That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula gets 2nd at Ironman 70.3 World Championships, racing in the cold, cadence, sweating into your visor, and more!

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

This week we are over the moon with Paula's 2nd place finish at Ironman 70.3 World Championships in St. George, Utah. We spend the first 30 minutes recapping Paula and Eric's races, so feel free to skip to 30 minutes if you want to go straight to questions. This week we talk about sweaty visors, watch bands, race week logistics, and much more. Head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com to submit your questions, and for TTL gear.

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lauggestrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And on this podcast, we kind of talk about what's going on in triathlon world, what we're doing each week. But most importantly, we take questions from you and try to, I don't know, be some sort of source of knowledge. Are we emotionally still completely wrecked and drained from this past week? Eric sure is. Yeah, I am. Paula seems to be completely fine. Nick is not fine.

Nick is not at all fine. Yeah, judging. from the caliber of all our Instagram posts lately that can confirm Paula totally fine. Nick and Eric still like emotionally distraught. Eric and Nick both posted

at the same time pretty much today like all these super gushy posts but I don't know. I think part of the mental drain from Eric and maybe you as well Nick is that you guys both drove home a bunch of hours and I had the luxury of flying home so that definitely is really

exhausting. Well driving I think is a more introspective activity than flying. Yeah, yeah, maybe. Like 14 hours of thinking about how I feel about it and how I feel about how I feel. Exactly. Well, I doubt we have any brand new listeners, but just in case we do, I'll quickly just say who we are.

Eric and I are professional triathletes. Nick is a very good amateur triathlete, currently a little bit injured. But most of all, a professional musician and our very, very good friend. We just got back. This emotional drain we're talking about is the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, which took place on the weekend. I raced on Friday.

Eric raced on Saturday, and Nick was there with us for the whole week. So it was in St. George, Utah, really, really chilly race, colder than any triathlon we've ever done, which was the, I would say, like, one of the main features of this event. But we had polar opposite days. I came second. Eric did not finish, but we really love him anyway. I feel like we might actually love him more. Yeah, actually, right. Yeah, yeah, maybe. It's not very motivating for my next race, guys.

Yeah, Eric. Keep you and Fing. We'll just love you more and more and more. I mean, to your point, I do sort of agree when I have heroes that seem to have weak moments, not say I'm anybody's hero, but when I'm, you know,

when somebody appears to be human. You're my hero, Eric. When someone appears to be human versus just winning, winning, winning, robotically, I don't know, it does make that more relatable. So I don't know. I'm not trying to be more relatable.

I really, really wanted to have a good day. Are you saying you didn't intentionally DNF to get more? I mean, some days I definitely would not mind being the winning robot. Right, right, right. But anyway, there was a lot of factors and I can get into them a little bit, but I think we'd much rather go through Paula's race and well. Well, first, can we just start with before the race, the week before the race? Because we, I feel like this was our most successful ever pre-race week.

that we've done together. And we have done now many, many together. Yeah. Yeah, generally when we're all three together pre-race, it always feels very rushed, very hectic, lots of pre-race commitments, and checking in bags, checking in bikes. And then the dual race day made it that much more complicated this time.

But I think that we really, you're right, did everything super efficiently. We did everything we wanted to do, including a pop-up where we sold a bunch of hats and met a bunch of cool people and did all of the pre-race media. stuff, check in, that kind of thing, really, really well. And I think part of that is that we just know St. George really well, and we were able to

plan accordingly, do things at the right times, to avoid crowds, that kind of thing. But we're just getting better at it. So let's carry that to the next one. Is there anything either of you looking back at the week before? Do you feel like we could have actually done better as athletes that were racing and people that were helping? Not eaten Viva Chish. in so much.

I don't know. I don't know. I feel like we could have done more. Yeah, maybe more, maybe more. Every night. Every night. You know, honestly, I don't think so. I feel like every time we went out and, you know, usually you go out and you're like,

okay, we're going to check in at one and then we're going to do breakfast with Bob at two and then we're going to do our whatever, Paul's going to do a podcast at three. And inevitably the first activity already takes 20 minutes long than we're supposed to and you're just late to everything all day and it's terrible. Like every time we did something, we're like, like, wow, that went really fast. We're on schedule. We are good at this.

There was almost always time for farmstead treats in between baked goods and coffees. Yeah. Honestly, I think a lot of that, like for me, it's really calming to drive your Tesla into town because it can park easily. It's so much different than the van. It's like you zoom down the highway, whereas this van is just like kind of lugging along and hard to get into parking spots. And I do feel like that made a difference.

So let's get one. Eric's looking out the window. I'm not opposed to an electric car in any way. I don't know. No one's trying to talk me into an electric car. No, no, I know. I know. Yes, right, of course. I'm ready to buy one tomorrow.

Anyway, off topic. So let's start with the races because Paula, first of all, do you think this was the best result of your life? No. Okay. Because I think some people do think this is the best result of your life. Maybe people are going to follow you more recently. When you get beat by six minutes, it's not the best result. of your life. If I had won, yeah, then we can say. But it was the world championships. I was in

second place and I did beat a lot of women that I really, really respect with crazy resumes and also was like head to head with them, which is really cool. So I impressed myself in many ways, but also have had a lot of success in other races that I've won in the past, which feel like more of a bigger result. But anyway, that is a lot of it. I'll say it was potentially one of your most exciting races, like for me to watch. Maybe. I mean, with coming out of T2 in the group of people versus, you know, when you won Daytona, you were Taylinib then.

You were five minutes off the front and it was, we were all pretty nervous about maybe you would blow up, but it was never close. Yeah, yeah, true. And when I saw you out on the run with those two women, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who doesn't know. I'm guessing everyone does know, though. I was just like, whoa, this is so epic. This group of three right here is just, that's so.

crazy. If you're a fan of triathlon watching that part of the race, you were just like how could this get better? It could have been better if we were leading the race. Yeah, if you were leading. Anyway, I'll do, I hate Reist Recaps, but I love them. I want to hear more about it, and I was there. I'm not going into as

much depth as previous ones, but I will do a recap. And instead of explaining what happened, I'll explain how I felt. How about that? Because people watched it and if you haven't, you can rewatch it on outside TV. and we are going to put a blog out on Sunday for some visual recaps.

So the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius at the start, air temperature. 36 Fahrenheit. Yeah, and the water was 17 Celsius. So pretty cold, but my focus on race morning was to stay as warm as I could before getting in the water for the start. And I didn't warm up on the swim. So I had like hand warmers and these big winter gloves and these big winter boots that Holly got me at Walmart and was jumping up and down in my wetsuit and just so making sure my

core temperature was elevated before the start. And I think that helped me a lot. I wasn't ever worried about getting too hot. Like I was actually sweating in the heating tent before the race started. And my plan of action was to put on a pretty like wintry jacket for the, for the bike ride with hefty gloves that had a zipper and toe covers. So my swim was not great. The start was really, really narrow, and it was like a few steps in a dive in. And there were about 60 women all crammed into like a 15 meter wide boat ramp. And going from like not really doing a proper swim warm up to horizontal trying to sprint gave me this panicky feeling. So I had to remind myself that it's like a 70.3. It's okay. I can like calm down, relax, don't freak out. And I think that moment caused me to lose some feet of the people I wanted to swim with. So I actually found myself kind of on my. own for most of the swim, which was frustrating, but I could see them ahead of me. So I thought, okay, even if this gap grows to 30 seconds or a minute, I can close that on the bike. So I wasn't

panicking, but I definitely wasn't having fun. And I was working harder than I would have if I had just gotten on the feet in the first place. So another reminder how important start speed is, even in 70.3 races. I had dark goggles, which was the biggest mistake I made all day because it was still dark. It was still dark when we started. I couldn't see anything except for like splashes ahead of me. So it was, that was a big mistake. Always take like a pair of clear goggles, a pair of mirrored goggles and a pair of dark goggles when you're racing just to be able to choose the proper ones for the conditions. But it's fine. It started to brighten up on the way back into the boat ramp and didn't pay attention to what anyone else was doing in T-Ban. Because if I did, I may have just

skipped the clothing because I was freaking out about them leaving T-1 quicker than me. Well, did it shake your confidence at all with your swim, or did you think nope, swim was what it was? And I know that my strength lies in what's ahead in this race right now. The only thing that, the only dream scenario for me would be to someday come out with Taylor Nib and see if I could ride with her for part of the time or all the time. But every single other person in the race, I was confident I could catch. So I was okay with it. Put my jacket on. Put my gloves on.

A lot of people really struggled getting their tight gloves on. But these Castelli gloves we have have a zipper that kind of run. diagonally down the back of the hand, and you can slide them in super easily, and then I zip them up while I was riding. So they're the best gloves, for sure, for this kind of thing. And, yeah, got on my bike and just started reeling people in the whole time until about 40K maybe I caught. No, before 40K. 20K, I maybe caught Lucy and Flora and made my way into second. St. George is a super hilly course, a lot of downhills, which is no secret that I'm not good at downhills. And I wrote them as well as I could, but still found that on every downhill,

I was being caught by everybody, which was kind of annoying, because I could easily catch them on the flats, pass everyone on the flats, pass everyone on the hills. And then I hit a descent and get caught. So definitely like something I really need to work on. And I think I was watched back the race yesterday, and I could see. see gaps forming on every flat or hill and then it closing back again to a group of four. So it was more obvious to me after watching it back myself, how much that's a weakness of mine and how much I need to work on it if I want to be able to ride like Taylor Nib and truly break away from people. So that's something I'm definitely going to pay attention to more next

year. And it's better this year than it's ever been, but still not as good as Flora and Lucy for it downhills. Did you feel like you were always in control of physically on the bike, like aerobically? Or did you feel like, or did it maybe feel like, oh, well, I'm pushing a lot and my body's just responding well? Or did it just feel like a normal day? Because that was an amazing bike ride, even though Taylor did outride you. But compared to the rest of the field, that was an amazing ride.

Yeah, I felt very in control on the bike to the point where I definitely could have ridden harder. and a lot of my like, I guess some of the downhills being slower and pushing less wads allowed me to recover a bit more for the uphills, but also the cold, I think helped a lot with that. Being able to push hard and not get overly fatigued or overheated like I would in most races really, really helps me a lot. And I find that in training too. If I'm training on a cold day, I can always push more watts with less perceived exertion. So that was, I wasn't, you know, looking at my watts all the time. But when I did, it was always higher than I expected it to be. Which was kind of cool. And fully in control. Like never redlining, always feeling like even if I got gapped, I could easily catch back up. And yeah, I think a lot of that's just doing a lot of high intensity efforts this year and having some surges and ability to climb really well. We kind of slowly strung everything out to the point where it was just me and Flora going up Snow Canyon.

She was like pretty close behind me. And then on the descent back into town, there's about 15 minutes of the race left. It's a long, long descent, and that's where I always lose time in this race. So Flora came around me and I was like, just stay with Flora. And not that it was physically hard to stay with her Watts-wise, it was just scary because we were going so fast, which again is my weakness. So Flora took off. I tried to stay with her. Lucy eventually came around both of us.

She's just so fast on the downhills and came into transition with Lucy and Flora in about maybe two minutes on Holly Lawrence and then three plus on everybody else. So when you're leaving transition with Florida Duffy, the Olympic champion, and Lucy Charles, the reigning 70.3 world champion, it's a bit intimidating. And I was completely aware that there were only two podium spots left and three of us. So that going through my mind, I kept having to bring myself back to the moment and not think about the podium or like the outcome. Because there was a lot of running ahead of us. and I was actually feeling pretty good and not being gapped by Flora or Lucy. Like in my mind running out, I'm like, okay, they're just going to like run away from me instantly.

But yeah, it didn't happen. And I kind of took control a little bit. Went to the front through the golf course. I was listening to their breathing, was listening to their footsteps, like trying to assess the situation of how hard everyone was working. And aerobically, again, I felt really in control. I was not running harder than I should have been, I guess. But my legs were feeling it.

by the downhill. So it was more like a muscular fatigue than an aerobic one. And you're not cold at all at this point? No, but my toes were cold starting the run. So maybe going back in time, I would have put socks on for the bike even, like it's taken another 30 seconds to put socks on. But it didn't really impact anything. It's just a weird feeling.

I think we've talked about this on the pod before, running with numb feet. It's like, what's in my shoe? It feels like there's something in my shoe. Yeah. So, yeah, Flora running down the diagonal in the first lap was like, My watch was splitting 330s per K, which is not my 70.3 speed normally, but it was a little bit of a descent. And then on the way back up, the diagonal is where I put a little gap on her. And I made a point not to look back, but I couldn't hear her footsteps anymore.

And carbon shoes are loud, right? So you can really hear if there's like people with you. It sounds like pitter pattering all around you. So, yeah, I saw in the golf course I could see on some mountain backs that I'd put quite a lot of time into Flora and Lucy, and I was asking people where Emma Palant was, because I knew she was running through the field a little bit. But when I had minutes on everybody, except Taylor Nip, of course, who was going to win the race eventually, I was doing math in my head and thinking, like, I think I'm going to come second. Like, I can't slow down enough for them to catch me.

I'd have to start running five minutes per K or something, which wasn't going to happen. So, yeah, it was the end of a, I haven't done a 70.3 for a long time. I'm used to doing the 18 kilometers and the PTO races. So the last 3K, I was like ready for it to be over. But yeah, just so crazy coming down the finish line. And probably like, I mean, I'm always like overly dramatic and emotional when I finish and have a good result. But it's truly genuinely a sense of surprise. It's like, I don't expect myself to be winning these things. I know it's in me or in my potential to be on the podium, but I wasn't expecting it. So all of the emotions and everything at the finish line were like real. Oh, you could tell. Nick was there. Eric was resting at the hotel for the

Airbnb for his race. But yeah, it was just super, super cool. And the end. And Eric, you were able to watch the whole thing, right? Like the broadcast was great enough that you could be there for pretty much. I mean, you probably saw the race better than I did. Yeah, yeah, I watched the whole thing. You, Sean Jefferson and I all ran out to the road to watch her come by at like 20 miles out front the Airbnb and then I rode the trainer for an hour while I did my like kind of pre-race thing and as soon as she crossed the finish line I went to the swim pool to do a swimming workout. So fun. Eric and I were just like this is going to be an emotional day.

Well, Eric, there's nothing that you couldn't have done that any different. If you would have been down at the finish. Could have been down there sharing in the goodness like I wanted to be. Yeah. But then we would have had that next day we would have blamed it on that, right? Like we just, there's no way to know when you're there. I would have been happy as I was blaming on it instead of feeling. Okay.

That's right. I mean, this was a decision we made way back in Edmonton. We were like, Eric doesn't race well the day after me, especially when he comes down to the course and wastes energy walking around, talking to people. It's not like Eric goes to a race and he's like in and out. People know who he is. People know who Nick is.

We get stopped all the time. It's an exhausting, but fun experience. And we were just trying to be sheltered from that. which I think we accomplished. And I think it was smart. Yeah. I think it was smart. But yeah, that was emotional.

Even for me when I was down there, I was like, really choked up when you were coming down the finish line. Just because you see how much, I mean, people who listen to this podcast, too, I know a lot of people got emotional. It's just because we're all part of your journey now and watching you, watching the ups and downs. We're so invested in it. No, it's cool.

It's like we all work hard. Every single one of us and every single athlete in racing works really hard. So to be able to actually show that and not just get QOMs on Strava. Right. Right. It's super fun. Well, so then after your race, we went back to the Airbnb and saw Eric and then tried to keep our brains together and in order so that Eric could race the next day. Yeah. And so Eric, do you want to walk us through what your race was like at all?

I mean, as much as you feel like? You don't have to. I mean, I can, like, give you the, the, a quick rundown, but, um, just to, like, back things up. Like, I'm certainly not going to blame all of this on Paula racing the day before me at all. Um, I talked to Nick and, you know, you know, Nick, like, after Santa Cruz, I really had a great sense of accomplishment. It was one of my big goals for the year to win another 70.3. And I was, and I was really tired. Uh, I came back from that and then, like, you know, I drove the van back and then,

one day after that we flew to Dallas and like I tried to run around and film Paula and help Paula and pump tires and cheer and the whole thing and then we finally got back to Ben and I just felt like kind of emotionally and physically super cooked but wanted to try to do the best I could take the best shot I could at 70.3 worlds because I mean I was pretty fit so um but you know like last year going into last year's race I felt like all the workouts I was doing I just I couldn't really get that tired. Like it was really, they were really challenging, but I'd finish like a really big bike workout and feel like, oh man, I'm ready for tomorrow. What's the next? You know, versus this block was kind of like, oh my gosh. Like I think I just, man, I really got to sleep well the night or I'm just, you know, in trouble. And it just kind of felt like I was constantly just a little bit on my heels instead of being really firing. So I think that kind of has more to do with the result than Dan Paula's race. because I watched her race.

I felt like I still had my head in the game. I'm like, all right, awesome. She raced good. Now it's my turn to go out there and race well. And it kind of did fall apart a little bit the night before the race. Like the emotional like holdup that I'd had kind of let itself fall out around 6 p.m. And I kind of had quite the emotional evening. But then on the race morning, I kind of was going back and forth.

And I really still felt like I could go have a good race. I think I'm ready for this. And then I'd see Paula or, you know, at the start of the race, you know, because you guys came out to watch. And I'd go back to like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? Like, I'm... Maybe I shouldn't have gone to the start. It wasn't that.

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, it wasn't because you were there. But it was just, I was going back and forth between, I'm going to crush this and, like, I don't even want to start. I want to go home and just be happy. But I still went for it. I went through all the motions. I got warmed up.

I did a swim warm up because. I feel like for me, the swim is super critical to be in a position to make it into the lead group. Because in the men's race, a little more so than the women's race, like being in a group is just so huge. And positioning yourself well and being fresh out of the water so that you're not like getting passed by people. It's very important because I feel like it's so on the rivet for me. My race experience is certainly the exact opposite of Paula's where she's like, oh, I was in control and it didn't feel that hard. or, you know, like, I wasn't breathing that hard. I was like, I was breathing as hard as I could.

My legs were on fire and I'm getting dropped, you know? That was my bike experience. But I had a great swim. The gun went off. I hit the water really well as a dive-in start this year. Thank goodness. I'm very good at dive starts. And I really quickly found myself in third place.

It was Aaron Royal, Ben Canute, and me on Ben's feet, like dream scenario, didn't get hit by anybody until I won't say whose name it is, but I know who it was. came completely out of nowhere and slammed into me like 300 meters into the swim, like going almost at a 45 degree angle to the left of where we were actually swimming in the buoy line. So I got pushed like four body lengths off to the side by this person. It was a, right? Yep.

Yeah. Who was a very fast swimmer, but inadvertently smashed me off of Ben Canute's feet and then sprinted up to get to the front of the line. Wow. And I had lost the feet. and was like aerobically extremely blown, barely caught up to Ben's feet around the first buoy, which is like 800 meters, and then they surged a little bit and I lost the feet again. So I basically swim the entire swim, two body lengths behind Ben Canute, doing all of the work,

getting no draft, which is huge. Like that, like I said, that can like, that pretty much had a huge impact on the first 10 minutes of the bike for me. Being that aerobically taxed, yes, I swam really fast, but I did a lot. of work to swim that fast relative to what Ben was doing on Aaron's feet. So I put on a long-sleeved jersey in transition one, which I don't know, like part of me wishes I'd just skipped that and maybe been a little bit further up in the group and saved 20 seconds and possibly that would have been enough to help me stay in the lead group and yeah, I'd have been cold. But the bigger problem for me was coldness in my hip, which was completely uncovered in my legs, just kind of felt like popsicles

and I never got enough blood into them and they were just, I kind of feel like with my hip injury, like, I need everything to be like, almost, you know, perfect for lack of a better word, and smooth and relaxed. And the coldness just kind of didn't allow that to happen. Plus trying to go 450 watts

for the first few minutes to make this bike pack that was just accelerating. So anyway, kind of started off on the back foot and just kind of slowly got passed by a lot of people. people and ultimately ended up deciding to not put myself through the snow canyon climb. So I pulled out before that and made my way back to transition area. Where we found him. And he called his parents because he doesn't know my phone number from a hotel phone. I love that. I know my parents' phone numbers and a bunch of my friends from high school's phone numbers who I don't really talk to

that much anymore. So it's not that useful. Yeah, I know Eric's phone number, but it took me a while. It took me like 20 minutes of calling my parents for them to finally pick up. Oh, wow. And then they did finally, luckily. Because we didn't know where Eric was, although we assumed he had pulled out. Well, we knew he pulled out. I don't know. It's really frustrating, but I don't, I feel like I tried my best through the course

of the bike, and I had little moments. I'd have like 30 seconds at a time where everything felt okay, like I was getting power out of both the right and the left leg. And then I just like completely tie up and go lactic at a power. that is normally not hard for me to push. So something was just off, whether it was just deep fatigue or emotions or the cold. Do you wish you hadn't swam as hard?

Do you wish you had kind of once that thing happened, maybe went back a bit? Yeah, that's one thing I could have done for sure. I could have just completely taken a log off the fire, you know, dialed it back three perceived exertion points, come out with the Norwegians instead of 10. You were fourth out of the water. front of them.

Yeah, that's something I could have done. That's not racing, though. Could have been the same result, and you weren't there to, like, it's a world championship. You're not just going to play it safe. You're trying to get for the best results you can get. Yeah, really, my goal was, like, to go top five. Right.

I was like, top five was an exciting, you know, possibility for me. And so, and I just, I didn't know how far back the group was behind me. I didn't know who was in the group. I just knew who was in front of me, and I knew that Aaron and Ben would be rolling, and if there was any chance I could get into that group, I needed to do whatever I could to make it happen. How long had it been since you had gotten into the hotel when we saw you? I don't know, 45 minutes.

You were still shivering cold, and then I gave you my puffy jacket, and with the puffy jacket on, you were shivering, and I saw that you had like goosebumps on your leg. Yeah, well, it had been easily an hour and a half. since I stopped race intensity. I wasn't cold on the bite. My upper body was totally fine. Like I said, my legs just felt like popsicles. And when I have my left hip issue,

like my whole left leg just goes numb. So like when that became unnum, I could feel that it was cold. But I had to like ride all the way back to that hotel, which was right at transition. And I got cold during that, yeah. Wow. Man, it was such an emotional, like, contrast,

the two days that we had there for all three of us. I mean, mostly you guys, but for all three of us, there's just such an emotional contrast to see that. And Paula and I were just trying to figure out where you were and what was going on. Yeah. It was all over the place.

You know, honestly, like, the big thing, the reason why it's so hard for me was Paula is because, like, I honestly care more about her result than I care about my own result, which is just something I've realized. And every day in training, you know, that she's having a hard time and I'm trying to figure out how I can fix it

or make it better. Like, all of those things are like, you know, it's like, I'm part of the training that goes into that big day. And the last month that we trained for this, like, she was trying out the new TT bike and had, like, kind of a hard day in the wind on that. And, like, she, her ankle was hurting her a lot. And we were, like, trying to massage it a little bit. And there were not signs for me that, like, oh, this is going to go fantastic, like,

Daytona several years ago. I just thought like, man, this could go anyway, but it seems like the vibes aren't super high and I don't know. It just, it didn't seem like for sure she's getting on the podium. So when she did, and when she did it in the way, like running away from Lucy and Flora, like that was just extra huge excitement versus like, oh yeah, we were pretty sure this was going to happen and it seemed like it was going really well and good. She executed and we're relieved. It worked out. You know, it was, it still felt. very surprising for me as well and therefore exciting. Yeah, a lot of people had Paula for second in their minds or even winning.

I think people are just putting that on the thing because they like know who we are, follow us. It's like a little bit of a favoritism caught. No one has any clue. And I did not think I was coming second. So whatever those fantasy things say, like, thank you to everyone who picked me. But there's no like dated a pocket. Yeah, that's so shocked. All three of us were for sure very.

very shocked with that, especially when you were running with the two of them. I thought, in my mind, I thought, oh, that's a mistake. She should not be trying to go with them because she's going to go back. It's just going to be too hard. And then not only did you stay with them, but you out ran them is. What's just such an amazing thing to watch. Well, we just hit 30 minutes. Let's move to questions.

That's right. But thanks for sitting through that. And we can even put a disclaimer like, if you want to just hear the answers to the questions, jump to 30 minutes. Perfect. I think we just real quick. we should maybe say what's next. What are we thinking now that this is in the rearview mirror?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm still deciding. I want a race again for sure, so I'm going to. Eric probably won't, but I'm deciding between Clash Daytona and Indian Wells. There's plus and minuses to both. Indian Wells would be really convenient to travel to. I love that course. I could potentially secure a world slot for next year,

not have to worry about that next year when the PTO schedule is going to be really heavy. Daytona, the benefit of that is just that I like that course as well. It's a little bit shorter of a distance. But it's enormously hard to get to from Redmond. It's like a full day of travel, basically. It's a huge time change. Eric probably wouldn't come with me.

I don't know. I would come, but I would not race. That's just not your race. Yeah, I would potentially, like, I'm going to sign up for Indian Wells. I do think there's this chance that if I, like, kind of take the next few weeks pretty chill, could hit the back end of like fitness mixed with like some freshness and potentially have a good race in Indian Wells. So I'm leaving that possibility open and that does sound fun to me.

I for some reason, even after our conversations, Eric, after the race, I kind of assumed that you would do Indian Wells once you guys said that you would go. I don't know why I thought that just because it's, well, last time you race there, you got second. Second to Lionel. And I think I think Lionel might do it again. and I also heard that Taylor Nib is racing Daytona, and I'm like, why? Like, I don't want to be five minutes behind again.

I just want to win one race this year, and I didn't think Daytona would be like an easy walk in the park to win or anything, but I was counting myself in for a potential of winning it. And then when she just put her name on the Starlist and I just got stomped on by six minutes, like, that's still fresh in my mind. So it's definitely one of the deterrents for. from going to that race, unfortunately. Not that I'm trying to like shy away from competition or anything,

but when you're racing in December, it'd be nice to win. It'd be nice to win of one race this year. There's so much more, I don't know, there's so much more fun stuff too that we can do like post race in Palm Springs. And I don't know, just, like it's kind of fun from an adventure. Yeah, like the Trixie Motel is there. Maybe we could stay at the Trixie Motel.

It'll be the day after my birthday too, so we could have some, maybe some celebration. Is that what's going to take? like us, Paula wins the race. It's your birthday. Will that like convergence of events get us a stay at the Trixie Hotel? Yeah, I think that would. I think the only thing is if there's room, she already said that we have, we can go anytime.

Okay, cool. People have been booking it out six months in advance. But anyway, so let's move on to questions. But before that, for your questions, you can submit them and support the podcast, as well as keep it ad-free with your monthly subscription at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. Every once in a while we'll have a little added bonus. We send out some surprises and messages, so stay tuned for that. But our first question here is from Jason,

and it's kind of like a little rapid fire section, so let's not go too deep into each one of these. But hello to my favorite podcast couple and also Paula. Number one, would y'all ever consider doing something like Super League? I feel like they've incorporated non-ITO athletes before, and it's a nice prize purse. That is going to be a rapid fire no for me. I actually got invited to Super League.

boo. What? Yeah, sometimes we're invited because we have a profile in the sport or whatever, but like the swim is such a, I think Eric would be way better at it than me. The swim is so, so critical. I was like, Tim Don, you do not understand how stomped I would be.

Yeah. Like, I want to think I still have that in my body, but I would love to see you do it. I would love to see you. I would love to see you. I've been systematically like training all fast-twitch muscle fibers out of myself since 2018. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, got it. Next, can we get a new segment called Crash Test Dummy Nick?

Like, just get Nick New Gear every couple weeks and see what he likes slash doesn't like about it. That's a big yes for me. I love that idea. Is this person reading our minds? We've had this conversation. It's actually me. I'm the person who wrote this question. Trash test with Nick. No, I think it's really cool because, like, Eric and I have sponsors and we're obviously love using those products. But it doesn't give us the opportunity to try this versus this because we're just, using our sponsor stuff, which is the best stuff. But Nick has no obligation to ride or use or eat only one thing.

Right. So it would be a cool perspective for other amateur athletes who could buy whatever they want. Not to mention you guys, like, you have the nicest versions of the sponsored things that you have, right? Which a lot of agekeepers cannot afford the top of the line thing. So I'm willing to try all kinds of things. I mean, I just love gear and love figuring out what products work best for something. stuff, stuff. I love that. So yes. The answer is yes. We're going to figure that out. Next question, TTL loves all the vlog slash podcast cameos.

TTL Nash. Anything else in the works would be awesome to see I'll do some stuff with Holly or that triathlon squad or Blue and Gustav or Matt Mack. Yeah, this has been a goal of Eric's from the start is to do maybe like a TTL t-shirt line made by us, but a Holly Lawrence version or something. Or a, yeah, Christian Blumen felt version. So instead of getting whatever original favorites, T-shirts to make a Christian Blumenfeld, get our T-shirts,

put a little T-TL sticker, or like the T-TL woven label, but then have his logo on it, I think that would be the next kind of outlet that would be really cool to expand and broaden our audience. And yeah, of course, also like have that sort of be supported

or go alongside some special content. I think it'd be really cool to follow So we'll have our normal Sunday show, for example, with Paul and I, but then we could have a Tuesday community or I don't know, whatever it is and do a little mini-series on Christian and Gustav as they get ready for X or Holly as she gets ready. You know, whatever it is. We wanted to do it with Lindsay.

She's retired now, unfortunately. But, yeah, that'd be super cool because we want this to be more than just us. I'm spending all day with Christian and Gustav tomorrow, so I'll slightly slide that into the conversation at some point and see if I can get to sign a very binding contract. It's not even like, I mean... No, it would just be fun. Those guys are too big maybe for this, but...

I don't know, they like us. It would be fun. We like them. We'll see. They do like us. Yeah. All right, next question. Do you all ever get approached by fans while filming, training in public spaces?

Oh, my gosh. Oh, boy. This week's video is actually going to suffer greatly because of the amount of time that Nick was supposed to be filming that he was actually talking to his fans. Yeah. They're not my fans, but they're TTL fans.

St. George was an exception, but when we're just doing day-to-day filming and bend, not really. Yeah. There's definitely people that do recognize you because I'll get messages from people that say they saw you training or something. But it's not affecting it. It's not really impacting it, right? No, no. It doesn't affect anything, honestly, other than the filming of it. Because when I'm filming something, I'm trying to create a story real time and, like, trying to think about, okay, what's the B-roll that I need?

what's the main thing that I need. I've got to ask Paula what we're doing. And as soon as I like, anything happens, even if Paula talks to me, it can like break that fragile train of thought. So anyway, we love when people come up and say hi, but it's, and it's keep doing it. At a world championship race, it's just to answer the question. People are such hardcore people that, of course, they already know who you are. So it's extra intense.

Well, there's just so many people at it. They're like 4,000 athletes in St. George. Next question. How often should you replace your training watch band, assuming Paul and Eric get new ones annually, so this is probably a Nick question. How often do you guys replace your watch? Whenever Wahoo sends us one.

Which is... I don't know, ones every four months? Okay. You only need one watch every year. Many years. Yeah. My last watch lasted me a long time. The only reason I upgraded this

because I really wanted new features on a new watch. And the band... Well, I think what he's asking... Yeah, sometimes the band or the rubber band can get ripped or you want a different color or whatever, and that's probably pretty inexpensive to replace. place, but we never do. Assuming it's rubber, like if there's a band out there that's sort of a

textile. There's nylon straps. Then maybe you'd want to replace that. But I've, man, I've never even considered replacing one of our Wahu straps. I'll give you my little experience with this is I had a watch that had a rubber band on it, and then I bought a colored one off of Amazon that was not an official one. And it was, it worked great until I tried to take it off. And then all of the hardware had rusted on the cheap one. And I noticed that the original one was all stainless steel and was in perfect shape.

The only thing I ever had to replace wasn't the band itself. It was this little thing here that keeps the band tight against the wrist. So don't buy things on Amazon like that. Yeah, I'd say don't buy the cheap version, especially for your sports watch, which is like worst. Like think about this, you're swimming in the ocean and it comes off and then it's gone. And it could be a $1,000 watch. Yeah, exactly, exactly. All right, next question.

In addition to your current sponsors, what? brands do you currently use that you wish would sponsor you? I'm going to say sidecar donuts, which is the donut shop here next to me. I'm going to say Mercedes Ben's. Stay tuned. Very nice. Wow. Little little teaser. A little teaser there. Please, please van. Eric, what about you? Um, yeah, a free van would would make my life complete. Literally. Okay, folks. I don't know if you're picking up on what we're putting down here. I don't know. It would be...

I'm trying to think of something other... I've just like honestly like my brain is so one-track mind like when I'm excited about something I can't think about anything else at all. Oh, also Lamar Zoko. Oh yeah, all we're thinking about right now we want to get the Lamar Zoko mini

which we might just get as like a super unnecessary extravagant present to ourselves for racing well. And I also added up like some of my bonuses that I got for coming second at worlds which is something I don't think about at all and don't even know until today.

and let's just say it's enough to buy that machine. Yeah, well, I freaking hope so. Geez. Listen, if we looked at how much it costs in Italy, because my parents are in Italy, and there's no way it's not just like internationally the same. It's a $6,000 machine. Yeah, but I don't know.

It's so extra. I'm going to check later how much it is in euros. The reason that we have like started thinking about it again is because I used one at my friend's house when driving through Boise, Chris Ganner, thank you very much. And God, it was so good. Like, is this the guy with the D35 Martin? Yeah.

The three panel back? Yeah. So it wasn't actually his. It's a guy who is actually a pro mechanic for Ineos, who's renting his Airbnb space, who happens to have this machine, long backstory. But anyway, on the internet, you look at it and you're like $6,000. There's no way that's five times better than what I currently have. It was like getting in a Honda Civic versus getting in,

a Mercedes-Benz. It just felt so good. It was so quiet. It was so solid. And also it just looks good. And they come in all these different colors. And I was like, Eric, I want the baby blue on. And he said, you can have any color you want.

Okay. Baby blue. I love that. I love that. Okay, great. So you heard it. And Lamar Zocco, I'm sure you follow this podcast. So please sponsor us.

Eric and Paula, do you have any words slash phrases slash expressions that you hate as Nick 8 slash. I can think of one, but Especially. Especially. It's pronounced especially an espresso, folks. And mine is execute.

I knew it. That's what I was going to say. Just executed my plan to perfection. That was mine. Barf. That was mine. Yeah, definitely. I love that.

I love that. Barf. Wonderful. Wonderful. Can we keep that in? Is that too obvious, do you think? No, it's cute going in. Okay, great.

Love it. Love it. All right. Thank you for those, Jason. That was very entertaining. Next question. I hope we don't get in trouble. Hey, y'all, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on run cadence.

You've mentioned before that you try to keep it higher on easy runs, but I'm still not sure if I've heard you talk about. ideal range. I understand that increasing cadence can help with speed, but can you go into more detail about desirable ranges? Should I be thinking about cadence more than I do, which is hardly ever? I do notice that it

tends to lower on a treadmill than outside. Is that typical? Thanks. Really? It tends to lower on the trip? Normally it would be the opposite of that. A lot of people, a lot of the time... Shut up, Flynn. People will a lot of the time run on a treadmill specifically to

work on cadence increase, because you can kind of, it will spin your legs a bit. Yeah. I would say maybe try putting it on an incline. Maybe that'll force you to shorten your stride and therefore increase your cadence. Yeah. I never really pay attention to my cadence while I'm running in terms of like looking at a screen and seeing what it is. But I'd say it falls between like 175 and 185 usually.

Which is what is exactly what is recommended. Yeah. I think that also it's important that obviously when you're running faster it's going to increase. But try to keep it high even when you're running slow. So you're just putting less power into the ground. You're not taking your stride length to shorten, but your cadence staying kind of elevated is going to ultimately lessen like the ground impact and maybe keep you a little more injury-free and just focus a little bit on that.

And I think even the little bit of attention to it will naturally force it to kind of increase every time. So I don't know. I think everyone's different. You can't just like, we're going to tell you a number and that's what you're going to do. but generally a little higher is maybe better. Yeah, it's just if you think about it, it's less impact per foot strike when you have a higher cadence.

So it's not going to necessarily prevent injury, but it's just less stress on your body each time you take a step. It is aerobically more taxing. Right. Yeah. So your heart rate could theoretically be a little higher at the same pace until you get used to it.

But would you say it's muscularly less taxing when your cadence is high? Yeah, for sure. That's the trade-off. But that's the same as on the bike. It's like if you have a higher cadence on the bike, your heart rate's going to be higher, but your muscular load is going to be lower

versus a low cadence, big gear, 85 RPM versus 95 RPM, you're going to have a lower heart rate. When I was injured, I had someone, a PT who prescribed me a certain cadence to run, which is specific to me. So everyone, it would be different for everybody. But I plugged that into my watch,

and it buzzed every other step. So I was like, even when I forgot about it, I tried to stay exactly on that cadence. So if you guys have a... That's the polar. Polar other opposite of the, of not having any attention to it. But maybe that's a good, it's like a metronome. Personally, I needed that.

Yeah, it's like a metronome playing music or while you're swimming. It can help just trigger your brain and then you don't have to use it every time. And I would like to maybe take this opportunity to say that we are going to try to make like an album of music that you can listen to while training. And Eric and I had the thought that maybe some of them could be at a certain tempo that would be, that would correspond directly with a run cadence or a patterning cadence. I love that. Tempo, tempo.

I think that would be really good. Would you say there? Eric? Tempo, tempo, tempo. Tempo, tempo, exactly. The tempo of a tempo run. Yes. So we'll be working on that too. Very excited. That's a little sneak peek. Okay, next question. Hey, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. He's actually in the shot right now. So I was at the finish line volunteering in Dallas and was cheering you on rough day,

but what an amazing experience to see the perseverance in that nasty heat. My question is about TT helmets. I currently have... Would you guys say laser? Yeah. I currently have Lasers Arrow Road helmet and it is a small visor. I mainly ride it with glasses

but tried the visor pre-race and liked it. However, on the race, it only lasted about 10 miles before being so covered in salty sweat that I couldn't just wipe it away and I couldn't see. I tucked it in my back pocket for the rest of the try

and the last 46 miles I had no eyewear. Do you guys face this issue with your TT helmets? I was going to buy a helmet from the company that did Paula's custom Giro because it looks amazing and I love supporting businesses like that, but I'm worried that the same thing will happen sweating on it. How do you mitigate sweating in your visored helmets

or do you suggest sticking with an Arrow Road helmet with glasses even on race day? Good luck in St. George Tyler. Yeah, yeah, it's an issue. I haven't actually had it for a little while, though, and I don't know the reason why. But I used to every year in Oceanside, I would always get it. It would get super fogged up and a little bit of sweat, running down, but I haven't had it in a little while.

It's so funny to talk about, like, heat issues after the experience we just had. But first of all, the Matt, who made me my helmet from Otimo Design, that's what the name of the company is, he can paint any brand of helmet. So that shouldn't deter you from getting a sick helmet painted by him. But I think the important thing would be to get the helmet first as a blank or whatever brand it is and then try it, make sure the sweat issue is resolved, and then get him to paint it. So that's just a little side note.

It's totally feasible, and we see Gustav doing it, to wear a TT helmet with glasses. And I don't think the arrow penalty is any. So if that helps kind of allow some airflow come in from the top, or just let the sweat drip more efficiently and not directly onto the visor, that might be a good solution for you. It doesn't necessarily have to be like a road arrow helmet. It can be a full-on TT helmet, the Gero, anything, with regular glasses underneath. Yeah.

It just doesn't look as cool as that. whole huge visor. But yeah, the sweat thing is something I deal with too with my detailment. It's so annoying. It looks okay though. Like Gustav does it. I never think twice about it. That's true. But he's just cool. Yeah, he is cool. Different helmets work a whole better with it. Yeah, you have to try it. I mean, what I'll do sometimes if this is like a major issue, just like on any bike ride is like cock your head to one side a little bit and press the helmet against your forehead. And that sort of like rings out that sweat band. And like ideally it just drips down the side of your temple.

Rather than just like constantly in your eyes. Yeah. There's also. I don't know what the laser looks like, but maybe the, I've never had that issue with the Gero. And I'm not sponsored by Gero. I don't have huge sweat rates or anything. But maybe the visor's just sitting a little further off your face. So it doesn't end up dripping right into it.

Because I've never, never experienced this before. So maybe give that helmet a try. Yeah. I've got the Rudy project. I haven't had that problem either. Yeah. There you go. I have the cask, Bambino, and I definitely have had that.

And I have to, like, think about when I put my head down because I don't want it to drip down onto the visor. All right, okay, well, add this to the list. Six different helmets for Nick. You're going to wear them on 100-degree day. I do need a new helmet. Holly tried to give me hers, but my head is too big, and she's like, no, my head is huge.

And it didn't even fit around my ears. That's how big my head is. Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. You see and smell in. Yeah. All right. Next question is from Wendy and Montana.

Your race recaps are one of my favorite parts of the pod. They're like adventures. I can picture. while I listen. So whenever you guys apologize for spending time on that, I'm waving it away and hoping for more details. I am so with you, Wendy. I'm all about the race recaps. It's such a fun story.

When going for a biking KOM are there rules slash guidelines slash suggestions slash advisements slash community accountability slash policing about drafting? After listening to so many podcasts by you guys,

I can hear Nick's voice reading these in my head. Of course, it sounds annoyed by all the slashes. Yeah. What was the first slash? No, it doesn't matter. Just the general idea is, is there regulations surrounding getting KOMQOMs on Strava? And is it ethical to do it in a group? Yeah. To try to get a KOM in a group.

You freaking weirdos, don't motor pace. No one's motor pacing. All the Boulder KOMs are motorpaced. Yeah. What? Well, just because there's a lot of pro cyclists there that do motor pacing in their workout. Oh, they're not going for KOMs. They're just getting them.

Yeah, I say you freaking make that ride private, bro. I would say that in general, and when I go for them, it's way more ethically correct to get it by yourself. I never draft Eric for them. You can use a T.T. Bike, that's fair game. But in terms of doing it with a group or with assistance, that's a little bit cheating. And when I'm going after one where I'm very aware that it was in a group, like it was a bike race or something, then maybe it's fair game to do it in a group as well. I totally agree with you, Paul. The problem is that so many KOMs were not solo.

Yeah, I know. In L.A., I know for sure, that most of them are groups at least pace halfway up the climb or whatever, and then the person will go off the front. I guess the thing for me is I do a lot. Most of the QOMs I go after are climbs, and obviously the drafting benefit of climbing is not as significant, so I feel like I can still get them solo if the climb is Stephen up, even if they was in a group.

And then Wendy also was asking, I've started watching the vlog and see quick cuts of Paula doing pre-race photoshoots and interviews with individuals as well as on athlete panels. Are those usually chats with announcers for the company putting on the race or reporters or advertisers? And what's the process an amount of time that adds to your days before racing? Yeah, good questions. So when we go to PTO races, we are sent in advance our time schedule for interviews, for photos, for videos. It's very well organized and it's expected of every athlete. and it's only to our benefit because the PTO takes that content

and uses it to enhance the broadcast, uses it to create content surrounding the race afterwards, and then just has it in their bank for any kind of stuff that they put out for us afterwards. So it is time-consuming, but everybody's doing it, so it's not like you're at any disadvantage. We recognize its value, so in general we're happy to do it, and the PTO has gotten really good at lining stuff up for us back-to-back,

so we're not there all day. It's like 30-minute photos, 30-minute video, 15-minute interview and you're done. So it's super, super simple. Yeah, you usually have it in the same hotel that you're staying at. So you just walk downstairs, get breakfast, walk to the photo room, and then go to the pool. It's cool. I think like any professional sport requires that of athletes because it really, really benefits the sport in general, brings publicity to it.

The whole thing the PTO is doing is making the sport more accessible, creating fans, and that all becomes because of the media component and enhances the broad. also. Next question is from Stephen. Hello, Team TTR. I just listened to this week's podcast and heard the question on what to do with used up shoes. I found that Nike stores have drop boxes to recycle old running shoes. The sign says that shoes get upcycled into material for running tracks or playground surface. Thank you for all info you put out there. The vids and the pods are great inspiration. So I actually looked this up. And on Nike's own website, it says that most stores can accept any brand of athletic sneakers, but we don't accept sandals, dress shoes, boots, or shoes

with metal like cleats or spikes. Check with your local Nike store to see if they accept shoes for recycling. So that's a nice option. And most of us do live close to some kind of Nike store. So you can come there and they'll do what's good with them. I have seen this at a store before. I couldn't remember where, but that's where it is. Well, thank you for, I really appreciate this person sending this in. And it's cool. It's not like everything you send to me on the pod. Email has to be a question. If you have a good follow-up to something we've already talked about, send it in because this is super useful information. Yeah, great. So thank you for that, Stephen. Next question is from Danielle. Hi, you guys are the absolute best,

and I have been binging your podcast since I discovered it a month ago. Thank you so much for your knowledge, expertise. And by the way, there you go. People are still discovering the podcast. I mean, I see the stats, so I know that people are still discovering the podcast, but here's the proof. I was running 15 miles the other day, listening to the pod and finding myself audibly laughing while listening, even though I was dying. My question for you, is, will there be any big winter clothing drops coming up? I love the hats, but I need a whole new wardrobe. Thanks. Danielle. Yeah, we have, um, it's not like a, it's not like a huge winter drop, but we have two really cool t-shirts for women, one cool t-shirt for men and a long sleeve for men

that are going to be ready like beginning of December. So the shipping for Christmas is a bit tight, but I think it'll still work for U.S. shipping. We have two new travel mugs coming that are in insanely cool colors. I think that everyone will love them. Same brand fellow that we used before. That's so cool. And our whole theme, I guess, with the clothing drop that we're doing or the shirts that we're doing is a little bit like retro ski themed.

So the colors are bright. We went a little bit out there, but our whole idea was to kind of make it feel retro. It's pretty fun and carefree. It's very fun. It's not like our usual kind of more subtle, colors that we usually lean towards, it's very out there. It's more like the California collection that we did for Oceanside.

Yeah. That kind of vibe. It's a little bit inspired by like North Face neon jackets that you used to see in like the 90s at the ski hill and stuff. So we're going to do a. Eric might be allowed to keep his mustache till then just for the cool thing. He still has it by the way. I looked at some old photos of you, Eric, and I'm like, I, Paul, I'm sorry. I think I literally actually prefer you with the mustache.

I think it's not just fun and funny. I think you look great with it. He does look good with it. And one other thing, we're getting a restock of the Topo Men's Shorts, which sold out instantly when we put them out. It's kind of weird because it's winter, but I feel like shorts are just something you can use all year at the gym,

if you live in California, whatever. So those are coming back as well. Yeah. Anything else? Am I forgetting something? This is very exciting. we will have a very limited run of a foreign writer collaboration jacket. That's probably not going to make it for Christmas.

That'll be like just right around Christmas time. But if you know what Foreign Rider is, this is, they'll be gone when they're gone. And they are going to be freaking amazing. So yeah, I want to stay tuned for that. We also got lab dips for fabric colors for our own zip-up hoodies that are going to be ready in February. So that's, everything just takes time. and we tried our heart best to get stuff ready for Christmas, but it's just hard to hit that deadline

unless you start planning literally in the summer, which we have so many other things on our minds at that time. But our Zibab Puddys are going to be really cool. We picked a really, really cool color out. We could pick any color in the whole Pantone book, like millions of colors. We chose the color. We chose the fit.

We chose all these cool things. There's a women-specific and men-specific, and that's coming in February. So anyway, I kind of dragged on too much. No, that's great. The one last thing, the Kistelli kits will be arriving very soon. Oh, yeah, everyone. who ordered a Castelli kit. Yeah. It'll be coming. It's now November and it's going to be ready

beginning mid-November so they'll be sent out directly from Castelli. I've gotten a lot of emails lately asking when those are shipping and it was eight weeks from the order date. So that's coming up. They've been dyed. They've been sewn and everything and they're like on their way to Castelli for to be shipped out to you. Yeah. Awesome. If you got one, please, please, please send us pictures and tag them because we love sharing those those types of things. Yeah. Cool. Well, next question is from Garth. I am competing at the Olympic distance world championships in November. I have just bought a pair of pillow shoes, which is on the podcast what we call those like super shoes with carbon in them. But I find I can't slip them on as quickly as I would with my previous shoes.

Is there a secret to slipping on the Nike Alpha Fly? There is just so little structure in the heel and the laces make it very difficult to slip on. I'm wondering about trying quick laces, but I feel I might lose some of the secure feeling I have from the laces that came with the shoes. Any advice? Likewise, are the gains I make over the 10K worth stopping and just doing up the laces? No. Garth. Well, I wear these shoes so I can talk about it. Yeah, the Nike shoes are harder to put on than any other brand that I've tried. But not impossible. Harder than the MET speeds? Yeah. Than the A6? They're a little tighter in the entry point. But I think that if you, you should definitely put elastic laces in them and leave the elastic at the top a little bit looser. And then you could even get. like one of those

I don't know, bungee clip thingies that you can tighten as you're putting it on. But I actually remember mid-race thinking, oh my gosh, my elastics are way too tight as I was running in this race. And when you have a good race, you forget about those little things, but this just brought that memory back to me. So I think that it's like, everyone has different

thresholds for tightness, but I don't think you should think quick laces won't be tight enough because you can get those things really tight. So, yeah. I agree. But it's definitely worth the shoes. It's definitely worth putting elastics on. don't spend time tying them up that could take forever

and I think that in a race when there's like some sense of urgency you just freaking make it happen like it's harder to get them on in practice but in a race you're just making it happen you're forcing them in so it's different I mean if it is a real issue

it is good to know that you could try out the A6 or one of the other shoes potentially and have if the Nike was just like totally not working for you yeah the Nike is the hardest one but a ton of ITU athletes use the Nike and their transitions are critical, so it's possible. Nice.

Next question is from Emily. Hi, gang, congratulations to Paula on your amazing result at Worlds. My question for y'all is this. Should you go to a national championship as an age grouper if you know you won't be competitive? She goes into some detail here, but for reference at the Lexington Sprint, I did a 124.13, so not speedy. Is it ridiculous to go to nationals knowing that I will probably be

dead last. There's time to gear up for it, but with school, I pretty much have time limited to working out one hour per day in the early morning. The women's shorts are my new favorite also, and I get compliments on them all the time, sending love from Kentucky. First of all, let me just say, you guys don't have as much experience with what it's like to qualify for nationals in the U.S. as an age grouper, but it's not that hard to do anymore. So I think even with a time like won 24, 13 for a sprint, no chance you will be dead last. Guarantee there's people who are showing up to races, who they were the only person in their age group, and they just, they did whatever, and then they got excited and went to a national. So I don't think you'll be dead last. But that still

doesn't answer the question of, is it okay to go to a national championship as an age grouper if you know you won't be competitive? For me, having had the experience that I just had at world championships, I think it's just, it's up to you. It's like a little bit of soul-searching. of like, do you feel like you will be able to enjoy the day with the amount of preparation that you're able to put into it? And I don't really think the result matters unless it's going to really impact your experience to think, oh, I'm going slowly or whatever. Like if this race is cool, if the location is cool and you want to go experience it, 100% go for it. It doesn't matter what place you are. Yeah, and thinking about the result before even starting is sometimes detrimental.

Like Eric said, if you can go and have a good experience, and I think you can if you're not focused on the outcome as much, you might surprise yourself. And that's happened a lot of times in our careers. Low expectations, but very pleased with the outcome. And if you can only train one hour a day, I think that's enough. And as the race gets closer, maybe put a little more emphasis on things surrounding training that could help you be more prepared, like a little bit more sleep, eating healthier, cutting out, I don't know, alcohol once a week, whatever it is. It's like little things you can do in your lifestyle that require no time really, but just make you a fit or better, more prepared athlete for a big race like that. I don't know.

There's something special about being around, in this person's case, in Emily's case, let's say the best people in your age group in the country. Whether you're doing well or not, it's a special feeling. And it reminds me a little bit of like what I feel like when I'm around the two of you and all the other amazing professional athletes that you've introduced me to. Of course, I'm not going to be the best of that group. But there's a special feeling that and being surrounded by such amazing excellence. And I think that might be worth it in itself. You don't need to, obviously, you're not going to be the fastest at nationals, right?

That's really tough. But it's still a good feeling to be surrounded by that kind of talent. I totally agree. And it can bring out the best in you. Yeah. And it'll ultimately be inspiring for next year. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you can see how far off you are from where you want to be. Make yourself a benchmark. Well, that was our last question. And remember, you can send in your questions and support the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. I feel like I'm going to come back and listen to this episode in like five years and just listen to your race recap again, Paul, because I feel like that was such a special day. Well, hopefully podcasts will still exist. But thank you again to our new subscribers. We need to think of a new perk for this month, but we really, really appreciate

the support. The subscribers, like, ballooned a little bit after I had my race that I had and just every week a little bit trickles in. So the support means so much. And huge thanks from all of us. We'll be using them to buy microphones now that we're home and improve your listening experience. That's right. Which is pretty good, if I can brag a little bit. I feel like we are one of the best sounding podcasts I've heard. Well, Nick, you're a musician, sound artist.

Yeah. Master. A sound artist. That's coming on your Instagram bio. The other thing is I want to thank everyone who cheered for us this weekend, who came and bought a hat, who came to the van, we loved it, we had such a good time. and my inbox was overwhelming after the race with support, and I don't think it would be like that if it wasn't for TTL.

So even if I didn't reply to you, I'm still kind of going through things, but I read it, I saw it, and I appreciate it. So thank you for the support for me and both Eric and Nick as well. Yeah, I can definitely say that I would not have such a positive outlook post-race if it hadn't been for the amount of people we bumped into and how all the pop-ups and hangouts went. So thanks, everybody. Oh, speaking of which, one last thing,

We don't know how long this is going to last, but we did have some, I mean, we filled up the time at this pop-ups to the max and went over what we'd wanted each time. But we still had some hats left over. Those are back on the site right now. I fear that by the time this podcast comes out, they may have sold out already. But just in case it hasn't, you can go back on the site and we had both colors still left at the time that we recorded this, which is two days before the podcast comes out. 20 back in stock or something. And we're not going to post about it. So maybe like there's a chance maybe by Thursday, one or two people might be able to sign one. But they're cool. We want to get more. They just take forever as does everything.

But yeah, that's all. We're going to meet our friends for dinner. Nick, you're going to ride your motorcycle in a skeleton costume or something. That was last night. He's going again. He's going again. There's a Tia de los Muerto celebration in L.A. that I'm going to go to.

Oh, wow. So fun. Yeah. All right. I'll say thank you once again and I'll hear to talk to you guys next week. Thanks guys. Stay tuned next week. Thanks everybody. Later.