That Triathlon Life Podcast - Our 100th Episode! Calling special triathlon guests, calling listeners for questions, and more! Thank you everybody!

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

Watch this episode on youtube.com/@ThatTriathlonLifeThis episode was a celebration of our 100th podcast! We were all together in Bend, OR and we thought it would be fun to call some people and chat triathlon while getting it all on camera. Thank you so much to everybody who helped us get here, and to everybody who listens every week.To become a podcast supporter, as well as submit your own questions for the podcast, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that Triathlon Life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. This is extremely complicated and exciting episode for us. We have three different cameras going. One, two, three. But most importantly, Nick is here in person. Recording our 100th TTL podcast episode. Did you ever think? Thank you to all the podcast supporters, the new supporters who signed up and got Nick here. because we said that on a couple podcasts ago. If we got X number of new supporters for the podcast,

we would bring Nick here. He's here in the flesh. Yeah, just so everyone knows, we're never together for the podcast recording. I'm usually in California. Unless we're like in our van randomly. It also happens. Maybe like 10 out of the 100 we've done in person together and like 90 separate.

Might be a rough estimate, but it is so fun to have Nick here. Not only is he staying for the podcast, he's staying for another week after this. There was only one flight out. I'm sorry. I swear we have real jobs. Yeah, right.

But in celebration of the 100th anniversary podcast, we got donuts that spell out the letters, the numbers 100. One long John. It's one long John and then two circle donuts. So that equals 100. Well, this is through the course of this podcast, by the way, we should say before we get into anything else,

we are actually recording this video and it will be on YouTube the same day as the podcast comes out as as you've normally listened to the podcast. So for all the people who have been clamoring about a video podcast, don't get used to it, but we are doing it for this time. Shut your Shopify. Shut your Spotify right now and go over to YouTube and watch this. Yes. And we're going to be slowly or maybe maybe not so slowly making our way through these donuts. For people who are just listening, we have a one shape like a one and two shaped like zeros to make 100. So Paul, do you want to do the honors here?

Yes, I'm also going to grab mine. Okay, what is this one called again? This is a glazed stick. I call it a Long John, but maybe that's a Canadian thing. I think at this store they called it a Tiger Long John. Oh, yeah. Well, let me see what we've got going on here. Mmm.

Yes. Notes of nutmeg. Pretty good. Rich cinnamon flavor. It's good. It's quite good. Okay, let's get right to it here. We have two this or that this week. We're going all out for episode 100.

We don't know how long this is going to be. We have a lot of things planned. This might be a little longer than usual, but we got nothing else going on today, right? I just got to edit this. We're just going to take eight hours, but that'll be fine. Okay, so for the first this or that, Hello and Almost 2024. Happy almost 2024.

Adding to the call for questions. the holiday theme this or that. Okay, so we'll do a little this or that here. Q theme song. Mold wine or eggnog. Mold wine. Have you had mold wine? I don't even know what that is.

Oh, yeah. So eggnog. Mold wine is very gross to me. How do you spell that? M-O-L-D? M-U-L-L-E-D. Yeah. Yeah.

You're going to get a lot of mold wine DMs, Eric. I'm sorry. Rapping paper or gift bags. wrapping paper for sure. Way more fun. Okay. Christmas Day workout or a nap? Both.

Christmas Day workout. Oh, of course, of course. Now, I don't know if you guys have seen these movies, but Love Actually or Die Hard? Love Actually. That's our Christmas movie. So I don't want to burst your bubble here, but I saw this thing recently. All of their relationships in love relationships in Love Actually, other than like the couple shooting the adult film are like, Me Too, like shouldn't happen. And it's like bosses and their subordinates or like people cheating on their spouses.

It's all problematic. We've seen the movie several times. It's just funny. I feel like that movie couldn't come out today. People like like like, maybe not. I don't know. I feel like that's the point.

Ring in the New Year with Bubbly or in bed by nine? Both. Oh, so you're bubbly at 8.30 in bed by nine? Yes. Our plan initially was to probably be in bed by night, you know, midnight east coast time. here on the West Coast, but then our New Year's party spiraled out of control and we didn't go to bed until like 1130. 1130.

You guys, I'm already done my donut. Uh-oh. Well, are we? Sounds like a pacing problem. I hate to say, I'm going to, for comedic effect here, we actually do have a backup zero. We have a backup set of donuts. So one second as I grabbed them.

Really? We got a backup zero. Super prepared. Guys, I can't eat two donuts. We have a backup of all three. actually. Okay, so we've replaced Paula's fallen donut. Okay, next set of this or that's here. They're all based on the number 100, since this is our 100th episode. By the way, I promise this is a triathlon podcast.

Do a 100-mile bike race or 100K ultramarathon. I think I would take the 100K run. Wow. What? That's a long day, Paula. Those are like, That's a long day. That is literally twice as long as the 100 mile bike race. That is so, so, so, so, so. I just don't think I could do the 100 mile run. 100K.

No, it's 100K run. Oh, still. 62 miles. That's a huge if. Yeah. What about you, Eric? I think I would do, I think currently I would do the bike race. Do you guys know how many people finish 100K races that are not, don't train as much as

us? Of course we could finish it. Oh. You think, really? Yes. It's 62 miles. Yeah, if you go slow enough and eat enough. Yeah, it's just hard.

But maybe you're right. I don't know what it's like to be in those crazy bodies. Well, I hate riding my bike, so I'm taking the run. Okay, 100 mile run. 100K run, sorry. Next one here, PR your 70.3 swim by 100 seconds or PR your 70.3 run by 100 seconds. We don't PR 70.3 things. That's fine.

That's fine. I will go 100 seconds faster on my run for sure. 100 seconds faster on the swim. Who cares? Bointless. Doesn't matter. say buoyantless or pointless? Pointless. Pointless and buoyantless. Okay, very nice. A little punny there. Okay, eat 100 donuts over the span of a week, oh boy, or drink 100 glasses of wine over the span

of three weeks. Wine. A hundred glasses of wine over three weeks. So that's 30 glasses of wine. Oh, it's doable. Yeah, it's definitely doable. Yeah, I like donuts okay, but two or three, I would be done with donuts for the day. Yeah. Paula? I think I could easily do the donut challenge. You know what? I wish they would challenge me. Yeah. And also I get little like tipsy off of one glass of wine. That's funny because I get tipsy off a donut. So I'd be completely drunk for three weeks straight. Right. Okay. Great. Love it. Love it. And then final one here. Oh, this is sad. Spend $100 on bike parts or $100 on camera equipment. $100 on camera equipment will not get you very far. That's not getting you anywhere with bike parts either. That's one tire.

Yeah. You could buy cheap cassette for $100. You can buy a chain ring for $100. You can buy a chain for $100. But that's kind of like buying bike stuff is just like a necessary shitty thing. It's not fun. Yeah. I would imagine buying camera stuff is more fun, although I've never done it. It's all really affordable, actually, and you should tell her to do it more.

I had a huge box of Arcteric stuff show up that I might have ordered. And I was like, Eric, just pretend this is like you getting camera stuff. Don't even look in the box. Let me go to my room and open this in private. slowly with soothing music and candles. And then I keep coming out with new jackets. Like, did you even notice this was new? Ooh.

That's like camera stuff. I'm just not saying anything. Because we are filming now on three different cameras. Yeah. Oh, we just, the time just changed. Yeah. Old school, dude. I love that clock.

Oh, this could be problematic. I'm going to call myself out here. No, only on the hour. Only on the hour. No, I know. But like, if I edit time changes, like we might have to, I might have to, you see. see what I'm saying here?

Yes. Like if I cut things around, it'll be like 430 to 420 to 450. That's fine. I might just swap that in. Okay, next thing we're going to do is we're going to give away something to one of our podcast supporters. And for those of you who don't know, if you notice, we don't have ads on this podcast. So we rely on support from our listeners.

You can become a podcast supporter as well as submit your own questions to the podcast at that triathlon life.com slash podcast. And most weeks, we like to pick a random supporter to give a box. bottle two. Actually, it's all kinds of stuff, but right now we're going through bottles. So this week, we put in our random number generator, went through the entire list of podcast supporters, and congratulations. Reed Sund. You won a Paula Finley and Eric Loggerstrom bottle. He's a big supporter of the, of everything we do. Everything. Oh, really? He races in the kit. You recognize the name. Yeah, recognize the name. Which is a, by the way, coincidence.

Yeah, it's 100% of coincidence. But he wore, he wears the T T.L. kit. I think he like ran with Kristen Yaks. Oh, right. She won Ironman, California. Yeah, in the TTL kit. So thank you, Reed, for all your support and your bottles will be on the way. Thank you, Reed. Okay. First question here. Now, we're doing something a little different on this podcast episode. We thought it would be fun. Actually, we didn't think it would be fun. Lindsay Corbin came up with this idea. She thought it would be fun if we called some people. So yesterday, Paula, on that triathlon on life Instagram, she opened up a question and allowed people to put in their phone numbers so that we could call them live on the air. Genius. Yeah, but it's going to be, we're only going to,

we got over 100 phone numbers and we're picking randomly, which ones we call. And there's a good chance if we call someone, they might not pick up or their answer will be so bad. We'll just cut that whole segment out. Or they'll just cry because they're so starstruck the whole time. We can't use the audio. So it'll be really fun. And are we starting with that, Nick? Yeah. Okay, cool. I think we should start with that. So you're just going to pick a random number and call it. Yep. You guys, let me tell you the process of setting this whole hoopla law up is insane. Like you guys went to Best Buy. You were working on this all morning. I come in and the whole there's no more coffee table downstairs. Let's just say my office does not look like this normally.

Right. It's been a little bit of a rearrangement. But we're so psyched. And I think it's going to work with the calling in and you guys are going to be able to hear on their end and wedge craft it's really fun okay let's try it okay first one we're giving it to go oh my gosh Nick you talk okay I'm nervous we'll see hello hello uh caller you are you are live on you're live on the that triathlon live podcast right now oh my gosh Oh my God. Okay. So, am I the 15th caller?

You're the 100th caller. Yes, exactly. Do I win a one day, no-night stay at the Noah's Ark in Wisconsin-Dell? Exactly. Congratulations. You're, you finally made it. Okay, so caller, who are you and where are you right now? My name is Cherokee Mattel, and I'm walking through Milwaukee.

I'm having thoughts and feelings about the cold, you guys. Oh, I'm sure you are. I think it's kind of nice. We're a nice bend. We're a nice bend. So for those of you don't know, this is, this is Trixie Mattel. A little surprise here. This is Trixie Mattel, the drag queen.

Also our first ever guest on this podcast. So it seems fitting that we have her on our 100th episode. Hi, Trixie. Hello, hello. Hi, Paula. Hi, Eric. Hi, hi, everyone. Okay, so we were hoping that you had maybe a question related to either cameras or running or anything

triathlon that we could help answer on the air. I do. Okay, so it's so cold in Wisconsin right now. I mean, like, anything under freezing, I think it's really hard to be outside and run. Like, you know, when I did my marathon, it was 46, and my hands were, like, ice for the first hour. But I've heard things about, like, oh, it's good to run in the heat or it's good to run in the cold. What are the main differences? And there's one really better than the other.

That's a great. That's a great question, right? Because you would think running in 40-degree weather, there's no way that's better than running in, like, 60-degree weather. weather. Yeah, I've heard from some people that like anytime you're in the cold, your body's burning calories like to stay warm. Got it. You know, and then I've heard like obviously for pushing yourself, it's good to expose

yourself to some like hot days running, you know. Great. Great question. All right. Eric, Paula, what do you got? Yeah, I would say running in the cold is uncomfortable unless you are dressed appropriately. So clothing is key when you're running in winter and we've been doing that now for two months and bend, but when you go out of the door, if you feel a little bit cold, that's fine,

because when you start running, you'll be perfectly comfortable. And I try to air on, like, too many clothes versus not enough. The things I feel like get the coldest are my fingers. So gloves are really good and a little, like, ear cover hat thing. If I have those two things, I'm pretty much good to go. What kind of what bugs me more, though, is like the icy roads. That's where I think it gets a little sketchier. But, yeah. Yeah, because sometimes you're, like, bundle up and then you're literally like a half mile in and you're like I'm way too hot. Right. I think I would prefer to have that always versus being too cold though.

But I think like the key to, you know, to the cold thing is layering. So you want to have like a solid base layer and then some sort of a jacket that you could either maybe take off or unzip and like have this like internal, this, I don't know, thermal regulation strategy going on. Yeah. And to answer your question about, you know, the calories burned in the cold that your body to keep itself warm. I looked into this a few months ago,

and maybe that is true to a very, very slight degree. But regardless of that, the fastest marathon times happen in the cold, around 40 degrees. That is the best place for it. Yeah, not minus 40, but 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah, the hotter it gets, the harder it gets. And like when you're running in the cold,

I feel like you don't feel as thirsty, but you got a tricksy. Nick is chowing down donuts right now. While talking on our podcast, plowing through a maple bar. Well, you know that I kind of like tell him he looks like a Halloween like CBS scalloped. Yeah, we've heard that. I know body shaming is frowned upon, but I think when it comes to Nick and like, I think he's okay to have a donut. I am okay.

He's okay. He's okay. And he swim. Like all three of you are like walking calorie deficit. I think you're all okay. That's right. We always say it's not healthy what we do. My other question is, you know, I feel like a lot of running like apparel, like, marketing is kind of snake oil. But for, you know, I'm visiting Milwaukee a lot this winter.

Is there anything like any products or brands that you think are really good for the cold? Ooh. In terms of just like quality. Like worth the money. Like if it's a splurge or it actually has some great technology where it's, because, you know, you want it to feel thin and movable. but you also want to stay warm. And like, you know, I feel like so many, when it comes to, like, long leggings and stuff. Oh, and then the age old question, are men supposed to wear little booty shorts over the leggings?

Or are we just supposed to run around with leggings and then like a, you know, very graphic front? I would say be the change you want to see in the world, you know? If you are about the leggings with no shorts, then you do that. Yeah, I don't think there are any rules here. I'm very much about leggings without shorts over the top. I just can't dissociate the shorts over the top from high school junior varsity. I don't quite want to people to see my little pasty legs. And I don't know.

I like the least amount of stuff you can be running in be as close to like natural as possible. Yeah. Trixie, my number one piece of apparel for running in the winter and I wear this nearly every day. It's from on. And it is a sponsor of mine. So I'm a little biased. But I truly think it's the best stuff. It's called the weather vest, and it's kind of like this insulated vest but isn't overly hot.

I'll send you a link to it. It's $189, which is a lot for a vest, but you'll never buy another winter vest for 10 years. Like it's the perfect running thing. So that's my tip. Yeah, like pair that with my favorite thing to run in right now is a Marino long sleeve shirt that Costelli makes. Put a vest over that, unzip the vest. You've got your optioned out. You're good.

That's awesome. Fantastic. That's great. Fantastic. Great answers. Thank you for taking my call. I guess you guys called me. Yeah, we did.

Congratulations on 100 episodes. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Trixie. Appreciate it. Thanks for picking up. I don't know. Who is listening to you, but good for them.

We don't either. Sometimes at least our moms. Yeah. Thanks so much, Trixie. Yep. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Well, that was a bit of a surprise, but that was fun. I didn't know. That's who we were starting with. I know. I know, I know. I just decided to make a call last minute there. Honestly, I had no idea it was Trixie until she said her name. I know. I knew that. I knew that. That's why I made, I teased it a little bit, but didn't give it away. That was crazy. It shocked me as well.

Okay. Oh, I just realized. She's for sure the most famous person by a million that will ever talk to. So it's kind of cool for us. I'm a bit starstruck. That's fun. And for the new listeners, yes, she was our first ever guest on the podcast. Because Trixie did get into running and has done marathon by herself. than several half marathons. Yep. So pretty cool. Okay. That was fun.

Let's do it again. Let's do it again. Okay. We're calling a next person here. Hello, uh, caller, Whitney. Do you? Yeah. I'm trying to answer.

Hello. Uh, okay. So, sorry, just you're on the TTL podcast. Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll hold. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. This is funny because usually podcasts or radio stations get people to call in. This time we're calling you. Yeah. Yeah, I know. And you totally caught me off guard because I never in a million years thought you'd actually pick my number. Well, we did pick your number. And also, I recognized, we did it randomly, but I did recognize your Instagram account. Did you? Yes, you've been around the block on the TTL socials, I can tell. I'm an OG. Yes, for sure. Okay, so, and your name is Whitney, right?

Yes, yeah, you got it. Okay, Whitney, so where are you? And can you just like briefly tell us about who you are as a triathlet, maybe in like 20 seconds? Yeah, I am based in the Minneapolis area and started triathlon in 2015 and I just say like it always, I just always say that it like changed my life. I just love the like structure that it gives me and I'm really just passionate about pursuing my potential. So I think that's why I love it so much. It gives me something to pursue my potential through. Awesome. So yeah, and I'm a health and wellness coach. and I'm an injured athlete right now too.

So that's like just a whole other thing than I'm navigating. We know that. We know that. Okay. Do you have a question that we could help answer for you? Yeah. Good question. So I'm going to let you pick.

I either have a question about your kit designs or about habits. Let's go with the kit design. Yeah, I'm intrigued to hear the kit design question. Oh, okay. Well, I was just, I'm always just curious when I see your guys' kits, which, by the way, always are amazing. If there's, like, ever any, like, Easter eggs in them, you know, like, little symbols or elements of the design or colors that, like, hold meaning to you. Or maybe it's just that you just like the colors and like the patterns that there's not. Yeah.

But I've always just been curious as I'm watching you, like, huh, I wonder if there's, like, some special meaning to their kits that the rest of us don't know about. Like our personal kits that we race in? Yes. Yeah. Good question. That's quite the process every year to come up with something different and cool. And I get the help from Kristen Mayer, who's from Betty Design to help with mine. I like to carry over the teal color from year to year.

And it doesn't have to be anything specific or any amount of size of the teal. But I just do like that kind of like, I'm known for that a little bit. Lindsay Corbyn actually used to put a little, what do they call it? called fly fishing. Oh. A lure. A lure on the inside of our kit because it represents her husband, Chris, who loves to fish. So something like that would be so cool.

I just haven't thought of like the thing yet. But it just like brings together, you know, her family and part of her that's important. So it's cool. I think we could probably get a little Flynn graphic to put somewhere on your kit. Yeah, we could get a Flynn graphic. I think this has to happen. This is born from this call. We have to do that for your kits.

It's not too late because we're designing them right now. I think I totally think you should put something that represents Flynn. I love that. Like fast like Flynn on the inside of the. That's cool. That's good. That's good. But Eric's actually has a little more meaning. Do you want to talk about yours? Yeah, I don't currently have something on there that's like super special. I have the transition four logo, which is that's special. That's special. That's what I was thinking of. I guess I guess there's not that many people didn't know exactly what that is. Yeah. So do you want to tell Whitney a little bit about that? Like it's like, yeah. I mean, I feel like I know a little bit, but please tell us more. Okay. So transition four was kind of like it started out as the

original concept that I was trying to go for with that triathlon life, or at least it had like the vibe and the energy that I wanted it to be, but it was originally myself and Heather and Trevor Wirtel and Chris Gantor and Matt McElroy. And I wanted, we kind of wanted this to be like this collective of people who cared about creating better content in the triathlon space. We all liked ski movies and Matt McElroy had a degree in film and loved surf films. So that's what we were trying to do. And it didn't quite take off. And YouTube in the triathlon space wasn't mature yet.

So put it on the back burner a little bit. But now I just see it as my, I don't know, it's kind of like my spirit in the sport, but it's technically like a production company at this point. So anything that I do that's outside of the triathlon life scope, I kind of think of that as transition four. and it's my creative entity. And the logo for it is an X, which then Eric put on like the front of his kit.

Yeah, it's on my helmet. It's on the back of my kit. And then we blew it up really big the last few years. Ralph Dunning designed that logo. He also designed that Trathlon Life logo. And he's helped me do my kits to incorporate that all over the place because that is, yeah, pretty core of who I am. Love this question though, because we care so much about our kits.

I think more than other athletes might care. Just we spend a lot of time and put a lot of thought into it. So it's a good question, and I love the idea of putting Flynn on them. Yeah. No, they're always just so stand out and just look awesome. Thank you. Eric, can I ask you a very short follow-up question? Yes, that's what we were hoping that with this call-in format, you could actually, yeah, let's have a chat.

So I'm really into my Scandinavian heritage. And obviously, your last name's Lagerstrom. I have mentioned you when talking or heard you mentioned when talking about coffee about the like concept of FICA before. And I have just wondered if sometimes I've picked up on some like Scandinavian influence in design and like the design of your kit specifically, but just in like other things that I've seen you have a hand in designing. And so it just got has always had me wondering like, huh, I wonder if Eric has any Scandinavian heritage and if so if he feels any connection to it. Yeah, of course. Actually, a couple of races that I've done in Sweden, there was WTSs back there in the day. A lot of times people would just start speaking Swedish to me because I look pretty Swedish and especially if I hand over my credit card and it says Loggerstrom on it. They just kind of like launch into it. And I have like, no, no, no. I have no, no, no English. No idea what you're saying. But yeah, it is Swedish name. I think it was like my great, great, great grandparents came over from Sweden back in the day and they settled in Kansas. and then most of the family eventually migrated over to Oregon. But as far as Swedish design and stuff,

I think I just have like an affinity and an appreciation for things that are beautifully simple. And like when I think of Scandinavian design, that's what I think of where like the minimum amount of things that need to be there. It's very clean. And that's definitely how I like to like design my kits for sure. And we love the FICA concept because even though we have a nice coffee machine, we love going for coffee just for the experience.

So that's a big part of what we do as well every day. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, cool. I'm glad that my Scandinavian instincts were picking up on something. Your radar was correct. Good luck with your recovery.

And we really appreciate you taking the call. You are the perfect, the perfect guest. Cheering you on. Thanks for calling me. Gosh, this has been like super fun. We're glad. We're glad, Whitney. Thank you so much.

We'll talk soon, okay? Thanks, Whitney. Yep, sounds good. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. That was fun. I do, I do remember her. I do remember her. We were almost going to run together in Wisconsin and then it didn't work out for some reason. Yeah, Nick. I bet you most people that we end up calling, you have had some conversation with. Somehow. Over Instagram messenger. He literally applies to every single Instagram message that he gets. I'm not putting that in. I can't do it anymore. Even like a heart I emoji. He's like, I can't do it anymore. Hi, what's your name? Okay, here we go.

Hi. How you doing, Elise? Good, how are you? This is Elise Loggerstrom we're talking to, Eric's sister. And what's up? Hey. And for the people who don't know, Elise was our, she was one of our guests and was one of the most popular episodes we had last year.

Yeah, Ultra Running with my sister. Yes, Elise does ultra running and she was a pro triathlete. She was a pro triathlete and does 100 milers, plural, just crazy. crazy. Thanks for picking up, Elise. We'll keep it snappy. It's not like a full length pod. We're just trying to do like one question with each person. And we think it's cool to kind of tie things back to who we've had on before. So we're excited to have you here. So the first two calls we've had, we asked them to ask us a question. But for you, I want you to help us answer a question from a podcast listener. Okay. So, oh my God. Fur Elise, like the song. I tagged this one as Fur Elise. There's the Beethoven. Anyway. Hey guys, big fan of the podcast, been listening since I signed up for my first triathlon

Indian Wells earlier this month. Loved it so much, I signed up for Boulder in June the same week I finished. Question, maybe for an episode to share with another newbie. I'm a weak swimmer with sinking legs and struggle to go beyond 100 yards in the pool without stopping. My thought was, since I'll end up doing most 70.3 races in a wetsuit, why not train in a wetsuit with buoyancy shorts. I get that swimming without the assistance will make me a better swimmer in the long run, but any downsides to using floaty shorts or wetsuits more often to help with body

position get more volume in. Keep it up. Love following, Zach. So. Age old question. And it's a good question, right? It's like, okay, we try to like simulate races a lot and most of our swimming is done in a bathing suit that we don't race in. So good question. And Lillies, did you grew up swimming, right? Yeah. So you're a good swimmer. You understand body position, but you have also done triathons and experienced swimming in a wetsuit. Right, which is very different. Very different. So why wouldn't you just swim in a wetsuit every day, I guess? This person's asking. Or floaty shorts. Floody shorts, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't swim in a wetsuit because I think you just overheat. But the shorts, you know, is a good question. And when I would have...

I was doing the most of my training. Like, I did think that there was a place for buoyancy shorts. And it was like recovery swims, um, usually in place of a pole buoy. And I felt like I could actually get the same sort of effect of a pull buoy without actually having to hold the pole buoy between my legs, which I felt threw off my form. Yes. So I was doing it. Yeah.

In place of a pole buoy. Um, but I think that. I understand that if you only ever plan on racing in a wetsuit, there is a small argument to be made for that. But I think you're losing out on so much strength and fitness that you could be gaining in the pool by using them all the time. Yeah. Yeah, totally great.

What I like to do sometimes when I'm in floaty short mode is like do the warm up with them and almost treat it like a drill and like try to internalize in my mind how I feel like on the water and just carry that into the workout as long as possible. do like 500 warm up with them, then take them off and just try to like hold that body position as long as I can into the workout. I totally agree with Elisa that if you have them on, you can kind of lose some of the core engagement and the rotation that you are forced to do if you're swimming without a pullboy or without floaty shorts. So they're a good tool, but using them exclusively, I think could make you a bit lazy. And there are a lot of triathlons

where you're not allowed to wear a wetsuit. And if you're exclusively training in that, then it'll feel weird. Okay, follow-up question. So then with that same logic, do you ever think it makes sense to do open water swims without a wetsuit? Or should all open water swims be like, no, this is a good time to simulate a race, get that wetsuit on,

even if it's a bit hotter than you would like just to get used to that feeling? Man, I feel like the conditions, there's not a lot of people who have the opportunity to do an open water swim without a wetsuit, totally comfortably. And yeah, I do kind of feel like, man, if you're going all the way to a lake somewhere, you should probably take that opportunity to swim in the wetsuit.

Right. So, so the wet, because for example, Santa Monica in the summer in September, I can swim in a speedo or I can swim with a wetsuit and be pretty comfortable doing either. Maybe I'll get a little cold by the end of the speedo, but not too much.

The only reason I don't wear a wetsuit is because it's, I'm lazy and I don't want to put it on. But I feel like in my mind, I'm like, I should practice. I should be practicing with it. You're just cheating yourself, man. Yeah,

yeah. Cool. Elise, did you like wearing a wetsuit or as a swimmer? Did you always feel like it was a bit constrictive and weird to swim with? So I didn't mind it. I felt like I practiced enough in a wetsuit that I was comfortable wearing it. Yeah.

But as a swimmer and definitely where my strength was in the water, I was happy when it was no wetsuit and we were going to have to work hard. Yeah, I agree. Anyone who is a swimmer prefers a non-wetsuit swim because wetsuits really benefit weaker swimmers more than they do for strong swimmers. Yeah. So, yeah, that's a good point. Cool.

Elise, thank you so much for picking up. Thanks for answering. And we love so much that you were our guest earlier, or last year, for that awesome episode about ultra running. Yeah. Do we have the episode number? Oh, I would have to find it. Okay. Search, if you search Elise Loggestrim, that Charleston, you can go back and listen to our conversation with her. It was a good one. It was a really good one. Maybe on the screen, on the YouTube video, we can put up the number. Oh, yes, we can do that. Of course. Of course. This is video. Wait, one more question for Elise. What are you training for right now? Oh, good question. I'm training for the Black Canyon's 100K in February. Whoa, that's coming up. That's a Tucson area, right? Phoenix.

Phoenix, yeah. Okay. So if anyone's there and you see someone who looks like Eric, looks a little bit like Eric. We got to figure out if we can afford to sponsor you so we can get you branded at these events. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll send you somebody. By the way, Elise, I just want to say that there was like a funny kind of segment we have

this or that and it was, would you rather run a 100K? or mountain bike 100 miles in a race. And can you believe that Paula said she'd rather run 100K? These guys don't think I could finish it. Do you think I could finish it? Yeah. Thank you.

And the look on her face right now was like, of course. Yeah. You dummies. That's what I told them. I'd have to go slow and eat a lot. I don't know. My concern with this is more like the foot. Of course.

It's not. Oh, it's not aerobic. It's not aerobic. It's not a fitness issue. Well, I have a good resource to dial in my foot and all those things. You're going to have a phone a friend. Phone of friend.

Eric Lagas from the masseuse. Yeah, right. All right. We'll let you go. Thanks, Elise. Thanks so much, Elise. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.

Bye. Later. Another successful call. So far as I have had no, no answers. Man, we're just, like celebrity, random person. Celebrity. That's right. At least Loges from the celeb.

Lisa is so good on audio or on podcast. Like, such a good conversationalist. Yes. Yes. Runs in the family, I guess. So there's smart people. Like I feel like they're going to get mad at us, but also they gave us their numbers. No, you asked for it.

You asked for it. There's no way. Opposite of mad. Okay. Let's do it. Oh my gosh, I'm so nervous. We're doing another caller here. I'm glad we got Nick doing it because he could talk to a wall.

I sometimes do, you know. I feel a little lonely. You never know. Okay, here we go. You ready? Yes. Hit it. Hello?

Hello, believe it or not? You are on that triathlon life podcast right now. We're doing a recording of our 100th episode, and you know as well as I that you put your number in that Instagram response. I know I did. Of course I did. Who are you and where are you at? I am Jeremy Lipsi and I'm in Fanwood, New Jersey.

We're a fan of you, Jeremy. So we're hoping you have some kind of triathlon-related question to ask the experts, which of course are Eric and Paula. You can also ask about camera. vans, dogs. That's the end. Yeah, that's the whole list. Okay, so what was the most difficult thing that you've had to overcome and get out of your own head?

Whether it's in triathlon or Nick, for you as a singer-songwriter, kind of like something that just messes with you and how did you get over it? Wow, good question. This could get really deep. kick it deep, yeah. Honestly, my biggest thing I had to overcome was like being weird about food for like 10 years and thinking that skinnier was better and lighter was faster. And I mean, that's true to some extent, but it just became a bit of a toxic hole where I wasn't fueling properly and then got injured too much. And how I overcame it, honestly, was meeting Eric who eats like a horse. And I was fast. And I started eating more and actually,

the consequence of that was I got leaner, didn't get injured as much, and now I'm racing better than I have in a long time. I'm going to take advantage of this and have a bite of this donut. Oh, yeah, Jeremy, we have a bunch of donuts right in front of us. So that's an example. I've already eaten an entire donut, and we've only been recording for 30 minutes. We're not saying donuts is the secret, but it's a byproduct of a way of thinking. Yeah, so I don't know.

Maybe that's something relatable, maybe not. But it's definitely something that a lot of female athletes and male athletes have to overcome. So I've luckily got out of the hole, but it can be kind of a toxic thing. For sure. Yeah. Honestly, that was mine as well. What? Eric, tell us about your experience with that, though. Okay. I mean, okay. To the degree that you're willing to share with all of the podcast listeners, of course. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to like get crazy heavy here, but I had a like a clinically diagnosed eating disorder in, in college. And the way that I got to, I got,

out of that is I had to actually go to the hospital, get help, get help from professionals and break something that is completely in your head mental disorder that doesn't make any sense. You can't logic your way out of it. No one else can help you other than somebody helping you want to help yourself, a professional person. And that was a long process for me to change my relationship with food. Now it's better than ever. Yeah.

Yeah. And now we eat donuts all the time. Yeah, Eric, what do you think, how much of this problem do you think came from issues stemming from sport versus other societal pressures that are put on everyone to be skinny and naughty a lot or whatever? For me, it was very much related to sport. But that's almost never like the root cause of a disorder like this. It was stress related and it's definitely a genetic thing where there's a control. mechanism that kicks in and then you go, my life is completely in flux. Here's one thing I can control and then you inject a little bit of running college cross country.

Even triathlon has a big focus on, yes, lighter is fast. You want to be lean and like fast for the racing and everything. And then an obsessive personality latches onto that and it spirals out of control. So ultimately for me, I had to like decrease the stress in my life and and come to the same place that Paul is talking about where you go, you know what, strong is fast. It's not about necessarily getting lighter and this powered away. ratio. There's two things involved. It's not just like decrease weight at all costs. Yeah. So is there something that you feel like you could have caught earlier before it became

such a big problem? Or do you think once those wheels were in motion, the only way out of it was with someone else's help? I think so. Yeah. I don't think that's something that I could have stopped myself unless, like I said, the stress had been relieved. I was running college cross country. I was kind of seen as a team leader expected to be on top. And then there was this beta guy who was like trying to beat me every single day. And it was just like, it was so stressful for me to like remain calm and try to be seen as this team leader and be fast and all these things. Jeremy really opened up a can of worms here. Yeah. It's a great. It's a great question. And you two are not the only two people listening to this podcast who have this problem.

That's true. That's true. Yeah. That's why I'm, I'm okay talking about it because I definitely felt like coming out of sight through that um experience that if i could in any way help one person out there avoid it yeah that's better you know and and i think like the only ways it could have been avoided more quickly is is somebody else in my life having having recognized a little bit earlier and and i think we're so we're in a good place in society now where i think this is a little bit more top of mind and people a little bit more on the lookout for it well thank you for that awesome question jeremy by the way before we let you go, do you have any races coming up this year that you're particularly excited about? And where we might see you. I am doing 70.3 Western Massachusetts that I am beyond

looking forward to. And I am toying with doing Iron Man, California. But I'm a little hesitant to do a full Iron Man. So this will be my fifth 70.3 though. So I think you can do it. but if you can do a 70.3, it's not that different, right, Nick? Results may vary. As long as it's not in Wisconsin during the rain. Yes, exactly, exactly. Nick's trying that again this year. I'm trying it again.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate, and he can tell you if you should do Iron Man, California. Yeah. Well, the first year, Iron Man California was canceled because the weather was so bad morning of the race. That was a bit freakish, though. That was freakish. No, it's going to be a great time, Jeremy.

Thanks so much for being a part of our 100th episode. No, thank you guys for every. everything that you do for the community. And I love listening to you guys and watching your vlogs. Eric, I started watching you because of your van. And your new van is just sick. Yeah. We agree. Saying all the right things, Jeremy. You're crushing it. Thanks so much, Jeremy. Thanks for picking up. Thank you guys. Have a great day. Bye. Bye. Jeremy's a killer. I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, next caller. Let's do it. Okay, next caller here. Here we go. What's up?

Wow. Okay. So caller, or actually, we're the callers. You're the listener. You're the caller in her. You're the important guest here. You've made it on to the 100th episode of the That Triathlon Life podcast. Tell us your name and where you're from. My name is Talbot Cox and I'm from Oklahoma City. Oh, we got a celebrity on the pod. Wow. What's up, guys? Talbot, our format is we're calling like random people that have sent us their number. to ask questions like, you know, listeners of our podcast, but we decided to sprinkle in some celebrities like you and Trixie. Oh my gosh. I am far from a celebrity, especially if you're comparing me to Trixie. No, you're very well known in this community. I would bet more of the listeners know who you are than Trixie, but...

Oh, 100%. Definitely. Probably true. Probably true. Well, how's it going so far? Well, it's good for showing down donuts, and we are one hour into the pod. So it's drawn out, but it's good. It's good stuff.

Yep. Nick, were we asking Talbot a question or is he asking us a question? We're having Talbot help us answer a question. Okay. Yes. So Talbot, this question is for all of us and we want your perspective on it as well. Okay. I found the pot about a year ago and I love the work you guys do.

I was wondering what camera is recommended for a beginner photographer and any other helpful tips for beginner photographers. Thanks for all you do have a great 2024. So my usual answer for people is like, an iPhone really can get you a lot of the way. But for people who want to graduate beyond that, what do you think? Paula, you just got a new camera.

Talbot, you do cameras all the time. Eric, of course, same with you. Yeah. But let's go first. I guess we should qualify. Do we want to talk about photo or video or both? I just imagine that anyone who's buying a camera is wanting to do probably wants to have the option for both.

All right. All right. Both. There we go. Because if it was video, I would say. still say invest all your money in a new iPhone. Oh, wow. Wow.

Interesting. I mean, the log recording with the pro res is pretty cool. And what is it up to now? Like nine times zoom lens? Five. Five. Five, like optical zoom. Right.

Looks freaking good. It looks really good. Wow. Yeah. I would, I would, I don't know the different models, but if I could go back and change my entire kid out, I would go Sony. Yeah. So I would say.

say a lower tier Sony, one of the cheapest entry-level Sonys. I'm sure you go up to the camera shop, but I would go Sony personally. Trixie actually just bought an FX30 and loves it, which is a crop frame version of the camera that you use for most of all the TTL stuff. Yeah, so inside of the Sony lineup, the camera that I've been shooting on since Flynn knocked over my old camera and everybody. Rest in peace. Pitched in to help us buy the new one.

Thanks to Talbot. Yep, thanks to Talbot. I do remember that. Wow. Good time. That's the A7S3 from Sony, and that's a fantastic camera. It's certainly not cheap. If I was saying something that's a little bit below that, that'll get a very similar

result, I might say the A7C2, which is very, it's a little bit more photocentric than if it is video-centric, but it's like half the price. The thing I really love about the Sony cameras is you have fantastic battery life. small file sizes relative to how good the footage looks for video and then the auto focus is state of the art it's the best auto focus you can buy in a camera it's it's actually mind-blowing if you were to look at the screens we're recording on right now it's locked on to nick's right eye yes so talbot what do you shoot on he's a cannon I shoot all my stuff on canon but I would switch just because my kit's so big but switching switching's a whole thing because you get need new lenses

that the idea? Yeah, because you need, yeah, exactly. And so you usually, if you're going to switch, you're going to take a big bath on lenses and all that, you're going to sell your whole kit. Yeah. I'll wait. Usually, uh, Sony and Canon, they always are releasing their, this would be interesting for people to know, they're always releasing their newest and latest technology on the Olympic year. That's like their main thing they do. Is that a, is that a Talbot kind of conspiracy theory thing or is this tried and true? No, no, no. It's, it's every Olympic cycle, they released their biggest cameras. And then all the best top level photographers get to use them in the Olympics.

And they try and test them. Wow. And then they use all that problem imagery. I feel like Sony jumped the gun and dropped like the A93 or whatever that shoots like. Oh, that crazy camera. Like 200 pictures a second or something. Yeah. Maybe they'll use that.

Well, usually, usually they're announced about around probably the next couple months. Like they're announced going into the year. And then all the photographers will use them at the events. and then they basically become public in the fall. That's cool. Us poor folk can buy them. One more question for you, Talbot. When you're not on site with Lionel and Aaron's filming, is she using an iPhone?

No, she recently bought a Canon R5. No, sorry. R6, R6. Still, though. So one step down. Yeah. But we're still working on the settings a little bit. But it's usually very helpful for when I are.

have footage and stuff backlogged and she can just get like an interview or something. Yeah, totally. So, yeah, cool. That's where it's the most helpful. Nice. Very cool. That's what I do. But I have a question for you guys.

Where are you going to do your spring training camp? Oh, as of right now. As I wish we had an answer, Talbot. As of right now, Bend is spring. So we're just going to stay here. Yeah, we're considering Tucson, though. We just need to find a place to rent. So expensive.

Yeah. Caden Lietta called, uh, called me. And it's like, I'm going to try to get Paul and Eric to come out to Hawaii. Yeah, I think that's the move. I'd rather go to Hawaii. I don't know why Caden's trying to come to Tucson. We should all be going there. I know, exactly.

I was like, I think they have Flynn. And I don't think Flynn has the, does I think you have special shots to go to Hawaii? Yeah, we're not traveling with Flynn. We're not flying with Flynn. With a horse. Hey, if you guys went out to Hawaii, I'd totally go out there. That'd be so much fun. Well, we could find a dog sitter.

Yeah, we'll find a dog sitter. I mean, the Queen K gets old, but if you're going out for a three-week training camp, it's completely, it's not like, it gets old when you live on it. Dude, I'm not riding the Queen Kare. There's a bunch of, there's a bunch of other. Yeah, we're doing the deep cuts. Hey, all right, think about it. I'll join you out there.

Okay, we'll chat off air more. All right. Thanks for picking up Talbot. Hey, thanks for the call. We'll see you all soon. Thanks, hi. Bye. Peace, face.

Bye. What a legend, that man. great question for him yeah i saw i saw it in the list and i thought that's a good talbot question it is funny though what he said about sony because he uses canon and is pretty dedicated to canon i shoot canon photography but do black magic for film stuff and i still am very envious of eric's sony setup the look in your eyes every time you pick up my camera and it shoots beautifully and is like locked on auto focus It just takes no work.

It's like, oh, I don't have to worry about the stuff that really is not what I consider part of filmmaking, which is battery management, how big it is. The focusing, like the focusing is nice, but you can always turn the autofocus off on your camera and then you have full control. It really, the Sony stuff really is excellent. And that's why it is so used. Yeah, I can't say enough good things. I have two Sony's pointing at my face right now. I don't know what they are, but. The one thing that I would, I would totally accept if they're,

wanted to send it to me is the DJI Ronan 4D 8K. That thing is big. Please DJI. Okay, let's call our next guest. Let's call our next guest. Hello? Hello, this is Nick from That Triathlon Live podcast, and believe it or not, you are part of our 100th episode.

That's awesome. What's that? Okay, so tell us your name and where you're calling from. My name is Zach. I'm from Kentucky, but right now I'm at the wise swimming. The wide swimming. Are you in the pool, Zach? I was wondering what that sound was.

Yeah, I just got out. Oh, nice. Okay. So we're not interrupting your workout. So you jumped out of the water to grab your ringing phone. Pretty much. I mean, I'll jump out of the water for anything. First of all, the kindest thing we could possibly do is interrupt Zach's swim session.

So he has to get out of water. I was going to say, that's like you want your friend to call you in the middle of a bad date. And like, oh, I was sorry. My thing. I got to. Well, Zach, we've actually met you before. I've met you before. You met Eric, too, right?

Yeah, we met Eric in Milwaukee. Yes. Oh, that's funny. That's right. Very much enjoyed the whiskey that you gave me. Yeah, I've actually got another bottle for you. I just keep forgetting to get the other side of town and ship it. That's all good.

That's why we picked you to call. Wow. But we're hoping you have a question for us. That's kind of the format of this special pod. Okay, yeah, for sure. So we'll go like a, I guess like a this or that. Okay. Donuts or croissants.

donuts, which we're eating right now. Donuts. A really good croissant beats donuts for me. But if we're talking average donut versus croissant, average croissant, donuts. Yeah, well, we can't just fly to Italy for croissants whenever we want. I wish we could. Yeah, I mean, that would be awesome. Okay, next.

Okay, next, let's go with gravel bike or road bike? Gravel bike. Road for me. I think I will enjoy the gravel bike once I'm on. one more. You've never tried it. It's hard. I tried to hear one time Chris Corbyn's bike. You live in the land of the best road biking in the United States, so that's hard. We live in some of the best gravel riding. Right. Right. Yeah. I'm pretty jealous of Nick's Stromafeed for sure. It's great. I cannot complain at all.

All right. Last question. Last question. Let's see. What is your, what's your most memorable moment in triathlon? Oh. Mine was racing at the Olympics in 2012 and it wasn't a good race by any means but it was definitely the most memorable in terms of like deafening crowds and just the hype was insane uh for yeah that that would be awesome for me it was uh the first time that i want to skate from alcatraz in a sprint finish against six time champion andy pots that was epic that would be pretty awesome too what about you next i think for me it was sometime in january 2021 when i saw eric and paula jump out of their van at chevlin was The first time we met each other in person.

Yes. Well, that's corny, but it's, sorry. It is nice. I accept. Otherwise, like, it's probably Wisconsin. Racing Wisconsin. That was memorable. Yeah, I can imagine.

What about, so, Zach, what are you racing this year? So I'm doing 70.3 Louisville, because I live here. Okay. And then I've got a sprint in February. I've got a three months of sprint. Sprint, February, March, and April. Nice. And I bought a mountain bike this year, so I think I'm going to try to do an Exeterra in June for July.

Xero Oak Mountain Baby, come on. The one in Indiana, Indiana. I don't know. It's just because it's close. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right. Where's Oak Mountain? Alabama.

Alabama. Yeah. Well, that's not too far. That's a good course. Okay. What month is that? Maybe May? I forget, actually.

Is that early? It could be early, yeah. That would actually be perfect because I wanted to do. Chattanooga again, but it just falls in bad timing. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Like last year, Paula did Chattanooga, and then the next day drove to basically Birmingham to do, watch me do at Oak Mountain. They were like on the same day.

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, check the schedule. So that may not be the best. I don't know. I'll figure it out, but I really want to try on next year because although my road bike is probably my favorite bike, my mountain bike is one that I've had the most fun on. Yeah, totally. Of course.

That's awesome. You've entered the dark side. There's no going back now. all right well thanks for the support Zach and thanks for picking up the phone and hopefully we'll see you again this year at a race all right sounds good see you later thanks later bye zach so you pulled a fast one on me you knew him you know Zach yeah you know I guess I pulled a fast one on you with trixie yeah anybody who gives me fancy whiskey I remember for life right so keep that in mind anyone who wants to send erika a present fancy whiskey works great okay ready for the next

number yeah let's do it Let's do it. Hello. Hello, this is Nick from That Triathlon Live podcast. You are on our 100th episode right now. Awesome. How are you? What's your name and where are you calling from?

Or where are you talking from? Rick in Chicago. Wow. I heard that Chicago. That's very nice, Rick. Okay, we were hoping that you might have a question for us that we could help you answer, specifically Eric and Paula with all their years and years, decades even of triathlon. pro triathlon experience.

All right, all right. Awesome. Well, first of all, definitely, Eric, kudos to you. Love the vibe. Love how you guys incorporate backcountry skiing, all that sweet stuff. Unfortunately, in Chicago, we can't do that. Can't you just go skiing down the street or something? Well, like behind a car.

We do ski behind the cars sometimes. Yeah. We just tie a rope up and go for it. All right. Love it. That's only up in the northern world. of Wisconsin. But, you know, a specific question. I guess I'd be super curious to know how detailed your training plan is. You know, is it, you know, I love hearing you guys talk about it. And I love

the fact that oftentimes you're like, well, it says I should go hard and it's not super specific. And I think many age groupers want to go. They're so type A that they're like, well, I need 30 seconds. at 300 watts and then 40 seconds at 315 watts. How exactly specific are all of those for you guys? What a great question. Rick, you're a coach, right? I am a coach, yes. That sounds like the kind of question of coach.

Wow, did you just guess that, Paula? No, I looked at his Instagram. Oh, okay, okay. Wow. No, that's an awesome question. I would say that our training is actually very specific. It's like we have very specific. you do hard for X amount of time, you know, times five and here's the recovery length and everything. But then the intensities are in, I don't want to say arbitrary, but it's a range of

effort more than anything. Like Paulo, our coach will sometimes give us a little bit more specific wattage range. But even when we're doing what he calls fat max, which is, I think this is like zone two kind of, it's a bit uncomfortable. Yeah. That for me is like 240 to 270. And there, he's always leaving in a little bit of interpretation for us depending on how we're feeling that day and you know our energy levels and psychological levels and all the things yeah it's definitely more of a range than an exact number and i've i've had a coach that was the opposite neal henderson gave us very specific like 92% of your threshold for five minutes that type of thing where as paulo's a little more open-ended in the numbers but also i think that there's a bigger plan behind the training peaks that

we don't see so we're just kind of following day-to-day doing what it says a little bit less scientific than what I was used to, but it seems to work. And I think that there's a purpose for everything. So that's kind of, that's what helps me every day is just knowing that he put that there for a reason. If it's a cruise or easy run, it's supposed to feel truly easy. And it doesn't always need to be guided by heart rate of power and pace. It's like the feelings you get when you're doing that, you kind of intuitively know if it's hard or not. Yeah. For sure, for sure. I'm kind of more along the lines with Eric on how easy. Is there really easy running? Come on, Nick, you got to help me. I totally agree. No such thing as an

easy running. I agree. I could also, especially if I'm running easy with Eric, like, our easy paces are not the same. So I get stressed because I'm like, this feels hard to me, but you should just go because this is not the same pace for, for both of us. But yeah, yeah, that happened today. Um, yeah, it's like, I don't think easy is a real word and Paulo's never, ever used the word easy. Paulo your coach. Yeah, he uses crews. Is, uh, that, that's, uh, that's, it's, like, I don't think easy is is like, that's your aerobic pace. But I've never seen easy written on my schedule with Paulo. Yeah.

Yeah, running is interesting because, like, people will say the word recovery run or easy run. And I think with the load we're putting in with riding and swimming, it's really hard for running to feel easy at any point, even if you're running nine minute miles. So it's just the nature of like the impact, you know, it's always going to have some kind of difficulty factor. I will change my answer a little bit. Paulo did have a kind of a running joke forever, easy Monday. He would always write that on a schedule.

And it was a 60 minute run, a 5K swim, and another 60 minute run. That's not easy. None of it, there was exactly. Nothing was easy. It was like a running joke, but in your mind, it like sort of faked you into thinking, oh, this is like, there's no structure. These are very low intensity workouts in a low intensity day, but you're still putting in volume, but somehow in your mind, I don't know.

It's like almost like just kind of joking about it. Yeah, I think the only true thing you can do easy is a bike ride because you could go 50 watts and that's easy. And you're completely weight supported and that's my favorite way to do an easy activity, I'd say. So for running, it's not like any of you are saying that there is something wrong with running at a very low intensity. The mistake is the word easy. Yeah. That word is just, it's misleading. Yeah, because running's hard.

Yeah, it's always hard. Even the nine minute or like plenty of people who run 10 minute pace too. even that, if you're still kind of having that impact on your body each time. Yeah, totally. That's a good question, though. Yeah. I don't like the word easy run. But I will say, like, I like when my plan is specific.

Because just like when you guys are doing that thing in the pool today, the swim train or whatever, you did a thousand straight. But you said it went by so fast because you had something to think about. You had something to focus on. Instead of, like, go out and do a thousand at steady pace. It was like, well, you got to pay attention to the person in front of you and every 100. You're switching who's in the front or whatever. it is. I'm like that way with the training too. I like it when it's like five minutes at 252 watts and then three minutes at 273 watts. Yeah. And some coaches are like that. Rick, how do you coach?

I like the range just like what you guys were talking about. I think that every day you feel a little bit different. And so, you know, as an athlete, you're never going to feel exactly the same on race day as you do in training. And so you have to be able to make that call. So, you know, instead of crews, it might just be zone two. And that zone two is. such a wide span that maybe you're pushing the upper end of it today and maybe tomorrow you're not feeling as good so you're not pushing as hard. But I do like those ranges as well. Yeah, and being mature enough to actually listen to your body. That is the key. And do the easy if you're feeling tired. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Thank you, you guys. Thanks for such a great question.

That's really going to spice up this show. Thanks. Thanks for listening, Rick. And thanks. I'll have something to listen to on my dog walk tomorrow morning. Perfect. Well, you do know that you can watch this one tomorrow. This one's going to be a video. That's going to be even better then. Yeah. Just don't walk and walk and drive. Walk and watch. Don't walk and watch.

Yeah. No, I won't be able to. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much. Thanks, guys. Bye. Bye. Later. Bye. This is calling random triathlon people has been surprisingly effective and successful. Triathletes are very,

articulate, charismatic. I thought it was going to be like... Don't listen to what everyone else tells you about triathletes. How many grounds of carbs should I take on my run? I'm like, okay, see you later. I fell asleep halfway through that. That's great. That's great.

Do you know what's a funny thing to do? You guys, all the listeners can do this. Scroll back to our very first episode. Oh, God. And listen to the intro. We haven't actually changed the jingle or the intro. We haven't changed anything. But we were really, I think different in almost a better way.

Like we were so naive about it. We were much more conversational. Not that we're not anymore, but we treated it in a different way. Well, we had no idea where it was going. I don't think us from episode one would have thought, episode 100, I'm going to fly in. We're going to do it with cameras. Yeah, yeah. We're going to be calling podcast listeners.

And people are going to be like supporting us every week or every month. No. It's crazy. Especially with number one and probably like number two, three. We were still like, let's just record. this and just see if it sounds stupid. Yeah. Which it does, but we like that.

Yeah, ultimately it's been fun. Ultimately, it's been amazing. We cannot believe, we would never have imagined it could have grown to how it's grown. It's my favorite thing that we do. I love making videos and everything, but this to me is just like pure fun that we get to do every week. Nick has to edit, obviously. I was going to ask you, do you think if you didn't have to edit, if you had a, a

clone of yourself that had no negative feelings. I could just be like, yeah, I'll edit for 20 hours in a row. I don't care. I love it. And they did the editing. And you just got to do the shooting, the creative part. Do you think that would change your enjoyment of making the videos? Or do you think the editing for you is a part of the enjoyment?

It depends. Editing is like such a love-hate relationship. Sometimes I'm feeling it and I feel so smart and I got to go show Paul immediately how I managed to like go from swimming to skiing in Canada and, you know, like two shots or something, but then sometimes I'm just staring at the screen for three hours. Can't figure out how to go from skiing. The life of an artist. You just described it.

I don't know. I think I have thought about it a lot. And there's certain episodes like our race videos, I would love to pay someone to edit those. Yeah. Because it's a lot of footage. And I never have an idea like going in what it's going to be and like how do we mix in our commentary and everything. So some of those bigger ones.

But these ones that I've been doing, especially like last week and this week where it's pure vlog. I'm just, I'm not stressed. all about the structure of it. I'm just like, fun thing, fun thing, those are so much fun to edit.

And I will say Paula does give you the satisfaction. When she likes it, she lets you know. She's like, this is awesome. Yeah, play it again. Yeah, play it again. Yeah, play it again.

Yeah, play it again. So then it's good. Okay, let's do another caller. Other caller. Here we go. Hello. Hello, this is Nick from That Triathlon Life podcast. Oh, hi, Nick.

How are you? Thank you. I'm doing very well. You're on the 100. episode of our podcast. Congratulations. I am. Who are you and where are you at? I live in Edmonton, Alberta. And what's your name? My name is Sheila. What's your last name? Sheila Findlay. Jay, you're going to make us beg. Oh, it's my mom. I wasn't sure you were going to pick me, but thank you for doing so. Well, what's funny is that we've been, we kind of had some

pre-planned numbers and now Paula's been feeding me numbers. call and she thought she would be sneaky and give me this number except I already have your number in my phone so it came right up I knew it was you it's been successful though everyone we've called has been super into it and really good so what's your question is on yeah do you have a question for us that's how we're doing this I have a question for you did you ever think when you started that you would get to episode 100 we just talked about this wow the answer is no. We thought we'd get to episode two and then we would quit. Yeah. But it's, sorry, go ahead. What made it, what made it, what made, what, what spurred it on? What kept

the going at the beginning? Before you really had a lot of people following. What was the inspiration? Like from my perspective, anyway, it's just pure fun. And it's Nick, Paula and I getting, like, we have a scheduled phone call where we get to hang out and talk about stuff that we want to talk about each week and then Nick doing the work on the editing like it's easy for me i think there's a part of it i think you guys knew how much i had fun doing it how much i loved it and i think there's there were some weeks or sometimes where you guys did it because you're like this makes nick happy and we're going to do it for nick i think there there was a little bit of that in there in the in infancy yes yeah also also as you're starting anything new like this like you uh i don't know

if you're a successful company or a person and you get onto a new platform like the growth all of a sudden is extremely exciting, generally speaking, unless you're doing crappy work. So, like, that was extremely fun at first. Like, our first week, we, like, messed up the Spotify algorithm in some way because we just brought a big audience over from YouTube. And it was like, you're the, like, the fifth biggest podcast in the United States, just because we went from zero listens to whatever, a thousand listens.

That's the thing. We started out with an audience. Like, I think it would be a lot harder to podcast if you were starting out with nobody knowing what you were. Oh, my, my, so having the YouTube. having the people already following us, they just go straight over and immediately listen and that's a fan.

I will say though, like the, I've looked at this data before, the amount of total streams or downloads we got in the second month of the podcast is nothing compared to how much we get within the first hour of an episode now. Wow. So it has grown a ton.

It has grown a ton since then. Even though we did have a lot of people, we had a lot of people who started with us. It has grown significantly from there. Yeah, cool. Well, big congratulations to all of you. I think it's just amazing. And even though you're my family, I still think it's the biggest, coolest thing.

So congratulations. Thank you. Enjoy it. You and Nick's mom are the biggest fans. Yeah. And by the way, my mom is very clearly a fan. She's like, and by the way, the podcast would not work without Paula. If Paula's not on the podcast, I don't want to listen to it.

Oh, boy. Yeah. Well, you can tell her that I feel the same about you. Oh, great. Perfect. Perfect. You're good at keeping everything, keeping everything going, even when, you know, Paul is grumpy or. Thanks, Sheila. Checks in the mail. Check's in the mail. You keep it going. Yes, for sure. Okay. Thanks, Mom. Love you. Okay. Love you guys. Bye. Bye. She's been there. She's a real, like.

She's a day oneer. She's a day, oh, she's a day oneer. But she like, she's come to races to help like cook food. and like obviously she was there for you and you were just a wee little child trying to race your triathlons. I knew she'd have a good question too. Like every once in a while when we're having a chat, she drops like super insightful stuff

about our entire TTL ecosystem. She'll actually, she'll space out like she likes the pod so much that she'll only allow herself like 20 minutes one day, 20 minutes the next day so she can listen to it every day. Wow. So part of the reason I'm motivated to do it every week is because she listens. Yeah, right, right. Yeah.

Right, right. Oh, that was fun. Okay. Should we do another? Let's do one more. We can't stop. It's addicting. We can't stop.

This is a dick-ding. This is also going to be the longest YouTube video you've ever put up. That's true. For sure. That's fine. We're going to put 700 ads in here. We'll be making so much money. 700.

We don't do ads on the podcast. But. YouTube. No, seriously, I think we will have to have some ads. Otherwise YouTube won't show it to anybody. Yeah. Tragically. Yeah.

Okay. Let's try another. Ready? Okay. Ready. Hello. Hello. This is Nick from That Triathlon Life podcast.

How are you doing today? Hello, Nick. I was just making sure it wasn't FaceTime. It was only FaceTime audio. Only FaceTime audio. Only FaceTime audio. We don't have the funds for full FaceTime on the podcast yet. We're working towards it.

That'll be episode 200. Can you tell us your name and where you're calling from? Just in case anybody hasn't figured it out yet. And the longest distance you've ever run. Okay, go ahead. Okay, my name is Heather Jackson. I'm here with my puppy Stevie. I'm calling in from about 20 minutes south of you guys, Sun River.

Amazing. Well, Heather, we're so happy to have you on again. It's just a short clip. We got like one question for you. And the way we've done this podcast is we've had like our random listeners send their phone numbers. So we've been calling them. And then we're spursing it out with like our famous friends like you and Trixie. and so it's...

Paula's mom. So we're so glad that you are free to talk for a few minutes. So thanks, Heather. Perfect. Very cool. Okay, so here's this question, Heather, that is for all of us, but I thought it would be particularly good for you since you've done some epically long races and training sessions. Okay.

This is from Kylie. Question about finding the right bike saddle. As I've been ramping up my training and doing some more indoor training rides, I've been noticing I start to get a lot of saddle and foot pain after just about an hour on the bike. Is some level of pain and the saddle normal and if so how much? I've been using the saddle that came with my bike, which is an ISM split nose, but think the split nose part of the saddle may be too wide for me. What part of the saddles do you all ride?

And if I were to try a new saddle, what brand would you recommend? I actually have a really good answer for this whenever Heather's done. Well, Heather rides mostly a gravel bike now. Like, have you been on a TT bike since last year? Ew. I don't, I think I got on it once maybe. But I did to this question, I wrote a NIASM saddle for ever. It was the only saddle I rode until I actually made the switch to the Shimano Pro saddle just recently,

which is also a split down the middle to have that kind of open entry. So I think the biggest tip. would be to find that width that they're talking about. Sometimes with ISM, I have friends and family on those as well, is like tying them tighter, so it's not as wide even with just zip ties. Yeah.

That is not a, but the Shimano Pro Saddle I'm on now is, uh, I like that having that kind of like open area for your area down there for sure and it's a much narrower. So is that the TT, the TT style pro? Yeah,

but I have it on my gravel and my road bike. Yeah. Yeah. I rode that forever on my TT bike, and it's really good. Now, so my understanding is that your sit bones, like the part of your butt that you're actually sitting on, it kind of changes the more you roll forward. And the width that you need for a saddle also changes depending on how rolled forward you are. So I'm curious that you use the same saddle on your TT bike as you do, as you do now on your gravel bike,

even though your position, I'm sure, is different. Position is definitely different, but I sit the same. Like I roll like my pelvis forward like I'm still time trialing and I set up my bikes that way. So still very much. Do you feel like you're able to get more arrow on a gravel bike than the people you're racing against? I feel like I would if so many of the gravel races have banned the arrow bars, but I still try to ride. As arrow as possible. Yeah, exactly.

And you're also just so little that I think you're arrow by nature just, just even if you're sitting up, you're an arrow. I'm looking at this saddle online. So it's not separated right at the nose. It's attached at the nose, but then there's a big gap in the middle. Is that right? Exactly. Yeah, Eric and I ride the power saddle from Specialized.

Similar looking idea. Very similar. So I think that that's kind of the way to go for a lot of people, men and women. You guys ride the power on your TT bikes? No. Oh, okay, okay. No, we ride the sitero. The sidero, but it also has a gap like this.

I love the power saddle for my road bike, though, and my mountain bike. I have the power saddle. I love that. So the thing that I immediately thought of when this came up, which could be a good option for some people, the Australians, Ellie and Zach, when they were here, they were trying out this new saddle,

I think have some sort of affiliation with the company now. It's called buy saddle. And you can actually, there's like gears in it that allows you to adjust in the front and in the back and everything, how wide those like channels, whatever you want to, the sit spot. Because everyone's sit bone is a different width.

Yeah. So if you're like a tinkerer, and you can't find the right thing, that might be an interesting option. Okay, now to answer this question, though, is it normal to have that kind of pain after an hour? No.

No. No, because imagine if you're going to keep extending that, that would just get worse and worse. And especially if you're also feeling foot pain. That's a clear sign that, like... There's something numb. Something's not right. There's something being pinched from somewhere.

So, Heather, at the end of a long gravel ride, will you even notice your saddle or is it just kind of there and it's like a part of your bike, you know? Or are you like, oh, I'm getting pretty uncomfortable here? I mean, I certainly get uncomfortable as the day goes on and you're, but I think that's more just being in a saddle for eight, nine, ten hours. Yeah. No matter what saddle it is.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. But I certainly don't have discomfort. I don't have like pain discomfort or like numbness or tingling or anything. So I think that's definitely something to be concerned with. Yeah, cool. Well, it is achievable. You just got to, like, the problem here is trying different ones, which is quite challenging.

But go for the Shimano Pro or the specialized power. I think that that might work for a lot of people. I don't know if it's the case still, but at least back in the day, you could go into a lot of bikes shops and they would have demo saddles that you could rent from them for like four or five days. And that will save you a lot of money. But I just, I think at the end of day, most people have to try like three or four saddles. Yeah. Until they find the one.

Yeah. Right. Yes, totally. Sad truth, but it's part of the game. But once you do find that saddle and you can just focus on everything except for that, it is a nice reward. Yeah, and like maybe buy four or five of them just in case they stop making them. Yeah. Cool.

Well, thanks, Heather, for answering. And we should get dinner this week before Nick goes home. He's here until next Thursday. Oh, sick. Yes, for sure. Okay. We are here. Cool.

We'll text you after. Okay, cool. Perfect. Thanks, Heather. Bye. Okay, thanks. Bye. Bye.

This calling has been a smashing success. Can I just say? How are we ever going to go back to just talking to each other? I know. I hope it's fun for the listeners, though, because it's very fun for us, but I don't know how it's going to translate. I don't know. At least my experience with our videos and stuff, if we're having fun, like the, and

if I'm watching a video of someone else having fun, even if they're freaking playing dominoes. Right. This is awesome. This person's so excited about the thing. If you're liking this and you're watching it on YouTube, leave us a comment. If you're listening on Spotify, you're missing out. on the visuals, but let us know with a comment on Spotify as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The feedback is much appreciated and we will put your comments into action. Okay, should we do one last one? One last one. Call him back. Could I just accept the call? Yeah, do it. Okay, we're going to do something crazy.

We're going to accept a call. Hello, and you are the first person that is actually calling into the That Triathlon Live podcast. This is Nick, by the way. First ever, call in. First ever, yes. So who are you and where are you calling from? My name's Mitch, and I'm calling in from Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee. Hey, Mitch, sorry to put you on the spot like this.

I hope you weren't just calling back a random number, and now you're like, uh-oh, what did I get myself into? All good, all good. Okay, Mitch, so as you probably remember, we're doing our 100th episode now, and we're calling some podcast listeners, hoping that they may have some questions, not that they wrote in, but that they will read live to us on the air.

You don't have to read anything. You can just tell us, but we're hoping you had a question for us. Yeah. I mean, so I have followed along for quite a while, and I'm actually just about to start racing professionally. I just took my pro card going into this year. Wow.

Congrats. Congrats. Thank you. Me and my girlfriend, we've followed you guys a ton. We've actually met Apollo a few times at a few different races. We race for, I don't know if we're allowed to say this, but we race for working triathlete. Oh yeah. I do remember now. If I saw your face, I'd recognize you instantly, but the phone calling is weird. For sure, for sure. But I guess basically a question I have for you guys is, you know, being in the position that we're in now and kind of haven't really proved ourselves to the world yet. What are some of the things that you kind of recommend to, like, entry-level pros, like when it comes to potentially being valuable to different brands?

Wow, that's a great question. But you and your wife are both new professional athletes. Is that we're saying? Yeah, so we both just took our pro cards. She has had two age group wins in 2023. All my finishes were top five. All right, say your first and last name, both of you guys. Shameless plug, everybody can go follow you.

That's right. Yeah, Mitch Ott. I guess my Instagram handles Mitch A.O. hers is pretty similar. It's Caroline Kaplan. Her Instagram handle is Caroline underscore R. Cap. Awesome. Awesome.

Well, it's, I mean, that's such an interesting and awesome question because we just launched the development team and the whole point of that is us trying to share this exact sort of thing with some people in your exact position. How do you jump into this crazy landscape of like, am I supposed to take pictures? Am I supposed to have a YouTube video, like,

channel on day one and am I valuable, you know, it's a man, it's a hard time. There's a lot of different ways to do it. And I think what we found throughout doing all of our media stuff is that results are still important. And if we weren't racing well, none of the stuff we do would be as relevant. So personally, my main goal every day is to get up and train as well as I can so I can still go and win races and have the best results that's possible. And the other stuff is a bit secondary to me. Eric loves the media stuff so much that to him it's like energy. So he can do the videos. He can do the pictures.

So my advice to you guys would be find what it is that gives you energy and what you love to do and whether that's pictures or I don't know, different things. A podcast. A podcast videos. And make that your thing. And don't let it overtake your training and like your mission to be the best athletes you can be. But those things all are valuable to sponsors and help with your visibility.

ultimately. And I really think it's cool that both of you are doing this together because that's a cool story to begin with. Like you've already got something unique about your pathway to being a pro and it's that you guys are doing it together. It's like me and Eric doing it together. Yeah, I wish I would have thought of that. No, people love that because it's like, what's the dynamic? It's not always easy. So it's really hard for I'm sure most people out there to imagine training with their significant other all day long and like very challenging situations. It's like the amazing race when they're like, okay, you're both going to carry these huge rocks up a hill together and you can't leave each other's side. And like, oh, everyone fights. Get the popcorn. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right.

Yeah. But yeah, I think I think Paul is like bang on. The thing that makes you most valuable is, uh, is telling a story and like saying, here's the thing that's important to me. Here's what I'm trying to achieve in this world or in this whatever and like sharing that process of growth and, you know, progress towards that thing. That's just like, that's a storyline that's been going on. since people could write and tell stories and like we all latch on to that how that I can see this

person cares a lot and is pursuing a thing that's important to them are they going to do it yeah so that might be that might mean that you uh take pictures that might mean you write a blog do a vlog like any sort of thing but putting it out there and given some people like when you do ultimately win that first big race they can go back and like fall in love with your story oh wait Mitch you're former rower that's a cool story too yeah yeah so I i didn't grow up swimming or biking or running. I grew up rowing. I rode for about nine years throughout high school and college. That's like the most I've spent my time in, the biggest, you know, way I've spent my time. Well, works at Cam Warr. And then when I graduated college, started racing triathlon.

So that was just about three years ago. Yeah. Cool. And then. I think rowing, is like one of the best sports to come from because your aerobic engine is like so big. It's the hardest sport. My mom's a rower and we were doing this. We were doing 2K time trials over Christmas break because we thought it was fun and in a horrible way. But what's your 2K PB on the erg? Oh, that's a big question. 618.

Oh, damn. That's fast. I was lightweight. Oh, you're a lightweight too. Oh my gosh. Because my brother's like 300 pounds and his is, I don't know. Six something, but he's way, it's way harder. It's way harder. It's way harder if you're lighter.

Yeah, of course. Cool. Well, that was a, that was a bit of a tangent, but I'm fascinated by Roeus. We love tangents here. Yes. It's that tangent life sometimes. Mitch, tell us what you're racing first, and maybe we'll run into you this year somewhere. The debut for both Caroline and I will be St. Anthony's.

Oh, sweet. Sick. So they'd be racing against Eric and Paula, potentially. I just got an email today actually asking. us to come back. Wow. Yeah. Hopefully we'll see you there.

Yeah, it sounds great. Oh, I'll 100% be there. Yeah. It's one of our favorite races. Yeah. Cool. Well, thanks for picking up, Mitch, and good luck with the training this winter. And your pro life here.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's great to talk to you guys. We definitely look up to you and wish you the best of the luck for the rest of the year. Thanks so much.

We'll chat with you soon. Have a good one. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. How are we possibly going to top this? We're going to do another 100.

Like, I think episode 200, we have to do the same thing. I agree. This is so cool. Where do you think we will be at episode 200? Like, I don't know. Dead. I never. That's not how time works.

Ideally not in the upstairs office of our, of our room. We're going to have a freaking podcast studio at like TTO World headquarters. That is not our house. Because it's two years. How long did it? It's two years? Yeah. Well, if we do every week, it's a little around two years.

We're going to be in the same house, in the same office. Or in TTL headquarters in Beijing. Yeah. Who knows? We might just have like a little newborn baby sitting right here. Oh, my God. Will Flynn continue to grow bigger? Oh, my God.

Just whining. Well, I don't know. That was fun. If it was up to me, I'd keep going. But Nick tells us this is going to be hard to edit. I'm editing for the first time, a video. in conjunction with audio, which already takes me like three hours to do each week. Yeah, this is going to be a bear to edit.

But I think it's worth it. And I just want to say personally, this is easy for Eric and I. This is not easy. Nick does all of the hard work of this. We just get to chat with him every week. Nick edits it. He does the sound. He does the jingles.

He does this or that with T. That is Nick's voice. So thank you, Nick for making this possible. Thank you to our supporters. who make this possible. Truly, that's what keeps this going because we are able to compensate Nick, and we get a bit,

and it just feels like a thing and we feel loved and we feel like people want to listen every week. And if it weren't for you guys, we would not be motivated to do this. So huge thank you to the supporters and just to everyone who tunes in and listens. Are we going to cry?

Are we going to cry? Our donuts are gone. My donuts are gone. I started eating your replacement one, Paula. I'm halfway through your replacement one. I had my whole whatever Long John Silver, whatever it's called. Long John Tiger. Long John Tiger. Exactly.

That's a sexy name. Long John Tiger. Maybe you shouldn't name your newborn Long John Tiger. All right. We can have a baby if his name is Long John Tiger. Deal. Deal. He's going to be so fast though. Yeah. You better be with a name like that. The guy rips. His name is Long John Tyler, too. Okay. Well, we had great. Thank you for everyone who did pick up and answer. That was really fun. Really fun. Okay, cool. See you guys next week.

That's over. Well, they won't see us hear you next week. Yeah. Sadly. Yeah, we'll talk to you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Bye.