That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula wins IRONMAN 70.3 Augusta, how to spend $2,000, and more!

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

This week we catch up on Team TTL updates, congratulate John Reed on his podium finish at WTCS, and hear Paula’s race recap after her win at IRONMAN 70.3 Augusta. After catching up, we dive into listener-submitted questions. This week we discuss:Where to place your mind when leading up to a new eventThe fun way to spend $2,000 a year in triathlonRemco, and how to deal with emotions when things go wrong during a raceOptimizing for comfortable sleepWhen to schedule your next IRONMAN if you feel like you didn’t give it your allA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey, everyone, welcome to That Traathlon Life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstein. And you have stumbled into the audio component of That Traathlon Life. Welcome. Paul and I are both professional athletes. Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlet, sound master behind this podcast. And we love talking about trathlon. You're going to hear a little bit of what's going on in our trathlon journey. Paula raced last weekend. We had some big stuff going to be. And we love talking about trathlon. You're going to hear a little bit of what's going on in our trathon journey. Journey, Paula raced last weekend. We had some big stuff going on in the sphere of TTL. And yeah, then most of the show is made up from questions that are sent in by the listeners. Thank you very much. If you do that, we appreciate you so much. We've had an especially good batch of questions the last few weeks.

I agree. They've been really good. I haven't left many out, Nick, of the ones I send you. Something is in the air, creativity and thoughtfulness. Also, we never mentioned on the intro that we're married. Paul and I are both married, which is, yeah, I guess that is important. That is really thickens the plot. We're married and Nick is our boyfriend.

Yeah, this is not a three-way marriage. Nick is our third wheel. I'm like a, I'm a mistress to both of you. Yeah, exactly. He's my boyfriend and he's Eric's boyfriend. So, Eric's my husband. And Flynn's uncle? Yes.

Somehow. Yeah. So if you're curious on some of the backstory of all of that, we have a prolific YouTube channel. We put up episode a day for nearly three years on there. We've slowed down a little bit. Actually a week, not a day. An episode of week, sorry. It felt like a day. As the one who

was shooting and editing it. But yeah, we've slowed down a little bit now. We've put up some films on there. We do this podcast every week. We have, I would say, the coolest casual apparel in multi-sport. And we just, we love

doing fun stuff and love enriching the triathlon community as much as we can. So welcome, everybody. And speaking of that, I feel like, I mean, I don't know, I don't want to give away too much, but entries for Team TTL are now closed. Yep. The, what do we call them, not entries?

The applications. Applications. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, we haven't been super secretive about the fact that we're not going to be kicking out a whole bunch of people. We're going to keep an eye out for anybody who doesn't fit with the ethos that we've built here at TTL.

But for the most part, We want people who are on board with, like we said, you know, making the triathlon space and just a multi-sport space in general. Like we're all in the trail running and mountain bike and Xera and whatever you do that pushes you to be able to better you every day. We're here for it. And if you want to help put out good vibes into the universe, we would love to have you part of the team. Except for if you're listening to this and you haven't applied, it's too late.

Better look next year. I don't know the date that this is coming out on, but our goal. is to send the second. Okay, so the day after this comes out, if we're on track, we will be sending on email to everybody who applied with a, you're in or not. And then we'll be opening up the team store and all the goodness will start happening. So the wait is almost over. Also, speaking of other branches of TTL, Eric, you and I put out a film in April and we put it on YouTube for free. And it is nearing 100,000 views. And we did zero ad money for this film. This was all hype and, you know, I'm sure certainly a lot of people who listen to the podcast watched it and shared it.

And we're super appreciative of that. But we're almost there. Yeah. Yeah, it was a, it was a stretch goal for us to 100,000 views. It's a long thing. It's almost an hour. So that's no small feat. And I think we've gotten a lot of very touching messages from people that it impacted them. And inspired them to do something or another. So if you haven't watched it yet, we are 3,000 views away from hitting 100,000 views and we are going to do, we've got some, we've been throwing around some fun ideas for things that we would do to commemorate the occasion. Yeah. And then last thing before we get to the meat of what we do here is that John Reed once again had a great result. And just for everyone to remember, when John Reed first became a

TTL development team athlete. Of course there was potential there, but he was not, well, I don't want to give away what happened this weekend. So I'll let Eric, tell us what happened. Yeah. If you're not aware, we sponsor some athletes. It's called the TTL development team.

We've been doing it for three years now. John's been on the team for two years. And has just, I think we could, we could at this point call it the TTL talent identification program. Because we've had some extremely prolific athletes. come through, which is the mission behind it, you know, from the beginning, is we just wanted to help people get a little bit of a running start in their careers. But he got on the podium at WTCS, I think it's pronounced way high, which is in China.

Yeah. Which is, I don't know really how to explain the significance of a WTCS podium. It's, it's somewhere between like a 70.3 world championship and like a T-100 and like a regional championship of 70.3, I would say. Like, probably more than a regional championship, but I've never done it. I've never been even close. My best result at a WTCS, yeah, my best result at a WTCS level race was 15th place. And I was very, very close to making the Olympic team.

That's what I was going to say. For people, for context, Eric, you were an alternative for the Olympic team and you've won several 70.3s. Yeah. And I've never even been close to this level. sold. So it's a pretty big deal. Paula, how about you? You guys are just setting me up to brag. We can brag for you if you want. Paula has has won this level of race before. She's won five times at that level. Yeah. I've won five WTSS's you guys. Yeah. That's pretty good. That is not

necessarily help with how we're trying to build this up for hype wise, but Paula was at the time the gold medal favorite for the Olympics. So this is a big deal to be on a podium. No, it's really cool. And a huge shout-out to John and also in Augusta 70.3, Lydia Russell was on the podium and third. Yeah. And I just got to share the podium with her. So that was cool as well to have a TTL kit. It was a major moment of pride for us to have Paula and a development team athlete on this same podium got quite a few messages about it. It was really exciting. Success of the project. Okay. So speaking of Augusta, Paula, you, You went to this race because you've raced here before.

And, I mean, was there a reason other than you thinking you could do well at this race that you did it? Was there any part of you that wanted to get a rep in before your upcoming races? Yeah, I basically wanted to do one more race before 70.3 worlds without traveling to Europe, without travel in Australia. And there's not a lot of options in the U.S. for a race to do in the next six weeks. So put that on the schedule. And I don't want to sound ungrateful or like I don't appreciate winning. But looking back, I think it was maybe not the right call.

Like I didn't fully feel like I was, yeah, back from France and backup training super healthy and well before I like took off on an airplane. And I don't know. Once I sign up for a race and book the tickets and, you know, organize the whole thing, It's really hard for me to make a last-minute call to change my mind. So I went through with it. I went there. I was not feeling good all week in training, and the trip is long and big time change and stuff. So my sleep wasn't good.

But I was there going through the motions and still believed I could win. And I did ultimately win, but it's a weird feeling to come away from a race feeling like, yeah, I won. but that felt so bad and it probably was not a smart idea. I feel like from my perspective, it would have been ideal if this was maybe like two weeks later, but there's just nothing on the schedule between now and worlds? I don't know. I mean, I really like that I did that race.

I won it. I definitely got a fitness boost from doing it. And now I have a full month at home of uninterrupted training and being consistent before we fly to Marbea. So from that side of things, it does feel good. And I'm trying not to be overly critical of myself because as I look back on my season, I've won every single 70.3 that I've started. I've podiumed at a T-100.

Like if you told me at the start of the year, this is what my year would look like so far. I'd be super, super happy about it. But I finish every race and I think about like every single detail that went wrong. And it just brings like this wave of doubt. So it almost is like, yes, I won this race, but I come out of it feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm not even close to where I need to be to race well in Marbea. I just am being super critical of myself. So it's probably just like thing I need to work on in my brain more than anything. But that's kind of where I'm at with it.

And it's, I know crossing the finish line, I looked like unhappy. But I was so depleted at the end of that race. and I haven't had to dig that deep just to finish at any other race this year. So I don't know if it was the humidity or just, like I said, I wasn't feeling good from the start. So it was a real mental battle to get through that run and continue to push on with not a lot of feedback or splits on course about where anyone else was since I was there without Eric. So I was so tempted to stop. I just I can't explain how shitty I. felt. But I told myself on the run. I know this, maybe I shouldn't even say this out loud,

but I'm like, as soon as I get caught, I'm going to stop. And it's not because I only want there to win. I went there and I thought like, I feel like by running, I'm doing further damage to my body right now. Like, I was, my hip was a bit sore and I was like. And your mind, you told me you burned matches. Yeah, I burned some matches for sure. So, but yeah, for the 10K,000. turn around, I had minutes on people and I had to get back anyway. So I'm like, okay, let's just see what I can do pushing back on the last 10K. It was a net downhill and real death march the last couple miles. But it is fun when you're heading back on an out and back course and there's so many age groupers heading out and they're all screaming my name. That's the greatest thing about 70.3

racing to me. And it helps. so much because when you're heading out it's so quiet like there's no one really out there yet and you're just listening to your own breathing and then the lead bike guy behind me was being super nice but um it's very lonely and then coming back when you start to feel the hype of the other racers it it really adds to the vibe in a good way so um that's my positive take on the run but the most part it was it's quite awful i mean i had to go to the medical tent after i've never had to do that i felt like lightheaded tingly, just like, um, bad sensations. Yeah.

I feel like we've answered or had questions about this before on the podcast where people are like, do you think that this is enough time to get ready for a race of this distance? And, you know, as you're going into something like this, you know, beforehand, Paula knew that she was going to train through this and she knew that she might not feel the best. And she knew it, you know, it's. I was expecting not to feel great. But then it's so hard to like keep that in mind once you're in the event and the killer mindset kicks in

and you want to feel good in the race to like remember that conversation and the expectations that you had prior. So it's like that's almost more of the answer when you know somebody writes and it says, do you think three months is enough to get ready for a 70.3? It's like well, will feeling wildly uncomfortable through this experience be an enjoyable thing for you

or are you like okay with just finishing and the discomfort isn't going to like impact your enjoyment of the sport in general? So just like keeping that in mind, I guess. Yeah, it's a little bit hard to explain because 70.3s are never easy. I've never done one that has felt easy. I've never, you know, got to the finish line thinking, yeah, that was all like 100% enjoyable the entire time. But usually when you go into a race tapered and fresh, the watts you can do, the paces you can run come more easily than they would in training or than they normally would. And then you can sustain it for the entire four hours.

So it was just weird to be like, okay, surge to 300 watts over this hill and I do it. And at the end of the hill, I'm like, I need a five-minute break, you know, instead of just getting your heart rate back down pretty quickly and then continuing on with race watts, that was the difference for me. It was the effort that I'm used to putting out in a race. felt like rate of perceived exertion 50% higher than it usually does. Yeah. So it was a bit foreign to me.

Plus I think like racing in humid environments like that, I didn't do any heat prep at all. So not to make excuses, but this is just how, this is what made it hard for me. Did you do less of a taper this time where did you train a little more straight through? Yeah, yeah. I did a hard workout Monday, Tuesday, traveled Wednesday. day. Yeah. So I didn't really take her.

Personally, I feel like this has absolutely no impact on your Marbea. This is just like this was a hard week and you were not feeling good. It was the first thing you said to me when I talked to you was like I was not feeling good. I did not feel strong the whole day. And you mentioned that you were just like toying with the idea of not even finishing. But I'm curious if you were to guess, and I don't know if you've already looked at this, but the T100 PTO points that you got for this race, how it compares to the rest of your races this year.

I wonder if you look at that. Oh, it's lower, but the strength of field was low. I see. It's not a performance thing necessarily. I see, I see. You don't think it's an accurate representation of how you actually race. Like it doesn't average. Oh, it was 100% my lowest level performance of the year so far,

but there's a lot of numbers that go into those calculations. one of them being the strength of field. So I wasn't expecting to go to Augusta and come out with my highest T-100 score. Yeah, that was not the point. I think that would have been worse. That would be scary for me if I were an athlete. I'm like, uh-oh, this is happening at the wrong time. You know, like this needs to happen in a month.

Oh, yeah, I do have one little funny story. I was opening a, I was like, the least I can do feeling like dog shit is like take a gel every 20 minutes. Like practice your nutrition. Yeah. Just eat a lot. Try that out for once. Wait. And it's still, man, that's so interesting.

And it still didn't turn it around for you. No, but and also after the race, you can take this out. But I opened up a caffeinated gel. And as I was ripping it open, I think I was like squeezing it. And it gushed all over my face in my eyeballs, all over my visor. And so not into my mouth. But that was less of the concern. I was more like, oh, my eyeball is burning.

And I have goop all over my visor. Right. And it was already quite foggy, and the visor was, like, not easy to see out of to begin with. And I had, you know, like calories in my bottle, so it's not like I could just, like, hose it off with my bottle. Right. So I made the stupid decision of trying to rub it off with my hand. And then it was just as if you'd take it like dish sew. and smeared it all over your visor.

And I'm like, there is 100% no way that I can continue riding in this state. Right. So I had to take the visor, rip it off the helmet, because it has like... Presby it to a volunteer. It's not the kind of visor that magnets on and off. In fact, it was super glued because it had broken in France. So it was like extra hard to pull off. And then when you take it off, I couldn't discard it because I'd

I'd get a littering penalty. I couldn't shove it down my kit because then I get a penalty for that. So I tried to shove it down like my back pocket in my Castelli jersey, which sort of worked, but it was basically a sale. Yeah, it's just like catching wind, right? It's like a little arm coming out. Ridiculous. I mean, at this point, I was so not into it that I didn't care how slow I was going.

I had surrendered to like riding with two other people and I was just like get me to transition. But then when we did get to the last aid station, I threw it in the direction of a volunteer, and I was like, please bring this to the finish line. Zero chance. Not in a million years was that going to happen. Yeah, I've never seen that thing again. You did get it back after T100, like, visa that one time. T100 is totally different.

The aid station in Marbea, or in Miami was like three meters from the finish line, but this was way out in a field in the middle of nowhere. So I need a new TT helmet. Yep. At least a new visor. Anything else funny? Anything else funny that happened? It looked like he had a really fun time with our good friend and training partner here in band, Adele.

Saw a picture of her going into a grocery store with her race kit on. The highlight of the trip was traveling with my friend Adele who came forth. Does she listen to this, by the way? I don't think she listens to the podcast. Unlikely. Yeah. She's a redhead, though. She was a rower in college And she's kind of like up and coming and doing really well

But she was super fun to travel with Very easygoing A very, very nice couple in TTL Nation reached out to us and offered us their home For the weekend in Augusta So they were racing Iron Man Chattanooga House was empty Beautiful house, super comfortable

We had a kitchen, a garage Like seriously that was the nicest thing ever for us to have that for the weekend. And then, yeah, traveling with Adele was super fun. So there were some positives. Well, yeah, you also won. That's another positive. Yeah, it's so weird to me.

I've never won a race and felt this whatever about it. I'm almost embarrassed about it. I'm like, God, just be happy for five minutes. I know. What is that? No, it's, you make such a good point. And then I tell myself, like, okay, at this point, in your career, if you're winning races and you're not happy about it, you need to stop racing.

So, guys, I'm quitting. This is it. It's happening right now. My comeback starts now. Yeah, Eric, you better start racing. I'm building up to TZ bike. No, another thing I was thinking about is like, it's actually really hard. And I don't want this to come across as being arrogant.

And we could even take this out. But it's really hard to go into a race where it's like, I had to win. And so when I'm suddenly in a position where, shit, I might not win. Yes. It's really freaking hard mentally to get over that. And it's like from the outside, it's this expectation that I thought I could definitely live up to. And I was nervous, of course, just because like racing is hard. But when that position of winning this race that I'm like heavily favored to win is jeopardized, it's a very strange feeling.

And it's not like a T-100 where you're having a bad day, but everyone in front of you is like a world champion. Yeah. You know, it's a different expectation. So we can take that out if it sounds too rocky. No, I don't think so. I think it's, no, I think that's phenomenal. I had this exact conversation with my parents. They asked me if you were happy.

And I was like, I don't know if I would call her happy that she won. And they're like, well, why? I was like, well, this is exact reason. She's just expected to win. Everyone thinks she's going to win. And so what do you do? You go there and you meet expectations. and then on top of that, you feel bad doing it,

and now you might not even win. That's a scary, that is scary. Yeah, but it's an insane, it's an insane thing to think, I can't, yeah. Yeah, like the best you can do is meet expectations. Yeah, versus out of T-100,

the best you can, like, there is actual upside of something that you haven't accomplished. Yeah, coming second in France was like, amazing. I was super stoked on that. Way beyond what I thought. could do. What a, I don't know, is this a paradox? What a conundrum of stacked races versus not stacked races. But I bring it on myself because I'm like, I want to go to some races that are not super stacked so that I can have some wins, you know? So it's my own fault. And then it would

have been a different story if I'd gone and, you know, was in the lead the whole time and felt great. Right. Well, I wonder if you being like this, which is to say almost like never satisfied and always wanting more. I wonder if that's kind of a necessity to your success. If a version of you was born without that, maybe you just would not be this great of an athlete. Like, unfortunately, it does lead you to train harder, to race harder, to do better.

Yeah. I think so. That was my race recap. It wasn't even a race recap, but I did tell you about the gel on my... We care more about this stuff than the nitty-great details. The takeaways are so much more important than what pace you ran for the third kilometer. Oh, my watch didn't connect, so I was running, I didn't try that hard to get it to connect because I was like, I'd rather just not know what I'm running.

And I also am not finishing, so I don't care. Right, right. But now that I finished, I kind of want to know like what my splits were. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Yeah, unfortunately, and I think people who have raced before know this, but the Iron Man splits are extremely inaccurate. Yeah, but when I felt like I was literally jogging up to the turnaround point, and it was net uphill, just like that horrible grindy feeling where you're not moving anymore. And then when I flipped at 10K and saw I had really big gaps and it was a net downhill, that gave me a bit of mojo to be able to be like roll a bit.

So anyway, I wish I could look back at my splits for that, but it doesn't matter at the end of the day. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, thank you, Paul for that. And thank you for suffering through and racing. And I hope next time someone's out there and feeling the same, they're like, okay, Paula did it. She finished. I can do this.

Not that we should really be comparing ourselves to Paula. But still proud of you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. We're going to do some questions now. These are questions sent in from the listeners of this podcast. You know what?

No, this is stupid. I just think it's funny. We've never had to make up a question. Like, we've always had a steady stream of questions. We've never won podcast, not had to pull from anything else. No, I remember talking, but, you know, we're like, okay, so pretty quickly we're going to run out of questions and we're going to have to like plant some. Should we just like make up some? Never have.

Never have. Never have. Yeah, yep, never have. So you can submit your questions to the podcast at that triathlon life.com slash podcast where you can also become a podcast supporter. On the website there, we also have a lot of really sweet stuff. Everything that we make is super high quality. It's not all training stuff. In fact, it's mostly not.

It's more lifestyle stuff. You can check that out. And you can also become a podcast supporter there. We have never really officially done an ad for this podcast. And the way to directly support the podcast is through being a podcast supporter. And we also send out some fun little extra perks like we will this week. For example, we're going to send you a little video of one of the questions. Whoa.

A little video of one of the questions. News to me, I guess I'll put on pants. Eric, actually, I really like your shirt right now. What is it? It's the official hoax. Western States crew issue t-shirt. We crewed Heather Jackson at Western States. Nice.

Represent. Yeah, but anyway, we would really appreciate the podcast supporters. It's a super generous thing. Another way to help with the podcast is sharing it with your friends. Leave a review on Spotify and iTunes. We love those. Only good reviews. Yeah, if you have a bad review, just message me directly.

Yeah, go leave a bad review on someone else's podcast to just get it out of your system. Okay. First question here is from Ben. Hi, I just sign up for Otelo, Austin, because of the last week's podcast. Never heard of swim run before, but now I'm so excited about it. This is so ridiculous. Heck yeah. Can we get like an affiliate code?

I should seriously be getting like a little royalty on signups for this. Yeah, I think you should. My question is for anything new like a swim run or even a new course like T100 French Riviera for Paula. What are you thinking about leading up to that race? Or are you just replaying all the training and prep you've done? is your mind blank just ready to go, etc. Ben. So I feel like maybe all three of us should answer this in our own way. So, Eric, let's start with you.

I think it might be different for different personality types. It might be different questions. Well, I was definitely very focused on the equipment and making sure that in this new thing that I had the correct equipment, like was my suit going to be warm enough or too hot and did I need to wear the arm warmers? and could I actually execute the transitions from swim to run and, you know, run back to swim? But then I was not really concerned about the training required had I done enough training, but I did trust myself to like pace properly, just don't go out too fast.

And you have to have, I think what's something new, you have to have a little bit of trust in yourself that if things come up, you'll be able to handle it and problem solve because you're never going to have 100% of the answers. So I try to remind myself of that. Like, hey, you're good at figuring things out in the moment. Just focus on what's in front of you. Yeah, yeah, that's good. And that keeps you, do you think this is an intentional thing you do? Or is this what your brain naturally does?

You know, I'd say it naturally does it, but sometimes I do have to come back to it if I'm feeling a little bit more nervous. And then, you know, beyond that mental aspect, of course, just looking at the course and seeing trying to have a little bit of a grasp on like where's the what's the most challenging aspect of this course

and making sure that I have some energy for that if it's a big climb or you know for the swim run it was like where are the biggest swims oh they're in the back half just being mentally prepared for that and where and this climb is in the middle is going to be like this so make sure that I have gels

at the right time just like logistical things like that yeah okay Paula what about you when you are approaching a race where is your mind I feel like I've talked so much on this podcast. I think you should answer this one, Nick. Okay, well, most of my energy is to convince myself to not get overly nervous. I talk myself into staying calm because I can't

do anything other than, you know, the training I'm tapering already. And I've, in the past, had such negative experiences being so overly anxious that it ruins the race for me. It totally makes it not worth it. And in the last few years, I've been able to stay calmer and have some nerves, but just a more appropriate amount of nerves, and be able to enjoy the race. And if I'm feeling really fit, then I can actually really enjoy the race. The way I mostly enjoyed the Iron Man, for example. I actually liked that. As an example, my Iron Man. Did I mention that I've done an Iron Man? So yeah, that's for me. I mean, there's other stuff too, but I think that's the prevailing thought. I feel like what helps me with those nerves a little bit is, and you said this about

about Wisconsin, was like, I'm finishing. Like, first things first, not finishing is not an option. So like, what do I need to do to finish? And then what do I need to do, like process goals to feel like I executed this well versus your brain just going to like, oh, I want to win my age group. Or like this outcome based result. It's like, no, be proud of the processes that I executed. And you know, and finish. And then like the result should come. Yeah, yeah. I like that.

That's good. Break it down like that. So Paula, for example, like I think August is not a good race for this. I'm so resistant to answering this. I still don't know what the question is. The person basically asked like you're going into a race that you haven't done before, like T-100, what you can call it? French Riviera.

What were you thinking about? What was you more focused on to try to have a good race? Like, were you thinking about the course or were you just thinking about your nutrition? Or trying to distract yourself even. Or just not think about it. No, if I'm going into a race or an event or something I've never done before, I try to familiarize myself with it as much as I can beforehand because I do like to visualize myself doing it.

And it's why I think race better a lot of the time on races I've done before because I can go through sections of the course that I know. And I think I don't sit there and visualize with like meditation music on and like make it a thing. But I do visualize it even subconsciously, different parts of the course. So like for France, I wrote it several times before. And if I can't ride it before, I do the Strava live play and kind of like know where the hills are. And so just be as prepared, being as prepared as I can be for what's to come. Obviously, I've done the training, but then just having a little bit of knowledge of what to expect.

So that nothing really takes me by surprise and have. the right gearing and I have the right, you know, I know when I'm going to drink my bottles. And yeah, that helps a lot. When I started doing more of that, that's helped me with my anxiety a lot, too. It's being ultra-prepared. Yeah, it helps not even in just race day. It's like a day-to-day strategy, right? Yeah.

If you're prepared for the day and for what's to come and for what you have to do at work and for the meetings you have or for the tests you have to do at school, anxiety goes down. Yeah. It's like a life skill. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Well, thank you for the question. Ben. Next one here is from Mike. And coming out of the gates hot, all caps, what up TTL pod with three

exclamation marks. My wife and I have had this agreement. I get $2,000 a year of pure fun money, no strings attached. That's how I cover all my triathlon spending. My new year just started, so I've got a fresh 2K ready to roll. For reference, my ride is a 2011 tarmac SL3. Solid does what I needed to. I've got a wetsuit, kicker core, with the climb, plus a Garmin watch and a bike computer, and two pairs of fresh shoes, so I've already got a decent baseline setup. One caveat, if I make the TTL team,

I'll need to budget around $400 of that 2K. Now the real question, if you were me and only had $2,000 to upgrade your TT tri-gear, where would you put it? I'm making my wish list now, so help me dream a little, Mike. what do we think is a fun way to spend that? I love spending other people's money, by the way, so much. So this is a dream.

So I'm just assuming that you're like travel and accommodation for races is not that separate. Oh, not included. Because that would be, I mean, you're one race and you're done. Right. Right, right, right. So this is the toy budget? Just toys. Yeah, toys.

Yeah, okay, cool. No, we have that out of the way. Man, I don't know. The SL8, you're on the road budget. Yeah, but the $4,000 is not going to. Yeah. Okay, we need someone to, uh, offer up. Yes.

Mike. We need a $1,500, $50 TTI bike for our boy so he can still be on the TTL team. Oh, man, that's tough. Like we've said this before. You could theoretically like piece together a really, like an older Cervello like P2C, uh, T-T bike and just get yourself in the in the in the arrow position I think you could do this for

under 1500 bucks he's he's down to 1500 for his entire year of triathlon spending for toys for toys unless we sponsor him to be on the T T T TL team for free I think that's I mean we can't just do that for one person it's not fair no I know um my problem with having like a budget for something that I have a whole year to spend like for example I have a budget on the on website where I can buy things. And I hoard it because I don't want to, I'm like, what if I need something later? Of course. So I have a really hard time.

Yeah, Nick and his Mortons that he got from Christian and Gustav. Six years years ago. They're still going strong. Yeah, so if I had the 2000 and I was like going to be on the TTL team and like getting the kit, I would almost like save a little bit in case you want to

get something later in the year. I don't know. Also, in my opinion, it's not worth buying a $1,500 bike. That's going to be just as shitty as your 2011 tarmac. I know. This is a problem. We can dream.

Wait, you think it wouldn't be? 2011 bikes are fine. We're just saying if you could get on a TT bike. No, a $1,500 bike now is for sure nicer than the 2011. That's 14 years ago. Those bikes are like metal levers

with the cables coming straight out. I won my WTCS races. in 2011 on a beautiful S-Works. Really? They had cables, but they were gorgeous. Eric's looking it up. I see it.

It is pretty, but it is 0% arrow. You're thinking of like RIMbrake cables. 1980s, Nick. No, like, let's see here. Let's see this.

Any TTI bike would be a significant step up in aerodynamics. You're right. It's not bad. Okay, fine. It's not bad. Yeah, it looks not as archaic as I had in my head.

Yeah, exactly. It's totally fine. I still have my road bike that I rode in the Olympics in 2012 at my parents' house. Okay, here we go. I got on eBay a Cervillo P2, 2014, 51 centimeter with 11-speed Shimano 105 for $1,300. Okay, okay. We're moving, Mike. I think there's option.

I mean, that's like a. a solid two minutes on a 40K, easy, no problem. Okay, and then if you need any other single thing for the entire year, brace belt, too bad. You have to steal it. Jells, too bad. Mose some lawns are just, start on old neat fans, do a little hustle on the side. You know what? I think this is.

I think Mike had like sneakily asked this question to show to his wife, be like, see, babe, 2000's not enough. How we need an unrealistic 2000 is? I agree. I agree. I agree. Okay, but yeah, I don't know. I think that's how my brain works

as it goes for a big thing like that. And then I would beg borrow, steal a disc from somebody. Yeah, a disc would be fun too. Oh, this sport is so expensive. It's like, I was going to say buy a pair of new carbon shoes. $300. Oh, my, mine are, my, the S-Rex ones are $500.

No, I'm talking about running shoes. But yeah, then bike shoes too. Fresh pairs of shoes. so we're covered in a shoe category. He has shoes. He has shoes. There's definitely some people listening to this podcast that were born after that bike was made, Mike, which is wild. We applaud you for your, for your, you know, just, that's a very green choice to continue using a bike that one. It's not that bad of a bike, you guys.

It's barely different. Paula's going to race that bike in her next race. All we're saying is it's a road bike. We're not saying it's a bad bike. I was saying it was a bad bike and I'm, I stand corrected. I'm sure it's a fantastic bike. All right. Okay.

Next question here. is from Thomas or Thomas. Hello from Virginia. Oh, Thomas. Hello from Virginia's Blue Ridge. Remko seems to not handle in-race issues very well, and I'm wondering how you all deal with any issues that might impact you during a race, Thomas.

So what Thomas is referring to is there were world championships this weekend, and Remko was trying to win the race, and he had some mechanicals, and he just kind of loses his temper, and this is not the first time that he has lost his temper. He's very vocal when he's unhational. happy. So when this happens to you guys in a race, how do you deal with it, Eric and Paula? I don't know. I feel like triathlon and cycling are so different and that you don't have anybody to blame in triathlon versus in cycling. Like three mechanics have worked on your bike

and somebody's put gels in your bottle, attached to your bottle. Like there's so many people that have a hand in someone's performance. It's very easy to blame other people and to like slip into that mindset versus it's like, oh, my sealant and my tire didn't see it. Like, you needed to put better sealant in or, you know, it's like more self-reliance. I think Remco gets a lot of shit for being like this, but I also think it's unfair to be a fan on the side, enjoying cycling, and criticize someone who's the literal best in the world at what they're doing in an highly stressful world championship environment where they're trying to win for their behavior when something goes wrong that's out of their control.

It's only human nature to react in a frustrated manner. And of course, like some people are more gracious than others when they do this. But Remko's definitely not thinking like, I'm on TV right now. What is the like correct thing to do so that my image looks the best? You know, he's thinking, I want to win. This is impacting my ability to win. I am pissed. And he takes it out in a way where you see his memory.

and I don't know, I'm a fan of Remko, but I just don't like how he gets so heavily criticized for his attitude. Temper tantrums. Or his temper tantrums. Maybe he's a bit of a diva, but like that also is interesting. It makes cycling interesting. I guess I need to watch this. Oh, yeah.

He's like yelling and throwing his arms up in the air. Out of the side of the road waiting for the team car and just like yelling while he's still riding. Are there no radios at the World Championships? I don't know if they might not allow radios. Because in the Olympics there's not, maybe a world's there's not a radio. So he has a no way to talk to his car and say, I need a bike. I don't know the story of this particular instance,

but it's not an isolated thing. Yeah, his saddle slipped, I think, is what happened. But then didn't he get a new bike and the saddle was still off? And he was pissed about that one, and he went back to the original bike. And then still got second, by the way. Yeah, that's the crazy thing. He still had a great race.

I watched him waiting for like 90 seconds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, of course, Taday is going to react if he catches him, but still a really, really good day for Remko, I think. And the way he destroyed the TT. I guess I just look at athlete performances, and I'm like, that's amazing, I'm inspired. Yeah.

And I don't pay as much attention to the temper tantrums. But the other thing is, like, these broadcasting, real creating entities, are all over that shit. And they're just like putting it all over the internet. Of course. And it's just like a snippet in time of his six-hour race. And it's a little bit unfair. He has no control over what's shared.

But it obviously does have control over his actions. Yeah. I guess that's what I would say is that it's very impressive when someone is able to keep their shit under control. And we applaud that. But then we equally tear someone down when they don't. Like, okay, what is the baseline expectation here? Well, this is my question is, is it the same person that freaks out when something goes wrong?

Isn't that the same person that crossing the finish line of the Olympics stops right after the line, puts his bike in front of him, and puts and hangs up the phone? You know, like, that's, massive diva. Yeah. I mean, like that, and we love that. Yeah. So it's just like, hey, this is what you get. Yeah, you want the emotions or you want everybody to be robots. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. I want the emotions. Yeah, we want the emotions. Of course. Hello, TTL. That's us. And it shows he cares so much about it, obviously. Of course.

Okay, next question here. And this is going to be our question for a podcast supporter. So we're going to read it out loud on the podcast, and then if you're a supporter, check your email, and you'll get it in video form. Hi, folks, love the pod, but my favorite media from TTL is the videos, always excited when they come out.

I've been loving the Lifetime Grand Prix races, and I'm wondering, if you could put together a six race series with six different triathlons, could be short or long course, draft or non, off-road, etc. What six would you pick? Thanks. Casey from Banff, now living in Nelson.

This is cool. I love it. Okay, we're going to answer this. If you're a podcast supporter, you're welcome. If you're not, you better be a podcast supporter the next time we do this. Well, hopefully you enjoyed that crazy tangent, long-form video that we will have for our podcast supporters. And we're going to get back to the regular podcast now. Holy moly.

Holy moly. That might have been our best. That was long. It may feel like we were only gone for a split second, but that was long. That was like 20 minutes. That was very long. Yeah. It was a 20-minute tangent.

Okay. This one is from Brandon. Hi, Eric, Paula, Nick. I feel that as athletes with bodies constantly under stress, you've had to have developed some techniques for optimizing comfortable sleep that keeps away hip and back pain and allows good sleep overall. Any pro tips on sleeping? Backside sleeping temporarily, pillows for hip alignment.

etc. P.S. congrats on the Iron Man Nick. Thanks, Brandon. Really appreciate that. Well, first of all, I want to point out that a couple years ago, or I don't know, a year or two ago, we did the TTL Sleep Challenge. Oh, yeah. Remember that? Yeah. And I think there's a jingle, too, actually. And we had some criteria that we decided would potentially help us sleep. and I don't remember your guys' results, but my results were unequivocally. My sleep was improved, according to my watch and my aura ring. It was the best I've ever had. Best week of sleep I have ever had since I've owned the devices.

And the things were, we went to sleep at the same exact time every night, no screens 30 minutes before bed. We took magnesium, I think, before going to sleep, but I don't know how good I was about that. And then no exercise, I think, like four hours before sleep. And no eating after 8 p.m. I think it was something like that. Those are the goals.

Those are the goals. I stuck to those for the week. I remember that. The hardest part by far is no screens 30 minutes before bed. I mean, that's like what I'm screen heavy. Yeah, I can't imagine that I successfully didn't eat after 8 p.m. Well, you wake up in the middle of the night for your cereal. Yeah.

I think this guy's more talking about like anatomically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you sleep and wake up without sore hips? Well, what do you guys? How do you guys sleep? All of the things he mentioned have tried. I put a pillow between my legs to keep my hips more aligned. Yeah.

And I need it. If I go in the van and I forget to bring two pillows, it's so uncomfortable for me to sleep on my side with my legs touching. That's weird, hey? I've gotten into this. No, I'm the same. No, too. Yeah, my hips just straight up are in pain. Yeah, you can get these special pillows that are just meant for that, like kind of cradle your legs on both sides.

But I like that to fall asleep. And we both have like memory foam pillows, which I think helps our necks. But we're not super precious about it. I mean, we're not traveling with our own pillows and everything. So do you always sleep on your sides, both of you? Always start on our sides. Oh, you mean, oh, not our sides of the beds. That's the size of our body. Yeah, not talking about the arrangement geographically of you on your beds. I could sleep a lot better if we had a wall in the middle of our bed, if I'm totally honest.

I've heard Paula, she does some kung fu in the middle of the night sometimes. Is that true? Yeah. I mean, she wants to be close to me. You can't get too upset about that. But do you fall asleep on your back, on your side, or on your front? I think usually on the side. I'll sometimes in the middle of night try to, like, fall asleep on my back if I'm having a super restless night.

But these days on my side, I think. You guys. I got suckered in to buying these dream shots from the feed. Oh, okay. I'm so, I'm tangenting on every single question. The more tangents, the better, I think everyone agrees. I don't know what's up with these dream shots because like every single feed athlete is posting about them. The feed is what's up.

They are paying them to say that. No, I know, no, I know. But I think the feed must like own this company or the Dreamshot thing. It's their thing. So I was curious about like, are they actually helpful or are these athletes just doing what some athletes do and posting about it because they're told to? So I was checking out at the feed, buying some gels. And it was like, try the Dream shots for 50% off. So I ordered them. And they got delivered to Augusta where we were staying because I needed the gels for the race. And I took one two nights before the race. because I'm like, what do I got to lose? I got a three-hour time change. Maybe it'll be a miracle. And then tomorrow night before the race, I'll take another one and sleep like a baby. And I came to the conclusion that this was not the best way to test these

because I was not in a controlled environment. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, way too many variables. But, like, I couldn't fall asleep for so long there, and it always happens when I go to the East Coast. But I will say I woke up zero groginess. I woke up and I felt like, here we go, I'm fine, I'm totally ready to go for the day.

That was with the time change too, so I'm waking up at six and it's really three back home. So there could be something to that. And now that we're back home, I'm curious to try them to see if they really do improve my full night of uninterrupted sleep. If they do, then I might go broke because they're so expensive. Oh, are they? How much for night? Well, they're like, you get six in a box, and I think the box is like $22 or something. I'd be curious what, you know, is there a protocol for this?

Like, can this kickstart you into a better sleep cycle, or do you just take this on a night that you think is super important? They say they're not addictive. So they're $24 for six. Okay. So, okay, like $4. I mean, $4. $4.4. A lot.

Let's just say that they definitely worked. holy shit, how many times would I have paid $4 to have a great night's sleep? So just like guarantee it? Yeah, if it was a guarantee. Wow. Four times $365. It's only $1,500 a year.

If you could... Every night? The thing that's funny is, like, if you could January 1st pay $1,500 and be guaranteed to sleep well every night of the year, a lot of people would do that.

Holy, I think. Even the guy with the $2,000 budget might use... Might spend it on this. It could definitely be the most impactful thing on your performance for sure. The Dreamshot. Get a chat G.G.T. to coach you and use the money on Dreamshots.

So they are delicious as well. I sound like I'm sponsored by Dreamshot here. Can we get an affiliate link for this? Geez. Well, to be clear, they are not proven at all yet, but they're in testing. We're testing them. I don't know. In our house.

Very unscientifically. That's my tangent. I could get them at the feed. I'm curious now. I want some. Hey, if anyone at the feeds listening and you want to send us some free ones, we will talk about them again on the podcast

if you send it to all of us. No, send us, yeah, send us some that we can do a like legit long-term review. Yeah, I'll do it. Like all we're asking for is a lifetime supply. Yeah, $1,500 a year. Come on. It's nothing for them.

I mean, if we all three try this out and report back with positive results, that's definitely worth $1,500 for each of us to have great sleep all year. Like, that's a screaming deal of podcast advertising right there. Of course. Of course. All right. Cool.

Okay. Can't wait for those to show up. Yeah, nice. Okay. Talbot, connect us. I also pumps their video earlier. You did. Kyle's listening.

Kyle, if you're listening, connect us. Okay. All right. So, last question here. Big swing in content. This is from Andy. I just completed my first Iron Man last week in Maryland. I had a great race.

11.05, not as fast as Nick, but not bad for being 50. First of all, that's 10 minutes slower than me. And I'm not 50. 50? 50? Yes. Great job, Andy. Not as fast as Nick. Yeah, yeah.

And congratulations, Nick. He also says, by the way. Everybody shower Andy with affection now. That's impressive. Andy, good job, Andy. Proud of you. I heard that race was a lot of fun, by the way. and now having some serious post-race blues.

I'm considering jumping in and signing up for Arizona. It would be exactly two months post-Maryland. I feel like experience alone will bring me a PR. I feel amazing and feel like I might have left a little on the table at Maryland. Am I too ambitious? Is this just post-race blues talking? Or do I still have some sanity left? And this is a viable option.

Aloha, Andy. Man, two months feels like, what are we? in my mind, I'm like, what are we doing here? What's the point of this? I mean, I get what he thinks the point is, but. I mean, something else on the calendar that feels important and meaningful to give you the same sense of direction

that you had for the last year to get ready for the last Iron Man, that's what I'm guessing. Is it doable? Yeah, probably. Is it, will you actually feel amazing? Where's the end? Yeah, yeah, that's the, problem. I think it's a common problem. Because I think part of the reason I signed up for Augusta was like after France, I was like, give me more. I didn't want to say that, but yeah, that's what I was going to relate it to. And then you get there and it's not what you would imagine. So it's not always, it's like, it feels good at first to be like, okay, new goal. Now I'm not, don't have any more blues. But the reality is like your body's tired. It takes. time to properly get ready for a thing where you can actually enjoy it and have fun there and

feel fit and not just do it as like a band-aid, you know? Yeah. My thing is you can have your cake and eat it too is if you just pick a race that's eight months away instead of two months away. Or what about just not an Iron Man? Yeah, something, a new challenge. Indian Wells. I hope that I've never done an Iron Man, so I don't know if going back and doing a 70.3 feels like a step

backwards or if it feels like something just so different that it's a refreshing change. I would certainly hope you could just frame it as something different, not lesser. A different challenge. You have to go a little bit faster. Nick, as an Iron Man. Yeah, we're not Iron Man. Let me get on my throne here. Do you feel like halves are for the peasants?

No, but you know what it feels like now? When I think about doing a 70.3, what I think is, oh, I got that. that. Oh, that'll be, I'll hit that with confidence and excitement instead of fear and anxiety. That's a piece of cake. I mean, it's never a piece of cake, but to wrap my head around what it feels like to get off the bike and run a half marathon, I feel so confident in my skill to do that now because of the Iron Man. Totally. Yeah. I get that. I feel like that about Olympic distances now. Right. And they used to feel like, oh my gosh, how am I going to push hard this whole time? I imagine. I guess my final thought would be if it was me

and just like out of respect for the distance and what it takes on your body and what it takes out of your time, I would pick something slightly different even if it's like your state 40K time trial championships or just like getting a personal best bike split at Indian Wells something that's like meaningful but not as monumental of a toll on your body. What's the race they did?

Iron Man Maryland. And they finished? Yeah, they finished. Yeah. They finished. That's tough, yeah. It is also this, you got this sense of like, I have this Ironman fitness. I want to use it again. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Which is a dangerous territory because it does really take a toll to do one. And by the time you do properly recover, you have in a good way lost some of that fitness. Yeah. But I think it's fun to use that momentum instead of doing another race right away, take the dip and then build up even higher than you were last time for something a little further ahead in the future and do even better at that. Come to Iron Man New Zealand with us. Yeah.

Yeah, it's part of what made this experience at an Iron Man so fun is that you had to work towards it for a while. Exactly. It just got thrown onto the schedule. There we go. Exactly. I think we've, you know, I think we're all on the same page here. Yeah, I love that.

I'm an Iron Man, New Zealand at the earliest. Yeah. It also depends where you live because it gets really hard to train for an Iron Man. Oh, that's true. You're right. You're right. You and the future you's environment. Yeah.

The winter can be harsh. Although I think this person's in Hawaii. Oh, no problem then. Well, okay. That's our podcast. I think that was quite long. And I'm just looking at the time, but that includes our supporter segment question as well.

But that was quite a long one. Thanks for hanging out, though. We had a blast. As usual. We'll talk to you next week. Bye.