That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula wins Ironman 70.3 St George to become North American Champion!

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

This week, Paula and Nick break down their race experiences at the final edition of IM 70.3 St. George. After a deep dive into race day highs and lows, we time travel a few days into the future to tackle some of your listener questions! This week we talked about:Race ettiequte when age groupers and pros are racing togetherHow to use gels in a bottlereuccuring nightmaresWhere does "transition 4" come fromA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. We are coming to you from our hotel room in St. George to do our post-race, I say our, to do Paula and Nick's post-race recap from St. George 7.3. Your name is? My name is Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. And we are going to do our race recaps, but we are also going to do Eric's elbow recap. Because I know a lot of you're curious, we've been posting a little bit about Eric in a sling at the ER. So we've had an eventful week, but it is all wrapped up. We are all getting ready to drive our separate ways to go back home. But these pods are always better when we are in person and when the events are fresh in our minds. So here we go.

Eric, what happened? I guess if you're new here, this is our triathlon podcast. And normally we kind of keep the show going with a lot of questions from people. But a lot of people have written in and said, please do more. more and longer race recaps. So if you're new here, like I said, a lot of times we just hand over information that we've gathered over the years,

but this is going to be pretty focused on what went down in the race. Prior to the race, I had my own little adventure. I was sort of doing some behind the scenes of St. George, how I was thinking of it in my mind. I was like trying to go and trail run and mountain bike on some of the trails around town that I've always seen on the map,

but never been able to because we're focused on racing. And I was going after a K-O-on- on a mountain bike trail while running, pretty excited, and it was pretty gnarly trail, and I tripped. As one does, one-to-one is trail running, but if you've ever seen a trail or run on a trail in Utah, the trail is rock. It's like running on boulders that are concrete, and I came down really hard on my elbow. I finished the segment, and I got back to the car, and it felt it was wildly painful, but I've never broken a bone before, so I wasn't sure what that really felt like. over the course of the night, it's massively seized up, locked up on me.

I can barely move it now. Swelled up. It swole up real good. So the next day, after we took Paula's bike out to the lake and did all the pre-race things and everything, I went and Ubered over to the urgent care. No, I dropped you off with the urgent care. Let's get the back straight. And then I ubered back to the hotel.

That's right. Because they said it would take hours. So I thought, okay, I do have to race tomorrow. So I would love to sit next to you and keep you company, but I also had to race. But it ended up being super quick. There's actually an orthopedic urgent care, which I was not aware of. So they just work on, you know, people that break bones or sprain ligaments or something. And so Eric was in and out real quick with the news that his radial head is fractured.

You guys are leaving a very important part of the story. Which is that Eric still got the fastest time. This is the definition of shred till bed. He shredded his body until it was broken and still got the fastest time. And when he came back, I was doing the live pod with Pro Chinews Boys. And I was fully expecting Eric to, he was going to be late because he was on this run, but I thought he'd show up like 10 minutes in. And he never came.

So I was a little bit annoyed when I got back to the hotel room and he's sitting in the bed. I'm like, why did you leave me hanging out there with the Pro Chinews Boys? And then I saw that he shattered his phone screen. So I was mad about that. Like Eric, this is brand new. Why are you so careless? And he was icing his elbow and I was like, okay, at least he's being responsible and icing his little boo-boo. Yeah, not a boo-boo.

I didn't realize it was fully broken and he's trying to play it down and not really tell me how bad it is. And then I am aware how bad it is. Like can't work that arm at all. He texted me from the trail. I think that he crashed pretty hard. Yeah, Eric tries to shelter me from things like this, especially since he, anyway, we won't get into it. the other incidents that he had this week. Yeah, you've been really adventuring, Eric.

He can't get in trouble twice a week. No, we're not getting into that. The other incident was not even an incident. That's true. It was just the fear of what could have gone. Maybe we'll tell the story and just bleep it all out as we're saying it. Did you guys like that segment? That was fucking annoying.

I got some messages from people. They're like, what happened? Yeah, that was annoying. That was never again time of the kind of thing. liked it. I mean, yeah, I laughed, but it was been annoying. Anyway, to cut back to the chase, yeah, it's not displaced or anything. I've gotten a lot of conflicting advice from doctorly people on put it in a sling, don't put it in a sling. So that's why you've seen some pictures of me with it in a sling and some without. It does need to be

casted. It's not displaced, but it's bleeding a lot and the joint is massively. They have a huge fusion, so that's why I can't move it. So it'll be, you know, three or four weeks until I'm really doing, you know, as many things as I want to without any restriction, I think. So, yeah, I mean, the next race that I was kind of thinking that I would go after was the Broken Arrow race, which is a weekend before Western States, which we were hoping to crew or help or film somewhat something with Heather. And I'm just going to have to kind of play it by year.

I think I'm going to be putting the Wahoo treadmill at like 20% in power hiking. and then, I don't know, doing some body weight squats and riding on the trainer. I think it would be a interesting story of like trying to prep for a race while having this because you don't need your arm to run, but you can't run because of your elbow. So you can still be creative and use the garage to, it's not an enjoyable way to get fit, but you definitely could. Yeah, it would be, you know what, it would be an ideal experiment if it was December right now. where you can't really.

But now it's peak, spring, beautiful time outside in the mountains and stuff. And it's going to have to forget about it. It's the cost of playing hard in the outdoors. It was fun. It was fun. I'm not going to say it was worth it, in hindsight, but it's part of what happens when you do that kind of thing. We've joked before. You've joked before that it's like, why can't I just get like an arm injury so I can't swim anymore?

And now that you're already kind of swimming way less. Yeah. Too far. Too far. I just had a couple good swims. the last week. I was getting into swimming. I got out on the TT bike with Hala, actually. I was really starting to kind of be jazzed up and here we go. Such as life. Do we want to talk about the race? Yeah, I'd say like this didn't really slow down Eric too much in helping to get ready

for the race for me. Like he was still a little bit of film a bit. He was at a lot of the checkpoints where I wanted splits. And so from a racing perspective, he's still really rallied, even though he's in a lot of pain to help me race the best I could. Yeah. So thanks, Eric. Thanks, Eric. Welcome. Yeah, how do we want to start it?

Well, where does it make sense emotionally for you to start the storytelling? Storytelling. Well, I was pretty relaxed. So we got here on Monday, staying at an awesome hotel, the Adveneer, right by the finish line, right in the center of the action. And obviously, when we got here Monday, there was no one here for the race yet. So we kind of got to train and get settled and do some couple of. couple hard sessions and that really like set me up for the week because by the time the race hype started I felt ready to go in terms of you know mental and the gear and all that just because it

wasn't rushed in any way so really really chill a week and the night before the race I thought I was like not really nervous but the night before the race was the same thing as I was just in a pool of sweat nervous thinking about every scenario actually really scared about thinking about the bike. I'm like, oh my gosh, how do we go that fast on these TT bikes? I'm going to be so scared tomorrow. All the little things, even though I've done it a million times, things that come into your mind the night before that you play up to be worse than they are. Eric, do you feel like in your experience of her, did you feel like she was as externally nervous as you've seen her? No. No, similar to Oceanside where it kind of felt like this is happening, this is what I do,

go through the process. And I've been in that position before or right up until I go to the race meeting with everybody else. I'm like, wow, I'm surprisingly chill. And then at some point in time, boom, a switch flicks. And then you're like, oh, my God, I am racing. This is really happening. But, you know, it's a very enjoyable week. Yeah, you start to, that's when you see all the people you've got to race and Chelsea's here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like really hits you at the meeting when you actually see everyone. And then you got to go check your bike in. And then at that point, I'm hyper-analizing how I feel. And am I resting enough today and have a drink enough pediolite and all of these things? You definitely drank enough pediolite this time. That stuff tastes gross. So, yeah, that was the race morning.

But, Nick, you were also racing. So somehow that alleviated a bit of the stress because I'm like, okay, I'm not in this alone. Like, Nick is also coming to hell with me. That's right. And we were in hell. Yeah. But, yeah, Eric drove us out to the start. We should probably address that you can't just drive out to the start, not everybody, right?

Correct. Well, it doesn't matter because it's never happening again. But the pros get a parking pass, so we could drive out to the start, everyone else shuttled, which is logistically kind of the same. It's annoying to get a car back from there because it's so far, so it actually is easier for athletes to shuttle out. But Eric then had the car to come meet at checkpoints to give me splits. Well, my primary function was to get shots, but also was able to give splits.

Oh, yeah, video as well. Yeah, I forgot about that. So I don't actually know this. Where did you see her on the course? Well, I was kind of just following Talbot to a degree. He had it all mapped out really well. And I ended up being able to see her in probably two more spots than I thought. But, you know, like where you turn off the highway to go into Sand Hollow if you were on their way to hurricane, like that, whatever that highway is, which is where you first start doing all the downhill really fast.

Oh, yeah. I got to that intersection. and parked and waited for them to come by and then I drove up basically to like that first like kind of long, grindy hill on that highway saw her there, got a shot, gave her a split and then made it to where you cross where you actually like cross over that highway

later on. We cross over the freeway. This is going to be people don't care. Yeah, I don't know how to describe all the guys. Yeah, that's right. Were you able to watch the live stream while you were doing this? A bit. Okay. So you knew where she was at. Yeah. Yeah. That was the only way I was giving splits was just like anything anybody could see on the tracker.

Yeah. Okay, so for the swim, Paula. Yeah. You've seen this like now so many times. Is it pretty much the same or? The difference with the pro series is they announce us like 30 minutes before. So we actually have to be in the starting zone area like 40 minutes before we start, which is a lot of time when it's early like that.

You want to be warming up or something? Yeah. And just not be just hanging around there cold, you know. So we did the intros and I actually didn't get in the water. for the swim warmup because I knew we'd have another 30 minutes of standing there. So I just did arm swings, kept warm. There was a 10-minute gap between the men and the women, which felt like an eternity. But in that 10 minutes, we could get in the water to do a little swim warm-up.

So that's what I did. And there were two really good swimmers here, but no one that's, like, a little better than me that I could get on their feet. So I ended up leading the pack of me and Chelsea that was behind Victoria and Los Angeles. who were the really good swimmers. So not ideal. I was really hoping I could get on their feet for at least a little bit, but I knew Chelsea was with me. What stopped you from being able to get on their feet?

Well, I just never was on it at all, and I'm not fast enough to bridge up to them. So it really requires the start aligning in a perfect way where I see them at the start and I jump on right away, but it was a bit messy at the start and I couldn't even really find them. Are you able to position? I forget how the pro series works. Yeah, you can pick your spot. You can pick and you can switch and all the way up till 30 seconds before the start, Lottie Wilms was like jumping from the left to the right because people kept following her.

And at a certain point, I'm like, okay, I don't care. I'm going to ride really hard. So I can start anywhere. But it would have been maybe better to start beside her and be able to slip onto her feet right away. But everyone wanted to do that. So it was just like, I'm doing my own thing. But yeah, Chelsea was ahead of me for a minute and it felt easy. So I went around her and then she sat on my feet the whole time.

I had no idea how many people were behind her. So I was like, oh, this is not ideal, but it's fine. I was just swimming medium hard and knew I'd have to, the race would really start on the bike. How many women total started? I'm just curious. I felt like a lot. Field size, you know. Yeah, I mean, a lot less than men, but.

35. Yeah, maybe like something like that. Total women that finishes 24. So maybe 10 DNFs. Yeah. I mean, that's possible. The reason that I thought of that is because I saw this interesting graph from Ironman, Texas, that, like, kind of showed the dynamic of the men's racers as the women's race of, like, all the people relative to the leader.

And I thought it was really interesting just based on, like, women's racing tax. But then Matt Matthews actually direct message to me and made a comment about the field size being a huge impact on that. And I think that's, like, very interesting between, like, the men's race and the women's race and, like, what Paul is going through with, like, the swim being important or, like, really important. like the amount of like how big the packs can be. Yeah, it is true because when I'm, we're very spread out coming out of the water and then the men are more bunched up. And if you miss the pack, you're really screwed.

Whereas if I'm behind two or three women, I can bridge up normally. Yeah. Depending on who it is, of course. So that's what happened. Victoria Lopes was 120 ahead of me. Lottie was 50 seconds and I caught Lottie within the first 8K. Chelsea was with me right out of the water and onto the bike, and I thought, okay, she's going to be with me for the whole ride. That was my assumption, was that we were going to ride together. And I look back after 2K into the race, and I couldn't see her. And I thought, oh, no, she probably got flat or something happened. And I still don't know what happened, but I think she pulled out having, just not feeling quite better yet from her sickness in Texas. So, yeah, my whole focus then was just catching Victoria up the road. And it was,

I guess nice to have her as a carrot, but she was riding really well, and it was taking me a long time to close any kind of gaps. But with the nature of this course, the roads are so wide open. And you can see so far ahead that I could actually see her, which was really motivating and kept me on my watts because I wanted to catch her. So I was trying not to override just to bridge up, but it was slowly chipping away. And I didn't catch her until probably halfway through the bike. And then I was getting splits to, Jackie and to Danielle Lewis that were like four minutes back. So I thought, okay, I am riding well. I'm putting time into the people that I don't want to run with. And I didn't know about Victoria. Like she hasn't really raised many 70.3s. She stayed with me on the bike, which I also was surprised with because I was riding really hard up Snow Canyon. But we got off the bike together. And then she says to me running out a transition, I'm injured. I'm only running 3K. And then I'm pulling out. I thought, okay, well, you just affected the entire dynamics of the race, but okay, so she went really hard for 3K, but I think I might have been the only, one of the only ones who knew that

she wasn't going to finish. So everyone thought, everyone thought she was just dropping me and she was going to go and win by 10 minutes. Why do you think she told you, even? It was, it was respectful to tell me. I agree, but I agree that it's a little bit of a, I don't say, disrespectful, but a little odd to start the race when you know you're not going to finish it. 100% agree. So where does that line of like respect? I think... When she decided to run through a K really hard out of time.

I mean, it's a bit of a short course mentality because I've done this before in short course when I know I'm injured and I've wanted to just get a race experience under my belt. But I think in 70.3 in a pro series race where there's a broadcast and they're really focusing heavily on the race leader, it does take a lot of the screen time away from athletes like, you know, maybe Jackie or people that are bridging up with, because nobody knew that she wasn't going to finish. Like she's this, it was an exciting story. She's new to this distance. She's riding extremely well. She comes from an Olympic distance background.

So when the announcers don't know, it just skews the whole story and it makes, it does impact the race really a lot more than it would in a short course of race where you're sitting. in the pack and no one really notices if you pull out. It's one thing if she would have told all of you at the beginning, even if she didn't tell the broadcast, but I think I could see if I were an athlete professional racing and I saw someone up the road that and I'm thinking about the pro series. I'm like, okay, well, now I'm going to race differently and I might try harder and risk more to catch this person.

And if I knew they weren't going to run, it might affect how deep I go at a certain part of the rest of the rest of me shuts down. And it's like this, I'm so far behind the leader. It's like this is pointless in the pro series because of every second counts. Exactly. Yeah, there's a lot of factors here. And there's also nothing to gain by like having a fast bikes, but you're not proving to your federation that you have a strong bike even though you're injured.

You can't collect a fastest bike split bonus without finishing a race typically, like all this sort of thing. So it was interesting. Yeah. And obviously a very strong rider. Like really impressively strong rider. Yeah, I think that was what she wanted to do was prove to herself like, okay, I'm a good rider. but not at the expense of changing the whole dynamics.

Anyway, it's okay. I was, because I was aware of that, I had a pretty leisurely run out of transition up the steep hill. Yeah, right. Because I was feeling like trashed. She ran away from you. I was like, wow, even if I wanted to sprint for 3K, I don't think I could do what you're doing.

So I reeled her in, and then I was in the lead, and I had 345 to Danielle Lewis. And she could for sure bridge 345 to me. Danielle is a really good runner. So I kind of wanted follow-up splits. Is she running faster than me? Or she running the same as me? But was reassured by Eric and some other people on course that we were running about the same speed.

The first mile, the first mile, 1.4 mile split or something like that, she was running faster in the tracker had you both finishing at the exact same time. And that was a bit of a panic moment until we got another split that indicated she'd slowed it back down. Yeah, I can't explain to you how slow I ran up that first hill. I was like probably, Vic probably outran me on that split. I definitely did not. But yeah, we'll get to that. I thought it was in trouble. Wait, I have a question, though, about the bike.

This just, this is Don, I mean, what is the criteria that you have for yourself when judging I'm having a good bike? Is it power? Is it rate of perceived exertion? Is it how you comparing to the other athletes? A little bit on the time I was putting into people, but also, also I wasn't really looking at the overall average power. I was lapping my watch on every climb. That's awesome. So every climb, I was doing the watts I wanted to do for the most part. And then I, on the downhills, I didn't worry about my watts. I love it. I just really tried to be fast on the downhills and looked more at what my overall speed was for the race.

Because, I mean, I could push 20 watts more on the downhill, but is that really going to get me that much more speed? Goldfish memory. Versus like if I can recover a bit on this descent and then push extra hard on the next climb, that was kind of the mode I was in. So I thought of it more of intervals than one big two and a half hour bike ride. Eric, what do you think of that technique, that like mental tactic of like take each climb as it comes and instead of looking at like, oh, my average power overall needs to be X. I mean, that's what I've always done. I've always had my watch auto lap or my computer auto lap every 30 minutes or every 20 minutes just to always have a clean slate and be in the moment. Yeah, it did help me mentally reset a bit if I was having a lull.

Yeah. But yeah, it was, it made me realize on the bike just. how like I'm a bit scared of going fast like that I averaged 40 kilometers an hour over two and a bit hours and that's really fast riding considering there was a lot of climbing and I don't don't have the balls to practice that in training because it is so scary to go that fast and it's one thing when the roads are closed and there's something on the line like winning but it's so hard to practice those skills of riding at speed in training and that's where I think just more and more races under your belt is the season goes on as you get those experiences of riding

fast and realize, okay, I'm okay, the bike is actually very stable when I'm going 56 kilometers an hour. That's what builds my confidence because for me it's really challenging to practice that in training. You know, when Eric is descending that fast in a race, though, he's not, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Eric, but he's not fighting a fear. He's done it in training so much that he's not scared at all to do it in the race. Yeah, ideally I'm not feeling fear in the race. You're not trying to be like, it's just scary, but I'm going to do it. It's like, no, I can do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Most of the men are like that. And probably women too. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I still have, I still, that still kicks in. It just kicks in 30K an hour faster. Yeah. At 100K an hour, not 70. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, sweet. So you're running, you know she's out of the race. So at a certain point, you're like, I kind of, because I was hurting. It was so hot. Yeah. definitely wasn't like super comfortable but I also had in mind that I'm not going for the pro series this year Jackie's my really good friend the more I beat her by no it's for sure crossed my mind many times now I'm just saying is this something you want to say on the podcast yeah yeah okay

that if I hammer this the more I beat her by the less points she gets and she's playing the game of like trying to win the pro series. So I that was in the back of my mind and it did make me take a couple of like logs off the fire in my in my effort I guess. But I was happy to do it because obviously it's more comfortable to run slightly easier. So I'm not saying I ran easy, but I'm saying that there was no real pressure for me to go my maximum in the run. This reminds me of the Jerry Seinfeld bit when it's like the horses racing around the track. You think if they could talk, they would just look at each other and be like, it's all the same bag of feed, boys. Yeah.

We all get back here and get to eat. So just take it easy. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, once I was pretty confident I was going to win, which was fairly early on in the run, I then all stress was off. And I was like, I can win by one minute, I can win by three. I'll just, you know, not kill myself here. Yeah. Because it was hot, such a hilly run.

But the second lap was fun because I think every single. age group athlete that I passed cheered for me. Everyone's so nice and knows who we are now and it just makes the racing really fun. So thank you if you're out there cheering. And some people were like, I'm a pod supporter. That's cool. So that just changes the, I mean, not just the racing, but the whole week in general was fun because of that. Eric, your experience of watching her race, I saw you once and you were like,

she's crushing it. That's all I got from you. Yeah. It wasn't super enjoyable for me, to be honest. I was like trying to work my camera one-handed, drive your car one-handed, figure out where it's going to be next, not getting trouble with a police officer for going to place. And then there was a little moment of fear over Danielle catching her.

And like, what is Victoria doing? And definitely felt like a day at the office, but a good day. Were you following the men's race at all while this was happening? Just, you know, via what I could see. And then just as they were talking about on the broadcasts, I did have the broadcast running on my phone. So, yeah, I have, like, a huge emotional, like, I feel like I raced for sure after I watched Paula. I have the same, like, pre-night stress about making sure I execute things I can do is she stressed. And then, like, I get to be there, like, experiencing the, is she going to catch up?

Is she not going to catch up? Is somebody catch up? And then at the same time, trying to, like, mentally think about how I'm going to turn this into a video. and like, oh, I wonder if Toffer was on the motorcycle and got a picture of that, a video of that pass and all this extraneous stuff that the more, yeah, I can't fully just like turn my brain off and just like, oh, racing, fun. Yeah. Yeah, he's working too. One of the fun parts was Lionel, the men started 10 minutes ahead of us. So he actually lapped me on the run as he was coming into the finish line because he's, yeah, he's clearly running, doing.

the race 30 minutes quicker than me. Plus he had an extra 10 minutes, so that's 40 minutes, which is essentially a lap of the run. So it was kind of cool to like run by him for a split second and just witness his... Did it feel like he was like, how does someone run that fast? It actually didn't. Okay. It's like, wow, he's not pulling away from me like, Usain bold. Right. Okay, yeah. But we were on a downhill and I was kind of like rolling at that point as well. So, but yeah, obviously he passed me quite quickly, but it wasn't like he passed me and then I couldn't see him. And blow your doors off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

But I could tell his effort was significantly higher than my effort. He's willing to go to that place. I did not get anywhere close to that place. I was like, I would have had a chat with him, but he was like full-focused Lionel mode. So that was cool to witness that right up and close. Did Sam lap you as well? No, just Judge Lionel. Yeah.

Sam almost did, but didn't. But it was a little bit like, I can't believe I have to do another lap and they're done. This is not fair. Well, this is how I felt when I was finishing and people were still coming in on the bike. Yeah. I'm like, oh boy. It's really crazy. Then the longer you race, the hotter it got.

And the slower you're running, so the hotter it feels. Yeah. Yeah, really rough if you were starting a lot later than the pros and going a bit slower, that was just a long day in the heat. We had a lot of people in the swim start who were aware of this kind of timeline that we were up against. Yeah. That even if you weren't a great swimmer, you wanted to start near the front. to avoid the heat. Avoid the heat as much as possible.

Completely impacts your race. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Cool. Well, yeah, I was really happy to win. It's the last time the race will be here. Although at the finish, the direct sport guy for the Zion tourism was like chatting with me a bit.

And I'm like, I think it's ever going to come back? And he hinted that maybe someday it will. Maybe not in the next couple of years. But it's such a awesome event in terms of the community that gets behind it. The volunteers are amazing. The course is awesome. So hopefully it does. Do you think is there a way, you guys know this area really well, is there a way to start at San Hollow Reservoir where the swim is and still root the bike around to Snow Canyon without going through town?

Like what if T2 wasn't in town? It was somewhere else. You'd have to loop the other direction around town basically. Like south. Yeah, you come out of the park and you make a left and instead you would like make a right. They go by the airport. Go past the airport. Then you're just going through.

suburbs instead of downtown. Them might. Yeah, maybe there's a way, but regardless, we've had a really nice. So wait, you told me earlier, what number 70.3, when is this for you? 11? I think it's 11, yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. Makes you feel old.

And third in St. George, yeah. Yeah. 2018. No, it's my second. No, and last year and this year. So, yeah, three. Yeah. And then you got second at Worlds here.

Yeah, it's been lots of good memories here. Never had a bad race. Did you feel like you were fighting? the heat or do you feel like your body was like keeping up with the heat? Well, I was thinking about race when I raced here in 2022 for the World Championships and it started it, it was like two degrees Celsius at the start of the bike. So the opposite problem, freezing, but good temperature for the run. And I remember how good I felt that day. And of course, I was fitter then. And it was later in the season. It was peaking for a bigger race. But how much the temperature really affects how you feel

in the run and your ability to push. And I was really grateful that, I was thinking about this on the bike. The harder you ride, the less hard you can run. That was my thought before the start even. Just ride your brains out and then tempo run. You'll have that luxury. So that's kind of what I thought. And that really helped with the heat management.

Like being able to slow down a day station, poor water on my head, you know, not panic. So I didn't think, I don't think the heat impacted me that much as much as it would have later in the day for the athletes racing later. Yeah. Because we were standing at awards it. It was like hell. Yeah, that was hot. This was beating on us. And then Paula, you and I came in here after and like showered and stuff.

And then we were like, let's go out and just walk around a bit. And the second we stepped outside, it was just like getting slapped in the face with heat. Yeah, you forget when you're in air conditioner. And you look over and there's people trudging through the heat. I'm like, oh, my, how are you doing this right now? Yeah. Real amazing. Yeah.

Epic final year for this race. It's really hard. If you did this race, and especially if this was your first race, which I spoke to quite a few people, whose it was, that's a really hard 70.3. Most of them are not this challenging. And with that weather yesterday, it made it even harder. So don't let that discourage you from doing another one. Totally. Yeah.

Yeah. They all have their challenges. And this one has the perk of having the beauty of being here. And it really is beautiful. Yeah. When you're especially on the bike looking around those beautiful mountains. Yeah, it's definitely one that's worth coming early. So you can actually enjoy it.

But anyway, that's my recap. Is that good enough? That's great. Okay. Wonderful. Yeah. People want to hear it of all the deeds, you know? Yeah.

I mean, I think it gave most details. There's always little things. I like cramped on the run. Like little things that feel like a big deal in the race and then after you forget about them. Oh, yeah. Because I also cramped. Where were your cramping happening? Was it local?

In my side stitch. Oh, yeah. I had like a side stitch on the golf course. I just kind of breathed it out. Do you back it off a bit when that's happening? Or do you try to like that. Have to. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, there's always ups and downs, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm just usually impressed at how much your body doesn't like catastrophe fall apart.

Ever. Pretty robust. Yeah, pretty robust. Great. Yeah, that's great. Can I talk about my experience briefly? Yes. Eric, do you have something you're going to say? No, I was potentially just going to kick it off into your last-minute triathlon experience. Well, first of all, I'd like to say that I think my race was, I struggled a little bit. And I think people, a few people have been like, oh, well, you only knew this race was happening like a few days ago. But I would love to use that as an excuse.

But the truth is that I felt extremely fit coming into this and that that's not an excuse. I've been training hard and feeling really good. So my poor performance, I don't think it's anything to do with the last minute nature of this. Psychologically, though, that's a thing. You think so? I think if anybody can roll with it, you can. But, I mean, you weren't like mentally gearing up for this like you do for Wisconsin. No, that's true.

Certainly a week ago, you weren't like, man, I really hope I get in. I really, you know, I'm so fit. You're just like, if it happens, it happens. You're right. And part of me thinks that that actually. helps me, but now I've had this experience a couple times where I come in without nerves, and I have not raced that well off of that. I think, whatever, for whatever reason. But anyway, yeah, I think there's a difference between, like, you're fully without nerves or, like,

something has caused you to, like, take the edge off your nerves, but there's still, like, this underlying baseline of, like, I cared about this race. Yeah. For a reason. Yeah. Anyway, I'll be a little more brief than Paula, but the swim, like I said, we were all kind of trying to get towards the front because we were trying to not be in the heat as much. And Kyle Glass from ProTri News also was doing this race. So we found each other towards the front and we were chatting first. It was very fun. And Scott Leroux, the CEO of Iron Man, was right in front of us, kind of being part of the whole experience.

Duru. Did I not say Duru? Did you say Duru or Leru? I might have said Leru. You're right. Scott Duru. Sorry, Scott. Yeah.

Sorry, if you're listening. But we got to watch the men come out. And Seth Rider, who were, you guys are friends with it. I also have met through you guys. He had a huge lead of us, fun, to watch the men come out. Unfortunately, we didn't see that women come out because we were in the water before that. But my swim went, well, I did not enjoy the first five minutes at all. And I was like, why do I do this in general?

I just, I don't know, swim racing. Like, Paul has this experience of, like, I'm just swimming in races. And I heard other pros talk about that. You're like, swim's fine. It's definitely the part that mentally is the least enjoyable for me. I think you're not alone in that. Yeah. But I actually ended up having a good swim.

I swam just about 33 minutes, which for me is, I know that sounds slow to some people, but for me it was good. What did we think? Oh, yeah. 10 minutes slower than Paula, which I think is almost exactly. I think Paula swam like 27, so you only gave about six minutes on the swim. Okay, well, don't worry. There's more than I got up later. Oh, yeah, I forgot about the over-under.

We're definitely checking in on that. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. We'll get to that. And then, so I was pleasantly surprised with that when I got out. of the water and I thought, okay, I've been doing so well on the bike, this is going to go great. And it's very hilly. I'm good at this.

And I start biking and what feels like 270 watts is 225. And I'm like, uh-oh. But immediately I go into this thought process of, okay, then stop looking at the power. It doesn't matter. If you can't do it, you can't do it. That's a good tip for people. Yeah. Just like don't, like maybe for five minutes.

And then if still five minutes later, it's not working, it's all right. Plan B, like rate of perceived exertion. And so that's kind of what I did for the rest of the ride. It's like, okay, be smart, be arrow, ride with people if you can, which I pretty much wasn't able to do the whole time, but I think that was just a situational thing. And enjoy this race. Look around.

It's beautiful. This is the last time you're going to do it. I've been here so many times, sometimes racing, sometimes with you guys. I was here when Eric got his seventh at Worlds. We were here when Paula got second at Worlds. I was here when Paula won. So I was more trying to think about those things. And so many of these places along the bike course, we have little stories like Eric telling me past race experiences or Paul and I driving around watching Eric race.

I was trying to get into that mindset. Yeah. Fun stuff. Anyway, I think I don't know exactly what was going on on on the bike because once I got to Snow Canyon, after like the second half of Snow Canyon, which is supposed to be for most of the most challenging part, when I was able to sit up for a few minutes. all of a sudden my power went way up. My rate of perceived exertion went way down, and I felt much better. So I've been riding the road bike and the gravel bike a lot,

and I think there's just, for me, a big difference between my TT position and my road bike position, and my body's just not used to that. Hot take. The way that you have to produce power and the type of power at the torque that this course requires

is unlike anything that you have to ride around you. Like you are either riding on PCH, flat to get to a climb or you're riding with like great torque resistance up climbs for 45 minutes. Like that's the opposite of this where you're like really low torque, like potentially higher cadence, high power, slight downhill and then a slight uphill that just like, is this uphill? I think it's uphill. I don't know. I just feel like shit. It's, I think it's hard for a lot of people. People think this horse is really hilly, so they think steep hilly, but it's not. You would almost want to like train by motor pacing to get ready for this race. So you could ride like

50K an hour with 300 watts to like get used to that feeling of there's not this yeah the torque is like different yeah um anyway ended up being fine i it's it's too bad as last year but it's really a uh a beautiful course and when i was coming in back from the bike um i got to see paula and i was on the diagonal street which is this long stretch uh that the bikes are coming down and the runners are coming up and down and i see paula with a motto with her and i can mind i know nothing i don't know if paula's like anything could have happened. I see the moda and I think, okay, so she's probably in the top three. And then I'm riding and I'm riding, riding, riding, and I don't see another modo.

And I think, uh-oh, she's probably in third and the top two I've already passed in there somewhere else. Then finally I saw Danielle Lewis. Is that right? Yeah. And then I saw another motto, which I think might have been Jackie at the time. And so I thought, okay, she's a very comfortable lead in first. And then as I was coming in, I saw Eric with the camera and he yells at me. He goes, she's crushing it.

So then all of a sudden, my day gets immediately better when I know that Paul is probably going to win this race. And I'm like, all right, pressure's off. And she can win the bet if she needs to. She's going to win the race, which is, yeah, which I forgot to do last night. But yeah, so then I got on the run. So hold on one second. Do you know your bike split? Yes, I can tell you.

No, I don't know it. But it is 2.000, 236. 236. 236. Paul, Ed. 217. All right, so. Yeah, rough.

20 minutes almost there. Were we guessing 10? 10, 10. Okay. So you're now 20 minutes plus 6 minutes. You're 27 minutes behind now. So now I have about 12 minutes to play with. To get to our 38.

And I do think, well, I don't know about this course. On a flat course, that's, we would be right at 38. because I've run typically to like a 130 or something and you've typically run like a 120. So I think on a flat course, we would have been right on that, or I don't know, flat course, hot course, whatever happened. But at first I was running up that hill that you were talking about. And I was running like 715, 720 pace up that hill, which is only like 30 seconds per mile slower than what I was hoping to average overall. So I thought, this is good. I'm actually going to run well.

I didn't bike well because of I was like my position or whatever, I'm going to run well. And then over the next 15 minutes, it's slowly just like, I don't feel hot. I don't feel anything. Nothing feels wrong, but my pace is just dropping. And I can't seem to figure out why. And as the race went on, that just kind of progressed more and more where I don't, nothing hurts. So what was your run split?

Hoping for 130 or below is 140. Well, Paula's run split was a bit slower too. I feel like this course was just slow. because I think yours was a 124 or something in normal. You would run just under 120 or something. Yeah, but guys, I was tempoing. Yeah, she was taking it. That was true.

I mean, at a certain point, I guess I felt like that too, but I realized I. Not on your own volition. Yeah, exactly. It's because that's all I could do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But something we talked about is even at the end of it, when I started kind of getting cramps in several places in my body, including in my arms, I didn't feel like I was pushing my capabilities. But there was something in me that was saying, hey, this is, this is, this is where

you're going to be able to run today. Yeah. And I didn't feel hot really at all. I could tell it was hot, but there's nothing in my brain that's like, hey, danger, hot. But whenever I went to those stations and they had those cool, like, dunking stations for your hat or whatever, and I would, like, put water on me or, like, hold ice and drink cold water immediately for the next, like, minute, I would be able to run again. Yeah. You were hot. but you didn't. It's maybe because it's not humid here. I think that's a totally different feeling where you're not socked in and the sweat's not doing anything. It's a totally different feeling. And I agree with you that whenever I put ice down my kit or water on my

head, it was instant relief and my pace picked up. So it's a wild feeling in this dry environment, how much that like evaporative effect has on you. There's also a huge, like there's a huge zone in here. optimal race temperature and the point where you feel physically hot of performance. Oh, right, right, right. You can be warm and that's going to drastically affect your pace without you having that panic hot reflex, right? You know, similarly, when it's like 40 degrees out, it feels terrible. But for performance, it's actually great.

Yeah. Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit, sorry, yeah. So, like, five degrees. Santa Monica has actually been colder lately than Bend has. We've had warm afternoons in the desert, and you've just had like. cold, damp, ideal running conditions. So, you know, to think it's going to feel exactly the same, you know, probably not.

But I wasn't actually bummed. You know, every time I pass over one of the checkpoint things, I think, oh, all the people that are following me on the track are like, ooh, Nick is having a bad day. And I kind of feel a little bit guilty and bad about it. But it was fun. Paula won. It was great.

Like Paula said, so much. I saw a lot of TTL kits out there, which is great. Yeah, that's cool. People were being super friendly out there and I chatted with a few people. That was really fun. Yeah, the whole week was fun because of that. I mean, Kyle was racing. Yeah.

Nick was racing and TTL people. And it's just cool that people really know us now. And we get a lot of cheers. Yeah. Thank you if you're one of those people. Yeah. Overall, it was just, I think we just had a great time again this time around. Totally.

Well, yeah. It's a cool community. We're going home broken, but. Not defeated, right, Eric? I mean, I would say this weekend was a massive success. I just can do no things for the next month. Yeah, Eric's sitting here in a sling right now. So I'm just like fighting back that depression.

Although you have like a performance sling. We were saying that your, the material of your sling is made as the same as my performance running shirt I'm wearing right now. Yeah. I feel like I feel like I could. It's reasonable. If I did have like a fully rigid cast like strapped to my body, I probably could go running. It's just every little flex of the muscles right now is painful.

So I don't know. Stay tuned. My Instagram might be a little more interesting than usual over the next month as I navigate how to keep from going crazy. And I went while I learn how to do things on my bike because you can't. I think I'm just going to commit to left-handed things. I'm just going to become fully ambidextrous through this process. Oh, yeah. I put Paula's chain on her bike.

I'd like everyone to know, by the way, with Eric's supervision. Yeah, Nick put on the wax chain. Yeah, you know, when Eric did this, I was like still in that phase of being kind of pissed off at him. That Eric and Nick just went into the hallway by themselves and worked on my bike. I was like, I don't fucking care who does it. Just make sure it's race ready. And it was. Hey, we got her to the finish line first place.

Yeah, and then some bro across the halls like, oh, you guys like working on people's bike before the race? Can I bring mine out? The pedals or the thing? Yeah. No, no. This is maximum effort right now. That's all we got, actually. It's such a good looking like.

I can do it, but it'll be $10,000. Okay, well, we need to check out. So I think what we're going to do is pause the podcast now. And in the future, on Wednesday, we'll do a couple questions just to make the pod an hour. So maybe, Nick, you can make some kind of cool sound effect that's like time travel. This what I thought about during the race is like, I'm a creative person. Why am I doing this? I thought that's so many times.

Like, I should be making jingles for the podcast. Not out here dying. You're true calling. You're passing people or getting past people. Hey, I make sweet jingles. Don't judge me based on this performance, please. Listen to my jangles.

Two days later. Hit it. And we have time traveled forward a couple days. Sadly, we're no longer together. A single tear rolling down my cheek as I say that. But we are going to move right on to questions. And luckily now we have questions regarding the race because there's been a few days.

So we'll start off with this question from Jody. Maybe we should do it this way all the time. What way? Now we have a couple post-raised questions. You know, just to get the like immediate, like sweat is still dripping off your body. The beer has not dried on the kit yet. Do that race recap right then. And then like farm some questions.

I don't know. Just throwing it out there. Yeah, let us know. Let us know in the various ways that you can either. The only slight problem with this is that we now, to this week, had to find two times to organize doing a podcast, which might sound easy to the U. listeners, but it is quite complicated to find a time that is convenient for all three of us to sit down for an hour.

So that's the only downside, but I mean, race weeks are not that common. So maybe we could do it that way. That's fine with me. I kind of like it. I kind of like it, but it does require more, a little more work. First question here is from Jody, who's Canadian. Hi, team. First off, huge congrats to Paula on her win at St. George.

You made all of Canada so proud and we're so happy you represent us. And the Oilers. Since you just came off a race, I thought I could ask about recovery. I just raced the Toronto Half Marathon and hit all my goals, getting on the age group podium

in a huge event. Oh, that's awesome. But I had a really difficult time recovering, taking longer than usual to get back to feeling like myself, and even pulled a calf muscle a few days after the race just running across the street.

I thought I did everything right with recovery, sleep, massage, foam, roll, Epsom, baths, gentle cycling, so why did I not recover well? I'm used to racing 70.3s and 25K trail races, so this seems unusual. What tips and tricks do you guys use to optimize your recovery and be ready to race again soon after? Can't wait to hear your advice.

Thanks. Jody from Canada. This is so perfectly applicable to what we were just talking about. Off air. What race is she getting sore from? Marathon, right? Toronto Half Marathon. Gotcha.

It's a lot of hard surface pounding. running nearly a limit of your speed, I would assume. Those are big factors on soreness. Yeah, I would say that depending on the race and how hard I go on the run, that really dictates how sore I am afterwards and how hilly the course is. So on a really hilly course of lots of downhill, my quads get sore. Super shoes have alleviated that a little bit. I used to get so sore after a 70.3 would take me like almost a week to be able to run again.

But with the development of these squishy shoes, it's not as bad. I don't know. I would say that you can do everything right, the ups and cells, the stretching, the rolling, but that's not going to fix it or make it necessarily noticeably quicker. I think it definitely helps more than it would if you didn't do it at all. But it's not like you do all these things and it's magic fairy dust and the next day are completely back to normal. They're just things that are going to assist in the recovery. So I would say keep doing those things. Don't stop just because you don't feel like they're necessarily helping because they are. But it's very course dependent. I think also the weather can impact how sore you get. A hundred percent. Like if it's really hot or really cold. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I mean, I felt like after I did the High Cascade 100 mountain bike race, that was not like an earth-shattering amount of power, but it was like 97 degrees during that whole thing. And I just felt like a flattened jello human for like six or seven days afterwards. And even like five or six days, I went out trying to do a couple of Paulus intervals, sitting on her wheel and I got through one of them and just felt like I might not make it back to the car. So I think, yeah, the conditions are very dependent.

The actual race course, very dependent. And then the thing that occurred to me is your body is not the same going into and after each race. Just like some days you might not have what you want in a workout. Some weeks, after some races, your body might just might not be in a position where it's recovering as quickly as it has before. So like what I've always liked about the way that I operate with my coach is that I just sort of send him a text after a 70.3 when I feel like I'm ready to get back into training, to get back on a routine, a schedule. So it doesn't feel like, oh, I need to be back every Wednesday and I need to on Tuesday do a 90-minute bike ride.

Otherwise I'm failing. It's just when I feel like I'm ready to get on the program, I let him know. In the meantime, just do the things and let the body come around. I'm trying to think of a good analogy for this. And maybe it's, you know how you guys have said before with a stress fracture? Sometimes you don't have pain, but it still means it doesn't mean that you're healed. It still means like if your doctor said two weeks, like you need to take two weeks or whatever it is. Do you feel like there's a similar thing there with recovery?

Like, is it possible that you may feel recovered on day three or four after a race, but then really you actually need to take still time off a little bit? There's something underneath there that is still recovering from the race? yeah for sure i mean i was getting at that just a little bit but um you don't really know until you do a little bit of a session and then i think i would just like i was saying be good to yourself if if you have it in your in you to like go out and ride aerobically but then you try to do an interval and it's just not happening and you can't your heart rate up or you're breathing hard or your heart rate's too higher et cetera don't feel don't i wouldn't force it yeah i just i think

the difference between like i can get on my bike or i can go for a slow jog and and I'm ready to do a structured workout or like two different things. So when you did that ride with Paula and you couldn't do the first interval, you didn't necessarily think, oh, I'm still kind of fatigue, but I'm going to try this anyway. You actually thought, no, I'm good. And then only until you started, did you realize that? Exactly. Yeah.

Interesting. Cool. Okay. Well, congratulations, Jody, for the result, too. That's great. Next question here is from Bernardo, from Brazil. Hey guys, huge kudos on St. George. Bernardo from Brazil here. Question for Paula. I was also at the race and you caught me towards the end of your second lap on the run. On the big downhill back into town, I was still on my first lap so felt fresh enough to match your pace for about three minutes before coming back to reality. Is that annoying or does it negatively impact your race at all or do you not even notice? From my perspective, it was extremely fun to run side by side with a pro for a little bit, but afterwards I was wondering if I shouldn't do that again. Congrats on the win, and thanks for the post-race pick, Bernardo.

And Eric, I think you could answer this too from your perspective if this happened to you. Okay. Yeah, because male pros catch the age groupers too sometimes. Yeah, for sure. Oh, yeah, for sure. But it's just less likely they're going to be able to stay with the male pro. It would have to be like a weak running male pro with a really good age group runner. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It would have to be something like that. Yeah, so I would say for the most part, anytime I passed a, age group male on the second lap and there was a lot of them because um i don't know just the way the 10 minute gap worked out um there were a lot of fairly fast guys starting out on their first lap when i was starting my second lap um most of them i'd pass and they'd just kind of like slowly drift back but a lot of them said like they were encouraging me which was really cool and knew who i was from the back um this is just my me i don't know how other pro women feel but i get a little stressed when i hear someone breathing and footprints really close to my shoulder. And I know that it's not another female that I'm racing

against and it's not impacting. Like, you know, it doesn't matter if that person is faster or slower than me, but it stresses me out a little bit. So I would say it's totally fine, but maybe just leave like two meters of space in between because what's really stressful is when someone kind of latches onto my hip and I can hear their breath and I can hear their carbon shoes and that really gets to me. And they have full, they're allowed to do that. That's totally fine. But just me psychologically, it is a little bit annoying.

I don't think I remember, Bernardo, you doing this. So therefore, I don't think it really bothered me. You must have left me a little bit of space. Yeah, you told me, one of the first things you said to me, Paula, was that no one did that and that everyone was very respectful. Yeah. One guy did, and I kind of, like, looked back and give him a little, like, look. I think he got it.

A little sneer. But I also want to be respectful of their race. Like if I pass a guy on a uphill and then he feels like he's rolling the downs and wants to go back around me, that's completely fine. I'm not like stay behind for the rest of this race. But it's like the pace matching within two feet of me that's a little bit annoying. But thanks for asking. That's a good question because it happens a lot. Yeah.

Eric, what about you? If this were to happen to you, I mean, obviously it's a less likely situation. No, it does and it has happened to me. I guess I'm pretty much the same as Paula on this, and it's not like, oh, you suck, why are you next to me? But it is just a thing. Like, you hear the breathing and you hear the shoes and you hear the whole thing, and that is just a thing that can take you out of the focus and the space that you're in.

And that person's, like, your race, if you're trying to run with a pro, really has nothing to do with that pro. I think you should sort of treat it as though this is just another person that's coming by, not as like an eligible person to try to run with or use for pacing, et cetera. I just think, yes, you're on the course at the same time, but you're in two different events. So you're kind of saying, I think you've answered my next question here is outside of both of your preferences, you also kind of think that most pros would feel like this? I would think so.

Just for the, not for the sake of like feeling challenged or threatened or anything, but just to like there's just a stimulus that's around you that is unexpected and unusual and that is not part of the race that you're in so i mean damn if i think about it if i catch someone and then all the sudden they're running with me even as a non-pro i kind of feel a little funny about that because i'm like well what's what's what do you what are you doing here i caught you why are you all a sudden increasing your pace to try to match what i'm doing that's fair i think yeah like if they're in the race with you it does beg that it does beg that question sometimes and and normally i feel like when this happens on a bike ride or when it happens in a race, in my mind, I imagine this person's

like, this is so cool. Right, right. And rather than this person's like, oh, I know I'm good enough to, like, I'm going to, you know. But I do think, like, if you're thinking about doing this in a race, like, ask yourself, is this actually is smart or like how out of my comfort zone and my pacing? Am I going to have to go to, like, experience this little bit of a fun and then keep in mind what we're saying here. Like if someone's running beside you like that, Nick, like chances are it won't last long. Right, right, right.

And actually, just to be clear, I forget his name now, but there was someone else in a TTR kit that I caught and started talking to. And then we ran together for a bit and chatted. I'm not talking about that kind of thing. That's awesome. Yeah, I guess if you're considered... If you're allowed to run beside me as long as you want, breathed down my neck. Definitely. The way to just be 100% sure on this is that if some other, if anybody passes,

you and you feel like you can pick up the pace to run with them and whatever or you're just bored? Like ask. No, don't ask. That's so dumb. Why not? I'm so out of Brad that I can't say three words. Not pro pro. I'm saying in Nick's situation

this was a non-issue because you and this person communicated that you were both in existence versus just running silently. Oh, oh, I see. In the age group field. In an age group, I would love that. I would actually feel like a camaraderie and a, and like, Like, do you mind if I use you to pace off off of?

No, it's just like, do you mind if I try to stay with you or something like that? I'd be like, dude, yeah, let's do this together. Yeah, let's tackle this together. If you don't say anything, then, like, people's brains can go wild with what you're thinking and whatever. Yeah, I'm thinking of this in terms of next position. I'm just imagining, I'm imagining Nick at the next race with like 15 dudes in a train. Foll-Mivey doc formation. Yeah.

Okay, next. No, no. It's also applicable to when you catch somebody like on a bike ride, just out in nature. If you say, hey, is it cool if I ride with you versus you just jump on that person's wheel silently, it's the same thing. And we've said that before. Yeah. Sweet. Thanks for the question, Bernardo. And apparently you were just fine. So don't worry about it. Maybe you got some TV time as well. That's right. Okay, next question here is from Candace. Oh, I wonder if this is the same Candace that we hung out with in St. George. Yes, it is. Okay.

Hey, TTL, yeah. That's fun. Hey, TTL, congratulations, Paula and Nick on some great racing. Sorry, just to be clear, I haven't vetted these questions first. We're reading these live on the pod. Hey, TTL, congratulations, Paula and Nick on some great racing in St. George. I was lucky enough to spend some time with you guys at your brunch in St. George, and I have to say that you guys are super chill and that made my whole weekend.

Oh, we're so glad, Candace. We talked a bit about reoccurring nightmares, and I thought it would be cool to share that with your community. What pre-race nightmares have you had or what non-triathlone reoccurring nightmares have you had? Huge congratulations again, Paul. So cool to see you in St. George. Hope your elbow is healing up.

Eric. See you on the course in Wisconsin, Nick. Sincerely, Candace. Wait, were we talking about this with her? Because we did talk about this this week. I don't know how this naturally came up over brunch, but yeah, I remember that for sure. Yeah.

Okay, well, would you guys, do you guys want to, how about each, we do a lap on triathlon-related nightmare and non-triathlon-related reoccurring nightmares. I don't, I think my only, the only one that I can think of is triathlon related. But for me, it's missing the boat at a skate from Alcatraz. Nice. Like, it's so vivid because I've done that race enough times and they're so serious about it. If you don't make it on the boat, you are not doing the triathlon. And, like, inevitably, I wake up and it's a little bit late and I can't find my goggles. And then as I'm trying to find my goggles, I realize I put my backpack down.

And then as I finally find my backpack, I realized somebody stole my bike. And it's just, just like this cascading frantic insanity as I'm like trying to make my way to the to where the boat takes you. And then I just hear like the foghorn go off in the distance and I miss it. And then sometimes it persists and I'm even like trying to get on a different boat to catch up to the boat and jump onto the boat. And then like starting to swim behind everybody and it's just the worst. It's such a thing. That is such a thing.

That dream. Paul, I'm sure you have similar dreams now. I don't have any nightmares about triathlon. No. Really? No. Wow. So what reoccurring?

But I do have like periods of just day mares. Waking up of like, it's almost like the night before the race. I wake up and have thoughts where I'm fully awake. But and I'm like making the race out to be way worse than it is. Yeah, I'm going to call that a day mare. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have to climb snow canyon today on and people are going to watch me on video. This is crazy. What if I don't do good?

Like that kind of thing. But I did have. An instance actually happened before the race that could be a nightmare for a triathlon. And that is that a minute before the start, my goggle strap snapped before this race. Did I talk about that already? I know. I think you were just telling us because you had Jackie let you borrow hers and she left in the car or something, right? This is the problem with recording three days apart.

I can't remember if I said this in my recap. But yeah, my goggle strap broke 60 seconds to go. And I'm like freaking out. thankfully Jackie had an extra pair that Kenny was holding so I took them put them on and then within that one minute of me like fussing around with her goggles Eric fixed my goggles and just tied three knots and the strap and gave him back to me so I actually ended up wearing my own goggles but that's a good way to like jack your heart right up right before you start. Yeah yeah yeah yeah crazy. I feel like Iron Man should just have like three pairs of goggles at the

start for like everybody you're right you're right. This happens too maybe I'll donate them. For sure they should have that. Yeah. They can freaking market that, man. They're like, and the replacement goggles set by Roka, you know. Right. The Roka replacement or whatever led to the overall win. Yeah, I swear they'll like freaking make anything official now. So like that's, I think, the next thing.

Yeah. But I really am not a kind of really big nightmare person, I would say. Oh, man, I am. That's fantastic. Yeah. So you don't have non-triathlon related reoccurring nightmares either, Paula? No, no, I don't. Wow. Well, I'm happy to say I have both.

Good. Nick, bring in the content. Yeah, my triathlon-related nightmares is basically identical to Eric's, except it's not Alcatraz. It's just like, it is always in the same place that I have never been to, but it's the same place in my mind. It's like this kind of Nemo Bay-esque area, and I miss the start, and I'm always, the nightmare is always,

I'm already on the bike trying to, I'm doing the course. I just started like 15 minutes late, and I'm trying to catch the leader of the race. And I'm like talking to people like, do you know how far up he is? That's funny. Wow. And then my non-traathlon-related nightmare is, and this is going to show how cool I am, it's the night of the high school musical, which I always did in high school,

and I forgot to memorize any of my lines and I'm out there on stage with nothing to say. That's horrible. It's always a speaking thing, and I'm talking and I don't know my lines. And it's not like you forgot the notes for the trombone or the trombone. No. No. No. I mean, that could be it. But the however way this manifests is I'm out there on stage and I don't know the words that I'm supposed to speak to the other cast member. I feel like we got to call an expert get like a dream interpreter on the podcast to be like, why does Nick feel like he needs to catch somebody on the bike and Eric just can't make it to the start? And then. Yes. What does it all mean? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Good. Good.

sharing. Yeah. Thanks, Candice. That was fun. Okay, let's do this one. Eric, this one's for you. Hi, Paula, Eric, and Nick, huge congratulations to Paula on the win at St. George. What a race and start to the season with back-to-back wins. So I said that was the final year of St. George. Yeah, so were we. But that does mean that Paula's the forever champion, which is kind of cool. I think it'll come back. I think it'll come back. I was wondering if anybody, are you like in the top tied with somebody for most 70.3 St. George wins? Oh, I definitely haven't looked at that stat. I would say potentially like Heather Rortel.

Yeah, I was wondering if maybe Heather Wirtel had won four or, you know, like, three's got to be pretty up there. Yeah. I came to mind because we were listening to Pro Chai News podcast while driving home, and they pulled some crazy stat that, like, Paula and Lionel have shared the top step of a 70.3 podium six times. That's a cool stat. I heard that. That is crazy. What AI is spitting those stats out? Because that's, that's entertaining.

We need those being read on the Ironman broadcasts. I don't even know what those are because I've only won 10 and six of them have been at a race where Lionel also won. It's almost like you need to go to the race as Lionel's at. It's always getting to that point. Yeah, Lionel. Are you feeling fit when what 70.3 are you going to next? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I think the races me and Lionel have done together like the two this year and then Tromba last year,

maybe a couple of Indian Wells races and then Augusta 70.3 in 2020. So they're right. It is fun. I love that in hockey when they are just like listening off those. You know, of the 47 times the Oilers have like had three men stuck on the bench, like they've scored 17, you know, more times than. The most random stats ever. Like, well, I don't know. Like that's interesting, but I don't know how it relates to anything.

But it takes up time. Anyway, what's a question? Okay, 2014. You don't have to put this on, but you can kind of if it's interesting. 2014 was Kessler, 2015 was Heather Rettel, 16 was Heather Rattel, 17 was Holly Lawrence, 18 was me. You've tied with Meredith Kessler, who won it 2012, 2013, and 2014, apparently. Oh, the PTO results don't go back that far. That's cool. That's cool, Nick.

The question is for you, Eric, and it's Hi, Paul, Eric, and Nick. I have been a longtime follower of TTR and Transition 4. The first triathlon video I ever watched was the Overland Triathlon. So epic. Oh, yeah. That was great. That was really like the beginnings of what ultimately turned into, look for things where you can find them.

But we're not mature. I mean, Nick wasn't involved. And I was not a mature filmmaker or whatever at that point. But that was like the beginning. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It led me to wonder where the name transition four came from. I obviously know transition one and two,

but is there a transition three and four? I don't know about. It's been amazing to watch the videos evolve over many years of hard work, but to see the desire for adventure remain paramount to what you do is awesome. Thanks for all that you do. I look forward to the content every week to motivate through tough training. Yeah. Transition 4 had a few different meanings, but the one that was most core to it and spiritually the North Star, I guess,

was just really looking into the future and thinking about what the sport could look like if there were no limits. and anything was on the table. Very similar to the question that we posed and look for things where you can find them. So to me, like transition three would be the obvious thing to throw in there and you could very easily think of what the third transition might be finishing, crossing the finish line and getting on the podium

or going to awards or whatever. But four felt like it's just really far out there in the future and really stood for like pushing for the next thing and thinking outside of the box. There were also four professional athletes that were originally involved in what I was hoping would be like a content creation group. And also I think four sounds better than three as a title. So there you go. Those are the three reasons. That's great. I think it's cool.

Yeah. That is cool. Yeah. Who are the four pro people? Yeah. Do we know them? Do we know them? Yeah, it was me, Chris Gantor, the Wortels as a unit, and Matt McElroy.

Oh, you and Matt McElroy. Yeah. That's cool. And we tried to ultimately, like, man, this is going way back. But at one point in time, Chelsea Sedaro was involved, Paula was involved. And I was really, I think it was just like a little bit ahead of it. time and before just like what I was doing had gotten enough steam for I don't know like a whole content creation group to take place and then like picking the right athletes that were not only

just kind of interested in video but we're motivated to create it like this was very this is way before like Lionel got on YouTube this was just a little bit too too soon but now I think it would work the concept of having multiple athletes putting into one sort of content pot like a channel where there are different you know like global triathlon network has like the news and then they have some tech reviews etc I was shooting for a thing like that like Red Bull TV right Chelsea was doing

blogs like Britain Chelsea was doing blogs and Trevor was doing the best recaps that have ever and will ever be and then I was like doing some lifestyle stuff little edits Matt Mac was a surfer guy and has some really fun little like shreddits style stuff nice nice

It didn't ultimately work, but it laid the foundation for what TTL is for sure. Yeah. And I thought we could put in one more little question here, kind of a quick one, but more of a procedural one, but I kind of like it. It's from Scott. Hi, tripod, long-time listener, first-time caller. Sissing so it has a chance with Paula. Very good job, Scott. I hear the term gel in a bottle.

Are we just chugging raw gels here? We're watering them down. If so, how much? One gel and the rest water? Keep up the great work, Scott. That's a good question. I've never done this, like putting gels in bottles to make a super concentrated mix of carbs in a bottle. Have you, Eric?

You used to do it, yeah. I've just, I have a, we still have a couple things of it, the super duperd packet from precision. They have the flow gel, which I think in itself is like a little bit more liquidy and fluid than a gel. So you can just put that straight into their bottle and then drink that as if it's like maybe a little bit of a thicker water. It does also, like, depending on how you're carrying stuff, you can like screw on a little camelback style bladder top to it as well. I use that and some of like the more epic days I've done like a couple years ago. Yeah, there's the flow job.

But then I, for people that just put other gels in a bottle and I think it's diluted a little bit with water. Oh, it's for sure diluted. You can't, yeah, you can't. It won't even, I don't think it'll get through the top. Yeah, exactly. And the whole point is to make it so you can put five or six in a bottle and then. be able to drink that whole thing, but you need some water to be able to... So it was the move there to, like, put the gels in a blender with some water and, like, make the supercontractor.

Well, that's my question, Nick, is how... Does it actually blend up with water? Some of this gooey gels? Well, I've never done it myself because it feels like it's going to be a mess. But for sure, you need water with it. Even a lot of people just need it to digest it. You need water with it. That's why the flow gels or the isotonic ones or whatever they're called.

The whole point is you don't need water. but I never thought about this fact that yeah you could put them in there and then put water in there and no matter how much you shake it they're not going to blend right they're just going to be separated in there so this is a good question

probably blend them together like you said would be the best way to do it but that would be such a gooey mess in your blender it's like never recover it's just frozen okay so the precision fuel and hydration

300 gram carb flow gel that's like this giant pack of 300 grams of carbs. It's like 20 bucks for that one thing. But it's re-engineered to flow more easily. Yeah. Without adding water. No faf, no mess, less waste.

So, I mean, maybe you just go buy that for racing. Yeah, that sounds like the work is done for you. Yeah. Let's not like be putting six Morton's in two never seconds and a little bit of tailwind powder to make a concoction that's going to be cement. It does make me want to take some high carb fuel things

and see how concentrated of a solution I could get with the Vitamix. I mean, I'm sure people have tried this but it just begs the question, you know? Yeah, you better be using your own Vitamix, not my Vitamix. Make this cement powder.

Yeah, I'm well versed in cleaning vitamin X, so don't worry. That's a good question, though. If anyone has, I mean, I think our answer's good, though. Just go buy pH. Yeah, yeah. That's what I used on the race course, but I did do the individual packet gels, which does feel a little wasteful, but for race day sometimes.

Well, I mean, it'd be wasteful if you were opening gels and putting them in water, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. But the 300 pouch, that is, that's great. I mean, I'm glad they made that in general. Environmentally friendly. Yeah. Okay, well, those are the questions. Look at that. We really turned it out this week. We did a full race recap and then on top of it did some questions too.

That's crazy. Yeah, we did get a lot of questions in. We only got to whatever, five right now, but maybe some can roll over to next week. And just a reminder that if you have any questions, send them in because sometimes we get too many. Sometimes we don't have enough. So just don't be afraid to send in anything you have in your mind that you want to ask us. Yeah, I would especially say that I'm interested personally in some questions that could be on the philosophical side. It could take us a little bit longer to answer. A little mix of both is really good though. Like you need some really fast dumb ones. We need some rapid fire. And then we also need some like, what is the meaning of life in Charlottes?

Yeah, that is kind of what makes us, I think, is that is a little bit blend of both. Yeah. Well, I had a blast both times. A big thanks to everyone who came and said hi to us in St. George, came to the run, came to the brunch, came to the live pro-Chinese podcast that I got thrown in, thrown into the wolves. Yeah. Yeah, that was epic. Good times all around. Never disappoints. Well, thanks to everybody. And I guess we'll talk at you all that next week. Yeah, we'll talk to you next week. Bye. Later.