That Triathlon Life Podcast - Pool toys for triathlon swimming, professional race pacing, and more!

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

This week on the podcast, we cover a wide range of triathlon-related topics, gave away some premium headphones, played a round of Hot or Not, and dug into your listener-submitted questions. This episode, we get into:How pros pace their racesIntegrated fuel and hydration setups on modern tri bikesConverting to a waxed chain and what to expectKey workouts for XTERRA-style off-road triathlonsTips for finding pools while travelingChoosing the right tire size for gravel ridingUsing Cat Ears to reduce wind noiseOur favorite go-to pool toysHow to prepare for racing early in the dayA 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, everybody. Welcome to TTL podcast. I'm Eric Lockerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. We've got a killer show for you today. I've got a little bit of news, great questions. So many. So many. We're going to have to be efficient with our time once again. And we are giving away the single largest dollar value item that we have ever given away on this podcast to one of our wonderful podcast supporters. So if you're just tuning in for the first time, you're out of luck. But if you're tuning in, and your podcast supporter, today might be your day.

Inside of the TTL sphere, I've got a couple of quick, you might call this news or just like things that are happening. We put out a YouTube video. I actually haven't even watched it yet. Well, you're fired. I haven't watched the tour highlights either. I'm just behind. I mean, to be fair, it did come out as you were becoming a sub one hour 40K guy on the bike

and a sub 40-minute 10K runner in your triathlon. I think we're going to get to that, but you were to be. be fair, relatively busy at the time of the drop. We put it out at 8.m. on Sunday like we used to. It's just good fun. It's a little bit of a story behind us going down to Truckee to support Heather at Western States and all the stuff that we did while, you know, hanging out down there.

We love Truckee. Our apparel drop that we put out last week went fantastic. I apologize. The women's smalls and mediums of the lilac shirt sold out ridiculously quickly. The last time we put out a drop, smalls didn't sell very fast. This time they, like, sold out in a minute. So I ordered some more. They're going to be on the way. There's going to be

a restock of that. So small and medium women, I sincerely apologize, but I'm making it right. Last but not least, tailwind put out new recovery flavors and they're banging. Oh. Yeah. They, like, rejigged their whole recovery thing. It froths a little bit better now. It's got 20 grams of plant protein and they came out with a strawberry flavor. This is not an ad read. I'm actually just genuinely excited about it. I got back from a trail. run and had the salted caramel flavor and kind of lost my mind with how tasty it was. With water or with milk? I did a little almond milk.

Yeah. Truly. He's good with water too, though, really. That's kind of what drew me to it in the first place when we were considering being sponsored by Tailwind is with water works great. And so we just have them in the van all the time and you're never missing the glycogen window and all that. And Eric, you are an unsweetened almond milk man, aren't you?

I am. Yeah. I think I've mentioned it before, but I try to keep my cereal sugar, you know, first thing in the morning thing down as much as I can while eating cereal. There's only so much you can do and unsweetened almond milk is part of that equation. Yeah. You know, trying to avoid prediabetes and all that. Yeah, I can't. My cereal needs to have sweetened oat milk in it or I won't touch it.

Well, we're living in an amazing world where there's 79 different types of milk that you can choose from. So whatever you're fancy. I guess and then, I don't know if we're planning to talk about this at all, but I think when this comes out, like, it's race week. Paul is doing Boise 70.3. Yes, that's right. Which is a 70.3 that has not been on the calendar since Paul and I have been doing 70.3s and it's back and we're psyched.

We love Boise. Yeah, why did you pick it? Because we can drive there and... Okay. No, try again. Try again. Let's take two on that. Let's run that back one more time.

Take another lap, as they say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would send you to the principal's office for that one. The reason I'm going to Boise is because I haven't race since Vancouver. It's a race that's only a five-hour drive for us so we can go on Thursday and just be there for like three days. So really quick in and out. And I'm not really tapering a lot for it. Like I'm kind of in the middle of pretty heavy training, but a little bit lighter week.

do a fun race that doesn't have a lot of pressure or like expectations attached to it and then carry on training hard. So yeah, it's just a the logistical. I mean, if this race was on the East Coast, I wouldn't be doing it. But the fact that it's so close to us. And we really like Boise is kind of what drew us to it. Yeah. I've got a good friend there and we're going to hang out and go for mountain bike ride. Paul is going to do that thing. I mean, it beats the heck out of like a four hour interval session. Oh my gosh. And a run off the bike, that's for sure. Yeah, that's nice.

That's nice. It should be nice. And do you know if it's a beautiful course? I imagine it is. I don't know. I don't know anything about the course. And I honestly haven't done a race where, like, we're getting there so late, I probably won't be able to ride the course in advance.

And I haven't done a race in so long where I'm going into it kind of blind, like not knowing the course at all. So last time I did that, I think was Montrein-Blau last year because I also dropped in there super late. But it kind of makes it fun. Like, you know, I know the same. George course and the Oceanside course like so, so well. But it also makes it hard in some ways because you know what's coming. So I don't know, it's kind of good for your psyche to just go in

blind. Totally. I actually had a similar thing happen this weekend. I didn't have my wetsuit zipped up and my goggles on my head until 20 seconds before my wave started because of how far away the parking was from transition because I had some issues inflating my tire and because there were long lines for the bathroom and because the run from transition to the swim start was like five extra minutes as well. But it ended up being fine and I did start on time. But I kind of liked starting the swim without any time to get nervous for anything. Yeah. Dude, I was I was going to say this sounds like my recurring triathlon nightmare. Nightmares, of course, of not being able to get to the start and my goggles broke. And like, how am I still running to try to get to the start? Their start is

is three years away. Yep. Yep. Wow. But yeah, I have these dreams too. But honestly, like, what's the worst that happens if you don't make it? You just don't race the triathlon? Okay. That sounds like a gift.

It's not really a nightmare. But then all that stress and everything that you put in the night before not sleeping, then that's for, that's wasted. Yeah. Yeah. Like, God, I freaking didn't sleep and my stomach was ass. Okay. So, Nick, what did you do this past weekend?

I raised. I race an Olympic triathlon in Long Beach, super close. You don't have to say that like, duh, like a lot of people don't know. I'm not saying it like, duh. Yeah, I'm just telling you, answering the question. Yeah, it was great. It was very fun. I believe we talked about it on the last episode, right?

We did not. We didn't tease it, no. Wow. Yeah. So people knew who followed me on a jolly old Instagram saw me, because I mentioned that I had signed up for it. It was very last minute. because it's run by Supertry now.

If you guys remember the drama with the Malibu Triathlon years ago. Yeah, they got these. Yep, exactly. So now that the Supertry bought the rate. Anyway, I'm not going to get into the whole thing, but now that replacement for that race is Long Beach Legacy. That's the race I did.

And so they were still Children's Hospital, L.A., fundraising happening and a lot of corporate, like, athletes, where they do either relays or individual, and they raise money. So that's what this whole event was. So it's for a good cause, and there were a lot of people who raced. It was a very well-organized race, really fun. It was local, but it kind of had that big race feeling to it a little more.

Race local. Yeah, that was great. And I had very specific goals of just no goals for the swim. Although my swim actually, I didn't hate it. I was, I kind of. That's a good goal. It's a great goal. I was very happy with that, because usually about 500 into the swim.

swim, I'm like, if an orca came and swallowed me a hole right now, it wouldn't be so bad. But no, it's fine. And then my goal was to bike sub one hour for 40K and to run under 40 minutes for the 10K run. And I don't know. What am I supposed to say here? You accomplished both of those. It's not your fault how long the course actually was. Okay.

Then I did accomplish both. more importantly, I felt very, very good on the bike. I was really as arrow as I could get. I even like naturally was doing the hand over hand. Is this the Frodo hand thing? I think the first person that I saw to do that was Ben Canoe, but that came out of pro cycling because they have limits on how high the bars can be. So you actually, you do this and like grab the tip of the bars with your fingers.

Yes, that's what I was doing. And create a fake extra height the size of like your hand. hands holding a tennis ball. Because I also like pro cycling. I cannot, I can't put, my bars don't come up that far. So, and I still want to be low. So I kind of compensated with my hands higher. And it felt good.

It's just when you go over bumpies, it's a little scary because you have less control. But on the straightaways. This is time trial biking in a nutshell. Going over bumpies, you're out of control. That's not true. Usually you have a bar there to grab. Not an imaginary bar. It's a joke.

It's a joke. But the really cool thing about this race is that the Long Beach Grand Prix, which is a Formula One race, we biked on that course, on part of that course. And you can see they have these turns where you can see like the Formula One style turns. You know, it's like smooth and they can like drive up onto them. So we're biking around these things. Really cool. And they shut down the entire road for these sections. So it's like four lanes of highway.

And on the first lap, I was pretty much alone on these. it's just like huge open road closed off for us and it's just me trying to be as small as possible trying to go as fast as I can. So that was really fun and there was a podcast, a listener who actually won a swim cap a few months ago. Connor, who we were going back and forth on the bike. He was riding a very fancy bike himself and that was really fun. And then I did technically go under an hour on the course due to a maybe slightly shorter course than it should be, but we counted as a win still. And then the run, it was very, very hard. But I did technically go just under 40 minutes on the 10K as well, even though my watch told me that my 10K time was

40 minutes and four seconds. It really hurts. But as I was running and I thought that goal was slipping away, I thought this is a gift to have something to strive for that I didn't achieve, can look forward to and work towards next year or in a future time. Yeah, man. I mean, once you break 40, then... Then it's over. I mean, you're going to break 35? Exactly.

This is a colossal jump to the next thing. Yeah, yeah. Save it a little bit longer. The chase. Anyway, it was really great. I love the race. I will definitely be doing it again next year if they'll have me. And I wanted to die 20 times during the second half of that run.

But anyway, thank you guys for listening to that. It was very fun. I loved it. But we're going to do something that Paula was very excited about this week. She specifically requested a hot or not. We haven't done one of these in a long time. And so I thought I would do it Tour de France themed. First one here, team branded bikes and kits on non-professional athletes.

Like you can buy the EF kit? Yeah, like I can buy the EF kit or I can buy the Red Bull tarmac. Not. Heck yeah. wear like hockey jerseys and basketball jerseys for their favorite athletes show your sport so you're saying yes eric yeah sweet okay how about yonis's friggin king of the mushroom kingdom helmet that he wore on the t t t uphill stage so unacceptable not not especially if you don't you don't even win the top down shot when they've got the drone or the helicopter whatever they

use it's just oh my it's murder it's so bad it's crazy okay uh how about uh i don't know if you guys that Primos was Primos Rugglich was wearing ankle socks No. Did you see that? He, and his justification was,

he kind of like shrugged it off. He was like, I don't like the tan lines and it's hot. So he was wearing ankle socks in the tour. No. No.

Follow. Yeah, I think that's hot because you're like, I don't care what the norm is. I'm doing what I want. I mean, yeah, sure. Respect for going your own way. But it'd be even cooler if he was, like, contending for the yellow jersey, you know?

I mean, then it would be national news. Right. Okay, what about this? And so if you've never watched the tour, there's these mountain stages where they're going uphill. And instead of the roads being clear, all the fans are kind of creating this tunnel. Like if you've seen Roth, you've seen this as well. But they're creating this tunnel that the riders kind of like have to navigate through. Hot or not to be one of those people who's doing that.

Hot. Oh, Eric, I'm shocked that you are going back and forth on this. Like, it's just always a bummer when their freaking sign hits somebody and they fall and crash and break their bike or their shoulder or something. That's a bummer. That sucks. And I just might, that was my pause because Paul and I literally talked about that last night. But otherwise, yeah, it's freaking awesome. Did you see the guy that grabbed a cardboard sign from someone? To put in his jersey to keep himself warm? I saw that. Yeah.

That was funny. Desperation. The woman was. not happy too. Like that's my sign. Yeah. That's not even for you. Yeah. Okay. And last one here is pronouncing it

Tour de France versus Tour de France. Wow. We actually talked about this too. Tour de France. France. Yeah, of course. Two to France. All the Americans say it. The American commentator is like butchering all the names of the French towns.

The American... It's the... Not Phil Liggetter-Babrola, the guy who starts the thing. Yeah, he's like in the room, like the situation room, like the analyst. Yeah.

Yeah, he's been struggling with some of the French words. It's a little bit reminds me of like no one... No one says pirates of the Caribbean. People say pirates of the Caribbean, but I would never say Caribbean in a sentence. And I feel like this is how Tour de France is.

Do you want to go on a Caribbean cruise? Yeah, no, I don't think so. That's actually funny. I never realized that. Yeah, yeah, we definitely do that. Okay, well, that's our hot or not. Well done, folks. And feel free to send in games like this.

You know, we have a few. We have hot or not. We have this or that. We have a lot of niche ones like Flynn Frenzy and Shredder Bed, of course. So if you guys have, I mean, Shredder Bed is a glorified Hot or Not. We have Spelling Bee. We have Spelling Bee. Yes.

So if you want to send them some spelling bee, and I encourage when you send in Spelling Bee, We've kind of exhausted the triathlon terms in Spelling Bee, because I've spent some time looking into this. So if you want to send some spelling bee stuff in from some other theme, and we do like it when they're themed, like maybe from a theme that you're an expert in, that's a fun way to challenge, mostly Eric.

Someone sent one in that was like all the last names of hockey players, and I thought that was kind of stupid. That was brutal. That's not fair. That's like different languages for a thousand. Yes, exactly, exactly. Russian language for a thousand. Okay, so let's move on to what everyone's here for,

which is our high value podcast support or giveaway. Eric's wearing them right now, by the way. They are the Zwift Bluetooth headphones with H2O audio. They sound fantastic. We sound fantastic through these headphones right now, I have to say. I'm starting to think we shouldn't give away the second pair, and I'll just have them. Well, unfortunately, I think the ship has sailed on that, Paula. So you might have to pony up and buy them yourself.

Or partake in the challenge. Yeah, if you want to throw your number into the ring, your hat into the ring? What is that saying even mean? Okay, so we have two pairs to give away. Yes. This week, we are giving it to a podcast supporter, which we truly used a random number generator to source. And the lucky winner is Kate Somerville.

So Kate. Kate, if you don't answer us before next week, we're going to someone else. If you don't answer us by like Friday morning. So Kate, make sure you send me a message on Instagram. And if you have Instagram, otherwise you can, there's a lot of different ways you can get in contact with us. And we'll send those out to you. But we came up with a fun idea for the next pair of headphones. Do you guys want to try to explain this?

Do you want me to get through it? No, you do. We as in Nick and we modified it and we agreed on the final concept. But yeah, it's your idea ultimately. Well, I don't know. Yes. I thought it would be fun. I'm sure many of you listening have seen this before online, but there is this concept

of Strava art. And if you have not heard of it, basically you take a GPS device and you record your activity. And when it's done, you get this top-down view of the map of the GPS. and some people are able to be creative enough to make art out of it. It'll make like a dinosaur or a drawing or a logo. And we are going to have a little competition on who can make the best Strava art. And if you don't use Strava, we're trying to be as inclusive as possible here.

Any GPS map will work. The nice thing about using Strava is that all you need to do is tag that triathlon life in your activity and then we will save it and put it in our little database that we will then be our large and hand-selected jury will be judging these in a double blind. No, it's just going to be the three of us, actually. We're just going to look at them and pick our favorite. I feel like also screenshot it and put it on Instagram stories and tag us.

Yeah, that's good. That'll be a fun way to flip through them real quick, and we can share the best ones that way easily. Yeah, we might even reshare them. Even if you don't win a pair of the headphones, We might rocket you into Instagram fame by resharing your Strava art. And we encourage you to make it TTL-themed, but really you can do whatever you want. It's just going to really help your chances if it's TTL-themed.

That doesn't mean it has to be the TTL Circle logo or just TTL the letters. It can be, as Paul has said, a picture of Flynn or the van or a bike ride, anything. It can be anything. But it can be swim, bike, or run or even like a walk. And we were trying to figure out how to make this as inclusive as possible. So you can even do this in a field. It doesn't have to be on city streets or anything like that. But we encourage you to be as creative as you can be with this.

And being funny may also help your chances. So do this. We're going to keep it open until next Sunday, the third. And then we will pick a winner and announce it on the podcast. the following week. So it should be fun. Get out there. Have fun.

To be clear, you do not have to be a podcast supporter to make Strava art. Wow. Anybody is eligible. And you have just as good of a chance of winning. Yeah.

Yeah. Although we do really appreciate the podcast supporters separate from all that. And you can become a podcast supporter at Thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast. It's the same place

that you can submit your questions for the podcast. Speaking of which, let's get to them right now. This one is from Jackson. Hi, TTL Squad. Hope everything is going well. Wondering if you could share a bit about your race mentality and psychological strategies going into a race. For example, do you always pace yourself? Or do you ever just start out going zero to 100 from the gun going as hard as you can?

I've seen Matthew Marquod do this strategy pretty successfully at some Iron Man's, where he seems to go as hard as he can right from the start, and if he blows up, then he blows up. Is that an effective strategy, how do you know when to hold back versus when to go all out? And also at the end of a race, do you ever have regrets about not going hard enough? Like, do you ever feel you had more in the tank to give and then are upset with yourself for not leaving everything out there on the course? Thanks for great content. Jackson. Well, that was 12 questions at once. Distill it down to this. Into the deepest depths of our psyches. How much do you consciously think about pacing yourself in a race versus letting this kind of like,

this is something we talked about last week, too. The subconscious awareness that you still have X amount to bike, Y amount to run, do the pacing. Yeah, my suspicion is that, well, there's two things. Paula and I maybe have different answers for this. And I think also different answers depending on the style of racing. Generally for me, as I'm going to say not the fastest person in the field, I a lot of times just kind of have to go with what the pack's doing.

and there's a little bit of an alarm bell goes off that triggers some pacing, you know, at some point in time. But it's like, I got to be in that lead pack out of the water, especially in ITU style racing. And the longer that you're able to hang in that pack, even if you're going a little bit over your pacing strategy is just the rewards, like being in that flow with the motorcycles and the pace line. The whole thing is so huge that that dictates a lot of the pacing, even if I want to back off 10% to hit my watt target. Yeah, I think my body has a bit of an internal knowledge of how hard I can go for a certain race and a certain distance and depending on how I'm feeling. And I think the times where it becomes way more important to pace yourself and to not necessarily go by your body feelings is when it's either extremely hot or if you're doing an Iron Man. Because you're going to feel pretty good heading out on the bike. But if it's forecasted to be 100 degrees later on in the race, you want to actually moderate your effort or,

earlier on so that you're not overheating and then staying that hot. And then obviously in an Iron Man, I have heard that you're kind of having to like hold yourself back early on because it does feel easy compared to a 70.3. And obviously it's an extremely long race and you're going to get tired later. So those are two situations where I would kind of moderate things. But in general, I don't think that much about pacing aside from like looking at my watts. and what I expect myself to ride and run because I'm so familiar with the distance.

It kind of just comes naturally. Yeah. Yeah. As pros, we have to respond to the race as much as we have to respond to what pace seems ideal. That's a given time. I've definitely finished races, though, thinking, like, oh, I should have tried harder on the run,

or I got a bit complacent with my pace on the run. I wasn't aggressive or whatever it was. And some of that could be, like, nutrition related. I just didn't have enough energy to, but it happens occasionally. How much do you think that's actually true, though?

How much do you think you actually could have pushed more versus kind of revisionist history of thinking back at the race? Often, I think I could have gone harder on the run based on my abilities. For me, generally, it's what you're

referring to, Nick. I'm like, God, if I would have just gone a little bit harder, I would have made that lead group, especially in ITU. This was like a lot of races. And like if you're realistic with yourself, like, no. If you could have, you would have. I knew how much it meant. I was going as hard as I could.

I just wasn't good enough. Yeah. Yeah. At that moment. Totally. Cool. Thanks for the question, Jackson. Next one is from Julia.

Hi, hi team. The podcast is my looking forward to session of the week so I can hear all the good tips and applying my triathlon journey. Question for all of you. Triathlon bikes are getting more and more customized. How heavy are the TT racing bikes considering customized bottle front cages and bars, rear support, disc wheels, etc. I got a TT bike and a lot of people mention how this particular brand,

which was felt in Julia's case, was heavier than others. But what is the point of spending $3,000 more on a lighter bike if I have to buy extra bottle cages and parts to ensure the bike itself is self-supported on a 70.3 race? Thanks a million, Julia. First of all, do we think that this is, I'm not really under the impression that you spend more money for a lighter bike for triathlon bikes. Am I wrong? I mean, I don't know. Is the Shiv T, T, T, significantly more expensive than whatever felt she got?

The felt, like the high and felt is super expensive. That would be my guess is that if she's considering talking about like the Shiv T, T or just any, you know, just a lot. lighter, the felt probably doesn't make a significantly lighter version of their frame. But I don't, I'm not quite sure what you're, what you're getting at, Nick, but. Yeah, I just think that weight is not one of the main factors in when people are creating these triathlon bikes. I think they're thinking about aerodynamics, customization, and like fuel and hydration. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, for the most part, yeah. Like, weight is always going to play a little bit of a role on like a hillyer course. course, but most of these bikes are optimized around Kona, and they're freaking heavy. It felt is kind of known for being on the heavier side. But I think the bigger thing for me is, like, the aerodynamics of a bike that has integrated hydration versus, yes, strapping bottles all over the place. So if we could just swap in aerodynamic for lightweight in this case, then I'd say that's more what you're wanting to spend your money on unless you're planning to do like the Vaughn 2.

Lots of tri-bikes. Lots of tri-bikes are really arrow, like have wider tubes, but the trade-off for that is that they are heavier. Often in triathons, that doesn't matter as much because courses aren't that hilly. But it's kind of interesting now, I notice, like, not a lot of bike companies are making bikes with integrated hydration and everything. A lot of people are doing the thing where they're, like, strapping bottles to the front of their bars into their bottle cage on the back of their saddle. And I'm, I'm not sure if the purpose of this is to essentially create a faring effect. I see. But I used to think like, oh, the Shiv T.T. is not great for triathlon because there's no integrated anything. But now you look at the Ventim, the canyon, like nothing really has integrated stuff anymore anyway. If I had to guess, I think it's because it's cheaper. Like all the integrated, everything that's integrated just equals more frames that don't plat,

past quality control and are just more expensive to manufacture. And I bet brands are like, oh, cool. People are fine putting three water bottles between their arms on the bike. Like, let's just say we made the lightest bike we've ever made and call it good. And it's $1,500 cheaper to make the frame. People are also just riding UCI legal TT bikes and putting their own custom front ends on anyway. The reason I thought this question was interesting is because, Paula, you have access to both. the shiv tri-bike and the shiv-t-tie bike.

And that's exactly the difference between these two bikes. One has integrated hydration and is designed around long-course triathlon, and the other one is designed around UCI legal TTs. And you happen to mostly prefer the TT bike and then you strap your own hydration on there. What is like, can you tell us like some of the reasons behind why you did that? Well, initially I did it because I was racing UCI legal races and I just got really comfortable on the shiv. And for me, I love the feeling of a lighter, snappier time trial bike. I don't know, you get out of the saddle.

It's extremely responsive. It climbs amazingly well. I think it's the perfect bike for a course that has a lot of climbing, like for Nice, for example. But it's just like a little bit challenging to completely dial in two different bikes for different use cases. And I just like I have the watch out bars for the shift TT. So it's just simple to race on one. I'm comfortable on. So there's nothing that you inherently prefer about having like round bottles that you can take in and out. It is, was just a bike feel thing. Yeah, you can replace round bottles

easier than refilling and integrated hydration, I would say. Well, sure, but was that an actual consideration or is that just a convenient coincidence? I don't know. This question's like hurting my head. I don't really understand it. But I like having round bottles because I think it's, I think it's really convenient to be able to swap them out. Yeah, of course. Okay, cool. Next question here is from Scotty. I've heard you all and other pros talk about waxing your chains. What are the benefits of a wax chain? What is the maintenance like? If I decided to go that route, would I have to completely disassemble the cassette and front chain rings to remove any oil? I ride around 2,000 to 3,000 miles between road and trainer each year. So how often do you think I'd have to repeat the process to keep everything running smoothly? Thanks for any tips, Scotty. Yeah, both Nick and I waxer.

chains, so I think we can tag team this one a little bit. What are we at? Like 150 miles for a wax chain? That is so aggressive. That is because if you are a professional athlete, then I would say that's right. Like 150 to 200 miles depending on conditions and where you're riding, because it's like revolutions of the chain, right? So if you're climbing a lot, that's different than if you're riding flat and fast. Right. No, just in general. 150 to 200 and miles of the wax job holding up before you need to do it again. I don't think cleaning off is that big of a deal. You can spray it down with the hose.

You can use the, there's different wax removal solutions that you can use and drop it in there. And then you just redo it. Well, I think he's talking about all the other parts of the bike. Like the other parts get dirty too, not just the physical chain, you know. I think he's talking about the first time when you, when you convert. to wax from a oil-based lube setup, what do you have to do? And you do have to disassemble. You do have to take the cassette off.

You do have to really clean that. And you do have to clean the chain rings as well. And the jockey wheels from the derailers. But that's the only time you ever have to do it. Then you never have to do it again. Yeah, I mean, that's going to take you like 30, 45 minutes, put on some nice music and just scrub that stuff down. there's like a use a degreaser and then just make sure it's as clean as possible and you'll be you'll be good to go yeah and then after that it's not that big of a deal and you can clean the chain off again you can like I said hose everything down um you can sometimes if the chain's not that dirty you can just like redip it without even stripping the wax off what about the actual what about the lube you put on in between eric for me um yeah we've got some of the silka super secret stuff in like a bottle form that I will use for the most part during training

because I waxed like three chains for Paula when she goes to a race and then in between the races she's racing enough that I don't like dealing with it and then I pretty much just like wax the chain the first time that I put it on a bike and then use that squirt bottle stuff. Yeah, the drip is great.

The drip is great. I think it was designed to be used intermittently between waxings to extend the wax. But I know a lot of people that wax it once, then just basically use that over and over again. It's not like the ultimate best, but also it's just like the amount of time that I have relative to how dirty it is here and how much we care about getting that last 2% out in training. The drip stuff works great.

Yeah, yeah, nice. And it does keep your bike nice and clean. I do like that about it. One thing happened once where there was like some wax buildup in my cassette that I had to clean out, but that wasn't too hard to do and then I was once again on a really nice clean setup. Yeah.

Yeah. Next question here is from Derek. This question likely falls on Eric. I have my first Exterra race next month in Roodizo, New Mexico. Ruidoso. Sorry. Is that still on?

Yeah. After all the flooding? I haven't gotten an email saying it's not. Wow. Do you have any input on differences from 70.3 to the Xtera, most importantly, any key sessions, you felt like helped you. Thanks for everything you do in multi-sport.

So, Eric, if you're in the mind of a 70.3 athlete, what would you change? What kind of session would you do to prepare them best for a next era? You need higher intensity. You need to do, instead of doing like four by 10 minutes or four by five minutes, I mean, you can still do some four by five minutes, but it needs to be up a hill on the mountain bike, up a pretty steep hill. And then I would mix in some stuff that's like two-minters.

or like, you know, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off. Like some stuff that really works on that power that you're going to need in a lot of steep situations just to maintain forward progress. Like V-O-2 max level, like very uncomfortable, high-end. Ultimately, like, you know, this race is going to take a little bit less time than a 70.3, and the bike is just very punchy. And then you're also going to have times where you're descending

or you're doing a technical thing and you're not pedaling at all. So having that ability to, like, hit a really high power. and yeah, go into the red zone for sure, but then recover quickly afterwards. That's like a little bit more of the name of the game versus red line and just sit there. Yeah, same thing with the run. I would work in some hill repeats and just like up and down, like to do like one session where you run kind of faster down the hills to build up a little bit of quad strength. Because it's, man, it's a different stimulus than a 70.3.

Is that a really hilly chorus? Do you know? I don't know how hilly is. I think there's like a three kilometer climb straight out of transition. I think I remember reading that somewhere. Generally, like these Xterras are at a resort or at least in the mountains somewhere. And they're kind of built around climb up and then ride a cool trail down. And then maybe you do that twice or, you know, some sort of like variation of that. But it's going to be up and down, up and down. Yeah, I would say Eric's experience with Xterra is that every course is so different in terms of the challenging nature of it technically and, you know, what kind of skills you need. sometimes they're super high altitude. Sometimes the trail is more like a dirt road. Sometimes it's a super rooty trail.

Yeah. So do a little research, I'd say, with the course and see what exactly you're getting ready for before you kind of try to practice on as much similar to train as you can. Yeah. But 100% of the time, climbing is critical. They're very, they're hilly. As you're describing this, I pictured one of these really great 70.3 age group athletes who trains in erg mode on the trainer all the time and how they would be really not

prepared for exactly what you're talking about that like punchy fast like out of the saddle kind of efforts normally on a road bike yep you know it would be a good prep for this actually if you are kind of constrained to the trainer is swift racing oh right right because you have to respond to attacks and stuff yeah yeah or some explosive weight and or some explosive weightlifting any like kettlebell swings Or just let's not get people injured though I'm just just anything that's like It just get the heaviest kettlebell you can find

You do some explosive pops with it Obviously don't yeah If the pop is coming from your knees or your back You know you screwed up If you've done that before with success Maybe integrate some of that Nice Okay next one here is from Austin

Day one are here Woo Austin thank you I will keep it short How do you find pools when you travel Especially outdoor ones when weather permits Thanks for all you do, Austin. It's hard, but how I do it, Eric says it's hard as if he does it.

I go on Google Maps, and I go to the city we're going to be in, and I type swimming pool or aquatic center into the search. And then a bunch of stuff will pop up. Some of it is like swimming pool distribution stores for chemicals of your home pool. You know, you just have to eliminate. Leslie's home pool supply.

Yeah. Yeah. Eliminate 90%. of them, but ones that look like they could be potentially a promising recreation center. So you've got to look at the pictures on Google. You look at the pictures on Google. That tells you a lot, usually. Of course.

If it's more of a playing pool or if they actually have lane lines. And then I'll go to the website and look up their lap swim hours. And then if you're lucky, you've targeted in on something that's accessible and has some lanes. But then sometimes you pick the right pool, everything's right, and then we show up and it's like closed for the season or something. I like to go more straight to the phone call. Right. Hi. Do you have Lapsum right now?

How many lanes? Yeah, a lot of the times they don't pick up, though. If it's depending on how big the pool is. Of course, if it's an established recreation center, you're going to have a lot more luck. But a lot of the outdoor pools and communities are literally community pools. And they might have like a two-hour window in the morning where it's Lapsum. And then they're closed for five hours and they open for swim team.

So I would say that when you're traveling, you just have to be extremely. flexible with maybe like not swimming on a day or going with the flow a lot more than normal. Yeah. Ask on the TTL app if anyone lives in the city that you're going to. Oh, there we go. Like ask connections. I don't know. Some people might.

Holy shit. I completely forgot to mention this inside of the news thing. The TTL app is now available on Android. That's right. I saw that. Congratulations. Oh my gosh. I can't believe that.

Three different mental notes to mention it on the podcast. and none of them made it into my actual notes on my phone. Well, that's great. Yeah, for everyone who's been clamoring about Android, it's done. It's here. Rejoice and download for free. And comment and have all the fun in there.

We really set it up for everybody to talk amongst themselves and learn stuff because we can't answer every single question on the podcast. Yep. The last thing I'll say about pools is you can sometimes have some luck with going to a college that has a really nice lap pool. and they actually open it to public in the middle of the day. Yeah, that's the real unicorn right there. Nice.

Sweet. Okay. Next question here is from Bob. Hey, team, I've been gravel riding a lot more as a way to get outside on the bike without concern for vehicle traffic. Love it. Of course. I'm in Michigan and primarily riding on dirt roads. However, the roads will have periodic washboarding and potholes making riding less enjoyable.

Is this something that you guys deal with in your area? is this just a trade-off of gravel riding? I currently have a canyon endures with 35-millimeter tires, which is the max tire clearance. Would larger tires are going tubeless for less tire pressure be helpful? If so, could you tell my wife who also listens to this show that I need to buy a new bike? Appreciate your input, Bob.

Bob's wife, I do think 35-mill is not, yeah, we need to upgrade this. That is not even a gravel bike. It's not, it's an endurance road bike. Come on, Bob's wife. Well, now she knows. Awareness is the first step. And tubeless as well. You're riding off-road within her tubes?

Absolutely never would. Oh, I cannot imagine riding tubes. I would just be terrified the whole time. Like, the ride being over. Okay, yes, 35. Not enough. What is a canyon endurance? It's their endurance road frame.

But they now have like an Endura Ace all road, which has wider tire clearance. I mean, this was at least like a Perry Rubei bike, not like true gravel bike. It's a, the specialized equivalent is the ruby. Yeah, okay. So Bob needs a gravel bike. Bob, it's very simple.

Done. Bob and Bob's life. And you know what? I don't know what? Sorry, go ahead. Bob, do you happen to ride a 52 because Paula has a crux for sale that would be perfect for your use case? You would love that.

No, I'm not selling my crux, you guys. Shut up. You said, okay, never mind. But a crux would be great. Maybe it would be even better for Bob's wife. And then Bob can get a different bike. We need two gravel bikes here. I think that's right.

I think that's correct. I think that depending on the type of roads that he's riding on, you don't necessarily need a gravel bike. Like when I was living in Boulder, riding on their roads that they pretend are gravel, you could for sure ride a road bike on them. Bob's wife turned off the podcast. Don't listen to what she just said there.

Yeah, hopefully she's left already and is already at the bike shop. Paula, technically you are correct. What do you think the ideal tire width is, though, Eric, on a gravel bike for someone like Bob. 40. That's a far cry from 35. Yeah, when he says dirt roads, yeah, like something with a lower profile tread,

like Paula's had on her crux forever, and then you hit the washboard or whatever occasionally, and you can make it through. An STR diverge would be better, but, you know, like, gear this thing towards what you're going to be primarily riding. And I think a crux is like a great, basically a road bike that just holds really fat tires.

Yeah. It'll be comfy. Run that low tire pressure on there. If it's muddy, you can go anywhere. Like, this is what a gravel bike represents. It's just like anything that happens, you could go do that. You could get through that crumbly stuff to get to the other cool stuff. Cool.

Next question here is from Mary from Seattle. Hey, all. What are your thoughts on wind and sound reducing technology that can be attached to your helmet for the bike? I'm talking about products like cat ears that claim to reduce the amount of wind noise and ultimately help preserve one's hearing while cruising while cruising on the bike at high speeds. I like crushing on the bike at high speeds personally. I'm a casual cyclist and see a lot of bike commuters wearing them,

but I have never seen a triathlet use them and wanted to see if you had any thoughts. Thanks, Mary, from Seattle. I'm actually surprised. I've seen a triathlet use them. Oh, yeah. We were talking about this exact thing on a ride a week ago. Yes.

Olympian, Greg Billington. We used them on rides. when we were training together for real. They don't look freaking horse blinders but attached to your ears. They do not look so bad. I googled them and they don't look so bad. They almost look like... What do I Google?

Cat ears. Cat ears cycling. To me, they just look like something that you might find on a lower end helmet that would promote comfort where the, like the hells straps. They've refined them since 2015 then because... Were they thicker?

Yeah, these were large. They're literally just like the fuzzy things on microphone that go on your strap? The ones that I saw are not, they just look like a little comfort felt thing. Maybe they don't work as well as the ones that protrude as like Eric is suggesting. Yeah.

You know what, you guys, I want these because I think about this all the time when I'm riding and I'm scared in the wind on my tram-trial bike. If I took all noise away and I couldn't hear the wind, would I be as scared? Is it the actual feeling or is it the psychological thought that there's so much wind and I'm getting blown all around

that is causing fear. I do think, like, for me it's not fear. It's just like general unhappiness is high as a result of that and just the feeling of being in a hectic environment. Yeah. I wonder how well those work though, those like things. I've never

heard of this before. I mean, we'll try these. It's basically just a deflector to like slightly push the wind around your ears. So, I mean, in theory, it could work great. I wonder if it just helps with the turbulence around your ear. Like it creates a flow around your ear lobe or whatever the meaty part of your ear is called. I think we should try these.

I think we should test these out. They couldn't be much money. There's just pieces of fabric. Yeah. We get really over the top with the fuzzy ones. We just glue some popsicle sticks to your helmet strap. Just grow my side burns out a little stronger. Yeah.

That's fine. I mean, that could have made it onto hot or not as well. I think this is unfortunately not going to be hot, but if it intenses your experience this much, like, could be worth it. Classic Slim. Classic Slim XL. Airstreams. Classic Slim XL? What is? Slim XL? We need some marketing work here. The average person facing a 21 mile per hour wind experiences wind noises and an intensity of 92 dBs. That is so loud. 92 is very loud. That's borderline damaging for your hearing.

Yeah. Think about how high you have to turn your AirPods up totally. overcome that. This is what it sounds like without the cat ears. And this is what it sounds like with the cat ears. Crickets. They sound pretty similar to me, but I think we have to experience this. Can we toggle back and forth rapidly?

Yeah. I can do that. I think it depends how your phones turned up. Yeah, of course. Yeah, how many dbs reduction are we claiming? Yes, so how many dbs reduction do they claim? That's an interest. interesting stat. They haven't claimed any

inclusive dbs. They love touting around the 90 dB thing, but then we don't get a reduction amount. I see how it is. Numbers, just not the ones we need. All right, well, I guess we just got to try it out ourselves and report back. Great, great.

Well, thanks for getting that to our heads. If anyone works for caddiers and wants to send us a set, are they expensive? How much are they? They are definitely not expensive. They don't deserve to be expensive. 1650. Okay, we can afford it.

Yeah. 25% off if you use slim 20%. There we go. 1250. We're using podcast funds to get some. Wow. Okay, guys, we're testing out cat ears. Okay, next question here is from

Luke. Hi, what are your go-to things in the pool? For example, I'm wondering if I should start using paddles more or even flippers. Wanting to know what's worth it and what's a waste of time, thanks. Luke. Nothing is a waste of time if you use it properly and don't use it as a crutch.

I think that every tool for swimming has a purpose. For example, paddles are for like strength building. Pull-boys are to focus on your arms. Fins can be to get the feeling of going really fast through water or to use for certain drills. But I think where toys get a bad reputation is if you're doing a set of 2100s and they're supposed to be race-paced and halfway you don't feel good and you just slap a pull-boy and paddles on because it's

way easier, that's where they're not a good tool. Or I guess sometimes they could be if they allow you to finish the set and the alternative's just quitting. They definitely have purposes. Eric, do you have a favorite kind of tool to use?

Probably paddles for you. I guess paddles, especially since I'm flirting with this swim run concept, I've decided to integrate paddles a lot more than I would have in the past. My favorite thing to do with paddles is in warm-up and swim with just the right paddle for 100

and just the left paddle for 100. I've talked about that before. Yeah, I've heard. Eric's using big giant carbon fiber paddles often now, and it's actually crazy how much faster you go with these things on. Like we'll do a set and I'll be

trying to swim because I'm training for trathal where you can't use paddles and he's wearing big paddles and he'll nearly let me in a 400. It's crazy. Wow. Eric, have you gotten your hands on one of those giant pull-boos that they use to race I did, dude. It's amazing.

I'm going to post a picture on Instagram probably, you know, before this comes out. But I got a swim run wetsuit from Orca. I got a swim run buoy, which is about the flotation of like a garbage can full of air. It's insane how floaty that thing is. And then, yeah, like paddles that are the size of. Dinner plates. Yeah, like actual dinner plates. As an adult onset swimmer, the biggest thing for me has been the paddles, for sure.

When I started using paddles more in training, specifically not as a crutch like Paul said, but intermittently between regular freestyle, I think I got much, much stronger. And something really cool that happened this weekend while I was swimming is when I was feeling not so smooth in my stroke, I for some reason had the idea of imagining myself swimming with the paddles in the pool. And I noticed that my stroke changed. And I think in a really positive way, I think I have trouble translating my pool stroke into the ocean, not that you're necessarily

supposed to do that, but I think my ocean stroke is so bad. When I was picturing the paddles, I think I was legitimately able to grab more water when I did that. So that was another kind of helpful thing. I think this is a huge thing of swimming in general. You just discovered a cue that

means nothing to 99.9% of the population, but to you it helped you envision a thing. And I feel the same way with battles, and that's why I do the right arm and then the left arm and then both and then like try to swim, smooth afterwards is I do think it changes something in your stroke and little cues like that are always, I think they're great. Also, certain paddles that will like kind of fix you, like not allow you to have

errors in your, in your stroke. Sloppy exit or. Yeah, like I use the ones that you just put in your thumb and there's no like finger strap or anything. So if you're pulling your arm out way too early or you're trying to do too much of an S pole or something, they'll just fall off. So a lot of the paddles do enforce good habits. Yeah, cool. Okay, next question here from Jackson. Hey, TTL, team. I'm really curious to ask you guys about a random thing. I've been thinking about having to do with matching up training times to race start times, especially when races tend to start super early like five or six a.m. start. Damn, I've never heard of a race starting at five. When normally I would still be in a deep sleep. Does it ever make sense to acclimate your body during training to when your race time is?

wondering your thoughts on when it makes sense, if ever to do this. Thanks so much for all the great content, y'all, Jackson. We've actually spoken about this the three of us before because none of us wake up super early to train. Actually, you guys kind of do with swimming. I take that back. We start swimming at eight.

That's not early. We wake up at 6 or 6.30, but we don't, yeah. I completely think this is a thing. And I think it's part of the reason that I've often had not great races early on in the season, like Oceanside, when you're like jolted awake at 3 a.m. You're starting at 6.20. Your body is usually in deep sleep at 620. And it's, the circadian rhythm is so powerful that I think that even if your body knows that you're racing and you take caffeine and you're excited about it and you've slept terribly because you've got this race, there's still something inside you that's like we should not be exercising right now, let alone going as hard as we can. So I think that as much as you can shift your schedule, even like two weeks earlier to maybe like go to the pool earlier, even just wake up earlier and go to bed earlier to accommodate for that, it's only going to help you.

I think we all secretly know this and we just don't want to do it. We don't want to admit it. But even if it's not like waking up five and going swimming right away, even just waking up an hour earlier. Like we're racing in Boise, which the time zones one hour later. So I'm personally trying to go to bed an hour earlier. That's why I be recording the podcast earlier tonight to adjust for that. Because even an hour your body can be like, what the heck? And actually when I feel it the strongest is when we're on Pacific Time and we go raced on the East Coast, three hours difference.

So your 3 a.m. wake up feels like midnight. It's just almost worse than going to Europe because you don't take it seriously. It's terrible. Yeah. Yeah. it really is a thing. I think you, I think about this every time I try to go do a jog warm up at a 70.3. And I'm like, it is so early. I feel like shit. And I think it's because of the time of day. Yeah. Totally. Oh, I mean, I hate, it's my least favorite part. It's waking up early.

Didn't Lionel have this epiphany as well? I don't remember. Maybe. I think because he really doesn't wake up early and start training early. He's like, he used to be like a sleep until nine or whatever type of guy. And then I think when he had this realization, he did shift so that he started training and swimming earlier in the day. That I know for sure that he used to wake up late and now he doesn't as much. But I thought it maybe had to do with Levi or something. I think it's, well, it's probably multifaceted, but I think a lot of it's because of early triathlons. Right. Okay. Well, last question here, and this is a philosophical one. This is from Simon. A little while back Eric has suggested writing in some philosophical type questions, so here it goes. Triathlon is, at its core, an endurance sport that involves a significant amount of suffering,

long hours of training, pain, discomfort, mental battles. Yet, as a community, we often glorify this suffering. We make highlight reels, live feeds, documentaries, and Instagram posts that turn these physically taxing moments into entertainment. Is there something a little uncomfortable, almost icky about how we turn extreme suffering into spectacle? why are we so drawn to watching and celebrating the hardest moments curious to hear your thoughts simon um i mean my my head instantly just goes to the motivational aspect of that of like here's somebody else doing a really hard thing i can also do hard things i'm not alone i'm not the only one trying to do this that sort of a thing like there's it's like watching you know mighty ducks or like hoosiers or

something where here's a team that had a really hard time getting to the top and that's inspiring to see that process of somebody digging in for something they care about. Because in some way we see ourselves in those athletes. Some way. I mean, maybe this is some sort of survival mechanism that you see another human fighting for their life or like what your psychology interprets based on our lizard brain and evolution and stuff. And that causes you to be fired up. feel inspired and you also go to war and maybe your colony survives. Right.

That's interesting. I'm not done talking about this question, but I think this could be a really great TTL app thread that people could share their experiences with what they get out of that stuff. Because we all watch it. We all, and is there something icky about it? Well, I mean, there's definitely, it's not the same as watching, like, you know, an uncomfortable torture scene

in a film or something where somebody's obviously uncomfortable. Yeah, what I go to with the, with the iciness is watching like, WWE or like the boxing and fighting. I cannot watch fighting. I can't watch it. Yeah, because people are physically being hurt. Like, bleeding. When I think about this question, I think,

triathlon, when you're suffering and going through a hard point in that, you're not, you know, 99.9% of the time, damage. fighting for your life or anything. I mean, you're completely in control of how hard you go or don't go. And I think for professional athletes, obviously there's more on the line, so they might cross that a little bit more. But ultimately, it's not really dangerous. So if pros can do it and they film it and T100 re-shares it,

maybe it is inspiring for someone else to go to their limit, which is not as far as a pros limit, but is still like a challenging, venture. I'm not a fan of like glorifying things that are truly dangerous though. There is something about that we are all attracted to about the limits of the human experience on any end of things. And so when you see whatever Christian Blumenfeld throwing up on the run on himself, there's, you're like he ate too many carbs. Yeah, that was the limit. That was the carve limit there. Carb limit found. It goes back a little bit also to the question we had a few weeks ago

about is triathlon healthy or not healthy? It's like for most humans, it's very healthy. It's encouraging you to get active. Like we all agreed with the doctor that sent in the note about this. And it's a little bit the same thing here where is it always healthy to be going to like crossing the finish line and fainting? No. Right. But I don't think people are getting to that point.

I think it's you're pushing your limit of, of course, it's more comfortable to stay home. in bed than it is to get up and dive into a lake at 6.30 in the morning and race. But you saw Lucy Charles do it two weeks ago, so you can do it too. No, that's not dangerous. Yeah, no, I completely agree for whatever reason. If I watch a video of somebody training for whatever it is, like my instant reaction is, shit, I want to go do a workout. Exactly.

I haven't really ever broken down why that is, but it's just, it's like, boom. Because we're addicts. Yeah. We're addicts. We're all exercise addicts. Yeah. It's like there's, I think Eric, you're so right though. It's just like an empathy thing.

You see this and you're there with them and you're like, damn, that's awesome. They're going at it. They're freaking getting it. They're pushing it to the limit. Yeah. I also think it's fine to watch that kind of shit and not want to do it. Yeah, yeah. Like we watch the tour every day.

They're suffering so hard up the mountains and it doesn't make me want to do that. No. But it's such a fascinating pursuit to witness. The fact that the human body can even do this. Or even like Western States. I'm not drawn to that. That's crazy. I think Western States is bordering on the edge of like,

this is damaging your body. Right. For some people. I don't know. It's so hot. It's so hot. The tour stages are like manageable chunks of cycling. I mean.

They're like three and a half, four hours. Yeah. Yeah. But it's at a lot of times at maximum effort, Oh, it's completely crazy. We're just saying nobody's ended up in the hospital due to effort. Like Western states. Speaking of which, I actually don't know what happened to Remko.

I haven't followed up on that. Do we know? Seems like he was just not feeling super hot. Yeah, but it seems like he got worse and worse after that uphill TT stage. Yeah, maybe he had a bog or I haven't heard. Yeah, okay. That's part of the game of the tour, right? You got to make it to the end.

Yeah. If making it to the end is your goal. You're right. I just thinking about that today, do you think there's people who are like, if I can be in the green jersey for three stages, like, that's a huge win for me. I don't need to make it to the end. I'll do whatever it takes to get into it even once. Yeah, totally.

Anything you got to do, if you can't finish the tour but you want a stage, I would, I think that's worth it for a lot of people. Yeah. Right. God, that's epic. It's such a cool thing. Okay, well, those are our questions for the week. Guys, that was a lot of questions, and we were very efficient.

with our time. They're good questions too. Yeah, these are great. We had a large batch to choose from this week, which was great. So we're going to be able to dip into some of those for next week as well? I think that largely depends on how many we get this week, because we kind of like to keep it fresh. We're probably going to get tons more next week, too. Time will tell. And we got to do a little race recap of Boise. Okay, well, that was fun. Thank you, everybody. And don't forget to do your Strava art if you want to win some Zwift H-2 Audio headphones. I don't know if we even said that that was the prize for people that are

for new listeners, yes, that's a great prize. I did say that we sound great on the ones that I'm wearing. Yes, we did. And if you want, we have a little more of a review on last week's pod. So you can go and listen to that if you want a little update. Yeah. Okay, cool. We'll talk to you guys next week and thank you so much for listening.

Later. Bye.