That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula wins at the Collins Cup Triathlon, treadmill running, bike pedals, aerobars, and more!

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

Paula crushes at The Collins Cup triathlon where she won her matchup! Paula gives us her rundown of the race and then we move onto questions. We then get right into your questions about what to do with power meter data, how much kicking pros do during the swim, and much more! For gear head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. On this show, we talk a little bit about how our races go. We talk about our training. And most importantly, we take questions from you to listeners. I am a professional triathlet. Paula is also professional triathlet. And Nick is an amateur triathlet and professional musician. We're all really good friends. And yeah, we love chatting and we love having you here to hang out with us. Paula, do you speak Slovakian fluently now? I don't even know what language they speak over there. No, I think it is Slovakian. There you go. Like, it's their own language, and I think it's very different from any other language. So I just got back off a plane, like, three hours ago from Slovakia, or from Vienna, I guess.

Flew direct to L.A. and Nick picked me up, and I'm doing the old, like, stay overnight, and then I'll fly back to Ben tomorrow. So it makes the travel long, but I got both my bags, everything's smooth, and it's fun to hang out here for a night. we decided to record a podcast. Wait, first of all, did you check the bikes? To what? Because something happened on the way over. I don't want to fuck no. Okay.

Now there's two cracked bikes. If they're cracked now, they're still going to be cracked when they get here to back. Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, back story on that that is I got to Vienna, or I got to Samarin, for the Collins Cup, and

my frame was cracked. So the airlines were really rough with my bag. We've done a lot of talking on this podcast about the best bike bag, and it's official that Saikons are the worst. It's not official, but this certainly is not a great moment for that bike bag. Well, I don't care.

I will never again recommend someone buy a Saikon, and I will never use it again. Wow. One strike and you're out, I guess. You hear that bike bag companies, don't even sell us one, because you'll be forever ashamed if anything goes wrong.

That's right. Like, I really want to order a bike box Allen because they're a hard case. But also, I message them on Instagram to see if they could get me one before flying home. And they were a little bit rude to me. So I'm not super into that company either. Nice. Love it. How are they rude to you via Instagram?

Well, I was like, fully not asking for any discount or anything. I was like, I'll buy it. I just need a bike bag to get my new bike home because my bike broke on the way here. And they were like, well, just add it to. a cart and then look at our shipping options. Oh, no. And I was like, okay, bye. I agree. I agree. That's not cool. All it takes is for you to like click on that person's Instagram real quick and just see,

oh, they're a professional athlete. Not even that. I don't expect to like premier treatment. I was just like, if there's any chance in the world that I could get this bike bag before Monday or bike box, I'll use it, I'll promote it. I'll pay full price, like whatever. Yeah. This is that company's opportunity to be extra friends. friendly and nice, just in their conversation. They don't need to do anything special other than just be nice. Yeah, exactly.

And I think a lot of the time, like, maybe their Instagram person is not their main person. But anyway, getting a bit off topic here. You mean they're not like us where their CEO and founder checks their Instagram and direct messages? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But, okay, so for people who didn't know, you were in Slovakia racing the Collins Cup, which is a very special kind of race where you're put up against

one other person from one team and another person from another team which makes it 1 v1 v1 and who are you put up against? Yeah, so if you want to hear more about how it works, we actually explained it a little bit in last week's podcast with Trixie Mattel.

We were trying to explain it to our friend Trixie so that kind of made it funny and hopefully you guys like that podcast. We find podcasting very fun but it's strange in a way that we can't really get feedback from people because there's no comment platform like there is on YouTube. So we leave feeling like, did people like it?

Did they not? So if you did like it... What do we say? I don't know. Scary. If you say messages, you're about to get 200 messages. Go buy a Kroonack. Well, you know what you can do is, and this has already been great,

but if you want to leave us a review on, like, Spotify, you can't leave, like, words review, but on Apple podcast, you can actually leave, like, a written review. That's always helpful, but we're still trying to figure out a platform for us to have some kind of communication about the podcast. The problem is, I was just talking to Paul about this before, is that nothing's ever going to be as good as having a comment section immediately below the content, like you have on YouTube or Reddit or a million places. Like, podcasting just isn't built for that. It's too bad because it's nice to have that instant feedback. Yeah.

We've certainly become accustomed to it with YouTube. It's really nice. Yeah. But anyway, Paul, so you were saying. Yeah, so that explains, I won't go out into the Collins Cup again, but my matchup was Cat Matthews from Great Britain and Sky Munch from the U.S., from Utah and me. So it was a little bit like the cycling match.

Like they sort of tried to line up the matches so that people were racing each other that had similar strengths, and they'd be fairly close races. And this one seemed to be like kind of the cyclist. match. Like, all three of us are pretty strong cyclists. But I won my match by like over six minutes. Which is, I think, especially for people who have not been following the tiny little bit of drama here, there's the Pro Try News podcast made a comment about Kat being potentially a stronger cyclist. It wasn't even that. It was just like questioning my strength. I see. It wasn't anything to do with that. Oh, it wasn't? Questioning the difficulty of becoming a Canadian.

Canadian champion. Exactly. And it was this, I mean, I think we've had a lot of fun thinking about this and just having to be like an extra layer of things, but in nowhere we angrily

hating on. Of course not. And neither are they. I don't think the front of these guys are. In the race. Mark Matthews was so nice to me. Like I got off the bike with five minute lead and he's like,

outstanding rod. Like, it did so amazing. Got such a big gap. Like giving me splits. And like, Cat and Mark, I don't know them well, but I hung up with them a bit this weekend, and they're, like, such nice people. And that was my favorite part of the Collins Cup, is just the ability to spend all week with people as humans, not necessarily just as, like, triathletes doing a race and getting to know them better and becoming friends with them. So that was really, really cool.

And, I mean, it's a weird race. Like, not everyone has their A day at the Collins Cup. It's so unique. So I don't take this race and walk away thinking, like, oh, I'm the best. But my time was third overall. Danielle Rief was first. Ashley Gentle was second, and then I was only 20 seconds behind Ashley Gentle. She was in a completely different match.

So there's definitely factors that influence the overall times. But just for interest and for points, they do end up ranking everybody on their overall times so that you can kind of see what the results would look like if we had all race together. Right. Yeah. But you had no way of knowing while it was going on who was where and everything. and I were sitting there, facetiming and geeking out over the splits and everything and wondering how close you

were to Danielle and what was going to happen in you and Ashley, but you were just kind of going as hard as you could from the gun until the end. Yeah, and I knew, so the points were set up in a way where if you win your match, you get three points, if you're second, you get two points. If you're third, you get one point. And then there were extra points for like margin of victory. So if you were two minutes ahead of the person behind you, you got an extra half point, up to a maximum of a point and a half per person.

So long story short, you could score six points if you were over six minutes ahead of both people, which I ended up being. And Paula was also the only international athlete to score all six points. Did any other athletes in general score six points? Yes, Gustav did. A few did. It's brutal.

Unfortunately, the U.S. was definitely given up some points this year. Well, yeah, they didn't win a single matchup. It was a rough year for the U.S. Yeah, but it was like, I mean, everyone kind of knew what would happen. In the end, Europe was going to win, and we would probably come second and U.S. third. But it still didn't take away from, like, the fun of trying to do that. Well, then maybe this is a perfect opportunity to pitch this idea to the PTO. Eric and I were talking about this.

First of all, I do know that people from the PTO listen to this podcast, because in Edmonton, it became obvious that they do. So I know you're listening, people. Eric and I had this idea. Instead of doing the USA versus Europe versus international. Oh, yeah, this is great. I mean, first of all, the USA did not win a single matchup, so I think this is even more fair now to say. But I think it should be Americas, so Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and South America, versus Europe, but without Brexit.

So you take them out of Europe, they become international. Yes. So it simultaneously makes the American team stronger, the European. and team a little less stacked and puts that into international's pocket, I think that balances things out in a kind of a cool way. Are you also good to be

with the South Americans? Yeah. Central Americans. So yes, I agree that you, I guess, would suffer from it, but as a viewer, I think it would make things a little more balance,

and it still makes perfect sense. Like, why is the U.S., one country against an entire conglomerative countries and then the rest of the world? Because, like, I know the U.S., we all think we're the best, but this is great proof that we're not.

So, I'm, I think that would be a kind of, or something interesting. Like, if they're really trying to play up this U.S. versus Europe versus international, then it can't just be Europe blowing everyone out of the water every year, because then people are not going to be as invested in that storyline. Yeah. Yeah. At least not American people.

Like, I mean, last year, the U.S. beat the international. So there is a world where the U.S. has a really strong team. Oh, I didn't know. I don't remember. Like the U.S. pumps out really fast to our athletes. Well, like Ben did really well last year. year. So yeah, there were a couple people. And Jackson did really well last year, too. And Jackie won hers. He, yeah. So, yeah, I guess that makes sense. I mean, it is, it is just a carryover

from golf. And in golf at the time when they did the Ryder Cup, that was, that made a lot of sense to do it that way. Everybody trying to take down the Americans versus now it's how do we freaking take down Europe. Yeah. For us. Which is kind of cool. Well, Paula, maybe like the one thing I would want you to comment on is compared to what you think people maybe saw, was there anything behind the scenes that you thought was kind of interesting? Like you were saying it was really windy

and I don't think I really knew that by watching it or like any other dynamic that was going on on race day that stuck out to you? I don't know, it's really hard to say because I didn't see the coverage. So I was just living it. But the swim was interesting. It was in a really small canal,

which actually had a little bit of a current. So I was trying to kind of swim up the outside where the current was less and then down the middle. Cat Matthews strategically kind of jumped on my hip right at the start, which was smart of her because when you're swimming on someone's hip, it slows the other person down, me, and it's easier you get a really good draft that way. So I really had a hard time like shaking her at the start because she was sitting in like the perfect spot to slow me down just enough that I couldn't get away. eventually I did get around her and then she sat on my feet and the elastic dropped.

But it's a good way to sit on someone's, like to hang with someone open waters to do that. But you never saw them again after that. Yeah, so the whole thing was basically like a time trial. I mean, the bike was really flat, really, I'm not going to say boring, but literally didn't have to get out of air. It was single time except for the U-turn at 40K. And then the run was insanely windy. like headwind, block headwind out for 7K, flip, tailwind back, flip headwind for 2K and then finish. So really like varying paces.

And yeah, like you said, it probably wasn't obvious on the broadcast, but that definitely impacted the run, I think, and the splits and stuff. But yeah, I don't know. I don't have that much to say about it. There weren't really any questions about it on. No, not really. I mean, we have questions. Yeah. We have questions.

First of all, I wanted to ask you. How does this make you feel about 70.3 worlds? Does it mean nothing to you that you were, like, third overall on the day, when Daniela may or may not do 70.3 worlds, you know? Well, I don't think this race in particular, but just the way my season's going in general gives me more confidence and that I'm healthy right now. I almost with 70.3 worlds was in, like, three weeks

because I feel like not that I'm at my peak fitness right now, but I am healthy right now. And I feel like between now and end of October, I could mess it up and do you, too much or get injured or whatever. So just have to be really careful to keep the fitness where I am, maybe increase it a bit, but not go too hard that I'm injured by October. But yeah, it's a good feeling to be like up racing with the best people and knowing that I am one of them and heading into Dallas into World Championships. It's like this effect that I felt when I was winning

ITU races like you belong at the top so therefore you race there. It's like that's interesting. changes your mentality about the race. Like, yeah, I belong to be here. I expect myself to get to the front of the race on the bike, so I just, like, make it happen and do everything I can to make it happen. So it's, yeah. I was wondering, because I thought it would also have been

an interesting matchup at you against Daniela. I thought that would have been kind of fun. Do you feel like your day would have been any differently if you did that? Possibly, because Janiela stayed with, very impressively, actually, swam with Flora and Sarah True. But I think if I was in a match with Danielle, I may have swam with her, and then maybe been able to hang with her on the bike. Her bike split was a minute faster, but when you're racing head-to-head with someone, like, that's different.

It brings out of you, yeah. And then we ran really similar. So I would, I'm most excited now to race Danielle in like a real race. Isn't that crazy? Like, just like the best ever, you know, still doing so well and you're like pretty close to there. That could be a really fun thing to watch at 70.3 worlds. Because there were so many matches going on at once. I don't actually think they showed me and my match that much.

They didn't know. Which is fine, which is totally fine. Like, I got so much attention in Eminton. I kind of enjoyed, like, being under the radar for this race. And also, our match wasn't that close, so it wasn't like they had this exciting storyline to share. But honestly, I felt pretty bad all day. Like, the swim, because I was, I'm not the strongest swimmer, so I really prefer to have feet to swim on. Me leading a race, I'm not super, super fast.

So Kat was actually only, like, 30 seconds back from me. out of the water. So I kind of freaked out a bit in transition. I'm like, oh my gosh, she's right there. Like, we're going to do this ride together. And it's going to be so hard. But I just had a super quick transition and deliberately, like, got my feet in really quick and took off on the bike, like it's super high watts. And you kind of go through the town at first. So I was just trying to not be lazy. Like, get around the corners quick, get out of sight as quickly as possible. And then just kind of started riding at, like, way too high of watts for a 70.3. for 80K.

Knowing that you wouldn't be able to hold it or hoping that you might. Yeah, I thought I would, I thought I'd drop maybe 20 or 30 watts, but I was like, just get out for 20K as hard as you can. And then we got a time gap split from like a random person on the side of the road at maybe 30K and it said I had a minute and a half. So then I knew I was putting time into her. So that was motivating just to keep pushing hard. But I wasn't holding like that grade of wads. I didn't feel that good. The only entertaining part of the whole ride was seeing the other match.

on the out and backs. So I was like taking a split when I saw Daniela knowing that she left 20 minutes before me and then trying to get to the turnaround in 10 minutes because that would mean she was 20 minutes ahead. So I just had these little mind games and I kept like lapping my watch to try to entertain myself and see like how far ahead I was of other people and if I was actually riding well. But I didn't have that much feedback on the course. And then when I got off the bike, hearing the split five minutes back to the other two. That felt good. Yeah, and people were also telling me that I was in second overall behind Danielle.

So at that point, it became about getting as fast of a time as I could. And I knew I was going to win my match, most likely, unless Kat had this crazy fast run. So, yeah, I was, like, running a pretty good speed, felt pretty good despite the crazy howling headwind. And then same thing on the run was like taking splits to people that I was passing on the out and backs, like Danielle, Flora. And then on the way back, started to see like Holly and Ashley. So that made it, that's the only part I thought was fun. Right. Was seeing other people.

The course also wasn't like particularly beautiful, right? Well, it was right beside a river, so it's pretty. But, I mean, when you're hurting, who cares? Like, I just wanted it to be over. But, yeah, it turns out I was only 20 seconds behind Ashley. So in my mind, I'm like, yeah, I could. have made up 20 seconds somewhere. But the thing is like maybe Ashley could have also gone 20 seconds faster or whatever.

But her match was a lot closer between her and Laura. So her motivations were a little different. And she was riding a little more with people. So every race was just so different that it's really hard to compare at the end of the day who went the fastest. Yeah. But that was my in-depth review. Which is great. That was amazing.

Thank you for indulging us. Yeah. Eric and I, just for a little peek behind the scenes, Paula, I feel like maybe she's just like she doesn't love talking about herself that much. But like when she races well, like Eric and I are just, we want every single detail. We want like a two-hour breakdown. And so this was, this was her version of a two-hour breakdown. Which is great.

I thought it was great. Okay. So I'm, but they are still, have they already assigned PTO points from the matches? No, I checked earlier today. They are not yet assigned. Charles may have told me what my points are. Are we sure we want to? What?

Do we want to get Charles in trouble? Yeah, I'm going to take that out. No, you can keep that in. I was going to tell Eric my points. Oh, okay. He said that I got... So they're just, like, waiting for a grand reveal? Well, I think they go through it and make sure it's good, but Thorsten's, like, there.

I looked back, and they still haven't given points for, like, races from two weeks ago. Yeah. So they're just a little bit back. I'm sure by tomorrow the next day, they'll be up. Yeah. And for anybody who doesn't, like, realize or understand quite how the PTO point system works, It's based on like the ideal theoretical, fastest time somebody could do. And it's kind of interesting in this situation because everybody was in a different match.

There could have been slightly different wins for one person who went an hour before another person. And obviously just like if you're racing head-to-head versus solo, like polleted, it's like it's a tricky thing to try to come up with points for. Hard to quantify. It'll be interesting to see. So Eric and I are extremely proud of you for doing so well. I feel like the past few months have been really good for. for Paula Finley. And let me just say,

TTL stock is going up. Like, for those of you who have invested in TTL Nation early on, it must feel good to be like,

wow, I really backed the right people here. Stand by for your dividends. We got like the killer YouTube show, a top triathlon podcast. We got top athletes. I mean... Also, a quick shoutout.

I have specialized a lot of shoutouts, but to go into my bike fiasco a little bit, I realized the frame was cracked on Tuesday, and it was pretty little. I showed it to a lot of people, and some people were like, yeah, you can probably ride this. And other people were like, no, don't ride that. But J.B. It Specialized was like, definitely don't ride that. Specialize is definitely going to tell you not to ride it.

Yeah, he's not going to be liable for that. He sent me a frame overnight, but it still was like a little delayed on the shipping because of UPS and said it was going to arrive Friday night, and the race is Saturday. So I tried calling UPS on Thursday, but it's like they don't really speak English that well. And I was like, can I come pick up the package? Because it was at a place that was about an hour away. And they were like, no, not possible. It's on the truck.

So I was like, okay, well, as long as it's here Friday tomorrow, it'll be fine because I had a friend, Zach, that was going to build it up for me and swap all the parts. But then I get a message later on Thursday that's like, held for pickup. And I'm like, shoot, now I have to go pick it up. Like, is it actually being held? Or did the person mess up? So Dylan, who does so much work with the PTO, he's amazing, sent one of his guys out with

my passport and everything to pick it up. And I was just crossing my fingers. And miraculously, he found it. So they did hold it after telling you that they couldn't and it was on a truck? That could have been terrible. I know. But I was like, it's either coming on Friday or it's there being held. So,

wow. Just got to try to go get it. And freaking Zachie, who's Ellie's, Ellie Saltas's boyfriend, who built up the bike at like 9 p.m. Right?

On Thursday. Yeah, because we ended up getting it Thursday. That's awesome. Friday morning, I was like out on a ride. It was crazy. Yeah.

Just so spoiled and lucky to have Specialized, Zach, the PTO, organizing, like helping with it all. It was so crazy. And Eric was actually the one

that was texting with J.B. It specialized because I was just like losing my mind. So, Eric dealt with it. Sweet Eric.

Trying to calm nerves from 7,000 miles away or whatever it is. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah. I was like, Eric, does this look cracked? And he's like, yeah, no, yep. He's like, I don't know what to say here. There's no good answer.

You just take a nap and I'll think about it. Yeah. Meanwhile, I'm also. was launching our crew neck sweatshirts and I'm dog sitting for the Corbyn's so it's like it's been a heck of a week oh yeah thanks to everyone who got a crew though what a good Paul is right now they're so nice what a good week yeah thanks everybody it's I mean I think they're amazing

and I hope everybody enjoys them who bought one so yeah and for I guess for the more casual listeners who don't already know you can check out the crewnecks at that triathlonlife.com they look great and they are selling fast so grab it now if you want one. Yeah. Well, I thought we would move on to some questions here after Paula's star-studded weekend. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Great. So the first question here is, hello Eric Flynn, Nick, and Paula in alphabetical order. First of all, I love all things T.T.L. Neish, spelled the French way, N, E with an accent ague, as Trixie said last week, C-H-E. I discovered your vlog in February, started adult swim stroke lessons in March, and will be competing in my first sprint triathlon next weekend. I get so much inspiration from your videos, podcast, Instapost. Thank you so much for sharing your lives of this. My questions are about

Paula's training over the past few months. Most of my triathlete friends, age slash age droopers, have one big training block, maybe incorporating a few shorter distance practice races in there, a taper, a peak for their big race, and then settle into an off season of less formal training. This seems to be what Nick is doing to prepare for his Iron Man. I'll just quickly answer that right now. It's not exactly true. Like, I take like a three to four week off season, but then I'm always on, I want to say mostly always on some kind of training program. But yes, I am on one for my Iron Man right now, and I'm about to start my taper.

But Paula, you mentioned doing more interval type training leading into the TT championships. Did you back off on your swimming and running during the lead-up? How then did you prepare so quickly for the PTO Canadian Open just a few weeks later? And now again, for the Collins Cup, are you in a constant state of Pee? fitness or does it ebb and flow? Do you recover insanely quickly from these huge efforts? On last week's podcast, you and Eric spoke about having a fun week of rest or less structure training in the week after a race. How does this factor into the short turnaround between these very big events on your race calendar? For the first question, no, I did not back off swimming or running during the lead-up to

the TT championships. That was purely a for fun type of race that I was also taking seriously. I wanted to perform well at, but my main focus and source of income and everything is racing triathlon, so swimming and running maintained the same volume. And I think that the reason that I do have success as a cyclist is because of fitness that comes from running and swimming as well. So it was an important part of it. Therefore, it wasn't that quickly to turn around and get ready for the PTO Canadian Open because that was only a few weeks after. Same for the Collins Cup. We are not really always in a constant state of peak fitness. Eric, you can talk about this if you want.

But if you look back at our season, I really wasn't in that good of shape at Oceanside. I was like fourth or something. And now I'm kind of coming into more peak fitness as the championship season approaches and there's more important races on the block. But we're always in pretty good fitness. And then it goes up near World Championships and goes down in the off season. So I think it's really important to kind of have that ebb and flow and not always be super, super sharp and fit. Otherwise, it just is too risky for injuries.

Yeah, I think we are like always at like 97, 98%. And then come world championship time, we try to hit 99% or something like that. But, I mean, ideally you come into the early season and you're just slowly ramping into it. And you're just like slowly building both mentally and physically all the way through, until October. One World Championships hit. I will say, though, like one thing about your T.T. Championships, like, you, I can't remember when the last time that you were not totally running, you, you haven't, like,

at 100% run volume while you're doing the TT championships, and you were doing, like, Paula had you on a little bit of specific programming for time trialing for, like, 45 minutes versus two hours. No, I was training specifically for the TT, but I didn't lower my swimming. running volume for it. And I, in general, don't have super high run mileage even when I'm healthy. So that didn't really change that much. But in terms of like the fun weeks or like the off weeks in between races, that sort of feels like

enough time for us to recover enough that we're ready to train hard the next week. And we don't take them off, right? No, no, not at all. Even when we like road tripped back through mammoth after Oceanside and everything. everything like Paula went for a run and Nick and I and Flynn went for a trail run. So really the biggest thing I think is just like you're mentally recovering from it. We still go and do fun stuff that sounds enjoyable, but it feels fun. It's not structured. We're not, we don't have to do anything at a certain time. Also something maybe that people want to keep in mind for context is like,

remember when you first started running how much a three mile run took out of you, right? Like it like, that was like, whoa, that was hard. And now a three mile run for most of the people listen to the podcast is like no problem. It's a recovery run. So us doing a 70.3 versus Eric and Paula doing a 70.3 is, I think, different levels of recovery are needed for them. And especially something like a 40K TT on a bike is way less of a big deal on Paula's body than doing, you know, even 100K, a PTO event. So they don't need quite as much recovery as we do. That's what comes with the amount of volume they do and the amount of fitness they have. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. We bounce, maybe bounce back faster, and our whole lives are

dedicated to making sure we do bounce back. We're not, like, going back to work. We're going back to, I mean, I feel like this is one of the big difference of being a professional athlete versus a really, really, really fast age grouper is like really, really fast age groupers still won't race, like, six, seven times a year, like the way you guys do. You know, they'll, they will, like, they'll have a couple A races, and maybe they'll have less important races, but, like, Paula can't show up to a race and know she's going to do poorly and do poorly because there's so many eyes on her and you've got a million people watching you. Yeah.

And I will say this is like one thing that makes me jealous about athletes who do exclusively Ironman is they get to do two races a year and you build up specifically for that. And then you get much more of a quote unquote break and like recovery sort of thing versus I think with 70.3s you can race often enough and you feel like you should race often enough that you kind of have to do more of that ITU style of like 98% fitness all the time. Right, right. Okay, so next question is from Cheryl in London, Ontario. T.TL. Nash, spelled GNAI, dollar sign H.

Thank you for the content and energy all of you put into this world. My husband, Brent, and I love listening to the podcast and are convinced that our scruffy dog, Walter, would make the best friends for Flynn. First question is for Paula and Eric. How does competition play out in your relationship? and how do you stay supportive of one another even while competing in the same sport? Does competition ever get the best of you,

or is it all just bliss and amazing Instagram content? I'd like to say that I'm only inspired by Brent's progress, and I love getting to share something I love so much with the person I love so much, but I'm dreading the day when he beats me. Pass. Why? Well, she just nailed it, I think.

She's getting competitive with her husband, and they're not even competitive. competitive yet. Well, Eric, like, I've just accepted that you're way freaking faster than me, so it's a non-factor. She's trying to not let her husband beat you. My, whatever you are to me, husband. Well, apparently, according to the PTO, you guys are both engaged and Eric is your coach. Did you know that?

They said that on the broadcast that Eric's your coach. But he's always going to beat me unless he's having a real bad day. but we try to like leave triathleton behind us when we're done training and I do help think that Flynn helps with that do you think we get home we're doing a Flynn thing forget about training move on sure Eric's rolling is he's not rolling his eyes he's thinking he doesn't like this question no no it's just I mean it's inevitable we're a training group of two so like from my perspective um like I I'm a, yes, I'm a faster swimmer than Paula.

And if I'm having an off day and Paula is really close to me, that reinforces to me that, you know, you're just, that's like, what else do you have to compare to? Because you have the clock there. But like, otherwise you're just, you're looking around. I'm wondering what's going on. So that's inevitable. But I do think, for me, it's not Flynn.

It's just that, like, I get over things really quickly and move on to the next deal. But we get it out of the water and that's the end of it. You know, next session. So. Yeah. And we're supportive of each other because I feel like if you have a good race, that's a win for both of us. If I have a good race, that's a win for us as a team. It's not like me versus you.

And we recognize that we couldn't do it so well. At least that's how I feel. Like when you won Alcatraz, when you were seventh at worlds, I felt like that was me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, totally. Same thing with Edmonton for me. I just like, my emotional arc,

getting ready for the race and doing well at the race ended with you doing well for the race and therefore was emotionally devoid, depleted for the following day. Yeah. I don't know. Like I said, I think it's inevitable that you're going to like compare yourself to other people around you because it's just like human nature. But as long as you, I don't know, can leave that at the end of the session and that's not like affecting, it's almost like we try to like separate.

business from like work, I know, work from pleasure a little bit or whatever, but I don't know. It doesn't bother me. I can attest to this, having been at many of these races, also like having a text thread with Eric and Paula, but then also a personal text thread with Paula and a personal text thread with Eric, that they're always, I don't know in training what it's like, and maybe there's frustrations in training that I don't see. But with racing, like when Eric does well, Paula is nothing. but thrilled, no matter how well or poorly she did. When Paula does well, Eric is nothing but

thrilled for Paula no matter how well or poorly he did. So, I mean, I think, I don't know how much of that is intentional. It feels very much like it's your natural reaction to it, but I love saying that, especially because I get a little worried when I see one of you, like, not having the day that I think you deserve, but then the other one does well, and it feels like that saves the day a little bit. Oh, 100%. And it just occurred to me, like, if I'm trying to give a little piece of advice here, just from like what I've observed with Paul and myself, is like identifying sessions that could be stressful for the two of you and just, and doing those on your own, if that's what you need to do. If you two are like drastically different run speeds, don't run together, just bike together,

you know, because it's just, that's not going to be, you're not setting yourself up for success either way, even if, you know, I think Jesse and Lauren talked about this on their podcast and sticks out in my brain of him being like, well, I've got an easy run today. Let's run together. Oh, you only, I can only come along when you're running easy. No, that's not what I meant. Oh, Kate, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't, whatever. So just like, just like identify that. Like, these are things that I like to do by myself and just, in no offense. It's just a, I got to go meditate. Yeah, that's smart. Just like kind of like some boundaries. You guys, the jet like is hitting me so hard. Oh, I'm sorry. We're going to, well, well,

Well, let's try to rapid fire these a little bit. Okay. Rapid fire. In Broadway, Rapid fire session. Rapid fire. We're recording this podcast. What time is it? 8.40 p.m.

I don't even know. What time is it for Paula? I don't even know. I think that's 220 in the morning. No. It's 5.20 in the morning. So I've just missed a night of sleep. 5.40 in the morning, sorry.

Just slammed a burger. Yeah. And I'm in the home. Paul and I went on like a 30-minute run and then ended at ShakeShack. and then walked home with Shake Shack. This is what pro athletes do, folks. I saw your aura ring said you got like 11 hours of sleep last night, though, right? I think that's spread between two nights.

That's really confused by the time zones. Well, I've already read all these questions. So I'm going to give you the summarized version now. I'm sorry for the people who sent in. I'm sure you wanted to hear your questions read out, but I'm going to give you the Nick Goldston summary here. So this next one is from Kristen. And she wanted to know, she's having this issue where outside,

she's still recovering from surgery and injury. She has to walk run, but on the treadmill, she can run the whole time. And she was kind of curious about what you think she should do to kind of improve that so she can run more outside. First of all, why would someone be able to run on the treadmill and not be able to run outside? That's confusing. Well, I was hoping you would say the treadmill is a little more forgiving on the joints and stuff. Yeah, I mean, certainly more so than asphalt or concrete. That's for sure.

So that could be it. If she doesn't live near trails. I think what she's saying is like on the treadmill, the question, actually says, I'm able to dial in my heart rate to run a consistent pace for longer, yet outside I'm still doing a walk run. Am I better to do my running outside and hopefully improve the length of my walk run intervals, or am I better to stick to the treadmill? And I think that the easy answer to that is the treadmill is just consistent.

It's not going in any kind of variability. The incline is staying consistent. Whereas outside, you're naturally going to have some undulation. Your heart rate will go up. It'll come down. You might speed up more than you think you are, as you are. up. So I think a good mix of treadmill and outdoor is super important and not to do all you're running on the treadmill, but it is a good tool to use it to run consistently without breaking,

because that's what you're going to end up doing in a race, ideally. And I don't know, in one vote for continuing to run outside, races are also outside and undulating and your heart rate varies. But Eric, when I read this question, I thought of you, because you actually love using the treadmill as a tool for running. So explain why because I don't love it, but I feel like you can really get into a rhythm and focus on your form, which maybe takes your mind off how boring it is. Yeah, yeah, for me, I have to have a mirror right in front of me and then I have on some music and sometimes running outside for me. Like I have just like a chronic hip injury and sometimes just it can be like too much to focus on and turning and I don't know, just like picking her out

and getting on the treadmill is just like very simple and it allows me to be like focused enough on relaxing my hip that I feel like I run a little bit better and it's it almost like resets things a little bit. So yeah. Yeah, it's definitely not like cheating to run on the treadmill. Oh, no.

Just, yeah, like a couple times a week, especially when I'm like really tired or something. I'll just, I'll mix it in there. It's like a drill. It's like a swim drill. Yeah. Nice. Well, good.

Thanks for that question, Kristen. next one is from Sarah, from Morrison, Colorado. Hey, Paul, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. I recently got into triathlon via my partner who races 70.3, and I'm training for my first 70.3 in Santa Cruz in September. Eric, do we want to say anything about that or no. I may or may not do that one, so I may or may not see you there. There you go, Sarah.

You might see sweet Eric in Santa Cruz. He's doing it. I hope. I texted him today out of nowhere and said, Eric, I think you would really enjoy that race because I do firmly believe that. Well, I mean, I do really like that race. I like that course. I've won there before.

So it's... Oh, yeah. If anyone lives there, give us a shout out. Eric needs a place to stay. He's going so long. And the hotel's outrageously expensive. I wish I could be there with you, Eric, but I will also be racing on that day. I know.

We need a home stay. We need a home stay. I would even accept a place to park the van really near the course. I've slept really well in the van last couple times. I slept on it, so... And I'm planning on driving. Yeah, I think that's great. That would be great.

But, sorry, moving on here. it's been a world when learning the sport, but I found your podcast super helpful and it makes my run so much more tolerable, so thank you for that. While I like training, I'm enjoying taking videos of my partner and friends training more.

I wanted to ask how Eric got into videography and if he has any tips for a newbie. How did he learn to compose such compelling content? Lastly, are there any restrictions to filming at triathlon races, i.e., do you need a permit, signed consent, et cetera. Loving the pod on the vlog,

best of luck, and everyone's upcoming races. Cheers, Sarah. So first of all, I wanted to say Eric, it's not like you were just like, hey, let me pick up a camera and you were instantly as good as you are now at it. The proof is all out there. People, you can go back on old videos on the TTL YouTube channel and you'll see that they're quite different than they are now.

I'm not saying they're worse, but they're different, and Eric's style has developed. I mean, shouldn't people just expect that to happen? Yeah, it's been an evolution. And the more that you make stuff, the more that you shoot and look at it, then you get that instant feedback and kind of decide what you like, what you didn't like, what you could have done better.

And a big thing also is like watching video, watching films that inspire you. And, you know, if you want to make YouTube videos and you want to do instructional things, like watch some people who do instructional things. If you want to make stuff like I make, watch some ski films or some surf films. And just like, you know, pay attention to when is the camera moving? When is it not moving? How do they time the music? Is it always on the beat or is it not?

and then just go through that process. So that's honestly how I did it. I read a couple of books that were just like basic cinematography concepts with camera movement and emotion and composition of framing. And it's kind of as simple as that. Having that stuff in mind and then putting it into practice and repeat, repeat and learn. What about getting permits and stuff for filming at races?

You can apply to get like, a media credential, a media pass. It's not hard, folks. If you really want to. If you're trying to film races, you just literally email the media at the races, and I almost guarantee you they're going to get it. For us, it's been very easy because Eric, like, they already established this whole media empire that is now GTL.

We don't have to like explain necessarily who we're shooting for. And you can do it completely without that even. That's just, that'll allow you get right behind the, finish line or like maybe get a little bit closer to transition and stuff like that but plenty of people I mean you could film a triathlon no problem without any media credential on just hustling around yeah it is a good question though because she's asking about like signed consents and a lot of the time in our videos like we are showing other people that are racing without their consent like is that I've never even thought about that as being a potential issue yeah I forget I think it's there's like

there's some laws about that but like if you're filming out in public I don't think you have to get the, and you're putting up a YouTube video, I don't think you have to get signed consent from every single person up there. But I think if they're, like, talking to the camera, maybe it's a little bit different. But I'll look into it before we post it. I mean, like, for the most part, I don't have the camera on a child, like, if at all possible, unless it's doing something super funny and it's just for a second and, you know, just like added value or something. But it's like, for the most part, everybody that is in the film, if you're composing the shot properly,

they're just part of the scene. They're not a focus. So I don't think it's like a compromise of their personally. I don't think it's a compromise of their personal space. If I saw somebody like picking their nose, I don't think I would include that

just because they probably wouldn't appreciate that. So this next question here is from Meredith, and I feel like this is a good question that we can kind of answer somewhat quickly. It's about pedals and bike shoes. She says, my dad is the one who introduced me to cycling and he started on more of the mountain bike side of things. That being said, I currently have the Shimano SPD cross-country pedals

and Velcro entry mountain bike shoes. Is this something where I should really go road triathlon specific? How much speed slash watts are we talking? I normally finish the top 5% to 10% of my age group and I'm doing my first 70.3 Arizona this October. I have a tri-bike on order. The delay is also stressing me out. Join the club.

So I'll need to buy new pedals anyway. Thanks again for being awesome. I look forward to the podcast and the blog each week. So other things you can upgrade, where do you think pedals and shoes come into it? Very high. It's a contact point. It's like your handlebars being fitting you properly,

your saddle fitting you properly and your feet. Very important. So what's more important about it? Is it the comfort? Is it how fast they are? Is it how well engineered they are to put power through to the pedals? Yeah, I mean, mountain bike pedals are designed to shed

mud so they have a lot of extra play in them whereas a road pedal does not so they're inherently going to be more efficient both in terms of like the platform is larger and then also just your the cleat moves around just a little bit less in the pedal itself bigger contact everything also i think road shoes are a little bit more like well they're lighter first of all but form fitting like every amount of power you put into the shoe you want that to transfer to the pedal to transfer to the bike, whereas a mountain bike shoe might be a little bit looser or bigger, like, designed to keep you warmer. I don't know.

It depends on, like, the quality of the shoe, but I find when I put on, like, the S-Work torches, for example, it feels like I'm wearing bare feet or, like, every amount of effort I put in is going through the soul and into the pedal. Like, it's a crazy feeling. So I'd say that it's, for sure, a worthwhile upgrade. Yeah. Like Eric said. Yeah.

You do get your what you pay for with shoes. shoes. I will say, like, I have not bought a lot of things since I turned professional, but I have bought several pairs of cycling shoes and just, like, handed over my credit card, looked the other way because it's like almost to me, it's like in the classification of groceries. It's like, I can't stress out about this. It's just like a very important thing that needs to be good.

And I'll figure out how to be cheap about some other item. And you don't need to. replace them as often as running shoes. It'll last few. Very long time. Several seasons if you take good care of them. It's just like a saddle. It's a point where your body is touching the bicycle in a very important spot.

It's very important that that is a very good quality, comfortable piece. Yeah. Cool. Thank you for that question, Meredith. Next question is from Andy. And this question, Paula, do you feel like you get like five of these a week that is talking about this? Yeah. And I usually skip them because I feel like we've touched on it before.

but I guess people, yeah, maybe not up to date on all the pods, or it's like just such a common question. And it's whether or not, well, you can read the question, Nick. Sure. Andy says, I currently just own a road bike from the 90s, Trek Fast Track 470, with some arrow bars on. But even before the triathlon, I already thought about upgrading to a new bike for more

and definitely some longer triathlons. And I wonder what each of you would do if you had an old road bike and had to decide for a new bike. Would it be a triathlon bike or maybe an arrow road bike with clip-on arrow bars? And how much of a difference do you think it would be compared to the old bike in a 70.3 or Olympic distance? Keep up the good work. So like a pretty basic question, and I think something a lot of new triathletes are wondering, do I go full-on for the T-T bike or do I get a road bike and put clip-ons on it?

And I'm going to throw this one over to Eric. I guess the question just really is, you've got to ask you. yourself, like how fast do you want to go? How much do you care? Because riding a road bike versus riding a time trial bike is, it's like a couple miles an hour. We've touched on this and having it fit properly is really important, of course. But if your top priority is not to like go a couple miles an hour faster in your triathlon and you also, you kind of put a lot of value on how comfortable you are on a four hour bike ride, just training and maybe you're not thinking you're going to do triathlon for the rest of your life, then a road bike gets you a lot of the way. You can still have

great fun experience. It is just, it's going to be a little slower. But especially if it's the only bike he's going to get, having your only bike be a triathlon-specific bike feels like you're like really limiting your options of what you can do. Are we keeping the old road bike? Oh, I see. I see.

It's a road bike. Yeah, the way this works. You keep that old road bike, you buy yourself a tri-bike, and then next year you upgrade your road bike, and then next year you upgrade your, you know, and you just, you, you, you, you, you, elite frog. But if you don't mind riding the old road bike around just for like training and enjoyment

and social things, then like I would maybe say go for the TT bike on this and experience that. And yeah, I think that's what I would do because you can always keep riding the old road bike. Yeah, I would say over a 70.3, a TT bike versus a road bike could be like 20 minutes. It's so much faster. It's shockingly so much faster, especially if you fit well on it and you have an arrow helmet and you... And it has a lot of them have hydration integrated and places to store your food integrated. Yeah, they're kind of built specifically for that.

It's all about speed. I have to say, my personal feeling of like being on a triathlon bike, a triathlon-specific bike, it really feels different and it feels more purpose driven when I'm on it. It kind of excites me in that way. And when I'm racing on it, it also gives me that extra little bit of motivation that I feel like. I'm as dialed in as I can be. Yeah, yeah. Yep. So hopefully that helps you a little bit, Andy.

Next question is from Melissa. First, good luck in Collins Cup, Paula. I've been a big fan of follower for a while, so you guys are super inspiring and seem really down to earth. Love it. Main question is about power meters. I hear you that it's a great training tool, and I would love to buy one.

I'm just not sure what to do with the data or how to train with it to become a better cyclist. Ideally, I would have a coach that would guide me and give me work, workouts, but that just isn't a long-term option for me or my family because of the money. Any guidance on what to do with the data would be great. I do have a smart trainer that I ride in the winter and can get training plans from trainer road, etc. But I'd love to be more self-sufficient and prefer riding outdoors. So any help with what to do with the numbers or how to come up

with workouts to get stronger would be great. I just wanted to maybe first give my little input on this because you guys both do have a coach. I feel like this is a neat question since we're coached. So let me first of all say, I love Trainor Road. I've never actually used a product, but I love their podcast. And I know from listening to the podcast that all their plans now, you can actually do them outdoors. So the point of a power meter is to be used in harmony with a training plan or a coach. So without it, it's a little bit hard without reading books or having an extensive knowledge about what to do with those numbers. So a tool like Trainor Road or any training plan that you have on training peaks or anything else

is that you can base your training zones off of percentages of, let's say, your FTP. So by itself, I don't think anyone expects you to be able to do much with those numbers. But with Trainer Road, you know, once you do a ramp test and you get that number, it'll all be based on percentages of that number. So you shouldn't be having to do any of that math yourself. You just go out on a training session and it says five times five minutes at this watts and then recover for two minutes. And you just try to see if you can do that.

That's the whole point of it. I think the important part there is getting the baseline, like you said, of your FTP so that you can base, or your program that you're using can base the workouts off of that number. So basically it's just giving you a goal or a target to hit outside that's not just an arbitrary feeling of going hard. So say your FTPs 200 watts and it's going to tell you specifically to go do five by five minutes at 190 watts or something like that. you're just like looking at a number, knowing if you're executing the thing. Oh, Chimmy. Chimmy just popped into frame with obviously something in her mouth.

Chimmy is Lindsay Corbyn's and Chris Corbyn's dog. And Eric's taking care of her this week. This is the salmon. Yeah. But I think that was a pretty comprehensive answer. It is a good question. Like, okay, so I have this power meter, now what? Totally.

Like, what is a watt? I don't know what a lot is. Yeah, and you're not supposed to, really. Yeah, it's a very, it's the kind of thing. you learn to understand what watts are. Even like when you have one and you go and do a race with it, you're like, okay, those are my race watts, there's my baseline. I'm going to try to improve that next time.

You really do got to crush those FTP tests to get the rest of it in line, like Paula said. That's important. Next question is from, I'm going to try to say in Italian here, but Anko Octavec, she's definitely not Italian. He said, hey, T, T, Lach, spelled N, N, J, and then S with a little Slavic accent over it. Eric, you have mentioned on numerous occasions that you don't watch any other try YouTube channels. Curious to hear what you have on your top five YouTube slash Instagram non-triathlon channels that you enjoy. Thanks, stay cool, guys.

I kept this one in here, Eric, so you can give a little, I guess, shout out to channels that you like. I got to be first, be fair to triathlon YouTube channels. I'm just a little burned out on YouTube content in general right now. I just feel like there's so much out there. and it's like trying to pick out a show to watch on Netflix. It's the same thing, like the burden of, okay, do I want to commit to this or not? And, like, you know, I don't know. But this goes back ways.

Their library goes back and I haven't watched their channel for a while. But the people that, like, really inspired me, there were two channels that inspired me to go full-time, full-time being weekly videos. One of them is Aymann and Beck. and they lived in a sprinter van and did travel videos and they were just like so much fun to watch. Paula and I both got into watching them together

and like watching them. It made me think they seem so natural with this. Like it's not insane production value, but they're just fun and it seems like if I, if we shoot that way, we could do that once a week. And then there was this other, do you remember what they're called? Jorge and Jessica,

they had a Volkswagen Synchro. Yeah. Wait, that was when you said, Me, I think. So the other channel, which probably even more so, perhaps, just based on their style, was live, work, wander. And that's this couple, Jorge and Jessica, who have a Volkswagen synchro van that breaks down constantly. And they've since moved on. Wow.

They've since moved on to a better vehicle. But their stuff was just so fun. Like, the guy, Jorge, just, like, had these hysterical little quips and just, like, this great sense of humor. and they've toured around and did fun stuff. And the combination of those two channels really kind of like kicked me into thinking that I could do like a weekly show. And then outside of that, I just like kind of bounced around between different films that I see.

There's this guy Torin Martin, whose brand is Need Essentials. He has fantastic surf videos on YouTube. They're like legitimate films. Yeah. And Eric, you just like, you'll constantly send me like some cool little clips of stuff. It's usually, well, it's never really triathlon, but it's like some kind of extreme sport thing that we're both into. Anything that Brandon Semenuk puts out, I will like clear my schedule, go to the upstairs TV with the music, watch it over and over again and like look at it shot by shot by shot and analyze it.

Just for like, how does this put together? How is this edited? Right. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, that's it. That's it. Then the one last guilty pleasure that I have, and I got kind of fall in and out of being

able to make it through an entire episode is this crew called Matt's Offroad Recovery that's in Hurricane, Utah, and it's literally like a bunch of dudes who have an auto body shop and a four-wheel drive recovery team. Like if you get stuck in the sand in St. George, they're coming to pull you out. And it's like, we just rolled up this 20-foot bus, and we're going to hook a rope here and a rope here around this tree and we'll get them out, you know, and just will they succeed or not? It's, it's so basic, all shot on GoPros, but super entertaining.

It's super entertaining. It's unnaturally entertaining. Like, for some people. Oh, I think it's great. I've watched a bunch of them too on Eric's recommendations. I don't know a single guy who hasn't watched one of their videos. Exactly. It might be more of a guy.

It might be more of a guy show. So technically we have three questions, but I'm just going to do these really fast. I'm not going to read them. The first question is, if someone is in front of you, but they're zigzagging a bit, versus you could think you could swim a straighter line. Should you stay on their feet, or should you try to do your own line? I'm thinking, like, we all zigzag a bit. You just notice the person in front of you zigzagging.

You're probably still saving time and energy by staying on their feet. But you guys tell me what you would do. Eric's perfectly straight. I don't zigzag and I don't sit on feet. So next question. No, no, no. But like I'll get a little bit of a thing. feel for it. Like if this person is zigzagging every two strokes, then you just kind of like,

whatever, I maintain a straight line. But if they're like, it's a hard thing and I'm on the limit trying to stay with them, then you kind of just got to roll with it. Yeah, cool. That was from Eric with a K though. A lot of people think Eric Lagerstrom is spelled with a K. It is not folks spelled with the C. And then this is, this next question is from Jules. And she's pointing out that it's, she's noticing that when she watches these pro triathlon races, when they have like the drone or heli footage, she's noticing that a lot of these pros aren't kicking a lot. Nope. So compared to maybe a lot of age groupers who do kick a lot. So she says, I'm not sure if it's just the camera angles, but it looks like the pros focus more on armstrokes than kicking. I'm assuming this has to do with the other

two disciplines being very leg focused and it's an attempt to conserve some energy. I'd love to know more because coming from a strictly swimming background, kicking is a major part of that speed. Thanks for everything you do. So it's true. I think swimming, in a pure swimming world, kicking is a lot more important, especially if you have a wetsuit swimming triathlon,

your legs are kind of just floating there. And I use it as a counterbalance, but I'm not consciously kicking really hard, except for at the start of the race when you're actually sprinting to try to get out fast. Yep. But otherwise, it's kind of just a two-beat kick. kick and then just I don't know if that's because there's two other really like dominant sports

coming up or not but it's kind of just the nature of how but it depends who you're watching because if you watch like Katie Ladeke when she's doing her long stuff like those legs are just doing nothing until the very end very very low kick yeah but she's also doing super distance freestyle that's what I mean I think she's saying coming from a swimming background because they're at least just racing hundreds and two hundreds for some triathlon we don't have swims that are that Right. If you add a bunch of triathletes racing at 200, they're going to be kicking. Oh, they'll be kicking. Yeah. So I think it's just the nature of distance swim. Yep. Totally agree. Yeah. And it's not even necessarily about like saving your legs. It's just total energy expenditure.

It's like it's just not worth it. Yeah. I don't remember what the exact statistic is, but it's something like 80% of your propulsion comes from your arms and 20% comes from your legs. But like increasing leg, like the efficiency of your legs is like the inverse of that. Right. Do you feel like it's 80-20? I would have thought it was like at least 90-10. Like, I feel like such little propulsion comes from my legs. You're a terrible, terrible. It depends how. It depends on a terrible, terrible, terrible kick.

But like, Eric's not an especially good kicker, but he's a really fast swimmer. Yeah. The two-beat kick, just for that snap is really, like, going to be the biggest bang for your buck. In fact, a lot of people are faster with a pull boy because you take the leg sink aspect out of it. Yeah. So, and it takes your... heart rate down because kicking does... I'm barely slower with the pull buoy and I definitely feel like I'm not working as hard.

Yeah. So people use it as crutch sometimes. Yeah. Not naming any names. She's staring right at me, by the way. One more thing about kicking, I do think that it's still worthwhile to do some kicking in the pool with a kickboard as like a recovery. Like I find when we do some kick sets like 25s or 50s or even some fast 25s kick,

it really does flush your legs out to do that very focus specific. drill almost, but you're not really doing it to, like, improve your kicking. You're doing it to... I never considered that. That's interesting. So we don't do it a lot, but it is definitely, like, on our workout sometimes to do kick. I always feel like my core is more activated when I do some kicking in the warm up. Stuff like that. Can I, can I throw in one question that I got via Instagram that I thought was kind of interesting? Yeah, 100% Eric, please. Wow, Eric. It's a little late, but it was off the back of my ex-tera. Actually, two different people asked me about this. Like, If you're in an Xtera and you come up on somebody that's going slower than you,

what's the deal? Like on a narrow trail? Are you, like, do they have to get out of your way? Do you just, like, storm by them? Like, what's the protocol and everything? Which was, like, with the major question that I had coming into Xtera as well. And the answer to it is just that you kind of have to play it by ear. If you come up on somebody super fast and you tell them you're coming and everything,

Like most of the time, I think people are pretty courteous and they'll get out of the way. If you just barely creep up on somebody, I think you tell them that you're there and you give them like a full minute probably to find a spot in the trail that's easy to get out of the way that doesn't, you know, like cause them to come to a stop and everybody has to stop. But if it's gone long longer than that, then I think it is in your right to like start to get angry at them. Just be sure that if you're making that pass, you're going to make it stick because then that person having to come back by you is pretty annoying. So it's not like the drivers on the California highways. Everyone's pretty chill. How dare you? We got cut off today like super bad.

And Nick was just like, He! So wait, I laid on the horn for like six seconds. Was this in the Tesla? It was, but he like fully did not see and came into the land. Like if I didn't break, he would have clipped the front of my car. So did you break or did the Tesla break? I break.

Okay, because I still like, I was just thinking about this the other day. I don't know why it pops into my head every once in a while, but our coach talking about how hysterical he thinks it is to cut off Tesla's in California because he's like, don't have to break for you. It's hysterical. They literally have to slow down as a sociopath. Yeah, no, I don't remember what was happening. No, but I think I clearly hit the brakes.

Yeah, I was in the freeway, so I'm assuming it was driving itself. But, yeah, it was this guy, and he did not care at all. I'm pretty sure he couldn't even hear me laying on the horn. He's just in his own world. Yeah, I get anxiety. To wrap it up, Paula's here. We're going to go swim tomorrow morning in the ocean real early. And then she's going to fly back to Bend and be with Sweet Eric tomorrow night.

Yeah, I haven't seen Eric for 10 days. I was only away from Nick for seven days. And I haven't seen Eric for 10 days. Sorry. Excited to get back to Bend. It's kind of wild to do a big trip like that to Europe. And when I was leaving Bend, I was like, oh, I can't even fathom returning here. Like, there's so much to do between now and then.

So it's kind of crazy that it's all. come and happen and went really well. The travel was smooth. Only one bite got broken. It was just like... You went with one bike, you come back with 1.98. Yeah, I guess I'm not even going to open that.

I bubble wrapped it so botched on the way back. I think it's fine. Good. But we'll see. But still, don't buy a Saigon. Don't buy a Saigon. Nothing stops a hammer, like bubble wrapped, folks. Yeah, nothing stops a big Slovakian guy

from standing on your bike like Okay, okay, okay, okay. Awesome. Well, thank you guys for listening. We'll be back next week with more just straight up questions. We have too much fun on this podcast. This is the best visuals.

Large Zilokian man jumping up. How strong east back? I'm going to try to push it into the airplane. That's right. That's right. Well, we will see you guys next week. This has been awesome. Thanks.

Bye. Bye. Bye, guys. I'm