That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula races T100 Miami, race recap, hot and humid race tactics, racing in the dark, and more!

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

This week we hear all about Paula's race in Miami! We get a walkthrough of the whole race, and we get some questions at the end. Questions about the lack of race belts in the T100 races,  riding on the trainer in aero vs sitting up, what criteria to consider when trying to find the optimal chainring for a race, and more!

Hey, everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Paula Finlay. I'm Nick Goldstein. And this is our triathlon podcast where we talk about what's going on in the triathlon, what's going on our triathlon life, and mostly we answer questions. Paul is a professional triathlet. I'm a professional track athlete. Nick's professional musician, amateur triathlet, and I don't know, we just love talking, hanging out. News of the week and the focus of this episode is going to be the PTO T-100. Paula's, Paul is, Paul's, nice result there. Okay, the challenge here is that Nick is in Italy, calling in from the middle of the mountains. It's the morning here in Ventura, California, where Eric and I are based.

And, yeah, we have to get this podcast out because we have so many questions about the race. But obviously, the, you know, cross-world Wi-Fi is going to be a little iffy. So Nick will have fun editing this. But yeah, we wanted to at least get a little bit of a podcast out for all of the curious minds about the race. Since it was broadcasted and a lot of people were able to watch it, that sort of naturally sparks more questions, I guess, as people are watching it. And maybe you want to get a little insight into what it was like to actually be racing it. Yeah, and maybe pick up some hot tips for taking into their own races. That's what I always imagine.

Yeah, give you some hot tips. H-A-W-T. Nick, I can't even talk. Nick. I think Nick heard he was being introduced. I don't know what happened, but as soon as we started recording, it went to complete Okay, well, now you're back. So quick, quick.

Say something. Yes, I accidentally stayed up all night watching Paula's race, even though I told myself I'd only watched the beginning of the swim because it started so late in Italy time. And then I just ended up FaceTiming Eric for four hours straight, basically trying to anxiety watch the whole race. Yeah, it was super. fun. Nick was not falling asleep and then our friends, Dusty and Karin, who are winemakers, who have done wine collaborations with, and we have another one coming up, hot teaser.

They came over, they were on their way back from a thing and stopped by and we watched Paula race. So we had like a little watch party going internationally. It's pretty great. The whole thing was kind of exciting beginning to end, sometimes because of the racing and sometimes because the broadcast kind of had some ups and downs. And then there was a situation with Eric and I thinking there wasn't enough light for the athletes to be racing in. So it was kind of all over the place. So we were very stressed out at times. You make us sound like we were like worried mothers.

The TV cameras made it look quite dark. And I think Paula can comment on whether or not it was that dark. But Nick and I weren't just being stressed for no reason. It was kind of crazy on the broadcast. But like what's there to be stressed about? Like I'm not going to die out there. It looked like you might not be able to see anything. like he would smash into another competitor or a motorcycle or a wall.

That's how dark the cameras were. Well, also there's another element where Eric and I were just concerned about you being really upset during the race. Whether or not you're going to slam into someone, we don't like that you're concerned and upset while racing. Well, just rest assured that I'm always upset while racing. Just kidding. Well, I'm not that kidding. The darkness was a welcome reprieve from the normal. Anyway, do you have like a flow prepared for our show today?

Well, I have a couple of questions, but I think they're just going to kind of come up naturally. So, Paula, this was the first race of the year. You were not 100% feeling like this was like, okay, you're ready to fire in all cylinders. But it ended up going pretty well for you. And I just was curious when you actually were on the start line, what your thought process, not thought process was, what your mindset was of like, okay, I'm actually going to try as hard as I can at this, or are you going to wait to see how your body felt? Just really quick, are we going to do a normal short of you with questions?

Just so if people don't want to hear a race recap, they could skip maybe to a certain time. Yes, we're also going to have questions. They have a lot to do with the race, though. Oh, okay, okay. So maybe just skip this whole episode. Yeah, if you don't want to hear about the race. But there are some things that are race related that aren't specific to this race, but they're all kind of racing related.

Okay, well, as race season approaches, maybe people can take some little bits of knowledge out of this anyway. if you're interested. Rest assured, people love the race the race recaps, so don't worry about it. Yeah. We haven't done one for a really long time. And our recent poll, our recent survey indicated that this is the thing

that people care the most about. Yeah. We are listening. Yeah, I don't know if any other pro athlete that race has a podcast where they do a debrief. Maybe Aaron Royal did one with pro-shin news. Anyway. Yeah, so just to rewind to your original point,

I was not really looking forward to going more because I had raced in Miami in early March in 2021, and it did not go well. It was really early in the year. It was super humid and hot. And what I forgot in March of that year, it was actually a shorter race. So it was an 1800 meter swim, a 60K bike and a 13K run. So I remember suffering my brains out then. And it was like 75% of the distance. It wasn't even a full 100K distance. So when I realized that, I was like even more worried. And I think three years later on, I'm a little fitter at this time than I was at that point because I'd taken a later off season after Daytona and all this.

But you still never really know. And another thing that I maybe overlooked was like the heat and humidity prep that's required for a race in Florida, no matter what time of day you're racing. Because we started at 5 p.m., which is very unusual, I thought the heat would not be as much of a factor as it was because we are going to be in the dark for half the race. But as the heat kind of drops, and it drops to like 26 Celsius, like it doesn't really drop. The humidity rises to like 90%. So the men who started earlier definitely had, I'd say, worse conditions because they were in the beating sun for their run, but it was very, very challenging conditions, even in the

darkness for us on the run. And then especially the first half of the bike, the swim was incredibly hot. So with all that in mind, I went into the race with the mentality of a little bit like Dallas last year where you cannot push beyond a certain amount or you'll just cook yourself for the rest of the race. And I was sort of keeping pacing in mind over like go as hard as I can. And for some reason, that kind of like calmed my nerves a little bit to know that there was going to be an element of tactics. A lot of people were going to blow up or not finish. There's only 20 women on the start line two really big names didn't even show up. So it kind of took a little bit of the pressure off. And it was like not survival, but just get to the end and you will be fine. You will do fine from a

result standpoint. That did pay off for you because a ton of people did not finish the race. Yeah. It's kind of sad that, I mean, rewatching some of the highlights afterwards, it just looks like people pulled off and stepped off their bike and it looked like for the most part they were fine, maybe apart from Emma Pallant Brown, but the nature of that course is it was 22 laps on the bike. And as soon as you start getting lapped and you're not feeling well and it's hot, it's, I could imagine it would be very hard to continue. So, yeah, it was just a bit of like a mental crack from a lot of people. And I didn't see that coming. But the men race started four hours before us so I could watch a little bit of the men's race.

And then as we were sitting in our like ready room or the air-conditioned, and room for the athletes to kind of hang out before the race. Pro men started like coming in, like the DNFs and sitting in their chairs. And Indyali was super funny. She was like, I don't think it's healthy for us to be in here observing this. Yeah, you're like watching soldiers coming back from war with an arm off and a leg missing. Dead eyes. She was like, I just need to turn around and not see this happening because it was literally like guy after guy after guy just coming in and defeat.

And we're sitting there having to go out to battle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny because I feel like so many age groupers when they're picking their race, they try to stay away. If they're trying to be fast, they try to stay away from elevation gain or too much of a technical course. But when you have the race like that, if there was some maybe a little bit of climbing and a little more place

where you had to recover, I wonder if we would have seen as many people pull off. When you have those built-in little recoveries versus staying down all the time. Yeah, there were some turns on the bike course, but pretty much you're just peddling the whole time. Yeah, but we're all fit enough to do that for 80K. Like, I don't think that was,

it was definitely repetitive and mentally, like, challenging if you're not feeling well, to just do the same thing again and again and again. But in terms of a piece of recovery, I mean, that would have added more uphill, so that would be exhausting. Yeah, and I guess on those up hills, you're going even slower and you're getting less cooling.

On a big looped course, you're not passing an opportunity to pull out every five minutes. Right. Brutal. It's like, well, I have to get back to transition, so I might as well keep riding. And then when you get to transition, I might as well do the run. But for this, it's like you were literally seeing a spot to pull off every four and a half minutes. How tempting is that when you're feeling crappy?

So that's a factor as well. Well, I guess have we really mentioned like what the course looks like? It's all within this giant speedway, right? Even the swim is within the speedway. track. Yeah, so there's a lake in the middle of it. It was like a two and a half lap swim, 22 laps on the bike with like probably four kind of technical turns per lap, and then seven laps of the run that just went around the outside. So it was just a full oval. So the race track has like a big oval on the outside, and then the inside has a little bit of a

road course with some technical turns and stuff that they utilize for just the bike. Yeah. So anyway, by the time the start came, I was a little more relaxed than I'd been in the weeks prior. And part of that was just being around everyone all week. Like we were all at the same hotel. We were all at the briefings together and doing interviews with each other, eating breakfast together, eating dinners with friends. So it was kind of like we were all in this together.

And I think that's a little bit of the vibe of the whole T-100 series that that creates. It's like you get to know everyone really well. And by the time the start line comes, at least me, I'm not like the most ferocious, like, oh, I want to beat all of you. I kind of feel more like, oh, we're all just doing this. And we all kind of want the best for each other, although I'd love to win. I'm kind of like friends with half the people, you know? So that took a lot of pressure off myself.

I feel like we could feel that when we were watching it. Eric, could you feel that too, that there was this like a little bit of camaraderie? Maybe it's just because I was watching Paula and I saw on several occasions, Paula kind of trying to help out other competitors or congratulate other competitors. Did you feel that at all, Eric? I don't know if everyone feels this way when they race, but it helps me in the race when I'm happy and like people and whatever.

Yeah, I wouldn't say I could like feel that, but I just, I know that's the way it is being inside of the pro field. And I would say Paula is the one person who we could all see on the broadcast was over the top friendly whilst racing. I kind of wonder if people who are watching the race, what they would rather see. I wonder if triathlon fans would rather. see like a no, no prisoners taken kind of, no, I want to win no matter what, or if they like

to see the camaraderie, the sportsmanship. A little bit of both, maybe. I've seen it go both ways. Like, you know, on the YouTube thing or like anytime there's comments on Facebook or whatever and like ITU and someone hands someone a bottle, there's like three people who say, oh my gosh, that's so nice. And there's three people who are like, oh, my gosh, barf, like you're racing, just win, you know. I just don't like how people are like, oh, Paula is so nice.

on the race course. It's like if anyone saw cat limping, your human instinct is to be concerned. Otherwise, you're evil. So I didn't even do anything for her. I just like said to her, don't hurt yourself worse. See, most people would not slow down. You would just be concerned in your mind while focusing on continuing to like go as fast as you could. That's the difference here. Okay, maybe. But in that race, it was kind of like a war of attrition getting to the finish line. I don't know, I was, I was like concerned for people's well-being more than just like beating them. So anyway, do you think I should go from start to finish of?

Yeah, I would love that. Yes, please. Okay. So one of the questions that came in from the listeners was do you get to choose your walkout song? Because for the top 10, they like play the song for 15 seconds as you're walking out and introducing you. So the answer is yes, you do get to pick it. And my song is Nick's song. It's working it by Nick Goldston, the TTL Kid.

By the TTL Kid. I don't know who Nick Goldston is, but yeah, the TTL Kid. By the TTL Kid, yes. So it's the song that you guys made for my Shivvild a couple of years ago. Super fun song. Most people won't recognize it. But I like it because it kind of like reminds me of Nick and Eric as I'm going out. I'm like, oh, yeah, my boys.

The reason you're doing this all. So, yeah, that's kind of fun. And then it's kind of fun to like hear everyone else's song and what they picked. And that kind of distracts you for a minute from what's about to come. Yeah, the pontoon was just kind of like a little like boaty temporary dock thing. It's kind of strange, starting with only 20 people, extremely small field. I'm used to starting with ITU, 60 person on the pontoon type of thing. So 20 was really small.

And the swim felt like it took forever. I was starting beside Lucy on one side, Emma on the other. And of course I cannot stay with Lucy, but it's kind of fun to try to use her momentum to maybe get a little bit of an advantage at the start. Like stay on her hip for 10 seconds and then get on her feet for 10 seconds. And then that in itself is a little bit of a, you know, advantage in getting me ahead of some of the people that maybe don't have as good of a start. Something I noticed in the men's race is they go, take your marks, beep, all in one go because they don't want a false start. And this is world triathlon running the thing. So you see that in every world triathlon race.

There's no pause before the gun goes off. It's just take your marks, go. So I kind of used that momentum, like didn't pause and went because I knew 100% that's what they were going to do. So I had a pretty good start. Someone told me that in the broadcast, they said Lucy cut me off. I did not feel at all like she did. It's so funny when you watch it from a bird's eye view, you can analyze everything that's

going on. but for me, it's just like flailing and people. And yeah, of course, Lucy's in front of me. She didn't cut me off. That's insane. So it went really smoothly from my perspective. It really helps to be able to see other people's cap colors and kit colors and know who's beside you. Because I was beside Holly for a bit.

And I thought, oh, this is great. Holly's a good swimmer. So I didn't ever get touched or fought with or anything. And I just kind of found myself at the tail. tail end of this pack, but I could tell it was a good pack because it was Holly and India Lee and people that are strong swimmers. And then after about, I'd say, 1300 meters, we did an Aussie exit so you could really see who was around you and what the gaps were. And I saw Haley Tura in front of me, Pamela Oliveira, like really good swimmers who are usually ahead

of me. So I knew I was in good position. I was kind of dangling off the back of that pack a bit, which was annoying and a bit concerning. But I was kind of able to surge and catch up every time I did get a little bit dangled. So that was good. I felt pretty in control on the swim, but also pretty hot. Like the water was warm. I was already concerned about overheating, knowing that the bike was coming up. So I was kind of trying to be as conservative as possible, didn't kick very much, kept my heart rate pretty low. Like the swim wasn't hard to me. It was just trying to be smart and not overcook myself. How often when you're like in a swim like this, how much are you before the swim starts thinking of strategy of who you're

going to swim with, how you're going to swim, where you're going to be versus being heads up about what's happening and taking the swim as it comes and figuring out your strategy as it's playing out in front of you? For me, it's all figuring it out as it comes because the start, I'm not such a good swimmer that I know I'm going to be in the front. So it could go either way for me and I definitely just play it out as it comes. Yeah. Cool. Okay. So then you kind of maintained your position there throughout the rest of the swim, right?

Yeah, I think looking back, one thing I didn't do well in this race and that I wish I could have changed was a little bit more sharpness and not urgency, but just like a little more haste on like the Aussie exit and the transitions because I was a bit complacent with where I was and I was like, you know, hot and didn't, I was, I don't know, I wasn't super into it mentally. So I kind of let gaps form on the Aussie exit that I then had to close and I had a slow transition. So I came out of T1 at the back of that group and then lost touch with Holly and little things like that where I just felt like I let the race slip away a little bit. And in this kind of racing, when it's so many really good people there, you can't let that happen. Well, you might be completely right that may have changed your race. But I think back to when you said about being conservative, not overheating, it's a long day, war of attrition, and thinking about how many, how much issues other athletes had and you were able to kind of maintain your pace throughout the entire day. But I think like going faster through transition and being snappier with helmets and wetsuits and that kind of thing, that doesn't make you more hot. That's just like, it comes at no cost.

Mentally being more in it. And I was just a little bit letting that slip and being sluggish and running too soon. slow through transition. And you're in any other 70.3 aside from world championships, I can afford that and I can catch up on the bike because it's not this crazy deep field with really, really fast people in it all the time. But in this kind of racing where it's more like I to you, if you let the front pack kind of go, you might never see it again because everyone's so good. So I just have to keep that in mind for all the other races that are going to be of this level this year. Eric, if you were her coach, would you agree with what she just said that she should be,

should, could have been a little snappier on the transitions and that kind of non-swim bike runstone? Well, my coach did agree. My real coach did agree. But yes. But also I will say that like for me, especially, and I felt the exact same way in Cabo where I had a great race, but the water was warm, the ambient temperature was warm and it's like significantly harder, at least for me, to have that snappy feeling. It's kind of like when you get out of a hot tub, you're like, oh, I just need to go sit down. That's how I feel. So I was kind of filtering what I observed Paula's expression and haste level to be kind of through that lens. And yeah, but now we know she feels like she could have pushed it a little bit more. One thing that occurred to me is like if you were to come,

have come into this race just feeling like you were firing so hard, it would have been a little bit easier to go too hard and potentially cross into the red zone thermally. And I don't know, Maybe that helped regulate just a teeny bit. A little blessing in disguise. The first half of the bike was the hottest part. And then it got cooler and you could push a little bit more as the sun went down. And the wind changed and all that. So I think me going out conservatively on the bike because India Lee was like right in front of me.

And she's way better at cornering than me. That was probably my biggest struggle on this course was the technical parts. And in any other race, I'm pretty confident that like, oh, she's right there, but I'm going to bridge up to her because I'm pretty confident in my biking ability. But she just kind of kept slipping away, kept slipping away. And she was, I don't know how hard she was going, but I was kind of worried about going over like 260 watts at any point just because that will cook you for later. So when I was on the straight, it's kind of like going into the 270, 280s, I was like, no, this is too hard, back off. And then she was just cornering so much better that gaining a couple

seconds of return turns into a lot after a couple laps. So she kind of got out of sight and I was riding alone for a lot of it and just kind of worried because I wasn't feeling that well. And I was alone. There was nothing to engage me or make me corner better and no target to like chase or anything. And what I remember from last time is that you like Heather Jackson caught up to you at this race and you were able to ride behind her a little bit and see. Yeah. So I was like half hoping that like someone would catch me that I could ride with, whether it was Danielle or Cat or someone. And Holly was up the road with India Lee, and I knew Lucy Charles was way ahead. So I didn't think I could catch that group. I was not feeling well enough to put in any kind of surge or cornering well enough to make up any

kind of meaningful difference. But eventually Lucy Byram and Kat did come around me. And I was like, okay, here's my chance to make this not be boring for the next hour and a half. Let's try to stay with them. So from a power perspective, it was not challenging to stay with them, but from a technical cornering perspective, it was like I would get yo-yoed off on every corner and I'd have to bridge back up a bit, but at least I had something to do at this point. And I could try to take every corner a little better, every lap and try to stay in my bars a little longer or just keep them more within reach. on every kind of U-turn and hairpin and whatever it was. So they were riding really well and quick,

and I just stayed with them. And with Race Ranger, it's easy to stay with the pack without illegally drafting. So I could just stay within the kind of blue light, which means you're perfectly at 20 meters. Let's talk about that for a second, though. One of the things that makes T-100 unique is the 20-meter draft zone versus other kinds of racing where there's a closer draft zone.

Yeah, Iron Man, it's 12 meters. It seems like even, from what you just said, it seems like even at 20 meters, which the whole point was to kind of eliminate the drafting, even at 20 meters, you can feel a difference. Yeah, I would say much less difference, obviously, than at 12 meters, but as we're riding at 20 meters and you can feel, I don't know whether it's like all aerodynamic benefit

or drafting benefit, but there's a lot of psychological benefit of being behind someone. and pacing off of them. But it's shocking to me, feeling the 20 meters, knowing that Iron Man is 12. 12 is like fully a draft pack. It's so close. So there's nothing we can do about it. That's just the different rules.

That was one of the first things you said to me when we FaceTime is like that you cannot believe that 12 meters is what is what Iron Man does. And just to remind everyone, you know, 20 meters may seem like a long, you know, may seem really far. And if you're going 18, 17 miles an hour, it's nowhere near as much of what, close to what Paul is feeling going like 25 miles an hour. The faster you go, the more the same meters are going to, you're going to feel that draft effect. So for you guys, you know, the top female pros in the world, I can imagine that you do feel a difference. And it's not all just mental. And I'm sure, I mean, Eric, you too, when you're racing those races, you guys are going even faster. The drafting matters even more in that style of racing.

Yeah, we average like 26 miles an hour for this race. So with those speeds, you definitely feel it. And the race ranger, that's the kind of technology that everyone has on their bikes. And so they have an idea of exactly how far away they are. Not exactly, but they get an idea when they're getting too close to the athlete in front of them, which is, I imagine it's really nice. Let's just give a quick technical, how do the lights work? Yeah, so if you're within 20 meters, it's flashing red. We all have lights on the back of our seatposts and on our down-to.

So they're basically sensors reading each other. And if my front sensor is within 20 meters of the person in front of me's back light, it flashes red. That means get out of the draft zone or make the pass. And you have 40 seconds or so to get past. And then the light is blue if you're in between like 20 and 22 meters. It's orange if you're 22 to 24 or 25. I could be getting these numbers wrong. And then no light means you're like well out of the.

the safety zone or the drafting zone. So ideally you kind of keep within the blue and the orange light the whole time because that means you're as close as you can be without being illegal. And if you're outside of any lights, it means you could maybe get a little bit closer to feel a little bit more draft. So it helps everyone ride more cleanly and helps the officiating ideally. And it's a fairly new technology we used it last year, but this is the first time that PTO is using it for the entire T100 series and Ironman's actually using it as well for their pro series. So it'll be something that everyone kind of starts getting used to. And I think the goal is to eventually publish the data so we can all see who was in the red for what amount of time.

Wow. Even if they didn't get a penalty, it just will hopefully, you know, scare people into like, I don't want to be in the red for any amount of time because everyone's going to see. and then I have this reputation and maybe I'll be more targeted next race by the officiators. So, yeah, I don't think it's quite, they still need to iron out some things about releasing data because, for example, Sam Long, who is just passing people, passing people, passing people. He's actually flashing red on their sensors for a large amount of time as he's making these passes. So it would actually show that maybe Sam was in the red for five minutes, but that's just because he's overtaking. So there's little things like that where they just want to make sure that all the data is really accurate before pointing fingers for people.

So the officials are getting this data about how close the athletes are. But there's nothing that's no penalties are automatically given or anything like that, right? The officials still get to make the decision. Totally. It still comes down to the discretion of the officiators. and I personally have never like witnessed a penalty given in front of me with race ranger being there. But I think in general it creates a cleaner race. And the officials are also very new to this. So it's kind of a learning curve for everyone to see. Because they're they're so used to using their

own judgment call of what 20 meters looks like or what 12 meters looks like or if the drafting is intentional or if it's just like slipping in. But with a course like this where there's much turning and every time you hit a headwind it bunches up it really requires a lot of focus to make sure you're always riding really clean so it's a good thing i think okay so then the next kind of dramatic thing that happened in this race other than the fact that for the broadcast we uh we lost audio on youtube for a while and we were just kind of watching you blindly we didn't have commentators i think some people had uh maybe like sounds from the race but no no commentary so we were a little bit lost, but it was, that wasn't as much of an issue compared to when it got dark and the lights

in the stadium in the stadium on the speedway did not appear to be nearly enough. And Eric and I are watching, we're like, what is going on? And if you looked at the YouTube chat, it was just people just spamming like, where are the lights? What's going on with the lights? Someone turn on the lights. Yeah. So how bad was the light situation?

Because for us, it looked not just like camera bad. It looked real life scary, like too dark. I imagine all of you were like, what the heck is going on? Yeah. Well, maybe it was my fault for wearing a tinted visor and I should have had a clear visor on. That would be the first change I would make. But we did start in the daylight and I thought with a sunset, the sun might be directly in your eyes for part of the race. So maybe a tinted visor is good.

And then we were assured by Bill Christie from Clash that the lights were going to be on full blast. Like it looks like daytime, how bright these lights are because they host like NASCAR races there. Like it has to be bright. And he said it takes up like he was talking about the amount of power that it takes to turn these lights on like 700 square whatever of. Yeah, like $25,000 an hour of dollars. Yeah, just like an insane amount. So we're like, oh, okay. So it's going to be, you're not even going to be able to tell it's nighttime.

It's going to be so bright. So my concerns, my concerns were zero about. it being too dark. And I've raced in Daytona before in the dark, and it was completely light enough and everything. So the problem here was like the inner road course was inside of the track, and the lights, I think, are more meant to light the outside oval. So while we were on that outside oval, it was okay.

And then as soon as we turned in to do the inside, which also happens to be the technical part where you're having the corner, it was really, really dark. And I had my visor on. The visor comes down pretty far. So it's not like I could just tilt my helmet up or anything to kind of see below the visor. So a couple of corners that I kind of, I thought that maybe it was my own fault. I wasn't like, oh my gosh, they forgot to turn the lights on.

I was thinking, wow, I'm an idiot for wearing a dark visor. Duh. I should have worn no visor or clear visor. So I spent two laps maybe like navigating this super sketchy, like, super pitch black inner track and just kind of looking at race ranger lights in front of me like all I could see was the lights it's like just follow the race ranger lights and and then there was like an ambulance and sirens and I thought someone had crashed and they were telling us to slow down on the corner and um so yeah it was just like hectic like a lot going on and I was like we thankfully

for this race they took away all like litter zones like you could just discard bottles anywhere because it's like a closed course and it was so hot. So I knew that I could just chuck my visor anywhere and I wouldn't be penalized for that. So I ripped it off, threw it at the crowd, hoped that someone would turn it back in so I didn't have to have no visor anymore. And then I was thinking like, wow, this helmet probably looks so stupid without a visor. All business in the mind. Hopefully no one takes a picture of me because this helmet is like borderline too ugly with the visor. take it off. But it was like hugely helpful to have no visor. At this point, I could then sort of see on the

inside of the track. I stopped thinking about it. It was no longer an issue. So I don't think that in real life it was as dark as it appeared for you guys. Yeah, I figured that there was a component to that for sure. Like your eyes can adjust and those cameras are not made for shooting in totally any amount of darkness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't like there was no lights. It was that they weren't bright enough. So we were, I don't think that our safety was in jeopardy by any means. And motorcycles that were with us all have their own lights so they can see. I think it was, it was safe. It was just kind of an oversight to not have them be brighter. More for the sake of the broadcast, right? Yes. Yeah. Because they got pretty, they got pretty, you know, targeted online for that.

Like, wow, this sucks. But for us, it wasn't, it wasn't the worst thing. And Indy Lee also chucked her visor to the side. So I wasn't the only one. And you guys had the same helmet, right? Isn't there a little funny story there? Yeah, we have the same helmet. We have the same visor.

And then they found one visor and we both. Rock paper, scissors. Yeah, we were like, take it. And we're both like too nice to take it. So we're like, no, you take it. You take it. And then I thought maybe it'd be easier for me to get a replacement. So I let her have it.

And then we ended up finding the other one. I looked like the nice person because I let her have it, but then we ended up ultimately finding both. It's a win-win. You got instant karma right there. Yeah, exactly. You get off the bike and you're thinking, I'm going to run well. You're thinking, I have no idea who I'm going to run. What's going through your head? Who are you with? Yeah, I got off the bike with Cat, Holly, Lucy Byram, and then I knew that India Lee and Lucy Charles were ahead of us. And I knew Danielle was like a minute behind us. Were you concerned about Danielle? I was never concerned about anyone at any point. I was just getting to the end. It was really humid.

I felt like I was running like five minutes per K. And I kept looking at my watch and it would say like 355 per K. So I was going quicker than I felt. But it felt so slow. It felt just like a slog. And I did end up catching Lucy Byram and I passed Kat Matthews, who was having a calf issue. So I was like passing people, which was nice.

I never actually got passed on the run, which helps with the mental confidence or whatever. And Holly took out pretty quick at a transition, but then she kind of kept the same gap the whole time. So at least had her to like watch and not like I was necessarily trying to surge and catch Holly because I didn't want to overcook myself again. It was really humid. And I didn't feel well. I felt like a little bit dizzy at points and that worried me. so I slowed down and made sure I got like everything at the aid stations and put ice down my kid and all the things that you should do just to continue moving forward versus like racing. So that was my biggest feeling of the whole race was that I was never at any point racing.

I was just doing what I could and that ended up putting me in fourth place. I'd prefer like in a race that's a little bit cooler where I'm a bit fitter, you know, you're like, Oh, Holly's only 30 seconds up the road. I'm running really well. I can catch her. That never went through my mind. It was just, and it didn't ever go through my mind of like, don't let Danielle catch me. It was more just keep doing what you're doing and just finish this race.

Oh, my God. So that was what my thoughts. Eric, did you feel the same way in Cabo when you were kind of hot or you were like racing to race? I was going to say that. I was like thoughts would go through my mind. Like, oh, Jackson doesn't look that strong. And then I'd just go back to like, how close am I to feeling like this is an emergency situation with how warm I am? When is the next aid station?

When can I run in the shade over there of that one palm tree? It wasn't like, I never had that, okay, I'm going to go get them. I think maybe, you know, with like 5K to go, I allowed myself to start pushing just a little bit. And then even with like 3K to go, like, oh, man, no, that feels sketchy. Yeah, I think on the last lap I was getting splits to Danielle or last two laps. like getting a little closer. So I thought, okay, you're almost done. You can push a little harder than you want to.

Right. I did that. But frick, running seven times around that thing was so much. Like after you'd done two and it felt like you'd been running for days and you still have five to go, I do not like the lapped format for the run. I struggled so hard with that in Daytona and the time that I did Miami because you do you kind of do the fun stuff in the middle on the bike and then just the run when, I mean, I'm generally hurting the worst.

It's just slowly turn left every once in a while. And like, yeah, opportunity after opportunity where you see people and it might be okay to drop out. And if you're not having a good time. Another thing that really sucks about the tracks is that clash or I don't know who it is, but they lock it down so hard that spectators can't just go like watch. They're very limited to one specific area of the track. And even then they can't get too close to the track. So when you're past like the finish line zone,

is 200 meters, you're completely by yourself for the entire loop. And there's nobody out there on the other side, except for maybe a motorcycle with a camera comes by every once in a while. But it's an extremely lonely experience. And you think, like, oh, racing in a track, it has all this hype and there's people all around. But it was the opposite. It felt completely alone in the dark, running with no one around. So I struggled with that a lot. Do they have a reason why they don't kind of go cycle cross mode and let people, more people are on the track? Is it like a safety thing? I think it's a safety thing on the bike because there's bikes and motorcycles and, you know,

there's a lot of crossings that you'd have to make to get to the other side with the inner road course. But once the run comes along, I don't know. I feel like it should be a free for all. People can go anywhere they want. But then again, it's so late. There wasn't even that many people left at the track. So it's not like there were hundreds and thousands of fans watching. There were about 8,000 people tuned it on YouTube.

So I don't know how what the total viewership was across all the platforms. But it just, they created this for television. And unfortunately, yeah, the racers experience could be a little bit more exciting with. Like some of the PCO races last year were super exciting. Milwaukee had tons of fans. Abiza. Abiza, tons of people. Edmondson.

So it's really like the nature of where the race is hosted. Like the homestead speedway is in the middle of nowhere. It's not even in Miami. So people that are there watching are people that are family and friends of the people racing or maybe some people that race the age group race earlier in the day. But yeah, it's a super isolated spot. And when you guys finished, was there a little bit of that, oh my God, we all made it to the end? Like, how did we get here?

Or was there like survivor kind of thing? No, it wasn't that hard. I mean, it's not like we did Kona. you know. It was just like, okay, we did. We made it to the end. Like, what happened to half the people is Emma okay? Holy shit, India. You dad had an amazing race. That's crazy. Like, just feelings like that, you know? I was super happy for Holly because I'm pretty good friends with Holly. And Jackie was still out there, trooping away. She finished. That was great. She's another one of my really good friends. So it was a little bit of relief, but also like, wow, it is so late. Oh my gosh. really there's doping control. I still have to go do that for two hours.

Oh, no. It was, and coming forth is so anticlimactic because, like, the top three go to the podium and there's a little bit of hype and excitement around that. But I just, like, went and got my bags. Yeah. And you can see them. It's not like there's this big difference. You know, it's like, you know, Holly was right there.

Well, they definitely deserve it and earn it. And another thing about a race like this is you think literally anything could happen. Holly could start walking and then I'd be third. Like there's there's just so many unknowns in a race that's this challenging condition-wise that you just can't really give up because you don't know what's going to happen in front of you. Right. Yeah. One last thing I want to do if you're up for it is like takeaways, things that you want to improve or like, how could you have any thoughts on how you could be better at the things that you said that were a little bit.

lacking, like not losing, like spots, not letting gaps open on the swim, the technical riding on the bike, anything else like, you know, what would Lionel do? He'd be like, here's how I'm changing everything. Yeah, I'm not Lionel. I think the secret is just getting a little bit fitter and race sharp. And that was my concern going in was that I'm not extremely fit and I'm not race sharp at all because I haven't raced this year. So all those things come with time. And I think that's why I tend to race way better in September, October, November is that so many races are under your belt, it becomes second nature. You're definitely sharper and have way more training in a summer of training in the heat. Like, we've been training in kind of cold weather.

So, um, do you feel like, are there any other courses on the PTO circuit this year that the technical aspect is going to play into it like it did here? I don't know the courses yet. So I don't know. but definitely not this technical. Like four turns times 22, that's like 100 corners. I don't think it'll ever be that technical. Sweet. And that's something I'm definitely really bad at, so I could work on that. Not just for, like it'll just help me in general.

But I also think the more that I ride my TT bike outside throughout the year, the better it is. I can probably count on like two hands how many TT rides I've done this year outside. So it takes getting used to coming from. from Zwift and then going to a course like that. Yeah. Okay, well, if you don't mind, there are some questions that listeners submitted that pertain to the race. I feel like they could be kind of fun to go through. All right, let's do it.

So the first one here is from Richard. Hi, Paul, Eric, and Neck. I noticed that in the T-100 Miami race, the athletes didn't wear race belts with their names or number on, but instead had their names printed on their trisuit. I always thought it was crazy that pros wore race belts with big flappy name sheets and that it didn't look very elite sport. So I'm glad to see the change. I just wondered whether this was something in the T100 contract as all the athletes had their name on their kit. And I don't recall ever noticing this before. Well done and great results to open the season, Paula. That's from Richard. Yeah. Yeah. So since T100 PTO aligned with World Traathlon, they've created some kit requirements and they're pretty minor in terms of what you need to have on

there, but it's the PTO logo, your country flag, like I have the maple leaf on mine, and then your name on the front and on the back of your kit. So that takes away the need for any race bibs, basically. Yeah, that's why you don't see 80 people in IT races with flap and race numbers. The other thing is if you want a wild card spot at any point in the year, you also have to have a kit made with your name on it. So it's a requirement that they're being pretty strict about even if you're just coming in and out and doing some of the races and not all of them. I think what I'm going to do is I've already got Loggerstrom

on the back of my kit and I'll just get Castelli to print a little American flag that I can like glue on somewhere. If you race one. Yeah. I mean, the only reason I bring that up is because I would, we've talked about this, I would like to potentially race the San Francisco T-100

depending on the race. And my kit is currently not compliant and I would have to make it compliant. And do you know how much time the wildcard athlete has before, like how much warning they have? Like could they potentially wait until they get picked and then have it printed? Unlikely. No. It's going to be, I think that it's something you need to kind of see maybe happening and then do it early in the air because it's, I don't think any kit company aside

from maybe Zoot, Zoot is really fast at kit turnaround, but it takes time to get kits reprinted and it's expensive and not every athlete has access to that kind of thing. So, yeah, within the time where you'd know if you're a wildcard, it's probably too late to get the kit printed. And I think Dylan said at one point that they would have, like, you know, generic kits you could wear. That's obviously like worst, worst case scenario. And I don't know how strict they would be. Maybe they'd let it slide for the first year. But they're still ironing out the kinks on that kind of thing.

Okay, next one here is from Mattia. Hi, TTL. I'll keep it short and hope this has not been answered before. In races, we often see pros wearing their swim caps above their eclaps. ears and forehead. While at least, in my opinion, us age groupers all make sure the swim cap covers the ears to avoid getting water in there. Is the swim cap above the ears on purpose?

If so, please explain. Or does it just happen in the craziness of the swim? Also, congrats Paula on the awesome race in Miami. Mattia. My head just went straight to beanie above the ears, like guy in the coffee shop. Yes, dude. The beanie that's not touching the ears at all. It's a style.

You don't even get it, dude. That's the style. No, it's not. Yeah, we never wear our swim caps outside our ears. That's insane. I don't know where he's looking. It's the opposite. Sometimes I feel like I see age workers with their swim caps.

I think maybe he's referring specifically or they are referring specifically to Ben Canute always seems to have swim cap malfunctions. I think he has like a very slippery head or whatever he does. His cap almost always comes off. But he's the only person that comes to mind that I can think of that is consistently swim cap above the ears. Yeah. So just to be clear, Mattia, you guys. both of you and any pro that you know, you try to keep the swim cap low, right?

Right above like the goggles and the front and your ears are tucked into the swim cap on the sides, right? Totally. When you're given a race swim cap, sometimes they're not as good as like your normal swim cap, but the ones that the PTO used were fine. They could definitely cover your ears and stay there. Okay, cool.

Next one here's from Jack. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. I was wondering if you could settle an argument for me and my training partner. What's more beneficial when training on the trainer or even outside. Pushing higher watts, but having your hands on the base bar or lowering the watts a little and focusing on staying in arrow position to get used to that feeling. Obviously, you're able to push more watts, not arrow, which could help strengthen your FTP. But when racing,

you want to be as arrow as much as possible. So practicing how you play, right? Congratulations and Paul in the great race in Miami. Best Jeff. Yeah, this is a good, I put this question in because it's like, Eric and I are kind of the opposite on this. Like, I tend to ride the trainer. in Arrow because I'm fine with it. Like it's not that uncomfortable to me. But Eric really, really hates riding an arrow on the trainer because he's much more dynamic. And if he's outside, he's like moving more. So yeah, the Watts will be different.

But you tend to sit up more on the trainer. Yeah. Doing hard workouts on the trainer, at least ones that are like eight minute plus reps are very mentally challenging for me. So I've had enough of them completely blow up while trying to ride Arrow that if I have to do it inside, I'll sit up, and then anytime I'm outside, I 100% do it. Arrow, riding arrow. And then the other thing I'll say is if you're going for something that's like significantly above your race power, like I'm supposed to race at 300 or whatever. And if the watts are going to be

like 360 or something, I really don't have much of a problem sitting up for that because the chances of me needing to hold 360 in arrow for any prolonged period of time in a race. Most likely if you're doing that, you're like trying to catch back up or going up a hill and you might be sitting up anyway. so I don't stress about that. At least it makes me feel good about not riding in it on the trainer. If you're riding exclusively on the trainer and you're training for Oceanside right now, for example, I think it's better to sacrifice a little bit of watts to get comfortable or to have practice an arrow. So even if you hate it, even if it's awful, even if your watts are lower,

you have to practice that position if you want to race in that position. So it's one thing if you're kind of balancing around between doing some trainer rides and doing some outdoor rides. but if you're exclusively indoors, you force yourself to ride Arrow for sure, even on like easy rides on the trainer. So you get used to that position and you're not cramping, you know, 20 minutes into the race. Yeah. Okay. And then last question here is from Paul. And this maybe is a little bit more for Eric, but it has to do.

Like Paul, I think your race recently is a perfect example of this. Hey, TTL, I so look forward to Thursdays to listen to your terrific podcast. It's the best. I've got a question. I've got a question about gearing for specific races. The T-100 race Paula did last week, O'Pala, was flat. Conversely, the course at Nice is very hilly. Could you discuss what gearing you would use for various courses?

Thanks again, looking forward to seeing you out there on PCH, Paul. This is a question for Eric. Yeah, so Eric, you kind of decided her gearing for this race. What were you thinking when you did? I mean, ideally for a race like Miami, you would go with the straightest possible chain line. on and just be riding in the middle of the cassette. So whereas like on any other course,

maybe you would be running a 52 in the front because we got one buys or, you know, you could go up to like a 56 or something really big knowing you're never going to touch the smallest gear or the biggest gear, but your chain is going to be as straight as possible and have the lowest amount of friction. And then like for anything that's hilly like niece,

you got to, you're trying to decide whether or not you think running a two by is necessary. and the risks that come along with having to ever shift the front chain ring, you know, as reliable as that may be, if you can get away with a one-by, like we would prefer to do it. In these, I would definitely use a two-by, like two gears on the front. Because even climbing the-

Even you would. Yeah, because even climbing here in Ventura, like some of the canyon climbs are too steep for my one-by. And I would be much more comfortable training on a two-by. In Oceanside, I always used a one-by. it's kind of on the line. Like there's, there are some steep climbs, but I can get up them.

But in that case, I'd want more range in the back, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's like, there's one hill in Oceanside, the big hill, where it would be nice to have a two by. But if you're at full race speed

and you're not feeling overly tired, you can do it in a one buy. But like, yeah, like Paul said, in Nice, there are some 40 minute long, 30 minute long, depending on how fast you are climbs, and having a couple of different options,

not just being in your biggest gear, you know, just to, like, be as comfortable as possible, I think. I will say, I put a two-by on for St. George last year thinking I'd need it, and I didn't shift to the small gear a single time. Right? I don't remember, but we could go look at the Sram app probably. It probably has that data for it. No, it's true. I remember it. We have the data.

So I'm just so used to riding with a one-by on my T-T bike that generally when I'm at race speeds, I don't need to shift. But if I was maybe an age group athlete, this isn't like condescending or anything, but and you're used to training on a two-by, it's, I'd say a two-by is safer for any age, most age-group athletes, because you want to be able to kind of spin up hills a little bit, you're taking longer, you're going a little slower, and then you want to be able to run off the bike too, so. Yeah, and do you really want to deal with having like a 10-32 and a 10-27 and a 10, et cetera, and then having a-in-the-back? Yeah, and then having a 52 and a 54.

and maybe trying to source a 56. You know, just you end up trying to change it regularly, depending on the course versus just having one setup. It'll work for all the courses, all the training, no stress. The thing that I thought was really interesting about Eric's answer here is that, Eric, correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're saying is that if let's say you're only going to, let's say you're running a one-by setup and you have, you know, 11 speeds in the rear, if you know that you're only going to be using, let's say, three of those cogs in the back,

they should be the three middle cogs, right? Not nest, like if you're going to be going fast, you don't want them on the smallest cog because that's where you're losing, I mean, it's marginal, but that's where you're losing a little bit of drive-terrain efficiency. Yeah, yeah, that hadn't occurred to me until a few years ago, actually, I remember Josh Amberger making a post about it because I saw his bike for, I don't know if it was Kona or what it was four, and he had like a freaking 58 on there. I'm like, okay, come on, bro. Who do you think you are? And then he said, that's the reason.

I'm like, oh, God, that makes so much sense. You're right. Right. It's like, it's not the point. It's like, he's like, I may never use the top two cogs, but that's good. Like, I want to be in the place where it's most efficient. Yeah, and you want to have the tightest spacing of gear options in that little range. Yes. Awesome. That's great. Well, Paul, congratulations. First race of the year, T-100 kicking it off. You did it. You survived and you did more than survived. You did well. How far off were you from Holly? A minute or so. I think this whole series is just, I mean, it is about consistency. And if you're thinking about points throughout the season, this was looking back on it, actually a good one to go to because a lot of people didn't show up and a lot of people didn't

finish. So I got a good amount of points for coming forth. And that'll help me later in the year when it's coming down to one place or another, you know, it's going to be pretty tight in the end. And the races are going to get more and more competitive as people are missing races and having to make out for them later. So you'll see more of like a full start list with all the contracted athletes as the season goes on. And those coming forth in those races will be a lot harder than it was for this race. So yeah, I think it was strategically a good choice to go. Definitely could have gone either way, but it ends up. It turned out that it was a good thing.

So nice also to get one race out of the way and not, yeah, I don't know, just get the cobwebs off, you know. Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to end at the last three races of the season feeling like you have to nail every single one of them perfectly, if possible. Which a lot of people are leaving that up to that situation. Like there's some people that are missing Miami and missing Singapore, and then they have to do every single other race. And actually, something I found out this weekend, which I didn't know, is that if you DNF or even if you don't, start the race and you're at the race, I think it counts as one of your races that you came to. Like, say you get food poisoning at the race and you're there and you're ready to go and you decide

not to start. I think that is still a race on the contract that you've done. So you fulfilled your obligation, but you obviously didn't get any points. Yeah. That makes sense. Because you went there, they got the benefit out of the promoting your name being on the start list and all that. So it's not a total loss for them. Yeah. Yeah. I hope people don't. use that like as a they don't abuse that yeah advantage of that you know T-1-100 was fun i i know

that there was some things that can improve with the broadcast but i think that it is definitely a learning curve and the thing about having this race in conjunction with clash is they actually didn't have as much control over the broadcast as they will in their own races so singapore um san francisco's in conjunction with alcatraz so similar thing where they're not quite as much in control but London, Abiza, Middle East, they're all going to be PTO events. So things that happen at those races are a little bit more in their control in terms of the broadcast. And I think that with the lessons learned from this past one, they'll just continue to get better. So don't be too hard on them.

I think that regardless, it got a ton of attention. People were very interested. You can tell by even the questions sent into our podcast, people want to know more about it, are talking about it, watching the recaps and you can be as harsh as you want, but I think it got more attention than any other race would have this, you know, this early in the year. I just don't understand people's like, this is so shitty, this is blah, and they get all mad about it and everything. It's a free broadcast. You are not invested in the broadcast. You're acting as though you are on the board and you've put in a million dollars and make sure this broadcast is like, it's free. If you don't, if it's not good enough for you, then you don't,

have to watch it. Just go watch the live tracker. Like, I personally, we went for a long time in triathlon without having good broadcast regularly. You just had to wait for Kona every year. This is so cool to me. And if the audio cuts out for 40 minutes, whatever. I mean, that's not acceptable. I know it won't happen again. I know it's not acceptable, but also like, we didn't pay for it. I don't know. It's, it's, I'm still watching triathlon. I just, I guess I have a lot of appreciation for the fact that it exists at all. And I understand how complicated video, anything is, let alone live video. And the fact that triathlon fans are getting this for free when they didn't have it before is I'm still appreciative of that.

Well, Eric's racing in Taiwan. Exterra in Taiwan. So who knows how we're ever going to record a podcast with Nick and Italy and Eric in Taiwan. Paula, you and I will probably be together in the same room and then Eric will be in Taiwan. Gosh. Okay. Wow. Wish us luck.

Can't wait. The adventure never ends. It never ends. Okay, thanks for listening, everyone. Sorry that this was not a normal podcast, but I think people, some people like it. My mom likes it. Nick's mom likes it. I'll bet anything that is our number one podcast for quite a while. Okay, talk to you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Bye, everybody.