That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula wins the Ironman 70.3 Augusta triathlon, swim drafting, dropper posts, and more!

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

This week we start by hearing about Paula's second win of the year over in Augusta, Georgia. After her race recap, we go on to answer your questions. Questions about swim rests, swim drafting off of a zig zagging swimmer, training for bad weather, and more! To submit your own questions, as well as become a podcast supporter, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is our podcast, where we talk about triathlon. What's going on for us in triathlon? And the bulk of this, though, is we answer questions from everybody who writes into us, which, thank you so much for doing that because, man, we are not creative enough to just come up with things to talk about on our own. Where the heck are you guys right now? We're coming to you live from our van next to a softball field in Healdsburg, California. Yeah, it must be like drop-off time right now because there's a lot of cars coming and going beside us,

which maybe isn't great for sound quality, but it's very authentic and it's just real life and it's where we are. So we're doing the pod from the road. Yeah, we, Paula and I are both professional triathletes. So that's the basis of us feeling like we can answer anyone's questions. about triathlon. And Nick is an amateur triathlet, a pretty decent one, and our best friend, and just bring some humor and fun and a different perspective to this. I am funny looking. It's too bad you don't get visuals on the podcast of those that'd be even funnier. We're working towards that. I've really been enjoying your little edits that you've

put together from our GoPro pod sessions. Thank you. I know the people are requesting video versions of the podcast, but you cannot imagine the amount of of work that that is to do. I think it would be much easier if we just recorded for like an hour straight and we were recording video the whole time and then we put that out. But there's a lot of editing that goes on. So you'd have to edit the audio and then also cut up the video in the same way. Yeah, you guys don't want to hear us screaming at Flynn to stop scratching his new collar and et cetera, et cetera. Speaking of which, how is Flynn, Paula? Were you happy to see him? Was he happy to see you? he was a bit indifferent but I was happy to see him and he had a good trip with the boys trip with

Eric you guys met up in mammoths so Lynn's very nonchalant he's like of course I've been on the road playing in random streams and lakes that I've never seen before and then randomly my mom gets in the car four days and five thousand miles later but speaking of which okay so a lot of things happened this past weekend we'll start with maybe the less exciting which is our trip Eric and the more exciting, which is your race, Paula. Man, exciting is relative. Just depends what you're into. I agree.

Just to recap, I did end up going to Augusta. On the pod last week, I was a bit up in the air, even still, about whether I would go or not. So I ended up going, and then Eric kind of not wanting to feel lonely all weekend, got in the van and drove south from Bend to Mammoth to meet Nick. So you guys had a boys weekend. I went to race by myself. And I think generally it was a successful weekend on all fronts. I would agree.

Very much so. We just missed you, Paula. The boys' weekend was great, but we would have loved to have you there. Yeah, it looked really nice. But, I mean, Augusta was beautiful, too, guys. I bet. A little hotter. We had ideal weather.

Eric, was it just the most idealic place? We were on this place at a place called June Lake, which is just north of Mammoth, a friend of a friend has a cabin there. And we walked into this cabin, and it's just views of this beautiful. beautiful lake through the trees. I mean, it's so idyllic. Totally. I think, yeah, I mean, I don't want to just say idyllic again and have like idyllic bingo going here. But it wasn't like a super mega house with like all windows. It was very old school and like had this just warm, cozy vibe and everybody that we were there with was doing. You know what the name of that race was?

It was a mammoth Trail Fest. Yeah. So your friend David and then. Kylie, but she didn't race. Maria, she didn't race. Maria, she didn't race. Oh, Maria, but she was coaching someone. Anyone. Anyway, everybody was here for Trailfest, plus me, I just showed up and crashed it and swam in the lake and had a good time. But it was so beautiful. And it just really strikes me with like the amount of driving that I've done from Oregon down into California now and over the Sierra and over the cascade range. Just how many different looks and geologies and everything that we have on this side of the country so close is just, it's really, really cool. And it's all different and all beautiful in its own way.

even our drive because June Lake there is really close to the east entrance through Tioga Pass to Yosemite Valley so on Saturday we got up into that road and even on that one road we saw so many different kinds of things before we got down to the valley and actually Eric you had never been to Yosemite before but did it blow your mind it did you know like the only thing I can really relate it to is Zion if you've if anybody's been there but you know less red and just granite. Nick and I were talking about it and like, can you imagine the first Native American person who had just been walking back and forth, like, on the eastern side of the Sierra, like, you know, for years and forever, and the first person who, like, walked over that pass and came into Yosemite Valley,

and was like, oh my God, has this been here the whole time? What is this place? It would just be so insane to just stumble upon that. And then we did a little ride in the valley, kind of chill, but we're all wondering how your knee felt on a ride like that. I think that was kind of the first day where I feel like I was officially turning a corner. Prior to that, the couple times that I'd tried to run or ride before X-Dera Worlds, before I made that decision, it just set me back two days,

just doing like a 10-minute run or a 10-minute bike ride. But this, I felt like my knee started getting a little bit stiff, but it wasn't that big of a deal. And then the next day, it felt better than that. than the day, you know, better than the day before, including that ride. So, uh, then that trends just continued. And today, Paul and I went for a run here, uh, in the Napa Valley area of a pretty steep hill and, and that felt decent. So I'm going to say it's at like 90, 95%, uh, certainly not ready to do any hard workouts, but I think I can do recreational fun stuff now and, and, uh, just,

yeah, be outside, which is, just makes me happy. That's so good. And one of the perks of being together in Mammoth is that when we woke up one morning, Paula was racing, so we got to watch her race together. Yeah. I mean, what time?

Did you guys watch from the start? Because it was 4 a.m. your time that I started. No, when I, let's see, when I pulled in, when I started watching,

it was, when I started watching, it was right before you had taken a right turn and you maybe overcooked it a bit. Oh yeah. Do you remember that? Right at the end.

Right at the end. Yeah, end of the bike. End of the bike, yeah. The road was so rough at that point. It was like comical. I was just like sitting up 100 watts trying to navigate all these freaking potholes. But like we can talk about my race after. But I'd say it was like 10% horrible road, 90% good road.

Oh, interesting. Not really in between. Well, that's like most towns in the world, I think. Yeah. Yeah, well, I feel like this is a person. transition to talk about your race, Paula. Okay. So you were very, very unsure about this race.

Do you want to talk about why you were unsure about it until the day you left? Yeah, just the way that I felt in training for the most part was my hesitation. And the sessions that I did were hard and I had to just dig deeper than I normally do to get similar outcomes in terms of numbers. but good lesson from that was that like how you feel leading into a race doesn't necessarily dictate how you're going to feel in the race or how the race is going to go. It was a nice lesson for maybe next year, even mid-season when things aren't going perfectly. It doesn't mean the race is going to be a disaster that you shouldn't start the race at all. I think there was even a question on the pot about that this week, just wavering motivation,

heading into a late-season race and how to overcome that. And I definitely think I overthought, overthink. It was an issue for me. Just thinking too much about it instead of just committing and doing it and taking that mental load off of the back and forth would have been a simpler way to do it.

I think that's like a little bit of just a byproduct of you decided to do this race kind of to keep me company while I was training for Xtera worlds so it's not like it's something you'd been anticipating all season. It was a bit of the last minute thing and motivation for it

just to qualify for 70.3 worlds next year the majority of the motivation. That was one of the things. Yeah, I got a spot for 70.3 worlds, but I will say that, like, doing one of these lower-level races with Tamara Jewett in it, the dynamic is so different that it ends up that I'm being run down on the run the whole time,

and it's so unenjoyable. Like, it's the worst feeling to be running pretty decently for me, but being, like, the time is just being cut into by her because she's such a fast runner. So different in, like, a championship, level style race where I might have people to ride with and the gaps are bigger and it's less of a thing. But anyway, should I like actually walk through the race real quick or? You said something that really sparked my interest, which is at what point do you say,

okay, I'm feeling so weird or bad about this race that before the race even starts, I need to adjust my plan for the race. Do you have, do you ever have that or do you try to enter the race with the best hopes and then see how you feel? You know, like maybe you're trying to hold 220 watts for the bike. Is there any point where you're like, I feel so bad, I'm going to adjust this down to 205? Yeah. Or do you not do that until you're racing.

You're like, okay, 220 does not feel good. And I wasn't feeling good before the race. So now I'm going to adjust down to whatever. Yeah, I had an open mind, I guess I would say. I was open to feeling bad and adjusting the watts down by 10. But I'm pretty loose about watts that I stick to in the race in general anyway. and I try to kind of race instead of be like married to the power and riding very, very specific watts, especially on a very cornery, hilly course. So I was open anything. I was trying not to think about

outcome and just looking forward to finishing it. But once I arrived there, I was actually in a better mood. I was staying with Jackie Herring, who has a great attitude and is very funny. And we had a nice Airbnb that was on the other side of the river. And Jackie and I were talking about how, the place that you stay when you go to a race can totally change your entire experience of the race weekend. Because we were so kind of removed from the hype and the downtown that we felt like we were kind of on a holiday. We were like sitting on the patio, eating pizza. We didn't see any other athletes till the race briefing versus if you stay downtown kind of in the center of the action. Some people like that, but it really feels like you're at a triathlon.

So I think for me at this part of the year, it was nice to kind of be removed from the and be in this Airbnb that we were just like, yeah, didn't feel like we were at a race at all until we were at the race. Yeah, we were kind of talking about that with regards to Iron Man didn't actually do like their fighting chance video and that's been like a lot of the races that Paula's gone to this year. It's been she needs to do a fighting chance video and then she needs to do like put up with me putting the camera in her face and then she has to do like the pre-race press conference and by the time the race gets there you're pretty exhausted from just every single day.

has to be very strategically laid out and next thing, next thing, next thing. Yeah, this race was not like that. There was nothing. No commitments. And that's actually a good point, Eric. I haven't really been to many races without Eric this year, maybe one other. And it does make a difference to not have him filming the whole weekend. Not that I dislike it, but it's a thing. I think you dislike it. And it slows down a lot of the process. Like when I was going for runs or swims this weekend. It was like in and out in the car we're driving away, not like, oh, we're packing up the drone and then driving away. So I don't know. So it's definitely more efficient to go solo. But now we have nothing to share about the race. There's an old Italian saying there's no bad

that isn't also a good. So right, Eric being there, maybe the camera in your face less, but then you did have an issue with the chain being on upside down. And it would have been nice to have Eric there there for that, right? Like you're always going to have pluses and minuses. Front wheel was loose. Yeah, my wheel was messed up during the race, which is part of the reason I rode not very well. But I can go, let me just walk through the race real quick, like a quick race recap. Yeah. How did you sleep?

Oh, my gosh. So before the race, I was, I had this, just to like add to the reasons that I didn't want to race, I had this bat cramp. Like, you know when you sleep kind of funny and you feel like a rib gets out of place and you're like, okay, lock it off? Yeah, Eric, didn't you have this before an Xtera like a few months ago? I get this like once every couple months. Yeah, but it goes away. It goes away. Right, after a few days.

This was sticking around like for a week. And I was like, man, what did I do to this rib? Like, any time I took a deep breath, it would be stabbing pain. And before the race, same thing. Like, it was just not going away. And then the pre-race ride that I did, I got a kink in my neck. And I couldn't turn my head sideways without hurting. So my body was just like slowly deteriorating.

and then literally the day before the race, I get my period, which is whatever timing, it's better than getting it the day of the race, but the day before when I get it, I get super crampy and horrible feeling. And that lasts through the night. So night time comes of race week. I'm still kind of on West Coast time, and I'm asleep trying to get to bed on East Coast time. And 1 a.m. I still literally hadn't slept for a second. I went into my bed at 8.30 and that my neck was hurting. My period cramps were raging. I was just texting Eric. Like, I think I'm going to have to not go to this race. Like, I haven't slept for a second. I have to wake up in three hours. And my body hurts everywhere. So I cannot remember in my life having a worst pre-raised sleep.

Was it worse than couples try when we were all in the same room? Well, yeah, I meant Nick, that was horrible, but at least my body wasn't hurting. Right, right. Like, I was seriously in so much pain. And that's when I knew I was like, okay, after this race, if I happened to get to the finish line, I need a break so badly. Like, my body is just demanding it because any move I made, I would like cramp up and get sore. So anyway, I felt like a 95-year-old. go into this

trathons. And this affected, we talked about your, we talked about the race, of course, like already they

have right after the morning. And you were saying that this affected, this even affected you in your swim. Like it brought them new concerns. I was like scared.

Should I even talk about that? I don't know. I'm going to have doctors chiming in. But it was, it was a down river swim. And I got on Grace Alexander's feet.

She's a good swimmer. It was super smooth and clean. I was under control. We'd gaped everyone else. The river was, yes, it was a current. but it still allowed gaps to be created.

Like the stronger swimmers could still get away. And very easy to sight, all of that. But halfway into the swim, this chest cramp that I'd been having all week started kind of getting worse. And my heart felt kind of funny, like palpations or something. And I was like, this is not good. Like, am I having a heart attack? But I mean, people, you hear that these days.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. catastrophic things happen when they are doing an event. So I just started panicking like this race is not worth my life, not to be dramatic. But I totally eased up, let Grace go, kind of just cruised it into the finish of the swim because I was scared and decided I would just kind of start the bike and see how I felt. And so the whole time I'm kind of just analyzing my body. This is not a good race mentality to be like this. Right. Right.

But it was happening. It was all happening. Got on the bike, was riding okay. No information about what anyone else was doing. Teresa Adam was kind of with me, but wasn't going to the front ever. Maybe a few times she did. But I looked down on my bike after feeling quite wobbly and the front wheel appears to be like wavy, like not going straight.

And every time I turned to. corner I'd get back in the bars and I'd feel wobbly. And I was like, okay, thing number two that I'm dealing with now is maybe my wheel's not on right or the tire's not seated properly. So I was, this course had a lot of corners and every corner I was crawling around just like in fear that my wheel was not going to hold up to the cornering. So it was riding pretty bad. So wait, did we figure out what the problem was? the wheel? No, because I... It's still in a bike bag at home, and we're not at home. I just couldn't.

I couldn't at the time. But it turns out it wasn't loose, because I kind of jiggled it around after the race, and I don't think that was it. I think maybe the tires not seated on properly, which is just as bad. But anyway, I miraculously made it to the end of the bike ride. Didn't know what the gap was to Tamara. And that was really all that mattered in this race was the gap to her and if I could hold it off. Turns out it was four and a half minutes, which if she runs her typical like 113 to 115, she can close that down.

That's no problem. In my mind, I thought I needed seven to be comfortable. So when I heard four and a half, I was like, okay, this is going to be hard, but my body actually at that point felt okay and I was running pretty well. Like my splits were good and the course was interesting enough that I wasn't getting bored. There was people out on course. It was warm. So when I was running well for the first 5K,

I'm like, ooh, maybe this is too good. Maybe I need to ease off a bit. And she was eating in about like a minute per 5K. So that's close. By the finish line, it's like we're tied. Seconds, yeah. Yeah. That's the same thing that we were looking at,

with Indian Wells, I was looking at the tracker and it had you guys both finishing at the same time. So I was like, not this again, please. And Eric and I were like sitting there with our shirts off because I'm just like sweating proof. profusely at the kitchen table. The thing about being run down, though, is that I was running as best as I could that day,

and all things considered, I was having a decent race. So if she had caught me, then it is what it is. I mean, it's not like I could have turned on some extra gas and run harder. I was trying to be smart. I was keeping in mind all the events leading up to the race, like just the fact that I was there having a good race was a win. So a couple of times on the course I could take splits myself. because there was an out and back.

So basically right at the U-turn, I look at my watch. And then when I see her, I double that time, and that's the gap. And I did that once at about 15K, maybe a bit less, like 13K, and it was two minutes. And then I did it again with four or five-k to go, and it was still two minutes. So she was clearly slowing down, which then got me more motivated, and I started running quicker again. Wait, that's interesting. When you knew that she, when you felt that she wasn't going to catch you, that's when you found the motivation to run a little faster.

Yeah. Because when the times were coming down so quick, not even so quick, but just to the point where if she kept running that speed and I kept running my speed, she would catch me, it's hard to be motivated to run fractionally faster, you know. But when I saw that we were then running about the same speed, then I was like, okay, I can do it. Eric, is it the same for you? Are you, like, if someone's running you down,

do you feel a loss of motivation, or are you more likely to, like, redline it even harder? I'm trying to think of a time ever that I've been in a 70.3 where I'm like, hmm, I could go faster, but I don't, but I won't. It's just, I feel like every time I've ever raced a 70.3, I've been so on the red line, and it just feels like a slow dropping off of the pace. and I will say definitely

like I we all get a positive boost when we hear a gap is getting bigger so like when I won Santa Cruz last year last year it was last year last year when I won Santa Cruz last year you know like I made my move

near the end of the bike and getting into T2 and like seeing that in the course of 10 minutes I'd got a minute gap on the bike and then hearing in the first few kilometers that I was catching the guy who was off the front and not being caught by Tim O'Donnell and Matt Sharp, that was, yeah, like, oh, I'm having a good day. Yeah.

It reaffirms things and you're like, you're motivated to push through the pain. Yeah. Because it's definitely not comfortable. And there's like the main point of the book, it's called Endur. And I think they're actually talking about Malcolm Gladwell's experience, like running his at the time mile PR. And he like goes through the first 400 meters. and somebody gives him an incorrect split

that is two seconds faster than reality and he just got it in his head that he was having a magical day like how could it feel so good and so easy to be running that fast and that just like spurred him on to run a 15 second like mile PR. It's so mental.

Yeah. So just it's you're like you're constantly without being necessarily aware of it doing this calculation of like where am I at how is it going relative to how I think it should feel at this point, and depending on if that's a positive or a negative experience, that, you know, just, like, feeds that cycle. Yeah, that is amazing.

I remember when I first got my first power meter, it was calibrated incorrectly, and it was reading super high. And that gave me so much motivation to go out and ride hard and, like, work hard up these climbs and sprint hard, but it was all a lie. Yeah, I'm wondering if, like, maybe wearing a watch during the run could be a bad thing sometimes. I don't know. Maybe if you don't know.

I wanted to ask you that When I broke A power record for me in a race It was when my bike computer Hadn't charged overnight And it was dead so I didn't know And I was just going by feel And I was able to push more power that way

Which was, I think it's a strange feedback loop Like you're like Oh wow 260 watts Feels so hard in training So it should feel hard now when I'm racing It's like a strange backwards psychology thing Have you ever tried Either of you tried racing

Without power on your bike? I haven't, except for in ITU days. In ITU days, we never, well, I mean, we'd have it, but you'd have to just race and not race based on your power. Yeah, it's an interesting idea. Maybe we can incorporate that with sleep week. We'll do like gadget-free week for training. I'd be curious to know like how good each one of us would be at, okay, go out and hold 300 watts for the next minute. Like you'll get a beep, but then you can't look like your computer's in your jersey. and see how close your perception of what 300 watts is or whatever to what it actually is. Okay, let's do it.

Because for me, 300 watts, I got to go pretty hard. But you two, it's like whatever. We can like pick a different. Yeah, we can pick a different number. Like race-paced watts. No, but I think it's interesting if I have to go, I know what 300 watts feels like. You know what 300 watts feels like. Let's see if we can hit that.

Maybe we should pick like three different numbers. Like 300, 220, and like, 350 or something like that. I can't do with 350 for, well, I can do it for a minute, but I'm just going on. Yeah, for one minute. Okay. Anyway, we're getting sidetracked. Yeah, sorry.

So I won the race by about two minutes. And I was super relieved. It was a good day. I was happy to be done. I flew, the thing about a race without air, because it's very much a business trip. I got in the van, drove back to Atlanta, slept overnight at the airport, and then flew home the next day. business as usual. And Eric was still on this road trip when I got home.

So as soon as I got back to Ben, I booked a flight to fly down to California to meet up with him. And now we're road tripping back together. So off season is off to a great start. That's the story of my race. Congratulations, Paul. That's great. It's your second win of the year, right? Yeah, Chattanooga and this one.

The South is good. I like racing in the South. Yeah. But speaking of races, I'm racing this weekend. at Malibu Tri, which if you've been following the whole Malibu Tri saga, it's been a whole... But nobody was racing. No, it's on. It's on.

Yeah, well, we've been told all kinds of different information. I got bad information from a couple of bros in the Midwest. Those Oklahoma boys, they mean well, but the information comes out before it's fact-checked sometimes. Yeah. So the whole scenario here is that there is an underpass that you have to go. under PCH and Malibu Tri because the whole bike is on PCH, which is Pacific Coast Highway. You have to go under an underpass that then brings you onto PCH from the parking lot where the

transition area is. And that underpass frequently gets flooded, which is normally not an issue. They just drain the underpass. However, what they found when they were going to drain it was that there was a fish called a tidewater goby fish. And they're protected under the Endangered Species Act. and they had made their habitat in the flooded underpass at the beach. So they couldn't, they wanted to change the course,

but the course change came within, not within the time period that is requested by Malibu City. So it was a whole thing they had to appeal to the highest court in Malibu at Monday night at like 1230 in the morning. They finally passed to allow this new course. So it's such a bummer kind of. I don't want to say it's a bummer. I'm very excited to be racing the race.

I'm racing in the Celebrity Division, by the way, which is hilarious and I love it. What? Yeah, racing in the Celebrity Division. With Trixie? Trixie is doing the run relay part. Wow. With who?

Yeah. With some Super League athletes, I think. Like, she's the celebrity, so then she gets paired up with pro athletes. So she's the anchor. I'm offended. She's the anchor. She's anchoring the ride.

It was my idea to get Trixie into the celebrity division of a triathlon, and now we weren't even asked to come. Why were we invited to come and do the swim bike with Trixie? First of all, if you wanted to come down and do the race, we could make that happen. For sure. I just assume you don't want to come to L.A. for Malibu Try. Well, if it's for the Celebrity Relay with Trixie, yes, we do. Oh, my God. I'll talk to my contact.

the problem is I don't have a bike with me here in the van I have a bike I could ride your bench I could ride your bench well this is that's funny but anyway the course now is being short and the bike course was 17 miles it's called the classic distance it's a little bit between a sprint and

Olympic it was 17 miles now it's a little under 10 miles and those 10 miles are three loops it's like it's just this tiny little portion of the road that you don't have to use the underpass for so it'll be interesting for me as cycling being my strength to see how point this is.

It's a four mile run off. You should ride your avenge probably. It's like a crit. I know. That's what I'm also wondering if like maneuvering around people is going to be an issue on the TT bike. Yes, it is.

Put a bell on that. Put a bell on your bench. Put a bell on the air of our extensions. Yeah. Wow. That's funny. But anyway, so if you are racing Malibu try this weekend, good luck to you, have a lot of fun.

And if you see me definitely come up and say hi, I'll be wearing TTL stuff. But he's going to have security guards around him, so you just got to all be your way to him. Yeah, it's right. Moving on, we've also had some questions about sleep week, which got a lot more interest than we were expecting. But Eric and I will be doing a sleep week thing. And I think it will be fun if podcast listeners did it with us. We're going to find out some way to organize this. I think at the very least what we'll do is like a little poll on Instagram at the end of the sleep week

to see if people recorded better sleep, same sleep or worse sleep, but we might go even more in depth than that. We might be able to make some sort of like a group event slash activity like on Strava, which would allow like some conversation back and forth. I just got to see if we can make like a, even if it's just like a one day event. Like we'll find a way where you can like discuss how sleep week's going. And we're not sure when it's going to be yet, but we are very excited about it. And also, thank you to Jordan Blanco for sending me the pillar performance, triple magnesium super sleep stuff. So we're going to be pulling out all the stops for sleep week.

Eric and I are going to be sleeping like babies. Yeah, we just need to wait. I don't know, you guys. When you tell yourself to sleep, you don't sleep. That's what I experienced pre-agin. You're right. Oh, no. If you're like, I need to sleep well, you don't.

And I mean, the only way to sleep really well, actually, no, this is what the experiments for. but when you're training pretty hard and you're tired, then you sleep a lot. So I don't know, it's really hard during off season to necessarily get optimal hours when we're... I just, I think that this is going to start, like, at midday for me. I need to, like, try to figure things out so that I, like, write everything down that's on my mind at, like, 6 p.m., like, all they get all the ideas out, like, just, like, my thing when I don't sleep, it typically has to do with, like, I'm thinking about stuff. So that's my strategy anyway. of triple magnesium and blackout shades and brown noise music. I don't give away all my strategies.

Okay, let's do questions now. Yeah, we actually have a lot of really good questions. So I think we're not going to quite rapid fire them, but we do want to be concise with them because there's a lot of really good ones. Okay. Quick, quick funny thing. Flynn's with us in the van, obviously. He needed a new dog tag because his was getting quite faded and you

couldn't even read our phone numbers anymore. So we got him a new dog tag. We weren't impressed with the options or the fonts at this particular petco, but we're going to get him a new one and bend. But the jingle, like the sound of it when he scratches is different. And it's crazy how much we notice this kind of thing. Because we're so used to hearing the jingle of his old caller or his old tags. And we're like, what dog is this?

Some random freaking dog in the back of our van scratching himself. Are you guys going to do an air tag? on him. We could, yeah, I guess we could. He never runs away though. He stays next to us all the time. Yeah. I don't know.

Like me, my concern of him getting lost is definitely somewhere where there will be no humans with cell phones that, you know, the air tag would interact with. So I think we would go with

like one of the, whatever, actual dog GPS units is what we would have to do. Got it. In case you didn't know, you can submit your own questions to the podcast. That Triathlon Life,

dot com slash podcast. And you can also become a podcast supporter there. And with your monthly support, it helps this podcast go because we don't do ad reads on this podcast. First question here, I need the TTL brain just to settle a debate. I just recently competed at Jones Beach 70.3. Side note, I was going to do that race. This is the first year for that race.

It's a new race on Long Island, which is where I lived most of my life. It took place during tropical storm Ophelia rocking the course. The swim was shortened due to water conditions, and we dealt with heavy gusts and consistent rain on the bike, which led to some gnarly crashes, and then had a really fun two-mile-long headwind twice on the run with many ankle-deep puddles throughout the course. Oh boy, this is like flashbacks to Iron Man, Wisconsin for me. In the lead-up to this race, as many people were checking the weather and seeing the unfortunate forecast, the same comments kept being made What's a little bad weather

You have I should do this in a Long Island accent What's a little bad weather You've trained in bad conditions like rain And when to prepare for this To which I always replied in my head Heck no I didn't So TTL What's the deal? Am I the outlier

And should I be training in tropical storm like conditions Or are the people training in crazy weather The outliers? Thanks Drew We are not really Into braving really shitty conditions When we train I'll go to the trainer before I'll go out in a rainstorm.

So I don't think that, you know, riding out in terrible conditions is necessarily necessary, especially windy conditions. Like that can sometimes be dangerous. But putting up with a little bit of adversity is good. And I think especially if you're encountering unpredictable adversity, like it starts raining while you're out there. In your mind, you can be like, well, what if it's raining on race day? This is making me stronger and getting practice in the wet.

So it can be used as a tool to kind of motivate you through bad conditions. but I don't think you should be seeking bad conditions just in case the race day sucks. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. That's typically the way that I trend more. Like for me, the trainer is more often, like doing four by 10 minutes on the trainer, it sounds more mentally strenuous than doing that outside when it's cold and I have to put on

like thermal tights and et cetera, et cetera. But it just kind of depends on the type of athlete you are. So I wouldn't say that those people that you're referring to are necessarily outliers, rather than everybody's a little bit different. And some people get fired up by that type of adversity. And some people are just like, that's not the match I want to burn right now. Yeah, I would say that, like, especially for wet conditions, the one advantage of having some training in the wet is just bike handling when the roads are not dry

because that is different. And you have to go slower, lower your tire pressure. So things like that could be improved if you ride in the wet sometimes. But again, I wouldn't necessarily seek it out. just in the off-trance that the race is what. And just to be clear here, we're talking about adversities that you can't physiologically adapt to, like, for example, like heat. And heat training can actually make you more efficient in the heat, right?

This is stuff like a windstorm with rain, which is, it's more about, like you said, there's some bike handling stuff, but it's not about being physiologically adapted to it. It's about just surviving it. Yeah, exactly. If it's a heat is a different story. This is talking hurricanes. Yeah. Okay, next question here.

Jonas from Hamburg, Germany. Hi, Paul, Eric, and Nick, or the other way around. Thank you very much for your podcast and video. I enjoy hearing and watching them weekly. I have a question regarding drafting in the swim leg. A couple of weeks ago, I competed in a triathlon where I had someone swimming in front of me in a perfect pace. Exactly the speed I wanted to swim while enjoying the draft.

However, this person kept going left and right on a very long and clear straight swim. I was sure of me swimming straighter with my own orientation. So, what is likely to be faster following a person in a crooked line with a good draft or swimming straight without a draft? Thanks, Jonas from Hamburg. Swimming behind someone is always better, I think. Unless they're so wildly off course that it's comical. I did some math here.

I did some high school math here. Okay, you did some trigonometry? Before you get into your math, bro, I would say that unless you were about to make a much, move anyway. I'm feeling like this person's going too slow and I need to try to figure out a way to get around them. It's probably best to stay on their feet. It's interesting. There's

no really wrong answer. It really depends on how far off course they're going because if you're, let's say you're deviating, let's say every 50 yards, you have a five degree deviation and you have to swim back to the center each time. By the end of a 70.3 swim,

if you're making 5% deviations constantly over 100 yards, it's only 19007 yards total that you've swam. You're only swimming seven extra, sorry, meters. You're only swimming seven extra meters, which of course if you're in someone's draft is 100% worth it. You're getting much more than seven meters of help. But if you do a 20 degree deviation, then you end up swimming 2,021 meters. So an extra 121 meters. And that's more than I think you would make up. But my question for you guys is, how much do you feel like being in someone's draft? Like, how many seconds per hundred meters are you saving in a good draft?

Potentially like five to ten? Yeah. Wow. I mean, oh, maybe not that. It depends how good you are sitting on someone's feet. And that that takes practice because you have to be right there. Even five meters back you lose. It's like drafting on the bike, obviously.

The closer you are, the better the draft. I'll say it's like three points on the RPE scale. Like swimming side by side 10 out of 10 versus 7 out of 10 behind somebody at the same speed. Maybe you could swim the same speed as a person in front, but you're saving energy. And I think that in triathlon, that's the key to the swim, is getting out in decent position while expending as little energy as possible. It's not about being the hero and getting out of the water first if you don't have to. It's way better to sit on someone's feet and feel fresh starting the bike and put your effort into the bike. I'm going to throw this out there too.

consider this that the person in front of you is actively trying to zigzag to get you off their feet doubtful Nick when you say 20 degrees If you're a hardcore feet tickler this could be a thing Nick 20 degrees is a huge amount

to be off course massive I think that most likely this person is very slightly off course and maybe they're not even sometimes sighting is very deceiving and maybe they actually are swimming straight But if I'm swimming on someone's feet, I don't cite for the buoy.

I'm just looking up to make sure I'm on their feet. So I guess I don't even really notice. But how often do pros screw up the line by that much? I have to imagine it doesn't happen as often as age groupers. Yeah, there's clean water in front of them usually, so it's easier to cite. I feel like if the person in front of you is going so off court because they are looking at the wrong buoy, that's going to throw up enough of a red flag for you that you will then cite.

But yeah, like five degrees one way or the other, you're just along for the ride with that. Okay, we got to rapid fire this. Flid. Rapid fire this up. Get back in here. But the moral of the story is, unless it's truly, like, dramatic,

it is worth it to stay with that person, even if they are zigzagging a bit. That's the moral. The moral. The end. Next question here is from Alicia. Hey, guys, love the TTL universe. Have caught up on all the podcasts.

And after listening to one episode about mountain bikes, I upgraded from a hard tail to a dual suspension with a dropper post seat. Have to agree that the dropper post is the best part of the upgrade. Awesome. After watching Ditliv at the Nice Iron Man World Championships with a dropper post on a CT bike, would you consider upgrading your TT road or gravel bikes? Do you think it would be helpful in certain hilly races? So let's start with a question.

Would you like it on a gravel bike? Let's just say that they don't make dropper posts for road bikes or TT bikes. that was a crazy, innovative, progressive move by Magnus to put a dropper post on his TT bike. And it's not like you can just go to the bike store and buy a seatpost that'll fit into your TT bike. It was like an engineering... I've been wanting one for a long time, but they just don't make them. Yeah. So who cares if we want one or not?

We can't get one unless specialized makes us one, which is what Scott did for Magnus. But on the gravel bike, it could be useful. I've got it on the gravel bike. I really just. just use it every once in a while just so that I feel good about having it there. But the point of having it on a gravel bike, I mean on a mountain bike is for like things that are so steep that you can't get your center of gravity back far enough with the saddle in the way or if you're going over jumps.

Like on the gravel bike, the only times I've ever used on the gravel bike where they go, oh, maybe I should just like put my dropper down here because I have it and it's easier than super tucking. Oh, interesting. like going downhill fast because I feel like the dropper I feel like I would use it on a technical slow steep descent

yeah which doesn't happen very often in like classic gravel like you would have you have to be under biking real hard like on something that you should be mountain biking on like if that's the type of gravel that you do then yeah it's useful and that's kind of why I have it because there are a couple of things that I like to do and bend

where there's like a connector on a section of single track to another gravel road. Okay. But it's like so situation just specific. And what about on a road bike? I know that I know it's not easy to get, especially on TT bikes where we don't have these round seat tubes. But if you could have it, would you want it?

Like when you're descending, do you ever feel, man, I wish I could just get lower on the back end so I could put more weight over the back wheel? Personally, I don't. And I think Magnus was a bit of an outlier. because he's such a tall person that getting a lower center of gravity made a course like Nice a little more stable on the descents

is what he said. And I think it worked for him, but I personally have never felt the need of that. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's like having grown up descending a certain way is like that's ingrained to me of like exactly where the saddle

is going to be in my crotch when I slide back on it to go really hard around a corner. So yeah, maybe it could be a little bit faster with the dropper, but it would just, it would almost be like a complete rewiring, you know, like neuromuscularly. Of how to descend. Yeah. I don't know. It could be fun to play around with, but.

Yeah, I think it would be fun to play around with. I'd be down for that. Next question here is from Richard from the UK. I don't think I've ever heard mention of the podcast theme music on the pod. I find it often stuck in my head. I go around humming it for a couple of days after I listen to each podcast. I've always assumed it's a Nick original, but can't find anything online to confirm or refute this. I love that this was Googled. Can I get a hold of a longer version anywhere? Is this a job for the TTL kid? Keep up the great work and heal well, Eric. Yes, it is a Nick original. It was originally actually, I wrote it for a Heineken ad,

and then they didn't use it for the Heineken ad. So we used it for the podcast. And yes, I think this will be released under the TTL Kid. It's something I'll work on over the next couple weeks, and then I'll let you guys know when it's out. But yeah, so the theme song for the podcast, unfortunately it only exists in that like a 60 second version there's no full

version of it but I'll develop it yeah I was gonna say jingles don't always turn out great in like a Spotify playlist form right it's fun and it gets you excited for 15 seconds but then if it kept going would it get annoying maybe it just needs a different it needs different faces it right

it needs a different section that contrasts it to make that section you'd have to like remix it correct yeah I have to I did the same thing for the swerkinet song though when I put it on Spotify. I created a new section that didn't make it into the video. Cool. This is something that happens very often when companies want commercials. They use a song they really like that already exists

and they get very far down the pipeline with it and then they're like, okay great, let's license it. And the artist is like, yep, that's going to be $400,000 to license this song. And they panic last minute and get a composer like me to create something called the sound alike where we can kind of get through the same emotion, but no one's getting sued. That's the, that's the idea. So that was, I forget what the sound of like was, but it was some big EDM artist. That's cool. Yeah. Good story. Um, okay. Next question here. Hello, guys. I am Sebastian. Chilean living in New Zealand for almost a year now, brand new supporter and longtime follower.

Woo! Thank you, Sebastian. I'm back at proper training since June. Had a forced break of almost four years due to life changes, COVID and more life changes. Ooh, that is a, that's a long break. I thought you were going to say four weeks. Oh, yeah. Four years. That's my kind of break. That's quite a break. That's quite a break. Does it matter that the rest between laps are not always the same when swimming in terms of time? I swim in a public pool where the amount of people for line, per lane, I think he means, varies every day.

Sometimes I have to wait for people to swim away from me, and other times I have to shorten the rest because somebody slower is coming. Does this affect the result and purpose of the training? Hope you can answer my question. Keep it up, Eric. Try to enjoy the time off, even if it's forced. yeah, cheers. And be happy, Eric, that it's up four years. Yeah, that would be a significant life change for me. I would say that it doesn't really matter if you're swimming and you get different rest at different walls.

But personally, I like having a consistent leaving time and a consistent pattern for a set because it feels more like a set instead of just going and doing lap swim. But if you're literally stopping at every wall or every 50 and assessing the lane and seeing when you can push off, then it's fine, it's better than not swimming. But I would say ideally the lane would be kind of empty and you could do a more structured thing. Yeah, I wouldn't be too stressed about like one rep. You're getting 20 seconds and the next one you're getting 30 and then you're getting 17. Ideally, it's, you know, within that percentage and not like 20 seconds and then two minutes. But like, for example, our coach hasn't really given us send-offs in swim workouts for a little bit of a while.

So if that makes you feel any better about how it's not super important to 20 seconds exactly, or this workout is pointless, that's all I could say. I think as age groupers, we sometimes forget that the body is not such a stickler about these very specific things, like riding at 250 versus 247 watts. You know, you're mostly getting the right things done, even if the rest isn't great. And it's really interesting to hear that your coach Paulo does, even give you guys send off times, right? Like, kind of lets you figure out what,

do you think he trusts you to figure out what that is? Or is he just more concerned about the work than he is about the rest? Both. Yeah, and I think it's, if I'm unsure, I'll call him and check in and say, like, you know, is this, are you envisioning this being like a 40-second rest on this 200

or like a 10-second rest if it's not clear? But usually it's kind of clear based on the prescription of how hard the interval. it is to us and that just comes with some experience. Lost my train of thought. If it's a really, if he wants us to get short rest, he'll put an interval.

But otherwise if we're doing 200s solid, we'll like go on 250. Get 20 seconds rest, you know? It's, um, it's kind of intuitive for us at this point. But yeah, the exact number is not something to stress over. That's cool. Thanks for the, thanks for supporting

the pod, Sebastian. Woo, Sebastian. Love it. Love it. Okay, next question here is from Don. Hi guys, I've been listening since episode one day oneer and watching the vlog since 2019 when I first started my triathlon journey. That's a real, that's 2019 is like... The real day oneer. That's a real day oneer. I mean, the real, real, real day oners are like the transition four people who are like watching Eric do an ITU stuff.

That's, and I know those are out there because sometimes they ask questions. I bumping to them every once in a while. At Edmonton, actually, there was a guy wearing a transition four hat. There were like 12 of those that exist. I remember. That's impressive. Anyway, your content has motivated me to lace up or clip in on countless occasions. I have two questions for Paula and Eric, and then I'll give some background on why I'm asking.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard were your hard swim workouts when you were younger? Think teenage years. And on a scale of 1 to 10, how hard are your hard swim workouts now? And the background is that Don grew up swimming competitively and has very vivid memories. of really intense workouts and now doesn't really have those as much. So I love this question because a lot of us who came into swimming as adults, I think we have a lot of mystery and intrigue around people who grew up swimming. Yeah, I love this question too because as Nick, you kind of shortened it, his background,

but he talked in his remembering swim practice, like being beat red, out of breath, dying on the side of the pool. Sweating between reps. Sweating. Yeah. And I remember that as a swimmer. We do max effort stuff or we do best average 200s and I would be like lying on the pool deck after so dead.

And I was also an I-MER so we'd do like max breaststroke sets which is a different kind of pain and I don't know when it's all you do and you're not biking and running and your training as a swimmer, it's a different mentality. And I would say that for triathletes, Eric and I swim pretty hard. Like I still, I don't go as deep as I did when I was a competitive swimmer, but we go real deep.

Like when we're touching the wall, I'm really out of breath, but I know at this point in my career how to moderate my effort, so I could still go home and do a hard bike ride later. I feel like that that's kind of what occurred to me is that at this point, like the amount of volume that we have in our bodies and the intensity that we need to swim for 70.3 or even stepping down to like an Olympic distance non-draft race, your body is like setting a limit there

versus when we were swim training, we're training to do like the 100-yard freestyle in a relay and like the 200 butterfly or whatever. And that is just like, that's a completely different energy system and you do need to go to that place where you finish that 100 rep and you're just blown and you've got two minutes before you do another one off the blocks at race pace.

Yeah, it's a different kind of training. Now we do a lot more threshold work where we're at race pace and it's really uncomfortable and it's what a 70.3 feels like, but you're not getting to the wall and feeling like you're dizzy. So it's different. But I would say that most swimmers, most age group triathlete swimmers don't push themselves hard enough in the water. Everyone can push themselves a little bit harder, I think, is my perception. But maybe that's rude. I don't know. know. Who knows? It's based on like just some anecdotal experience that we have with some people that we've swam with and Bend where, you know, we're like, okay, we're doing 20 by 50. 20 by 50, like best pace and we're going to be going on a minute so you got plenty of rest. And we get to the wall and somebody's like, well, this is the most boring set ever. I was like, you shouldn't be able to speak.

Yeah. You shouldn't be able to speak. Right, right. Yeah. I'm trying to kill myself here. Yeah. get on board. Yeah, there's a lot of sets we do with Paulo where I get to the wall and I'm sucking air.

Couldn't say a word if I had to. And then the people behind me are like having a conversation. So there's times in swimming where it should be extremely uncomfortable, where you dread it, you know, going into the swim. But that makes you better at swimming. I truly believe. What's worse? A two-minute max effort, swimming, biking, or running? God, we haven't done any of those recently.

Maybe running at this point? I don't even know. I just like, again, like the energy system. I just don't feel like it's there. I feel like I would go out, like if you told me to do a 200 as fast as I could go in the pool, I feel like I'd split like a 29 first 50 and then I'd come back in like 32 and then like 35 and then it just, it would just like blow up so hard. And I don't know if it would honestly be any faster than if I just did.

Steady 200. Do a 200 at mid-race pace. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I don't know that. We'll just add that to the list of experiments that we're going to do in the future. Yeah, that's funny. That's funny. Like the body still, like my mind still remembers what that felt like as a kid in high school to like do a 200 all-out. But like my body does not remember what that is.

Yeah, that's funny. That's really interesting, though. I love that. Love that question. Thanks for the question, Don. Two more questions. First one is here from Louise. I'm a new listener in making my way through the pod episode,

so I'm not sure if this question has been answered. Can I get that much better at cycling without a computer? Can I put a cycling computer on a stationary bike at the gym? Have you ever heard of folks using a sport watch as a computer instead of buying one? So those are three questions. Let's start with the first one. Can I get that much better at cycling without a computer? We're talking like a computer that tells you your cadence in miles per hour,

like a cat eye? I'm assuming, Louis, so Louise, you know, cadence in miles per hour, is not what people are talking about when they're talking about a bike computer helping you get better. They're referring specifically to power, reading your power on the bike. That's what is so beneficial. Yeah, but I would say if she doesn't have any feedback or any numbers at all while she's riding, I would say she could get better with a bit of structure even as much as a stopwatch to be doing intervals. And I think at this point she's talking about not having anything.

So in that case, yes, you can use a sport watch and you can structure. strap it to your bars and structure workouts that way. I don't think power is completely necessary to get better at riding. You could be doing hill repeats where you start your watch and stop your watch and try to get faster at the hill each time you do it. So it can be as simple as that. And it's not like you need cadence power, heart rate, speed, all of the data. Simple is okay. Yeah, 100%. You could get through your first couple of years in triathlon just doing five by five minutes on the bike with two minutes recovery, trying to imagine yourself racing and what that race effort feels like. Yeah, going a bit more on perceived effort. And all you need for that is something

that tells you how many seconds have gone by. I also think that for a lot of age groupers were nowhere near our limit of how much volume we're doing. And volume does so much for your bike fitness. And you don't need a bike computer to do a lot of volume or anything like that. But for me, having the power there is like it's a motivator. When I see that in a workout, it's like I'm supposed to hit X number of watts for five minutes or whatever. That keeps me kind of accountable.

That's why I like it. It helps me pull more out of myself. But do you need it? It depends what kind of person you are. I'm the kind of person that likes the toys. The toys make me want to work harder. For some other people, it's like the less technology, the better.

They don't want to see those numbers. Yeah, I think that's what Apollo is getting at with like doing the same hill over and over. And like, did you get, how far did you get? Did you get the stop sign? Did you get a little past the stop sign, et cetera? So you have something to measure yourself and get that same sort of a stimulus if we're arguing for, you know, less technology. You can do things like that. Yeah. And it's not like maybe she, maybe she would like a power meter, but they're expensive.

Power is something that's also a bit of a learning curve. If someone brand new to power gets a power meter and goes out and rides, they don't know what 105 watts means. They don't know what 200 watts means. You can't compare it. You're comparing power to your own power. So to keep things simple, and if you're new to this, I'd say stopwatch is fine. And in regards to taking it to the gym, I don't know, same kind of deal where if you're doing intervals on a gym. It does work, though.

On a lot of stationary bikes, I've been able to pair my watch to the power meter on the bike. Okay, okay, cool. So that can work. I don't know if it works with all of them, but the ones that like gyms I've done it at, it has worked. and I don't know how accurate those are. That's the thing. It's like your power meter and your bike could read different than the power meter at the gym. And like I would just take whatever you're reading with a grain of salt there

and still kind of go off of the perceived exertion and the time. And then maybe that power meter on the gym bike you can compare to the last time you rode the gym bike, but don't like get too caught up and how does it relate to your power meter at home? Because who knows? Yeah, yeah, of course. And just a little PSA there If you're very new to bike computers and power meters You can't just buy a bike computer to read your power

You also need to install the power meter somewhere on your bike Whether it's pedals or cranks or spider or hub, whatever It sounds obvious But I don't want someone to go out and spend the money on a power meter And then they're like, why can't I see On a bike computer And then say why can't I see the power? Yeah, that's a good point, Nick

Totally And then last question here is from Lane from Middle of Nowhere, England his words, not mine. Hi Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. Flynn's last, thank God. Longtime listener, first time emailer.

My question is about swim starts and triathlons and when to start the pro men and women. I was wondering how you would feel if the pro men and women just started at the same time like the age groupers. Would it make that much difference, given that the top women often catch the slower men anyway? Alternatively, what do you think the ideal gap is? Five minutes for a 70.3?

Kind regards Lane. So, interesting. There's a lot of different elements going on here. That would just be a nightmare. Yeah, you can't start men and women together. They actually do start men and women together at Escape from Alcatraz. But there's like six men and six women, less of a thing. And a crazy swim.

Yeah, and just to continue that anecdote, though. Sarah McClarty was always in the middle of the men's field. And you can make your own conclusions whether or not that, like, made her faster or not. But that is the issue. The same thing that goes on in gravel racing with men and women starting at the same time. It's really a matter of which women are the best at making the right moves to stick with the men the longest versus like who's necessarily the best over like 200K consistent effort. As a female pro, I would say the issue leaks more into the bike if we're starting with the men because my swim time compared to the men in Augusta was like mid-pack. I think I swam faster than Lionel actually.

So you get on the bike and you just have guys coming by and then I would be sucked along by the guys and that's not fair. So I don't know. I think that obviously guys like Lionel are much, much better on the bike than me. But I've trained with Eric doing 70.3 intervals before and I can sit 10 meters back on his wheel because the effort is so much lower in someone's draft.

So it would just make the whole race more unfair and you do get this effect even with a two minute gap but in augusta we had a seven minute gap which is the biggest i've ever experienced and i would say it was enough it was like i never saw a pro men man in the swim we caught maybe three on the bike but they were all really respectful and just went back that's a rough that's a rough day you're not having a good day yeah if you're getting rolled up by the pro women in your seven minute gap ahead that sucks but from my perspective seven good number and I think all races should be five to seven. Eric, do you agree? Yeah, yeah, I mean, for exactly the reason that Paula is stating. Like, it's never come into play in a race that I've ever

done because I swim well and I ride well, but it's always a thing because I get it. Like, people want to get their pro card and be able to sign it for a race whenever they want. And there's a lot of benefits of racing pro, even if you're not in the hunt for the money. But that always ends up affecting the lead women in the way that Paula was saying. And I also don't think it's necessarily malicious, but it's, for example, we saw a female pro that was, Apollo saw a female pro that was like caught in a group of top age group men who had caught her from behind.

And it's just like a tough dynamic just because it's so hard to break away from a group or do you sit back and just like totally let them go and then resume your race? It's, I don't know. It's, it's complicated, but I don't think starting together would be a good idea, no. A lot of it comes down to just how long Iron Man can close the roads for and just getting everyone off the course in time. It doesn't allow for having bigger gaps, but I guess in Augusta there was enough time to kind of clear everyone off the roads.

Yeah, this comes up in almost every pro-briefing ever. They're like, oh, what's the gap from the women to the men? Two minutes. Oh, can we make that longer? No, it's impossible. They've thought about it They've thought about it But in the PTO

We're just done separate days It's not even a thing at all So And it's 70.3 worlds Right That's the only way For it to truly be Perfectly fair

To the women Yeah And I have not have the men The back half of the men Influenced the race You know my ADD brain Is just like How sweet would it be though

If there was like A race where you had a partner Like we gotta do couples try But I think they need to redo The couples try Where you like can draft With your partner Oh yeah

Like like Right right right Like Swiss epic or whatever Cape Epic they That's what they do right Yeah That's the only time That I think men and women

Should start together As if it's a partner's race And that would be fun That'd be entertaining It'd be so easy for the guys though Because like if we went together You'd have to just go at 75% effort for me to be able to stay with you

Wait a second You think so You don't think if Eric was like Giving 100% on the bike If you were behind him You couldn't stay with him Yeah, if I was sitting right on his wheel, yeah. Right, yeah, I'm saying this is like draft legal for sure.

Okay. You know, as close as you can ride safely in the arrow bars. Yeah, that's interesting. And then, and then, like, did Eric save enough energy that then he can run with you the whole time? Or is he, like, totally blasted from the bike? That's kind of an interesting dynamic. He's always going to run fast. Anyway, I feel like, I feel like you'd have to go cross-country style, you know?

Oh, I see, yeah. So it would, yes, the man could, like, ultimately end up running faster. but you're trying to get the lowest cumulative time. That's how I think it would make sense to set it up. Awesome. Yeah, cool. Okay, maybe we'll organize a little couples race. Yeah, if you got just a ridiculous amount of money and you want to put on a cool invite-only triathlon,

like the couples try or Island House, there you go. There's your concept. You're welcome. Okay, well, those are all our questions. Thank you, everyone who wrote in for questions. Paula, amazing job at Augusta. Eric, thanks for coming down to California and hanging with me. We had a lot fun. Thanks for talking me into it.

Yeah, I just, I kept sweeten the deal. It happened, it came up very organically, like almost jokingly, but then it just sounded really nice. And, you know, like how many times in your life are going to be able to just drive 10 hours at the drop of a hat? Not often, so. And that's how I felt when I was booking this last minute flight for coming down to meet Eric. How many times in the year can you just really have no stress for a week and not need a bike and do a big van trip in our fancy brand new van that we're. we love. So it's a good time. It's a good time. We're very lucky. I have to head out on a little easy run, which my friend, my friend Lauren, who I went to high school with, who listens to this

podcast, by the way, is not a triathlet, but loves the podcast because she just likes our dynamic. She's going to shadow me on the bike. So I got to run. You got an escort. An escort service. That is nice. That is the dream, man. The water bottle, the boombox. I don't agree. I think that when you're doing a run and someone's riding, beside you, maybe that's just the way that I run, but I'm always, I don't like talking when I run, because I'm always so out of breath. Even if I'm on easy

run? Yeah. Yeah. I hate talking while I run. I don't know. You're my favorite running partner. Eric can concur. I never talk when we run. We're in total silence. Yeah, we pretty much just, we have to have a conversation about it every once in a while because I just assume that Paula

hates running with me because I'll just make conversation until I'm tired of being ignored, and then we run in silence. let's But I just don't I'm not fit enough to talk when I run You know?

I'm not fit enough I'm not keep choga I can't Okay That's funny That's funny Well we're gonna go Try to find dinner

And wine country But thank you Everyone for listening We did have Much more questions This week than last week Which was great So keep sending them in

We love getting them We appreciate all the supporters and we'll talk to you next week, although I don't know what kind of updates we're going to have. Nothing triathlon related. Oh no, Nick, you're racing. Well, I'll have won the Malibu Triathlon, of course.

Duh. Tune in next week for a one-hour recap of the Maloo Triathlon and the goby fish situation. The good news is that last year, Nick Chase and I both raced in Wisconsin and we both DENFed and then we both raced Malibu Tri

and Nick Chase raced in my same race, so I was one step lower. And I messaged him today and he's not racing Malibu Tri. So I'll be one step higher this year. Well, isn't he like a coach of the, you know, nuclear lizards or something? No, no. What are they?

It's the real tri-squat. It might be the Warriors or something. Yeah, they're like totally Americans and it's the real Tri-Squod sponsors them. And I got to say, I hope Nick is listening because he crushes his interviews. Like before the race, you know, they're like leader of the green scorpions. How do you think your team's going to do? And it's like kind of awkward. But Nick is just, he freaking crushes it.

He has like throws in these things about America and Performing it. I don't know. He falls into the role perfectly. Yeah. He's motivating. I love it. I love it. Yeah. He's like hands it up the perfect amount. Yeah. Because the whole thing is kind of a little bit funny with the coaches of the teams that are made up or whatever. And some of the coaches of the teams are super awkward and don't interview well, but Nick's the opposite.

So yeah, that's probably my favorite team. But we're looking forward to following along Super League and Nick's race. And then next week we'll do a little recap. Yeah, it'll be short. Don't worry. That's it. All right. Let's go find some dinner at a place to sleep.

Okay. Later, everybody. Thank you. Yeah.