That Triathlon Life Podcast - Our personal Triathlon relay lineup, waxed chains, strength training, Ironman, race nutrition, and more!

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

This week we start with some "This or That with TTL" to warm things up, and then go straight into questions. We touch on how we would structure an Eric, Paula, and Nick relay. We discuss the pros and cons of a waxed chain and if it's right for you, strength training and its importance for a triathletes, building your own bike, and more! For everything else, head to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hello everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Findlay. I am Erica Loggersome. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are here to answer all your questions from the week. We're on episode 10 if you can believe it. Oh, I cannot. I cannot believe it either. That's a lot of listening time. That's everyone who's listened to every single one. Oh, wow. I never thought about doing the math. Yeah, that is a crushing. That's a crushing statistic right there. It's a lot of minutes. Every time I realize as we start, I'm like, we're just talking casually, but there's a lot of people who listen to our stupid voice. every week. I think people like it. Well, if they don't like it, they don't come back. I guess that's true. Yeah, but if this is your first time here, Eric and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is a professional musician and an amateur triathlete. And I think we have a really good mix of knowledge from Nick's perspective from Eric and I who've been doing the sport for a really long time. And then just like extracurricular stuff, we're hilarious. So even questions that

don't apply to triathlon. Coming out hot with the confidence. You say that you're professionals and I'm an amateur, except I've now done a marathon and you haven't. So I feel like I'm kind of the professional now, and you guys should be taking notes from me. Yeah, so if anyone doesn't know, which I think most people know, actually, they were tracking you, but Nick just ran his first marathon on the weekend, the L.A. Marathon. How did it go? It went great. I definitely was a little underprepared, but it was very, very fun.

I kind of thought that it was going to, I don't know, I've always thought it was maybe more difficult than a 70.3. But I don't... That's what I assumed. Yeah, it's... The first three quarters of it are like... I think if you're pacing it right, they're not that hard.

You should be pretty within yourself. In fact, like, I thought it was pretty easy and then I still blew up at mile 22. I was going to say, where are you pacing it right? So I could have paced it even easier, I think. But I disagree. I think that if you had trained a little bit more and done some longer runs or for longer,

you could have lasted the whole way at that pace. Because if you would want out, I think part of the blow up was like your cramping and your muscle. It was not necessarily your, you know, aerobic system. Yeah. Or lack of nutrition or whatever. So I do think it might have been just a little bit of lack of maybe training, but you did train a lot. How about what was your average weekly run mileage relating into this? Oh, I think people say like minimum 40.

I was probably in like, I probably average like 30, which is, the same I average during 70.3 training. So basically a marathon a week. Yeah, but I felt really great until like mile, like 20, and then it's just started going badly. I would definitely say you could get a lot further than plenty of people with like that amount of volume, just given your aerobic, you know, kind of, I don't know,

background doing triathlon. We'll just say you had a couple years of base built up. I've got plenty of people if they tried to do anywhere under four hours off of 30 miles a week that do not recommend that? Right. Well, I definitely felt it at a certain point where I was like, the funny thing is that same night, I didn't feel like I had even aerobically done a workout.

I wasn't exhausted in that way, but my legs were like pretty upset with me. Specifically, my left hamstring just like was unhappy, and it's still now two days later is the only thing that's sore from it. So I think, yeah, I think it's just cool stuff to know going forward, and I'm really happy I did it before the full Iron Man. So what's the conversation with your coach going to be like after this? Yeah, that's a good question.

Still working on the coach thing. Still very much just winging it. Going to be switching automatic online plan providers? That's right. I'm actually going to look into maybe there's a guy in Santa Monica, apparently that a friend of mine who's a podcast listener actually, he's recommending to me who actually does lactate testing too, which I feel like is a little bit too serious for me.

But I don't know. That's what we thought. We thought it was too serious for us, but we did it anyway. And I don't even still don't really know what it means. Well, we don't need to know what it means. The coaches need to know what it means. Yeah. I think the biggest thing with the coach for you, man,

it's just like a little bit of accountability or whatever besides us. No, but I think Nick doesn't have a problem with accountability. I don't. I do everything on there. I do every single workout. Exactly. So I think it's a more individualized approach that would be beneficial. I need something that helps me,

work on my weaknesses and like just maintain my strengths I think yeah I guess I was just thinking in terms of like somebody who could say 30 miles is not enough let yeah 30 miles is not enough well it was a beginner marathon plan because I just wanted to ease into this iron man long distance thing eric is like ripping you apart let's move on to the questions no no I'm not I just I feel like this is interesting he's totally right anyway my recommendation for people is if you do a marathon do more than 25 30 miles a week because it's not enough. I don't know. There's probably plenty of people who are like, I don't know, I'd be pretty psyched with a 345 marathon. Maybe I'm going to do that.

I think if I put in a little bit more work, I would have very easily been under 3.30, which I was on pace for until late in the race. Yeah. But anyway. That's what we feel like you're capable of for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I thought I was until it all kind of came crashing down. But anyway, very fun.

It was the L.A. Marathon. New course, very hilly, a little difficult for me. me, but very fun. That's a marathon recap. Love it. So the first thing we do before we get into some questions is we have, I have a little thing for you guys, and we're going to do the second installment of a segment that we have already done called This or That. Ridiculous. These will just be really quick. You just have to answer, and you can, I guess, go into it a little bit if you want, but you get to choose between two options. First one is an All-Out 800 or an All-Out 10K.

Running? Yeah. Silence. I feel like 800 is known as like the worst event in track. Yeah, I would pick 10K. 10K. So you guys are split on that. Eric, 800?

Well, as long as there are people that I'm racing, the 800 is such a fun race. Solo? No, thank you. Yeah, but I think I would like pull every single muscle in my grinds. You just fall over and die at the end of it. Like my body is not trying to sprint at the moment. Okay, next one. Would you rather do an Ironman or an Ultramarathon?

Ultra Marathon. Yep. Wow, both of you, huh? Hardcore triathletes still. I mean, the chances of you being in a super, super pretty environment in an ultramarathon are so much higher than an Iron Man. Yeah. Also, I just don't like riding my bike that much. That's a long way to be on a bike.

And a long time to run, too. Yeah, the swims no problem because we actually swim 4K every day. Right. Why is it so disproportionate? so disproportional. Yeah, it's true. You guys would be better off. Okay, this is for Paula. Would you rather leave Flynn for a week or leave Eric for a week? Oh, real difficult. Well, no, I would leave Flynn for a week because I need Eric for like literally everything I do. Flynn needs us. Needs me. I need Eric. That's a chain of command in the TGL household. Yeah, Eric needs

neither one, so we better be nice to him. And then, would you rather be a world record holder for the 100 meters or the marathon? Marathon. They're very different types of like... Fame. Yeah, very different types of fame. I think if you're the world record holder for the 100, you're definitely more of a household name.

Yeah, definitely more of a household name. I'll just go with that to mix it up. Nice. But if you're a hundred meter... Fastest man on earth. But what does fastest mean? Like, so is Kipchogi? Straight up. Fastest. Fastest. not the fastest as long as it's two hours. Are you saying that Usain Bolt has the highest top speed? Yeah.

Because I don't know. Maybe there's someone who has a higher top speed over a 40. Okay. We're splitting hair here. Okay. Last one. Would you guys rather, I'm really curious about this, would you rather win the same race every year

or never win the same race twice, even though you might try to? Why would you not want to win it every year? Let's say you only win one race a year. Oh, you can never win another race. Yes. Not that option. I would rather win different races.

And then never be able to defend your title, though. That's fine. That's fine. What about Eric? I don't know. I might win world championships every year. Well, if you can pick it out race, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's not your local 5K that I'm talking about. Cool. Well, that was this or that, just getting us warmed up. And we'll go straight into some questions because we have a lot. First one, hey guys, been loving the podcast. podcast so far, by far my favorite one out there. I had a question for the quick fire round for everyone. Crunchy or creamy peanut butter, there is a right answer. Thanks, guys, Parker, Kirk. This is our boy Parker. Crunchy. Absolutely no question. Definitely crunchy. Next. Paula? I would go either,

but we always get crunchy, so crunchy. Eric makes the peanut butter decisions in that household. I mean, we could either get one big jar of crunchy or we could get a crunchy jar and a smooth jar because crunchy is happening. What percentile of peanut butter consumption do you think you are compared to the nation? I think you're in the 99 percentile of peanut butter consumption. Yeah, probably. Not even per household, per individual. Well, I have it on my morning toast. Eric has like a couple sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly. A couple. I like to put it in, this is kind of weird, but I like to put it in yogurt. Is that weird? Wow, I've never tried that. No, that sounds like it would be good. It makes it kind of like yogurt granola peanut butter.

That sounds like it would be great. Yeah. Great. Yeah. And I often do like a generous heaping. So we go through it quick. Like how often do you buy peanut butter? Well, let's just say I wake up in the morning there like three spoons in the same.

Okay. Midnight snack. Oh, God her. Got her. Got her. Next. Okay, great. Thanks, Parker.

Great. Okay. Next question is from Curtis. I wonder if it's the Curtis. Doubtful. He does listen. He does? Yeah.

Eric's friend Curtis, who's also triathlet, pro triathlete. I'm surprised he listens. He listens and then he just makes fun of us, so. That sounds like him. He's just like one of those guys that likes to make fun of things and you just can't take it seriously. That's right. Well, I do.

Love you, buddy. Hi, Walt. This is from other Curtis. He said, I listened to your chat about chain loop on a recent podcast. What are your thoughts about waxing your chain instead of traditional loop? I've seen videos of pros pulling out. new chains with factory wax treatment for a race. Does that really make that much of a difference to separate you from the fields as a pro? Also, Eric, are you going to do Xera circuit again this year?

Great podcast from Curtis. It's definitely not our Curtis. No, Curtis would be like, oh dude, why are you not? Well, I guess a chain. We'll just do chain first. I think that's like maximum good for like five watts. But if you're the type of person who's like, I train perfectly every single day. I got in the pool of 8 a.m. exactly on the dot, et cetera, et cetera. And like doing every last thing gives you peace of mind. Great. Peace of mind is worth whatever anything. But is it, you know, I think there are a lot of things like an arrow helmet that'll get you 20 watts. So much. Yeah, so much more. I looked it up a bit and it is one to one and a half percent, which for most people is like you said, three to five

watts. But the amount of work that goes into doing it, like you can't just buy a chain, dip it in wax and use it. Like you have to buy a chain. You have to strip it of all the lubricants that on there, then heat the wax to a specific temperature, not too hot, not too cool, dip the chain, it's like a nightmare. What about the ice friction thing? So they just come with a wax? Yes. But then they only last for like 300K if you're only riding in dry environments.

And then every time you drive in the wet. So how much does that cost? Well, to rewax, it's extremely cheap. But a new ice friction or whatever chain, I think those are like, it's got to be at least 100 bucks. If you're at the maximum of your potential, I guess, and you like that kind of thing. let's keep that in mind. You have to be a nerd about that stuff.

Then I guess go for it. Like if I, now that I know it's three to five watts, I'm wondering why I don't do it. Like that's a lot of extra watts. When I'm riding at 280, it's not the same as 285. You also have to clean your drive terrain immaculately

every time you put it on. It's a thing. It's for sure a thing. But yeah, five watts. Like maybe for world championships. Yeah. Maybe it's worth it.

Maybe it's worth it. Maybe it's worth it. I'd say five is generous versus a super well-clean chain with a very high-end lubricant. How is that really five watts more than that? Seems difficult. Again, if you just want to literally everything, box is checked, go for it.

Right, right, right. Real quickly. I'm not sure about the Extera, to be honest. The one race I was really excited to do, Extera Alabama, they decided not to be a pro race or cancel. I'm not sure which one. And then they decided to make the National Championship Beaver Creek, which was probably my least favorite race of the year.

So I don't know I might do a couple of them I'd really like to do world championships in Trentino, Italy but other than that it's kind of like a down year they're trying to rebuild and come back better next year

and we'll just see I'll definitely be riding my mountain bike a lot regardless of that you'd be doing that anyway though right? Yeah love riding the mountain bike we'll just see if I want to go race it 9,000 feet or not right right

straight up great well thank you Curtis I'm going to do the next question crazy different format where I read a couple of questions Hello, Paula, Eric, and Nick, in that specific order, she says. Wow, here we go. So I'm the favorite.

Nick is the least favorite. As usual, I'm used to it. Just kidding. Firstly, a bit of an intro. I'm from Europe and I found you actually, the algorithm found you, by combination of wanting to travel to Oregon and liking triathlon videos. I've been following you for a couple years now and you have a really refreshing content, including the podcast.

At first, I thought Nick was a bit too much. How dare you? Too much talking. But actually, you're all really funny and entertaining. keep it up and good luck Nick with his Iron Man. The audacity to wish me luck after insulting me. Gosh. What is your general opinion on strength training and how much do you do it?

I see it in videos that you have strength and conditioning trainings with a coach, but are you also doing any heavy lifting. Seems to me that more and more people are realizing the benefits of weight training and so-called hybrid training. I was just wondering what your take on it is. Hope to visit Oregon one day. Best wishes, Anzee. So yeah, we have been doing strength training.

with Aaron Carson in Boulder. And that is like we're working towards doing some quote-unquote heavier lifting right now. It's kind of just getting ready to lift more and conditioning our tissues to be like ready to lift things quickly and stuff. But the goal is to like in the next couple months here do a little bit heavier stuff. But I don't think we're ever going to be like doing max squats or cleans or or anything like that. but still, I think strength specific on the bike, swimming and running, is kind of more, that's where I kind of see it going. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah, I think you can get a lot of strength training specifically within the sport,

like doing big gear in the bike, paddles on the swim and hills on the run, but I don't think that that should replace strength training. I think there's a lot of benefit you can get in terms of injury prevention and just overall resilience, especially as you age. And we're now in our 30s still doing the sport. and I think injuries come more and more as you do get older. So I think there's an increased importance on it now. And the biggest thing for us is during COVID, there was no gym access.

So we kind of fell off the bandwagon a little bit with the strength stuff. And we've tried to set up our garage with as much equipment as we can to do a pretty decent program. But I always find I'm more diligent with it if I do have a nice gym that we could go to. Yeah. Yeah, I would say like making sure that you have like the stabilization little muscles keyed in with being the balance with a weight kind of off center and stuff like that. If you have time to just, you know, do like an hour a week, that's probably where you should focus because that'll be good for injury prevention.

But if you just have a bunch of time to go lift, then doing some bike-specific stuff could probably be helpful. How about your neck? I used to only lift when I was, like, in college and before I was into endurance sports and then slowly got less and less into it and more and more into this stuff. And now I notice, like, if I were to do three sets of like heavyish, 10 rep squats, I'd be more sore than I was after the marathon. Like, it really messes me up pretty hard for like five days.

Yeah, exactly. Like, if you can't train your swim bike run properly the next day because you're so sore, then I'd say that's, you know, causing more harm than good. Yeah, so I'm not sure about that. But something that Eric, you've talked about before is that trail running can be a really nice way to, like, strengthen your, you're, like, running strength. so to speak, right? It works on these smaller things. You're not on this one perfectly balanced plane the way you are if you're running on a treadmill on asphalt. And mountain biking can kind of do the same thing for the cycling stuff. You're just forced onto different positions on the bike and it can strengthen stuff a little bit. I wonder how much that actually works. How much that actually does help you with those stabilizers and stuff? Honestly, I think if everybody went and ran on single track, like all year round, I don't think we, you you'd have much need for like all these little K flex your big toe back and forth and like

try to stand on one leg and I think you would just get that naturally for sure but like that's not really you know possible for everybody and it's not optimal necessarily for other things with like keeping your heart rate and control et cetera et cetera but if you could do that run on windy trails I totally think like these these stabilization exercises would not be a that important at all I've been seeing Ben Canutes, like, on his Instagram. He's doing these, like, strength workouts that are just like, whoa. He's just, like, balancing on a ball while flexing his right foot and doing all the stuff. I'm like, he's serious.

He's like, has he always done that? Yeah, I'm just like, whoa. I mean, that kind of stuff does make you really feel like you're doing something important and secret and special. So there's something to be said for that. Okay, Eric. No, it's true. That was a stab bit. No, it's not a stab of Ben.

I see Kate Courtney do the same thing. A lot of pros do that. But I think it's important for different sports. like for mountain biking like Kate does, 100%. It's more important than for us. She's like a power athlete and she has to like be able to throw the bike around underneath her that's like heavier than she is. Yeah, I'm not downplaying it at all. I'm just saying an added benefit of that kind of thing is it feels super specific and it is exciting.

It does. It probably makes you feel like I'm doing, I'm checking all the boxes like you said earlier about the wax chain, right? Like I'm doing everything I can to stay healthy and be strong. Yeah. Okay, well, thank you for that question. Anzzie? What do we think? How do we think we pronounce her name? Anzai. Well, she's probably rolling her eyes at us, but we're trying. Sorry. So next question, this one's great. This is from Mary. First relates to training partners and is primarily for Eric. I know you both have each other, Lindsay and some others, but I'm curious how you feel about having or not having a training squad.

Obviously, Paula can spend a good amount of time chasing Eric, but does Eric have want or need a rabbit ever? How do you think relying primarily on each other impacts your training, progress, motivation, etc? I know I rely heavily on my teammates when I'm feeling like a blob and we have hard workout to do. For me, it's hard to fathom doing some of the hard workout solo, but maybe that is why you're a pro athlete and I'm a lawyer. So, Eric, what do you think? Do you feel like if Paula were faster than you, do you think that would help your training? Do you think that would help you push yourself more? Or do you feel like you already can take yourself to that point?

Or if you had a male training partner that was faster than you? Yeah. I think it goes both ways. I've definitely, I've spent a lot of time training with other guys as I was preparing for the Olympics and trying to qualify for the Olympics. And that was very positive in terms of being able to get like the most time myself in very hard specific sessions.

But it could also, it's like a double-edged sword. There's plenty of days where you need to go more relaxed or maybe not go to 11 out of 10. And it's so, so hard when there are people there pushing you constantly. Especially if like I was the slowest runner in our group of four. And so every single run that I did, I was having to elevate a little bit and run just a little faster or like, you know, relative effort to anybody else. So, yeah, I think ideally you maybe meet up with somebody for three hard workouts a week, but then you've got a couple of hard workouts that you can do just totally by yourself and you can meet somebody. I almost get more out of it when I meet people for like long slope, boring workouts, long rides or whatever. I think it really depends what your focus is.

Like if you're racing ITU, it's really critical to be within a training squad because you're, practicing drafting like you'll do on the bike and then the run is just so fast that it's good to have people around you. Iron Man's a little more of a solo mission on the bike and run. So I think it's less important for 70.3 athletes, although I find myself really lucky to have Eric to Chase and Lindsay in town and we have a good group of some really fast guys that could we swim with. So it is really important just mentally, I think, to have someone to get out the door with. But Eric's right. It can be a lot if you're constantly like racing something. someone and I think having a good dynamic in relationship with the person so that there's like a

sense of elevating each other versus trying to like destroy each other every day, you know, but it does get you out the door. I've heard you, Paula, say many times how much you appreciate having Eric with you, especially on rides to be there and like push you and keep you company. So I feel it depends from person to person too. Yeah. It does worry me that I'm like hurting Eric in a way, like especially for long rides. Like if he's waiting for me on descents or, you know, if I get dropped and he's waiting for me, like, that's not optimal for him.

So I think I maybe get more out of it and maybe it hurts him a little bit. That's why he's sweet, Eric. We kind of, I don't know. I don't know. To be honest, like, I definitely ride better on a day where I know Paula, even if Paul is just sitting on my wheel for three hours, like I ride a little bit better, just knowing she's there and there's two of us and we're doing it together than if I was by myself. I was by myself. It's like an extra dimension. It's fun.

Nick, you're sharing with someone all the time, don't you? I used to do everything alone all the time, which is funny because if you couldn't tell from the previous question, I talk a lot, and I'm like this on and off the podcast.

All my friends probably think I talk too much, and I love being around people, but for whatever reason, I can do like a four-hour ride by myself and be happy with it. But yeah, these days, it seems like I pretty much am always with someone. Like running and meeting with someone.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so the next question that Mary has is something that you guys may or may not even want to answer, because it might be a little bit touchy. But she says, I could be wrong, but I get the general feeling that the pros are trying to lean away from Iron Man and towards other race formats, challenge, clash, PTO, Super League, etc. Is this true? Is there a general sentiment in the pro community that Iron Man has overstayed? It's welcome. If so, what's the reason? I'm assuming a big part has to do with the pitiful prize purses in the majority of Iron Man races. Anything else? Curious to hear your thoughts. on this and what the future of pro racing might look like in a world not dominated by M.DOT. Yeah, you're not wrong. Like, Iron Man racing has gotten more and more competitive. I would just say an Iron Man at 70.3 at the same time here. It's gotten more competitive and the prize purses have steadily shrunk over the past five, six years. I think, you know, five, six years ago, Oceanside would have had a $20,000 for the win, and I think it's $6,500 for the win this year.

And the field has got Alistair Brownlee and Lerner, Lionel and Sam and Ben Canute and Rudy Von Berg and just, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And like everybody is for the most part showing up to try and get a really fast time so that they can get PTO money at the end of the year. But they're certainly not like this feeling, any sort of warm fuzzies towards Iron Man, I would say. Unfortunately, just because of the prize money. Yeah, I think that it's become a necessary pathway to getting points for the PTO, which is the way that you earn your living now. out with the rankings in the tour and then the year-end bonuses. And a lot of amateurs also don't have great feelings about Iron Man because of the way they

handled COVID and reimbursements and rescheduling and stuff like that. It's kind of an interesting thing. For sure. Yeah. At the end of the day, like we, Iron Man is the most prevalent, like, known organization right now and the races are the most, you know, people want to be an Iron Man when they sign up for one. The races are extremely well organized. You know you're going to have a really nice experience when you're at one.

So I think that there's some uncertainty or maybe just unknown in the PTO and clash events as they're a little newer. But as people realize that the PTO entry fees, for example, for the age group athletes is way lower than Iron Man. And I think the experience will be really cool and all of the pros will be there. So as they become more known and have a little bit of reputation, I think more. more and more people might decide to do one of those instead. It seems like it's not that Iron Man doesn't put on fantastic races because they definitely do. It just seems like they're putting less and less importance towards pros. Yes, exactly.

We're not, we don't feel like we're as needed, I guess, in the races or as important as the PTO or clash makes us feel when we go as an athlete just experiencing the race week and the race itself. Yeah, I would say it kind of feels like they've just been slowly lowering the prize purse to see what they can get away. with and see if we'll keep coming and if it changes the amateur's feelings about it at all. And I think everybody would love to see Iron Man do well and everything. And hopefully, that's the hope of the PTO stuff going on, is that that'll just, like, raise the bar for what it takes to get pros to races and everything will rise. Great. And then finally, for Nick, the Eric, Paula, or Trixie Rapid Fire game.

I guess I should read this out, right? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. This is just for Nick? This is for Nick. So you can only pick one person for each question. Who would it be and why? And your options are Eric, me, or Trixie. Right.

So who's Trixie again? Trixie Mattel. She is our favorite. She is a famous drag queen. And she is our best friend. She is actually Nick's best friend in real life. And she was just in Ben. She's texting me.

She's like, I'm running through rural Oregon. And it's freaking beautiful here. I'm like, where in rural Oregon? She's like, a bend? And like, Eric and Paula are in Bend. What are you doing there? She was a stay in the night. Where she was running was 0% rural.

Right. It's rural compared to West Hollywood where she lives. That is 100% true. Now she wants to move here. Okay, so number one. Respond to all of your emails, texts on your behalf. I think for the sake of comedy, Trixie, but for the sake of sanity, maybe Eric

I don't know or maybe yeah Eric I'll say I'll say Eric I think their brains pretty much work the same yeah Eric and I are too similar though I feel like

it's like he would say what I would say okay well that's I mean that's a good person to answer your emails number two give you directions on the phone

when you're lost and your GPS maps doesn't work obviously I want to be heckled by Trixie while I'm already lost so I'm going to pick Trixie Number three

negotiate a contract for you Girl, definitely Trixie, for sure. She knows contracts, and she will not stop until she gets what she wants. Yes. Can she please negotiate our contracts as well? Oh my God, I already see the next one. Number four, plan your wedding. I have seen the way Trixie's apartment looks and the way Trixie's events look.

It would be the best wedding ever put on. So I'm going to go Trixie on that one, too. Okay, so we're getting out of this as Trixie is your best friend. We're losing hard. No, she's just really good at all. I mean, Trixie is my best friend. But these are all Trixie specific questions. Come on, we need like a...

Okay, next, next, next, be your only jail phone call. Yeah, that's going to be Trixie. She's got the connects. She's got the connects. I'm sorry. She'll sweet talk the police officer. Yes. This is brutal.

Number of whatever this is. Choose but not make your meals every day for a year. Now, that's going to be Paula. Oh, wow. Honored. Yeah, that's going to be Paula. That's going to be Paula. Although Trixie's actually a pretty good cook.

Oh, is she? Yeah, yeah, pretty good cook. I got to say the Paula meal plan is pretty great. Yeah, it's pretty great. Last one, be your swim run partner. Trigsie, that'd be funny. You know what Eric would be good at? Eric, I've had this before.

He makes me feel good about my slowness while we're training. He's like, dude, you're doing so great. You're going so fast. I'm like, and why are you talking like you're standing still? Nick, I feel like you and I would be better matched up because we're more similar speeds. Oh, wait, swim run. I'm so sorry. Right, right, we have to do it together.

Yeah, I guess that's true. We'd have to be like tethered. Yeah, we have to be tethered. Like if you went with Eric, he would be dragging you. Like, he drags Flynn at the end of a run. So you'd really rather be tethered to Paula? Oh, man. I don't know.

I feel like Paula goes through some emotional swings during a race. So to be tethered right next to her would be pretty intense. I'm an emotional rock man. Pick me. Okay, that is all those. They were very fun. Thank you so much. Mary Shepro.

Great. Yeah. Thanks for the ego hit there. Thanks for the fun game. Yeah, that was fun. Eric, do you want to read the next question? Paula, do you want to read the next question? I can read it.

Okay, great. Go for it. Next question. Hey, Nick, Paula, and Eric. I always love getting the notification that a new episode is out. I'm so glad that you've all have started and continued the podcast. I thought I'd send you some questions for some fun dialogue. Number one, if three of you were to do a relay triathlon,

Who would be doing which event? I would be doing the transitions, obviously. I might do Eric swim, me, bike, Nick Run. Yeah. No. Nick Run. The only thing I should be doing is biking. You can't put me on a swim or a run.

This is interesting, though. If we were truly trying to go for the fastest time, Eric would bike. Where is the biggest differential? Then I would swim. Which is insane to think. Even though I can barely float, I feel like we'd still lose the least amount of time.

right? Because in a 70.3, I'm holding like 24-ish miles an hour on the bike, but Eric's going to hold 27, 28. That's a humongous difference. So not on the bike. On the run, I would lose like 20 minutes to Paula. And on the swim, I'm not going to lose 20 minutes to anyone. I think it's you swim, I bike Paula runs because like I would only run, we'll say like five minutes faster than Paula, but I think I can bike 10 minutes faster and then, yeah. And then Nick would just be like training like hell

in the water. I need a wet suit swim. What do you guys do a 70.3 swim in? 22 minutes. Yeah, and I'm at like 32. So that's the way we would do it, I think. Yeah, and then you'd be done first. You could just cheer for us.

Or die, yeah, whatever it takes. Good question. Very fun. Number two. If you could bring on a new sponsor for any product, non-triathlon, what brand would it be? Rivian.

Oh my God. Paula. What a great answer. I know. That's all I want is a Rivian. Rivian. That's great. Eric, what about you?

Rivian? I was definitely going cars, but I was like, my brain's still stuck on Formula One, so I was thinking like Ferrari or something. Like super sexy. Eric driving a Ferrari around Ben, things that will never, ever, ever have to go.

Yeah, like the most off-roady. Yeah. That's different than a Ferrari. We got the off-roady thing, you know, dialed. So then, yeah, I just need like an Aston Martin for like whipping around. Let me tell you, the FJ is real annoying to do errands in. It's like this monster truck. The muffler is so loud.

It has zero visibility. Like, yeah, it looks cool, but it does not look cool when you're like going to target. This is the price of being pretty, Paula. I thought you would understand. I'm just saying I'm ready for our next vehicle. You look so good in it. It's been like three months. Okay.

We're doing something crazy this. weekend we're letting Eric and Paula read it. They don't read a lot. They just read WOT's numbers. They don't read words. Paula, Eric, Nick. Hey guys, I think I'm writing this. Wilst. Nick is running his marathon. You really can't read.

I just think Wilsst is a great word that deserves emphasis. So Hope is going great. It's Wilest. It's Wiles. It's Wiles. Okay. That sounds real dumb. All right. Why don't we just scrap this entire podcast and start over?

Hi guys. Hi guys. I think I'm writing this whilst Nick is running his marathon. So hope is going great. I ran a 115 half today. That is moving. So buzzing to see your result. Slight self-shout out there. I have a long question and a shorter one. As triathletes, do you adapt the way you swim in a pool to mimic how you swim in a race? I'm talking about using open water stroke compared to pool stroke. But also do you put less focus on strong dolphin kicking off the wall since you're never going to do that in a race, right? Equally, there's probably great. training benefit to including all of these things. I swim with a club, so I'm swimming fly and actually kind of loving it. Yeah, I mean, personally, I put zero emphasis whatsoever on flip turns in a pool. I take pride in having the worst flip turns in the pool and just think that that's going to make me a better

open water swimmer because you're getting no propulsion off the wall. You're starting from zero. It's... No one puts less emphasis on flip turns than me, Eric. I don't even do them. I don't... Okay. Too shit. I'm like, there's no flip turns in the ocean, so I don't... I'm not even going to

try to get good at this. No, true. I do think that's the thing. It's like not something you need to like hate on or necessarily intentionally do terribly, but also doesn't really matter. You guys don't dolphin kick, right? Yeah, I was just going to say we definitely don't do underwater dolphin kick. Like when we swam, when we are swimmers, a lot of emphasis on underwater dolphin kick. Because if you watch the Olympics, that's how a lot of races are won or lost is like the wonderwater ability, especially off other walls. But for us, we just don't do it. So a couple dolphin kicks, but not like working on our dolphin kick. I think that we, I don't know, we don't practice our open water stroke a lot in the pool, but when the summer comes around, we can swim in

the river and we take advantage of that a few times a week because it is different sighting versus not siding. And you can practice your siding in the pool, but it's definitely not as natural as when you're actually like looking up in the river. Oh, we're just talking about siding. Right. No, no, no, no. They're talking about like your cadence if it's like faster in the open water or if your recovery is a little higher maybe? No, pool stroke and open water stroke are the same. I see the only difference is the sighting for sure. Generally, yeah.

I think you can be get, I personally think Eric is better open water than he is at swimming. I don't know why that is, but he's really, really fast with a wetsuit, which is insane. My legs sink like rocks. Yeah, that's probably it. The second question, second part of this, would you guys ever come overseas to race in Europe? We'd love to see you in the UK, especially since it's probably the cheapest way I can get my hands on some merch. We have raced in Europe before. The thing that makes it challenging now is having Flynn and a house, and I'm not mad about it.

It's a lot of work to travel down. Challenging is an understatement, for sure. But, yeah, I mean, we really love it over there. We've spent a lot of time in Europe in our lives and our careers of racing and everything, and for the right race, we'll definitely come over, i.e. the Collins Cup and, like I said, maybe Xtera Worlds. For world championships, yeah. We were there for Nice and some of the bigger races.

But honestly, like, the options for racing in North America are so good, especially with the new PTO tour, that it's just convenient for us to stay in North America, especially with COVID travel and everything. Yeah. But you should come here to race, and then you can get some TTL merch. Yeah, yeah, the chances of us bring in a huge truckload of merch with us to the Collins Cup are low. Thanks so much for what you've done for the triathlon world and creating the pod.

It's the perfect midweek TTL hit. I think we all needed all the best. That's great. Oh, thanks. Warm buzzers.

Thanks, Bob. Yeah, thank you, Bob. Okay, can I, do I have the permission to read the next question? Yes. Please do. Great.

Okay, great. So next question is from Noel. And she says, hey, party people, dying over Eric's bathroom woes in Beijing. Hilarious, too relatable. Question is, what is your nutrition strategy

during a race? How many grams of carbs do you try to take in on the bike and run? And do you keep your hydration separate from your carb sources? So this is something that people ask you guys all the time is about your nutrition. So if you wanted to talk about this a bit, I feel like it could be a good opportunity. And Nick, she also asked, what is your nutrition plan for the Iron Man?

And how do we set up our nutrition hydration on our bikes? Wow, I feel like this is an entire podcast. Yeah. Maybe we briefly touch on it. And then in a couple weeks after Oceanside, maybe we'll do a little deep dive. into this. Nutrition focused pot. Yeah. Yeah. I can see how fast I could go through it. Same breakfast you always have. Have a caffeine gel 15 minutes before the start. I take 250 grams of 250 calories on the bike in a bottle, two bottles, plus try to take down two gels with caffeine in

them. And then on the run, I just do on course nutrition. How much on course nutrition do you do during the run? Whatever I can grab. I'll bring a gel out of transition with me and I'll try to put that down in the first like 30 minutes of the run. Otherwise, like I'll just, every aid station, I'll try to grab either water or a little bit of Gatorade or whatever. Yeah. I can eat most, I can put down most anything. I'm pretty lucky.

What about you, Paula? Wow. I have no plan. That is. Yeah, I thought you wouldn't. Actually, I don't know why. I was like, she's just going to drink if she's thirsty. Drink from Schwigg.

Drink from Schwig when it's not a scary point in the race. Right. We call the hydration. on the shiv, the shwig, just so everyone knows. I'm really, I love it so much. When I was riding a different bike brand, who shall not be named? I always was trying to figure out like how's the best way to carry all my water. But with the shiv, that huge bladder on the back can fit like two full bottles in it and I just don't have to worry about it and it's awesome. But you only put water in there, right? You don't put any. I put sport drink in there because I don't take anything else on

on board except for like scratch. Like I'm not putting super, super dense, sticky carbohydrate drink in it. I use scratch. Is it not hard to clean? I mean it is, but I just have a couple swig bladders and I clean them well and then I can rotate them every other race. And then on the run, I'll just have water and then take a gel with me. I'll usually put two in transition and take those throughout the run.

But wow, I think that's like one of the most intimidating parts of doing an Iron Man is that you really, really cannot mess up your nutrition. In a 70.3, I feel like I can get away with a little more, and everyone's different, but I kind of am a camel, and I don't need to take this much as other people. Back before the shug, I would, like, we'd get Paul's bike out of T2 after the race, and she'd have taken, like, three sips of her between the arrow bars bottle thing, and I just, I would be dead on the side of the road at 50K on the bike ride if I wasn't fueling. It just further proves our theory that Paul is an alien.

No, no, no. She's not of this world. What I think is important is finding things that you think taste good. And I really like scratch. I really like the new momentous fuel. That is really delicious. And it has a lot of good stuff in it. And then I've just recently kind of discovered that I really like the power bar gels.

Oh, nice. Hey, whatever. We'll forgive this. Yeah, I don't know why. I just like, they were on course at the Collins Cup last year and I had a few. And I was like, damn, these tastes really good. If it works, it doesn't need to be the fanciest thing of the world. If it works, I guess.

No, it tastes really yummy. I'll tell you what not to do. Okay, let's hear. I had breakfast three and a half hours before the marathon and then just had three gels on the course, and I think that's kind of what was my problem. I looked at my face after and it was just like salt all over my face. Yeah.

I think I probably just lost too much salt and didn't really realize, and that's why the cramps hit me so hard. So maybe a little bit more than three gels I'm going to do it during the Iron Man. I still have to figure it out personally. Yeah. And that's the hard thing about talking about nutrition. on a podcast and what we do is that everyone is so different and individual. So you can't just like listen to what Eric does and copy him.

There's definitely some trial and error. There's some like what do you have access to? What's actually on the course that day? How much can you fit on your bike? I think a good place to put a bottle is between your front handlebars and then maybe behind your seat. It's actually pretty slow to have a bottle on your down tube. But if that is the only place where you're comfortable grabbing it,

it's totally worth having it there as opposed to being more aerodynamic for someone who's like just trying to get through the race. So yeah, thanks for that question, Noel. That was fun. Next question. I will read it. Hey, Eric, Paula, and Nick. What?

Sorry. Next question. I will read it. I told you to read it. I told it to read it. It just sounded funny. Sorry. Okay.

We got a lot of questions to get through. Hey, Eric, Paula, Nick. I don't know many other triathletes and rarely get to talk about the sports. So I've really been enjoying being able to hear your genuine. in conversation about triathlon. That really means a lot. That is exactly what we're going for. I've got a tech question for Eric slash all of you. I always try to do as much DIY work on my bikes as I can because I enjoy tinkering. I recently swapped out the cranks and cassette on my road bike and realized it wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined. Now that I have an extra crankset and cassette laying around, I cross my mind that it might be fun to build a bike as a side project.

My question is, if the extent of my skill level is replacing a crank set, would I be able to, in over my head if I attempted to build a road bike by surrounding parts, assuming I put some research into it. Would it be more cost effective just to buy a new used bike? Good luck at Oceanside. Jade, I think you 100% got this.

I do not agree with Eric at all. No, Jade likes to tinker, figured out how to take a crank set off. I think, yeah, YouTube is your friend, you got this, no problem. I would not be like necessarily trying to don't have a timeline and maybe it shouldn't be the bike that's your like a number one bike, but I'm all for learning how to make a bike.

I think people look at a bike from the outside and they're like, what is it? Like a chain ring, a chain, a cassette, wheels, a frame, handlebars, and brakes. Except each one of those parts has like a million little small things that you need to make it work. Like even the bottom bracket, then you need a spacers and you have to torque things to spec. And like just the world of bottom brackets by itself is one of the most convoluted, complicated things. There's so many different standards that sometimes work together, sometimes don't. Is it boost? Is it not?

Is it BB30? Is it press fit? It's just like, what is happening? And that's just that then is like, you're trying to like get bleed breaks, trying to get break lines through the internally routed frame. It's just like, oh. Nick, you're staring Jade. I'm trying to scare Jade. Don't do it.

Save yourself, Jade. Jade, you got this. No problem. I would never ever attempt this. I am like, and not, I mean, if you enjoy tinkering. that's one thing. But if you're like buying parts and now you're like,

okay, I invested in all these parts now I have to build my bike, you're going to be kind of panicky, I think. And it'll become less of a fun project and more of like, I need to figure this out. So I think... You guys are not tinkerers. You're not thinking about this right.

This is going to be fun for Jane. I love tinkering, but I totally agree with Eric. Just don't make this you're like a bike, right? Like have your bike and then try to build for fun another bike. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Eric built my shiv yesterday, basically just from parts and a frame all the way up to me riding it today.

So that is amazing. But he estimated it would take him half the time that it actually took him. And those were all things he ran into like sides of bottom bracket, re-bleeding the rear brake because it didn't work the first time, things like that. And Eric's really good at it and really smart and has done this a lot and worked at a bike shop. Yeah, right. That's what I mean. It's like whatever you think it's going to take you, it'll probably take longer. But also the shib is a very, very complicated bike, and she could just build like a steel frame single speed or something. That would be a little more. Is it complicated?

I don't know. Like with SRAM wireless, it's not a lot of complicated, Nick. I watched half of it. It could be, it could definitely be more complicated. But with every single bike out there, there's like little tricks that mechanics who build them all the time know specific to that bike. And it just might take you longer to figure it out.

But it's not rocket science. I must say one of the advantages of him building my new ship is that my whole ship was sitting right there. So he could like borrow parts from it and like look and see how everything was done. So that was a bit of a cheat sheet, which was really helpful. Yeah. Worst case scenario, you take it to the bike shop. You give up and it's fine. I've done that so many times.

I walk in with like half a bike and tears coming down my face. I'm like, please help me. Look what I've done to my sweet boy. By the way, you know, I just remember speaking. of building bikes is that you guys let Ashley borrow a part of a very small component of a SRAM wheel set

and then she ended up winning Clash Miami with it. So I feel like you're entitled at least 50% of her winnings. Did she send you a replacement yet? I have not gotten the replacement. Yeah, we better remember that because did we pack our wheels yet? We're leaving tomorrow, I don't think we have the replacement part.

Worst case scenario, take it off of my 404, put it on the 808. The 454 and put it on the 858. I think it might be sitting in the mailbox right now. I need to check the mailbox. But yes, you're welcome, Ashley, and we can't wait for our pets. Exactly. I think that's at least 50% of the winnings you're entitled to. I mean, she couldn't have ridden without it. Well, the thing is, I think Josh is to Ashley as Eric is to me.

And if I was stuck in Australia without Eric, because Eric was turned around, they would have done the same thing for me. So it was not even a question, you know. I was like, yes, you're taking this part. Take our whole wheel. Like, take what you need, you know? her winning was just a not a surprise. She's so fast. I really hope our whole audience knows the backstory on that. Thank you for that great question, Jade. She also said good luck at

Oceanside, which isn't a couple of weekends. We're very excited. I was just there this morning, shooting video, and I was right at the pier, right at the finish. I saw that. So next question, and our last question for the day is from Josh and Candace, from Australia, speaking of which. And they say, hi, TTL

team. Both myself and my wife love your vlog and podcasts. We're both a group triathletes and have learned a lot through your content. We also acknowledge the incredible amount of creative hours that go into the vlog. The camera work and editing is amazing to watch. We are starting out documenting our own story in the form of video slash vlog. More to share with family and friends our adventures than to make it big on YouTube. We were curious as to what cameras, editing software, and tools do you use to create your vlog content? Keep up the awesome work. I don't think that the editing software that you use, the camera that you use is that important when you're starting out. I've done several videos, 100% on an iPhone, not editing, but you can use iMovie on the laptop, shoot stuff on your iPhone, and just like focus on the story. And the biggest thing is if you have a camera that you're not totally comfortable with and it causes the moments to be lost or to be awkward or anything like that,

then you don't want that. Yeah, I agree. If you want to step up from there, then like the camera that I shot on forever was Panasonic GH4. And that is, the Panasonic cameras are like really good starting point, kind of small and everything. The small entry-level camera that I use right now is a Sony ZV-1, and then I also have a Sony A7S3, which is like a very big, expensive camera. But I think the ZV-1 is like a really, really excellent starter vlog camera. And then I currently edit on Final Cut Pro, which is basically just like

a little bit more advanced version of iMovie. It feels very intuitive, but definitely more powerful. The thing is, I guarantee if you gave Eric just an iPhone, he could put together a vlog that is a very high quality. So it's not, people love to point at the camera, the microphone, the software as to why things look and feel good. But the truth is, I think that's actually a very small portion of what's responsible for making something that's really compelling content. I agree. Yeah. That's like case in point is we've done a couple of vlogs exclusively on the iPhone just to see if it's possible. And Eric can still make that artistic. And it's a lot about the music you pick, capturing the moments properly,

and then the way that you make the story flow, more than what the visual is. Yeah. I think if you wanted to do something that could just really elevate quality, I would do some research on how camera movement and camera angles play into a motion in a scene. So if you're slowly getting closer to your subject, for example, that'll build some tension

versus if you're backing away, that'll release some tension. If you pan up, like looking from the ground, looking up at them, It makes them seem majestic. Just things like that can make a huge difference in that. You can do that with a phone. No problem.

I think also it's like practice makes you way better. And you've seen that with Eric over the last two years. So much better. It's evolved. And if you watch one of our earlier vlogs from 2019, they're still good, but the difference in quality is huge. So that's not equipment necessarily. That's like just getting better at it.

Go for it, though. That's fun. Yeah. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with. Cool. I think that's all the questions we had for this week. Remember, you can send those questions into that triathlon life brand at gmail.com.

We love your questions. I think next week we're going to do a little bit of an Oceanside episode. Well, we will be in Oceanside. So if you guys want to send in some questions about maybe racing in California or racing Oceanside, as well as any other questions, we can't wait to get them and read them and talk about them on the pod. Yeah, we're driving down tomorrow, actually,

which is Wednesday in real time here. So as you're listening to this, we're on the illustrious I-5 south. Yeah. So we'll be there a week early. We'll be able to get some training in. We're staying with some friends. And then we're heading to Oceanside on Wednesday. And also we will have a TTR pop-up out of the van with our merchandise that we're bringing.

And it's kind of limited, but not a ton of options. We have two shirts and two hats. Because a California-specific collection. Yeah. They're unique to the race. Yes, yes. We're not just bringing stuff that's online. It's not available online.

They're killer. So if you want to come just say, hey, you don't have to buy anything, but we'd love to meet you guys. And we will be posting on our Instagram, where will be in what time? And there'll be a pop-up on Thursday, Friday, and then Sunday after the race as well, I think. Oh, in case we have some Heather and Wadi fans, we will be collaborating with them for the pop-up as well. Our vans will be spooning as we do this. Yeah, it'll be awesome. Yeah, as long as we don't get in trouble. Yep. You get there right when it starts, just in case somebody calls us.

cops. Nick will also be there. If you want to just come get Nick's autograph, that is where he will be. And you can see how I talk too much in person, too, not just on the pod. Also, one last thing. We did have a very nice offer from Jordan Blanco to watch Flynn or to take Flynn for some walks while we're down there.

But if anyone else wants to walk Flynn, we are still open to that. And I actually just bought him this special harness so he doesn't pull on the leash as much because it was really funny. Like the other day, I was walking Flynn on a leash, like trying to get him to to teach him out of, trying to teach him out to heal because he sucks at healing. And Lindsay's like, Flynn's panic training for Oceanside too. Like what? There's no wilderness here.

I have to walk on a leash. We're all panic training. So anyway, maybe that was too much of a story. But that's all I got for you guys. That's fantastic. Submit your background checks now. Yeah, exactly. Right.

That's right. That's right. Thank you for joining us on this special number 10. Yeah, 10. Can't believe we made it all the way here. Can't believe we made it here so quickly. That's right. It only took us 10 weeks to get to episode 10.

Yeah. That is Nick cracking the whip. That's alarming. That's right. Get in line. Yeah, thanks, you guys. And we'll talk to you next week in California. All right.

Later. Bye-bye.