That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula races the PTO US Open triathlon, dealing with heat, racing without music, training with race shoes, and more!

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

This week we start with Paula going over the triathlon she raced in Dallas, then we introduce a new segment called "hot or not", and finally we get to your questions about triathlon! we discuss if it makes sense to use a road bike or a triathlon bike for a specific course, taking "pulls" in a pro race, paying your coach during a hiatus, and more! For the new TTL swim caps and more, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Paula Finlay. I'm Nick Goldston. And on this podcast, we talk a little bit about our training. We talk about some racing. And we take your questions, most importantly, and hopefully give you a little bit of insight into how to do triathlon better and more fun. I'm a professional triathlete. Paula is also a professional triathlet and Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlete, and one of our very best friends. Excuse you, by the way. Sorry. Yeah, that's not going on to the podcast. I'm muting that.

I may have had a slight burp here. I'm crushing this smoothie I made after my mountain bike ride. Oh, well, that's a good thing that you made a smoothie right after exercising. A plus for that. I had to pick between shower and smoothie, and I think I picked smoothie. I'm alone here right now, so no one's suffering the consequences other than myself. Yeah, I'm a little like, it's crazy to be sitting here between. you two, Nick virtually wearing Eric's jersey, so you look like Eric.

And Eric beside me with a mustache and like super long mullet. Yes, dude. We've really peaked. Yeah. Really hit nice. Right here. I was like, we were brushing our teeth yesterday, just looking in the mirror and I was just like, I don't know if I can handle this look. He's like, he's like, you're not into the European porn.

Starlook. I love it. Every time we get on FaceTime and I see it, it surprises me in a comforting way. Yeah, yeah. Well, I told him he had to shave his beard, so he did that, but left the mustache. Yes, it's called malicious compliance. He's like, fine, I'll do exactly what you say. I usually do that and leave the mustache on for anywhere between two hours and like 12 hours. It's been 24. It's been 24. In my defense, it's been pretty busy since we got back from from Dallas PTO Open American

US Open and so I just like keep looking at the mirror and yeah speaking of which you guys you don't look

sun struck you don't look sunburned but the heat did become a problem while you were there it left a mark yeah

the heat left to mark emotionally I could just say like I don't even need to recap this race just go listen to next race recap and replace

the word cold with hot. Exactly. That's how I felt. Hours of self-loathing, basically. Right, right. Like the swim, okay,

it went. The bike, oh, it got worse and worse and worse and the road was a death farm. Yes, that's exactly. I'm so familiar.

But thank God. Nine was only 18K, so I did cross the finish line. But you still got what? 12th place? 10th place. 10th place. Yeah.

Top 10. Man. Yeah, baby. $16,000. At least Salt House's boyfriend, Zachie and I were standing there as Paula goes running by, screaming at us, house, the worst thing she's ever done her whole life.

And we're like, oh, man, if I could be in fifth place having the worst day of my life at this race, I would give. It wasn't about the placing. I mean, should I do a recap, like a quick one? I would love it because there's people who don't necessarily

watch the rest of the, triathlon world stuff and they may not know exactly how it went. Okay, okay. Okay, but I do want to say, like, I don't want to go too heavy on the recap. Yeah, sure, sure. Totally. Because last week, you had an amazing recap. And by the way, we had to like, we were a little unsure of how that format would go because this question is, or this podcast is primarily about asking your questions and keeping engaged with the community. But the feedback about the race recaps by Eric and Nick was so, so positive. So thank you to everyone who reached out. And it really like, did it make it all better, Nick, in a way?

I was just thinking, like, I've never been to therapy, but that was the closest thing to therapy. Like, two or three hundred people on Instagram then reached out to me and gave me, like, their whole story about their experiences with it. And I don't know what it would have been like without that, but I feel so much better than I thought I would at this point. So everyone that reached out, thank you so, so, so, so much. Right.

It's relatable. but people don't always have a platform to like share the struggle with. And when you do well at a race, you want to tell everyone about it and everyone's excited. But the opposite, when you do poorly, you kind of just want to crawl into a hole and for it didn't happen. So for you to open up and share it and talk about it and have people be like, oh my gosh, that's exactly how I felt. I think that was super powerful. Yeah, to have people who understand hear it and tell you versus, I mean, yeah, if you just, if your significant other doesn't care about triathlon at all and you're kind of like trying to tell them. a little bit about it and get this off your chest.

And they're like, sounds hard, yeah. So not only was it therapy for you, it's therapy for like 200 other people. You are not alone. Yeah, I couldn't believe how many other people went through something similar. Because when you're going through it,

it feels like you're the only person in the world that could possibly be suffering that much. Yeah, yeah. I know. It's just this like big cell. And I feel like when I'm racing especially, I always feel like I'm racing as every podcast listener, that's another amateur.

I feel like we're this one big amoeba. And having people reach out and say stuff like that, it was great. So, very, thank you so much to everybody who said something. Cool. So should we set the stage a little bit for the PTO? Yes. Do you want to set the stage right? Sure.

So this, the PTO, Dallas, the U.S. Open in Dallas was basically the third installment of kind of like one of the PTO's marquee races. There was the Canadian Open. the Collins Cup and then the U.S. Open. And this is just like the Canadian Open where the top prize was $100,000, a million dollar price per us overall. So it attracted a pretty stellar field minus a couple of key players

who were like saving themselves for Kona. But really the notable thing that everybody was talking about the whole weekend and stuff that we were preparing for for the last month was going to be the heat there. It is like hotter and more humid, just wildly intense heat, like even more so than Kona. We were actually comparing it to Kona, and it was like 15 degrees hotter than Kona the whole weekend. So there was a lot of people, like, from my perspective, as I was there not racing,

there were a lot of people that kind of felt like, I need to go to this because the prize purse is so big, and the points are going to be good and everything, even though necessarily it might not suit me, and I'm not excited about the heat. So I don't know, that's kind of the vibe that I felt generally going into the race. It was like apprehension about how the heat was going to go, but like this is a big race, and I need to show up and try to do well. Yeah, looking back at it, if it was just any old race, I don't think I would have done it.

But I came 10th and still made $16,000. Like the prize purses that the PTO is putting up are just so big that you really don't have a choice. And it's not like I had a terrible time. Like the whole weekend or week leading into it vibe is always so good at these races. And it really just like makes us feel like professionals. We get to meet our other pros who are also like our friends now. So it's all in all, I think, a really positive thing.

But like Eric said, the apprehension was surrounding the heat. And I don't know. I tried to not like make a huge deal about it before the race in my mind because it didn't feel terrible before the race. Like the couple of runs we did, it was actually a lot cooler on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. So I was comforted by that. Like, okay, maybe this won't be so bad. And I think Eric said in the last podcast that I do well in the heat. And I don't think that's true.

I've never really, like, raced in that kind of heat, so I didn't have a benchmark to compare anything to. But I don't like the heat. I know nobody does, but it really gives me this, like, panicky, claustrophobic feeling. And what I love about racing is being able to go out and just go as hard as you can, especially on the bike. Like, that's my arsenal almost is to, like, hammer the bike harder than I should, probably. But in these kind of conditions, you have to force yourself to hold back while you're feeling okay still. otherwise things will just go south really quick. And we saw that happen with pretty much every athlete on the chorus

except for maybe Ashley and whoever and the men's winner. So, yeah, I don't know. I could go into like a full recap, but just briefly. Let me just say this. I did a little run in the morning before Paul's race, which started 1145 in the afternoon. And it was so humid. Like running on the treadmill in the air conditioning in the morning,

I was sweating profusely. Yeah, so humid. And then I had to walk outside briefly through the outside on my way back to our hotel room. And it just like the heat just hit me like when you open the oven to like check the banana bread to see if it's done. So that's like it was. There's a reference. This is Eric, now you're speaking my language. Now I see what you mean.

Yeah. But not the smell. Just like the oven feeling. Yeah, no. Terrible smell. It's more like you were cooking a wet towel. in the oven. Anyway.

Got it. Got it. But yeah, race running, I really, in that kind of heat, with that kind of a start time, we started around noon. You don't really want to warm up at all. You kind of just want to be sharp and alert, but not really do like a run warm up or anything. So I just like spun over to the course on my bike and then got into the air condition and VIP tent as quick as I could just to like sit there and chill before the swim warm up. and the water was 28, 29 Celsius, 83 Fahrenheit.

So the water itself was kind of like a bathtub. But still getting into a rough actually felt kind of nice, like just being wet and then getting into like the tent that was in the shade actually cooled me off a lot. It's interesting at these PTO races because the starts are really a lot like an ITU race. There's like a dive-in start and Australian exit where you're diving back in. And I had a really good start position. right amongst all of the fastest swimmers. And I think that that really helps me personally a lot,

because for me to swim well, I need to like get into a good pack and a fast pack and then I can stay there. So I kind of just like did the first few meters really hard and then found myself on really good feet, like in the main pack, not Lucy, but one pack back. So I got out with Flora and with Ashley, like all the main players that I was thinking I'd be far back from. So that was a super good start. And I think I may have burned a few matches on the swim maybe because of the heat and that water. So by the time I got out of the water, I was already hot. But I don't know. You can't do anything to avoid that.

Like, yeah, I could have swam slower, but then I would have been further back. So I started the bike. I think you said that running out of the water, you felt like you wanted to pour water on you. Yeah, I wanted like cold water. And they did have it. But it's this like panicky feeling where you don't want to lose the pack that you're out with. so I didn't grab any cold water. From the PTO's perspective, they did everything they could.

From an aid station standpoint, to make sure that we had access to cold water and ice and stuff like that. So I got on the bike and there was kind of like a train of Flora and Ashley and Lisa Norton, like all the top people that I was expecting to eventually see on the bike, hopefully. And I was at the back of maybe six people. and my mindset in these races is like get to the front as soon as you can. In the heat, that cannot be your mindset. But for some reason, I did this giant surge and passed all six people because they were spaced out 20 meters and I couldn't slot in and got to the front of the pack. And by that point, I think I was really, really hot. And I was just like, who, that probably, that may have ruined my race.

I don't know. Because it's not like I got to the front of that pack and then I could like keep riding 300 watts. like I normally might be able to for a few more minutes. I was like, okay, I need a break now. Someone else come around me. So at that point, it was just like minimizing the damage. I didn't stop looking at my Watts because they were so bad. And I just was like, okay, just stick in the race, stay with Holly and Flora and these girls.

It was actually mostly me and Holly that were doing work at the front in that pack. I didn't even really know who else was with us because they didn't take a single turn at the front. Yeah. I feel like this is kind of like the main issue. with the 20 meter draft rule. Not that I'm saying it's bad, but like the amount of power that it takes to get to the front of a group makes it almost impossible for someone who's like sixth wheel, fifth wheel, fourth wheel, in a group. So you're up there riding at the front leading it and getting pissed off at those people. But for them to get to the front, it would take this.

It's like 40, 60 meters to go past everybody. Huge effort. It's a big effort. Long effort. And by the time you get there, you're so blown. You can't really make the group go any faster. Like even me coming around Holly when she was leading. Yeah.

Was a big effort just to get around her. Yeah. And then so when I'm in the front, then I'm like having a hard time staying there. In this particular race, in a normal race where it was cooler, I think I would have broken away. Did you notice an actual noticeable difference between being behind Holly or being in front of her? Yes. Interesting. Wow.

That's even at 20. meters. For sure. Wow. Amazing. Twenty meters makes a huge difference. And I knew this the day before because I went for a ride with Ellie. She was doing five minute efforts and I was 20 meters back from her pushing significantly less watts. So 20 meters makes a difference watt wise, also just psychologically having someone there to kind of pace off of. But I could tell we weren't putting time into Lucy really and Taylor was just riding like crazy. Yeah. I don't know. I knew the run was going to be a death march and I was like, I don't know if I I can finish this race.

But got onto the run and went out kind of too hard because Flora took off super fast. I was like, well, maybe I'll feel good when I get water and ice and stuff. But it just went south so quick. I was, oh my gosh, I can't explain how bad it was. I'm not as good as conveying like my hardships as you are, Nick. The emotional pain. Yeah. Well, so like the first time, not the first time, but like kind of like the second time that I saw her,

I saw her and Flora and Ashley, I'll come out of transition. probably like 500 meters later, and they were all together looking pretty good. And then after, like, coming close to the end of the first lap of the bike, I saw Paula, was it the first, I mean, the first lap of the run? Was that when you were like, I can't do this and you kind of came to a walk? So she fully, like, in front of me comes to a walk for like four steps. And Holly was right behind her and, like, basically pushed on your back and was like, don't stop.

Let's keep going. Yeah, everyone felt the same. She's like, let's just jog this freaking. race together. Yeah. Yeah. But the thing about the heat is it's not even about it like pushing through the suck. It's like dangerous at a certain point.

I'm like what is the feeling of like heat stroke? Dizziness. I don't know. So I was like worried a little bit too. I wasn't just like suck it up. You can do this. It was like, is this going to damage my body? So that was the concern.

And that's why I did come to a walk like several times just to like fully bring my heart right down, try to get as much water as I could at the aid stations. Yeah. And our coach advised me to tell her that. So I was texting with him as she was doing this. And he's like, just tell her like if she needs to like totally come to a walk and like reset and then get going again. Like that's totally fine. And it could ultimately be better than just like continuing to try to keep running.

And your cold temperatures just rising and rising and rising. I think Taylor Nip even walked a little bit. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. I was messaging with Sean Jefferson during it. and when we saw her walk, he was like, uh-oh, if you're feeling good, you're not walking. Even if you're way up at the front, you're not walking. Because at the time when she walked at first, the announcers were kind of making it seem like she's just, she's fine, she's comfortable, she's just taking a little break.

Yeah, you don't do that. No, you don't do that if you're feeling good. When there's $100,000 at the finish line, you're not walking. Yeah, no. I mean, again, just like from my perspective, I spend a lot of the race hanging out with the different, I guess, partners, significant. others of the women that were racing, like Josh Amberger and Flora's partner, Dan, and Zachie, Ellie's partner. And like, anytime I was with any of them and like our significant other came by,

it was rough. Like Holly pushed, gave Paul the little push from behind. And then the next lap when I saw her, I was like, Holly, you look fine. You look so good. She looks over at me and just like literally starts crying a little bit and shaking her head. And I'm like, oh shit. You know, this is like on lap 2. And then Florida at a really similar thing when she came by.

And Dan was like, you look good. Empty the tank. Like, just fine. Just like, just got to push a little bit more. And she looked over and just like give this really quick shake of her head and like almost lost it and fell like like and broke down. Yeah. It's like when you see your significant other and you're in that much suffering, you just want to cry and stop. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like just pull the blood. In a way. But also I'm like, oh my gosh, Eric came all the way here. I need to finish this.

The thing about a lapped course is like one lap takes for freaking ever. And we had to do five. Oh, no. I was like, I don't know if I can do this four more times, truly. But anyway, I got to the finish line. I was like, just get top ten. You could do top ten. And at this point, people were dropping out.

And I think I, relative to how I should have run, had the worst run split. It was so, so insanely slow. Like, had I run maybe four minutes faster, which would have been just like, running and not walking, I think I would have been sixth. Right, right, right. It's just so annoying. But everyone was struggling with the same things, right? You can't just say if I ran four minutes faster.

Well, of course, of course. But I'm just saying if I had been able to handle the heat in a way where I could have momentum and not have to stop ever, which is like realistic. Then I could have, like Lisa Norton, for example, handled the heat really well. Road really conservatively and smart. Didn't come around us at all. And then it's been training for the heat. so ran consistently in the heat.

I kind of almost wonder if like coming out of transition with all those women was like a little bit detrimental. Because like Jackie, for example, Herring, who had a really good run, she came out of transition all by herself. She'd had a horrible bike and she was like, just go out for a run. Yeah. Whatever. And then she built into it and actually ended up having a really good run, even though she probably started just painfully slowly. Yeah. Just had the opposite approach.

you, Paula, do you think that the heat protocol stuff you were doing with the, I don't know if we're talking about it on the podcast actually, but you've been kind of training for the heat for this by getting in the hot tub after your some workouts. Yeah, clearly didn't work, Nick. Clearly didn't work. Well, I was going to ask you, do you think it made a difference at all? I don't know. It's hard to say.

It didn't hurt, but I definitely didn't get to the level of discomfort that I was in that race. Yeah, right. There's really no replacement for just, training in those conditions. And that's why a lot of people are in Texas right now training for Kona because it's just the humidity is a whole other thing. And maybe I would have done better if I had done a few sessions like in a fake sauna where you're like making your bathroom into a sauna or something. I don't know. So it's just like live and learn. But happy to have that behind me and also trying not to let it mentally affect my confidence for St. George because that'll be a totally different race,

totally different weather. Hopefully it's like cold there actually. I prefer the cold. Yeah. Well, it was when last time we were there. Yeah, yeah, it was cold. You're right. The big storm.

The big storm. But that's my recap. Nick, you also, I'll give like the 60 second recap for my race. 60 seconds. You're on the clock. On the clock.

Okay. So very last second. Thank you to Kelsey Myers, who was the like coordinator of like celebrity VIP division of Malibu Tri. She got me a spot. to race like two days before the race. It's like a sprint. It's like a slightly longer sprint distance race. It's a race I've done many times before. And I just went out there and just went as hard as I could. And it was awesome. I held my best ever Watts. I had my best ever speed in any race

on the bike. And then it was a little hard on the run because I really like, I was just so angry on the bike from the week before that was like, I'm going to crush this bike. And funny enough, Nick Chase raced the race as well, who DNF from Wisconsin as well, week before. So we both DMF that race and the most race. Malibu. He won the race. I was seventh overall and second in my age group. So that was a good day. And my parents were there for that too coincidentally. So it was, I actually had a lot of fun. I felt redemption. I felt redemption. Yeah. There you go. That was one minute. That's really good. Good job, Nick. Well done. That was. 40 minutes last week, one minute this week. So yeah. And thank you for everyone

who was supportive for that too. Everyone everyone's really been in my corner recently. I feel like they knew I needed it and they've been super, super, super, super nice. That's nice. Yeah, we also saw a lot of TTL people in Dallas. It wasn't a super spectator heavy crowd or anything, but lots and lots of people yelling my name, which was so cool, as usual. Always surprising. I saw a lot of TTL gear in Malibu. It was wild. It's like every race we go to, there's more and more, which is so cool. It's growing.

Well, do we want to move on to our new segment here? Yes. Let's move on to the Back to the Normal Podcast format. Thank you for putting up with us. Guys, an episode and a half of race recaps is what we've had so far. But I do think they were worth it. I think they were interesting. And people need to hear about you and the heat too because that is scary. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is a new segment inspired by someone who wrote in with some questions. His name is Chris. and we're going to call it hot or not. Is it hot or not? Wow, that was so good, dude. Love the new theme song. You really haven't heard yourself with that one.

They haven't even heard it yet, guys. They're lying to you. Okay, so basically, you don't have to say hot or not. I guess you could, but I'm going to read you something, and you're going to tell me what you think about it, okay? Okay. So the arms of your sunglasses going under your helmet, helmet straps when cycling. Is that hot or not?

Not. Not. The only time you don't is if you're doing a triathlon, you can wear the glasses under the straps because you're going to be taking your helmet off. So that's the only time I'd ever put it under the straps. In the name of speed. In the name of speed, yeah. Okay, what about watches should not be worn in the pool. Is that true? Yes, that's true. Not hot to where you're watching the pool. Wrong. I love watches in the pool. Need all the data, bro. Well, but you're not hot.

No, that's true. It's very uncool. What about gloves on the bike leg of a triathlon? Gloves on the bike of a triathlon. Yeah, so like people are putting on bike gloves in transition. Only if it's cold. Yeah, well, if it's cold, I think if it, well, if I didn't have gloves last weekend, I would be in a casket. So I'm glad I had gloves.

Otherwise, no. Don't do that. That's a waste of time. No gloves. No gloves. He said white race kits should be punishable by DNF. What do you guys think about white race kits? race kits.

Don't hate them. Wow, really. I just think of Christian Blumenfeld when I think of white race kits. Ideally, you have a modesty patch. A modesty patch. I'm particularly thinking about Lindsay's white kit she had one year in Kona, and I thought it looked super good. Like the right person can pull it off, and it has like some other cool designs on it. I would say all white, no.

White with some texture design, yes. Yeah. White is so striking. and it makes you look super tanned. Espresso as the only caffeine for distance athletes. Is that hot or not? Yeah, like a drip coffee or a French press versus like an espresso.

Espresso is the hottest way to have coffee. Yes, for sure. But it's not the only and the others are totally acceptable. I don't know. I'm with Eric on this one. My Italian roots won't let me have anything about espresso, the rare times I have coffee. Is that espresso that they put in your triple frape latte?

Mocaleat caramel drizzle Oreo. I feel like these hot or nots really need some reworking. These are rough. This is our first try, okay, Eric? And last one, Speedo when you race, hot or not? Hot. Hot. Hopefully hot.

If you can do a mustache and a mullet with it, too, that's extremely hot. The more that you can own the whole look and the feeling of it, the better. You better be ready to talk to everybody if you're doing it in a speedo. Well, you bet, yeah, that best. better be the goal, right? You're trying to be a conversation starter. They're meet people. I saw one of our listeners, he did a triathlon in a rubber-ducky speedo. And I think that's a pretty good look. I mean, like what Trixie said, speedos just look better. That's true. That's true. Thank you for those, Chris. I think we're going to do more of those.

But maybe I'll design them next time so that they're a little more streamlined. Yeah, that was his way of just getting like seven questions answered. I think it was a great email. I just think that we just like, we just like, this game out of it. He wasn't intending it for it to be the first game of hot or not. He wasn't. He wasn't. He wasn't. Right into the frying pan. Thank you, Chris. Okay, so we're going to move on to questions now, and you can send in your questions to, I don't know if I should even say the email anymore, because we're getting so overwhelmed with the amount of questions that we're getting in emails.

If you can figure out where the email should go, you can submit it. Yeah, right. No, it's, it's not Traathlon Lifebrand at gmail.com. Paul is the one who has to filter them anyway. There were a lot today, but it's because I had like 50 to 60 to go through this week. And I was like late for a thing. So I was kind of skimming them. So that's the only time. Otherwise I really actually truly enjoy reading every single one.

So send them in. Send them in. Okay, great. You heard her, guys. Send them in. Some of them I'll just like reply with an email because I'm like, I'm not going to get to this on the podcast, but like here's your answer. Yeah, yeah. That's really nice.

That's really nice. I appreciate that. Okay, so first question, hello, happy funny podcast. Peeps, always a pleasure to listen to you chat. Questions one, why do you run holding your watch instead of putting it on? I would drop it. I think we've talked about this before, but maybe a reminder would be nice. It's easy to answer real quick. A lot of the times just when you run out of transition, since we don't wear our watches on the swim or on the bike, when you're running out of transition, it is like quite the challenge to get it actually strapped onto your wrist while trying to run quickly. So sometimes you're just like, I just want to get out transition as fast as I can and get going and I'll just hold on to the watch. And obviously you can still see it. It's fine. Yeah, I for some reason just got into the, it was the same reason as Eric, it was really challenging to put it on while you're like trying to run fast and hard and you just off the bike and you have like gels and stuff in your hands. But then I kind of liked having something in my hands so much that I kept doing it like for a workout. I'd warm up with it on and then take it off and hold it. And another reason for that was like it's easy to lap at that. way. So if I'm doing like a workout and I need to lap it, I can just like push it with my

index finger instead of like reaching over. Right. That's cool. Yeah. I don't know. I did put it on for the Collins Cup because I was like, I need all hands to grab ice. Yeah. Or not the Collins Cup for Dallas. But that's why. Yeah. Right. Cool. Number number two, gear, which helmet do you three wear for racing? I've got an older Rudy project. I don't even know what they call it, but they're kind of stubby looking one. And he covered the logo and put a TTL logo on it. I used to be sponsored by Rudy, but not anymore.

Yeah. I have been wearing the Gero and I wear specialized road helmets when I train, but their their TT helmet just didn't fit me perfectly. They just came up with a new one, which I haven't tried yet. So I'm going to give that a try. But the Gero, I think, just universally fits a lot of people really well. Yeah, the Gero Arrowhead, I think. Yeah.

Yeah. And I use the cask, Bambino, which is also a stubby TT helmet. Yeah. I love that one. And Paula mentioned her bike saddle once, but I missed writing it down. What's your bike saddle, Paula? The Catero, right? The Catero, yeah, the specialized Catero.

Eric uses it too. We love it. Great. P.S. Eric, your filmmaking is gorgeous, and PPS love TTL clothing. Susan. Thanks, Susan. We also love Eric's filmmaking and TTL clothing. Yes. And speaking to which today, well, actually, I guess today, two days ago for when this goes live, you guys opened up for the first time ever you have swim caps. Is that right?

Yeah. They turned out really well. Yeah. They turned out so well. In collaboration with Blue 70. and we've wanted to do one for a long time. And they're kind of a fun thing because their price point's not super high. So if you do put an order in for a t-shirt or whatever,

you can like throw it into your cart and it's easy to ship. And yeah, we just think they look really good. And it's a fun way to wear TPS stuff. And they're super reusable, right? They're not like a cheap race swim cap. They're like a nice quality. Oh, they're silicone. Yeah, they're silicone.

So they should last like a whole season if you want them to. Yeah. Yeah. Just rinse them out with like clean water when you're done using them. I don't even rinse my. You don't do that? The only time I ever like... You do that, Nick? Yeah.

I rarely use swim caps. So when I do, I take care of them. Oh, okay. Yeah. I don't know. I, the only time I ever like decided to get a new one is if it's a white one and it like becomes discolored. And that's after like literally eight months maybe. Right.

Otherwise, it just changed because you want a new look. And we have the look for you. Oh, do we have to look for you. So, yeah, you can check those out at that triathlonlife.com. It'll be right in the front there. Next question is from Dallas. Oh, God. I feel like, Paul, do you have PTSD just hearing that?

No, I have good memories of Dallas because after the race, we went and had barbecue with Ellie and Zach. Oh, I was a little bit jealous. I was a little bit jealous when I saw those photos, especially with the ice cream. I'm an avid runner who lives in Boulder. I've been intrigued with triathlons for a while now, but have yet to sign up for one and because most of them, unlike marathons, do not allow you to wear headphones. How do you all deal with this? I feel like not being able to listen to music or a podcast would make a race feel much harder.

Thoughts, Dallas. Agree. I like this question a lot because I think I've even talked about this in the podcast, but I used to be super dependent on music when I trained. And I think it's a good thing to do some training without headphones because you're right, you're not allowed to use them in Iron Man races. and I think it's actually a good thing to learn to listen to yourself breathing and just to like experience the suffer. And I don't even, I don't use music ever anymore unless I'm on the treadmill or the trainer.

I think it's a really important tool to be able to train hard and exercise and ultimately race without music. And I understand it's like an important source of motivation for a lot of people. But I'd say the best way to be able to race without them is to do some hard sessions without. them obviously and just like learn to listen to yourself working hard instead of drowning it out yeah i agree have you guys ever had this where i think i've talked about this in one of the first episodes of the podcast where i was i had music i had headphones in and i was in such in a middle of such a difficult effort that i actually had the instinct to take the headphones out because the music was just like this extra stimulus and i was just like trying to reduce the noise have you guys ever had that

experience? Yeah, with certain music, but I don't know, I personally curate my playlist specifically for like a type of music that like gives me good vibes versus just like, get your hurry going, you know? Yeah, I got it. Yeah. And also the rule for the no headphones is purely a safety thing. It's not to like, oh, how can we make this suck? No, yeah. It's just that it's important to be able to hear, especially when you've got like cars and traffic and not all courses are fully closed, it's just fully for your own safety. It is funny though that they don't let you wear them on the run

because I don't know if any marathons or running races that don't let you wear headphones. You can wear headphones? You can wear headphones in a marathon? Yeah. Oh yeah. That is so stupid. Oh yeah, of course. I mean like, I don't... No, that should not be allowed. Because I just, I can't even tell you how many times

you come up on somebody on the trail anywhere and you're like, excuse me, excuse me, okay, what? and then you run by and they're like, oh my gosh. Yeah. It's like, well, I tried. You're blasting Justin Bieber in your ears and you can't hear me. Yeah, it's completely outrageous.

So it's just like, I don't know. If you're going to wear headphones while you do exercise, like just wear one and don't crank it up super loud. Yeah, wear one. That's the rule is wear one so you can hear what's going on around you for your own safety, people. Yeah. And so people who come up on you don't freaking push you in the bushes when they can't get around you. That's Eric. Or public menace, public enemy number one in bed.

Well, there you go, Dallas. Yeah, you'll get used to it. And I think there's something about race day that is so exciting that it kind of replaces the excitement that you get from music in a lot of ways. I agree. You can hear people cheering. It's a whole thing. You can hear the announcers. You don't need music.

You won't miss it. Yeah. And like a lot of the times I find that there's just like the last song that I had in my head that gives me the best feelings, like kind of just get stuck in my head. Yes, nice. kind of be on repeat. You can just listen to music in your own brain. Easy. Yeah. Paula's actually a musical savant. She can read symphonies

in her mind. Well, next question is from Stephanie. Hey, Eric, Paula, Nick, and Flynn. Firstly, thanks so much for the amazing entertainment you provide on YouTube, the podcast, and the clothing, which I am possibly the fan with the most clothing items. Oh, man,

I have seen some of these people that have bought TTR stuff. You guys would not believe how much TTR gear. certain people have bought. It's amazing. So their question was, how much do you train in your pillow shoes leading up to a race? And for the people who aren't familiar, pillow shoes are a friendly term for these race shoes that have tons of foam and a carbon fiber plate in them. So how much do you train in your pillow shoes leading up to a race?

My meta speed skies seem to be the best fit for race shoes, but should I do a few of my shorter tempo runs in them leading up to race day and maybe my longest run too? I watch one of Lucy's videos where she said she made the mistake of training in her carbon shoes. Thanks so much, Stephanie. This is really interesting. Actually, because we were just talking about this. What, like last week? Yeah, we were saying, like, if we had a shoe sponsor, we'd wear carbon shoes way more.

But because we don't have a shoe sponsor, I mean, I want to spend money on shoes, we are very careful with the amount that we use our carbon shoes. And I don't think it's good to use them all the time. because you get this not a false sense of speed but I don't know your times are definitely faster

if you're wearing them and I do like the effect of like going from like a slower training shoe putting them on in a race and getting that extra boost it's kind of the feeling you have when you're putting on like your fastest race wheels or you know in a pool

if you're a swimmer putting on your aqua blade super tight suit and shaving down it's like a special thing for race day yeah yeah so will We'll usually use them for our brick sessions. So we'll usually like on Sundays do this like, not our Saturdays, whatever, do like a three-hour bike ride with a bunch of hard intervals

and then do like a 15-minute hard run off the bike at race pace and we'll put them on for that. Right. It's good to be familiar with the feeling because it is really different than your training shoes. But the more you race, the more you become familiar with it. And a lot of people do say that these carbon-plated super cushiony shoes

do kind of save your legs a little bit. So I think that if we were training for like an Ironman and we were doing crazy long runs, maybe it would be smart to wear them more just to reduce leg fatigue and everything. Yeah. If money was no object, I think I'd like to do every other tempo run. So like basically one run every two weeks in them. I'd like to do something like that. Interesting.

I think also maybe if you're injury prone on the run, maybe shuffling them into your training a little bit more might be helpful. so you don't surprise your body's mechanics on race day. There's also a lot of shoe brands that have like a shoe that's similar to their top end race shoe, but not as expensive. So Nike has like the Zoom Fly, which is still a carbon plated shoe, but it's like half the price and it feels a little bit the same.

So I'll actually wear that for most of my temper runs. And same with, I think the Sokony lineup has a similar thing. Instead of the endorphin pro, it's the endorphin speed. It's not a carbon plate. It's a nylon plate. But it's still a great fat. It's definitely a fast shoe way faster than a normal shoe. Yeah, so you can still kind of get used to the feeling and have the same benefits without spending so much money cycling through race shoes all the time, right? It's funny. I wonder what, I wonder if eventually there'll be a consensus on this because like Yaka Bingabringen, which is one of the most dominant, like, middle distance track athletes.

He says he wears them as much as possible. But then I, but there's definitely people who do not wear them as much as possible that are also very, fast. I wonder if there's going to be a consensus at some point on this. No, I think it's always going to be individual preference and foot mechanics and everything. Interesting. And access to the shoes. It's like, okay, even if I wanted to wear expensive shoes all the time, like, they sell out a lot too. Like, it's hard to get your hands on a pair of A6 shoes and everything. And you can put less miles on them. Like, they do not last as much as a normal pair of shoes. Yeah, yeah. That foam gets kind of dead quickly. Anyway, there's the answer to your question, Stephanie. Hopefully that was helpful.

Next one is from Garth from Toronto. Wait, is it, Paula, is it Toronto or Toronto? It's Toronto. It's either way. Oh, really? Well, it has a tea at the end, Toronto. I say Toronto. You do?

As a Canadian. I thought it's like, you know, people like from New Orleans, they say New Orleans, New Orleans or something like that. I don't know if people from Toronto. Toronto. Toronto. Anyway, Garth from Toronto says, hey, teammates. I'll call you teammates because you're with me on most of my training.

I love that. I love that. I celebrate your accomplishments alongside you, and I'm sure at some philosophical level, you are celebrating mine in all of TTL nations. I just want to say something real quick about that. I totally feel that. I feel like, at least for me as an amateur with the other amateurs, I feel like I'm out there.

I feel like we're all out there together sometimes. I know I said that earlier too, but it's like, you know, everyone listens to this podcast. We have so much in common already. we all like love this thing enough to listen to an hour podcast every week about it so i feel like we're all in this together yeah no dude i'm just like a huge part of my vision like when we started the whole thing is like is the community aspect of it and then knowing if you saw someone with a t t tl shirt or hat on or whatever at a triathlon that you would like

you know that this person is a friend and understands you and it's like it has the same feelings about the sport that you do so i i freaking love it this is like when people come up to me at a race now and they say something to me. I'm like, I already feel 95% friends with them. Because I'm like, I know we have so much in common already. You know? Anyway, he says, I've been such a fan

of Paula since the Olympics. I'm the vice principal at an all-girls school in Toronto and often convey her story as a tale of perseverance, resiliency, and inspiration. Paula, you are truly inspiring as an athlete and as a great human being. Wow, there you go. Garth said he's heading to worlds

for the Olympic distance in Abu Dhabi in November, and the bike course is an F1 race track. And then he gave us, he gave me a, well, gave us a link here where you can look at the track. He said, I have solid bike handling skills and love the vlog when Paula was working on hers. So in your opinion, one, is the track layout too tight for my felt IA, which is the felt like a triathlon bike. I can't possibly imagine that there's an F1 course that the turns are so tight that it's too tight for. for a triathlon bike, that you should be on a road bike, right? Yeah, because cars are going around it.

Yeah, and it's like, for wide. There might be like one chicane or something. Yeah, I don't think that you'll necessarily be able to stay in your bars the whole time. Totally. But for sure, the bike will be better to ride than a road bike. Well, let me ask you guys, when you did Indian Wells, well, you did it. Remember when we go on to that racetrack temporarily?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're mostly in the arrow for those. Like, maybe you're coming out for a second, but the gains seem to far outweigh however you're going to come out of there. I got to think that's tighter than an F1 track too. Yeah. That's more like a test track. Yeah.

Two, if not, do you have any tips on cornering so tightly and so often out of the saddle to accelerate out of the turns, getting arrow ASAP, keeping one arm and arrow while turning and keeping, oh, that's interesting. And keeping in mind, it will be a certain number of loops, and I won't know how busy it will be as the race goes on. Yeah. I feel like that's the bigger danger is, like, people. around you versus the track itself. If you were riding it solo, you could take a lot of the corners an arrow, I'm sure. But with people, that's a whole other variable. But if you have a chance to pre-ride the course, when I was doing those bike skills with my coach in a parking lot, the more I went around corners, the more I got confidence and could ride the arrow. So the first time you go around it,

you're like, oh, there's no way I'm riding this in my arrow bars. And then the third time, you just do it. And it's not that bad, and you go faster. And your brain has like muscle memory almost with certain corners, so it's a good idea to practice it before. And you just learn about what your edge is, and I'm not even close to it. So when I'm out there in the parking lot with Paulo and Eric, and they're like, go around this corner and arrow, and I'm like, that is impossible. But then you do it, and you're like, oh, okay, that is far from impossible. Yeah, confidence inspiring.

Yeah. But when you say, like, take one arm out of the aero bars, I don't think that's necessarily a good idea. I've never thought of that. That's like a panic move, I feel like. If one arm is in and one arm is out, that means I've made a mistake, I think. Yeah. Bikes are pretty stable. Like, they want to go straight and leaning into the corner.

Like, it'll just go. It'll kind of flow. Yeah. Ultimately, just, I mean, like you can get lower, not in the arrow bars for having a lower center of gravity, then you can't in the arrow bars. So that's why coming out of the bars would be more stable. That's true. Yeah.

I also, in regards to, to. accelerating out of a corner. I think a lot of the time people spend too much time in power spikes accelerating out of the saddle when they corner versus just like a few strokes out of the saddle and get right back into Arrow because Arrow is just so much faster than standing up or sitting up and trying to accelerate. Just like be efficient, take three or four pedal strokes, make sure you're in the right gear going into the turns so you're not messing around with gears and then get back in Arrow immediately.

Yeah. And having done a lot of ITU racing, we can tell you that big surges out of the saddle are what make your legs feel terrible on the run, much more so than just like a steady state effort. Yeah. Yeah. So keep it controlled. Get back up to speed, but then just get back to your race wots and arrow. That's a great, great tip from the pros there. That's what we're here for.

We're here for, Nicholas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys have done a lot of racing, and I think it's easy to be like, no, I'm getting out of the saddle. I'm going to have a cool effort, but it's like, okay, there's a whole run later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, hopefully that answers your question, Garth. Keep, stay on the, stay on the triathlon bike. Next question is from David and Surrey, B.C.

Hey, team, just listening to this week's pot about Eric's race, and I'm curious, how do pulls work in a race? Eric, you mentioned you and Matt Sharp worked together. Is this something you talked about beforehand? Is it just understood that when you're riding in a bit of a group, everyone takes a turn, how much strategies involved in T.O's, video of the race, it sounded like his group left most of the work up to him. I've heard stories of Jan giving it to Brownlee and Kona to take a turn at that front. What is the deal? Thanks as always,

David. This is something that just has to kind of sort itself out organically in the race. As much as Matt Sharp and I could have been like, okay, you're going to take three minute pull, and then I'm going to take a three minute pull unless we get to a turn. Then it's just still comes down to like, okay, who's feeling better on race day and can maybe take a little bit longer pulls. And, you know, if you're in a big group, like we were said earlier, like,

what is the likelihood of somebody who's in fourth position able to even get to the front? Like, Tio was the strongest person in that group. And there's a good chance that people behind him felt like there's no way they could even take a pole. They were just like hanging on trying to stay

there. So ultimately, I do think if you hung on and were able to stay there for two hours, you could have contributed. That is my personal thing. But there's no specific rule about that. No, there's no rule. It's just kind of like, if you're able to take a poll, you really should. And if you don't take one and you're still there at the end of the run, you're just opening

yourself up to everybody hating you. But by the way, like, that's racing. So if you don't do it, you didn't do it. you don't get any penalties or points taken away. You decided that you were going to save yourself and maybe go slower overall on the bike so that you could run better. And maybe that person's going to hate you, but that's racing. And you just better be ready for the next time that they're in a pack with you

that they're going to try to drop your ass as quickly as possible. Yes. For sure. Well, in Dallas, Flora and Lisa didn't take a single, like, pull, quote-unquote. And they both beat me in the race. So maybe that's like a tactic. But I was talking to Holly about this after because we were actually. actually going back and forth in the lead. And we are saying that like maybe in the future if that happens and you're actually trying to catch someone that's up the road, it is to your benefit to work

together a bit and say like, okay, you take a two-minute pull and then ease off so that I can come around you. Because every time I tried to come around, Holly, she was still on the gas. So it took this enormous effort to get past her versus if she said, okay, two minutes is up, I'm going to let up, let me come around and then she can recover for two minutes. So it doesn't happen usually, but I think that if it's like to both of your benefit to catch someone up the road, it would work better if you work together.

Don't you think? Yeah. It's, it's harder to communicate with in a triathlete for sure. In a road race, you're right there with people so you can actually talk, but in a triathlon, it's hard. In a competitive thing, but I don't know, Matt Sharp, but I did a very good job of that. Oh, you did? In Santa Cruz. Okay, that's good.

Like, we would each, it was pretty obvious to me when Matt had taken a poll and it was kind of like, quote unquote, sitting up or like taking a second to like take a drink of water. So he did that. Yeah, and same for me. Like if I kind of got to a point where it was like, this is feeling like I'm going to come close to going over the red line here. And I just like soft peddled for a second. He'd come around.

Almost immediately he would come around, take some sort of a pole. And it was very fluid. It's like reading body language. Yeah. Yeah. And in understanding like, hey, we're working on this together, trusting that that person is also trying hard. and yeah yeah holly would like look back

and i'd be like oh maybe that's my sign to like yeah there's no there's no there's no there's no flick of the elbow in triathlon is there no except i did to like flora and leased a few times i like motion for them to come around us wave at somebody to try to get some help but if they're just like doing their thing doesn't matter you wave your arm right off right cool uh well thanks for that question david

next question is from cassandra hello paula eric nick and flyn first off huge congratulations to paula for sticking it through during the extreme heat at PTO U.S. Open, your grit and determination to finish was remarkable way to go. So at what point does a race get canceled because it's too hot, how appropriate? Or is it up to athletes to just regulate and manage themselves during the heat? I'm a triathlete from Canada, so we usually have the opposite problem where it's too cold and the triathlon race becomes a duathlon.

Thanks again. Love everything you guys do, Cassandra. Cassandra, this is a really great question. We've spent a bit of time talking about it, both out of exasperation and just general curiosity. In the ITU anyway, there is like this kind of spreadsheet or like chart that says if air temperature is and water temperature is, then run is shortened. And if temperature is in water temperature and ambient, you know, then whole race is halved or something. Like Olympic turned into a sprint or. I don't know if there's a level where they would fully cancel it. There probably is.

It probably is. Yeah, if it's just insane. And the water temperature is like so high that it's dangerous. Yeah, the interesting thing is they fact, it's called like the wet bulb, and they factor in the water temperature, the humidity, the air temp, all of that. Yeah. And I think the ITU just has maybe more stringent or better protocols for when that does happen. And Dallas was under USAH.

rules and we have amongst us not been able to find such a chart in USAT rules. Yeah, I spent like 10 minutes Googling it earlier and could not find. There was a lot of stuff on water temperature and how much it would be shortened per each distance at different degrees ranges. For coldness. For coldness. But nothing for the heat for the bike and the run. Well, the interesting thing about USAT rules being implemented at PTO races is that because these races are

like run by the professional triathlet organization, the PTO board and the athletes ultimately have the ability to modify some of the rules. For example, in this race, we had the lapidot rule, which is not a USAT standard protocol. So I think

that it was left a little bit up to the organization, like to the PTO what was going to happen. And there was a contingency plan, especially for the men's race day, where if it hit a certain temperature, I'm not sure what that was, they were going to reduce it by like 40% or something. Allegedly.

Allegedly. So I don't know. It's so hard because the PTO is all about like building this story and building, you know, showing us suffering and struggling and grit and who perseveres. And so they're less inclined to like just take the race and cut it in half. Whereas the ITU is just like no messing around. This is dangerous. We're making it shorter.

Yeah. Every like one of these PTO major events costs like multiple millions of dollars and it's all contingent around building. a good show that is then ultimately marketable for next year for like sponsors of the broadcast and stuff. So like canceling an event or like greatly shortening it is like a big financial hit. So it's it's hard. It's the same thing as like where it's in the athlete's hands to be like, oh, like I don't really want to race in these conditions and it's scary, but the money's so good, like I'm just going to go ahead with it anyway. You know, it's a tricky situation. Starting at that time of day, though, was a bit insane.

And the reason we did that is for the broadcast. So it kind of just shows like... And also the amateur race in the morning. And the amateur race in the morning, yeah. Which was shortened because of the temperature? I think they shortened that race because of the temperature. The amateur race. That's so funny.

Yeah. Yeah, Talbot and Kyle both raced that race. They did the 25K. Yeah, yeah, they did. The 25K, yeah. The 25K, yeah. 25K. Yeah, we could have done 25K.

Yeah, just go all out. Well, there you go, Cassandra. So we don't really know the answer to that question. If anyone at USAT listens to this podcast and knows that there's actually a rule, you can just message me on Instagram or I don't want to put Eric and Paul out there. But you can message me. I wonder if Iron Men has a rule. You can message any of us.

I don't think there's going to be a thousand people that work of USAAT messaging us about that. Right, right, right. Okay, next question is from Scott. And this one I put some thought into because my parents had the same problem at Iron Man Wisconsin. But Scott says, T-TLN, which I love already, Scott with two T's, my question is regarding following athletes on course for spectators. When one of you isn't racing, the other seems to be on course following along, giving splits and encouragement, etc. I recently did Iron Man 70.3 Wisconsin, oh God.

And my friends and family who were following me on course said the Iron Man Tracker app left a lot to be desired and was not very accurate, and they were constantly driving to a location only for me to already be past it. By the way, this is exactly what happened with my parents. They had the exact same experience. Do you guys have a better way to track each other? Normally, people can track me with Strava or Garmin live track, but you need a phone for it to work, and most races like Ironman prohibit you from having your phone on course. Just looking for a better option. First of all, I don't know if that's true. I think you can have your phone on course.

You just can't do headphones. I have definitely seen people with their phones on course. But anyway, just looking for a better option. Thanks and best of luck for the rest of the season. P.S. Nick, very ballsy performance at Iron Man, Wisconsin. I'm from Madison and haven't seen conditions like that in September in a long time. You should be proud of that effort. So do you guys have any ideas for this?

I think this is your best and only option is what my sister did when she did her 100-mile race She had this elaborate spreadsheet with time checks at like 10 different time zones where my parents could potentially meet her with supplies and stuff. And she had times for like if the race was going well, if the race was not going well, and if the race was going terribly. And basically my parents could just look at like, okay, she came through this one on the things are going okay time slot. And then I can probably expect her to meet the next one around here, give or take five minutes. It's harder in a triathlon because in an ultra race there's actual rest stops where she knew the exact miles. But I guess in a bike you can just look at the bike course and see where the mile markers are. Yeah, just pick an intersection or something.

And then when you anticipate being there. I thought of a few kind of a few tools that you could use if you haven't been able to figure it out. The first is depending on the kind of course, you could put an air tag in your bike. which is a good thing for bike, like, theft safety anyway, and see if that pops up. I wonder if that would work. That's funny, yeah. Yeah, that requires somebody with an iPhone to be nearby.

Yeah. Dallas probably would work. So if it's like in with Iron Man, Wisconsin, I think that would be tough. But if you go by a bunch of spectators, it would probably pop up right there. So that could help you a little bit. The other thing I thought of is to build that, like, what Eric was saying, or like a timetable of places that you might be, You could use, I think average speed would probably be just the smartest thing to do.

Yes, you'll have rollers up and down, but generally speaking, I think it's probably a good way to predict where someone's going to be at a certain time. And I think relying on the app is not great. The Wahoo app, Eric, when you send me like follow my link on Wahoo, do you have to have your phone? Yes. Oh, you do. Okay, okay, never mind. Yeah, you need a cellular device with you to broadcast a signal because GPS only receives signal. It can't.

Got it. It can, but most GPS devices do not send the signal. Okay, okay. The Iron Man app is, my parents have the same problem. So I think, always assume that it's going to be off in a direction that favors you. So get there early at those places if you want to see your friends and family racing. Yeah, the paces especially are off. Oh, yeah.

The paces, it's like, oh, wow, Paula was just going 35 miles an hour, and now she's going eight miles an hour for this split. It's like, okay, I don't think so. Well, hopefully that helps you, Scott. Next question is, and our last question, hey, Eric, Paula, and Nick. And then she says all this stuff about training for many years and always training and always having stuff on the schedule from her coach. But now she wants to take some time off, unstructured time, time where she doesn't want her coach to be putting anything on her schedule.

So her question is, do you pay your coach during your off season? She was wondering basically if it's okay, if it's ethically, okay for her to say, hey, can I just take like four months off where I don't pay you and I don't need your guidance necessarily? Tips for this discussion without feeling like I am dropping a bomb on them, but just want a little mental and physical break from structure and coaching while I figure things out. Thanks for your advice, Sarah. Yeah. It's not super applicable to us because we don't, we have a different pay structure with our coach. And we only take like three weeks off maybe per year. Yeah. So I did run into this.

same thing when I did pay a coach monthly back a couple years ago. And I think that I would never ask that just because even if they don't communicate with you for one or two months, they make up for it in the months when you are racing and really busy and need more attention. So I think over the 12-month cycle, it kind of equals out. But it's a different scenario if, like, depending on how much effort your coach is putting in monthly or how much time it's actually taking them. It does seem like a fair thing to be able to ask that or even paying like half the amount or whatever it is. But yeah, you don't want to. That seems like a nice compromise, right?

Like asking to pay half? What do you think, Eric? I don't know. My thing is like if you're legitimately just like, I need a break from the sport and I'm going to take four months and I don't want to schedule. I think that's one thing. If it's like, hey, I'm just going to take December off and then I'm going to start back up in January, no, I think you should just keep it going.

The payment. Yeah. For sure, but she did say four months. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think for four months, I think a coach should understand that. I think you should also understand if you come back after that four months and the coach is like, hey, I took on another athlete and I don't have any room. That could be a thing that happens.

Yeah. Totally. I think that this all comes down to like the most important thing with the coach is being able to have open communication and talking about it and asking them. And they should be straight up and honest with you about their feelings about it. I think it could be very individual coach to coach how they feel about this type of thing. So just being able to ask and be flexible and yeah, not like expect it to happen. And like Eric said, when you come back, not expect them to immediately take you back and keep things rolling like you left off, right? Yeah. Totally. Yeah, that's interesting. I've never

really thought about this and I'm getting help from this guy, a podcast listener, this guy, Kyle, who's been kind of taking my training peaks plan and like modifying things a little bit. And it's been interesting to have a coach. It's, it's, I definitely like aspects of it. Instead of just doing the straight ahead like pre-made plan. Yeah. Yeah. No, having a coach is hugely beneficial and important, I think. Very valuable. Yeah. But I too also understand needing a break from it. So. Yeah. Yeah. And I think she, in, in her question, she kind of, states that she needs a break from it, like a mental break from it, which is different. In that case, that's, it's not even like an off season. Like if you're like, oh, coach, I'm taking

a month of an off season. Can I not pay you? That's not really cool. But I need four months of like a mental reset. That's totally different. And I think they should understand that. Yeah, that is different than like, hey, I'm taking a month off as I do every year for my performance, you know, like what Eric was saying. If you're taking a month off, it's inappropriate maybe to say, hey, I'm done. Yeah. Well, that's all we had today. So remember everyone, you can write into that triathlon life brand at gmail.com with your questions.

Next week, we'll be back with a more regular show. No race recaps at the beginning of next week, I don't think, unless this one pops in and surprises us. Any last thoughts, guys? Sorry, we're tired. It's like 9 o'clock. No, we just had, like, such a bad travel day back from Dallas. So I feel like it's just getting over. that's taking a couple days. It's like our flight was canceled. I've never had a flight be canceled

before. Yeah, wait, can you? I don't actually know what happened. You kind of told me, but not really. So you were at the airport and you were there on time? Well, I'm like this obsessive, compulsive, like the app on United or on any airline gives you too much information. Like, it's ridiculous. So you can tell if your plane is like 30 seconds early or whatever. So I was like checking our layover in San Francisco to see how long it was exactly. And if it was, one minute longer than it was supposed to be or not. And it just says canceled. And we're like in the air going to San Francisco.

So I'm trying to kind of, you know, we bought the Wi-Fi online and tried to see if there were other airlines that were flying back to Bend because Redmond's a pretty small airport. Yeah. And the only other option that day was to fly home at 11 p.m. So like 13 hours later with a midday flight that was already full. So we were on standby and it was a whole thing. So yeah, we waited 13 hours in San Francisco and then got home at

2 a.m. And it was, I mean, after a not great, not the best experience in Dallas, too. Yeah. The thing is, the thing that made it suck is that we flew out first thing Sunday morning because we wanted to get home. So we missed the men's race. When looking back, we should have just stayed Sunday and flew home Monday. Well, I mean, easy to say that now.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that's why we're tired, but it's all fine. It's okay. Our bikes made it. Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's good.

I love this. I love doing the pot. It's always so fun for me. Anyway, thank you guys so much for listening once again. This podcast, the last episode of the podcast was by far our most popular, and we have just been growing since episode one. So it is so fun to see when I get to see the stats, and it's just like, how are we?

Like, we doubled 20 weeks ago. We were doubling the amount of streams we're getting per podcast. It is crazy how much is growing. So thank you guys for sharing it with your friends, for leaving reviews, and for listening every week. It is so awesome. Yeah, we have so much fun. even when we're tired we still power through that's right that's right okay guys well we will see you

next week bye everybody thank you bye bye