. And Eric having a good race is like a win for both of us.

So him going out and doing a temper run, if I come and bring like the speaker and give him slits and take video, that brings me happiness and makes me feel like I'm contributing to his success and therefore our success. So in the summer, every time Eric would run, I would walk Flynn at a brisk pace. I remember I was there for one of them. Yeah. So that does help because then I'm like outside moving, you know. Paula, the happiest I've ever seen you. And obviously we've only noticed for a year and a half, like I said, it does feel much longer. But the happiest I've ever seen you is when we were watching Eric do so well at world championships.

Yeah. You know, you were just like beaming. Yeah, yeah. I thought that would be harder. Even happier than when you won Oceanside. Totally. I was there for that, too. Yeah, that was almost even surprising to me how much I loved watching that race.

And it wasn't just watching Eric. It was also watching the race I was supposed to be racing in. But I still really found joy in the process of just, you know, spectating and cheering and observing. And it wasn't like I'm never going to race again. It was kind of like a learning experience to watch the other women race and see what was unfolding, being on the other side of the fence, basically. And then obviously, Eric having a great race. was like the icing on the cake made it so fun. I was like, man, we were so excited.

Yeah, that was the funnest time. Ever. One of the best days. Honestly. So, so fun. Eric, I, regarding this question, I'm wondering if you ever have this sense. Do you ever have a really good workout while Paula is made injury and you feel like you want to tell her about it?

But you kind of hold that back because you don't want to rub it in her face. No, we do not talk about it. We do not talk about it. Yes. Yeah. Oh, you just did a temper run? I didn't know that. Let's have dinner.

I made pizza. That's what I'm contributing. Oh, wow. I am evil. No, I mean, my brain wasn't going there, but you pretty much did nail it on the head. It is very challenging to have that moment, getting back from a thing and being, you've got the runners high, you know, quote unquote for like a better term and like feeling so. good and get home and I get in and Paula's obviously upset that she has been able to do the same thing and I have to you kind of just somehow just have to be in silence start making yeah yeah

call neck yeah I mean like he does he does every once in a while text me he's like dude I just crushed this workout I love it I love getting that text from him it gets me so stoked and I want to just jump out and run myself yeah it is it is hard because I mean I've been on the other side as well and seeing Paula, you know, I'm not injured, but Paula is having insanely good workouts like before Daytona or something. And I haven't been injured and I'm extra tired because like honestly, sometimes when you get injured, you get a little bit of rest that you needed and it's a good cycle. But I'll be seeing Paul having in a great workout and I didn't have a good workout and I got to do the same thing, try to be supportive and just go scream into a pillar like whatever the heck

it is, you know, to like be there for that moment and not like overwhelm it with the next. You know, try to rise up to the good stuff and everything. And it goes the same for when we race, too. If one, neither, we've never both had a perfect race at the same time. Somebody's always more happy. Well, I would say Indian Wells 2019. You got second to Lionel, right? And Paula won.

That was a, I feel like that was a really good race. Was that not perfect? That's true. That was pretty good. I forgot about that one. I mean, beating Lionel would have been perfect, but it was close to perfect. No, just kidding. Okay, next question is from Sven.

it's dear Paula Eric and Nick my fiance respectively my wife in two weeks time oh very nice and I both congratulations congratulations my fiance and I both love all your content

I think we haven't missed a vlog since the end of 2019 just like me I have a question regarding your sleep habits as pro triathletes during intense training periods I often need a short nap in the afternoon even when I slept eight to nine hours

the night before do you both regularly take slash need a nap during your training day or do you try to get enough sleep during the night? Thanks for answering my question. Nice regards from Switzerland, Sven. And let me add, I have the exact same questions for you guys. Because I, not right now, but when I'm like hardcore training,

I have to nap every single day, like an hour to 90 minutes. Really? Yeah. Wow. I feel like we don't have time for that. I would say definitely the priority should be getting a full, unbroken night's sleep from like 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. However long can drag it out.

Yeah, I find that if I nap, sometimes I have a hard time falling asleep at night. And even in the middle of hard training, I just feel like getting eight plus hours of sleep at night is enough to get me through. And our aura rings actually are pretty helpful because they give us the real number of how much we're actually sleeping. And sometimes, yeah, we'll get in bed at eight or nine and get out of bed at seven. But the actual hours sleeping is quite low. So just having like a restful night sleep is very different than being awake a lot. So yeah, napping can sometimes mess up a little bit, that flow and the routine and the rhythm. I think when we're away at training camp, we do a better job of napping or at least being horizontal for a few hours a day.

It's harder at home because there's so many little things to do. Like today we went and washed the van and build a bike. And I don't know, there's just like little chores that you don't have to do when you're at training camp. But I'm not a napper. Eric's not really either. Like a lot of the times a nap sounds kind of good, but then there's just a lot to do. And like Paul said, it's kind of hard to fit into the day. If you're doing three workouts and we do the first one at eight to 9.30 and then we have

an hour and a half or something to digest the food afterwards and get ready to the next one, then you're doing a two and a half hour bike ride in the middle of the day. Then you've got an hour and a half maybe until you need to go run before it's dark. And an hour and a half is not, it's really hard to fit in a quality nap there with the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and then wake back up and like overcome that sleep momentum. That's the other part. I feel sometimes when I wake up from a nap, I feel way worse. And I like cannot imagine doing another training session. So yeah, a short answer is just nighttime sleep. But I appreciate people that need to nap. That's an important thing. Yeah. Let me let me,

I don't know, Sven, what your, what your like fitness level is, but let me tell you from my point of view, because these, you're talking to people who obviously have like insane genetic gifts for this thing and I think I'm more the average person but I've found that the the napping is like during intense times of training during high like high training load periods I've noticed it always happens right after I eat lunch so I think if you can eat foods with a I think it's a low glycemic index I think a lot of this is like insulin hits they're coming up and down from that you get so exhausted so foods that kind of like don't eat lunch yeah you won't nap but you will die.

100% a joke. 100% a joke. But yeah, I totally feel where Sven's coming from. I get this feeling where I'm like, I want to cry. I'm like, I'm so tired. I want to cry. And I'm like, I just need to lie down for a second.

I lie down and I'm instantly asleep. Wow. I get that before training sometimes too. I'm like putting my bibs on and my brain is like, please don't do this right now. Just lay down. And I'll lay down for like five minutes before going out for a training ride.

Yeah. No, I do get that. But then Eric's like Got a power thrift. Yeah. I just complained to my girlfriend. I just like, I don't want to go into this right now. But then I just do it.

We all do. That's how you win. That's how you win races. That's right. That's right. Actually, I thought about that. Every time you go out and you're just like, oh, is this workout really going to make the difference?

And then I raced in end of November. And I won the race. My first win ever, by the way, I don't win races normally people. I'm usually back in the pack. But this one I did win. and it was by 13 seconds. He was 13 seconds behind me, and he was gaining on me. So I was like every time I went out when I was just exhausted, that was worth it just for that.

Yeah, totally. All those times you didn't nap. Yeah, exactly. Which is actually quite few because I usually do take the nap. Okay, great. So now this last question is something that I thought we could kind of like spend like maybe 10 minutes on and focus on. This is something I think is really interesting on a lot of people's minds. So this question is from Austin.

Eric, Paula, and Nick. Hey, guys, my name is Austin. Firstly, love the pod. I've been an avid fan of the show since you guys started the brand in 2020, and I'm an aspiring amateur triathlet. I'm currently deployed in Iraq as an Army helicopter pilot, and watching the show every Sunday helps take the weeks off. My question is in regards to a comment Paula made on the latest pod

when y' all were speaking about the couple's try. She mentioned how the approach she and Eric have going into the race is a balance between wanting to do well, but not getting too fit too early in the season. I'm wondering if y'all could elaborate on that more. What are the risks of being too fit early in the season? How do you know if you might be approaching that line? How quickly can you bounce back if you peek too early?

I think as amateurs, it's easy for us to strive for constant improvement at all times, as if each year is a constant linear progression from the last, rather than the ups and downs of fitness. Thanks, guys. Really enjoy listening to the pod on my runs, sincerely Austin. And this is another one that I'm very curious to hear what you guys think, because I remember thinking of that too, like, I'm just going to work harder and get faster and faster. What's the problem? Yeah. Austin, first of all, thank you for your service.

Second of all, we actually had a little bit of pre-discussion on this over dinner because I thought this was such a good question and we wanted to pre-game it just a little bit. I think, like, kind of fundamentally, the difference, it comes down to the difference between being a professional and maybe being an amateur and the way that the professional race season is laid out. We kind of need to try to hit a peak level of fitness or almost peak level of fitness and maintain it for as long as we can. And that is not as long as we would want it to be. So if we get super peaked in March, that's borderline impossible without getting injured to keep it all the way until World Championship season like end of October. It's a little bit easier or different if you're doing Ironman for example or if you're an age group athlete and you can do what Nick does and you pick out three races throughout the year.

you know, exactly when they are, and then you can basically take a two-week break after each race, slowly build back up versus a pro athlete. We could race every other weekend if we wanted to, and that's pretty hard to find the optimal time to take a break and everything inside of that. Yeah, from my perspective, the danger of getting really, really fit and lean and fired up to race in February is that it's not sustainable. and especially for me personally, I get leaner than I have high risk of injury or my run volume gets bumped up a little bit too quickly, too fast, and I don't have the base miles to support that. So that can lead to niggles and injuries. And then the catastrophic effect of that, which I experienced last year, is being injured

through the summer when the most important races are happening. And I had to miss the world championships. So this year, the PTO tour is stops in Emmington, down. Dallas, then we have real championships, and then we have Collins Cup. Not in that order, but those are my biggest focus for the year. So if I put all of my training focused on getting fit for March 6th, I don't think I would last until the summer, or at least I wouldn't perform my best in the summer. So that's what we're talking about is just not being not fit right now, but just making sure that the progression week after week is a sustainable amount,

maybe two or three hours a week and not just our hardest training of the year happening right now. Yeah, yeah. And also that there is, I think there's a big mental component to it as well. Like mentally being all jacked up and like thinking that the first race of the season in April is the Super Bowl. And like then where do you go from there? Versus kind of having that marked as a C race or a B race. Like you really want to do well, but you're not all in mentally on it. That can also just kind of create a really good natural ramp through the season as you're focusing on.

whatever it is later in the season. Totally. I agree. It's easy to get fried out, burned out of training, too tired, grumpy, all the things that happen when you're getting ready for your A race of the season. And if you let that happen too early or too frequently throughout the year, that's

where burnout happens and injuries happen and just hating the sport, not wanting to do it, and then you just go into the spiral. Eric, I was going to ask you that exact thing about how much of it do you think is mental versus a physical issue with peaking fitness, like training load versus freshness? That's a very deep philosophical question if you want to really like...

But for you, like, when you're worried about peaking too early, how much of it is, I can't mentally keep this up for that long, and how much of it is, no, there's a physiological element that I, doesn't matter how much I want it or not want it, like I can't, you can't remain in peak fitness for that long. I think it's physiological because our body's capability to do heart sessions right now, it only builds week after week slowly. So we couldn't go in to do like three by 20 minutes at our FTP or whatever it is right now because we're just not fit enough to do that.

So the workouts we're doing are all building on being able to sustain that kind of hard workout later. So as much as we might want to train 30 hours a week right now or want to hit our best 1Ks on the track or something, I don't think we could physically do it. So there's a smart way to get to that point, and it's not just training more right now. It's slowly building it. Yeah. And if you do build up a little bit too fast,

I think you can force it and you can get so tired that it is, yeah, like Paul said, a physiological thing that's keeping you from being able to execute hard workouts and build upon the workouts further down the line. I also think there's a component of if your nutrition is really good and you're eating enough, you can sustain really high load all year and be healthy. But you have to be really diligent about recovery, massage, eating well, and all of that to make it last. And if you do have an early season peak, like everyone getting ready for St. George in May, it's also an option to take like a midseason break.

So take two weeks where you kind of treat it as a mini off season, maybe in August or something, so that you can peak again for Kona in October. So lots of different ways to approach it. a year. The thing that's funny about this too is that we all know pros who are, you know, they can race like four iron mans in a year and do really well at them. And then we know pros who are just as good, but they'll just race once and like win Kona or something like that, right? Right. Even within the same distance, we have athletes that really perform so differently. And I'm sure some of it is like you said, Paul, like eating really well, resting really well,

massage, but some of it is genetic and we're all built different in that way. Yeah, like good mechanics, not getting injured as often. Huge part of it. I'm going to throw this out there with that as well, just like blowing it up to an even longer timeline. And anybody can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But the athletes who we've seen do that typically are athletes that haven't been in the sport as a pro for like seven plus years. I would say they're on the first three years of their career and they almost are like taking that front-loaded thing that we're talking about with the season on this super macro level. And as they get into their later years in the sport, I doubt that they would necessarily be able to

do four Iron Man's in a year, you know, year after year after year after year. Right. Yeah, we've been racing since we're 16 years old. So we don't want to race that much. We're tired. You got to pick and choose at this point. Yeah, make it fun. Nice.

Well, that was great. I've always wondered. And I think it's, the truth is that if you're an amateur, you can treat this so differently. because you really can choose exactly when your races are. You don't have to race eight times or five times in a year. You can just pick your A race and then whatever other races, you can just run through them and not worry too much about what effect it has on you. Whereas you guys, every time you show up at the start line at a pro race,

there's an expectation and you have sponsors and you have people watching you and fans. It's like, wait, why do they get, they weren't even in the top 10? I thought it's a million things that you guys have to worry about that we don't. Yeah, all this being said, as we're, week after week closer to the couple's triathlon, we do feel fitter and get more excited about racing. And even though we're not going to be at our best fitness ever, we're like, damn, maybe we could maybe win. Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah. It comes.

We are getting more excited about it as we get closer, as our workouts get better. You know, we do the same workout week after week. It feels a little easier the next week. So it's a building block thing and you really do feel yourself improving every week. So that makes us excited. And maybe we will win. You never know. maybe we'll come last. Place your bets now. Do we even know how many couples there are? No, we don't know yet, right?

I know you got some of the people racing, but you don't have a total number. No, it's somewhere around 10. I think some people are dropping out, but I think there was somewhere between 10 and 15 invited. We honestly don't know all the couples. We know probably like, you know, three quarters of them. Yeah, cool.

Well, great. Thank you guys. That was really fun. So the serious questions are over. Thank you. Now, Paula, allegedly, has some, and by the way, last week we debuted this, but it was, we had a, I made a custom rapid fire theme song that Eric Soaply introduced. So Paula, do you have some rapid fire questions

for us? Just so everyone knows, that is Nick's voice. Like, just to make it a million times better. That's me playing guitar, bass, drums, and singing on that song. Yeah, that is 100% Nick. So take that. That's hilarious. And amazing. So my rapid fires this week, I have a huge list of them that I've composed for future weeks, but I'm going to pick about four or five of. We need to actually rapid fire answer these because last time we failed gloriously at that. We took another chance to just. Yeah, exactly. Just like, yes, we will talk now.

Okay, so Nick Anster, then Eric Answer, we'll just do a super quick rapid fire. Number one, favorite city in the U.S. besides the one you live in is. Boston. Portland's just gone downhill. It's been really bummer to watch lately. You can include that in. I mean, yes, I love Portland so much, and I hope it comes back to its full glory. So I'll say Portland.

I'm holding out for you. Wow. Wow, Eric. Mine is Salt Lake City, because that's where Flynn was born and Eric was born. Oh, your boys. Okay, number two, fill in the blank. Taylor Swift is... Way cooler than people give her credit for.

You've met her. One of my very good friends is her background singer and knows her super well, on tours with her all the time. So I've heard a bunch of stories. Nice. Nice. Okay, Eric, Taylor Swift is... A singer. Technically, that is true. Technically, that is all Eric knows about her. Got it. Sorry, I was just going to say that I think people...

Something happens very often in the music industry, especially because music is so subjective, is that people like to hate on certain bands, but they, because they think they're bad, like the whole nickelback hate thing. It's like, there's... Nickelback is nowhere near. They're not even in the bottom 50% of bands. bad bands, you know? Yeah. And Taylor Swift, I think, is super, super, super talented. People just like to make fun of her, I think. I just, I think the fan base of Taylor Swift is amazing. It is. Everyone is, everyone that I know is more obsessed with her than I am. Right. I think a lot of

people like to just hate on what everyone else likes to act like they're unique. Yes. Yes. Yes, exactly. Sorry. Sorry for not rapid firing that rapid fire. No, that was good, interesting discussion. Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world or talk to animals? Oh, talk to animals. You got Google Translate for the speak every language in the world. Come on. Animals, animals 100%. I don't know.

I like people, but I really want to know what the animals have to say. Yeah, can the animals talk back to you, though? Because that'd be annoying. Of course. Talk to animals. You guys have the gift of already speaking English. You can go anywhere already pretty much and speak to people. Yeah.

If I could tell Flynn to like, I don't know, make me a cappuccino. Are you kidding me? You could tell him to go lie on his bed and he'll listen to you. He will go lie on his bed. One of his best tricks. That's why Paula wants to speak every language because she already can communicate with Flynn. Okay, number four, number four. How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to Mariah Carey?

William Hung. Do you remember him? He was a very, very bad American Idol contestant that literally got a career because of how bad he was. It's just him singing out of tune on an entire album. for the comedy. Nick. I think something I personally hate is when actual singers go and do karaoke really well. Oh.

It's like you guys showing up to like a 5K for breast cancer and then beating everyone by five minutes. That's kind of what it feels like to me, you know? Okay, Eric, how about you? Say like three. Is Mariah Carey a 10, I assume? I don't know. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, Mariah Carey is definitely the best karaoke. Okay, number five. This one is interesting because yesterday I felt like I was in the perfect world temperature. But the question is, what is your ideal outside temperature? 73. I'll translate it to Celsius. I was going to say 74. Wait, can I have a skill? I think I can exactly tell you what it is in Celsius. So 73 Fahrenheit is like two and a half. Yeah, you were right. 22.7. Yeah. And 24 Fahrenheit is like 23. There you go. Yeah. If anyone's curious what mine is, it's like 60 Fahrenheit.

Really? I really like being a little bit chilly outside, but like training in that kind of temperature. So dressing out warm. So basically, Paula, you come here and train in the morning in Santa Monica year around. Yeah. Eric, you come in here, train in the afternoon year around because that's how great it is here. Santa, I'm jealous of your weather for sure. It's the best.

Perfect, perfect weather. That's the best. Last question. Would you rather wake up to an air horn blowing in your ear every day or wake up and have to run five miles every day? Eric, you go ahead first. I mean, I know the answer to this question is so easy. Air horn, I think. Yeah, air horn all day.

Oh, no. Even you exercise addicts you would choose. I mean, then I can always go for a run if I want to, but I don't have to. You know, it's really nice about the air horn? I can just turn over and go right back to sleep. Can't do that with a four-mile run. No, no, it doesn't turn off until you're up. Oh, really?

Oh, no, that's a true nightmare. No, that's not part of it. It's just that's how you're waking up every day. I made that up. Okay, well, that's not the answer I was expecting from you to, but I... What about you, Paula? Airhorn or four miles? I would pick four miles if I wasn't injured all the time.

Oh, really? Okay, so yeah, like the injury, forget about the injury. You would wake up and run the four miles. Yeah, I think that's such a nice way to start. the day. Like if I wasn't a pro triathlete and I was like, okay, four miles and then do your day. It's funny because I don't know how many people know this about you guys, but most people who exercise, they wake up really early in the morning and they exercise and then they go to their job or whatever. But you guys do not do that. You guys wake up, hang out for a bit,

then go swim, right? And then we go to our job. Right. That's right. Yeah, but you guys do like coffee and hang out and then your exercise. We're not super early morning people. We swim at eight, which feels super early to us. And that's a compromise with Lindsay because she wakes up way earlier than us. But we prefer to have a little bit of coffee and, you know, emails and stuff before we start the day. Yeah, just to finish that off, I think we start our workday at eight and finish our work day around five or six or whatever, just like anybody else. And before that, we're not doing the training, obviously. And then we don't have weekends either. So we kind to like fit in our like weekend vibes from 6.30 a.m. to 8 a.m. every day. Got it. Well, I feel like

that's a good place of English is so hard. I think that's as good of a place as it. Wait a second. How does that saying even go? How are you so dumb? Sorry, Dad. Get it together. That. I just want to make you proud, dad. That is the end of my rapid fires for today. I think that is a good place to end. Love your questions. Another quick reminder to send. them over to me at that triathlon life brand at gmail.com or drop them into our Instagram Messenger, that triathlon life. Or send them to Nick. Do not send them to Nick. Do not send them to Nick. All negative comments go to Nick. That's okay. I'll allow the negative comments to me. Negative comments and Venmo payments.

Go to Nick. Yeah, please, Venmo me. Five dollars, shout out, $10 to give you a song. That is worth it. That's worth it. That's worth it. Okay, well, thank you guys. See you next week. Thanks for listening. Thanks everybody. Bye-bye.