That Triathlon Life Podcast - Pre-race in Lake Placid: Paula's first Ironman, the real jump from 70.3 to full distance, TT bike buying guide

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

We're recording in person in Lake Placid, two days before Paula toes the line at her first-ever Ironman. She's feeling good, she's excited, and she's ready. We get into all of it before diving into your questions. It's a full bag this week, from the science of optimal racing temperatures to the very real question of how big the jump from 70.3 to full distance actually is, timed perfectly with Paula about to find out for herself.This week we discussed:Paula's first Ironman Lake Placid preview: how she's feeling, what's got her excited, and what it's actually like to prepare for your first fullHow big is the jump from 70.3 to full Ironman — physically, mentally, and nutritionally — and how much does long-term base carry through?Optimal racing temperatures for endurance performance: does the 40°F–55°F research match real-world experience?Switching from power meter pedals to a crank-based system, what road pedal systems we've tried and why we ride what we rideRenting a tri bike vs. flying with a bike box: which scenarios tip the scales either way, especially internationallyWahoo Kickr Bike Pro deep dive: aerobar options, dialing in fit, and how well the bike fitness transfers to race day What is Elise Lagerstrom's running Eddington number? Richard from the UK asked the question we all wanted answeredHow to buy a TT bike when no local shop carries them, a guide for making a big investment without being able to test ride firstDraft-legal racing tactics for a first-timer heading to Age Group Worlds: the two or three things you actually need to knowThe Wahoo-Coros partnership: has anyone made the switch, and what do we think of Coros watches?Tubeless tire setup for racing: is it worth upgrading your wheelset, and what do you actually do if you flat during an Ironman?Current coaching setups across the TTL crew, is Paula still working with Carmen Small on the bike?Hill repeat steepness: what grade are you actually looking for and does it matter?A 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

I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. We are all sitting here live and in person in beautiful Lake Placid New York City. Staring, New York. New York City. New York City, we're not New York City. It's getting late. We're doing this anyway.

We're just been out all day long doing fun stuff. Paula and I rode most of the bike course today, previewed that, previewed the swim course, previewed a little bit of the run course, and Nick drove all the way up from... Where were you? Long Island. And I ate my exercise today was pizza for lunch and pizza for dinner. Oh, you had two pizzas today. Correct.

Failed to tell us that while we were picking a dinner location. Because I thought that might sway you away from pizza for dinner and I was perfectly happy with pizza for dinner. Well, I'm glad we did it. Yep. And also thank you, Nick, for doing the big drive. Oh, yeah. First of all, you flew from L.A. and then you drove five hours.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're committed to the Iron Man. At one point, I was going to pick up some of our very, special gear. Did that not happen? No, we sent it to B. B's going to bring it. B's going to make it in time, apparently. Yep, B was a more sure bet for all of our in-person deliveries. Did she get it? Yeah. She got it. So everybody who has ordered a T-shirt, we're going to have those for you at our donut run. We will actually, B is going to be handing those out starting at 2 p.m. actually, the donut run is at 3 p.m. and she'll be there, I think, from two to four.

So if you need to come a little bit early, stay a little bit late after the donut run, that will be an option. We will also have some extremely special, well, we'll have some special stuff that say donut run on them. First come, first serve, only available in person for purchase,

not available online. Wow. Be there. And they go on your head. They go on your head. What could they be? They're not shaped like a donut. What could they be?

If you still can't guess, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. So I know people are going to ask this. Can you buy like TTL Lake Plasted shirts if you haven't already ordered them to be picked up? Unfortunately not. The nature of this thing was that we need to know exactly how many to bring. And we're doing the handout thing.

So if you missed the pre-order for that, I guess better luck next year or just pay attention. Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram. We're going to be doing this for a couple more races this year. so just stay tuned. I feel like they're becoming collector's items. They are so sought after. Yeah, that was the intention.

We also did amazing posters. We didn't ship any posters here either just for ease of shipping them home. If you give someone a poster at a race, where are the chances it's going to make it home in one piece? That was our thought. But I do feel like if we set up or had the van or had something we're selling these shirts, I don't know we would sell more. For sure.

Of people that are just here doing the race. For sure. So we might escalate to that. some point in time, but that does require us to risk money up front because, you know, this is not just a thing that we can continue to sell for the next year. It's fairly specific. So that's why as small business people, we do the pre-order. Well, actually, isn't it, doesn't it seem like there's a lot of people who have raced Lake Placid before who are purchasing the shirt because it's, it means something to them.

Yeah. It is possible. And like, but then, you know, as the race is in the rear view, what are the chances that these people stumble across? this thing in marketing and all that. So that's why we do it the way we do it currently. Okay, so at the expense of asking the most broad and general question, what is this course like now that you've been here for a bit? I've been here for a bit.

We've been here for like eight hours. You've written it, though. You've written part of it. We know it now. Yeah, we drove out from Albany, and then we parked our car kind of at one of the points where the descent is finished and basically we had like 63 kilometers to get home. So I guess we rode two thirds of the course.

And then our good friend Fiona and her husband, Josh, actually just happened to be like driving past us. And they drove our van back to Placid for us. So we could just finish here. We had done kind of the bulk of the course at that point, did all the climbing. It's perfect road conditions. It was super windy today. Like 36 mile an hour gusts kind of thing. But I was aware of that.

And it was like the only day we could really do the longer ride. So I was just kind of, I didn't love that, but we did it. But beautiful course, like really, really pretty. Everywhere you look, there's like a stream or a river. You're riding along a thing of water, like looking up at a ski jump or whatever it is. So really pretty course. It was a little busy with cars, but I think that's just how any course is going to be now. And it didn't really bother me except for the fact that there was wind as well as cars.

That was a bit scary. But no, it was great. And then the run, we just did 10K of the course on one of the out and backs, and that too was kind of rolling. So didn't do any of the bigger climbs of the run. But the one thing I noticed on the run is it's quite cambered on the side. So that could get kind of hard at the end of a 40K run, just kind of running a little bit on an angle the whole time. Maybe your Achilles and ankles might start feeling that. But otherwise, also a pretty run course.

I also thought during the preview, because I kind of did the tippy point of the run course lap, it's quite lonely out there. I think on the first lap before you're running into age groupers, it can be real lonely. It's not like a course like I would imagine Roth is where there's people lining it the entire way. I think there's going to be a lot of quiet time where you're suffering and no one's really around. That could be hard. But on the second lap, you have age groupers. When you were picking your first Ironman.

man here. How much of it, you said it's pretty, and it's so beautiful here, even the drive here is stunning. How, did that matter at all to you? Yeah, it always matters a little bit with the course is to me. I think, I was loosely considering doing Texas as my first one, but the course didn't really excite me as much. It's like, the bike is on the motorway, and it's a lot hotter, and it's earlier in the year. So I think the timing of this race combined with the fact that it's a course I really like after what I've seen today and the terrain suits me pretty well. Yeah, I want my first race to be, first Iron Man to be as good of an experience as it can be. Obviously, it'll be very hard and there'll be points where I am not having fun, but setting myself up for the best chance of

having fun by doing a course like this, I think is the way to go versus like going to Cozumel or somewhere where it's hot and I'm just like melting the whole time. The weather looks pretty premo. I wonder, do you think there's a chance? I think there's a chance that you could like the whole thing. There's a chance. There's a chance. There's always a chance. Of like, damn, this is, you know, combining a few things that we've talked around in the past,

which is like you should never be on that super edge that you're on for a 70.3. And that it's new and that it's this place. Yeah, I think it's going to, I mean, I envision myself really having a hard time at the last third of the run because it's kind of unknown territory for me. but every time I've gone out and done training for this, it has been at such a lower intensity that it's like sustainable and enjoyable in a weird way. So I'm hoping that the length and the distance

and the amount of time I'm out there is kind of counterbalanced by the fact that I'm not going as hard. And I am pacing myself a little better and eating more and whatever it is. So yeah, I'm expecting, of course I'm expecting it'll be points that are hard, but I also am open to the idea that I won't hate it.

Yeah, right. Okay, so what can Eric and I do on race day to make it better? I don't know. I feel like the, um, like Eric was saying, there's not a lot of points on the bike course where you could get out and give me splits and... Without driving on the bike course. Yeah, because it's kind of... Maybe it's not closed? Is that possible? It's possible. It's not close to cars.

Which would only be useful for the first lap because once you're on the second lap, then there's age groupers, it just would be completely... Yeah, you can't drive off. If it was even safe on the first lab, right? Um, I don't know. I, same thing in Happy Valley. I didn't really have information about what the gaps were, and I saw you guys a little bit there,

but I'm used to racing like that, like a little bit blind. And there's little out and back, it looks like, kind of on the start of each lap that you do, and I'm not sure why we do that. Maybe that's like where special needs are, or it's like a pretty place to go. I'm not sure. But that is one place where you can potentially see someone,

although it's so short you might not even see them. if you're too far behind or too far ahead because it's such a little out and back. So for people who don't know, special needs and an Iron Man halfway through the... No idea. Is it? Yeah. You're supposed to have an option to pick up stuff. Yeah, my plan is to carry everything I need in terms of like cars. Okay, yeah. But I'll put a bottle in there full of flow gel in case that one launches or like, I'm really suffering.

And on the run, do you plan on doing anything? I bought a flask, two flasks. I bought one at REI, and then I liked it so much. I went and bought a second one. And I went to RIA to buy it, and I had enough credit to get it for free. Oh, nice, yeah. And they were like, but you need ID because we don't know if you're actually this person. Yeah.

And then the manager walks out of the back and he's like, he's like, that's Paul Finley. So we knew I was. To be clear, I paid for the first one with my own money. Yeah, Eric paid for my first class. I see. So you'll have a flask halfway through the run that you plan on getting or you can kind of play it by that? Well, I mean, it's like has monetary value, $34. So I'm going to try to get it.

Oh, I see. Well, we can, um, so when I DNF my first Iron Man, my parents got it for me one time when I passed. I said that to Eric. I'm like, we can't just chuck it anywhere. I got to chuck it in an aid station. Oh, I see what you mean. I meant if you didn't pick it up at all. Because if you don't pick it up at all, they tell you we will discard it.

Oh. But we can grab it for you if you just like run through it. Yeah, that is. has value. Of course. We're worried about my flasks when I'm about bonging. Getting my flasks back.

No, but I do plan. I think I'll learn a little bit. And actually the previous meeting is Friday, the race of Sunday. So you do have a day to kind of figure out your bags and what's going on because there are a lot of things

I'm not familiar with with this distance. So yeah. Eric, what do you think about if it rains the night before the race and her bike has to be out there? Are you going to do anything It's supposed to rain Saturday night

and taper off into Sunday so maybe not reading for the race but sitting in the rain. I mean bikes are made to be ridden in the rain. There's nothing, she has like nothing foamy. Her arrow bar, you know, arm cup pads are extremely thin. I could put a little plastic pad over those though.

You could if you want. I might do over the saddle too just to like so it doesn't get like squishy. Yeah, I mean it's more just like you don't want to be annoyed by anything. Yeah. Because you're going to be annoyed about something. The saddle would have.

have to, they would, there should retain no water. Okay, yeah. But that's a very old school thing because they used to. But if you want to, go for it. I feel like also like the more plastic you're strapping to your bike in transition, the more things could, it could like blow in the wind or like. Right, it's like a sail. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. But the electronics are obviously fine, so. I think when I raised Tromba the year, it was a monsoon. I left it out nothing overnight and it was obviously completely fine. Yeah, yeah. So it's a little bit of a myth that you got to like cover up your drive train and stuff. Well, that was, Eric, I remember you said to me,

the Shimano tested their system or SRAM tested their system to, like, work underwater. Yeah. Not deep underwater. Yeah. I've ridden through rivers, like, fully submerged everything. I think the mistake you could make, and I think someone made this mistake one time, is they took their battery off the SRAM. Yeah, don't do that.

Because they thought it would rain. They're like, oh, I'm going to take the battery off. And then the connectors. Connectors got wet. Yeah. And the battery is watertight. Yes. The battery has a tiny little seal around it.

So leave your batteries on if it rains. Yes. Yeah. Well, we're going to talk about it more next week for sure. It's crazy that it'll be over next week. I know. It feels like it's never going to happen. I know.

And then it just happens. And it happens and it feels like the whole race takes a week. Well, I was thinking about all I was running today. I was like, should I just kind of try to run the first half, like pretending it's a half? And then really just death march the second half. But hopefully by that point have a lead that I could, March. That's a painful way to finish that run. Well, you know what? See, like what I've just... When I finish a half, I'm never at my limit. Like, I'm always like, I could run more. Right.

And maybe that's a flaw of me racing, of my half. Or maybe you've been secretly building up the ability to run an amazing iron run run. I've never finished a half feeling like that. No matter what, I'm going to be absolutely freaking hating it at 30K, because I've never run over 30K in entire life. But, um, I do think that from like 20 to 30k, I'll be okay. Right. And then those last 10k is gonna, yeah. And I, I feel like my 70.3 pace is naturally, it's not like max effort. Like I see the guys doing in 70.3s are like, they're like on the brink of death. Yeah. I'm kind of just I think, I think if you do it exactly what you said, plus just your brain knowing that you're doing an Iron Man, you'll probably arrive at the happy spot. And then what I was going to say about,

about when I did, when I've done 50Ks, like the difference for me between brink of death and sustainable 50K pace is like this tiny amount. It's like seven seconds per kilometer. And you're just barely not over that line where you start going, you know, it's like this crazy little thing that you have dialed in a bit now

through the longer runs that you've been doing. Yeah, like maybe if you're doing 350 per K, I get into that like, oh, this is so hard. But 358 per K is like, kind of Marshall. Maybe you know that. That's why you'd finish a 70.3 not dead because it's like, yeah, maybe you could have squeezed an extra 20 seconds out of it. Yeah. But not.

I mean, there were points today on my easy run that I was like looking down at my watch and being like, shit, this is probably going to be at what I'm running on the second line. Right. And it's not going to, it's crazy. And it will not feel this easy. It does not feel easy. You're just like you, the experience I have sometimes is I, my watch is wrong. I feel like I for sure I'm running faster than this because you judge speeds, at least I do so much off of how I feel. not just how fast the ground is moving underneath.

And I'm assuming it's like when I did my 50K and you remember running in with me and then I was just like, I could breathe, but it was just like such a deep, deep muscular discomfort. I'm not worried about my heart and lungs getting through an Iron Man. I could do 100 Iron Man's in a row. With my lungs, but my muscles can't.

Honestly, it was like a kind of weirdly nice, cool feeling where I was just like, I'm not, don't feel like I'm going to drown, but like I just have to focus as hard as I can to keep my legs moving. That's my worry. He wasn't so much pain. But it was like, he was like screaming running downhill. And he wasn't even on pavement.

No, he wasn't. Extreme downhill. Yeah, anyway, I assume that's going to be some component of that. I think you'll have kind of like a total system like, whoa, this is really hard. I don't think your lungs are going to be fine. I don't think your legs are going to be, unbearable.

I think everything is going to come crumbling down. Unfortunately, I don't have the new on light sprays, which sucks. What are those? They're the old ones. Oh, I see. But I'm excited to try them someday. I'll just have to do my best way. No, these are really nice.

You know, I heard there's a great race in the white. But a few of the athletes racing have them, so it's annoying. Oh, that is annoying. Yes. Anyway. Yes. you're going to get to use those on the big one in Hawaii. Should you qualify?

Yes, exactly. Should I qualify? Well, anyone can buy them on July 30th. Let's talk about that for a second. So the goal for sure is to have a great first Iron Man, do as well as you can do, have your own race, and the chips will fall as they fall. But also a goal is obviously to try to get a slot for Kona.

No, I was just thinking about this today. I was like, if I'm at the point in this race, where I'm like just finished to get a kona slot, I have failed. I see. Okay. Really? I feel like in your mind. I feel like that's pretty.

In my mind. Yeah. It's not what your expectations are. No, because like the top four women here already have one. And then I think Chelsea just has to validate. So if I'm literally fighting for like six, seven, eight, nine, ten spots. Do you know how many spots are? There's four.

So interesting. So what you're saying is unless, a bear bites your leg off. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying if I'm having a really rough day, which is totally possible, and I'm like walking in, and I'm like,

just finish and you could get a slot. Because that happens. It rolls down so far. Of course, of course. Yeah. I would consider that not a successful day. Okay. So I'm not even thinking about a Kona slot.

Okay. Racing Kona sounds like hell, actually. I've heard it isn't like that. Racing this and the nice cool breeze sounds actually kind of interesting. Eric, What time of year was it when we were there? In Hawaii?

Yeah. In spring. We were there and we went to the race start and I remember thinking like, no way would I do this. It was so uncomfortably hot in the shade. I know. Yeah. If I get a kona slot, heat prep starts tomorrow. Yeah.

We're getting in the hot tub. I don't know how you could ramp that up any more than you have. I don't know genetically if my body can handle it because there's a component of like. Of course. Some people handle it better than others. Of course. Like Lindsay Corbyn, amazing in the heat. Heather, amazing in the heat.

Totally. I just don't know if I'm built that way, but you can train anything a little bit. You can. But there are those people who just excel on that island specifically. Yeah. And they race to other races and they are not as competitive, you know. Yeah, totally. How do we feel about moving on to just our regular old questions?

Yeah, I didn't expect to talk about this race. I wish. Everyone wants to hear about it, including me. myself so okay yeah that happened pretty naturally yeah I can keep going but yeah oh do you have any more questions for me well Eric's gonna make a little video too yeah so I don't know waste the questions I guess I should say that the next episode of Paula's prep for um placid will be coming out probably at the same time that this comes out tomorrow iron man YouTube channel so you want to check that out is good and then we'll be making episode number three about placid she'll also be featured on a

fighting chance so there'll be a you you can consume lots of lot of stuff about this race. We won't. You can consume a lot of... We'll save our bullets. I'm worried I'm hyping it up too much. That's the problem. It's like, there's these YouTube videos, and then we're talking about it on here, and I'm posting on Instagram, I'm doing pictures. I'm like, blah, blah, that's my first thing. And then

some people that are coming are just like dead silent. Well, okay. But that's not the way to be. I mean, I'm not like saying I'm going to win. You're saying it's exciting. It's your first time. You're going to try as as hard as you can. Heaven forbid you express excitement for a new thing. No, it's great. It's great. And you are doing 10% of the lifting of the hyping here.

So no one's thinking that you're overhyping yourself, that's for sure. And the only way that I think, like, start the race and try it hardest. But not really. If I try my hardest, I'll blow up. Well, that's not what I mean. What I mean is don't the night before the race, be like, I'm not really feeling this anymore and not start. You know, that would be a bummer with all the hype. But the rest, this is uncharted territory.

That's why it's exciting. That's why people are excited. that is because it's an unknown and people want to see something they haven't seen before. Totally. You're doing Iron Man, something they haven't seen before.

No one's like... I feel so lucky that I am here to see it. As a fan of the sport, because it's cool. And we've seen you race for so many years and be so dominant and successful. And we've all had this question of what would it be like if she raced a full?

And now we're going to have the answer. Yeah, but I don't want that kind of pressure because I think even if it doesn't go well on the weekend, I could still be good at it at a different one. Of course. For sure. I think everybody's incredibly realistic about that. Yes.

Because especially anyone who's done these races know that sometimes it goes very different directions. I mean, look at who was it in Texas, Yellow Gaines. Everyone's like he's going to maybe win. We already overcooked it. And nobody is like, well, I guess he just sucks. No. It's like he needs to figure out a few things. Turns out Iron Man's still hard.

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard for everyone. Okay, let's move on. Okay. First thing we want to address is we finally have a conclusion to our, seemingly never ending Edding Edding number saga.

We made the Instagram post, we Cattle called everyone, all TTL listeners. All the ballots were counted. People were into it. It was a prize. Paul, you're such a hater.

I am a hater of the state thing. Oh my God, sorry. Could we announce the winner and move on. All is a professional leader. Well, first of all, I would just like to say that all of the top people that were in contention for the win were women.

And I thought that was cool, especially coming up of the Lisa's episode. We had a couple of people whose Eddington number was 100. And then our winner was Yana, also known as Czech Chick-Chic, if you know her. She is five-time Iron Man Age Group world champion, and her Eddington number was 107. And she also let me know that if you count an indoor rides, it's 108. How many competitions are there out there that are like this, where they rewards a person who just likes to go out and be on their bike for a super long time? That's true.

That's nothing wrong with it. We've got a 100 meter dash, we've got a 200 meter dash, we've got a 400 meter dash, got an 800-yard run. Okay, that's right. Congratulations. So, yeah, y'all, amazing. You're going to have $107 of TTL store credit. Do whatever you want with it.

Do whatever you want. Go crazy. Buy the thing that you put on your head, but you can't actually. That's a lot of stickers. Slightly less patches. Okay. Should we say anything about that? Yeah, I mean, along with our suite handing out of the T-shirts that you paid for

and the potential donut run thing that may or may not go on your head, Nick will just have free stickers to hand out. So I will have them in my pocket at all time. So if you come up to me, ask me for a sticker. Tell him your Eddington number. Actually, come to me, go tell Paula your Eddington number. And then I will give you a sticker.

I'll say, fuck on. Okay, so let's move on. Questions here. You can submit your questions for the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. And also for the cost of 30 stickers, per month, you can also become a podcast supporter, which we would really appreciate.

It's what got me out here. It's what got us this nice hotel room that we're all sharing and looking longingly into each other's eyes. First question. We got in his own room with the conjoining door. That's true. And I may or may not share with your aunts one night. The ants share did not come out of the podcast budget.

Take about your half, bro. I was a VC swooped in and paid for that. Okay, first question. Garrett from Kalamazoo, which I still can't believe is the name of a real place. I read the optimal temperature for endurance performance is 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which translates to 4 degrees Celsius to 13 degrees Celsius. Thank you for the conversion, Garrett. Does this align with your experience?

And are there specific races you look forward to every year because they seem to consistently be your preferred weather conditions? Love this question, because we've all heard this thing that's running a marathon. The best is just above freezing. Not just about freezing Just about freezing Yeah It's more like 10 isn't it

Celsius? No it's like four Four Celsius No way Yeah yeah yeah I can definitely believe Yeah it is The thing is it does not feel like it

It feels uncomfortable It's like that burning And your lungs feeling And your joints hurt But the science shows that Wow metabolically Just a feeling It says ideal marathon temperatures

Between 4 to 13 Low humidity and no wind Isn't that crazy Yeah So how does this contrast with your anecdotal experience? Yeah, well, the one race that I ever did that was freezing was 70.3 worlds in 2022. Literally freezing. It was so cold.

So did you feel like you performed well in spite of the cold? Or was there something inside of you that actually was thinking, man, this does feel better? This does feel good. Yeah, this does feel better. Wow. Well, also did you guys race cross country growing up? It's like in the fall, you're always kind of wearing mittens, but also shorts and a singlet because your extremities get cold.

And I think that was always a fun feeling to be going so hard and never overheating. Yeah. Yeah, I'd like it better by far. So in Portland, Eric, would it get cold enough for, would it get this cold? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, in Portland in the winter, just kind of hovers around like 40 to 42 and drizzling. Oh, okay.

So, yeah. It's a wet, damp, cold. So what about you? How, you know, you read that. and we can understand it. But did you inherently, like, viscerally also feel that these cold temperatures were best for performance? I mean, I just did just have just do better. Yeah.

Yeah. I just, I escaped from Alcatraz. Yeah. The year that I did well in St. Georgia was pouring rain on the run, if you remember. Yeah, we remember. Freaking Santa Cruz. Yeah, colder races, for sure. I do not do well in races.

like Los Cabos or just anything that's hot and humid. I feel like I've figured that out a little bit, and this also just feels like it sort of aligns with where I grew up in Portland with cold and drizzling. Yeah. Well, I'll just say as a non-pro athlete that I, this surprises me. Every time I read this, I'm like, is my body really part of the statistic? I'm sure it is, but it doesn't feel like it's. You're closer to the 13.

Probably closer to the 13. I feel like to me 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is like 15, 16 degrees, that feels like where I'm ideal, but I think that's just like a comfort and extremities thing. I mean, we're also just assuming that sun's out. Like 60 degrees and the sun's not out different. Right. Yeah. So, yeah.

Well, thanks for the questions, Garrett. Next one here. Hey, TTR. I'm switching from power meter pedals to a power meter crank. And now I need to pick new pedals. What road pedal systems have you tried and why did you choose the ones you're riding today? My first question is, why do you need different pedals?

Just because you're getting a power meter crank. doesn't mean you can't continue to use your power pedals. I'm assuming that we sold the power meter pedals to pay for the power meter crank. Right. Okay, so question still stands. Pedals. Did you bring a whiteboard? Yeah.

Oh, my God. That's our board to write splits on. Okay, got it. Instead of yelling them incorrectly. Yep. For the race. Yeah. So, Paul and I both use Shimano pedals for our entire lives.

basically. I tried speed play for like one day back in the day. I think, I don't know if you did. I tried them on Lindsay's bike that time and I was like, this is like peddling on, we should be doing. Those were frogs. Those were speed play frogs and I don't think you have. Oh, yeah. It was not, we're just going to say that was not correct. Oh, okay. Well, then never mind. I don't have an opinion on pedals, but I like the time pedals. So yeah. So we switched to time pedals about, what is that, two or three years ago now, just because SRM and time and Zip, it's all the same company, basically, and they offered to send us some, and we tried them, loved them, switched all of our bikes over to time pedals.

I think they call them the, shit, what do they call them? The attack ATAC, I think that's their mountain bike pedal. I use those on my gravel bike and mountain bike. But then what are the espresso? I think they call them the expressor or espresso. So they're road shoes. They're road pedals. And they're freaking sweet.

They feel great. They look great. Yeah. I mean, the reason that we like those is because they were similar to Shimano. They have a very wide base. They're super light.

Yeah, I mean, that's it. I think when people usually complain about not liking, people will complain about pedal size. And usually, like, with regards to a speed play or something like smaller like that and just feeling like they don't have enough of a platform to stand on, could be in your mind, could not be, but that's my main complaint about speed play, which is what I use on my road

setups, is that it's ironically, to me, harder to clip into than the rest of those offerings, even though it's dual-sided for the non- Arrow versions, which is what most people use. I still would have an easier time clipping into Shimano or Time or Look than the Speedplay. But you have used Speedplay extensively. A lot now, yeah, for many years. Because I was having some, like the knee issues, and the bike. fitter told me that speed play and he's right it offers amongst the most if not the most amount of float exactly and it's customizable so whereas a shamano or a look or a time pedal you just have like

tension a four degrees or a 10 degrees or a zero degrees a speed play you can say i want like three degrees out and only one degree in or 10 degrees in and one degree out so if you've had a knee surgery or just some sort of serious issue they're really fantastic for that and it's nice because you can i think you adjust that on the cleat yes not the pedal. So if you have three bikes, it's the same for all three. Exactly. Yeah. And they're also rebuildable. They've got a lot of upsets. They're expensive too. But they're, yeah. Okay. Next question is from Jeff. When would you suggest renting a tri-bike versus flying with a bike box? Are there certain scenarios where you'd lean one way or another? I'm thinking like international versus domestic or not

worried with setting the bike back up to its best fit after the flight. Best, Jeff. we've we've answered this or a similar thing to this before and it really comes down to how serious you are that's the only answer like you just are you there to complete or are you there to compete for the podium and if you're there to compete for the podium your only option is to rent your exact bike in whatever country that you're going to and it needs to be set up exactly like your bike at home which is going to take you just as much time as unpacking your current bike yeah i mean with the evoc case that we have it's like five minutes It took us, it took no time.

Actually, today, I was in line for bagels and coffee. Eric used the Tully bike bag for his road bike. And the lineup was a bit long, so Eric's like, I'm just going to go build my bike in the parking lot. He'd finished before I had gotten the bagels. What's the excuse? I mean, it's so quick. And with aerobars these days, I mean, it depends on what your setup is like,

because our arrow bars are you just four bolts and they're off. And you could literally put them in your carry on. Wireless blips, baby. Yeah. It'd be a little more complicated if you had a bunch of attachments to them, but bike bags are good these days. And flying with bikes cost less than ever now, so renting the bike can cost more than flying with your bike.

They treat it like luggage a lot of the time. It's different in Europe. Sometimes they'll charge it $200. You have to look into it, like check with the airline. They'll have it on their website, how much they charge some. They check, it's regular baggage sum. It's like $250. Yeah.

Didn't, Eric, didn't you pay something ridiculous one? I paid $700 with Lufthansa. That's crazy. It's like 12, 13 years ago. It's criminal. But I think it's worse in Europe. And in Europe, often you have to actually reserve a spot for your bike.

Right. It's different in the U.S. And if you have any kind of like airline status or anything, usually the fee is totally waived anyway. And especially if you're going to a place like Worlds or Hawaii. Yeah. Any big race where a lot of people are bringing their bikes, be extra careful and show up early.

Well, also there's a better chance of it getting lost or not put on the airplane. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of stressful things. But I mean, renting a bike is also stressful. We'd be more inclined to do it with road bikes. If you can fly to France and like rent a Colnago or you know whatever. Oh yeah. If you can get a bike that's nicer than yours.

Yeah. If you're riding around like a Schwinn from 1995, yeah, go to Italy, rent the Colnago. Oh, is that what we're going to do in France? No, I want to bring my tarmac. I can't wait to ride it on those mountains. This next question is from Geneva. Hey, Paula, Eric and Nick had to write in to say how excited I am about Paul's first full. There will be so many of us cheering you on.

I'm curious to hear your latest thinking about the Wahoo kicker bike pro totally different totally unrelated to iron unrelated did you end up using a lot during the winter have you found a good option to add aero bars to it any other tips to get the fit just right due to my work deployment abroad i train on one full time i recently completed 70.3 tromblant i was pleased to see that the bike fitness transferred relatively well that's great but i clearly could have used more training time and arrow thanks for all your passion for a multi-sport and a life of adventure Genevieve from Quebec living in

Oh, I said Genevieve Her name was Genevieve Did we ever say that we were going to try To put an arrow bar setup on it? No, I think they're just asking If we have tried Which we have not But it would be no problem

It would just be clip on arrowbars We have some I did have quite a bit of writing on it This winter as I was coming back from surgery It was so incredible Because I could just adjust the fit Really easily And find a spot that didn't hurt my hip

And jump on and off really easily I think it's I think it's a sweet tool. I like the way it feels. I like the shifting situation. I like the adjustability of it and not having to pull my bike on and off. I used it for some heat sessions because it matters less if it gets sweat on it. Oh, like drenched.

Like for your own bike, you don't really want it to be drenched and corroded with sweat. Yeah. And Paula's heat session is somewhere around one-third of my regular session sweat rate. So that's why I'm using it. She doesn't sweat much. Yeah, it's amazing. You don't necessarily sweat a lot, though, you? I sweat a lot.

Do you? I don't feel like I'd see it on you that much. Because I never been with you when you're working that hot. Anyone on the trainer sweats a lot, though. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's because you've never ridden the trainer with me slash anyone. Yeah. Correct. No, with me once. Oh, yeah, we didn't do it once. Yeah.

Yeah, once. That was your last time ever probably. Yeah, yeah, I think it was. Didn't you do an FTP test? I did. It was very low. Yeah. Because you're on the trainer. Yeah, because it sucks. Because you're a free-spirited boy equals low watts on the trainer. It does not translate well for me. Okay.

Nice question here. Hi, Paula, Eric, and Nick. It was like 180. It was 270 or something like. It was at 180. 45. No. It was like it was 284.

That's what it was. And I was very just, yeah. It's, I don't know. Maybe I'm the indoor trainer that is what I should be basing my training off of them. Irrelevant. Hi, Paula, Eric, and Nick. Enjoying the Eddington number chat.

Just here to ask the question we all need to know the answer to after listening to Elise last week. What insane number is Elise's run? stunning Eddington number. That's the best for Placid Paula. We can ask her, but I asked her already. I have the answer. Okay.

I had her calculated before the podcast. She quickly brought up. I would guess that I'm going to go like 39 or something to 45. Maybe not the, yeah, like, like, you're thinking about the, upper 30s miles. Interesting. You guys,

especially my best doodle ever, just by the way. She has it there I'm like that's That looks perfect Perfect We need a photo I made a donut run It's a donut run

I've been feeling like he should have a cup of coffee Yeah that's splashing Yeah that's a good idea Okay but what's Elisa Settington? I have it I know Do you want to guess Paula? I would not have guessed even 22 But it's 30

30 30 3 0 she said she had a bazillion 29s Yeah I was going to say I bet you she's done a ton of around that zone. Yeah. But she works full time.

Right. She doesn't train professionally and have the time to do these like crazy, crazy long runs. So the fact that it's even what it is, 30s. Just like 47, 48Ks. And I bet you a lot of that is from the races that she does. Yeah, she does a lot of racing. That's true. But she does a lot of long runs too.

She just doubles up real hard on the weekends. Yeah. She'll go run like 40K, 40K or something like that. Yeah. That was such a good episode last week. I loved having her just talk about that. Yeah, it was great. I listened to it afterwards.

Okay, next question here is Justine. Hey, TTL, straight to business. Got you, Paula. I'm currently doing triathlons on a road bike, and I'm interested in buying a TT bike. I've tried going to bigger cities and stopping in stores to see about fit, and no one carries TT bikes, but they are willing to order one. Do you all have suggestions for navigating the purchasing process? I'm a teacher, so spending a ton of money is not an option if it doesn't work.

Yeah, no one wants to buy a bike that they've done. Can't use, of course. I want to get on one and make sure I'm comfortable before making the investment. Thanks for your help. Help me send it. Justine. This is tough. I did, you know, I saved up money to turn pro by working in a triathlon shop.

And I feel like there must be, what, less than 20 triathlon shops in the whole country, maybe 10. Like local bike shops are not crazy common, let alone ones that's focus on triathlon. but I think the answer to this is is a fitter. Yeah, that's it. So, like, for example, our friend Fiona in Bend, her husband, Josh, he is a bike fitter and he has accounts with, I think, Ventum, Quintaneru, Argon 18, and you can go in there and have a two-and-a-half-hour fit with him. He'll get all your measurements and say, this looks like you fit really well on this bike or

these three bikes, et cetera. This would be the size. So, unfortunately, you can't ride one unless you're his wife. wife-sized bike, but you can have a lot of confidence that it's going to fit you when it shows up. My bike fitted the same thing. Yeah. These bikes would fit you. Right.

And it's just kind of a thing that unfortunately or fortunately, T.T bikes are much less touchy-feely in terms of like the personality that they have, that you could claim, you know, that about road bikes. Like, oh, the tarmac feels this way in a P, you know, whatever, a 35, whatever the Colmago or, you know, et cetera. I just keep bringing that, but it feels like, here's what an S5 feels like, TT bikes a little less, a little less personality to them. Measurements. A lotages and how you fit on it is king. Yeah. Cool.

There you go, Justine. And also, I feel like you can maybe set up a deal with the fitter, like, hey, you help me get the sizes first and then fit me to the bike. Maybe there's a package that comes together. Generally, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Next question is from Tom. Hi, Try Gang.

I appreciate your great info, and I'm using banter, especially the TTF. dark tangents, which you really don't get. I mean, that's why they're TT after dark, but sometimes... Yeah, we've never shared those. We sometimes we tease them. Like, we'll bleep something. So you're like filling in the blanks in your mind of what's going on. Okay, so a question I qualified for the World Age Group draft legal sprint in September

through a non-draft race. This is funny because we had the opposite question last week. Remember? The pro who qualified drafting and then wanted to race non-draft on a TT bike. So what are your two or three best tips for strategies for draft legal cycling? So I have some idea what I'm doing out there, thanks, and go crush Lake Placid Paul. Tom. Let's expand this. Not just the draft legal cycling.

The draft legal racing, because the cycling is always contextualized within a swim before it and I run after it. So someone who's used to racing draft legal who is going to go race, someone's used to racing non-draft who's going to race draft. What would you tell them? If they were competent at non-draft. You're in for a world of pain. Oh, never mind that. Draft Legal Racing is so much about you are not in control of the pace, and you have to go the pace that the pack is going and risk everything that you have just to make that pack in hopes that once you're there,

you can recover a little bit, or that the group will slow down, et cetera. So it is like maximum start effort on the swim until you make it into a group. group maximum effort at the beginning of the bike until the groups all sort it out. And maybe they don't. And then there's going to be attacks. And same thing with the run. People just tend to go out really hot on the run versus a draft legal thing is like you're in your own space. You can paste to perfection. You can just look at your watts, et cetera. Non-draft. I mean, draft legal, your freaking power meter is there. You're not looking at it. You're not beholden to anything that it says. It's just capturing data.

so be ready for some extremely spiky uncomfortable moments unless you don't make the bike pack in which case it's just like a non-draft train exactly you can be uncomfortable by yourself yeah yeah that's the advice i thought you're going to give it's it sounds scary it's racing draft legal yeah you think you're nervous of getting ready to do a traflon where you are completely in control of everything no it's like this is no big deal yeah by any means but I guess in terms of practicing and stuff, I would see if you could get yourself into a couple of hard group rides at very least just to work on your bike handling skills and pack awareness of head on the swivel,

paying attention to who's riding well, who's not writing well, and where are your position so you don't crash. Do we have donuts for the donut run? Yes, we do. Okay, thank you. You're like, I just drew this donut, and I'm going to have to erase it. Well, someone said there's no donut chops in Placid. They are correct.

So you're bringing them. They're being imported. Special. You're welcome. Every time I bring something up where I am doubting your guys' abilities to organize shit, Eric's like says it was such a sassad. There's no guys here. It just feels so good to have thought of it.

It's not every time have I thought of it when I'd have. In this case, I am not taking credit. Jordan has organized this immaculately. It's all Jordan. Give that guy praise and affection. I do it every day. And we have also... You do every day.

We also have... So Jordan Briden, he is our one employee. And then B, who has... She helped us with Lake Las Vegas T100 as well as a couple other things. She is kind of spearheading things, but then we have quite a few team TTR athletes who are coming out just to stoke the fire, help out with the donut situation, be around. So it's... And my mom's sisters are coming in their offering to help with stuff too. Yeah, your girlfriend.

Next-in-girlfriend. Thanks a girlfriend. Hey, I'm not complaining. Age is just a number, baby. Age is just a number, baby. Okay, next question here is from Scott. Hello, everybody. Just a quick question.

After the partnership between Wahoo and Khoros, have you switched smart watches? And if so, what do you think of the Koro's watches? Is there some banger interesting questions this week? Well, we did. Paula did request. Yes, we did request. We had a question to say the number.

We had a lot of questions. Nick went through him this week, not me. It took, actually, I only went through half. All that time was me just reading through half of them because I thought this is, like we already have, we already have too many questions and we can use them maybe next week. Maybe, yeah, if you're left.

Although we're going to talk a lot about the race next week. No, we'll guess them someday. Well, as soon as Wahoo decided they weren't going to make their watch anymore, we got Coros watches. And then, so we've actually had them for longer than this official partnership with them. And that was kind of by coincidence because you had a friend who worked at Coros and helped us out. Probably for a full year.

Yeah. And it just felt like Garmin is like a competitor of Wahoo. And Coros doesn't make a bike computer, didn't at the time anyway. So it just felt a little more like correct. They do know and I've been seeing it around more so. But you know, it was like less of a direct competitor. Anyway. We're also intrigued by like the battery line.

The battery life. There were a couple of things that we were super interested in about them anyway. Yeah, I think it's a cool company. And I like that it worked every time. It connected really quick. It had a crazy battery life. Like we charge ours once a week maybe, and we're using them every single day.

Yeah, I didn't bring a charger for mine. Really? That's awesome. I've run on it with it one time, and it's had it on for three days, and it's 84%. Yeah. My watch does not do that. You know, this is the fanciest garment.

Yeah, you have to charge it a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it does sync perfectly with the Wahu treadmill, which is cool. Like, if I put indoor run, it automatically connects to the watch. And then you know how sometimes, like, Your watch will think it's reading the treadmill, but it's completely inaccurate.

It's like you're running five minutes per K, and it says you're running four minutes per K. It's so wrong. But this is literally Bluetoothing to the treadmill. So if you're running 430 per K at 10% incline or whatever it is, it accounts for the meters gained and the pace run and all the fluctuations in between. And provides all the sweet data that the treadmill gives you with ground contact time and cadence and all these special Wahoo metrics. What it's helpful for is uploading.

it to like training peak. So if you're doing a lot of treadmill running, and your coach can see exactly what you're doing. Yeah. Not just what the treadmill or watch thinks you're doing. Yeah. Great. So yeah,

you guys use the watches before this partnership. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And the Coros they sent us for the treadmill thing. Oh, they sent you once. Wallhead did. Oh, yeah. But the ones they sent us are the,

not the top-top-of-the-line trail watch. It's one under and it's lighter. And I love that for what we do on the road. actually really nice. Nice. Yeah, because you just don't even notice you're wearing it. It's super easy to put on in a race, and it's, I think, more appropriate for the road.

Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Sweet. Next question here's from Caitlin. Hey, guys, been getting a lot of flat tires recently. I'm considering switching to a tubeless setup. Is it worth upgrading my wheel set?

Also, and I find this is probably the more, because the simple answer to that first question is yes. The second part is a little more nuanced and interesting. What's the best way to handle a flat during a race if you're a race? running tubeless tires. For context, I write a Cervello and training for Iron Man Sacramento, also known as Iron Man, California. As a slower cyclist, I'm especially nervous about getting a flat during the race and losing even more time. So, you know, for context, if you got a flat with an intertube back in the day, you would just pop off the tire, put in a new intertube, and you're good

to go. With tubeless setups, there's fluid in there that just works like the platelets in your blood that stops up a hole if it's small enough, and you ideally don't even have to get off the bike. Well, you don't even notice. You don't know. You'll sometimes notice after the race when there's some sealant spray. Yeah. So let's say it's bad enough where you actually flat. And there's the option where it's a huge gash, in which case you're kind of S-O-L, right?

Yep. What if it's not a huge gash? What if it is a small enough hole that it could be repaired, but the ceiling didn't repair it immediately? You jam some plugs in there. So what does that mean? So Dynaplug makes the style of plugs that we use, which is basically a brass-tipped little braid of tire material almost. So you jam that into your tire, and the brass tip basically allows it to jam in there, and then the little rubber tip tail on the end of it actually plugs the hole.

and the sealant now only has to fill in the tiny little gaps between that little plug and the tire. Hit it with CO2 and you should be good to go. Sometimes it's not enough. You have to use a second plug. Sometimes a third plug and saying if all that fails, then you, if you have a tube, you could try to put a tube in. But generally speaking, that gash is so big that the tube's just going to explode out of it. That's the problem. And if you had a tube tire, it would be a problem.

It would have been the same thing. You wouldn't have been able to put another tube in. Haven't we talked about this like a thousand times? A thousand times. I don't know. I don't have in the last couple of years we've talked about it. I think it comes up a lot. But that is the solution as you use the dina plugs.

Yep. There are other brands and stuff. We just really like the dina plugs. They're very quick, fast. They're double-tipped so you can do one. And then if that didn't work, you can flip it around. Use the other side. Yep.

For context, in my many years of riding two-blitz tires and riding bikes all the time, I've had to use a dina plug a single time, and it did work. Yeah. So tubus tires really do work great. Yep. The only time I have not had it work is when I crashed so, like I slammed my rear tire so hard in Extera Oak Mountain, my very first Xtera.

It cracked my rim. Right. So it was like a full-blown, almost cut my tire in half. Yeah. Okay. Next question is from Julia. Hi, gang. What is everyone's current coaching setup?

Is Paul still being coached on the bike by Carmen Small? Thinking about this as I watched the Tour de France and thinking about the Tour de France fen coming up. Cheers, Julie. yeah uh no i'm not anymore i am coached by paula susa a name you may have heard before on this podcast yeah he's coached me forever yeah since 2017 so you went back yeah i did and eric never left no he never left eric's kind of on a i mean he's been recovering this year and then doing a lot of trail stuff but yeah still getting help by paolo um i learned a lot from

Carmen and Lisa lot I think it was good in a lot of ways It made you really excited again, I think, about Yeah, I think it's what I needed at the time And I got really You know, I got a lot of knowledge and information About cycling specifically that I still use to this day And it was really cool to like see another training method

And what made it a little complex Was just putting the three pieces together The running of the swimming Yeah. And I thought, like, you know, we did have help from other coaches as well. So it became a little bit too much for me to kind of manage in terms of the number of points of contact and who is managing what and what the race schedule should look like. So I sometimes it takes like taking yourself out of a situation and trying something new to realize like what you had actually worked really well. and I never didn't trust Paulo.

I just felt like I needed a change. Like just, you know, yeah, change things up a little bit. See what it's like I'm nearing the end of my career. Am I missing something that I should try elsewhere? So I did it and I don't regret it at all. It might have been the perfect road for you to take even if you could go back in time. You know, having Carmen and going back to Apollo, maybe that is actually what you needed. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe if I had just stuck status quo. oh, I would have kind of kept this stale sense wondering what else is out there type of thing. I don't know. Learning a new coach takes a really long time. And I loved having a female coach, too. I think that that was really eye-opening. And, you know, Carmen put a lot into our coaching relationship and stuff, which I appreciate always.

But I think another sign of a good coach is willingness to take an athlete back after they left you. Happily with open arms and like, yeah, let's do this. let's see what are the goals. And when you did go to Carmen, he made you feel like it wouldn't have been a problem at all for you to go back. It didn't take courage for you to go back. He made it seem like, and if you ever want to come back, I will greet you with open arms. Yeah, I think that's really a sign of a confident, good coach is the acknowledgement that there are, sometimes an athlete does need to change, and it doesn't mean that you were doing a bad job.

and sometimes that change doesn't work. And I'm going backward. It's not like, no one had bad feelings about anything, you know, it's just how it was. And it was, as soon as it was like, no, I want to come back, let's get going. It was like the next day, let's start, you know. It was not a hard learning curve at all to get back to business.

So, yeah, that's my setup. And I think that he's coached like Heather Rattell and other people to Ironman. wins and primarily focuses on, I mean, most of his athletes are short course athletes, but I really trusted his knowledge and ability to get me ready for this. So I don't know, regardless of how it goes on the weekend, I think that... You feel prepared. Yeah. And that's all that really matters.

Yeah. And of course, like, depending on how it goes, you tweak things. And I still feel like, oh, my God, I could use four more weeks of, like, a couple more long runs, a couple more long runs. But you're always going to maybe feel like that. in the point where you might get injured if you do more. So yeah, that's the status. I'm so excited that we are here

and we're not worried about like rushing out to get a massage or an MRI before this race and it just feels like... Yeah, that would be the other unfortunate thing with the ending of like the Carmen and Lieselot thing was I was really injured. And the end of that season was a huge bummer and I don't blame them.

But the orchestration of like the swimming, the biking and the running, I think was too much and I did too much on the run. Had input from running coaches who were super knowledgeable and good in their own right, but it was it didn't jive with what my body can do. A lot of track workouts, a lot of like new stuff. Which at the time I was like, yes, this is what I need. Fast 200s, let's go.

But then I broke. So sometimes you have to try it to see that it doesn't work, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I'm psyched. Okay, this one's from Jake and it's 14 words. Okay. for hill repeats and running how steep of a hill should one look for? Oh gosh.

Because it's like a 2% great a hill? 6 to 10? What are you doing like 30 second repeats? Are you doing like an hour uphill? No. No, no, an hour. Yeah, 30 seconds to a minute. Because I think if you're doing a hill sprint, it should be steeper than if you're doing a five-minute effort.

Yes, probably. Depending on what you're training for you. You got to prescribe five-minute hill repeats? I was prescribed 90-minute hill repeats with a period. pickup at the top when I was in general. Oh, okay, right. But in that case, we were trying to do like three or four percent. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, same. Got it. But if you're doing a hill sprint, maybe more like eight. Yeah, I think for me anyway, I want to be able to finish, you know, the number of total number of hills sprints that you're doing, still feeling like my form is there. It's like muscularly challenging, but I'm not breaking down completely at the end of the thing. If it's so steep that you feel like you're just starting to like sit down, have that feeling of like your butt is dropping and you're not able to get good propulsion, like, that's

probably too steep. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's also so funny on a treadmill because you put it at a grade and then you look at the treadmill and you're like, that's flat. Right. Yeah. It doesn't look. You expected to be like pointed at the seat. Yeah. 5% on the treadmill feels like hell, but it looks flat. Yeah. Yeah. So you just, you can't always judge a book by its cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You either know on the treadmill or like outside maybe you do it once and you look at your trading peaks and it tells you the gradient. Can you watch tell you the gradient? Maybe it can.

Mine will do the great adjusted pace. Yeah. So it must know the gradient. Yeah, it has to. Right, that's how it's making it. I've never seen it on there. I'm sure it's a feel that you can pull up, but it is guessing based on like your trajectory and elevation speed.

Because your bike computer is locked in to your mount. So it can have a better. Do you think that actually has a thing? I think it has an accelerometer and that's what is telling you with, with, you Yeah, I could be wrong, but I think it's, I don't think it's reading how much you're climbing and then doing the division the way that a running watch has to do. Yeah. But I think that if you're, I wonder if you're running a route if it's telling you what it expects the route to be. That's what I thought.

That's interesting. But that's also assuming. Only if you're doing a route. Yeah. Not even if you're doing a route, though, like maps are downloaded. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. If anyone knows, let us know.

Yeah, that's cool. We could ask, we can ask my friend who got the chorus watches what chorus watches. what Coros does. I've been texting him this week because he's going to Vend. So he owes me a question answer. Nice. Nice. Nice. Okay, great. Okay, our final question here is a great one. This is also from Scott, not the same Scott as earlier.

Hi, TTR. How do you know when it's time to step up in distance? Ultimately, I want to complete a full Iron Man to prove to myself that the kid afraid of water can do hard things. I've been consistently training all year round for, and an average of, 10 plus hours a week for four years. My coach is a former high-level pro, so I feel secure with him in my corner, and I've completed 270.3s feeling quite comfortable at the end. The next logical step is a full distance, but just how big is that step up? I'm not coming off the bench here, but equally appreciate the

1 plus 1 do not equal to in terms of the distance and difficulty. I can add more hours into training within reason, but how much does long-term base carry through? Where is the biggest jump? Physical, mental, nutrition? Thanks all, hopefully good time. me as Paula steps up to Lake Placid Scott. You mean nutritional? Nutritional. Nutritional. Nutritional.

Physical, mental, nutritional. Yeah, I was thinking about this earlier because I'm wondering why it took me so long to do one. And it's because I still feel like I'm so young, but I'm not. You know, all growing up, I was like doing I to you and then doing short course and doing T-100. I'm like, I'll do an iron man when I'm older. Okay, now you're old. Older. Older.

But I feel like. Don't feel old. Yeah, I don't feel old. I mean, I feel old sometimes when I wake up in the morning, but I don't feel like I'm old number wise. But I'm doing one because, yeah, same thing, curiosity. And like, if he's training 10 plus hours a week, like, to me, that doesn't sound like, I'm sure it is enough to do a full. Do you think it is? It doesn't sound like enough.

It's enough to complete a full. Yeah, if your goal is just to complete it, maybe it is okay. But I also think that don't just do it to do it. it's i that's how i feel too but it's hard to tell people what their motivations are yeah that's how i've always felt being like when are you're doing an iron man like i don't yeah it's almost like rebelling against that question which is why i haven't done it i was like i don't need to do an iron man i'm doing i'm doing i'm making a living doing half of that and i'm fast at it and i like the fast stuff and i want to go all out all the time why would i do a long distance why would you ask you same boat when

he's going to do a marathon yeah exactly yeah so it's almost a little bit of like standing my ground at the half distance and the T100 came along and you could make so much money doing T100 distance and it suited me really well especially at first like the PTO stuff before all the short course people came in I was like winning them getting on the podium at them making so much money doing that yeah why would I go do an iron man that sounds terrible so that's why I didn't do it sooner I think things have changed a little bit now definitely when we were younger my impression was that people would go into Ironman when they were too slow to do 70.3. And they would go into 70.3 when they were too slow to do short course racing.

And it's not like that anymore. And now... Do people who are born to like race on it? Yeah, like Sam Waylow just... I'm going to be the Iron Man World Champion. That's what I want to do. Even Solveig a little bit. Like she's been in the sport forever, but she's still young and she did a full.

Like when I was 20... How old was she, 27? I don't know. I was never even imagining doing a full. It's like never would do that. That sounds so terrible. And now you have like, Alan's different.

She's 24. She just won raw. So I think that, yeah, it's getting faster. People are getting into it younger. It's no longer seen as like the slow man's exit strategy. It's actually a competitive entity.

That's like 10 hours a week is like, now we don't even see that as that much now. Because such people who start when they're at the fittest and they can do the most volume doing Iron Man. But it's also just, it's kind of funny that we had that impression because the people who would win Iron Man World Championships were by far the best known in the world

and the most wealthy athletes in triathlons. But then... Like the Greg Welsh's, the Craig Alexander's, the Maccas, the Chrissy Wellingtons, Miranda Carfrey. Yeah, but to me it all this just seemed like... Right after that, it was, like you drop off into Olivia. Like, who got fourth through 25th?

No idea. Well, it's still like that a little. Yeah, but yeah, it is. But I just, it's just funny that we had that impression because maybe we saw people do that or we were certainly taught that the Olympics was the pinnacle of sporting competition full stop

and it's just interesting to see where it's come to now. But I think if you truly want to do, I think that's the thing is I wouldn't ever do one if you didn't want to do one but it sounds like this guy actually wants to do one. That's enough motivation to just freaking do one. I totally agree.

This is like I can understand Scott's point of I want to do this just to do it. and I also understand your point of I'm I'm a 70.3 athlete I want to do that I want to focus on that but we're talking about like two different categories like Scott was afraid of the water of the water yeah and like me I grew up as I played guitar I didn't do sport so for me doing this Ironman thing it was like part of the reason I got into the sport and it was such a thing for me to do for you you grew up an elite athlete both you guys grew up elite athlete so there's not as much this ethos this like mecca of athletic achievement of crossing that line at the end of an Iron Man.

So I get, I get what stuff is coming from. Yeah, like when we joke about like, oh, you're going to be an Iron Man on Sunday. I'm like, I literally can't. Right. Exactly. I don't need that title. Right. I'd want to do well at this Iron Man, but I'm not doing it to become an Iron Man. Right.

So they're just different ways. Yeah, yeah. And it doesn't mean it's not going to be very satisfying for you. Yeah, totally. It's just not checking this specific body. Yeah. So I think if he wants to do it and his coach is knowledgeable enough to like think with his training enough, just do it.

And what do you think? Where does that? So he was saying like one plus one does not equal to in this situation, right? It's not like doing 270.3. So where do you think the biggest jump is? I don't know if you're the only Iron Man here, you tell us. Well, I see. It's a little Uno reverse there.

I, my experience was so great with the training because coming from 70.4.3 and doing a lot of them before I did my first Iron Man, it made the Iron Man training really fun because it wasn't it was a lot but it wasn't like physically crushing me yeah it felt good to do it yeah yeah so it was fun it was like wow i get to actually to do a good job at this thing so i really like that and for me it wasn't that much more training than i was doing i was just doing slightly longer bike rides totally that's how i felt too much longer runs and yeah yeah and it turned out great yeah i agree i would do like bigger days and back-to-back but then have like a super easy day that almost was off Whereas when I was doing 70.3 more, well, when I was, I still am.

But it was, there was less of those, like, true rest days where I'm really tired and I just want to nap. Do you feel like if you, let's say you do this race and you do Kona and then you decide it's not for you. You decide you don't want to do holes. Yeah, that's very possible. And you go back to 70.3s. Do you feel like you will try to do a little bit of a blend of what you were doing before and what you're doing now? Yeah, I think that the long rides become less intimidating because I know that they're not that bad. Right.

I used to really, really, really not like them. But even like I did a ride on Monday or Sunday that was three hours, which used to like be my long ride. And I was like, this is short. So it changes your perspective of what is long. Yeah, yeah. Which is kind of a good thing. That's her pod.

We did it. I think it was great. In person. Yeah, I think it was a good pod. And I think this doodle is one of my best. This is your legendary. How do we share the do? I've already shared it.

I've already shared it. Okay, great. So it's going to be gone. Yeah. Find the time this comes out. No, this will be out for 24 hours. That's true, right? Yeah, because it's...

Or this will be on my... It's Wednesday night, and this is coming out in two hours. Yeah, yeah. This is insane. Well, any last words, guys? We're going to have a very intense weekend that all three of us will remember for the rest of our lives.

In any direction. No matter what happens, it'll be memorable. No matter what happens. That's true. We're still getting on a flight on Tuesday morning and we're going to go about our lives. Yeah, crazy. No one else cares as much.

is we care being here. That's the other thing too. You know when there's other races going on and you're like, I'll tune in at some point. You're right. No one really cares that much. We care because we're here

and it's a lot to us. But it's just another race. There's races happening all the time. But we will remember forever. Maybe others won't. I'm sorry, but... We will talk about this in 40 years, remember? I care about people in this room

more than anybody else. Yeah. So we're going to have a blast. Yeah. All right, guys. We'll see you out there on the course. If you're racing, good luck to everyone who's racing. It looks like it's going to be a great

If you see us before the race, don't be scared of us. We like saying hi to people. Don't tell me your editing number. Tell Nick. For sure, tell her you're getting to know. She loves it. She's just being shy. She's just being shy.

Oh my God, the boys are here. We got visitors. We got to go, guys. Iron Man's not going to work. We got to go. Talk to you next week. Bye.