That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula get's 2nd place at the PTO Canadian Open triathlon. Race recaps from all three of us, and some questions.

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

Paula had a fantastic race at the PTO Canadian Open triathlon. Eric and Nick talk about their race experiences as well, and then we even answer a few questions about the race at the end. Check out http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hello everyone. Welcome to That Triathlon Life Podcast. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are all three coming to you from Camaro, Alberta, recording the pod all in the same room, which only happens once in a blue moon. So it makes it fun for us, easier to edit. And the reason Nick is here is because our deal was if one of us makes the podium in Edmonton, he would change his flight to three days later. I had a feeling one of us would podium. I didn't know who. There's some of us new Some feelings were stronger than others It was a pretty good chance that one of us would

Well I don't know Anything could have happened There were so much pressure on you That I wouldn't have been surprised I guess if you just couldn't have made it to the start And I wouldn't have been surprised if you won by 10 minutes I don't know I don't know

Yeah it has happened I mean for you Nick Like based on the number of people doing the race It sort of looked like you were going to be a shoe in But then it turned out that the density of the talent in the age group field was just insane. Well, also, maybe I was eighth in my age group. If I were one age group up, it would have been second. Yeah.

So it's a luck of the draw. Yeah. But just in case anyone has have no idea what we're talking about and isn't a triathlet or a triathlon fan, we all raced at the PTO Canadian Open last weekend. I was in the pro-women's race, Eric and the pro men, and Nick in the age group field. We all raced 100K distance. So it was a 2-kilometer swim, 80-kilometer bike, 18-kilometer run in Horlack Park. And there was a ton of money online, a million-dollar prize purse for the pros.

100K for first, 70 for second, 50 for third. So a huge opportunity for us. And because Edmonton is my hometown, there was a lot of media hype and pressure surrounding the event for me anyway. And yeah, I was just happy I could deliver on the day. But we're going to spend this podcast mostly going through updates of our, races, like little recaps. If you don't want to listen to this, you can fast forward to maybe halfway through the podcast because we will answer some of the questions. And I must say, like, we've been really behind on emails this week. And when I opened up the podcast emails,

there was like 50 plus emails. And they're all so good. So if we don't get to your question this week, hopefully we will next week. But please don't take it personally if we don't answer your questions. Honestly, I love all of them. And it's really hard to sift through and pick the ones that are most relevant to this week. So anyway, I'll shut up. Yeah, Paula seems to think that nobody wants to hear about races or that everyone's tired of hearing about this race. And it's Wednesday.

So I'm going to guess, you know, back me up on this, anybody in the audience. Well, I'm not sick of hearing about Paula's race, you know? That some people do actually want to hear a little bit of our take on how everything went. It's very exciting. It's a huge, the biggest race of the year maybe for you. I mean, maybe for Paula Finley, it's like the biggest race of the year, maybe. and you did so well at it. I want every detail of it.

But we're going to start with Eric, who had maybe the exact opposite kind of day. We're going from worst experience to best experience. So we go, me, Mick, Paula. Flynn is not included in this exercise. So first of all, Eric, did you race on the same day as Paula, same time as Paula? Well, I mean, that's pretty much a softball you threw me there.

I think a big part of the reason for my unfortunately bad result is that I race a day after Paula. and I've experienced this before basically when she had her big result in Daytona years ago. That wasn't years, but, you know, two years ago. I forget if it's two or three. But it's really challenging as like I'm a very empathetic person and seeing her race and kind of like going through the whole pre-race build up and everything.

And then ultimately a little bit of post race as well, there was a barbecue at the house the night after the race. It's it, you kind of go through the entire emotional arc of doing a race even though it wasn't, you know, I wasn't the one that towed the line. So anyway, that aside, that that's kind of like the biggest thing that I think I can look at for why I had not the day that I was going for. And there's some other factors. But I'll just, I'll just kind of get after it straight from the gun. When the gun went off, diving into the water, I really, I felt good.

I felt like I was having a good day. The first, like, 50 meters, I thought I was swimming pretty well. But I was like literally not, I was going nowhere. I looked over and I knew. who was swimming next to me and it's not somebody who I normally struggled to drop and I could see over on the left out of the corner of my eye, it's like the Henry Schumann train just flying away, motoring away into the distance and I'm like, I don't really understand. Maybe I just, it'll, maybe I'll loosen up and something great will happen. But it just kind of went from

bad to worse and I felt like I worked hard the entire swim and was just going so slowly. Like I was swimming with a parachute. That's the only thing that I can think of in my experience. that it felt like. Maybe you were swimming with two ankle bracelets. That was the problem. Which was actually one of the questions. Why do we use two timing chips?

No idea. It's really dumb. So this isn't the first time that you've used two timing chips. Lots of times. Like maybe even in the Olympics they wore two timing chips. But it's because in case one falls off

you have a backup. But it really slows you down in the water. I'm really all down for like having a timing chip implanted in my calf muscle so that I don't have to like feel that dragging behind me. but I don't think that was entirely. It was just the body was obviously off.

And then I got on the bike and I had like an okay first lap, the emphasis on okay, certainly not like the power that I felt in Alcatraz and just kind of like this infinite ability to push. And that was really the peak of the bike ride as well. It just went downhill from there. And every time that I pass the U-turn at the top of Groat Road, which was only about 800 meters from Paula's parents' house,

So I seriously considered that'd be a great place to just call it a day. So by the time that I got to the run and plenty of people had passed me, and I did also experience some negativity around drafting and officiating, but whatever. Like it was just a negative sort of spiral for me. By the time I got to the run, I'd already pretty much used up all of my just stay in this and gutted out matches, and I only made it a lap and a half before pulling the plug. I wish I could have finished. I wish I could have had a better day, but I don't really regret doing that.

I just, I feel like there's like a limited number of times each year that you can just truly go to the well. And it didn't feel like that was going to be one where it was, there was a payoff, whether it was worth mentally going through that. Yeah, I was watching the race with one of my best friends, Ryan. And we kind of intentionally went further down the course because we're like, I don't know if it's worth finishing this. And if he wants to pull off, it's obviously not in a crowd. So I was right. He found us.

And then we just sat under a tree for the next 45 minutes with Nick and watched everyone slowly deteriorate. Oh, my God. The most carnage I've ever seen in a men's field. And I don't know why the cramping was so bad. So bad. Alistair had stomach cramps like he said he's never had before. Blumen felt cramped. It was just crazy.

People, guys were like running 12 minutes per mile, just like barely getting along. Like I would say the only people that really had decent races. were like, or races they might be happy with, or like Aaron Royal and Gustav. Well, Gustav, even he said, like, Christian had that cramp. But if Christian had that cramp, he would have been like, really won a lot of a lot. It definitely wasn't like an amazing performance from Gustav. He fell off over the line, basically, too.

He had finished and won. Here's what I think the difficulty was, is that the nature of the race was that it was like an ITU race, like a sprint distance or an Olympic distance with the loops and with the ITU style start. But it was. 100 kilometers and it was kind of humid and hot and it started in the middle of the day. So I think people attacked this race as if it was an ITU

race because many of the people are short course athletes. Certainly in the men's field. But it just kept going. It just kept going and going. And then you get to the run and you burn these matches on the bike for nearly two hours. Hills and maybe not taking enough nutrition. Because on that style of course I find it harder to remember

to hydrate and take enough electrolys. It's not even so much remembering. It's having the opportunity. You're going hard the hill so that doesn't sound like a great time to take a drink of water and then on these downhills you want to like super tuck and be as arrow as possible and maintain speed because you're going to like bottom out and then go up another hill and just that's what I'm saying yeah so maybe that was part of the problem but i don't know and just like guys we all think we're gonna like this is

the day we're going to win and take 10 minutes off of our best time ever and like the whole front swim pack i don't like 100% quote me on this but a large percentage of the front swim pack was barely barely trotting along by the end of the run it was like yeah yeah Yeah, that's true. You know, the pacing was not ideal at any point in this whole such thing. So the last thing I'll say just before Nick gets going is that it was very challenging for me to drop out. Like Paula said, luckily she got away from the crowd. But running through the grandstands, riding through the grandstands, just like support people yelling on course all along.

It was just, there was no good opportunity to really just like disappear into the trees and everybody wonders where you went. There was always somebody there cheering. And I was, that was for better or for worse. It was really, really cool. And I felt so much of, like, that love in Edmonton. Like a crazy, probably the highest density of TTL fans, I would say. Not probably. There's no way there's a higher density in the world.

That's like every single person there. It was out of control. Yeah. As far as a city that is not, like, the world championships. Right. Where it's like an international field or something. Yeah. It was amazing.

I'll say one thing about watching Eric's race. When we were there at the end, just watching those best men in the world go by, And they're just like, I mean, they were truly running. Some of them, not everyone, but some of them were running so slow. And it's like, man, these people just destroyed themselves. Yeah. The difference in like in the speeds people were running, I just could not believe it. Yeah.

It really felt like these people had just been tortured for days. Yeah, what it looked like. But you raced. I raced. I raced. Six hours before that. Yeah, six and a half hours before that. That was nice and cool.

It was nice and cool. I did not enjoy wake, up that early, but very luckily, Paula's mom, who was the race director, she and I drove down together, and I was the first person in transition. I was the first person there. I didn't know that. Yeah, it was the first person there, and the last one out, if you remember. Yes, I remember that. They were about to give you a mic away. They were, yeah. So I was the first one there so early that transition wasn't open yet. Got in and first of all, it was just, it was a mosquito free-for-all. I never had such a problem in mosquitoes. As all anyone was talking about in transition.

But everyone was super nice. I mean, the whole weekend for me, I was like, Tom Cruise, that's what it felt like. It's just people were so nice. Really short, but I could run really fast. People were so, so nice. Like, people were coming up to, it took me a while to get ready in transition because people kept coming up to talk.

But luckily, like, so cool. It was so, so, so cool. But got everything set up, we were all pretty sure that it would be a non-wetsuit swim for us, which it was for the female pros and the male pros. But they came in and they sold us a wetsuit optional. So, of course, everyone got their wetsuit ready, which was great. I found a couple cold patches in the lake. Yeah.

The thermometer in. That's right. Thank you, whoever did that. So we went out there, and my heat actually got started. It was a time trial start, so we went off in five-second increments, but we still had, like, groups that we were supposed to go with, according to our swim caps. And I just kind of rushed putting my wetsuit on.

I don't think I got enough material up. into my shoulders, which is a great move for age groupers out there. If you don't know about this, if you just put your wetsuit on and just kind of get it on and zip it up, you may be leaving some performance out there. You kind of want to grab any kind of slack that's anywhere in the wetsuit and roll it up towards your shoulders. So definitely once your crotch is like sucked up against you as possible. And then even your wrists, you can like pull them up a bit and get the material up around your shoulders. It's just so your shoulders can move as really as possible. I felt like I had a lot of burning in my shoulders.

I definitely did not swim as well as I hoped. You normally do this or you just forgot? I normally do this. I didn't forget. I literally didn't have time. Corey was yelling at me. I was literally the last person with a green cap to get into the water. So anyway, I needed to use the bathroom.

And then I ran out and all the green caps were like getting in the water. I'm like running and putting my wetsuit on. And I had to put my tattoos on too because I didn't do that the night before, which of course came right off as soon as I ripped. my wetsuit off. But then, whatever. The swim was not great. It was my worst ever 70.3 swim. But I was still treating this kind of like a learning experience race.

So I jumped onto the bike. The bike felt okay. I loved the course. Super fun with the loops. I didn't think I'd like four loops, but kind of going up and down and up and down. As far as entertainment value, really entertaining. Not a great course for my body type. I would pass people on the flats and then just get rocked on the climbs,

even though I was doing a high wattage for my standards. But I was happy, and unlike every other 70.3 I've done, I didn't, the last like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes weren't like, get me off of this bike. My lower back hurts. Everything hurts. I was feeling just as good as like the beginning of the second lap. But I was fully ready to have a terrible run, and I got off the bike and just felt amazing

on the run. I kind of got off the, started running and, was going way too fast and had to slow myself down, but I slowed myself down to like 7.30 per mile, which I thought would be as fast as I could reasonably run. And then I'd look down to my watch 30 seconds later, and I was back down to like 710 per mile. So my body just wanted to kind of go, go, go.

I don't know if it was because so many people were cheering for, you could see us, you know, we could see each other so well. It was just one big out and back four times. I think he did a good job of pacing on the bike, like letting all those people go past you and everything. Like if I think of how many, men in the pro field might have just tucked it away, kept between their legs for the uphills, they could have run.

Yeah, that might be true. I definitely love people. I mean, I was doing like, on some of the columns, I was doing like 280 watts, 300 watts. For me, that's not a good idea. But I was just like, this is what I think I need to do this because I mean, there's plenty of downhills where at first I was peddling. And by the third and fourth lap, I was like, I think I'm going to take this time to recuperate a little bit.

Yeah, yeah. But then felt great on the run. It just felt better and better as I was. went on. I saw so many people wearing TTL stuff and ran my best ever run. So I was very happy about that. Awesome. I think in general what really helped me was the day before, after Paula's race, I did a sweat test at the precision hydration tent. Brad came up to me and recommended I do it. And in accordance with the results of the sweat test, they told me to, for me, it'll be different for everyone. But for me, it was 1,500 milligrams of sodium the night before in a bottle,

and then 1,500 milligrams of their sodium mix the morning of the race, and then instead of water on the bike, drink their 500 mix, or their 1,000 mix, actually. And I did that and ate a bunch more than I've ever eaten before. I took six gels, which were like 25 grams of carbs each, and never had any stomach issues. Just felt great the whole time, and then even on the run, I took three gels, one per lap, except for the last lap, and drank, I didn't drink a lot, but felt great the whole time.

I never had any bad feeling. maybe the last like five minutes, I was like, all right, I guess I can kind of open it up more. Maybe it's like last lap, actually. I guess I can open it up more. I might as well. This is what Lindsay Corbin always says about Iron Man is like whoever, it's not necessarily who trained the best, it's whoever can like eat the most and still feel good. I had no stomach issues at all.

I feel like you've just been under fueling your whole triathlon experience. Well, not only that, I think it was maybe a good opportunity to test it for your Ironman. It was perfect. Because you didn't care that much about your result. here. So it's a really good opportunity to be like, can I take this much, not have side effects? And now you can do it in the Iron Man. Yeah, huge win for me to this race in that sense, because I learned, I think, what I need to do to eat and feel good on the run. Yeah, yeah. Even though my swim was pretty, really bad for my standards, and the bike was

not what I was hoping, ending on that run, feeling that good and not having any stomach issues, eating all that, I feel like was more than what I possibly could have hoped to gain. out of this race. Yeah, that's like life changing. Life changing. Yeah, life changing. So I was great. Trathon life. Your triathlon life changed. I was smiling like the whole run. I just was so happy the whole run. I was chatting with a few people and just finished across the line feeling so great. And at the time, Paula had just done really well the day before and I was just so excited to see Eric race. So my whole day was just fantastic. Yeah, fantastic. And then at the end of the race, I just kind of stuck around, chatted with a bunch of people, and waited for Eric to come down,

and you already know that. So, Paula, do you want to go into a little bit about the insanity that was... Rewind further. Rewind. To the day before. Yes, we're going back in time. Reminding, rewinding, reminding, so on Saturday, I raced, I was more nervous for this race than I think of maybe ever been for a race, and I get really nervous for races.

Yeah, I was going to say that. Like, I remember the feeling before the Olympics in London, and I really had not. really any expectations. I was not at my fittest ever, but I don't know. This race was different because the pressure of expectation because of the video they put out, the PTO made beforehand. These billboards with your face on them around Edmonton. Yeah, but not even that.

It was more like the YouTube content that told my story and like thousands of people saw it. And suddenly I'm not flying under the radar. It's like the story about this buildback from disaster. and now I have to like continue the story in a positive way. So I felt pressure from that and anything could have happened in this race. I had no idea what would go down with all the women that were there. Really, really strong people. And then just I was confident in my fitness, but even if you feel fit and good, you don't know how you're going to respond on the day of the race. Like maybe you didn't get your taper right or maybe you didn't eat enough or I don't know what it is. Maybe you just

have a day like Eric where you dive in and you don't feel good. It's not because you're going to he's not fit. So I was worried about all of those things happening, but I dove in, like, when I woke up, I was so nervous I couldn't even eat hardly. Yeah, what did you eat? Like half a bagel with peanut butter. It was not enough. But then once I started, like, riding down to the course with Holly Lawrence and going through the process of setting up, the nerves kind of go away a little bit because you're just doing what you need to do to get ready and get to the start line. So it's the waiting and not being able to do anything to make the time go quicker that makes me the most nervous. So I had a pretty good start, I guess. I won't go through everything in super detail, but I felt

good on the swim. I didn't know who I was swimming with. I was just swimming and felt good. So I thought maybe I was having a decent swim. I could see people ahead of me, obviously, but I wasn't expecting to be in the very front. So that was okay. And then when I came out of the water looking around and assessing who I was with, I was like, oh, I actually did swim pretty well. Like I could see Ellie, I could see Holly. I could see Holly. can see Pamela, like people that I hope to swim with every race, and got on the bike and just like, went as hard as I could, which was my game plan. And I was like the four-lap course with the hills, I was treating it a little bit like an interval workout because I find that in training my best workouts are like hills or three-minute

intervals or five-minute intervals, I can go like so hard on them and then have a bit of recovery in between. So I was treating every hill like that and then every descent like a recovery. recovery. So it was very spiky. My average power was actually not that impressive because it was a lot of like dead time where I wasn't really peddling that hard. But I think overall I was just like picked the right bike. I was super arrow. I was or I felt super arrow and I just felt like fast on the climbs, which I think is where all of the damage was done to other people. Like I was standing up past Ashley and it was like not that hard and she couldn't stay with me. And I was like, okay, I guess I'm riding well today.

So I could see on the out and backs the pack chasing me, and they were really close together, but I didn't think much about that. I was mostly just trying to think about putting time into them on every lap, and with an out and back course of that nature, you can see where they are one lap and then see their further back the next lap, and that was encouraging to me knowing I was riding better every single lap than them and putting on time. But still, like, not sure how I'd run off the bike. and knew that even two minutes was maybe not enough time to hold all of those runners off.

I was pretty confident based on who was in that group that I could podium, but I didn't know that if I could win. And yeah, I feel like I'm just rambling. I want to hear even more detail than you're going into. As far as the people in the pack, Nick and I were texting and stuff, and he was down at the race and I was getting ready to come down. We were most worried about Laura Phillips. Yeah.

Because she was like powering through from behind, riding almost the same speed as you. And she was about to catch that group that was behind you. Yeah, our bike splits weren't that different, Laura and I, pretty much identical. And she's had some crazy fast runs. Yeah, when she started on that run, I was like, ooh, boy. Yeah, but then on the run, it was the same thing. You could see the out and backs, and she wasn't putting any time on me.

So I was like, oh, okay, I think I'm fine with her. But I could see Ashley gaining on me every lap. And I think when she, on the lap where I, like, did an out and back in the park and could see her like right there. I was like, oh, fuck. And she saw, she heard me say that and kind of laughed. And nothing was said between us as she passed me, but it was fine. She was just having a day.

She ran faster than some of the guys. Like, day for the ages. That was amazing. And I don't know what kind of an impact. I don't think the drafting in that chase pack necessarily impacted the result. Maybe Ashley got like a little bit of an easy. a ride than I did with riding with people. But from what I've heard from people, she actually

rode the most honest of all of them. So I don't know. I would say just like overall that that group went faster than it would have otherwise. And Ashley is the only one who ended up beating you. Yeah. That's just like my guess from like having watched the coverage. Yeah.

Like when I watched some of the coverage, the people behind are like hardly peddling sometimes. Yeah. And I was like going as hard as I could the whole time. So I don't know. It's drafting definitely as a thing. And for my perspective, of the motor on me was way ahead of me, like more than 20 meters the whole time, and they were

being really good about that. So, I don't know, the haters of the front rider might say that I had a motor draft, but I don't think I did. I never even considered that, I guess, when I was looking at the footage, but I definitely considered the people behind you. I mean, from what I saw from the footage, it was a lot of three-quarter angle of view, which is the motorcycle's not in front, or as like you can tell when like a sign behind you looks like as big as a mountain that they're using a very long lens. They're very far away. Yeah. Yeah.

And there's helicopter shots. You can see. Yeah, exactly. Like there's so much coverage of this that if you were doing the wrong thing, like it's, there was plenty of time to see it happen. Yeah. Yeah. So I hope like I got very frustrated about it and was let it get into my head a lot more than I should have and everything after watching your race. But I hope that one of the takeaways away from this is just all of us as athletes seeing it,

knowing that these races are going to be covered that well. And it's really up to you to decide whether or not you want to be known as someone who obviously plays by the rules or pushes them at every opportunity. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, as I was talking to people who actually had to do with putting the race on, like people in the PTO and people there, I definitely heard a lot of, like, they know it happened. They know it was happening and they were kind of bummed about it and wished it could have gone differently. So I hope it's not just going to be left to the athletes to self-regulate this. Well, for the men's race, they brought in new referees.

They at least brought in one additional. They had four instead of three for the women. And I don't know, there's basically a couple of different ways to go. You have smaller fields or you have more referees or both. Yeah. Or you just give referees or someone, you would say, okay, we're going to make disqualify. applications based on helicopter shots. If the helicopter, if we see you via the helicopter.

We're based on that radar thing that they're making. The race ranger thing would be awesome. If it really works well. I think it does work. This is always a problem with products. It's like getting it to mass production. You can make one that works, but then. Well, they only need to make 40.

Well, I think they want to like roll it out and be able to use it like for Kona. Well, for people that don't know what this is. It's a sensor you put on the back in front of your bike and then it detects for you the distance between bikes. So it'll blink at you if you're too close. Yeah. So if I'm behind Paula, I will see a green light. For example, this isn't exactly it.

But I'll see a green light right up until I'm at 20 meters or approaching 20 meters. And then it'll turn to yellow and then it'll turn to red when I'm inside of that 20 meter zone. That way I know that I'm approaching it and I shouldn't go any further closer than that. Sean Jefferson and I were talking about this potential idea, but I just thought of something else.

About, first of all, people should need some kind of warning before they enter the past. Yeah, it exists. Okay, great. I think, you know what else you could do? Like, the machine knows exactly how far away it is. Yeah. It should be, it should transmit to bike computers.

You should be able to pair it so you have exactly like 30 meters, 28 meters, 24 meters, right? You just put it in a field if you wanted it. So you've got a device that's on your fork that is also like blinking at you. So you are, you know, the reason that they put the light on the tail of the one in front of you is because they felt like that would be safer than you constantly looking down. at your computer to see 23. I'm just worried about people accidentally entering the draft zone without trying to, and now they have to pass.

Well, that's, that is what happens, except with the current referee situation, you can accidentally enter the draft zone as many times as you want to go back. Yeah, exactly. And it's hardly ever called. Right, but I think that the race ranger wouldn't be used to give penalties. It would still be at the discretion of the rest. Yes, yeah, they just get the information. The ref can see if you've been in the red, because you have that yellow warning light,

essentially of like you're approaching 20 so you can stop approaching. But then as soon as that thing turns red, you have to pass. Right. And the referee can see that. Right. But back to Paula, like, what, was there a point? And we haven't really talked about you actually finishing the race. But was there a point in the race where you kind of are like, oh my God, okay.

It's, I'm actually having a good day. It's okay. I'm guessing it's when you've already gotten off the bike and there's no chance of mechanicals. And you're just like, I'm running good enough that today's going to be a really good day for me no matter what? Or did you never really get to that point? Like on the run, I didn't feel that good. I wasn't running that fast. And I thought, okay, I was relieved because I was probably going to be in the top five or whatever, top three.

But, like, ultimately, I wanted to win. So when I got passed, it's not like I was still happy, you know. I still wanted to be first. So I was kind of bummed about that. But I did want to talk really quick about my bike choice because I rode the Shiv T, T, and not the Shiv Triv. bike and this was something I was deliberating with in my mind all the way up till maybe like even three days before the race because we weighed both bikes the shiv-titi is lighter this course has some climbing I did some workouts on the shiv-t-t-tie the week prior to the race and just felt so

comfortable climbing with it and handling it and all that but the problem was I didn't really have a good hydration solution because I didn't have a front bottle cage on it so Eric crafted me a custom front bottle cage. I ordered a down-tube aerobottle to Nick's House in L.A. because it was the quickest shipping. And by two days, it was literally the day before the race, maybe, two days before the race. I had the hydration system set up. I think it was a day before. I think I finished prototype version two. Friday. The day before. Yeah. So then I wrote it, felt amazing. I could drink, just put like a normal bottle in between, and it was no problem. And this is not to say that I don't like the shiv tri-bike.

I just think the shiv tri-bike is actually faster on a flat arrow course where you just have to be arrow. But in this dynamic of a race, I was more comfortable personally on the shiv-t-t. So I'm going to keep both in my toolbox. I'll train on both and I'll just make decisions based on courses, which one I'll ride at different races. But no regrets. That bike is so beautiful, so fast. And ultimately it also is a little bit of a mindset thing. I believed, like, I had made the decision two weeks before I was going to ride the shift tri-bikes.

So I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, I'm making the wrong decision. That shift-t-tie bike is so much lighter I feel and just, I feel better on it right now. So I should be riding that. So it's just this back-and-forth, you know, dilemma that I was having in my brain. So that is part of it, too, mentally feeling confident with the decision I made in that, and I did. And it was the right decision. I think so.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think I would have had the same result with the shift tri-bike, but. Um, anyway. Mindset. Were you, too focused on, on your effort to realize the insanity of the crowds whenever you would come by the grandstands? No, I could for sure tell. Like, it was, it was super loud. It was fun. I tried to film it a few times. It was just like a roar of people. Yeah. And same on the run.

Like, I was not feeling good on the run. I actually thought it was a three-lap run course, which was so dumb. And then I realized I had another lap at the end. But every time I came through the grandstands, I feel. felt like this battery recharge. And I was like, okay, I can do another lap, even though I want this to be over. But that was definitely a huge factor was the crowd support. It was awesome. Yeah. It was so cool. And then when I finished, I was just like looking into the stands or into like the

VIP area where people were standing and kept seeing faces of people that I haven't seen for like years, but they came down to watch me. And it was so cool just to see like family and friends and not only seeing them, but like having had a good race and then seeing them. everyone made it like that much more special and cool. So Eric was even there. I was like Eric do not come down to the race. Stay in, stay at home, stay in the AC, just watch it online if you want. But he was there on the last lap of the run. I was like, oh boy, you should be resting. It's so funny because he came down and he like found me in VIP. We sat down for like 20 seconds

and immediately he got taken to go do an interview and he's like standing in the sun at the finish line. Yeah, it was like, all of that. Just definitely. Definitely impacted the next race. Really, I just wanted to come down, give you a hug when you cross the finish line and leave. I know. Could not escape. Yeah. It was, I think in those situations, you really just have to be like, almost rude.

Yeah, just be like, I'm looking out for myself right now. I have to go home. I'm sorry. I'll say hi tomorrow. Yeah. Because it is crazy. It's like even when my race was over, next race was over, you couldn't walk from one place to the other without stopping for like 10 pictures, which is great.

But also when you're trying to get ready for something or do something. get to anything. It was time-consuming. So that's just something to consider for you. It's the nature of the weekend. It just feel so wrong to me. To not be there. To not be there.

Like, I was way more excited for how big of a day this was for you relative to, like, I just had a big day at Alcat. You're like, how big could whatever I do tomorrow be that I would not want to be there for your moment? I don't know. Yeah. No, I agree. I did say, like, if I'm winning, you guys better come to. Yeah. Because I didn't even think you were going to be in there.

I just never left. I was too psyched. It was like both of you are racing the next day. Don't you better not be at the park. Oh, I fully abandoned my race. In fact, later that day, like after I race, well, actually, sorry. When Eric raced on Sunday, I was like so consumed with Eric's race to Paula text me. She was like, Nick, you need to go get your bike. And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, from where are your parents house?

Like, what do you mean? She's like, your bike is the last bike in transition. I'm like, Paula, that was weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. I felt like so long ago. And then I go there and it's literally the last bike in there. And so I was the first in to transition and the last one out, not really by choice on either end.

So poetic. Yeah. But Paula, the day, like, it was such an emotional thing. And obviously, like for, even for Eric and for me, walking around, everyone recognizes Eric. Some people recognize me. They all know that we're just like waiting for your results. You know, we're just watching you. And it was a very emotional day.

Everyone, there's so many fans there. I'm just walking around. There's people talking to each other. And I'm just hearing that, Paul Finley. I was not playing it was Apollo Finley. It was cool. It was so cool. And also, like the after effects of that are that I am completely exhausted this week,

not just like from doing a race, but my mind is totally dead. So we're taking a really easy week. We're all beyond cooked. Yeah. Like we got into the pool and Paula had the idea to do like this 25, it was a 25, broken into 12 meters fast and 12 meters easy. Oh, really? I didn't know that. And like the 12 meters fast was just.

Like I couldn't do it. Like I can't. No, I'm out. Okay, well, we are more than halfway through this podcast, so I think we should do some questions. But like I said, there were over 50 emails, so if we're not getting to your question today, which we most likely will not, might come up another day. Yeah, we'll try.

Oh, it definitely will. Yeah, yeah. So the first one here is from Joyce in Sacramento, California, California represent. Eric, Paula, Paul, Nick, and Doggams, who was right over here, by the way, he's being very quiet for once. Sorry to clutter your inbox, but I'm sending another. question while it's fresh on my mind. I was struck again this weekend by the awesomeness of your racing kits. The colors are fantastic. I assume you have some input on these. How does that work? Joyce.

P.S. Who's going to tell Blumenfeld? Oh, maybe we shouldn't read that out loud. She doesn't like Blumenfeld's kit, but I don't think Blumenfeld cares because he is very scientific, and I think the Norwegians pick the fastest possible suit in hot conditions. So, anyway, our kits, yes, we do design them ourselves with the help from... I had Kristen Myers from Betty Designs design my kit this year. We're sponsored by Costelli, but Kristen's just a really cool artistic person who actually designs Lindsay Corbin's kits.

And I love Lindsay's kits every year, so I asked if she would help me with mine. And she did, and we kind of work through different versions of it, different colors. I tell her, I sent her, like, inspiration of things that I like, for example, like coffee bags or beer cans that I think are cool, and she transforms them into a cool kit.

So I think Eric and I put a lot of, like, importance on the look of our kits. I would say, like, there are things I would change about this kit for me, because what they look like on paper before they're made into a real-life kit is often very different. I love the colors on mine, but I think it's a little bit, like, too light maybe. But I don't know. That's my only feedback of it, but I love the colors, and I honestly love Eric's kit.

It's so much. It's so funny how they're completely different. They look nothing like each other. Yeah. I think that triathlon life has like a general aesthetic that's sort of a mesh of both like what Paula and I like. And it's a very clean, like classic sort of look. But outside of that, we definitely didn't want to like look like we were on a bike team

together. You know, we have our own identities and our own personal brand and everything inside of, you know, the bigger that trathlon life thing. Yeah, but you made yours mostly yourself or did Ralph make it? So my kit is kind of like in its second generation. Last year I had a red and blue version of it. And this year I really wanted to go with this like neon blue, neon yellow and coral sort of concept. We didn't get as much coral in it as I wanted, but it was just kind of a thing with printing on the really fancy sleeves of the Castelli suit.

But ultimately, I think it turned out so, so good. And yeah, it was initially designed by Ralph Dunning. of a foreign rider who also did our, who also did our that Trathlon Life logo. And to like explain my kid a little bit, it's basically got a big X on the front of it, but it's really just a super blown up version of the transition four logo,

which is my first company that I started and is still kind of what I consider to be my production, visual production company long term. You know, I always want to be able to, I'm going to make films and stuff underneath that. It kind of feels the most core to who I am and the way I see the world. That's the main thing.

We should talk a little bit about Nick's kit because he has a Zoot kit, which I love the Zoot Kits. We work with Kestelli now, Eric and I, but I was always very comfortable in my Zoot kits and I still love the company. But Nick needs a new kit. Very desperately needs a new one.

So if anyone from Zutes listening to this, we need to send Nick a new kit. I do love it, though. It's the only suit I've had that doesn't give me major chafing problems. I'm just going to say, if anybody with a Zoot Company wants to send, and Nick a thing.

You could maybe do like a shootout and like test four or five from kits and come back. That's correct. Nick is basically a triathlon influencer at this point. So if anyone wants Nick and his kit. He is very. I'm super nerdy too.

Like I am the person you want to be sending your products to. Let me tell you. No bias at all. I like love the tech. Love all the little things. Love testing stuff out. Totally. Well thank you for that, Paul.

Yeah. Do we want to just like real quickly segue into how you like your bike box? I was going to ask. I was going to say that. Yeah, someone sent an email about that. Yeah, that was a question. Someone else on Instagram was telling me like, hey, make sure you... That's a hot topic.

I've had people ask me about it. Even someone with the race said it. They're like, I want to hear about the bike bag. One sec. I'll try to find the question. Okay, great. Hey, Nick, great meeting you this past weekend in Eminton. Just wanted to see how your first experience was with the new bike bag.

And just so everyone knows, Nick got the Evoc... Bike Bag Pro? BikeBeg Pro. Okay. I'm in the market for a new one and wanted to know what you all needed to do in order to fit your bike into the bag for travel, adjustments, saddle, aerobars, etc.

My bike mechanic skills are subpar at best so I prefer if I don't have to make a ton of adjustments to the bike for travel. Cheers, Luke, fellow mosquito hater and bike pump.

Did you literally lend you his bike pump? Oh, yes. Somebody let me a bike pump thing. I'm telling you, you cannot post, I cannot overstate the mosquito situation down there.

Everyone is all anyone was talking about. It was out of control. Yeah. For sure. But, so, first of all, let me just say that I've never owned a bike bag

before this one because I've never had to fly to a race. And let's also say that you bought it with your own money for full price. Yes, that's correct. No, thanks to Evoc.

Actually, no. You got a deal, didn't you? No, the deal was that it was a Christmas gift from two years ago. So I spent $0. My parents did spend the full price. Full price. And there was no deal. Thank you, Mom.

Yeah, there was no deal at all. But this thing is unreal. It is, it has downsides, but the upsides are I took wheels and pedals off, and I didn't even have to take pedals off, But I took wheels and pedals off, and that was it. To build it up takes five minutes. Left the derailer on. Left the derailer on.

Left the derailer on. Yeah. Left the derailer on. Maybe I should take it off. But, man, it was just, I mean, nothing happened. It was just fantastic. It all fits in there. Absolutely great.

It seems like pretty well reinforced on the sides, even the parts that aren't rigid. The downside is, when I was getting to the airport, it barely, barely fit into the back of my car, not lengthwise, but thickness, because the bars are still on there. It is a unit. It is gigantic compared to like your guys bags. It is like, it looks like a different type of sports equipment. It doesn't even look like a bicycle. You're not going to be getting anybody that's like, oh, we'll just call that a regular

bag. Yeah, no, definitely not. Just to like paint the picture of how this thing looks. It's soft on the bottom essentially, but has like some sort of reinforcement to it. Yeah. And then the top of it, like the top 12 inches that go over your, like your saddle and your handlebars, that is rigid. Yeah, exactly.

It's kind of a cool design. It's smart. It takes the best of a hard case and like a Saigon. It combines them. I really like it. It has like all these neat little features. It has these very well-designed, not well-designed, but the wheel system is like super smooth, like a rollerblade wheel. It's a true rollerblade wheel. Yeah. And on the front, the little front wheel comes off for when you're actually, when you're giving it to the airline. And it goes into a little pocket in the side. Everything's really well thought out. So I really like it, but I've never had the problem like Eric was saying. The issue is that you could have, is it could, it might be too big for certain airports.

You couldn't get it into a cab at the place you're going to or whatever. But the cyclones are big too. This is the next level though. Like, they're, when, I don't know, we've been doing enough races where, like, 10 people show up in Italy on a flight. And there's like, you all have to get into the same shuttle or something. And somebody's bike gets left behind. If you have this, it's just, I could see if you do a fair amount of traveling, like, it could become obnoxious just with Ubers. Yeah.

And stuff like that. Do you want to read it, Nick? Yeah, sure. Okay. Why doesn't Eric Greedy? You just read one. Okay, go on there. And different.

What a fun, different twist. What am I do? Where do I read? Starting here and end here. It's from Nick G. This is a different Nick G. Oh my gosh. What the?

He's probably really handsome, though. Hey, all, I follow Eric and Paul and a number of other pros on Instagram, and it seems like there are a lot of friendships among pros. Eric and Nick had Sundays with Jackie Herring after Alcatraz. You met with Holly Lawrence at a cafe in Oceanside

and swam with her a number and another of other pros pre-race. You've done rise with Heather Jackson this, summer. These are some of Paula's closest competitors. What are these relationships like? Is it a matter of being lonely at the top? What's race day like if you're battling someone you had coffee with yesterday or might have a burger with afterward? Are you ever rooting for a friend even as they're beating you? Thanks much and loving the pod, a different Nick G. Yeah, I read this question and totally loved it because one of the most prominent kind of like good feeling things about this weekend was the sense of friendship amongst our peers that we race with.

Holly Lawrence stayed at my parents' house with Sean Jefferson. We hung out with Ellie and Zach a lot. Jackie Herring, after the meeting, I actually warmed up with Jackie Herring. And good friends with Chelsea, honestly, just every female pro and male pro that I interacted with, there was just this sense of like support, I guess, and being happy for each other. And yeah, we spent like honestly the full week before like having dinner with Holly and going for coffee with people and having drinks with Jackie afterwards. And it's funny because in the race, you do switch into this mindset of wanting to beat them. But I feel more like it's comforting to have them on the race course.

Like when I'm passing Jackie or passing Ellie or passing Holly or someone on the bike, I'm like, try to ride with me. Like, let's try to do this together. Like we're all in this together. and ultimately we want to win individually, but there's a way bigger sense of friendship than I've ever felt before in this sport. Something I never experienced an ITU. ITU felt so cutthroats, so unfriendly in the athlete lounges, the total opposite of this. And I don't know if it's because everyone's a little bit older or everyone just doesn't take themselves as seriously and realizes there's more to life than triathlon, but it's just a really good group of people. I don't know if you wanted to speak more about it.

But we also train with Lindsay and Heather all the time. That's amazing. They're the best athletes in the world, and it's cool to be able to do workouts with them and learn from them. So, yeah, these relationships, I feel like they're really genuine, not fake. I don't know. Yeah. Ultimately, these are the only other people in the world that truly understand what we do.

Yeah, that's true. And going to a race, it's where you have this much pressure and everything on you. To be able to relate to those people, they feel the same way and everything, that's so much better than feeling like it's you in the same way. this freak weird situation and you know you're the only one going through it yeah yeah from my perspective it's like it's like when your favorite tv show has all these characters and you're just like i hope they're all friends in real life yeah right and then i see you guys and like like the after party after sunday we go there and every pro is there and it's so fun everyone's in a good mood

everyone's chatting with each other they're playing cornhole everyone's like sitting in boots and like I just love to see it. I was actually talking about this with Zaki, Ellie's boyfriend. She's like, we love being on the outside and seeing like these amazing athletes, all just like being so nice to each other and casual with each other

and then going out on the race course and racing as best as they can. And there is like, if I'm not having a great day and one of my friends or one of my, you know, closer competitors is doing well. I'll cheer for them. And on the flip side, Holly was cheering for me the whole race.

Like, it was crazy. She was having a great race, actually. And she was like yelling at me every time I passed her. Same with Jackie, same with like Ellie. I don't know. I was just like crazy to think of. I don't know if that happens in other pro sports.

It looks like it does in running and people get really close with their competitors, but I love it. So good question. Okay. Well, we're going to do a few more. I really like this question because I realize it's been insanely hot in most of the world. And in our V-U-2 videos, we leave Flynn in the van. And I don't want people to be concerned about that because it hasn't been hot here. Hello Flynn, because let's be real, this one is for you only.

How long do you sometimes wait in the van while mom and dad train? How do you stay cool? Do you get to play or run first time first so you can have a nap in the van? Not that you need a nap. Pam. That's great. Yes, everything we do, every decision we make, every single day revolves around making sure that Flynn is safe and comfortable and how to exercise before we have exercise.

He eats before we eat. And happy. He eats in, like, this dog has got. got it better than any other dog. We completely sacrificed our stand-up paddling experience today to make sure that Flynn had a good stand-up paddling off paddleboard experience. Very stressful for us.

Flynn had a blast. As far as how long Flynn stays in the van, the most time he's spent in the van is like two and a half hours. We'll, like, on a... Maybe three. Maybe three on a bike right around here. But the van is incredibly well insulated. I know, I did it myself.

We'll make sure that if it is any chance that it could end up in this. sun that the side that is white is facing the sun. We have a rear window over the bed that we crack and then we also crack one of the front windows. And then we have a ceiling fan that we turn on full blast, which sucks air through those windows, through the cab and keeps it very pleasant in there. But truthfully, like, we'll never leave him in there if it's warmer than 20 Celsius. What is that in Fahrenheit? 70? A little less than 70. Our threshold, yeah. Our threshold for how warm it can be outside is very low. Yeah. So which which is unfortunately restricted some of like our ability to go camping

in the middle of the summer or you know, we couldn't just go for a long bike ride in the middle of the day if it's warm out. But logistically while we don't want to take a chance. Yeah. Well we were training in Cammore logistically it just if we left Flynn at home, he'd be home for like five hours so it made more sense to bring him and we could walk him right before, play check it with him after and it just minimizes his time alone and he honestly loves the van. Like he has his bed in there. He's yeah. Just it's, you know, if he was. You know, if he was. was at home he'd be sleeping. The first thing he ever experienced was the van.

We picked him up in Salt Lake City with the van and we drove 13 hours like that. He's very happy. I don't think this person was accusing us of not being responsible. I think they were genuinely curious. So I just wanted to clarify that. That is how it works. It's never really hot in the van. Logistics.

I think we should do one more question and then we'll save some of the rest for next week. Sounds great. Okay. This one's for you, Nick mostly. So, Nick mentioned a few pods ago. He gets training templates online. Can you share a. a few reliable sites, resources with good training templates? What are some core features of a

good training template? I'm a new to try life. Weight lifter and have a coach for that, not ready to spring for a try coach yet, although someday it will be inevitable if I stay in the sport. Through weight lifting, I have realized how important high quality programming is. I presume gains will be faster in the tri-world if the programming is solid. Thank you, Jonathan. I've been wondering this too. Yeah. What do you use? Yeah. Plans are us. Plans are us. Well, at first, when I was first, I was first, I had already been biking a lot at the time because I came from biking. And then I was just trying to get in runs a few times a week and then swim as much as I could. And that's all I did.

And then it's slowly, I was slowly introduced to Training Peaks as a platform, which for those of you who don't know what that is. Strava is like this social side that you, I'm sure you've all heard of where you post your workouts. But Training Peaks doesn't really have a social element at all to it. It's much more about analytics. And if you do have a coach, the coach can see your workouts and can prescribe workouts. But the main point of it for me is it's also a store where certified coaches can post their training plans. And the thing that's really great about it compared to like a book is that if your training plans are power meter based or pace based or heart rate based, you just put in your in the swim, if you do a CSS test or CCF, test. I forget what it is, but you plug in your number there. It's like your threshold

swimming speed. You type in, you plug in your FTP for the bike, and you plug in your functional threshold, your lactate threshold on the run. And all your workouts are then based on percentages of those. So it's going to be completely different for different athletes. The plan I bought was from my pro coach, which this guy's name is Phil mostly, but really it's a whole team now of people. and I've watched them like update these plans because even when you do buy a plan, when you put it on your schedule, if you put it on your schedule a year later, if they've updated it, you get the updated version of the plan. So I've been using that for years now. The downside to it is that like for me who I need a lot of help on my swim and on my run, the plan doesn't know that. The plan just is like it assumes you're an even athlete and then we'll make you work on these things as if it.

if you're an even athlete. That's where a coach would be really beneficial. But for me, I just wanted something that had structured. That's what has helped me the most is going out on Mondays and be like, I don't have to think about what I want to do, what I feel like doing. This is the workout. I'm doing the workout. I'm just like, I'm getting through it.

Unless I'm feeling truly terrible, I'm going to get through this thing. I really like that aspect of it. And then Training Peek says this like, it's such a stupid thing, but it works well, I think, with the human brain, at least mine. It's like, if you're, you can set it to whatever distance. time or whatever, but if I have it set to TSS. If my TSS is close enough to what the prescribed workout TSS was, the workout turns green. If it's a little far from that, it turns yellow.

If it's more far from that, it turns orange. Little thing like that, it just makes it feel like, I did my job. When you go through the weeks and just like green, green, green, green, green, I've been doing the work. So there's the free training peaks plug for this episode. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to need some sponsors for this pod. We are. Seriously.

All from Nick. But I guess what I would say is, if you're looking for something like that, Training Peaks is one option. There are other platforms. Training Peaks does seem to be the most used one. Because there's a bunch of options. Because there's a million options.

It priced at very different price points, and you can go in and just buy a plan that seems like it works for you. But I really enjoy it. Would a real coach be better? Yes, a real coach would be better. Yeah, because ultimately you could text a real coach and say, I'm very tired this week.

And versus right now, it's just, you just have to do less of the training plan and be okay with that. And another side of his, as Nick couldn't go tell his coach that he was racing the PTO Canadian Open on Saturday. So he did a super long run. Two and a half hour

long run in the city after flying. Our coach was on our schedule on race week every single day. No running after travel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bold letters. But I definitely, this race was, I knew going in it was going to be a learning experience.

And it also happened to feel great because I was able to run great. But I was just happy to learn about the nutrition and how that would work with me. I feel like it was a huge. Oh, no, this is. That was your third plug because you plugged position-eyed racing. Oh, yeah. You plugged Evoc and then you plugged TrainingPeath.

And I'd also like to plug due north races. Yeah. Events. Because they were super nice and great. I mean, any race they do, I would suggest. It was so, so, so well done. They're good at putting on events. Yeah.

Good times. Cool. Well, we are so unbelievably happy with Paul's performance and we are so unbelievably tired at the same time. It was a lot of emotion. ups and downs and physical ups and downs. Yeah, totally. But thank you guys for listening. We're going to try to cool down, calm down, and enjoy beautiful Cammore, and soon

we'll be back. Yeah, and to everybody who was at the race, actually cheering and watching and wearing T-TL gear, that was, I seriously can't even believe it. That was, that was like the second most amazing thing of the weekend behind, just barely behind Paula's result. Yeah, yeah. It was so cool. I signed someone's shoes.

I signed someone's shirt. Someone has Nick Gold's on their shoes. You did? No, my God. Yeah, it was wild. It's really wild. Yeah, cool. So cool.

Well, thanks, you guys. We'll be back next week with some more... Straight to the questions. Straight to the questions next week. Maybe a fun game or two, but straight to the questions. Yes, quality. It'll be pure quality. Yeah.

We'll be back in Bend, and Nick will be back in Santa Monica. And I'm getting ready for the Collins Cup, which is like right around the corner. Oh, gosh. How is that possible? Never ends, man. Yeah, never ends. Yeah, cool. Well, thank you so much, everybody.

And thanks for listening to our race recap. hope that you weren't tired of hearing about the race yet. Well, it's only Thursday. Yeah, that's right. If not, we just need to get a new job. Right. That's true. That's true.

Thank you guys. Later. Bye.