That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula races Canadian TT Nationals, is your triathlon bike fitter gaslighting you, imposter syndrome, and more!

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Paula is back from Canadian Time Trial Nationals. After an emergency landing in Grand Junction, a missed connection through Toronto, arriving at 9am the morning before the race, and a full day pressure. Nick podiums third overall at San Diego International Triathlon, feeling breathless the whole time. We get into it. Then we launch the official TTL Eddington Number Challenge (with a gift card prize), debut the Lake Placid limited edition merch, and answer your questions.This week we discussed:Paula's Canadian Time Trial Nationals recap: emergency plane landing, 24-hour travel saga, going off first in a field of competitors, and still riding onto the podiumThe complicated relationship between triathlon athletes and national cycling federationsNick's San Diego International Triathlon recap: third overall, why being too fresh can still leave you breathless, and why it felt harder than the numbers showedThe official TTL Eddington Number Challenge: submit your cycling Eddington number in miles on Instagram for a chance to win a TTL gift card equal to your numberLake Placid limited edition poster, t-shirt, and hats: how to get yours before race dayCombating imposter syndrome in triathlon, what to do when you earned the slot but don't feel like you belongTT bike saddle discomfort: when your bike fitter blames your bibs (and whether they might have a point)The best pocket camera for riding: Ricoh GR vs. phone vs. GoProHas T100 paid its athletes? Paula addresses the Lucy Charles-Barclay question directlyWhat would you do if you knew your next race was your last? A moving question from Jason, who's hanging up the tri kit after Ironman Oregon 70.3A big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Mick Goldstone. This is going to be a fun episode. I think they're always fun, but we got a lot of stuff to cover. We got a lot of great questions. We are all back in our natural environments. Nick's in L.A. Paul and I are both in the Bend. She raised the Canadian TT champ, so we'll address that a little bit. Paula, why do you look like a superhero right now? Oh, we're just going to address it right off the bat. Nick has no whatsoever. I need to know why there are two golden wings on your face. Well, they're eye masks. I'm trying them out, okay? I got them at

Costco. What is the point of an eye mask? These are energizing eye masks and when I finish swimming I have rings under my eyes from the goggle mark so I'm giving this a shot. They're quite like, I don't know what if it is about it, but they're kind of like aesthetically pleasing. They almost look like something a Gen Zer

would wear to like a party or something. Well, when I was flying, to the TT race last week, there was a teenager just wearing these. And I was like, Oh my God. See? I knew it. It was a 5 a.m. flight, so like anything goes. If you can't, yeah, I mean, obviously you can't see this, but they're fully like wings. Like if her nose was like a butterfly's body and then like wings going up towards her ears. Well, the whole, the brand is called like, I don't know, it's a very aesthetic, trendy, cool brand where you draws your attention. It's not like, you know, L'Oreal or something

uncool. It's like a cool brand. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to buy these. There goes our potential L'Oreal sponsorship. Too bad. Well, we're going to do a supporter segment today. And Paula, if you're, if she's feeling generous, we'll grace us with keeping these on for the supporters. Well, it's to leave them on for 20 minutes. They've been on for 20, so. Oh, dang. Well, do you know what happens if you? Extra, extra glow? Yeah, more energized for more time. Eric, sorry, interrupted you. Who are we? Um, I'm Eric. This is Paula. My wife. We're bulk

athletes. Nick's our third wheel professional musician, amateur triathlet. Oh, dude, you just raced this past weekend as well. San Diego International Traathlons. It was so fun. I'll give you the 20 second recap later. All right, sweet. Yeah, so I guess we'll just get right into it. Paula, you have won the Canadian Time Trial Championships three times up to this point. So you went there, very smooth travel. Everything went exactly according to plan. No flight delays, no flight issues of any kind. Not true. Yeah, it was heavily not true.

If you listened to the pod last week, even though Paula wasn't here. Well, I listened to the podcast and so many things you guys said were so inaccurate. Fix it for us, please. Some of the stuff was like, anyway, I can't remember what was inaccurate, but there was some stuff. Was it like the distance of the race? I thought you guys did a good job of the pod last week, and I'm really glad Ari came on as well. Yeah, Ari saved the day. And I didn't know he'd listened to the podcast.

thank you, Ari, for filling in last week. I thought you were a great guest and also I'm happy for your race. So I'm glad you were on. And then he had a travel nightmare delays. And then also, me coming back from New York also had a six and a half hour flight delay that got me in at 1 a.m. Yeah, I don't know what's up with flying these days. And a lot of these delays, some of them are weather related, but the majority of the problems I've had traveling lately have been airplane issues. Like mine were too. Yeah. So that is on the airline. We were in the cabin and it smelled like burning and I'm like, well, that's probably not good. And then 10 minutes later, they're like, one of the fans burned out. So everyone has to

get off the plane. Yeah. And it's usually little things where like, yeah, you could still go, but they won't let you, which is maybe good. But when I was flying to Denver last week, I was supposed to go Redmond, Denver, Montreal, land at 3 p.m. And then it's a three and a half hour drive to where the TT is. It's not an easy place to get to. But it was reasonable with the, with the flight path I booked, but 15 minutes before landing in Denver, the pilot comes on and said we have to do an emergency landing in Grand Junction because we have a pressurization issue in the airplane. And they didn't seem too like frazzled by it, but it was a little scary because as soon as we landed in Grand Junction, fire trucks like came straight to our airplane and we all

evacuate, we got off with our stuff and they said there's no way this airplane. flying out of here, so we're going to have to find like a rescue plane, they called it. First, the flight attendant came on and said, if you guys can drive to Denver, I'd recommend it. And then another flight attendant came on and said, oh, but they don't allow one-way rentals here. So you're kind of screwed. And they weren't going to unload our luggage. It's a long drive, too. I've done that a bunch to get to tell you ride.

Yeah. Although, to be fair, I would arrive before I ended up arriving. Right. So, yes, it was the quicker option if you don't have any check bags. So I got to Denver at that point I'd missed every connecting flight to Montreal. And I'm kind of texting my Air Canada contact to make sure my bike makes it on this new path that they booked me on, which went through Toronto and got me in at 2.30 in the morning. Which obviously sucks, basically a red eye, but I was like, I just need to get there. Regardless, you know, I don't want to wait till tomorrow.

So as I'm on my flight to Toronto, the flight to Montreal gets canceled. So Air Canada was awesome and this really nice guy who I got connected with back when my bike got lost a few years ago with this race. Booked me a hotel and actually personally got one of his staff to take my bike, put it in his office and then get it on the Montreal flight. So huge kudos to Air Canada for helping with this. And the first issue was United. So it wasn't even an Air Canada problem. But Air Canada ended up taking good care of me. So anyway, I landed at like 9 a.m.

Almost 24 hours after I was supposed to get there. And my mom was there waiting with the rental car, got in there, drove for four hours, and reconned the course for the race. It was the next day. So suboptimal travel, but like last time I had really bad travel as well and still raced, okay, it's different than a triathlon where you're raking up at 3 a.m. The next day and trying to organize all your gear for a four and a half hour race. This was a 12-30 start, 40-minute race, much less logistics,

and I could sleep in and not stress in the morning. So it was annoying, but I wasn't that worried about it. Yeah. You seem to be in an okay headspace once you were there. And then the actual race. I really only cared about my bike getting there, right? As soon as I was there with my bike, I'm like, you can overcome sleep deficits.

Damn. As if it's not hard enough to be competing at the national level, then to have all these other things in your head. Okay, so the day of the actual race, when did you actually have to get there? And what was it like? And were you, since you had won before, were you the last person to go?

Oh, thanks, Nick, for feeding that one to me. Well, first of all, I was so on the fence about even going to this. Because in previous years, I'd done a lot more specific training for it. I was like, it fit a little bit more into the triathlon goals I had with doing T-100.70.3. But world championships are in Montreal. this year for cycling. And I thought if I could win the time trial, there's a good chance I'd get selected to go race for Canada in Canada, which is like one of the last times I would ever get to do that in my life. So I wanted to kind of take that chance. And I did some workouts before

in the following weeks or the previous weeks before it and they were good. Like my watts were good. I felt good on the bike. I thought if I just ride similar to what I did last time, I could win again. And so that's why I went to win the race. Made the decision, committed to it, went there, went to pick up my package the day before. And then they put out the start lists the night before the race. Not till like 10 or 11 p.m. I'm not sure what they're waiting for, but basically for the elite women, they put me off going first. And then the winner from last year was last.

And then everyone else was seated as they had finished last year at the national TT. And just so everyone knows, I skipped it last year because I had just come off a bunch of racing triathlon and I wanted a break from it. So I won it three years in a row, skipped a year, came back this year, and then was seated as the slowest person. Going off first with nobody in front of me, meanwhile, all of my competitors who were going to be within the same like finished time as me went last all a minute apart. all had follow cars. And they basically like, so the girl that ended up winning, I think she ended up passing like three or four riders and their cars.

Whereas I went off with the person in front of me was like five minutes ahead of me because she was a U-23. So I had nobody in front of me, no one to kind of sight off of or I didn't have a follow car. So it was pretty shitty that they put me first. As a previous three-time winner, they should have put me in amongst the faster riders. And even the very first year I ever did TT Nationals, they put me one of the last people. Wow. So that there is the president. Panging me as someone who might be competitive.

So it truly felt like it was set up this way to make me not win. That's how I felt. And I don't know the ins and outs of it. I know I don't have any UCI points, but I also know that the commissaires or whoever is doing the start list have a bit of discretion in when they're deciding who goes in what order. So I thought, okay, it's fine. I could still win before the race. That's what I was thinking. Make the best of it.

This is your spot. We all do the same course. It's fine. But I remember from previous years doing this, I myself, when I was like starting at the back or towards the end, caught riders. and it's not like in triathlon where you're not allowed to slingshot around people. You can ride right up to a car and go around it. You can ride up to the rider and go around them. You can't sit there, but you're getting the effect as you get closer to them and then go around them.

So that's a lot of time saved when you kind of are like getting in front of people. So I was, I mean, the entire time I was there, the vibe of cycling Canada is like, we don't want you here. Yeah. And it sucks because I'm going. going there like because I want to be there. I think it's not bad for their sport to bring a higher profile athlete, even if it's from a different sport, into your sport, bring some eyeballs to this whole event. And I don't need to be put on a pedestal. I don't need to have any special treatment. But I just need like an ounce of respect from not just like the other riders were actually

really nice. They're very shy. So I actually go to them and talk to them. But for the most part, It's like the higher ups who don't give a shit about me being there. And in fact, probably don't want me there and don't want me to win. So that's the vibe I got the whole time. Maybe this is like, I shouldn't be saying this on the podcast. But coming back from that race was like a punch in the gut, you know? I never want to be involved with Canada cycling again. And I 100% full respect to the girl that won.

I think she would have beat me even if it was like a head-to-head race with none of the starting time. issues. Like she had an amazing ride. She's so good. And I'm happy she beat me because she's, you know, it's good to have people in cycling, getting faster and having Canadian riders be competitive, not just at this little race, but like she's on a world tour team. She's performing on the world stage. And that's a good thing. That's not where my gripe is. It's that I, like the high performance people wouldn't even look at me, you know, that type of attitude, which I've been to two world championships now. You know, I'm like, I won this race three times.

Why am I being treated like this? So whatever. Why are you being treated like this? What do you think is actually happening in their heads? It doesn't look good for them when a triathlete comes and wins, I guess, but. That's all I can think. That is, you know, somebody's like, why did that happen? Why are our writers not faster?

And then it just makes complications for their decision-making process of what team are we going to bring to worlds. The crazy thing is there's like an insane number of really good Canadian riders right now. The world champion from the road is Canadian from 2025. So Allison Jackson, Olivia, you know, so many people that are really good. So I don't know if they feel the same way about the sport they get from the Federation. And trust me, I've had my fair share of issues with triathlon Canada. They're not perfect. and I know federations function differently than, say, Ironman or even the T-100,

where they're looking a little bit more out for the athletes and not just for themselves and the Federation or whatever it is. But, yeah. Since we're making enemies, also, I know USAT, Eric, you had some complicated situations with the USAT when you were trying to be a professional. Yeah, every athlete and I to you has had issues with their federation. I just, I want to be fair to federations. they have a shitty job.

Like, I would not want to be the person that's got like 50 kids trying to chase their dream and they're all running up credit card bills and you've got to decide who has the best chance of winning versus who's invested the most, et cetera.

So it's like they don't have a great job but also, I do feel like power trippy type people tend to find their way into these positions and have a way of like starting to make it about them.

And like, this program is my program that I'm trying to build and the athletes are horses versus treating the athletes like people and just even having a little bit better bedside manner. Like this could have been, Paula's situation experience could have been better if the people just weren't like. Yeah, it was, I mean, I think the high performance director from when I was going to the world championships the last couple times actually moved to triathlon Canada and I really liked him. He was so nice. And there's a few new people in who, to be fair, maybe just truly had no clue who I was. and that's why they wouldn't make eye contact with me and say hi.

But I don't know. I feel like they should have an idea. What do you think their job of the Federation is? Is it to serve the athletes as well as possible? Is it to make as much money for the Federation as possible? Is it to get as many eyes on it as possible? I don't think it's a profit-making. I think it's like everyone just needs to keep their job or something.

For sure. And a lot of this is tied up in. funding as well. So if your athletes perform better and you get medals and you get more funding. I'm not asking for a single cent though. I mean, not you. But, you know, like the program directors are trying to keep funding for their program. There's also a lot of controversy with cycling Canada because they cut the women's track cycling team. So just in general. What? Zero? Yeah. They just like don't exist anymore basically. Oh my God. Yeah. That's extreme. Yeah, it's very extreme. And there's some good tracks like Lists in Canada.

Anyway, I don't want to keep ranting about this. And I don't want it to sound like I'm so stuck up and I deserved whatever. But that's why I came out of it super pissed about that whole experience. And the redeeming factor was like my mom came with me. We had a nice visit. We found this amazing spa on the side of the road on our way back to Montreal. It was basically finished Pac-Mabite, got back to the airport. But we stopped at this crazy amazing spa that had like,

bubble stations and all these cool features and hot, cold therapy and stuff. So, like, that was the highlight of the trip for me. Okay, so Paula, we got a lot of context, but we actually don't know how the race was. Oh, I came second. For you. And I don't care about the place as much as how. Okay, so my time was actually faster than when I'd wanted on the exact same course two years ago. And you feel like conditions were comparable?

The conditions were maybe better this time. Okay. But not bad last time that I remember. Low wins. And my watts were like 285 for 40 minutes-ish. So last time I think it was 290. So really similar, 5 watts lower. For the type of training I've been doing,

I was really happy with what my power was. And yeah, there were times in the race where I was like on a downhill and I'm like, I should be pushing harder. I feel pretty good. but 40 minutes is a long time to be on the rivet. And I just, unless you do that type of training really often, where you're just going your absolute maximum, it's hard to like remind your brain to stay in that mode.

Yeah. If somebody asked me like what is the last thing on earth you would like to do tomorrow, it would be go as hard as I can for 40 minutes. Like that length of time just is so terrible. I like it for some reason. That's why I went. It's like go as hard as you can for 10 minutes. and then just hang on for 30 more minutes at that same effort.

Well, it's a cool feeling to be doing this, knowing you don't have to run after, because basically anytime I was climbing, anytime I was on a flat, not a descent, I was riding over 300 watts, and it didn't feel like that bad, which was kind of fun. And you know, you can just stop after.

So you really empty your tank, and you never get that experience in triathlon because you're always thinking about the run coming up. You're always kind of pacing yourself. If I see 300 watts in a triathlon, I'm like, whoa, that's too hard. Whereas in this, I was like, this is good. Go harder. You know?

This is why Olympic distance, international distance is the best. You can just forget about pacing. Go as hard as you can. Just go hard. So the closest thing we have. Paula, that's so cool. That feeling of I feel strong and I'm working hard and I feel good. I think that's actually my favorite feeling in the sport.

when you're going hard and you're like, I can actually do this. And the Watts are kind of reflecting it too. Because I don't, like I could have felt the same way that I felt and looked down and saw 270 and been like, what is going on? I'm trying so hard.

But when you're just getting some positive reinforcement from your power meter, it's kind of a good thing. I think this is the best feeling in life. Across all aspects of it. When you feel like you are doing really well at a thing and you're on your limit, like of your abilities, whether it's working on a car or running up a hill or doing the spreadsheets.

Wow. This is, I'm nailing this. That's the best. Yeah. It is that you're, yeah. You are world class. I'm not world class. I can't even, I'm not even national class.

You're of course you're national class. You were second at the national TTs and you've won it three times. You're definitionally national class and a country that has a strong cycling culture too. So we're really proud of you, Paul. Especially with all the stuff that led up to it. And even though it did sacrifice a week of your training and several doll hairs, I still think it's really cool and maybe inspire some people to do more of that kind of stuff. Yeah, by the way.

So I bought a pair of Spico bars from FDJ cycling team that were like way too expensive, but they're cool. And I was like, if I'm going to take this seriously, I need to get the good bars and the cool bars and whatever. And Spieco has been very generous with us, but they didn't have a set to, make for me in time. So I bought a pair that belonged to one of their pro tour riders. I'm never going to use them again. So if anyone has a shiv

TT and wants to race any TTs and buy these bars from me, they're cool. I mean, they look super sick. I would never use them for a triathlon because they're quite aggressive. And they fit all the UCI regulations. So they bolt directly onto a shiv TTI though. It's pretty sick.

It's very niche. Don't have to worry about your position. Or like is this, you just like clip them on there and you're good to go. Yeah. But if it's super niche. But in the off chance that anyone listening here, I think it's actually kind of a big thing in Great Britain. People do like masters T-Ting. I don't think it's, yeah, like every week. And I don't think it's that niche.

Like this is the number one most desirable, most common bike to use for UCI stuff. If you really want, I could sell you a shiv with it. With them. Wow. Attached to ship. Attached to shiv. really just want to get my recoup a little bit of the money I spent on these bars. Oh my God.

Okay. That is it for my ranting. And hopefully cycling Canada wasn't going to pick me for worlds because now they're definitely not going to pick me for worlds. But I'm still going to apply. You have to apply. You have to like submit your name. So I'm like shot in the dark. I might as well submit my name.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Why not? Especially if it's in Canada. Maybe they get extra spots or something because it's in Canada.

Is it also public knowledge now that where 70.3 worlds are? Chattanooga. Yeah, that's out. So RIP to people trying to qualify if you're in the U.S. because it just got more competitive in the U.S. Because people don't, you know, people of course will be able to travel. It'll be rolling down less far. Yeah, in the U.S.

It'll be rolling down less far. And the closer you are to Chattanooga, the harder it will be. probably. So maybe you just need to fly to Europe to do a qualifying race. No, that doesn't make it easier though. I mean, the Europeans are so fast. Maybe fly to Asia. That would be an interesting tactic.

Yeah, flying to Asia, I think, is currently the move. But what do you guys think of worlds being in 70? Sorry, in Chattanooga. I think the consensus is that everyone hopes that they do the same course they did the last time it was in Chattanooga. Which is different than it's been the last six years or seven years. It's a slightly more challenging adventure. hilly course on the bike. Yeah, because Roads has been in Chattanooga before 2017.

This was before I'd even done one. But it was a, I've heard an amazing course, like a little bit of an up river swim and then down river, super hilly bike. And then a similar run, I think, to what it's been. But that course would be a great course. The current course is fine, but the roads aren't great. And it's not...

They are going to have to figure out the traffic situation. It's not hilly enough to like, make an impact on separating packs. Whereas if you have a World Championship that has a distinctive hill, it just makes it more exciting, I think. Yeah, when I did Chattanooga 70.3 non-world championships, that was one of the easier, fastest bike rides that I've done,

where it was not that challenging, but we went crazy fast and it was a huge pack of dudes because it rolls just enough to like you get little breaks on the downhill and you're drafting essentially, right, in this huge pack. Yeah, the 20 meter helps a bit, but the hills are never longer than a minute. So. Yeah.

But no, it's exciting to have it in the U.S. I was obviously hoping it'd be in Canada because Montreinblah heard was one of the options. That would have been awesome. What do you think of the town? That's what I'm kind of wondering, like, how's the vibe going to be? Taupo and Marbea were so cool. Is Chattanooga cool? I think it is.

I think it is. pretty cool. Yeah, really a lot of hotels, a lot of Airbnbs. It's not huge, but it's got some good character. It's pretty. Got Atlanta Airport really close. Yeah, there's a lot of boxes that make it a good option, I think. Better than a ton of other places of bad worlds where there's barely anywhere to stay.

It's impossible to get to. Yeah. Like even... Logistically should be simpler than Topa. Marbea really was amazing. Logistically way simpler than... St. George. Really? How? St. George has two transitions.

Oh, logistically, okay. But yeah. St. George had a million Airbnbs, but you had to fly into, what were people going to fly into? Vegas. Not that bad. Similar to the Atlanta thing. Right. I say, oh, it's like a few hours away. Okay, well, we have a couple things still.

Eric, I see behind you, you have the Lake Placid TTL graphic. Yes, I do. We are doing the same thing that we did for Oceanside, where we have a limited edition poster and t-shirt available. And if you're going to be in Lake Placid, we will be doing the same thing. But you can pick up your t-shirt when we do our donut run.

I believe that's going to be on Friday. But just double check on Instagram and we'll make a Strava group as well. But we're going to have a little bit of help from Team TTL members there, so we'll be able to hand out t-shirts. So if you're going to race, that's how you can get it. If you're not going to race, if you've just been to Placid, done Placid, want to do Placet, et cetera, and you think this poster and T-shirt is awesome,

you can still order one. Additionally, we don't do ads on this podcast, but the way that this podcast survives is thanks to our podcast supporters and also merchandise sales like this. TTL is a merchandise apparel brand. So you're just going to have to sit through this one a little bit. The other thing that we have, this, I think this is the coolest hat we've ever made.

It's so freaking cool. It's the script logo that is from the front of the ocean side, from the front of the Lake Placid t-shirt, the triathlon and cursive kind of at a slant. We've got a couple of these hats. We've got a couple of hats we haven't even teased pictures of yet that will come out this week as well. All of this is going to be on sale pretty much,

well, I guess today, which is Tuesday, even though you're going to hear this on Thursday. We'll let the pre-order for the posters and everything run through Sunday, we got to submit them ASAP so they will be ready in time for the race. So, Eric, the hat you're wearing, you're going to also be wearing in the supporter segment that we're doing. So I just want to set expectations for people. Is that color going to be available?

We have two colors available. We have this awesome navy with white and then we have a two-tone, which is like a cream-colored hat with a, what do you want? Like a seafone colored brim? Yeah. They're incredible. They're both very happy with how these turned out. So yeah, those are the options. And they'll be all over Instagram if you just want to go check it out real quick.

And they'll be on the website when this comes out. Okay, speaking of Instagram, I have to talk about this. And I'm realizing that Eric and Paula do not love this as much as I love it. So maybe I'm alone. But last week we talked about the Eddington number. And I think it caused some confusion here, but I think some people understand it. Don't love me into this. I think it's cool.

Okay, great. I appreciate that. I realized between last week and this week that there's a massive issue here, which is that some people think in miles and some people think in kilometers. I figured out how to fix this. Oh my God. Okay. So you can very easily just go into your settings, display preferences,

change from kilometers and kilograms to miles and pounds. Oh. A sin. A real sin. Just long enough. That's a temporary sin. Just long enough to play this game and then switch it back. I'd be too scared of it not.

ever switching back though. Okay, well, if you're a scaredy cat, you don't have to play. But if you do play, we have a sweet prize for the winner. Well, I think the whole thing is a bit silly anyway, so. Paula doesn't like fun. Well, it is a bit silly. We like silly things here. Okay, so to get your Eddington number, you just have to go on to your Strava, go to your activities, sort by all your rides, and try to guess at first what you think your Eddington number might be, which is the total number of rides you've done at that distance or more. So you need to have done 60 or more.

rides at 60 miles of length. That's right. And if you've done 58 rides at 60 miles, then it's not 60, and you got to bring that number down. So then you can check 59. Have you done 59 rides at 59 miles? You just have to find that. Can you explain how you go in and actually check this?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can do it on your phone by just sorting by activities, by rides. And then let's say I thought my number was 60. I would put it at 60 or more, more than 60. and then I count them. And if they get 60, then I know it's 60. But if I have more than 60, I wouldn't try to bump it up to see if I get 61 or 62. So it takes a while.

Same thing. On the phone, it takes a little longer. On the computer, it's easy because you can sort by total distance. And then it'll tell you the amount of results you have on that page. So you can see 20, 40, 60. And that's a little easier to count. So I counted, but mine was 64. So I had done a few more than 64 rides at 64 miles, and I have not done 65 rides at 65 miles. And then my run one was, I've done 23, 15 mile runs, but only 15, 16 mile runs.

So my run adding to number is 15. Okay, that's pretty good. It's pretty good. And I don't think either of you have done the work of calculating this, right? So we're going to just have to leave people. No, I'm still trying to understand it. so I can't look it up. You do understand it, Paul.

You just don't like it. It's a difference. So meaningless. It's all meaningless. We assign meanings to things. We are meaning makers. So anyway, if you are a podcast listener and you want to win a fun little prize, we're going to do a little Instagram challenge here,

where you can post your as a comment to a post, your cycling Eddington number. In miles. In miles. It has to be in miles. So you're not to do this annoying thing of translating your, not translating, but changing your units to Imperial. Sorry.

USA stuff. And then the person with the highest one will get that value. It's like a double Eddington number. We're now using that Eddington number as the value that you will get as a gift card to spend on the that triathlon life store. So you could get your Lake Plastic shirt. So if your Eddington number is a thousand, you're getting a thousand dollar gift card. If you've done 1,000, 1,000 mile rides on your acoustic bicycle, that is amazing.

Yeah, we're going to be sponsoring you and you're going to have to be an influencer for TTO. That's right. And we will have to verify this. Okay, so now the only reason I want to know mine now is to know if it's better than yours, Nick. Do you go into my activities to do this, Nick? You go into, yep. So are you on the computer right now? Yep, you go into my activities, and then you go to ride.

And then you'll sort by distance. Yep. And then you have to go down and count them. Mine shows 20 per page, for example, so you actually don't have to count them. 76. So 76 is yours. And I'm trying to think, Eric, you might be right that this is only road rides. Because what's silly is on the app

You can actually select multiple different activity types So it will include everything But no one wants to count through 75 individual activities Okay, so I'm at 41 to 60 And the top number says 75 And the bottom number says 71 So you got to keep going one more page 69

Yeah 69 More more than Nick Nice Yeah, okay, that's awesome That's awesome So yeah and I think there's potentially, like, you've done some long gravel rides too, and I'm not sure they pop up on here.

It looks like to me like they don't. So your number would be even higher than that, probably, if you count of gravel rides. I don't know what a good number is, but I still think it's crazy that you've ridden 70 plus miles, 70 plus times. That is a lot of time on a bicycle. So anyway, we're going to have to verify this if you're the podcast listener who has this, but we're very curious to see who has the highest Eddington number in miles. So look out for that Triathlon Life Instagram post that we'll be prompting this challenge this week. All right.

Headed back to change, back to kilometers. Yeah, that's what I just did too. Quick. Great. We did it. Can we're like an hour into the podcast. We haven't even done a question. I'm taking these I'm ass off, by the way.

Oh my gosh. Okay. Maybe we'll somehow include that in the supporter segment. We have a this or that, but I think. think we don't have time for it. So let's just get right into questions here. I think people are missing the jingles. Really?

Okay. We'll do a combo of rapid fire and this or that, okay? This is going to take all of one minute. Here's a summer training theme, this or that, from Quinn. Would you rather ride in a summer kit in the winter or swim in a wetsuit in warm water? Wet suit in warm water. I think I could probably get away with being cold. Always run at peak heat or always swim at night.

At night. That sounds fun. Yeah. Wear a cooling headband everywhere you go or leg warmers during every workout. Everywhere you go, like even on the daily. Even like to the grocery store. I guess I'll do the leg warmers. Yeah.

Do a full distance, Iron Man through Death Valley or a 70.3 with no calories. 70.3 with no calories. I've done that plenty of times. Exactly. In fact, I came second at Worlds when I did that. Yeah. Yeah. No problem.

Not even a challenge. Yeah, I might as well. would be so bogged so soon. And Death Valley in the winter is actually kind of nice. I mean, okay, if we can go Death Valley in the winter, that's right in the summer you will die. If you load super hard on the race,

you can get through it with water. You're not loitering away. This is not medical advice. You might not go as fast as you've ever gone, but you can do it. Consult your doctor before. Okay, Fourth of July or Canada Day. Canada Day.

Duh. Only drink scalding hot. coffee on your ride or only drank water at public fouls? I mean, Fourth of July is a way bigger deal than Canada Day. You've never even been in Canada during Canada Day. Every time we talk to your parents on the phone, they're like, oh yeah, I think we're like, I don't know, doing a pie or something. My parents have been planning Fourth of July for like three months.

Yeah, but that's the same with every holiday between our families. My parents are like, oh, it's Christmas? That's true. But is Canada Day that big of a deal, Paul? Like compared to Fourth of July? Yeah, you celebrate. I mean, I think Americans are rowdier in general. so maybe it gets a little rowdier,

but it's not like it means less. It's true we are rowdy. Yeah, yeah, fair, fair. Okay, last one here. We're just civilized. Only drink scalding hot coffee on your ride or only drink water at public fountains. Public fountains.

I drink water at public fountains all the time. What's the problem with that? And then I dunked my head in it. Oh my God, I just saw that clip of Sebastian Keenley who he dunked his head in the water ice bucket. I forget what race it was. Maybe it was Frankfurt or something. I don't know where it was.

But it's just because 70.3 Nice and Iron Man Nice were canceled this weekend because of the insane heat wave that Europe is having right now. If you want to get into that, GoL is in a pro try news. Very hot for them. And I just feel so bad for people who spend a whole year training for a race. I mean, the pros, I'm sorry for them too, but also age groupers who plan their whole year around it. And imagine that race whenever they're working hard on an interval and then it gets taken away from them a couple days before the race. Sounds like a dream come true. Yeah, because that's true, too.

It's like, listen, I did all the work now and I don't have to suffer. Okay, let's get to questions here. You can submit your questions to the podcast at Thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast. That's also where you'll be able to order these hats and the t-shirt and the posters that Eric's been talking about. So that's your should be your homepage. You can also become a podcast supporter there. First question here is from page. Hi, TTR.L. I'm a new listener and new triathloner.

My question is, I competed in my first 70. 3 last summer in Louisville, actually my first triathlon ever. I got second in my age group. The World Championship slot rolled down to me and after debating the decision for the allotted three days, I decided to take the spot. I'm now 11 weeks out and feeling like I don't have enough experience in triathlon to actually be going or like I deserve to get the slot. I'm self-coached training 9 to 10 hours in the off-season and now 12 to 15 during the build phase and just got a TT bike this April. The only background I have in the sport is swimming competitively growing up.

What's the best way to combat the imposter syndrome and prepare mentally for a course you know will be very challenging? The Nees Spice course and the ocean swim are scaring me slightly. I had a lot of fun last year training for Louisville because there wasn't any expectations besides a very loose sub-six goal

that I ended up crushing in five hours, 11 minutes. However, the training now feels very pressured and not as fun because I feel like I need to do well to prove to myself that it was worth going. Thanks, Paige from Buffalo. By the way, this was like much too long of a question. You're lucky I put it in.

But I took out some paragraphs even. This is the pared down version? Paige, you should know better. It's conceptually a great question, but it was too long. Yeah. FIII. Here we are. We're answering it. So first of all, do you guys, like imposter syndrome is something people experience in all

kinds of things. Do you guys ever feel imposter syndrome in sport and triathlon? Yeah, of course. I think everyone does. Yeah, but even if you're podiuming at world championships, you still feel imposter syndrome? I think some of those people have the most mental demons to slay, so 100%. Yeah, because another thing about racing is you're only really remembering your last race. So you could be the world champion from the previous year even. And if you've had a string of bad racing or you're injured or even just like had a few bad training sessions, that can make you question everything. It's very psychological. Have you found that there's anything that helps you?

I think you can draw on confidence from your training and also remember that if you've qualified for an event, you do deserve to be there on an amateur level, right? So it doesn't really matter how you do in terms of how others perceive you. Of course, you have pressure for yourself to perform and you want to live up to a standard that you've set for yourself. But also, everyone, even including pros, you think it matters more than it actually matters to other people. It matters most to yourself.

So I try to remind myself that when I'm feeling like, oh, I have to win this race that I have so much pressure. It's like no one really cares that much except me. People want you to do well. People want you to be happy. But it's not like there's anything bad that's going to happen if you don't have a race you're happy with or go 20 minutes slower than you wanted to. Right?

Yeah. I'm going to paraphrase a little bit of our coach's book, which he wrote specifically for professional athletes. So it's not out and available or anything. But something that I really liked in the opening chapters was him basically saying, if you have a bad race on Saturday, if you have a good race on Saturday, what are you going to be doing on Monday? You're going to be training. And you're going to be back into the process.

And loving and enjoying and immersing your. yourself in the process. The racing is part of the process. You're on this journey of self-improvement, and a race is a moment to like check in on how did that go. How is the whole process? It's like a measurement point, like a power test. But if you're really enjoying the sport, like Monday's session should like fire you up to get a little bit better. Before the race, the week after the race. Same. This is the, this is part of the main reason I love triathlon is that you get to control how much you put into it. And unlike a lot of other things,

there's this structure that we can follow that's difficult, but that pays off. You're paying to go do this race. You're paying for the knowledge that you're getting to go do this race so it makes your training feel more important and don't let that be a burden if you can help it

rather than like an excitement to prepare for the race knowing that like the race is not going to define you as a person or the success of the journey necessarily. You do belong. long page. Next question is from Ben and May. Hi, TTL

fam, subscriber, app user, and mega fan of all things TTL. My dog May and I are wondering how you deal with your four-legged friends when you travel to races. Oh boy. I know before you've had friends to watch them, but did I hear you use Rover? wondering how much that experience was.

We're also pumped for the Iron Man Lake Placid merch and a chance to see Paula race in person. We will be there spectating and volunteering. Peace from Ben and May. basically since getting a second dog we can't have our friends watch both dogs anymore Paul is too self-conscious I'm pretty self-conscious of it's like they are an insane amount of work like someone is always doing something unfortunate and annoying and the sheer amount of dirt

that two of them can bring in the house like all your time I spent cleaning it's not really the in-house stuff that I'm self-conscious of it's that it's really hard to keep track on the of the them both off leash when you're off leash and they suck it walking on a leash. But anyway, we did use Rover. We used the same girl twice now and had a lot of success with it. I mean, when you're paying someone to do a job, the guilt kind of melts away because they're getting compensated and they've signed up for this. So the fact that she willingly came back and did it a second time means that she must have

not minded it, you know? Yeah. Of course, she could have said no the second time. And they're not bad dogs. Like they do come when they're called. But having two of them, they get each other going. They sprint out of the car. They're sniffing together.

They chase each other. It's a little more hectic. So it is tough. But that being said, I've said this on the pod before. If anyone wants to come to Bend, we'll pay for your flights. Stay with them. While we go to Kona, while we go to Nice. They are fun.

They are fun. Bend is fun. The dogs are fun. if you're here with that in your mind like they're work but they're fun then it could be a cool gig. Yeah this is not like you're going to come play and bend and like take the dogs out in the morning for

10 minutes. It's like you're coming to bend to do dogs. The dogs require a lot. No if you take them they had a 10 minute activity this morning they're going to sleep till the evening and we'll take them for another activity. They don't need that much. I'm just trying to make it as scary as possible so that the expectations is set appropriately. Right.

We obviously managed to run TTL and get all our training in and have them So there you go. But Rover is good. Rover is good. And I think it gives you a little bit of peace of mind on both sides. That's the point. That's what you're paying for.

Yeah, it's like Airbnb. And honestly, the girl that we got, like, we left for the airport early. She arrived an hour later. And then she left an hour before we got back and left the house perfectly clean. We didn't even really see her the second time. So it's as simple as it could possibly be. and that is worth paying for. Wow. Rover sponsor us.

No, I mean, I'm not even asking for that, really. Well, I am. Rover, if you're listening, sponsor us. Is this an okay time to give you my 30 second recap of my race? It's not my recap, it's my takeaway. Oh, yeah. I totally hijacked the race recap with all my complaining. Oh, that's fine. I don't need a race recap, but I race San Diego International Triathlon.

on. And that's probably the freshest I've ever been for any race if we're going to see it in the positive light. The super taper. And I felt indeed very fresh, but I was just couldn't catch my breath the whole race. I never had like muscular fatigue that I noticed, but I felt winded the whole time in a way that I'm, it felt like something was off. But my, my power and my pace were actually not meaningfully slower than last year, but I felt, it felt so hard and not great. I think that the shortness of breath thing, it happens to me in training sometimes, even today it happened a bit. It's not a lack of fitness, I don't think. I think it could be like fatigue and stress coming into a thing, which you obviously had because you flew to New York,

you were at a stressful time, you didn't sleep that much, you had flight problems. So it's the same as training stress. If you have three really hard days and then you go and try to do a workout, I get that same kind of breathless feeling. I don't, maybe if you've lost a bit of fitness, but I don't think that it's 100% due to that. I think they're. Yeah, you could be right. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. But it was fun. I ended up getting third overall, which was very fun at this race. That means a lot to me. And my friends came and they also got on their age group podium. So it was kind of a party. And I love San Diego. Sandy goes so fun. I know you guys used to live down there too. Yeah. And crazy that your friends got on the podium is their first triathlons ever.

And you took some pictures with some TTL team people. I did. Yes, it was so fun. I saw them the day of registration the day before wearing TTR Penny and Oceanside shirt. And then the next day they were wearing their Team TTR race kit. And we all matched. Yeah, you looked great in that picture. We'll post it. Take a little photo together.

Yeah, we're going to post it today. Let's get to our podcast supporter segment here. I'm going to read it out loud on the pod and then we're going to talk about it in private for podcast supporters. It'll come into your inbox later this week. This is Marco. Hello, TTL. My name is Marco.

I recently had a new TT bike fit and during the fit and after the first ride this past weekend, I did not feel comfortable in the groin area. I had to sit up constantly to relieve pressure. While having the fit done, the person mentioned that a big factor was that I was using cycling bibs

and not triathlon bibs. And with the cycling bibs, having a thicker padding, it would be causing an issue that would be resolved if I used triathlon bibs. Question, is this normal? Do you use triathlon bibs in suits when using the GT bike during training? Thank you all for the great podcast, Marco. Okay, so we're going to answer this off the air of the pod for podcast supporters, and we'll be right back for everyone else. We're back. We're here. We designed a saddle that now is going to work for everyone. It's going to make everyone 10 watts faster, but it's only for podcast supporters.

or I'm sorry if you weren't there for it. Okay, this question is from Sydney. Hi, tripod. What are some of the best options for a pocket camera on the bike? Something I can pop in my jersey pocket and easily pull out to snap a pick while riding.

Don't want to drop my slippery phone. Thanks, Sydney. For the record, I've never dropped my slippery phone and I don't even have a case on it. So I think it is possible to use your phone. But there are better options. Okay. Well, if you're going to break a phone,

you're just as likely to break your camera. aren't you? Yeah, but the camera is not also your way to call for help and, you know, conduct business via emails, et cetera, et cetera. So you'd rather break a camera than break your phone. If they were of the same value, yeah, it's less of a headache, I think, to have the camera be broken for a few days versus shut down your entire life for a couple days to go get a new phone. The phones are a little more slippery than basically any camera. You could probably get like a guerrilla case or like something. I've, my cases have historically been so grippy that they're kind of a pain in the ass to get out of my jersey pocket.

But I've never dropped one of those. And do you think that there is also an advantage to not having to deal with a touchscreen when you're sweaty and trying to take photos with a real camera? I feel like that's a nice little plus. You know, like there's like an on button and a shutter button, whereas sometimes with the phone,

I'm sweaty and like I can't press the shutter button or I can't change the lens. With the new button that's on the side of the iPhone, I can pull that out push that, opens a phone, and click off pictures using that same button. So whatever generation that says, the 13er. I think that's solved. It's just really, do you want a better picture?

A point and shoot camera. And you do want to pull your phone out of your pocket and actually see, you know, someone texting you or an email coming in the middle of a ride versus you just don't freaking look at that for two hours and just take pictures? That's the upside of a camera. That's, what about like a GoPro or a, Like a little mini sports camera. Because those do take pictures.

Yeah. And then the fear of dropping them is zero. I would only do that if you're also quite interested in video, just because the pictures on a GoPro are just so limiting because of the super, super wide angle lens. Yeah, but some people like that. Yeah. If that's what you like and you don't perceive everyone anything else,

I do carry one around. I do take pictures with it on occasion. So it works. It takes a good picture. It's just one very wide angle. Yeah, but oh, I guess the iPhones, you can switch the angling angle. So what do you think for actual cameras, Eric?

Do you have a recommendation for people? Yeah, the gold standard is the RICO GR. That's kind of an old camera at this point, right? Well, they keep coming out with new ones and they've just gotten more and more expensive. But I have an original GR that I bought for like $350. The new ones are like $1,800 or something like that. Oh. Yeah, they're expensive.

But they take really great pictures. You can do all of the settings just with one hand. They fit perfectly inside of a jersey pocket. same size as a phone, just slightly thicker. That's the camera. Love it. Okay. All right, we're going to do one more real question, but two very quick ones. So first of all, let's just address this.

This is from Daniel. Hi, gang. I listened to Lucy Charles Barkley on the Triathlon Hour podcast, and she mentioned she hasn't signed up for any T-100 races because she hadn't been paid yet. Is this one of the reasons Paula hasn't put her name on the starting list yet, or are you just focused on the full and the championship? championships. Thanks for all you guys do. Daniel.

No, I have been paid in full as of today, which is June 30th. They were super late at doing the year-end payments from last year and the payments for Qatar. I think we might have got them in May. But, I mean, I can't speak for anyone else, but they have paid me completely. And that's not the reason I haven't signed up for them. It was more because I was trying to stay in North America early season. and then I will put my name down for Vancouver, T-100. It's different this year because you don't have to commit to a full series.

So there is the ability to kind of do one-off thing, like go to the Vancouver race, which I'm really interested in. It might be hard for me to get into it if my ranking is too low. So I'm fully prepared to not even really qualify, quote-unquote, for it, but I'll try to do it. And I don't know. I think the T-100 has this reputation. of paying us later than, say, Ironman, who usually pay us within a couple weeks of the race, unless there's jumping control.

It's a little bit delayed, but not months. And it did kind of screw us up for taxes because you're getting paid in the next year for money you theoretically made the previous year. So you have like this big sum one year and a smaller sum the previous year. Yeah, but then also. So by the time taxes were due in April, I hadn't received the payment yet to even use that to help pay the taxes.

You know what I mean? Right. So we were like, we were okay, but it was the timing of it is really challenging for, I mean, imagine a lot of people when you're trying to time it with like taxes and do it all properly. And our income is already very sporadic and unpredictable with racing and injuries. Thanks to all of our other sponsors paying us on time, we were okay. But yeah, we could pay our taxes. We're in a very fortunate position with that. But it was, that was the only thing that kind of annoyed me.

I don't mind waiting. But when it was like, I actually need this $30,000 to actually give straight to the IRS, that type of situation. But it's all good. Yeah. Okay, good. Another quick one. When do the limited edition TTR, Nick loves all boobs shirts drop? Asking for a friend.

And by the way, this person's name is Nick. Boob Mafia, I think, is better. I feel like that has a wide appeal. I think Boof mafia is better. Yeah, keep an eye out for Boob Mafia, but I think this person's name is Nick. That's why he wanted it. Nick loves all boobs shirts.

You know, we do love all boobs here on the podcast, by the way, just to make clear reiterate. Maybe we do like a Calvin and Hobbs-esque illustration with like, you know, like political cartoon to someone with like a boob mafia shirt smashing a little stick figured Nick. Yeah, I'd wear that. Okay. Last one here.

Hey Paul, Eric and Nick. Longtime podcast supporter and proud member of Team GTL writing from beautiful Boseman, Montana. It's been an amazing seven-year journey in triathlon, and you all have been a huge part of both growth in multisport and the joy I've felt as part of such a dedicated community. Sadly, I've decided that Ironman, Oregon, 70.3 on July 19th, will be my last triathlon. Early onset arthritis in my spine and increasing knee problems are just making it too painful and risky to run in the ways I know I need to be competitive as a 56-year-old age grouper. Don't feel too bad for me, though.

It's been an amazing and satisfying chapter in my life that's taken me across the U.S. and around the world. The months and years ahead will offer more time on the bike and long days with a fly rod in hand on Montana's blue ribbon trout streams. Here's my question, heading into Oregon, which has been on my must-do list from the beginning. If you knew your next race was going to be your last, what would you do in preparation for and during that race to make it extra special and memorable. Given injuries and my reduced training volume, chasing a PR is likely out of the question, but I'd love your thoughts on how I might make the most of this one on the last day as a

competitive triathlete. Thanks for who you are, all you do for us, and how you inspire folks like me. Jason. This question was kind of sad because it reminded me of like, what would you eat for your last meal if you knew you were dying? Well, would food be a part of your plan here? Well, I was thinking the thing that would make it most special to me is the people that would come with me. Like if I knew that Lake Placid was my last marathon ever, I'd want you two there.

I'd want my parents there. I'd want my brother and sister there. I think it's like the people you've shared the whole journey with to be there for the final thing means more than your time at that race or your result at that race. It's kind of like a celebration of what you've done in the past. And not necessarily like it's the end of competition ever. I think there's now so many opportunities to do a gravel race or do a trail race or like do other things. It doesn't have to be like that sad because like he said, it's brought him a lot. But anyway, that's what I would do.

Bring some people with me. I love that. Maybe stay at a nice hotel. Yeah. But I like to do that anyway. Well, why not though? Let's do it last race. Do it up for real.

a reservation at a super fun restaurant after, make some plans so that the activities surrounding the race are really memorable. Because like I said, I went to TT Nationals. The thing I remember most is going to the spa. Is it crazy to like, what if you bought a bike from the first year that you ever competed in triathlon and raced on that? That's insane. If you're not chasing a PR, you're like, I'm going to do this.

And just to feel how far you've come as an athlete from your first triathlon to now. That's fun. I like that. Ideally, you would just still have that bike. I still don't think I would do it. I don't think I would do that. It would feel so terrible. If you're competitive, I feel like that's tough to just take such a step back. Well, also, it's just going to feel worse. You don't want this to be like miserable.

That's kind of what I was thinking is I would go out and like go as hard as I could until I had one of those moments where like, this is really, really uncomfortable. And I might just go. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to chill until I feel like going hard again and be okay. with that and more end-up tempo pace, you know? Maybe take the Nick approach and like talk to people on the run. Yeah.

Nick, no, you work hard. You don't really do that. But like... It depends on the race. Sometimes I'll chat. It depends. But good luck. That's fun.

That should be... Just make it as fun as possible. Whatever sounds like the most fun. Congratulations, Jason. You did it. He survived triathlon. You graduated. You have survived triathlon and you made it out the other side.

You graduated to the next thing. Oh, that's great. Well, enjoy fishing, and thanks for being a podcast supporter. I'm listening. We're proud to have you. Oh, my God, I'm cracking up. That's it, guys. That's a long pod for us.

We're at two hours and 19 minutes of recording, but this is going to be much shorter. We had a lot of tangents there that aren't going to make it into the podcast. Yeah, with our Eddington numbers, that was the main thing. Well, you won't have to listen to us figuring out how to do that. Nick will make that Nick will have made that short Nick will make it seem like we knew it coming in 69

I would do this? Yes okay perfect got it first try no problem It's so simple That's it right next week We'll talk a little bit more about Regular training and Paul you'll be really Ramping up

Well not ramping up You'll have ramped up You'll have finished the ramping I'm just gonna I'm just gonna cap off our whole like Placid pitch here If you're doing Lake Placid if you know someone doing Lake Placid, share with all your friends. Let's try to get as many of these t-shirts out there on people as possible.

I think it'll be so sweet. Love it. The money goes towards a good cause, and that is Nick's ticket to Lake Placid. Please, please help me. That is not, that is a true statement. It's a true statement. It's a true statement. And then I can do the donut run with all of us together.

And our rover for the dogs. Yeah, that's true. See, it's all coming back. okay everyone we'll talk you next week bye