That Triathlon Life Podcast - PTO San Francisco, new Wahoo treadmill, gravel tire size, and more!

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

This week we talk about Paula's experience at T100 San Francisco, Eric and Nick's experience at Nimmo Bay, and answer your questions. This week we talked about:Racing both T100 and Ironman Series in the same yearHealth Insurance for professional athletesThoughts on the new Wahoo treadmillWahoo Affiliate Link! https://bit.ly/4cxYEW5Paula Olympic thoughtsGravel tires for rough roadsChanging nationality for the olympicsBridging the gap between muscular and cardiovascular fitnessA big thank you to our podcast supports who help us keep the podcast ad-free. You can become a podcast supporter as well as submit questions for the podcast at ThatTriathlonLife.com

Hey, everyone, welcome back to that triathlon-like podcast. We missed you last week, but we're really excited to be back here right now. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I am a professional triathlete. Wow, Eric, this is so different. I'm Paula Finley. I guess I'm a professional triathlete, too. I am Nick Goldston. I am a professional musician and amateur triathlet. And I love improvising like this. It's part of what I do in music. And now we're doing it on the podcast.

I'm half making it up because I'm, you know, super witty. and then half because I just got back from a four-hour mountain bike ride and my brain is half working, but I think it worked. I think we nailed it. This is what happens when we take a week off, where stuff just like goes crazy. Creative ideas are flowing. Yeah.

So our triathlon podcast here is about our trathon life, what's going on in it. Paul and I both race professionally, so we get some of that in there. But then the bulk of the show is we take questions from everybody who's listening and we try to answer them and have some fun and share a little bit of knowledge that we've gained over

are combined, what are we at now? Like 30 years of professional triathloning? Combined. Combined. Combined. Cumulative. 15 each. I mean, if you think about it, we had a different years.

Like, we didn't have the exact same experience. So those counts as double. That's true. That's true. Yeah. So since we last spoke, Paula raced PTO, California. And Eric and I went on a banana's adventure to the edge of the earth. It was what it felt like.

Even though when I look at a map, I'm like, wow, there's still way more wilderness further away. It's like, it's hard to believe, actually, how much more there is. Yeah, yeah, we'll get into it. But we took quite the voyage and numerous different modes of transportation to get to where we went to shoot the next scene in our film that we're making this summer. And we're super psyched about it. But I feel like we should start with the race recap, since that's like chronologically what happened last. Or whatever Paula wants to talk about with the 200. I don't think we need to go into a really big.

race recap on the podcast because we missed last week's pod because you guys were out of cell range. And we actually, Eric, put out a video this morning of the race. So I talked a little bit in that. And there's a little bit of pre-race, a little bit of recap at the end. So I think that if anyone wants to get a gist of what the race was like, that's a really good place to go watch. I think it's kind of a fun blog.

And despite my nerves and my hesitation of racing and. ultimately not having the best time or the best race, I think the vlog actually ended up having a pretty bright and cheery mood to it. Because I was in a bright and cheery mood. That's my take on what happened. I was not in a bad mood either. I mean, I think the vlog is fun. So if you want to go watch that, we would appreciate it a lot.

Also, I feel like sometimes when I do little subtle plugs, it does work. If you have not subscribed to the YouTube channel, it takes one. click and we don't do that thing or on the YouTube. We're like, like and subscribe. You know, that's such a common thing to say. We haven't really said that ever. But it really makes a difference for us if you subscribe to the channel and just we overall have more more people like watching it and eyeballs on it. It does generate some income. And anyway, there's a plug for the YouTube. Yeah, the increasing number of, but it's funny actually, we have an increasing, very steady increasing number of subscribers always have but then the views are just kind of whatever and

I think that does have something to do with the you know people that are subscribed whether or not you hit like that bell notification to be told anytime we put out a video and then YouTube also just seems to not care anymore if you're subscribed to something it'll still show it to you half the time. Exactly that's the thing. Which is if I watch if I watch like some NBC sports swimming videos I'm getting fed every swimming race video ever even though I'm not subscribed to channel so yeah Yeah, it's kind of like an algorithm thing. But anyway. We appreciate it.

That's all it is. You know. But that's all we'll say about that. In terms of the race, how much of a recap should I do? I don't know. People send to like the recaps. Maybe like a 5-10 minute Coles Notes version of the overall experience. Did you say Coles Notes?

Is that what it is? It's Cliff Notes, unless there's a different one in Canada. Like they had to... Oh my gosh. Is Coles Notes? The Canadian... Cliff Notes? No, it's probably Cliff Notes. I'm just dumb. Oh, that would be, that would be amazing if it was, though. There are definitely things like that. All right. Anyway, notes, a, uh, an abbreviated

race recap, highlights. Okay, so I guess, like, this was my second T-100 race ever, as I did Miami, and they all really have a similar feel to them when you show up. It's the same athletes racing for the most part. The bike mechanic is amazing. Foy, he'll look after you. He'll get up, he'll get up at 1 a.m. if you need help with your bike, like he's just the most dedicated ever. So you go to these things, and it's complete peace of mind. Like, you're so well taken care of. Everything's very logistically laid out for you. This time I had practically no media commitments. I got a couple of new, like, pictures taken with my kit that has the Orca logo instead of the HG1 logo on it, which has arrived. But other than that, it was a really chill lead-in. And because it's such a short

flight for me, I got there Wednesday. So I had Thursday, Friday. raced early Saturday, home Sunday. Overall, just a very quick trip, in and out. And it's fun to go to places like San Francisco, and these places that the T-100's putting big races on because big cities are cool. And we come from Bend where it's very like outdoorsy and smaller, but you can go to San Francisco and there's like a good restaurant

every other building. So it's like endless fun things to do. So I wish ultimately we could have spent more time there. Yeah, we ended up at the neatest little vegan restaurant, and we went back there twice because we need to try everything on the menu. And that's just, that's a thing that we don't really have here in a small town. Yeah, I wasn't excited about the race just because the course really is challenging for me from a technical perspective. And I've done Alcatraz a few times before. Told myself, I'd never do it again.

But now that it's part of the series, I was a little bit forced to do it. And that was my sort of hesitation and headspace leading in was just a little bit of dread. I certainly don't think you were alone in there. The number of people that kind of had some sort of a thing happened right at the last minute and couldn't make it. And just the number of people who are highly ranked in the thing and didn't go at all. This is a very specific type of thing. It's a little weird when I'm having these struggles leading into it, being motivated to train and get ready for this race that I don't really want to do. And of course, we have to do stuff we don't want to do sometimes generally in life.

But in my racing schedule over the last couple of years, after leaving ITU, I've had the flexibility to go what I want to go to. And so when you're preparing for a race that maybe doesn't necessarily suit you perfectly, and that's what you're going and signing up to do, it's mentally really challenging. And then when you see two days out, three days out, some of the top competitors are just dropping out and not coming, you're like, well, that's what I wanted to do. That's the easy choice. Why are they allowed to do that? And I don't know, it just is kind of a strange feeling of like, I guess triathons

ultimately a little bit like you have to look out for number one and look out for yourself. And I ultimately don't regret going or doing it. I think I did fine in the race. But it was definitely a little bit of like, well, they're doing it. Why can't I do that? do. I equally am just as nervous about the swim and all the things. So, um, yeah, and I just want to say it is not at all uncommon for high level athletes to skip high level events because they don't feel like it suits them. Like Lionel and I don't think

Yon either did 70.3 worlds when it was a niece. I think they both came out and said, this is 100% not my thing. I'm just going to skip this one and I'm focusing on X, something else. But with the T-100, you're contracted to go to a certain number. And if you don't, let's say you didn't want to do Alcatraz, then you have to make sure you do every single other one. And it's, you're more locked into it. Yeah. And as much as I've a little bit, like, expressed my, um, stress over the series because it is such a high level of competition that you're constantly facing each race, it is really a nice, um, stress-free environment. And your hotels are like taking care of the transportation logistics.

Like I said, the bike mechanics great. everyone's in a bus going down to the race start. It's a really nice experience. So I have nothing bad to say about that and we are paid to be there. I mean, there's nothing bad about it except for the fact that it's pressure and it's broadcasted and there's media and there's hype surrounding it. But ultimately that's the goal of the T-100 and that's a good thing for us as athletes to get eyeballs on the sport. So you can mentally kind of just deal with that and not let it stress you out to the point of breaking. then I think there's a lot of good that comes from these races.

Do you feel like there is something that you could tell yourself three days before the race or something that you think is possible to help with the pre-race stress? I think just doing more of them kind of alleviates it in a way because they are all so familiar once you start them. It's just another triathlon. And it's so different than a 70.3 because it's just the pros out. they're racing alone. No age groupers on the course. It's a lapped course. So you're seeing spectators again and again. And those are all things that are wonderful if you're doing well.

But if you're having a bad race, it can be really tough to be coming back through transition area, eight, 10, 12 times throughout the race. So it's a completely different style of racing than what most of us are used to coming from 70.3 in Iron Man racing. Not in a bad way, but just it's faster. It's, you know, shorter laps. It's, there's more, there's more, there's more hype surrounding the entire race versus like St. George, for example, I took off on the bike and I was basically like alone and didn't see a lot of people for 90K. So it's, yeah, the dynamics are completely different. But the more we do them, I think, the more we all get used to them. And they're a little bit less intimidating. Ultimately, it's just a race. I got home on Sunday

and it's like back to real life. No one remembers three days later. You know? It's just racing. Do you feel like you get any kind of like stress hangover after or once you're done, you're like fully back to yourself and you feel that relief? There's a little bit. I think I've found this year in general to be a little bit of release of emotions as soon as I cross the finish line because there is so much. Yeah, a lot of stress leading into these things. A lot of preparation, you know, not just physically,

but logistically getting to races fully ready to go, prepared, tapered, equipment in order, travel, all of that really, really builds up. And I have obviously a lot of experience with it, but it never gets easier necessarily to lead into a race. So I don't know. After I finish, I feel like almost just like crying because I'm relieved that I got through it. And I, you know, did what I could. I did my absolute best. things. So there's a little bit of a hangover period, I'd say, but it does help to have another

race really close in the horizon. And for me, that's the Canadian TT Championships, which are next week and Tromblaw 70.3 was like my next focus, which I'm actually pretty excited about those two races. So it was easy to move on from San Francisco. My body felt fine after and kind of get back into training for the next thing. This time, yeah, it wasn't too bad of a of a hangover, if you want to call it that. Something you didn't talk about on the YouTube, I don't believe. Like, you mentioned their existence, and it was pretty funny actually to see you kind of trying those gloves on.

But for this race, you wore booties and gloves, and so did everyone else, right? Yeah. I'm just kind of curious how that felt swimming with those things. Yeah. I would say it's kind of an interesting experiment. We actually had to wear them. It was mandatory because of the temperature of the ocean. And in my opinion, it was not cold enough to warrant all of this stuff.

But for anyone who does swim in colder conditions for training, those things make a huge difference. And Eric, actually, you swam on them when you were up in Nemo Bay in the ocean and it was cold. Loved them. Yeah, having gloves, booties, and a thermal cap. They were necessary there for sure. Yeah, they're for sure necessary up there. But it just, it was kind of eye-opening how much they. they really do help.

And if you're doing a super cold race or training session or whatever, I don't know if they're even allowed in Iron Man, but those things really make a difference. I would say just using them as a way to like get over that hump of getting into the water to like do open water more often. Yeah, I agree. A lot of the times like the thought of getting into the cold water deters me from going and practicing open water.

But with these things, I'm like, I'm just in like a freaking little cozy cocoon, like no problem whatsoever. Yeah, the booties really help. Of course, swimming with the gloves is not very fun. It's very awkward. I didn't mind. I thought it didn't bother me at all. Well, they might have fit you probably.

Mine were a bit too small for me. Might fit like a glove. Yeah, it's not that bad. But imagine trying to like race with them. I'm sorry, terrible dad joke. Fit like a glove? Do you get it? It is a glove?

Yeah, anyway, all the gear was totally fine. The swim ended up being fine. We had this enormous current that like took us all to shore in exactly the same amount of time as everyone else. So this one was a bit of an irrelevant part of the race. But, yeah, it was a crazy San Francisco day, like very windy, foggy, wet roads kind of weather. We raced really early.

Lots of crosswinds on the descent, which were scary for me. And definitely my limiter in this race was the technical downhills. Because I rode pretty well. My power was good. And I rode the uphills really strong, but I was just bleeding time on the descents. which I knew was probably going to happen, and I should have practiced more,

but say lovey. There's only so much you can do. Even with, I mean, there's like a handful of spots in all of bend that we could go that would really represent the type of steepness that you get in San Francisco. When you are, like, coming down from the Golden Gate Bridge, on either side,

they rate at which you pick up speed, partly because they've now repaved all of it. It's astonishing. You get up to speed, like over 50K an hour, just instantly. Yeah, really steep downhills. And that can be unnerving if that's not your thing or you don't do that very often. Or if there's crazy crosswinds, which there are.

Cross wins, all these things. Yeah. But the run was mostly on gravel, which I loved. The run course was awesome. And again, on the run, there was a crazy headwind and then a crazy tail win, but definitely didn't bother me on the run. I loved the run surface. They had it on this pathway that was not closed to the public because it's really

challenging to put on a race in San Francisco. You can't just close shit down. People are coming through anyway, even if you try. There were people running on the course. It was not, they were not in the way in any way. Sometimes you had to dodge people, but it was kind of fun and added a little bit of interest to the whole run race. And I had a couple of moments in the race where I like would see Eric and I'd mentally break down and be like, I don't want to be doing this. This is so hard. I don't know if I would like triathlon anymore, but I was able to overcome those things. And I think it was really just because of my fitness.

Like I'm pretty fit right now. I've been training pretty well. And so when it felt like the worst thing ever, I could kind of just tap into my training that I'd done to keep actually running well. And that got me out of my hole a little bit. Like, oh, I actually am catching people or holding people off or running pretty decent K splits here.

I also started hiding in the bushes whenever she would come by. He's like, I'm not helping. That sounds like a joke, but I'm serious. It's really hard for me to see Eric on the course. Because, I mean, I want to see him. But when I'm in this mental state of wanting to stop, he's like my emotional, you know, crack. Yeah.

So I see him and I'm like, breakdown. I can't remember if we talked about this or not, but that Dallas race last year that was so hot and everybody was having a hard time, I was there hanging out with Josh Amberger and Sean Jefferson. So the significant others of Ashley Gentle and Holly Lawrence. And it was just, it was like borderline comical in an awful, awful way to see each of our significant others come by and just like fully lose it. And you're like, just keep going.

Just like, just go. And like, I don't know, should we all freaking hide? Because this seems to be not helpful. Yeah, to a certain point, it's not helpful. But anyway, yeah, that's what it is. I came sixth, and it doesn't sound like a good result, but when you consider how fast everyone is at these races, it's like a world championship level field.

Tons of people just want to be in this series. So being top 10, especially on the course that you're not, it's not your thing. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, I would say it was another decent result. And it was the first time I was out of the top five in a race in like my last 12 races. So I've had a really consistent string. and I'd say this was another, not a race to be, like, disappointed about in terms of the result. It was a pretty good performance on paper.

Yes, there were lots of things I could have done better, especially bike-related, but it was fine. I just want to throw this out there for anybody who has had even the slightest thought of, like, oh, it's, like, really surprising to me to hear you talk about, like, not wanting to race or, like, being, you know, like, not the positive, has a pace about it. You know, like, don't you just want to get out there and kill, kill, or, you know, whatever. Paula sent me the interview that King of the Ride, Ted King, did with Lachlan Morton, and I would highly, highly recommend anybody listen to that. He interviewed him right after doing, what are they called now? Unbound.

And it is an incredible thing. And I think Lachlan is in, like, kind of a pretty similar position mentally and just life, career-wise, to where Paul and I are at. And for him, it was, like, the difference between. pro cycling and gravel racing versus with us it's kind of 70.3 racing and ITU racing. And the PTO is much more similar to ITU racing than it is to 70.3 racing. And so anyway, I would just recommend that. I absolutely love listening to it as well. And anything Lachlan does I tune in for.

And it's always cool to hear these things come from people who have done, who have achieved a lot. And I think the analogy I use for you, Eric, is like when you have these abstract artists, you're like, oh, I could do that. But then you find out that they can also draw portraits extremely well or do landscape paintings extremely well. This all means a little bit more coming from Lachland or you, Eric, or you, Paula, because you have been at that level already. For sure.

Yeah. Okay. I think that's good for the SF recap, hey? I think that's great. I had a great time. We got some questions to get through. Well, I actually wanted to talk briefly about Eric's and I experience right after San Francisco. I'd love to hear about that.

You know what just dawned up. me, by the way. It's like, Paula, you were going through the stress of the race. I'm going through my own emotional stuff right now. And Eric is our rock right now. He has raised both of us up. Like, my first couple days in Nemo Bay, I was feeling so low. And Eric was just carrying me through the day. Yeah, I felt extremely bad. Okay, so after I, one more thing about my race, when I finished the race, and I was being a complete prima donna on the course a little bit when I saw Eric. And I was scared to see Eric after I finished because I'm like, oh my God, he's going to be so mad at me. I was so annoying.

So I texted him as soon as I got to my bag and I was like, frick, I am so sorry. Like, I love you. I'm sorry. Where are you? Come see me. And he was supremely understanding, but it could have gone either way. Like, I would not have put up with my behavior if I was Eric. And then he had to go to Nemo Bay the next day and Nick was in a funk.

And Eric's just like pulling us out of him. our funks and being so positive through the whole thing. Meanwhile, being creative at the same time, making a vlog, you know, filming all the stuff you guys had to get. So I don't know, Eric deserves a gold star or something, but. I will take a gold star. Put it up on my whiteboard. And you know what? In both instances, he, he, like, it ended up working out. Like, he saved the day. Yes. And he flipped our moods around both of them. He, really. Yeah. I felt completely. ineffective to do anything about your mood while you were racing. And I was not angry at you.

It was, but it's just hard to see somebody that you love going through something that appears to be so uncomfortable and painful. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's true. We're all coming in, we're all approaching even or keel, you know. Yeah. So the travel that Eric and I went through was just bananas.

So I had my flight from LAX at 6 a.m. woke up at four and then got over there, flew to Vancouver first. Eric, you flew to Seattle. Then we both flew to Victoria, got in roughly at the same time. Victoria on Vancouver Island. And Eric, you flew with Simon Whitfield, right? We were on the same flight. Yeah, we didn't sit together and hold hands or anything. Well, that's fine because we basically held hands for the next five days after that. Yeah. I just want to say in case, I mean, everyone should know who Simon is,

but Simon Whitfield won the Olympic gold medal in Sydney 2000 in triathlon. The first actually triathlon in the Olympics. He's Canadian. And then he went on to win a silver medal in Beijing behind Jan Ferdano at the 2008 Olympics. So he's a Canadian legend in triathlon. It's just a legend in triathlon in general. He was certainly my biggest inspiration as I was getting in the sport. Oh, for sure in general.

Yeah, but if anyone listening is maybe not from Canada, like very new to the sport, never followed it back then, that's who Simon is. And we've stayed good friends since then. I trained with him leading into the London Olympics where he unfortunately crashed. But that was kind of his last big race. And since then, he's still somewhat involved in the sport, but also just really interested in what you guys are doing creatively. So he kind of assisted with this whole trip. Yeah. When we were in Ventura, training there and then also filming scene. for our film. I was asking Simon if he had any inside information on where we could open water swim and get some cool shots in Tafino, which is the popular surf destination on Vancouver Island.

And he's just like, dude, no. I got a spot. I got a way better spot than that. I'll see if I can pull some strings and make it happen. And it turns out that he knows the owner of Nemo Bay Wilderness Resort. That's N-I-M-M-O. Not like finding Nemo.

Right. And he managed to get us some accommodation and our travel over on this really cool airplane covered so that we could make this happen. Because it's a very expensive, rightfully so, resort. It is absolutely beautiful and a premium experience that my mind just went instantly to honeymoon or, you know, like 30th wedding anniversary. You know, like really special events like this is why I would think someone would go there unless you're extremely wealthy. But he made it happen. We met the owner, who was an incredible individual as well. All the staff, amazing.

And we had everything at our disposal that we needed, including a beautiful boat to go out and get the best open water swim footage that I've certainly ever seen and that I hope has been created. Yeah. I mean, the place was everywhere you pointed the camera, there was majestic natural beauty. And then you just have Eric in the middle of these fjords. I don't know what you want to call them,

just swimming in this beautiful straight line. I mean, I can't wait to share it with everyone. But Eric, you also were swimming with booties and like a full skull cap that I didn't know existed outside of when they're built into a suit and then the gloves as well. And I feel like that was fundamental

for your success in swimming in these very cold waters. For sure. We actually filmed an entirely separate gear video that'll go into depth on the stuff that we used and we'll do that for each scene in the film. But Orca has got all the things if you want to swim in cold water.

I didn't actually use one of their dedicated cold water suits. They have got some crazy thermal suits. But yeah, like Nick said, I have this. It's like a skull cap that comes all the way down basically to like your clavicles. So it's like there's no water going in there. Nothing's touching your neck. It goes all the way up basically on your chin. And it's totally comfy.

And then they're thicker neoprene gloves and their neoprene booties, which also allow you to walk through. the forest, which is fantastic. And then I swam in there, Apex Float Wetsuit, which is a slightly floatier and thicker version of the Apex Flow, which we normally race in. And I was fine. It was, what did we say it was? 51 degrees.

52 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the Veevee cold. I swam in the Orca float as well for the race in San Francisco because it does have a bit thicker neoprene. So even I find the flow slightly more comfortable, the float is slightly warmer. So it's kind of cool that they have this whole range of suits that you can pick based on the race conditions or whatever you guys were doing in the ocean. Yeah. Yeah. If like speed was of no issue, then they have a full thermal suit that I'm actually interested to try out now, but we didn't, we didn't use. That might have been the move for swimming, you know, in a beautiful open water spot where you're not as concerned about time.

Totally. I think I asked them about the thermal suit for a race, and they said it's just harder to get off. And it's not exactly meant for racing. But for what you guys were doing, it might have been perfect. Yeah. I think what I would really love to do is being there

just gave me a whole bunch of ideas about swimming around X island and like swimming to this island and then like running across it, like full swim run adventure type of a thing. And I think I would really like to go back there and do some really big swim, in which case, having that extra thick suit. would be huge if you're going to be in the water for like four hours or something, for example. Wow, Eric goes on one trip and suddenly he wants to do four hour swims. I mean, this place was so incredible.

Anybody would want to just go swim all day. It was like magic. It's like going trail running but swimming. Exactly. I was like, man, I'm all of a sudden fired up about swimming because it's, I came back here and I was like, I'm going to go open water swimming every single day. I'm going to drive up the mountain and go to the lake, you know? And so that's, anyway, like, that is exactly what I hope people. people will get when they watch this film is that you'll be so psyched up to go do an adventure and

have some fun with your friends. And yeah, it's going out in the fall. So stay tuned for that. Yep. Thanks to Simon and Fraser for all the hospitality too. Definitely cannot have done it without them. Incredible. Go check at the Instagram page. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Okay. We cool to move on to questions here? Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, great. So the questions come from the listeners, if you're new here. So thank you to our listeners for submitting questions. You can submit your questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast.

On there, you can also become a podcast supporter, which is our pride and joy here, our podcast supporters. Every week we try to pick a random podcast supporter that we send out a bottle and socks to right now. That's what we're sending out. They're TTL bottle and socks branded. This week we found Jesse Jones. You are our winner this week.

Congratulations, Jesse. and also we saw that Jesse has been a podcast supporter for a while. Eric, do you remember how long? 20 months. That is, thank you, Jesse. That's amazing. That's got to be from the beginning of when we started doing that. I think so.

There's no way. Yeah, that's, that is early on, Jesse. So thank you very much, Jesse, for being a podcast supporter, for helping keep the podcast ad free as we continue to do this, try to do it every week, even though we're in different countries and flying around doing it. in races. If you can send your address through the forum on the website, then we'll get you out the bottle and the socks ASAP. Yeah, I'm a couple of weeks behind on shipping out bottles. So if you haven't received it yet, it's not because I forgot. Do you in chunks. Don't worry.

Don't worry. Yeah, I do them in chunks. I do them in chunks. Yeah. Okay. First question here is actually from a Canadian, from Steve in Ottawa. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. This question is for Paula. Some top triathletes in the T-100, both on the male and female side, like Lucy Charles Barkley and Sam Long, have announced their ambitions to include Ironman world champs in their season, while already showing so much promise for the overall standing for the T-100 series. As a high-ranked T-100 athlete yourself, that still races Iron Man Pro Series races, is there a pressure from sponsors to show up for both Iron Man and PTO-branded races? Do some athletes likely not have a choice, but to show up and race both due to

contract conditions, even if it means potentially jeopardizing everything by overcooking it, is winning the T100 series overall in some sponsor's eyes less important than taking a shot at Kona, Nice, our 70.3 world championships. Thanks for all the great content. My black TTL trail cap is still going strong. Ooh, yeah, that's an old one. Awesome. Steve from Ottawa. Yeah, good question. I can't really speak to any on Elsa's contracts in terms of bonuses or what sponsors prefer, but personally, Eric and I have no pressure for any kind of race series. I think that because Iron Man has been around for so long, there is a little bit more prestige still of winning Kona or Nice or 70.3 worlds than there would be of winning a T-100 World

Championship just because it is the very, very first year of it. So it's still very fresh and new and people might not fully know what it is. but because the T-100 is partnered with World Triathlon, the winner of the series will be crowned a world champion. So obviously that's very prestigious and very important. But in terms of bonuses, I actually, my bonuses are a little bit better going to 70.3 races because it's just what has been so classically written into contracts since it's been around forever. So as an athlete, you kind of have to go to your sponsors and encourage them to add these T100 races in as bonuses because they're extremely competitive, very valuable for sponsors because of the media coverage and get a lot of eyeballs.

And they're really hard to win. So most of my sponsors have added that in, but it's not the norm yet. I would be so curious if we could pull every single age group out. athlete who is like in triathlon and say like how aware are you of who won St. George 70.3 versus T100 San Francisco or T100 who's ranked high in the T100 series? Because if you look at it, the T100 has significantly more media going out. And if you want to follow along, you can follow along so well. And you can get such deep dive information on the athletes, great information on who's the fastest runner, bike, or swimmer, you know, and their performances.

But I still feel like percentage-wise, I bet there's slightly more awareness around the results that come from a regional 70.3 just because that's the thing that most amateurs, most age-group athletes are racing and is like top of their Instagram feeds. Yeah, and there's a lot of age groupers at the 70.3 races, obviously. So they're watching you firsthand on the course. Yeah. Whereas the T-100 have a little bit less of an age group field. And there's just less people on the ground watching it.

So maybe a slightly less awareness. But hopefully that will change and it'll build up to be more popular over the years. But I think people like Sam Long and Lucy, they're obviously have amazing sponsors and great contracts and good bonuses probably across the board. And I think they're the kind of athletes. They're in the really nice position of being able to. to do what they want to do and not be held or held hostage to anyone race series.

They're well supported regardless of what they do. So if it sounds good to do something and they think they could be competitive and maybe win Nice or win a world championship or win the T-100 series in Sam Long's case, they can do that. And they have the ability to, they have the support to do it and they have the ultimately the freedom to decide what they want to do. So I don't know. How much do you feel like the YouTube show,

the Instagram following and the podcast, how much do you feel like these influence your feeling of, I can race kind of what I want to and there's not a lot of pressure? Because I think of Lucy Charles Barkley and Sam Long, and they also have a great online following and presence in ways that their sponsors could be happy with them existing without necessarily racing a lot. but I can think of a lot of really good pro triathletes who do not have that. Maybe it's a decision they made to not put their energy into that, or maybe it just didn't work out.

Do you feel like they would share the same perspective, or do you think they do have a little more pressure? They may have a little more pressure to go and win races and win big races, to make big bonuses to get better contracts the next year, whereas a lot of the contracts that we get in our lives at this point, yes, we're still racing and racing well, but we do have this media thing going on with the podcast and the blog. And partners recognize that and TTL is a big thing. So I think we have a little bit more diverse of a profile than some people that may choose just to focus on racing and win races. And that's what they do best. Yeah.

I think we're in a little bit of a unique position where we did the bulk of the, or the biggest growth period that TTL had was during COVID when there was no racing at all. and I've, you know, personally have a lot of enjoyment out of showing off the cool cities we go to and showing our daily lives instead of just doing a, doing 5K hard on the track and going to the race and winning the race or not. And I, you know, that triathlon life. And I think that has put us in a really nice position of the results are great and people are excited when we have a good result. But I don't have the same sensation of like Lionel maybe or I'm not sure quite, you know, Sam's YouTube change. where it is very much a race-focused show. You know, you go there to, like, watch the training. Or performance-focused, yeah.

But I would say, like, in general, in triathlon, it's amazing that there's these two series to choose from. Yes. It's great for the sport. It's great for the professional athletes. I think that the people who have signed contracts with the T-100 need to take that seriously. And, yes, it's fine to go do some Iron Man Pro rations. races. But if you've signed a contract to sign up for six of the races that you're supposed to do, I think you better be there. You should be there and you should be there fit and ready to race.

Yeah, you're taking an opportunity away from someone else who would walk to the race a thousand miles if they had the opportunity to do. And you're fully allowed to miss two of them. So people that are skipping one and going and doing an Iron Man or whatever it is, that's totally fine, as long as they're showing up for all the rest. That's my opinion at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. I feel like it's a fun time in triathlon. Okay, next question here is from Jeffrey.

Hi, Eric, Paula, Nick. I'm curious about a professional athlete's health insurance. Eric and Paula, you've shared about your past injuries, which made me wonder how a professional triathletes health insurance is structured. Is it self-pay? Is it through one of your sponsors? Is it through a national federation? Thank you for always giving such nuanced perspectives on sport and life in general.

Jeffrey. I love this question. I'm curious if this has changed over time, too, if like it used to be one way and now it's a different way. Yeah, when I lived in Canada, it was, I didn't have health insurance. You didn't have to pay for health insurance out of pocket. You just paid it for it in taxes. Whatever. Yeah.

When I moved to the U.S., it got much more expensive and much more complicated. And both Eric and I do pay out of pocket. I have like a, it's a global health insurance network. because I am still Canadian. Anyway, that's getting into the details too much, but we do both pay for it. I was hoping maybe by including this question in the podcast, we'd have one of those situations where someone's like, oh, I own a health insurance company. Yeah.

Can we be your title sponsor? Oh, my God. Yeah, that would be the dream because we spend so much money on health insurance. And it's, as everyone knows with health insurance, you're like, well, do I pick like the platinum level, even though I have zero health issues, but if I get cancer, I want to be able to, you never feel like you made the right choice. It fully feels like you're gambling. Yeah. And you're paying so much out of pockets still if you have to get stuff done to reach your deductible.

And it's so ridiculous. And it's so new to me because coming from Canada, it's not something I've had to think about for most of my life. But it's enormously expensive. And as like, I guess, private, what are we, private contractors? Yeah, we're contractors. Small business owners. Our business is not big enough for us to get like a company plan or anything like that. That's for sure.

Yeah. So we just pay for it. But Nick, you pay for yours too, right? Yep. I have to pay for my own, sadly. Yeah. Yeah. So Nick would also like to be included in the sponsorship.

Yes, thank you so much. That would be great. And I will take any level of it. Isn't Yon sponsored by like Allianz or that's an insurance company, right? I don't know. Like, that'd be the most cool, non-endemic sponsor would be an insurance company. I think it's probably the least cool thing, but maybe the most actually helpful. Yeah.

Well, it's like getting new socks for Christmas. You're like, well, I really, really do need those. I would hate to buy them myself. So this is actually great. Eric, when you were with USAAT, did you have anything through them or even then? It was like figure it out. I was getting there. I was never good enough to get it.

It's for like gold level funding athletes only. So I was the highest level I ever got was like bronze level funding. So to get on gold level, there's like, you know, I don't know what it is now, but back then I think there were like six athletes total who had, you know, been on the podium at three WTSs and qualified to have the full insurance program. And then you get like three grand a month for your coaching stipend. Everything becomes taken care of. You have no expenses. At what age are you kicked off your parents' plan? 21, two, three, five.

So long time ago. It's a state by state thing. Some was like 26, some was 29. I think some were 31. I want to say 25 is when I lost it. And all of a sudden it was like, holy shit, I really have to make money with this sport because that is outrageous how much this costs.

It's outranging. I thought about it a bit. Like countries that have state health care, huge advantage over being in the U.S. And having that be a $12,000, whatever it is, dollar per year. expense. Like, when I quit the bike shop and moved to San Diego, I had $10,000 in my bank account. That was like my entire startup. And if I had had to be paying my own health insurance, I would

have gone broke. I would not have made it as a pro-tra athlete. We would not be here right now. But you were still on your parents' insurance. I had a couple years of my parents' health insurance to float me through that. Yeah. Very easy. Wow. That is wild. Well, there you go, everyone. There you go. They do have to pay for their own health insurance. As do we. Very much. Okay. Next question here. Can you share your thoughts on the new Wahoo tread? The tech looks super cool, but are there any concerns with future firmware updates? All devices, especially first-gen products, are very susceptible to firmware and or manufacturing issues. Also, how does it compare to the Woodway? Do you see yourself getting rid of it now that you have the Wahoo tread?

Appreciate the YouTube show and podcasts. It makes for great content to consume whilst training. I just want to add to this too that Wahoo sponsors Eric and Paula here. So this is, you know, they're going to speak as honestly as they can about it, but they are sponsored by them. Yeah, I mean, I think they are in for us giving our honest opinions on this stuff. And we have one of like five that are in existence. I think we have one and Sam Long might be getting one and Jim Walmsley has one. And they want some feedback from us on it, of course. And hopefully we can break something before, you know, like while it can still be changed,

if there's anything that's going to break. but I think to me running on it, the couple times that I run on it, it feels built like a tank, exactly like what you would expect from Wahoo. If you've ever had a kicker, they are indestructible. And this treadmill, to me, feels the same. The technology feels it's pretty awesome to just run faster, and it just speeds up.

Yeah, if people don't know, it has this run-free technology where there's a sensor on the crossbar, and if you get closer to the sensor, it'll speed up, or if you back off, it'll go slower. So you can kind of basically run free like it's called and not be locked into one specific pace

if you want to be a little bit more dynamic on the treadmill. And you don't have to use that feature. You can lock it in to a certain grade or a certain speed, but it is an option to do the free run, which does have a bit of a learning curve. Like at first, I'm the type of person who tends to run kind of close to the crossbar on a normal treadmill. And when I do that, it speeds up really quickly.

Like it can go up to like 3.30, 3 minutes per K if you're not careful. And then so I would back up too fast and then it would slow down too much. So there's this sweet spot in this learning curve to maybe stay at like 445 per K or wherever you want to be doing your run so that it's not fluctuating wildly. But I think that after a couple runs, I have it pretty dialed and can do it smoothly. The other thing that it does is it will do incline and decline and the stuff inside of SWIFT, which is, I don't know of any other treadmill that does that right. That is so cool.

No, that's really cool. It feels different than the Woodway because it doesn't have the slatted rubber belt. It just has a normal belt. But I would say the base of it and the sturdiness of it is very similar to a Woodway. So it doesn't have that flimsy spring-like feel that some cheaper tresteadiness. might have or even some commercial grade gym treadmills that have a lot of flex in them and kind of give you this bounce and this artificial speed, I guess. This doesn't have that. So I feel like it's very true to the speed that you're running. And sometimes it can, I found that the woodway compared to our other commercial grade treadmill, which we just sold, felt harder to run on because it didn't have that flex. But it is a smoother ride because of the slats. So this one I feel like a little bit. in between a woodway and a commercial grade treadmill. Yeah.

Yeah, I kind of think of the woodway is running on like a very new squishy track and running on this is like a harder track. It just doesn't have quite as much squish to it, but it's not springy. Yeah. I like it personally. Yeah, I love the feel of it. And it's at first it was like a little bit loud. Like you could hear your your foot strike quite loud.

I think that might have been before we, like when they installed it, a little rubber foot on the bottom of it got folded over and it might have been slightly understable. Oh, yeah, now it's better. And we got that fixed. Another thing I love about it. And we can do a deeper, we'll do a YouTube video and like do a deeper dive on it. But it doesn't have a really extravagant console on the front.

Like most treadmills have a TV on the front or like the big control panel on the front. This just has a bar across it. It's like a desk. And then a desk where you can put your own laptop that has a strap to put your laptop in or your iPad. And it has a specific spot for an iPad. so you can use Zwift or use your laptop, or you could have nothing there and just have a mirror in front of you and completely be able to see the mirror

because there's nothing obstructing your view in front of you. Yeah, it's just got what, like speed and incline, you know, little digital numbers on the thing. It doesn't have like calories per minute. Yeah, so what I'm confused about, all this extra screen and stuff. It doesn't even have the time that you've been running on a digital thing. So I think you have to be using Zwift. And I wonder if there's like, the Wahoo app you could use too.

Yeah, yeah. So you want to have a device that's like, you know, tracking your entire workout. But it's a very clean and simple crossbar user interface or whatever. Yeah. One bar of things. I'm so, I'm so interested because, yeah, I'm sure that you can, like, hook it up to Wahoo system and, like, do workouts that they've got pre-built in there.

And then, like, have a full heads-up display just like you would have on the Wahoo app when you're riding the kicker. Yeah, we're going to have to make a YouTube video. It also will say your cadence. So it connects directly to Zwift and it'll say like your contact, time, your cadence, your oscillation, your vertical oscillation. So if you're a super bouncy runner and you're trying to work on like maybe staying a little bit more gliding. Glidey.

Yeah, you can measure all that stuff too. I mean, that's probably because of the sensor in the bar. I'm legitimately looking forward to winter right now. So you can use it. To play with this thing. Yeah. and not feel like I'm just running on the treadmill when it's sunny outside. In terms of electrical, you cannot just plug it into a regular outlet.

It looks like a regular outlet shape, but it draws more power. So we've had to plug it into like there's an outlet in our garage, which is meant for either a dryer or a car charger, it's like a little bit higher draw and it worked fine. But when we tried to just plug it into the regular wall that we plugged the TV into, it shorted the circuit. So it needs to have a bigger. Someone else asked a question about that this week, actually.

Yeah. And I didn't put it in the show, but that's probably what's happening to this listener as well. Yeah, they're just like a dedicated whatever, like normal wall outlets are like 10 amps and it's like a dedicated 20-amp circuit. So we actually have two of these in our garage, one for our automatic splinter colors, which we've never used. And then one that's just like an extra one next to our, I don't know what it was for. Similar to a woodway, though. That needs more draw as well. Same thing with the woodway, yeah.

Yeah. So just factor that in if you're getting one of these things. I want to try it too. Next time I'm there, I'm going to try it. I'm not a treadmill person per se, but this sounds fun. Yeah, what we wanted to do was get all our friends over who are runners and just film their first reaction to the free run feeling. Oh, yeah.

It's going to be a fun episode. I'm getting excited. Yeah. Because your initial reaction is like, oh, my God, this is so cool. Like you're kind of in shock of the technology. It's like riding a segue or like a one-we. wheel for the first time. We're like, you just lean forward and it goes faster?

What? Last thing I'll say about it is when I'm running, I don't love running on treadmills. I'm not the kind of person who's drawn to a treadmill, usually, unless I have to because of the weather outside. But with this treadmill, I've gotten on it three times now, even when it was perfectly nice out, just because it's fun. And I think sometimes when I lock myself into like, okay, this is an easy run. I'm going to set it at eight minute miles.

That can feel hard sometimes to me on a treadmill. I get this panicky feeling and it's unnatural to me. But when I put it on the free run, I'm just naturally running like 445 per K maybe. And it feels totally smooth and normal because I'm not locked into one pace that I am on another treadmill. Yeah. So I don't know. I've gone to it and used it a bunch now that we've have it. And even though I don't love treadmills. I like this treadmill. All running on the treadmill more than me, who would have thought?

Who would have thought? And by the way, we do not get any money for any one of these sold. These are just the opinions of two people. Actually, we, that is not true. Is that right? Are we working on it? I think I just got the approval for our affiliate link, which makes, you know, whatever, we'll make like 10 bucks on every treadmill we sell.

Yeah. But we're going to put that, I'll try to get that to you. And we'll put it in the description. So if you want to buy one of these, or if you want to buy an element, Rome, anything, and you use our link, you'll be supporting. podcast. Wow. That's amazing. See, another way to support the podcast. We're really trying to make it work for as many people as possible. And you can just tell your significant other, like, I had to buy this treadmill. It's supporting my favorite podcast. Yeah, exactly. I feel like this treadmill, I feel like this treadmill is an extremely reasonable price point, too.

I'm shocked at it. Based on how it feels. Because the Woodway is like 15 or 20 grand. So unreasonable. Like you would never buy that unless you were hardcore. treadmill person, Zwift gave us this treadmill, which they are so generous for. We did not purchase the woodway. But a gym treadmill from like, you know, Dick's sporting goods is a thousand bucks. And it's total crap. It might last a year if you're lucky. This one is 5,000. And it's the most tank of a treadmill I've ever run on. I really thought it was going to be like 7,500 or 8. So did I, yeah. So you put a deposit in now. They ship them in the fall. And you can change your mind. If you put a deposit down, you're like, I don't really want it. You can get it back.

Oh, that's a killer. Yeah. A $5 grand is, I would say that is so fair for that. I think very worth it. Yeah. Okay. All right. That's all for now.

Awesome. Wow. That was a deep dive there, but I loved it. Awesome. Oh, you like, well, I like talking about stuff we were excited about. Yeah, I love it. Love it. Next question here is from Carlos from Vancouver.

Wow. I feel like there's all Canadians. B.C. or Washington? It doesn't say. Oh, yeah, BC. Wait. Wait, Vancouver is BC. There's a Vancouver, Washington.

Oh, Vancouver, right? It's like Portland, right? Yeah. No, it's not like Portland. They wouldn't say that. Okay, well, isn't it right across the river? Yeah, it's close to Portland. Yeah, from Portland, we call it the cove.

The cove. Okay, okay, well, here's Carlos from not the cove, but Vancouver. A quick question for Paula from a fellow Canadian, hypothetically, if cycling Canada did offer you a spot on the Paris 2020 team for the time trial, Would you have taken it? Oh my gosh. When I read this, I was like, is that even a question?

Obviously. Duh. Obviously, yes. Has anyone ever qualified for the Olympics and declined their spot? That's a very great question. Maybe you have other big plans going on or something. No, I would have for sure taken it. And it was a bit in my plan last year, 2023.

I thought if I win the TT and do well at Worlds, Canada, their selection policy states they'll either focus on the time trial for their road team or the road race. So if I had gone to Worlds last year in Glasgow and like come top five or had this really great result that showed that I have the potential to finish in the top five or ten at the Olympics, I would have had a chance. But I was sick at that race. I did not have a great race at the World Championships for the TT. So Canada has two spots for the road race and they're focusing on the road team. Allison Jackson is Canadian. She's a super badass road cyclist. Perry Rubei winner.

Well, in the Perry Rubei races for EF, and she'll, she honestly, I think, is a metal potential in the road race. So they're going to take her and someone to support her. And I guess those two will also do the time trial. Because people, you can't take separate people for the TT in the road race. It has to be the same athletes. And I just am not a road racer on the bike. And I, That was a bit of an intentional choice. Maybe if I could go back in time, I would have done more road racing and raised nationals on the road and developed my skills there. So I could have been a stronger candidate for the team. But I don't know.

I'm trying to race triathlon too as my real job. And I just do the cycling because I love it. And I am good at it, but I unfortunately will not be going to Paris. It's a different criteria than the U.S. where Taylor Nib winning was an automatic slot for her. It's not the case with Canada. I think it's very interesting to me to like fantasize or think about what it would look like to try to get you to L.A. Assuming, you know, like triathlon career, however it's going or whatever, if you took two years or whatever the length of Olympic qualification is for cycling to like focus on time trialing, not run as much so your legs are fresher, brush up on the technical skills. Yeah, I think it could be better.

Kind of an interesting. I think Watts-wise, my power is top 10, top 15 at World Championships, but skill-wise, it's not. So that's, again, where I struggled at this race last year in Glasgow. And I think that with some positional tweaks, I'm basically like taking a triathlon position and making it UCI legal. But if you're going to really focus on the TT, you should be training a very specific UCI position that's very fast and uncomfortable for anything more than a 45-minute race versus what I'm doing is just kind of adapting what I already ride, which is quite a comfortable, less aggressive

position than what you see most of the women racing in these big TTs. And it gets me through Canadian nationals, but when you step up to the next level and you're trying to race the best people in the world, they're putting all their focus on being as fast as possible at this very specific event. So I can't just waltz in as a triathlet. He's also running 80K a week and swimming 25K a week and expect to contend with people who are really just focusing on just this. Yeah. Yeah.

Ooh, that would be fun. It would be fun to give a run. The next one, and I'd say there is maybe a little bit more flexibility with racing as an older athlete in the time trial and cycling than there is when you have to run and swim and that takes a lot more beating on your body. But I think there's historically some athletes that are maybe in their late 30s who are still world class at cycling. And that's kind of the age I would be around that time. So yeah. Possibility. Love it. Love it. Okay. Next question here is from America, from the most America that America gets from Texas. Hello, I live in a medium town in Texas. Our road riding is somewhat limited with no shoulder and not too friendly

drivers. Once you get out of town, traffic is better, but the roads are mostly chip seal and a rough ride. My friends and I were chatting about getting gravel tires to make these rides more comfortable and expand our option to some of the farm roads. What size and tread pattern would you recommend, or is this even a good idea? Thanks, Sam from Texas. It sounds like a freaking great idea, but Eric, what do you think? The best idea. Yeah, the best idea. I'll just say, as Eric's doing some research on what exactly we use. I've been riding my crux on the road. And what size does the crux have, Eric? I think those are 32s. Maybe the 32s. They're a little bit beefy, but I primarily ride them on the roads because there's expansion cracks and roughness, and it makes me roll slower.

So I can still, like, do the workouts and have certain watts or goal watts. And it's just a more comfortable ride. And then I can take some roots that maybe do link together with some gravel roads. And they're not super gnarly off-road sandy trails, but they are not paved. And I can just comfortably go over them. So I would say it's a great idea. Definitely. Fully agree with that.

If your bike can fit that size of tire. Yeah. Yeah. So assuming that you have no limit on the size tire, the tire that I've been absolutely loving in Bend, which I think is overkill, is the. Victoria Toreno dry gravel tire. That's fully for gravel riding. That's fully for gravel.

I wouldn't take that and ride it on the road. It's really slow. Exactly. I'm just going to go, I'm just kind of going through the full gamut because if you go to a website and I'm just going to recommend Victoria tire since that's what I'm familiar with, I think that's overkill. I think what you want to be looking at is the Toreno zero.

That basically has a completely slick center tread and just a little bit of side tread on it. So that'll give you a little bit of confidence when you're cornering on like the dirt roads and stuff, but you can, um, it's tubeless. And you can ride pretty smooth. You can ride pretty smooth. Yeah, the center is totally smooth. And let's see, we got 700 by 35, 38, 45, 4750. So you could get real freaking chunky, depending on how, you know, squishy and slow you want to go.

But I would probably recommend for what you're saying is like the 35 C. 35. Yeah. Yeah, I was, like I have the diverge with. chunky tires on it for real gravel riding? Those are 45s. Oh, those are 45s. And then I have the crux with 32s.

And if I'm riding the diverge on the road, it just feels frustrating because it's so slow. But the crux with the wider than road but narrower than those beefy ones, I can still roll pretty quick, but much more comfortably. Yeah. It's a good in between. Yeah. Those are, I think what you have on the crux are the Schwalby G1 all round or something like that. Yeah.

I really like them. Yeah. No, they're like kind of one of the OG gravel tires. But, yeah, I would probably go for these zero, Toronto zero gravels personally. Anyway, they asked if it was a good idea and we both said yes. Yes, definitely. I'm riding on my tarmac right now, like 32 slicks. And it looks kind of wild, but it is so comfy.

And I'm not trying to, you know, go super fast to race on it. So, yeah. And I can run 52 PSI. and like chip seals, no problem at all. A lot of people racing those big tires too, though. It's as surprising as it is in a lot of courses, it seems to suit even a faster time in addition to being way more comfortable

and offering better flat protection. Yeah. So, like, that's the other thing that you could do is you could get, let's see, what do they call these? They're like the, maybe the Rubino Pro is not what we have. We have a slightly nicer thing than that, but you can get a Rubino Pro from Vittoria

in a 32. And you could run that real low tire pressure, be on that chip seal. You could definitely ride that on some gravel as long as it's not chunky gravel. So that's another option. Come at it from like the fat road tire versus the skinnier,

slicker gravel tire angle. Oh yeah, that's a good idea. I think we kind of went way too overkill on this answer, but there are a lot of pod questions that we get about tires that I don't even send to you, Nick, because there's so many. Right.

It's a little bit boring to me. But I guess it's really, The opposite of boring for me. I love tires and trying all the different options out there. And anytime even I go to a company's website and look at tires, it's so overwhelming that anything I can do to like help make this journey a little bit easier, I'm happy to do. I'll just say my piece here, which is that I have 47s on my gravel bike from Victoria, the same tires you have, Eric. And I absolutely adore the feeling. I love it.

I'm not racing that bike. Yes, I ride it on road and gravel. but I don't care. I have a power meter on there, so I use it for workouts, and I don't care how fast I'm going. I just care that I'm comfortable and that I can ride off road if I want to,

and I'm getting my workout in. So it sounds like Sam might be similar to this. So I would say don't be afraid to size up if you don't care so much about your road speed. Yeah, you're not going on group rides or whatever. Yeah, you don't get as cold because you're going slower. You don't need to plan as long of a route. There's a lot of upsides.

The only doubt, what you've got to make sure you do, though, is make sure you title your Strava that you had fat tires. Yeah, definitely. People are going to be like, damn, you're slow. Yeah. Okay, so we have two more questions. One is very short, and then we'll do one more real question, okay? Okay. This first one is from Chris, from St. Louis.

How do you do? How does nationality work with world triathlon or other organizations? Do you need to be a citizen of that country to race for them? It seems like many athletes live years. You're around in one country, but wear a different flag on race day. How do you feel about this? Stay chill. Chris.

Yeah, usually it's where you were born, like your passport is. Yeah. And to switch is quite complicated. It's a lot to switch. I think it's a lot to switch, especially if you don't have any ties to the other country. Like, maybe you have one parent that's from one country and one parent from another, and then it's maybe a little simpler to change. But in general, you race for the country that you grew up in, that you were born.

in. There's also, some of the people you've been, you're thinking of, they may have dual citizenship, like that would they, they've grown up in the U.S., but they were actually born in Zimbabwe, you know, whatever it is, and they've had that dual citizenship all the time. I have also seen several instances in ITU where country X, their Olympic pipeline or their Olympic organization is so dysfunctional or non-existent that it is a major blockage to that athlete actually, fulfilling their Olympic dream, even though they're good enough. And I've seen some countries, some athletes like jump ship to a different country, both that they want to move to that country and their home Olympic system was just so messed up. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question.

But I think when you're switching, you have to spend at least a year racing under no flag. Right. To avoid people just bouncing all over the place for qualification reasons, keeps it a little bit more, you know, it deters people from just doing it without really thinking about it. Yeah. It's more challenging than just sending in a piece of paper. Yeah.

The one person that comes to top of mind with this is Richard Murray, and he actually married Rachel Klamer, who's from the Netherlands, was feeling like he didn't necessarily want to be in South Africa for the rest of his life, loved the Netherlands, and it was quite the lengthy process for him to become Dutch, and citizen. Yeah.

And then, yeah, race for nobody for a year. It was a whole thing, but he just successfully got citizenship and is racing for the Netherlands as of like a week ago or two weeks ago. I just saw. Yeah, I would say, but in the case of like someone who's, like, for example, I'm Canadian, but I'm living and training in the U.S., I think that's okay. A lot of people go to a different country to train because it's more optimally suited for training. But they're still very loyal and want to compete for their whole country. Plenty of sports are like this. It's just you can't cross-country ski.

in Brazil. You know, like, if you want to be a cross-country skier, you have to travel. You have to travel around to where the snow is good and stuff. I think people understand that, though. Yeah. Okay, last question here. Hey, Paul, Eric, and Nick,

I'll try to keep this short and sweet. You've mentioned a couple times on the pot about fitness outstripping one's form. I took this to mean that cardiovascularly, you are in shape, but your body is a hard time keeping up. This was definitely my experience when training for my first full Iron Man last year.

I thought I had good physical fitness space, but found that while my heart rate could withstand quite a bit, specifically my legs couldn't keep up. What do you recommend to help bridge the gap between your cardiovascular fitness and your body's capability? Is there a point where one should just accept that their body can't keep up with their heart? Thanks for all that you do for the triathlon community. I especially like this past week's episode about music and triathlon. It was beautiful. Nice. That was your piece, Nick. Yeah. It was really good. I listened to it a few times. I had a few people who very kind of kindly sent messages about it that felt they resonated with them.

So thank you. Always love those. Yeah. I think more of what, we can definitely answer this question. I think more of what we were getting at with that was like the strength of your tendons and your resilience to injury, you know, not being able to keep up with. Like if you've been a swimmer your entire life and then just go out and run 20 miles, like yes, theoretically fitness-wise, you should be able to do it. but you're going to be injured and there's not a muscular specificity around running. And there was an injury risk.

Yeah, that's definitely what we've talked about. And it's more prevalent in triathlon than other sports because a lot of the time people will come from a swimming or a cycling background where they're really, really aerobically fit but just don't have the run mileage and the durability in their legs to keep up with their heart fitness when they're running, which leads to injuries. I experienced it, Eric does, like a lot of swimmers who start running get shin splints, for example, because they're so used to being buoyant in the water and not having this like impact activity that that's kind of the first thing to go.

But yeah, I'd say the best thing to do in that case is to just really slowly ramp up your run mileage. Yeah. Over time, over years even. Yeah. there's definitely a component of let's say it's not an injury risk but there's a component of muscular endurance and then I think you also have to kind of like watch the data a little bit over time because there is just times when when you're tired and your heart rate doesn't want to get up and you know like even Paula and I will have days where it feels like oh my legs are just holding

me back but I don't feel like I'm trying or my heart rate isn't that high and that can have an element of just being fatigued or hydration, just different things that can be a part of that, even though you totally have this sensation that my muscles are fine and my heart rate is just really high, or my heart rate's really low by my muscles are killing me. You can't totally decouple them. Yeah, that is also an effect when you go to altitude.

Like, oh, I'm muscularly feel totally fine, but I'm breathing so hard. Or if you're really fatigued, that can be the case too. And it's funny when I'm having a difficult workout or I'm struggling and training, a lot of the times I can really tell if this is a breathing difficulty or a muscular difficulty and I can distinguish the two really clearly. And it's never always one or always the other. It really depends. So it's interesting to think about and be really in tune with your body to be able to know why that's happening or be able to take a step back and rest because ultimately it's probably because you're tired. Yeah. My feeling is that you can't, couldn't necessarily just say, oh, my legs always are burning, so it must just be like a muscle problem. Like that could be an oxygen delivery problem too. That's just my feeling. I would say also something that could help is doing strength training. Worth a shot.

I mean, that's always good and healthy, especially for the tendon stuff that we're talking about. Yeah. Eric and I aren't super good about keeping up with our gym stuff. But if, especially as you get old, or as you're trying to compete as an older athlete, I think that becomes increasingly important and just having some durability without the physical act of running. Like it can build up muscular strength in a, I guess, more concise and efficient way. Yeah. Keep up with how fit your heart is.

Yeah. You know, what's funny about this is I've, we are all familiar with this process of being a cyclist or a swimmer and then struggling with the body, keeping up when running, right? Of course. But I have seen the opposite in the past couple years where I've had some friends who are really strong runners, but their workouts are at the most like an hour, an hour and a half,

you know, outside of a race. And so then when they do cycling, they're kind of like these heroes in the first hour, hour and a half, and then they crash so hard because they have the opposite problem. Muscularly, they're totally fine, but cardiovascularly, they're not used to riding for doing anything. for four hours.

Even at a race, they're racing like a three-hour marathon or something, even if they do marathon. So it does work in both directions. We just often see it in only the direction where the running injuries happen.

Yeah. Well, it turns out training more will fix everything. Yeah. Except for over training. That can happen. Okay, well, those were our questions. There were a couple more, too,

but they're a little bit long form and philosophical. So we'll save those for another week. Can't wait. I love those ones. I think Paula, you're racing this weekend. Do we already cover that? Oh my gosh.

We did not cover that. No. Paula is racing. I'm doing the TT championships on Friday, and then we're doing Tromba on Sunday. Then I'm flying back Monday so we can record the pod Tuesday for next week. My whole life just revolves around when are we going to record the podcast? Yeah, I'm sorry.

my day around that. But we all appreciate it, though. I know. Well, that and when Flynn is going to get, you know, his second fetch. There was a camp, Chris Begg with Campfire Endurance Coaching, had a camp and Bend this week, and I went and talked at it, which I have for the past couple years now. And it's a really awesome group of people,

but a lot of them really expressed their gratitude to me for the podcast and how much it does, like, give kind of some structure to their week, and they really enjoy listening to it. So I need to pass that along to you, too, because you guys are the majority of the podcast. But yeah, so thank you to those people. And one of them, Kirby, gave me some delicious brown butter, rice Krispies. And I didn't know how to reach out to her to thank her.

But she's going to listen to the podcast. So I just want to say thank you for those. Did you also not know how to save some for me? Yeah, I didn't save any for Eric. I ate in a while with myself. Thank you for sending in your very nice notes and your questions every week. and we will chat with you next week. Anyway, thanks everybody.

Thanks. Bye, guys.