That Triathlon Life Podcast - Pro Ironman triathlon races, sleep and recovery metrics, upgrading vs buying new, and more!

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

This week we are back to our regular format, answering your questions about triathlon! Questions about upgrading an aluminum bike vs buying a new carbon bike,  ketones, picking pro races, and more! To become a monthly supporter as well as submit your own questions to be read on the podcast, head to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is our podcast where we talk about Paula was supposed to do this and then the right last minute she told me to do it. So this is our triathlon podcast. We talk about what's going on in triathlon, what's going on in our triathlon journey. And the bulk of the show is supported by questions from listeners. You guys are both, well, you guys both run in Ons, and I now have my Cloud Monsters and my Echo Boom 3s that I got today. And right after the recording of this podcast, I'm going to do a track session where I'm doing 200, 400s, and 800s. Should I wear either of those for the track, or should I wear something else for a track-specific kind of day? Something else. I don't know. I think you should save the race shoes for race day, minus maybe one break.

session before the race, but I wouldn't use them on the track. Certainly not your first time in those shoes on the track, turning left consistently. They're just a high-stown shoe. Right, right, right, right. Okay, so maybe like a racing flat without a carbon plate or anything fancy like that and let the track do the cushioning for me. Yeah, maybe. And I don't know, the Cloud Monster is a little bit more of a cushiony recovery long run shoe, but you could use it for speedwork.

I've done that before. I'm excited. They both feel very good. And I have a flat foot and sometimes I have issues with overpronation. And it feels like both of them have more support than I thought they would for the kind of shoe that they are. So I'm excited to start running in them. Just like your dad. That's right.

He calls me every day about them and tells me how excited he is. Okay. Can we talk about some current events here? Last week we said that Eric and I were going to be in Italy. And Paula, you were not going to be in the podcast. podcast potentially. And here we all are together. Eric, what happened? Man, when we last recorded, was I fine? No, you were, you had crashed the day before. Yeah, that's what I thought. And you were like, sore. Well, you were optimistic that you'd be fine.

You weren't confident that you'd be fine. But you had just got the stitches the night before. Right. You were like, yeah, I'm sore, but it's still 10 days away. So you were going to get on the flight on Friday. Yeah. But as time went on, was looking less and less likely, like. Like, you would be able to run by race day and pull the plug. Yeah, I ultimately, like the stitches turned out to not be that big of a deal, but the bong or whatever you want to say that I had on my knee and on my shoulder proved to be a lot more of an issue. And the stiffness, tightness, pain in my knee just still hasn't gone away.

And I haven't been doing anything at all. And it's more of like a range of motion. It's like hurts to even move my knee through the range of motion of riding a bike, let alone putting out any amount of power. So it's, I don't know, I, the writing was on the wall. I kind of had this sense that it wasn't going to continue to, it wasn't making any progress. And so we started making the moves to try to cancel the flights and didn't ultimately,

didn't end up going. So it's now, it's Tuesday. I would have been racing like in less than 48 hours, the short track in Italy. I would have raced it the day that this comes out. And I think we made the right call. because I yeah going downstairs hurts I haven't been able to run I haven't been able to ride

and I haven't been talking to you much about your shoulder because I've been mostly concerned about your knee how is that that's pretty much the same maybe maybe 10% better but I can't really put out strong I can't do a strong pull in the water I can swim pretty easily for like 2,500

but as soon as I start to put out try to put out a little bit of effort and swim anywhere close to race pace hurts It was the first time Eric's ever had a really bad injury like this. So, I mean, since we broke our foot at the same time in whatever that was, 2018. Yeah, but that was so long ago. Long, long time.

And since you guys travel internationally a lot for races, and I feel like this is kind of a tough lesson to learn, but about the travel specifically, do you usually book refundable tickets? Do you spend more money for refundable tickets? do you look for airlines that offer more flexibility when changing your flights like that? Yeah, from now on, we will. This was a pain of that. So you didn't, so you didn't for this? No, we kind of booked. No, and Lufthansa fucked us.

Yeah, Lufthansa sucks. I mean, we, it was both of you two going, and we booked an economy fair with Lufthansa that had good, like, timing of leaving and reasonable layover. And they literally have zero option for refundability, which is. fairly normal, but also not really an option to get like a flight credit or to move it to next year or something. It was just felt like we were in a straight jacket. Like you had no option and we were just going to lose all $3,500. Yeah, could not get a credit. Could not like change the names on the ticket. Could not change the destination. Could not book for just one year later because it was basically 367 days out from when World's was this year. So we just ended up having to rebook those

flights for a random day in April, and you and I might just be going to Italy for vacation if we can't find someone at Lufthansa with a heart that is willing to be a human and, like, help out with this, because it was just brutal hours on the phone. It adds to the stress of making this decision in the first place, you know. And it's fine. Whenever it's part of travel, we've been really lucky in not having to cancel anything. But I think from now on, especially for Kstera races, we should be booking refundable fairs or higher class fairs where you can have a little bit more flexibility because these

things are just so unpredictable and could happen any time, even for road triathons, obviously, if one of us gets injured. But we booked these tickets so late that I figured we were kind of in the clear. There's nothing that was going to happen to prevent you guys from going. But anyway, that's fine. It turns out because we were going and being helped by Nick and his mom, we just didn't have a rental car booked. Like, there was a lot of stuff that could have been worse.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a, it's a real bummer, though. We would love to be there, and we're going to try our best to be there next year. Oh, you for sure will be there next year, but. What we said last year. I think you guys might have to go mid-year to use this ticket fair. Yeah, great.

We'll see. I'm hoping that I can, like, re-book it for the actual Xeroid World Champs date again, but who knows. Anyway. And then I wanted to also, update on something we talked about last week. We talked about if dogs can balk. And I had a couple of vets reach out. And this is this is one, this is a message I got from, from a vet over Instagram. I'm a vet in San Diego. Dogs can build up to running distances just like people. Need to be mindful of temperatures you're running in. If too hot, leave them at home. Also remember,

pavement can get really hot and burn their paws. There hasn't been a lot of research in the area of fueling. Most of the stuff out there is related to sled dogs. I think an in-shape athletic dog could run 10 miles. A few times a week, no problem. Just remember to bring water and can feed a high-performance diet that is higher in fat and calories. Purina actually does make a prime and refuel bar for dogs. I would not recommend feeding dogs during exercise. I would recommend a glucosamine supplement and omega-3 fatty acids for them as well. So that's pretty interesting. I feel like we kind of guessed right, but it's cool to know that they function the same as us. I just think they're not as like, they don't have a good memory.

Like, hey, remember that last time I went so hard for five minutes and then couldn't go anymore? Like we remember the dogs, they don't. They just like, yeah, yeah, let's go hard again. Yeah, because it was so fun. Yeah. I think also the question that was sent in was asking about feeding the dog on the run. Yeah. And it's not as much like a human on a long ride.

where you're going to take a gel and like give yourself more glucose. It's just not as reasonable, I guess, to do that with a dog. And they're not thinking about, oh, I'm bonking. Yeah. You know, it might just slow down naturally. But, yeah, just up their food. If you just, like, sprinkle some Morton 320 into their drink mix. Yeah, definitely don't give them any, don't give them any human gels.

Yeah. I love it. I love it. Okay, well, thank you so much for that. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this person's name. So Mysterious Vet, that message me on Instagram, thank you very much for your input. Next up, I want to do a little segment that was sent in from a podcast listener, and this is kind of funny.

This is our 85th episode of the podcast. So first of all, congratulations to us. And here's the message. Hey, TTL team, as your 85th episode is coming up, this was sent in a couple weeks ago, I would make a special edition of Rapid Fire for you. Number one, what is the world record for running 100 meters in 85-year-olds? So for both sexes. And this person, this is Claire from London, put all the answers at the bottom.

And I have not read them either. So we're all going to guess. What do you think 100-meter record is in 85-year-olds? 13 seconds. 13? That's fast, dude. That's really fast. Let him have his guess, Nick. Okay, what about for women?

Great, great. That's men. You have to guess women too. 17. Okay, I'm going to guess 18 for men, 21 for women. 17 for men and maybe 20 for women.

Okay, and the answers are female 18.14 seconds set by Canadian Krista Bordignon in 2022 and male, wow, Eric, you weren't that far off, 15.0. eight seconds set in 2017 by Japanese male Hiro Tanaka. Fun fact, he also now holds a world's record for 90-year-olds with a time of 16.69. That's fast, guys. That's almost like, that's almost like a 60-second 400

pace, you know? That's really good. You see some, I mean, Nick, your dad is 80. I bet he could get close to that. You see some super healthy 80-year-olds or 85-year-olds. Yeah, that's true. But 15 seconds is, is that's really that's really fast yeah that that's really fast wow that's impressive okay great one uh next one up in 1985 what philanthropic musical concert took place in london and philadelphia oh i do know this i'm gonna pass i couldn't even guess i think what would the what would the another like good answer but not right be um well it's called live aid i'm pretty sure that's what i was like imagining a heart but I couldn't remember it. Because it was in the

Queen documentary. Yes, live aid, which raised funds for the relief of famine in Ethiopia. Oh, cool. Yeah, there's a lot of great recordings from that concert. It was famous. Okay, number three, at 85 degrees longitude,

you will find the highest mountain in the world in Nepal. What is it called? Everest? Yeah, I thought this was very common knowledge, but a lot of people don't know that Everest, like, I found recently that a lot of people think Everest is in the United States. No, stop it. A lot of people don't think that.

A lot of Americans, maybe. It's the same people that think that a third-pounder is smaller than a quarter-pounder. Very nice callback, Paula. The same people. Yes, yes, Everest is in Nepal. And fun fact, my mother was one of the first Italian women to go on Mount Everest back when she was like 27 or 28. She was on an Italian expedition that went to Everest. Did she get to the top?

She did not get to the top. They lost several people from the group and there was bad weather so they couldn't. But they still did, made the whole trek and did base camp and went up to the final camp. Wow. Crazy. Pretty wild. And there's a book. So that is the highest mountain in the world?

Yeah. Yeah. The highest peak in the world. Gotcha. But there's like lots, there's a lot that are in the Himalayas there that are very, very, very high. Yeah. Like it's not that much of a standout. There's a bunch that are really, really high.

Yeah. Okay, next, there are three cities in the U.S. with buildings which have 85 floors or more. Name all three of these cities. Okay, can we do this as a team here? New York. New York. Chicago and Chicago.

I wouldn't say L.A. New York or something. Chicago. Oh, it's probably something like that. Or like Florida. What about how it tall is the space needle? Oh, I see it. You know what?

Having you, I see it now, having you said that I would have guessed maybe something in Seattle, but it's New York City, Chicago, and Miami. Miami. I've never even been to Miami, so. I wasn't that far off as I said Florida. Yeah, you're right. I mean, it is, it is, yeah. And then the last one is kind of just a question.

If you could have 85 continuous days off training without any detrimental effect like losing fitness or technique, then what would you do with that time? I feel like this is just for you guys. Wow, that would be so amazing. We would take the van and go on a crazy adventure trip. Maybe come to L.A. and then go across and come up and go to Canada. Yeah, like as much of the country and Canada, like up the west as we could possibly see.

Okay, okay. But now follow-up question. what do you do when you're are you walking are you just chilling what i mean like you you get to a beautiful place what are you going to do because currently you kind of still do that and then you go for runs and rides and swims but if you're not doing that what are you doing well i would be doing that we could still run or we could still do casual bike rides or we could camp and just sit there you you say that like it's very obvious but i think most people would imagine that if you had time off you wouldn't be doing any of those things oh no that's

call it training. That is like going for an enjoyable run or an enjoyable bike ride just to explore. Like, that's why we got in trathons in the first place, because that was fun. And then we happened to, like, end up being fast because we put in enough time and everything. But like when we're on off season, it's still really hard to stop ourselves from still going out and doing those activities because all of our friends do those activities. And that's a really great way to see new things. So, yeah, we'd still be doing that. Maybe a little less swimming.

But if you knew, like, even if you knew that you wouldn't lose any swim fitness or technique, you still think you would see yourself in the pool, maybe a couple times a week? Well, maybe, like, maybe once a week after like three weeks. But, like, get around, you get swimming around in a lake a little bit. It just feels nice to be in the water sometimes when you don't have to be there. But I don't know about going to the pool. I feel like I'm kind of refreshed to hear both of you say that. Obviously, we talk about this a lot in the podcast, but we also talk a lot not on the podcast, and I see how much emotional stress, even the training puts on both of you.

And to know that even if you had time off and you wouldn't lose any fitness, you'd still be biking and running and swimming, it's kind of like when your favorite TV show, the characters are still friends off the air. I don't know if that makes sense. Like in friends, they're actually friends in real life. I love that. The thing that's the struggle about the training and that makes us stressed or cranky or whatever is that we're extremely tired and you have to go and nail session after session and

when you know just like almost too much of a good thing like it's one thing to like when you're feeling fine and you're pretty rested and you're coming back from off season or taper or whatever and you can I just have a 90 minute bike ride and I can go do whatever I want versus I'm so smashed and I have to somehow figure out how to go do this long hard bike workout with a runoff that's that's always going to be daunting that actually kind of reminds you of something that I was I've been meaning to ask you, not on the podcast, but since we're here, I had a hard weekend of biking. It was just biking, no swimming. And then Monday I got in the pool first thing in the morning. And I could tell that I was fatigued from the weekend. But when I was swimming, the feeling I got was that my

swimming muscles were fatigued, my shoulders, my lats. Is that ever something you guys experience? Like, do you have fatigue that manifests in other parts of the body when you're just overall fatigued? I have a really hard time doing a good swim workout the day after I've done a longer mountain bike ride. And what does it feel like? Is it an aerobic thing fully or do you also kind of... That's a muscular thing.

Yeah. It's not an aerobic thing. Is that because of the... You are using kind of those swim muscles when you're mountain biking? Yeah, I think if you did a big weekend of biking, you're still putting weight on your shoulders and that has a little bit of a toll. And you can be... at least just a little bit of tightness.

I guess I kind of forget that's even staying in Arrow on a TT bike does require engagement from your upper body quite a bit. I kind of forget about that sometimes. Yeah. Especially if you haven't been doing it a ton. Which I have not. Okay, let's move on to questions here. You can submit your questions for the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast

and every week we try to pick a random podcast supporter with our Google random number generator. And this week we picked Paul Ebert and Paul, you're going to get a pair of TTL socks. Just make sure we have your address, but just to make sure it's correct, you can message me, find me on Instagram and I'll send them out to you here from LA. So thanks, Paul, for being a podcast supporter. You can too become a podcast supporter at the same link, that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. Way to go, Paul. Those are the last socks, right? Those are the last We're going to have to switch to something else. That is it.

Maybe we'll go back to bottles. We do have some bottles. Do we have any TTL bottles or are we going to have to be like personal bottles? Yeah, maybe personal bottles or maybe we could do swim caps. I don't know. We'll think of something. Eric, your bottle looks so good on both of my bikes. It's just so right.

The black one with the yellow stripes. It's very stealth, very cool. Good looking bottle. Yeah. Okay, first question here is from Brian. Hi, all. I just finished Iron Man. 70.3, Michigan. This was my third year doing it, and I was surprised to see that unlike past

years when this was an age group only event, this year there was a pro field with some big names. Jackson Laundry, Lionel Sanders, Matt Sharp, Tamara Jewett, this had me wondering, how does this happen? Does Ironman put feelers out to see what pros would be interested in participating in an event that hasn't typically had a pro field? Yeah, right. Not that. Do they increase incentives to try to attract pros to a new event. Never heard this issue address. I'm curious. Thanks for all your great content helps keep me engaged in the sport, Brian. So, thoughts, feelings? No, it's very rough. Like, I mean, these races that are pro races are extremely difficult to get to some of them. Like this race in Michigan, closest airport is like a couple hours away to get to Augusta next

weekend. I have to fly to Atlanta and drive two hours after transferring twice on the airplane. I don't know. I think that pros in the U.S. or even in Europe are just they have to race. And what are the ones that Ironman has picked to be pro races? You just get yourself there. And the upside is not huge if you win. Like the prize money to win a race is five or seven grand, which once you take off the travel expenses is not that much. So I don't know. This is where I'm looking forward to the PTO series next year where there's a lot more prize money. There's some support to get to the races. the potential upside is just much greater. So I don't know.

They don't ask us. And if they did, we might say, like, keep 70.3 Victoria on the schedule. Right, right, right. Or keep 70.3 Santa Cruz on the schedule, races that we prefer. But my suspicion is that they do pick races that are not, like, doing super well. They need a little bit of extra exposure. Generate interest. Maybe.

If it's not that, then it would have something to do with the local organizing. the local organization wanting to, finding a purse, to put together a purse to actually have the field? I don't know who supplies the prize purse for the pros if it's Iron Man or if it's the local people. I don't know. I know how Esther works since I've talked to them,

but I don't know exactly how Iron Man works. And it probably depends, too, whether or not it's like one of Iron Man's Iron Man run events or one of the ones where they have more of a local, it's like more franchised style. Yeah, like Victoria. But I don't know. My suspicion is that they put the pros at races that need a little bit of a boost in exposure.

And there's some races that classically will get. They'll get a lot more people because the industry shows up, like Oceanside. There's always going to be a good start list there. That's what I was thinking. I don't know. It's probably spacing on the schedule to like where is there a gap versus doing two races on the same weekend. Oh, they're not afraid to do two on the same weekend. Because this weekend there's Augustine and Cozumel.

So 70.3. Really? Yep. Who knows? Who knows? It's a mystery. If anyone knows, tell us. And do you guys feel like, you've said this before, you would prefer that they did not do repeat years, that they would do new races and change up which races are pro races?

I think there are some that are classics that are great and just positioned well like Oceanside. But then if you've had a pro race, whatever, in Miami, for 10 years, it is nice to go to new races. So if you just bring in a couple new ones each year, I think that's nice. And the pros that went to Michigan had great feedback. They loved the course, and the place was beautiful, I heard. Yeah, so then maybe next year will go there.

And then the year after that, it'll have a 70-person start list, and then one more year after that. And then maybe you move. I give it four years to kind of build up a thing, and everybody gets two shots at it. Because the first time you do a course, you don't know exactly how it works. Yeah. Whatever.

Also, Paula, we just kind of glazed right over the fact that you said when you're going to Augusta this weekend. Are we disclosing this? No, I haven't decided yet. Okay. So we said before the podcast, we might do a dual ending potential. We record both you saying that you're going to go and that you're not going to go. And then we'll change. Yeah, but Nick, the pod comes out Thursday morning.

And my flight is Thursday afternoon. Okay, so we can't. Okay, got it, got it. Yeah, just watch, just look at the live results on Sunday afternoon. You'll know if I went or not. Right, you're right. It's like really tough for me because I feel like so shitty in training. Like everything feels forced. Everything feels terrible. And then the middle of every session, I'm like, okay, I'm not doing it. And then I finish and I'm like, oh, I have everything booked. I should just go. But anyway, I don't know. Okay. The roller coaster. I have no reason to go.

Is that for the, it's my job? job. Right. There's there is financial upside. I think that is that is the bulk of the reason or not. Well, Jackie's going too, right? You like hang out with Jackie. Yeah, Jackie's going. Yeah, so everyone that offered a, there was quite a few people that actually offered a room in their Airbnb or a hotel room that they don't need anymore. And a few locals, actually. So thank you to everyone who reached out. That's super nice of you. I think we should try that on every race weekend. Right. Right. But Jackie got an Airbnb, so I'm going to stay with her. Okay. Okay. Great. If I go.

Right. We'll see. We've got to keep everyone kind of excited and not, you know, you don't want to give anything away. It's exciting. Here's the other thing. Like, I was training for this race. I was training, quote unquote, with Eric to kind of keep him company, go to the pool with him, go on a run with him while he was training for Xtera. And then he crashed and I still had two weeks until Augusta. So suddenly I'm like going out and training alone while Eric can't train it all. And it felt very selfish and pointless. Anyway, that's another thing. That was a bait and switch. This was all just a ruse, Paula, to get you to race in Augusta this weekend, a very elaborate ruse.

Right, right. Well, if you go, I hope it goes well. Thanks, Nick. Next question here is from Ashley. Hey, team, what does a typical rest day for you guys look like? Is it a full day of couch potato, active race, casual ride to the coffee shop. I feel like once I get into a solid routine of training,

it's hard for me to get myself to have full rest day and just chill out. Ashley. Yeah, this is really hard because we tend to catch up on a lot of things that are not restful when we're having a day that's lighter on training. So we'll go to the grocery store, we'll wash the van, whatever we need to do. Eric edits. Exact opposite of rest day.

So it feels very unrestful. In fact, I think we rest more on days where we're trying. training hard because between sessions will actually sit on the couch or have a nap. So I don't recommend this, but I mean, it's the nature of life, especially when we're at home. I really try to lay on the couch to do the editing and just really try to not do stand-up activities. But some things that, like, cleaning is very like zen and relaxing to me and makes me feel good after. So stuff like that's okay to do, I think. This is where we could really optimize if only one of us was the professional athlete.

that's what's occurring to me is that if Paula was the only one racing, then I could be doing all that shit on the day that she needs to actually lay down and actually absorb the training and yada yada and vice versa. Yeah, and I also find that we're really better at resting on rest days when we're at a training camp and we're not at home because there's just less tasks that you need to do. And when I'm at home, I can make up a million things that I want to do. Like clean out the garage, organize my closet, I don't know, just stupid stuff.

stuff that is not, or time sensitive, but when you're at an Airbnb or you're at a training camp, your mindset shifts and it's all about just training and resting. So if you want to like have a two-week block where that's the goal, then go on a training camp. And do you guys ever think about emotional stress too? Do you actively try to limit that on rest days or I guess even in training in general? Or do you think it's just a nope, it's unavoidable part of life and I'm not going to try to worry about that? Yeah, emotional stress plays a huge factor, but a lot of the time it's uncontrollable, it's situational, it's an email you get or something that happens to you that is stressful. So you can try to limit it as much as you can and deflect to people if they can help you,

but yeah, with work or with kids or whatever, it is just sometimes inevitable. I think the big thing here is with all this stuff, you have to make the conscious decision that I'm de-stressing. I'm not going to open the email. I'm going to not look at my phone after 7 p.m. Today's the rest day. I'm committed to not reorganizing the garage. I just feel like I finally got to this point today where I felt like I was caught up on like sleep.

my sleep was as good as it could be in the past three days in a row and I really felt sleepy. And I just had this weird realization of like, oh yeah, but my my legs are still tired, though. Like, those two don't, they don't necessarily have to work together. They're not connected. Yeah. They're not connected, but not correlated. Yeah. Right.

I have this feeling sometimes when I've been training and it's over like a long, it's over weeks where my legs, even I feel it just getting out of bed in the morning or going up a set of stairs. They feel like sponges that all the water has been squeezed out of. They don't quite feel supple and ready to go like they do when I'm fresh. And that's what I know. I'm like, I think I might be either I'm overdoing it or I'm getting close. Or you're a professional athlete. Well, I'm not. Because you live in that all the time.

There's an amazing Javier Gomez quote that I'll never forget where he was like at the end of a race or something talking. and they're like, how do you feel? Are you tired? It's like, I'm a professional athlete. I've been tired for 10 years. But Nick, if that's the feeling you have, I do think that massage and hydration. Less donuts is important. More whole grains. No, not less donuts. I'm just saying like, you're probably a bit dehydrated. Don't be silly. I think you're insane. And I also think that getting regular massage, even if it's only once a month, would benefit you. You know what? I'm booking a massage for next week. I'm doing it. It's worth it. And that place by your house is pretty cheap. That's the place. My mom got me three massages to that place for Christmas last year and I haven't

used them. So I'm going to book that place. You're insane. I know. Yes, book it. Take care of yourself, dude. There's no excuse. It's right there and free. The excuse is I have ADD and forget to book these things. That's the excuse. That's an excuse for my hair being ridiculous right now, but not for taking care of. of your body. Well, Eric, I book all your stuff to be fair to Nick. Baby, you're going to be very excited. I booked myself a hair appointment for next week.

Bob it. Wow. It's on the schedule. Nice. You said it's going full shaved on the sides and full rat tail on the back. Yeah, really. I just got to tighten this mullet up. Keegan Swenson is cutting your hair? I wish.

What day? Probably be great. Wednesday. Are we going to get an Instagram before and after of the haircut? Yeah, I could do that because I'll be here. Okay. Next question here is from Rod. Hey, Paul and Eric.

First off, thank you for everything you guys do. You've created such a great community through the podcast, your YouTube channel, and your products. My question is, will you guys ever have a TTL Nation age group team? I know you have a dedicated focus on the development team, but would love to race under TTL Nation as an age grouper if that's a possibility. Some of the tri-clubs that I've been a part of have either fizzled out, dissolved, or have lost original spirit. I've seen it in the last few races I've been at with people wearing the apparel and have shouted shout it out to them when I've seen them let's go TTL Nash. I know you guys

have mentioned Strava group and there's a Zwift group but would love it if there's something official even if it means just rocking the kit at races. We'd love to hear your feedback. Love all that you guys do and we'll continue to support you guys. Thanks Rod. Thanks Rod. It means a lot. We've worked really hard at it and

it's really, really cool to see it actually happening out in real life people connecting with other people and like having this common thing that I feel like we see the sport the same way, you know, if you see someone else wearing a kit or a shirt. So this year we're going to be more organized because last year we did the kit pre-order in the winter, and then the kits were pretty delayed, like didn't arrive until May and June. So this year we're going to put the kit pre-order out in November.

So you'll get kits beginning of the year in time for all of your races. And although there's no plan to do like an age group team the way that Zoot and when Republic do an age group team where there might be some industry discounts or I don't know exactly what the perks are of those teams, but essentially the community aspect of it will still be there. And I think that we've seen a little taste of that this year when you go to a race and you're wearing the TTL kit and someone else's or you see someone in the gear, you can just connect and relate to them and cheer for them and you feel like you have a community. So that's our goal. And maybe next year will be, you know, do something a little more formal with age group teams.

quote-unquote, but for now the kits are kind of our way of creating that community organically. And if you want to wear the TTL kit next year and be part of the Nesh, you can order a kit in November. And it is pre-order. We don't order hundreds and hundreds and then sell them. Yeah. So like the point of we didn't just not have an age group team just because we couldn't handle it. We feel like sometimes the age group teams can be a little bit. You know, you have to apply to get into it. and then there's a certain number of people, and it feels like this closed thing.

And we, from the beginning, have wanted TTL to be completely inclusive. So anybody can buy the kit. You can connect with anybody out there. We're not having, you know, this is not like a commercially motivated move. The proceeds from the development, from the TTR Nation kit sales go into our development team.

That's how we fund that. And that's the approach we wanted to take. Versus like you are a sponsored age group athlete, and you're getting discounts or whatever it is. It's like you are being a part of this community so you can connect with people out there and you're therefore helping assist this team that we put together of young up-and-coming triathletes

trying to make a living in the sport. And speaking of the Devo team, we are going to pick new athletes for next year and we'll put out the applications in November along with the kit pre-order. So it'll kind of happen in conjunction with each other because they go hand in hand. So if you want to be on the Devo team, that is coming up again too.

Yeah. And I guess I don't really know this, and sounds like Paul, you're not too sure. I don't know if Eric, you're more familiar with this. What are the advantages of being on an actual age group team? Is it just the discounts? Is there something else there? I think it's the community when you show up to a race. Yeah.

is like But that's not Like that's the same thing as wearing the TTL Nation kits right? Yeah Yeah there might be more Maybe they do have more formally organized things I know the Zoot team is very inclusive And

They're usually very prominent Or prevalent or whatever Like a lot of people wearing the Zoot kit Yeah you see a lot of people in those team Zoot kits Yeah and I do think they get discounts with Winanaru and stuff like that So Yeah I don't know

But you also have to pay to be on it, right? I don't know. I think they're all set up a little bit differently, but I think I have definitely talked to people who have said, like, oh, I think I'm going to join such and such team. They get a great discount on giant bikes or whatever. And that's one thing that makes me kind of like, how do we want to go that direction?

Because then you have some people who are just in it to get the discounts on a thing versus right now if you buy a TTL Nash kit, the only reason you're doing it is to either support the development team because you want to connect with people at the races. and it's like currently in its purest form. And if we can bring in a way that some of our partners throughout the year, like we'll give you a discount code or some sort of thing that sweetens that deal, we'll do that.

But just like you were saying, plenty of teams have folded and stuff. And I think that might just be because the organizers bit off a little bit more than they could chew. And that's something that we do not want to have happen. We want this to continue growing at the rate that is manageable and we'll try to make it as awesome and sweet as possible. But at its core, the most important thing is, that you got homies out there anywhere you go. So for Team Zoot, for example,

you get 40% off of all of Zoot's products for the year, which is pretty big. We could do something like that, maybe. I mean, not 40%, but... We would lose money to support that. But I mean, if you buy a kit, you get a code for percentage off something else. Totally. We've batted around a lot of stuff like that,

and we will be doing more planning. We're making this up as we go, guys. Yeah, we are. With a lot of help from our great friend, Sam. So shout out to Sam. And the best intentions, too. Yeah, and the nice thing about the relationships we've built with our own personal sponsors is that we know all of the guys or girls personally. So we could ask Wahoo or we could ask precision or whoever, would you be interested in supporting our team of people that buy a kit by giving them a discount on a thing?

and it wouldn't feel like an awkward thing to ask. So I think it has the potential to go that direction as well if people are excited about that stuff. Yeah. Anyway. Cool. And I'm excited to hopefully finally get my kit since tragically. Have you tracked it down?

No, I actually was going to call FedEx today because I just got, I saw it there. But it's, who. Wait. I got the shoes today from FedEx. No, no, no, no, no. Do we want to? I thought that thing was just gone forever. I don't.

It's somewhere, right? No, there's definitely black holes in the FedEx and UPS world. You should call FedEx though, Nick, because it'll be tragic if you're running in Zoot, or no, if you're running in on shoes but not a TTL kit, that would be tragic. I know, I know. So just so everyone knows, I was supposed to get a TTL race kit, a TTL Nation race kit. However, I made the mistake of accidentally. Ironman Wisconsin continues to haunt me from the grave.

So I had shipped something else to Shopify to Wisconsin last year and when I ordered the TTL kit it auto-filled that address. And then we caught it right away and we thought we addressed it but then the kit still got sent there. And then of course there was a hotel

where I wasn't staying so it got sent back and then we never were able to track it down from there. I think that hotel just threw it in the garbage and said they mailed it to you. Yeah, it's gone. No, the hotel rejected the order.

They rejected the shipment. So it went back with FedEx but then I think FedEx kind of lost. it. So I would love to be racing in a TTL Nation kit, and we're going to make sure that no matter what happens, I'm racing in one for next year. Yeah. Yeah. Bummer. But, okay, next question here is from Parker. Hi, guys, love listening to the show every week, still waiting to be picked to win a bottle. Keep it up, Parker. Eventually, it'll come around to you, hopefully. My question came up after I saw Paula's post on Strava on sleeping in.

How much sleep do you guys try to get a night? Somewhat related, do you guys track sleep? sleep time, HRV, and resting heart rate, or other recovery-related metrics. Thanks, Parker. I feel like, I can't believe we haven't talked more about this. You tried to get 11 hours, of course. 11. Dang, dude. That's a coma. One can try. We don't set an alarm and it's really seasonal. Like when the sun comes up later, we sleep in more. I think we're very dictated by the cycle of the sun. Yeah. We would really need to invest in some aggressive blackout. shades for our bedroom

to sleep in longer, I think. We both get up with the sun. But I try to get in bed at 9 and then I wake up around 7, so that's a lot of sleep. But I'm not like, you know, lights out at 9, passed out. There's a lot of... There's a lot of...

Eric wears an aura ring. Since I now have an engagement ring, I don't really have room for an aura ring. Oh, very nice. I just, like I found with the aura ring, I would track it and look at it, but it wouldn't, like, it would often just make me stressed because I'm like, oh my gosh, I thought I slept way more than that. Yeah, let's see last night.

My archivie socks, and I just felt like it was a negative feedback almost a lot of the time. So I would just stop looking at it. I'd wear it, and I'd have it on all day and all night, but I would avoid looking at the metrics because they would cause me stress. It's like I've been averaging between seven and a half and eight hours later. Which isn't that much. Well, I haven't been training that much, so I'm like, has just have been waking up and not feeling that tired.

But I also, like, I really believe that if you're in your bed for 10 hours, and yeah, you're up a little bit or you're reading before you fall asleep, that's all restful horizontal activity. But aura rings actually measuring the time where you're in, like, REM or whatever. And it's actually pretty low. I average about an hour and a half less sleep. than the amount of time that I'm in bed. Which is crazy.

Yeah. I mean, because it's tracking like, oh, you woke up and went to the bathroom for three minutes, and then you rolled over and you didn't realize you were awake necessarily, but it's like little breaks like that. It kind of reminds me of, I think it's an old Italian saying, but it's easy to be like, oh, I'm sleeping or I'm not sleeping, and not sleeping is making me more tired and sleeping is making me less tired. But I think, like, it's like owing a dollar,

not having a dollar or finding a dollar. There are three different states of, and like I feel like being in bed is, of course, is it as good as being actually asleep? No, but it's also much better than walking around the kitchen doing something, some menial tasks. So I do agree. Yeah, well, that's kind of nice too.

As it's merits. Oh, Nick, we bought a new fridge today. Speaking of, speaking of kitchens. Speaking of annoying adult things. Tell me more. Because I was talking to you right before it. Bought a fridge. Well, our fridge at home, it's so annoying because the light inside is kind of broken.

So half the time you open it and the light doesn't go on and the other half you open it and it flickers like it's Halloween haunted house. And then a couple percentage of the time it actually works. And it's so annoying. So we just went to Lowe's today and bought a new fridge. It felt very adult of us. It's getting delivered tomorrow. Dupor mega sales. You can buy such a big range of.

like technology and stuff in fridges and like swing out trays and you only open half the thing. Like lazy Susan inside of the fridge. It's the most gimmicky industry I've ever seen. I'm like we just, what we really want is an outdoor water dispenser. Water and ice in the door. On the outside of the fridge because we don't have that right now. But we don't need like a TV on the front and all the things. You know what was the major like the flame that lit the kindling for this was we went to my parents' house this weekend just to visit and like get hugs because I'm injured and emotional. And Paula was hydrating so well because there was cold water

in my parents' fridge door. Yeah, I was drinking like 10 full cups of water a day because I would just go and fill it up and it tastes good and it's cold and it's easy. And here at home, like I don't love the tap water. It doesn't get cold enough for me. It's... We've got like rotating jugs of water in the fridge. It's just a thing. It's a barrier to hydration, so we had to invest in a new... And the light. And it doesn't match any other appliance to what we have. But I totally agree, though.

I think these kind of creature comforts, especially if you're an athlete, like if it's going to decrease that barrier between being hydrated or not, then, of course, you go for it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was the perfect collision of events where I became furious about the blinking light in the middle of the night and Paula got hydrated, Newfridge. Have you ever seen that Malcolm in the middle clip where he comes home and he turns on the light and the light doesn't work?

So he's like, huh. And then he goes, he tries to get like a screwdriver to take up the light. But then the drawer is like squeaking. So he's like, huh, I'll go get the WD40. He goes to get to WD40 and the WD40 is out. He goes to get in the car. He gets in the car. The car won't start.

So then he's working on the car and his wife walks in and she's like, hey, honey, do you know the front light doesn't work? And he's like, what does it look like I'm doing? That's like you last night. You're like, God damn it, we're getting a new fucking fridge. Yep. Okay, so we're getting a little sidetracked here. So you guys sleep to like seven to eight hours a night. Oh, yeah.

Coming back to that, yeah, yeah. Oh, is it between seven and eight and a half? And nine. And Paula, you don't look at any recovery metrics like after the o'ering. You don't look at your resting heart rate or anything like that. Either you just go by how you feel. Yeah. which Laley has been like a bag of trash.

Okay, great. Eric, what about you? Do you sleep with the O-R-Wing and you actually look at it every morning? I haven't had it on for a little while since I forgot to bring it to Europe. But I'll kind of just look at it. I'll look at it every few days. And I use it kind of like trend-based and to confirm ways that I'm feeling. And then I just kind of also have it as a little bit of an insurance policy. If I'm starting to feel kind of crappy and then I look at it and it's just looking really bad,

then maybe I'll put that together with the feelings and go, I should take a day off and feel okay about it. You have an aura ring, Nick? I have an o'er ring and a watch that will also track sleep, and it's the first thing I do every morning. I check both of them. I check what the watch tells me, and I check what the o'er ring tells me.

And they generally correlate. Do you ever take action based on that information? Um... I think that is the big question. No, no, I do not take action. I try to... pair it to things that I did the day before that may have affected the data. And I have to say that I have not really been able to draw conclusions from it.

Like eating later in the day, eating earlier in the day, having sugar later in the day working out. I can't quite figure it out. There's so many factors. And also, like, I would say, Nick, you don't necessarily have any unhealthy habits that you're doing. Like, you're not drinking. I think that's the thing people say a lot is, like, if you drink or have wine. Right. It impacts it pretty significantly, but you don't do that.

My unhealthy habit, I think, is probably having too many sweets sometimes close to bed. Here's what I think would be interesting, is if you could, like, next week, just like, pick a week where you don't have anything going on. And, like, my number one focus for this week is to get good sleep. Like, maybe the first two days are just going to be throwaways because you haven't gotten traction yet. But you're not eating sweets before bed. you're not looking at your phone after 7 p.m. You're hydrating really, like do all the things and see if through that. And see if it actually improves it all.

See if through that you can actually make an improvement over the course of a week. Because it's not going to be like one day to the next day, you know. You're a guinea pig, Nick. Yeah, I'd be kind of down to do that. You can tag stuff with the aura ring to be like worked late or worked out late or whatever. We should do it together to keep each other accountable. That sounds great. Sleep week.

That sounds great. Anybody who's listening if you want to jump in on sleep week once we decide when it's going to happen, you can get in on this. Sleep week. It's like shark week, but the exact opposite.

Yeah, we'll do a whole special on it and take anecdotes and questions. I'm fired up for this. That's great. And I mean, I think we hear this a lot, but it really is true. And I'm sure you guys have felt this as well. When you're really training hard

and you're really sleeping well, that sleep is so important. It is delicious. To have earned it is, the best. Oh, it's the best. Okay. Next question here is from Stephen. It's kind of an interesting one. Paul, Eric, and Nick, recently I have been bombarded with advertisements surrounding ketones. Three questions. Do you think ketones assist with performance and endurance sports, particularly marathons? Two, do you train with ketones? And if so, how? Three, do you have any brands or

products you enjoy or recommend? Thanks, as always for your great insight, Stephen. You know what it just occurred to me? We're really taking one for the team by answer this question and all saying ketones like 12 times out loud to our phones because we're all getting ketone ads this week. Thank you, Google. Oh, no. All of a sudden. Targeted.

Have you seen those ads, those like Instagram reels or whatever where it's like the girlfriend's phone is out and he's like Porsche. Yeah. Porsche. Mountain bike vacation. Italy. Airbnb's in Sedona. That's exactly where my brain went.

I love it. Okay. So back to the. ketones. Do you guys use ketones? No. No, we have experimented and we have been courted or, you know, pursued by some ketone companies. And we honestly just couldn't feel a difference ourselves through, you know, anecdotal testing. And it tastes kind of yucky.

I've heard it does taste kind of yucky, even from the people that are sponsored by it. Got like a paint thinner taste to it. Oh, good. And it's expensive. You've tasted paint thinner often, Eric? I've smelled it. Smell and taste. So I don't know.

It might work. I think there's definitely people out there who swear by it. So I think it might work for some people a little bit better than others. And it kind of... Do we want to get into like exactly the science of ketones before we... Yes. If you don't mind, I did look it up. And on the USADA website, it kind of addresses it.

So first of all, what are metabolic ketones? And this is all on a frequently asked questions page of USADA. ketones are molecules produced in the liver when the body metabolizes fat. These molecules are produced in response to starvation, prolonged, strenuous exercise, and carbohydrate-restricted diets like the ketogenic diet. In the absence of carbohydrates and sugars, the body can use ketones as an energy source. And the idea here is that you can actually use ketones when you're not in these states, theoretically. In ketosis, right?

Just by ingesting them or orally. that's the theory with, and you can actually use them as energy in addition to the cards that you're ingesting. Right, exactly. Are they prohibited in sport? No, metabolic ketones are not prohibited. So they are legal to use. Do they work for weight loss or performance enhancement? Now, this is from, I'm sure the people who produce them will tell you that they work.

But from USADA, they say some supplements claim to contain ketone. esters or salts and that the use of such supplements will mimic some of the effects of a ketogenic diet. However, there is little to no evidence that consuming metabolic ketones without changing your diet or exercise levels will have any effect on weight or performance, which is pretty interesting. That was our experience, yeah. Yeah, it's like if you're looking for that last 1%, which unless you're the world champion in or close to that.

There's a lot of other low-hanging fruit, I think. You could reach it for before keytones and save yourself a lot of money. But we're not against them. And I think they, the companies, you know, they work with a lot of athletes, but we've just never really felt good about working with a company or with having partners that we don't truly use and truly believe in. So we don't use them. Yeah, we much rather recommend a thing to you.

that we're not sponsored by, because we just legitimately believe it'll help a lot and it works really well, then recommend something that we are paid. Yeah, sleep week. Sleep week. Sleep week, 23. Here we go. Yes, next question here. Hey, parents, quick question regarding super shoes. I recently bought the cloud boom echo threes. They're my first carbon shoe.

And in a couple of runs, I have worn them leading up to my next race at the end of September. My toes have gone numb. Is this something that just happens with a carbon-plated shoe? Also just curious about what your all's fitness score is on training peaks leading into a race as pros. And if you don't want to share that, I understand Zach. So first of all, have you ever had? This is Zach that gave Eric the whiskey. Oh, no way.

Yeah. I like Zach a lot. Oh, nice. Such a nice guy. I met him at Chattanooga. I don't know what my fitness score is on training peaks. I didn't even know there was a fitness score. I don't look.

Yeah, it's kind of, it's confusing because it's really only, you can only really compare it to yourself. It's not like telling you how fast. It's not predicting how fast you're going to go or anything like that. It has to do with your training stress over time. Okay. Yeah. But I think mine is at like 123 now and it's like perfectly possible for, yes, 123. It's perfectly possible for yours Pollitt to be also at 123.

And obviously I'm nowhere near as fast as you. But I think it just has to do with your, like they're saying, what you won't like it to be at before you go into a race. I see. What's the range? I don't think there's an upper limit to the, the range. Zero is the bottom.

Yeah, zero. I guess like it's good. Zero to a million. It's useful to track trends. So it recognizes your training weeks and the intensity in that, especially if you wear a heart rate strap and you put your swims in,

like you're including everything. But Eric and I don't have our swims in training peaks. We don't always wear a heart rate monitor, so I think it's a little bit less less of a useful tool for us. But the other question that he had around, was the other question he had?

About the echo three is a numb, numb toes. Have you guys ever had numb toes while running? No. Neither have I. I've had numb toes while biking. But I think I would double check that they fit you properly. I know that's the obvious answer, but make sure your toes aren't too squished. Yeah.

Because that can happen in ski boots a lot of the time. If your toes are squished, they kind of can go numb after a while. Because there is less motion maybe with a carbon plate. Like you're not flexing as much. So maybe that would lead to some numbness. It's crazy. Yeah. I've never felt that.

Yeah. We all agree. It's definitely not normal, right? Mm-mm. Not normal. Not normal, but maybe not unheard of. Yeah. I just feel like if your toes were squished, you'd get some like blisters before numbing.

I guess we're all different, right? And then it's not just like a constant pressure, like the bike shoe is, you know, or like a constant pressure on your butt. It seems like it's free form enough. Numbness is very strange. What I would try is maybe not tying your shoes is tight. Because a lot of people with raised shoes and elastic laces especially will crank them down so tight.

And that could just, you know, radiate to your toes and create numbness in your foot in general. Oh, you know what this reminds you of? Because I just got them today and I just put them on and I noticed that compared to the shoes, I'm used to racing in the neck. I don't know what you would call it, but right where your ankle comes out of the shoe,

I could see that getting a little tight if you tie them too tight, not necessarily around like the foot, but around like your ankle and heel. Like the collar of the shoe or something. Yes, the collar. That's the word I'm looking for. Yeah.

I could see if that's too tight, you cutting off something there. Blood circulation, especially relative to a training shoe that's wider and softer. Yeah, yeah. But they did feel amazing as I walked around my apartment

and then I was very excited about them. And also for Zach, don't wear them all the time. Like, save them for race day. Save them. They are expensive. A key workout one week out. Yeah, they don't. And Zach, in general, the carbon shoes just don't last as long as your, you're kind of, your trainers.

They're designed to be, to have less miles put on them. You got a limited number of rebounds. Next question here is from Nick, not me. Hi, all. Questions about upgrading bike parts? I have an entry level 2022 specialized L.A. and thus has some pretty entry-level parts, Sunrace cassette, bottom tier, Shimano derailer, etc.,

is it worth to replace all the parts and keep just the frame and fork? New brakes, new crankset, new E-shifters, new wheels, then eventually upgrade the frame and keep the parts, or does it make sense to just hold out for a bit until I can get a completely new bike, Nick? And just so everyone knows, LA is an aluminum bike that's very similar, supposed to be very similar to the tarmac,

but it's the aluminum version of the tarmac, which is carbon. So, Eric, maybe this is a good question for you. It's pretty much always going to be better to get a whole bike. You're going to get a better deal on the components. It's just a better deal overall. And the ride quality. You don't have to pay somebody to swap the components over two times. Yeah.

The ride quality on a carbon bike and the feel of it responsiveness will be a lot nicer for not a lot more money than you'd spend on the parts alone. Yeah. I would say the only exception would be is if you had like a, custom titanium bike or something that you just loved so much. Yeah, keep putting new parts on it, whatever. But if it's just, yeah. Also, it'll be easier to sell, sell that bike complete and buy a new one versus take all the parts off of this aluminum bike and then you're trying to sell all these weird parts. It's just a lot more challenging. It's more valuable sold as a unit as well.

And just to be clear, we're not saying that aluminum bikes are perfect. perfectly good. And for most people, they are very, very close to, like, they'll get you a very long way. We're just saying that the cost of buying all those components individually will add up to almost the same cost as that with a carbon frame. Like, it's crazy how much those add up and how much of a good deal by companies get on those components. Exactly. Especially when you're factoring in wheels too. Yeah, wheels, that's crazy. Like carbon wheels, carbon wheels in the frame, alone can cost as much as carbon wheels, or a bike with those same carbon wheels. It's wild. Yeah. Okay, and last question here is from Robin. Hey, crew, so I'm an avid female triathlet and a pretty

decent cyclist. For the most part, I ride with my male partner or other male cyclists. However, this summer I have done some solo riding, road and TT bike, and each time, even several times a ride, random men will tuck into my draft or get on my wheel while I'm climbing. This drives me absolutely crazy and I let them know that what they're doing is not okay with me and to back off. The latest incident happened while I was doing TT intervals and the person hit my back wheel when I was sitting up to tell him to back off. Am I being crazy or is this an acceptable behavior? How would you deal with the situation? I just don't understand how someone would think that's okay. Love the pot and thanks for keeping me company on my long runs, Robin. I wonder if Eric and I are going to

have very different answers from Paula on this. We'll see. Should Paul go first? Yeah, Paula, you go first. So first of all, have you experienced this? Yeah, people trying to get on your wheel? Yes. Yeah, I've experienced it. Random, random, let's be more specific. Random men trying to get on your wheel.

Yeah, it really annoys me on Zwift, actually. I will agree with that same. Seriously. I hate a thing. Who cares? I know, that's what I tell Eric when he's like swearing from the garage. He's so mad about it.

I'm like, it's a game, Eric. Who cares? It's not a game. But in real life, I think that the reason it's not cool is because we don't know how your bike handling is back there and you could touch a wheel or I think that you could ask if they mind, if the athlete minds that you're sitting on their wheel. If they're actually commuting or like trying to get back somewhere quicker, maybe it'll help them and make their day.

But it's a little bit in a little bit of. And also more my concern is just the risk of crashing. If you have to stop abruptly and they don't notice and they jam in the back of you, like you don't know what their ability is and what their skill level is or their awareness of what's going on. So I would say that it's quite annoying. And not for the reason that like, oh, you're using my draft to go faster. I don't care about that. It's strictly like a safety thing.

like personal space kind of thing you feel a little maybe claustrophobic with yeah like you said you can't stop when you want to or yeah and you just have to point stuff out it's like you're on a group ride all of a sudden

which is a different mindset than if you're doing TT intervals by yourself and someone hops on obviously different if it's you or Eric or someone you trust and know and ride with a lot but someone who you have no idea it's not as cool

Eric what about you I don't know I've witnessed this with a few different people. And I think if what Paul is saying is true and it's primarily a safety concern, that's totally understandable. But if you're, I've, I've witnessed female, high level professional female getting very mad at men jumping on their wheel thinking like, oh, this person thinks they're better than me and they're demeaning. And I have actually witnessed a male in Southern California, be that way.

and it was an issue. So I'm not saying it's unfounded. But I think like what I try to remember sometimes when somebody jumps on my wheel on his way before this happens in real life is the conversations I've had with my dad where he comes back from a ride and he was going down the bike path or whatever. And some really fast person came by and he was like, oh my gosh, I was able to jump on their wheel and I hung on for five minutes and it was so cool. We were going so fast.

It was insane. And they had like a Colnago. And it's just he's just like so fired up. It was in no. way like, oh, I think I can hang with this person and I'm just as good as they are, you know, like an ego-driven thing. So, yeah, my only, my, I guess like my closing thought on this and what annoys me about the Zwift thing or just in real life is when somebody just jumps on your wheel and they're just sitting there. They don't say, hi, is it cool? If I'm here, my name's George,

whatever, where you're going. Like, that has happened to us in Bend. Somebody comes up and I, and it turned out to know the person like via Strava or whatever. And they say, hey, we're both going the same way. Is it cool if I sit on your wheel for a little while? And like, yeah, of course. Like, that's not an issue. Or no, I'm about to do a 20-minute all-out TT. So that would, I, you know, that is cool.

And it breaks any sort of issue that there is. Same thing with Swift. Somebody just gets on my wheel and is sitting on my wheel for 20 minutes. Like, at least just say, like, if you know who I am, say hi or I don't know. It's just. I wonder if it's different in L.A. where for the most part, if you want to get to the good climbing on the west side, you have to do PCH, which is kind of a fast-moving car, thick road.

And there's this idea of, like, safety in numbers. So we just, like, if you see another group, it's totally okay to jump on with them. We had to happen this past weekend. And I also think there's a bit of this as, like, blissful ignorance of a male going around in the world versus a female. That I've, I never worry about, like, any weirdness. And usually I like it if someone's, like, on my way. feel like strong. When someone's on my wheel, I'm like, oh, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, paving the way and I'm like, they're happy to be in my draft. It makes me feel like fit

and excited. Yeah. But I guess I just like it when, when, when that happens. I didn't, I can see, I can see where Robin is coming from with it, but I think this is the first time I've actually considered that it could be an annoyance. Yeah, that's a very positive way of looking at it. I like the strength in numbers idea or safety in numbers idea. because I do feel safer even in Bend when I'm riding with more than just myself. And as the group gets bigger, the safer I feel with cars. Yeah. So that's a factor for sure.

And most of the time, the person that starts riding with you is really cool. And often they're stronger than me even and will come around and take a full. Like, that happens too. Can't imagine there's too many guys out there that are stronger than you. I think. I don't know. You might want to. I feel like that is the thing that is.

is the most annoying to you. Having sat on your wheel, when someone comes, is like sitting on our wheel, and then you break going into a corner more than they do, and they go ahead, and then they're dangling 20 feet in front of us,

and then you feel like you can't repass them because it's awkward. Actually, that is a funny thing to do if someone comes by you, like blows past you, and then put in a big effort to get by you, and then kind of slows down a bit,

is to just dangle, like, ten meters back, and they know you're there, and you're just like trying a little bit harder and they can't ease up. Not letting them off the hook. Yeah, like you want to pass me? All right, you're going to work hard up there. Go for it.

Anyway, it's all things to make biking a little more fun. Antics. The crazy shit you'd think about in your head when you're on a four-hour bike ride. Well, speaking of which, so this last weekend I was coming down a canyon, and it was me and this guy, we were kind of like going back, we were like trying to go fast down this canyon. And we passed this older gentleman, and we were going quite a bit faster than him. And then, like, three minutes later, we're still descending, and I see. He, like, accelerated and tried to stay with us.

And I love it. So I'm stoked on it. And then we get to the bottom. And this guy, when we, when we, like, stopped at the bottom, he was so stoked. He was like, that was awesome. Thank you guys so much for, like, making the lines. I was riding with you guys. And I was like, yeah, that was awesome.

That was really fun. If I, like, we were all descending together. And then he rode back on PCH with us for a portion until we looked back and he wasn't there anymore. but it was really fun. Yeah. And he was stoked. Like, I'm sure he went home and was like talking about it. That's fun.

Yeah, man. Community building. Good stuff. Anyway, those are all the questions we had. We'll see if Paula is racing this weekend in Augusta, Georgia. That'll be a mystery and you'll have to be tuning in to know if she did or not. There is a live feed. Oh, there is.

There's a broadcast. Yeah. Which is crazy. Killer. Yeah. I don't know if that's more reason for me. me to do it or not? I don't know. Yes. But there is a live broadcast.

It depends how you feel. There might even be a fighting chant series. I don't know. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sometimes you don't know until you show up. And Kenny hits you up. Gotta show up to blow up. See if Kenny hits me up. Yeah.

He's not, if I go to Augusta, he is not joining me. No. It's too late to buy plane tickets for that. Yeah, the plane tickets are expensive. And really my margin here is like, if I don't win, I don't make that much money. Yeah. So if air comes, it's more expensive. And Flynn would need Flynn care. Right.

Instead, Flynn and I are going to do a road trip and maybe, I don't know, maybe we'll see Nick out there. Yeah, guys go on a road trip. That would be fantastic. Would be fantastic. That would be fantastic. I'll just go throw this out on the pod because finding Flynn care is becoming increasingly challenging. and I'm considering just like finding him a good kennel that he can just reliably go to.

But next year it's stressing me out thinking about how much we're going to travel. If there's anyone in Oregon who's flexible enough to come stay at our house for weeks on end randomly through the year and we can just like count on you. We're looking for that person. Wow, okay.

Now I'm going to play devil's advocate. I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Can you sweeten the deal in any way? what can you throw in here to this flexible person? Well, we're willing to pay them, but my stress with Flynn is having a new person come in every time. He's a particular dog in some ways, like just needs to exercise twice a day. Particularly annoying. And we need a person who is not very annoyed.

A true dog person, I think, is ideal. Yeah, dog person, yeah. And someone we could just be like, obviously give them a month's notice, but we're gone for a week in October. Can you come stay at our house? And maybe if it's someone that, I mean, ideally it's the same person for several trips because then they know Flynn and Flynn knows them.

You can even take Flynn to your house. I don't know. But it's just something that having a dog was great during COVID and now as races become more travel heavy. Yeah. We need people that I don't want to have to think twice about, oh, what am I going to do with Flynn when I go for two weeks to Europe? Or yeah, I don't know.

That's something we're on the lookout for. And we can guarantee in-fridge, ice, and chilled water. Is that correct? We can guarantee a new refrigerator. Yeah, wow. You can use our e-bikes. You can use our kicker move. Whoa.

That's a real sweetened. That's a nice little perk. If you're a triathlet, we got a pretty sick setup. We have all that we have stand at paddleboard, like all the toys you could ever want. Wow. I think that's a big difference there to your, you just opened up your crowd. I forget all the things we have.

You know this is like our Tinder profile. That's right. That's right. Care. We have a master spa that can be a hot tub. Right. We have a, you probably can't drive our van. But anyway, we don't need to drive anywhere.

We're minutes from all the trails. Yeah. Awesome. Cool. Well, that's all we got for this week. Next week we'll be back here. Same thing. next week we'll be back.

Maybe we will, or maybe Nick and I will be doing a podcast from the van. That's true. It wouldn't be the first time. I used to say anything can happen. Yeah. It's so crazy to think about the pod when you do it one week and you're like, oh my God, next week I maybe have gone to Augustin back and done a race. Yep.

So crazy how much can happen in a week. Yep. But stay tuned. Thanks for listening. Later. Bye. Bye. Thank you.