That Triathlon Life Podcast - Racing Together: Endurance athlete relationships, cross current open water swimming, and more triathlon questions!

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

This week, we dive into the dynamics of co-existing as an athlete couple and the unique realities that come with it. We also tackled a variety of topics, including:Carbon-plated running sandals: they are real.The creative process: What comes first—music or video?Wahoo Kickr maintenance tipsIf you won $5M, would you retire from triathlon?Shoes that perform well on both pavement and trail in the same runOpen water swimming in a cross current: Tips and tricksShould you re-index your rear derailleur when switching to the trainer?A big thank you to our podcast supporters who help keep the podcast alive. You can become a podcast supporter as well as submit questions for the podcast at ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcastWahoo Kickr RunSwim sets with Paula 400 choice 8x 50 asOdds: 25 head up (polo), 25 DPSEvens: 25 DPS, 25 build to FAST6 x (2 x 75 + 2 x 50) on the same interval (example 60 seconds) 75’s are hard; 50’s are easy 5 x 100 pull with paddles as (4 strokes fast off each wall, the rest DPS) 200 cool down choice = 3000

What's up, everybody? Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Latterstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstein. We've got a killer show for you this week. We had some great feedback after last week. So we're going to kind of keep that momentum going.

And there's going to be some curveballs in here, I think. I'm psyched. I'm a professional trathlete. Paul's a professional trathlete. Nick's a professional musician, great friend of ours. Really solid trathlet in his own right. I feel like we can drop the qualifiers of how slow or fast I am. I'm a professional musician, amateur triathlete.

It's fine. I know my place here. We weren't just like walking along the street and we found a guy who like knows how to master sound to do our podcast. You've done a couple triathlons. You're qualified to like give a little bit of advice. Right, right, right.

That's where we're at. That's fair. Yeah, that's what's up. We're stuck to be here. The bulk of the show does come from questions from podcast supporters, people who listen to the podcast. So appreciate that, anybody who's written in.

And from what Paula tells me, we have a crazy amount of good questions this week. Yeah, we got a lot of questions, hey Nick? Yeah. I left a couple of, but I sent you most because I really like basically all of them. I really appreciate Paula. Little Inside Baseball, I really appreciate when you give me the little star and say good question. I like that.

That gives me a sense of confidence when I pick them. So there were many this week. I did a little bit of that. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, last week was fun. I don't know. We were just in a good mood and I feel like I'm not in a good mood right now, so we'll see how it goes. We're going to wrap you up.

Good start. And by for good mood coming in hot. We're going to keep it rolling with the news. I started doing the news last week. So we can talk a little bit about what's going on in the triathlon world or this week is going to be a little bit run world heavy. But since running is involved in the triathlon, I think that's okay. Somebody actually sent this to me, made me aware of it, which is just some craziness. Lucy Gossage, ex-professional triathlete.

I don't know if either of you ever heard that name before. but she went and run this thing, won this thing in England called the Montaigne Spine. Here's the details on this crazy event. 268 mile running race across England, 10,000 meters of elevation gain. 10,000 meters.

10,000 meters. And it's not like a stage race, like the Trudeau France. It's just the total time. You start and then you finish, so it's up to you how much you want to sleep or not sleep or stop for food, et cetera. there are a couple of spots where the marshals of the course say like you have to have a headlamp here you have to you know you can't depart here without an emergency rain jacket that sort of a thing but that's about it I looked through all the pictures from this they were epic it was every single picture was in the snow just to give you like the ultimate contacts here this is just completely ridiculous so here is my challenge to you guys can you guess the time that she won this in

31 kilometers, 268 miles, 10,000 meters of elevation game. People are just going to Google it. Well, we're here, and I can't Google it right now. So it's interesting, it's very similar to 10 times a marathon, right? Oh, you want me and Nick to guess. Yeah, everybody else at home can play the game along as well, but you guys are on the spot, and I know you can't Google it. I would say, what are we looking for, the winning time? Yeah, well, she was the female winner, yeah.

Okay, how many kilometers is it? 268 miles 431 kilometers 10,000 meetings of elevation gain. I think 45, no, 48 hours. So that's two days. Yeah. So how many kilometers was it? 431. No, I'm wrong.

I'm so wrong. You're so wrong, Nick. It's way more than that. It's way more than that. This is a long time to be doing anything at all. I'm going to say like, you can go in days and hours if you want. like 62 hours okay 43 minutes

I think less I think like 55 hours that's what I'm gonna guess three days 15 hours 41 minutes 38 seconds that which is 87 hours oh of running no yeah but you probably slept too

that's why I was making mine pretty big that would be the interesting thing I didn't dive that deep into it and everyone at home you can dive into it but the sleep to not sleep ratio is what's super fascinating to me. Yeah, they can see so little. Does she race triathlon anymore? I don't think so.

I think this is her full-time, her new thing. But was a pro-traithlet at one point in time. The pro-traffleets are really shaking it up on the running scene these days. Heck yeah. Continuing with the running theme, there's a new American half-marathon record. Just ran at Houston, 17-year-old record. The reason, the way that I found out of,

about this is I actually saw Morgan Pearson, current professional triathlete, US Olympic hopeful, ran it. And he was like, oh, I had just like an okay day or whatever. He's an Olympic medalist, not hopeful. Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly. Paul was right. For the future Olympics.

He's an extremely good Olympic athlete, and I think trying to go for another Olympics. But he also was an insane runner, and he ran 101, 2001, got 15th place, and was like not really not. That kind of gives you an idea of how fast this was. The winner, Connor Mance, actually, did he actually end up winning? It was a sprint finish, but he got the American record in 59 minutes and 17 seconds.

That is bonkers. That's so fast. Do you know pace? I do, I don't know what that comes out to be, actually. Doesn't matter. It's well, well into the, like, lower fours per mile. Yeah. Like lower half of the fours per mile.

So that's just so crazy. You try to run one mile like that. Yeah, I'm sure if you go Google it, you'll see a crazy sprint finish that he was in. It was completely wild. The finish is crazy. Yeah. And I mean, now he's training for the Boston Marathon,

so we all get to look forward to maybe would be pretty sweet if an American won the Boston Marathon. Nice. Last thing I got on here, this is a little bit of a self shoutout. Nick and my film, look for things where you can find them. The premiere is locked in.

The theater has been booked. It's going to be happening two days before 70.3 Oceanside. So on the Thursday before 70.3 Oceanside, I've been talking to Castelli. There are tickets are going to go on sale. All the proceeds are going to go to a charity. But there are also going to be some free tickets available at the Castelli booth on Thursday morning before the event. So keep your eyes open for... What do we have to do to free tickets on Thursdays?

You just have to rock up and maybe do a secret handshake or something like that. We're sorting... Some details are being sorted out. But it is going to go off. It's going to be freaking awesome. Nick and I have been working on this film for a year now. And we are freaking psych to show it to everybody and put it out in the world. I'm especially stoked because I'm editing one of the scenes right now.

And the footage just looks so... No one cares. This is not good for... It's not good radio content. But I promise you it looks so great. I can't wait for everyone to see it. Yeah. It'll go up on YouTube as well after the premiere,

but we really do want to do the whole film-style thing and have a whole night and a special event. and acknowledge some people that made it happen. So keep an eye out for that. And if you're going to Oceanside, please show up a couple days early and join us at that theater. Nice. Sweet.

Well, thanks for the news, Eric. That's all I got. Over to you. Paula, I'm going to put you on the spot now. And the folks have been clamoring for another installment of swim sets with Paula. And I hope you can give them what they want. No, I'm going to interrupt you, actually,

because I have a segment that I didn't put into the notes for you because it's a surprise segment. Okay. This person said that if we did his segment, he will become a podcast supporter. So we're doing this for the $5. Dangerous precedent. Dangerous precedent. Basically, he was extremely critical of us sucking at this or that because we ramble on.

Okay. So for you guys. Because he thinks it should be like rapid fire this or that. Totally, which it should be. All right. So I have it for you. It's only six questions, but you got to tell me one word, no explanation. What your answer is.

Oh. And then hopefully this guy, Paul, will become a supporter because we did his segment. Put your money with your mouth is Paul. We're going to find you, Paul, if you don't. Here we go. Number one. Butter cream or cream cheese icing on a cake. Cream cheese.

I don't know what butter cream is. I think it's everything except for cream cheese. It's just like icing. Okay. Cream cheese. Favorite TV series of all time. 30 Rock. Lost. Sunrise hike or sunset camp.

Fives. Sunset camp. Oh my God. Sunset camp. If you could hop on a private jet and go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? Fiji. Wow. I don't have a great answer for that. Yeah, I don't have a great answer for that. Tifino.

Yeah, I'd go visit my sister. Skydiving or scuba diving? Skydiving. Favorite hype song for pre-race or intervals? Elevate by St. Lucia. I can't think of the name of it. Okay, it's okay. You can pass.

Okay, pass. During a race, leaky goggles or something in your shoe? Leaky goggles. Assuming it's a large something, leaky goggles. If you could cook one dish better than anyone in the world, what would it be? Think of the ratatouis scene. Eggs Benedict. Could be something simple like, oh, eggs,

bagged, spaghetti. I would do some elaborate sushi dish. Oh, that's a good one. That would be impressed. Because you got to be like an artist to make sushi. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, that is all. That is all about for my this or that's, my surprise, this or that's. Thank you for your support, Paul. Yeah. And your ongoing indefinite support. Thank you for your minimum of one year subscription, Paul. Okay, I have, I read quite a few requests for getting a swim set this week. So here we go.

Remember when I made the jingle for this? That was kind of fun. Oh, yeah. We'll be using that again this week for sure. I didn't love the jingle, but it is creative. Wow, the criticism coming in. You made it. It's great.

It's not your fault, make it. It's a fan favorite that jingle. Okay, listen to it. Here it goes. Here's my swim set. 400 choice warmup Mix in some backstroke, some kick. Warmup set, 850s.

Odds go 25 head-up swimming. Polo, it's called. Oh, yeah. And this is a good drill for athletes for practicing sighting. If you can do a full 25 with your head-up, then you're able to do three or four strokes with your head-up. If you've lost sight of the buoy,

you need to get your orientation, you need to know where you are. It's a really good thing to be able to do. So 25 head-up, 25 distance per stroke, just really long, easy, as long as you can go with each stroke. Evens go 25 distance per stroke, 25 build to fast. So by the last five yards or meters, you're sprinting. Those are on about 15 seconds rest.

Main set, six times through the set. And how it goes is you're going to do 2.75s and 2.50s. The key is here, they're all on the same interval. So you have to pick an interval that's really challenging for the 75s. If me and Eric did the set, for example, we might say 75s, if we're swimming meters, on a minute. And then the 250s are also on a minute, which is a very chill, easy recovery interval. So for the 75s, pick something where you're getting like two to three seconds rest, like really stressful interval. So you're going hard, touch and go.

And then the 250s are meant to be the recovery, but they're going on the same interval. Oh, okay. Okay. So if you pick a minute, it's a super simple set. 275s, 250s, everything's on a minute. Do that six times through. And it equals 1,500 meters total of swimming. Fun.

Nice. Is this tomorrow's swim set? I'm coming. Yeah, we could try it tomorrow. I don't know. Eric's return to swimming tomorrow. We would fall a swims set. If you really are struggling with this, you could like put a pole boy in for the 50s.

used to get your heart rate back down and just be ready to really go hard on the 75s. That's the point of the set. Next is 5-100's pull with paddles. There's more. Oh, boy. Well, it's a 3K set. Okay. So 5-100's pull with paddles.

Every wall, when you push off, four strokes fast and the rest of the way, easy. Oh, I love doing that. Just kind of like get your stroke right up off the wall and then settle in. Yeah, feel like a badass and then just like stretch it out. And then 200, easy, cool down. choice. That equals 3K. What's your choice usually? Because my choice is

Finns, pull-buoy, and paddles. You know, whatever. If they can put a motor on my legs, I'd do that. If I'm doing a choice, cool down, I'll usually put a pole boy in and do like 50-free, 50-back, a little bit of kick skull. I don't know. I like to do some sculling with the pole-boe in. But mostly I'm just like probably cold by that point and ready to go shower. Yeah. 10 minutes times of the hot tub.

When you guys are sculling, are you, are you? you kicking as well or are you letting your legs float with a pull buoy and only propelling yourself with your arms? I do the pull-bole in only skull. Yeah, if you have a pull-boy and don't kick, but if you're doing skull with no pull-boy, which is also a good drill for body position, you can do like enough kick to like keep your legs afloat, but not necessarily to propel you forward. It's kind of just two-beat kicking. Okay, that's all folks. Okay, well, we're going to put that swim set in the show notes so you can screenshot if you want, bring it, with you to the pool and press your friends with your extremely cool swim set.

You have to tell your friends where you got it though. You're got to give them credit and be like, oh, look, Scott from this really cool podcast. I'm going to text it to you right now then. Okay, sounds great. I did want to update on one thing that we talked about last week, which was the hilarious and ill-advised idea to run a marathon in non-running shoes. Well, something cool happened this week, which is that a Kenyan marathoner, his name is Barnabas Kiplimo.

he won a marathon in two hours and 18 minutes and 55 seconds wearing the world's first carbon-plated running sandal the niron designed by Thai running brand Ving made a carbon-plated sandal and if you see it it looks like a regular sandal it's not a looker, it does not look good so like what type of sandal?

Are we talking like a crock or like a chaco or like a T-vo? No, it's not like any of those. It's the closest to a crock. It is definitely like a silicone plastic-ish kind of material. And it has like a, you know how you can flip the crocs into like an action mode or like attack mode when you flip the thing back and like gives your heel support. Okay.

So it kind of has that, but it's full time, full time action mode. Okay. And then it has like a little strap over the top of your foot. And then it is technically, I think with the Australians. call a thong where it's like um goes right up your butt so like what's right up your butt this sounds like a real loose interpretation

of the word sandal this has got a lot of support it's a sandal I promise you if you saw this you'd be like that's a sandal and I'm sure it doesn't have a carbon plate in it but this one did so 218 55 I uh oh you're right I can't believe it yeah sure it looks like they have a Nike swoosh on them it's not Nike for sure

but for show Eric I mean that looks like a real It just looks like a regular sandal. Yeah, you're right, it does. Although it's a Kenyan, so. Oh, hilarious. He could run that fast with, he could run that fast with no shoes.

Yeah, they're not, but the thing is, they're not slides because they have the toe, between your big toe and your next toe. Sure, but that's the, that's the closest thing that I can relate to. Yeah, not like choccos or chas. What's the high socks?

What a vibe. I know, I know. I know. You ran a 218 55. Did you say that? I did, yeah. Wow. Just wild.

Anyway, I did have a TTL spelling bee for us today, but I think we'll save that for next week because we've already had a lot of fun before our real questions anyway. Well, no, Nick, my segment was just a bonus segment. Well, we can do spelling bee. We can do spelling me midway. Let's hit some questions and then if we feel like I'll spell for everybody. I love that.

I love that. Let's do that. Okay. By the way, if you want to submit questions to the podcast, you can do so at that triathlon life.com slash podcast. You can also become a podcast supporter there. We really appreciate the podcast. supporters. We're working on some fun little things also to send out to only the podcast supporters.

Here's the first question here. Hello, all. My question is short and sweet. This was, by the way, this was not short and sweet. It was sweet. But this is the short is a couple sentences. Anyway, I agree. I saw the same thing when I read this. I swam at U of A with Paula, actually. That's kind of fun. And my husband asked me to help his swimming. He is an adult onset swimmer, and he gets so frustrated when I try to help. I was a swim coach and I teach people to swim all the time on the regular, but he is the first student I've had who I want to strangle. That's not good, especially when you're already probably struggling to swim. Bad combo. My question is, do Paula and Eric ever try to help the other person out?

And if so, can it be frustrating at times? I know it might be different because you have a coach, but since you're both experts in the field and if one of you sees the other is doing something wrong, do you give input or do you leave that up to the coach? A husband has lost over 100 pounds in 2021 and has kept it off. We run, swim and bike together. He supported me last year on my journey, and I want to support him this year. Constantly inspired by him and love him more than anything, but maybe teaching spouses is something that can only happen in a very special circumstance. Thanks for all you do, love the pod.

That's a great question. Also, that's amazing. Yeah. That he lost 100 pounds. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing.

That's impressive. Also, we were really tight-knit group at U of A swimming. That's my university swim team. Yeah. And those crazy times back in the day. I used to like go to, I mean, we all swam ten times a week while doing university courses. And it was just like zombie walk through campus after swimming. I don't know.

I think it's a little bit different because I don't necessarily feel like at least technically, Eric and I need each other's advice because we're fairly technically sound at this point. there's not like this huge gap or jump or learning curve to improving swim-biker run. Although I will say on the bike, obviously I can use help technically, and Eric does give advice and help to me sometimes. Depending on my mood, I'm either receptive or annoyed, but that's kind of the danger of having your spouse help you. The thing about it is I think that I just would, when someone who's removed from like our

relationship gives me advice and tells me things and feedback, I just think it's better received overall, and that's maybe something that's better kept to a professional advice giver. It's like a psychologist or something. Like, I don't need Eric to be my psychologist. It's not fair to him to put that on him. It's funny because I have seen you guys give each other advice on things, and I remember making a mental note of thinking that both of you took it extremely well and it took it as like you immediately started to think okay how can I apply this or like what can I do?

Oh interesting. Yeah, both of you was for swimming. I would say if it gives me like a tip or feedback, I'm not generally annoyed with it. I think it's helpful. No, I agree. I mean, Eric, what has your experience been? I generally shy away from it,

But I think, like, usually when I just blurt out a tip without thinking about it is when Paul is, like, frustrated about something on the bike. And I just like, oh, well, here's you fix it. Here's how you fix that. And that is not the time. Yeah, it's freeing the room a little, right? Right. Yeah. I'm not looking for advice right now.

I'm looking for your compassion. Yeah. And as I'm saying it, I'm like, why did you freaking say that that's not the, she didn't ask. She just was expressing frustration. Right. But if there was such a situation where we were going out intentionally to work on bike skills, for example, I think she would be receptive. Totally. I leave that completely up to her to approach me or to say I want to go work on bike skills or whatever.

I don't think unsolicited advice amongst anybody is often well received unless you're hanging out with someone who's like an extreme guru in their field. that being said i think i'm like pretty receptive uh to advice as far as like don't bring your shoes into the bedroom and you leave this over here or you know like i wish you would clean up the counter or just like house things i feel like i really do mentally try to like okay i'm gonna really try to do better yeah you do do well at that irk yeah i will give you credit for that so i you know if it's a thing that i identify is like an important thing or that she cares about a lot i do my but it kind of goes outside of sport. You know what reminds me

what you said about the spouse maybe not being the right person, but other people can be? I've been at the pool with people when strangers are giving other people advice on their swim form. I love that.

Don't do that. Don't ever do that. That's my favorite time to get tips. It's just crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. Okay, sweet. Okay, next question here is from Cody.

Hey, TTL crew, with Eric focusing more on running. These are, by the way, these two first two questions are very much related. With Eric focusing more on running and off-road races, do either of you find yourselves adjusting or sacrificing your workouts to support each other at races you're not both competing in? How do you manage it when both have important races scheduled close together? This question comes from my personal experience with my wife and I.

She's shifted her focus to ultra-running and ultra-man distances, while I'm more focused on 70.3 races. The multi-day events and travel make it hard to stay consistent. with training. I think it's time for a power couple segment to dive into challenges of navigating life and dual athlete households. Cody, well, that's what we're doing for you, Cody.

This is the power couple beginning of the episode. Nice. First off, I am not focusing on running. I am currently getting ready for a running race, but I'm going to be doing events that have swimming, biking, all the things in them this year. But right now, that's what I'm doing. to me, from my perspective, it's been easier for me to feel some balance or whatever, the less training that Paul and I are doing together.

So as I'm going for doing a tempo run on the dirt and she's doing a run, not on the dirt, or if I'm doing a mountain bike ride and she's doing a TT bike ride, I personally feel less friction because we're not both trying to get a good workout out of the exact same session in the same. situation at the same time and that tension rather than like we'll go for a run together when it's not a hard key session and then we'll go and I'll come swimming and I'm just there to be in the pool and like support or going to swimming you know once a week or whatever that that's felt more fluid for me like on the sessions that are not critical we get together and we hang out and that's our to us time versus like I feel like I'm going to work and I have to nail this intervals And do you think that is something that is unique to you and Paula? Or do you think in your kind of whatever experience you can bring to this,

you think this is what couples should be doing? No, from my perspective, it's, I don't like it better. Because I've said this a lot. I think I would definitely be retired by now if it weren't for Eric and us doing the sport together. Way back in like 2019, 2018. I was injured. I wasn't racing well. I wasn't training well.

And then when Eric and I started being a couple and living together and training together, that's when I turned myself around and I was able to get more out of myself in training. And I was eating better and training better, more consistent, happier, etc. So this recent life switch caught me a little off guard. And I'm struggling way more than Eric with coming to terms with it because I am not as self-motivated to go out and swim, bike, and run by myself. So, yes, we do try to still do things together and we're in this very particular phase where he's getting ready for an ultra race. So I'm a little bit more understanding of that and I'm going to have to do sessions by myself. But it is definitely not my preference.

It is definitely an adjustment. And I definitely need to figure out how I'm going to deal with it for the rest of the year. So that is a little maybe too personal answer. No, no, no, no. That's great. I would say it's for the rest of the year sort of a thing. In my mind, once I'm through this, I will be doing much more biking. I will be bringing a swimming back.

But it's also a bit of a mentality thing. It's like, okay, yes, you're coming to the pool with me to keep me company once a week. But I know you're not there to get better at swimming. And to me, when I'm doing 10-200's best average, you're not doing that. You're pulling and keeping me company. So it just feels different. We're not in it together, suffering it out. It's like your presence is there, which is much appreciated.

It got me to the pool, but I'm dying. And you're there to do a swim. Same thing on the bike. Like, yes, you're there keeping me company and it's amazing and I really appreciate it, but you're not doing six by 10 minutes, T-T intervals because you have a two-hour run tomorrow, for example. It's such an interesting differentiation to say it's not just about having a someone that you know there to kind of witness your pain, right?

Which I think is one way that some people gain from training with people. There's, you know, like, for example, if your friends come to watch you race 5K around a track, knowing that they can see you the whole time, that helps a lot of people. It helps me. But to actually have someone there that you know

and maybe even more that you love who isn't just there next to you, but they are suffering in the same way that you are suffering, that is different. I get it. And I don't think I've ever really thought of it that way. Yeah.

It's been a new experience for me. But I think this person is more asking about the racing specifically, and I will say that that part is nice. When Eric and I go to an event and only one of us is racing, it is much more low stress. We both have very different approaches to how we like to prepare for a race, mentally, organizationally, et cetera. So just to have the other person there to fully support what the other person needs and not also be trying to get ready to perform their best on the exact same day is much easier. And we got a little taste of that last year when I went to some of him at Xterras and he came to my 70.3s. And I think overall that's a much happier balance for us.

And Eric is obviously does a lot of my bike mechanic stuff and he does all the filming and the video. Like there's so much that he does that brings value and importance to what I'm doing and just emotionally being there for me. So, I mean, I guess I can't have it both ways, right? Like, the training and the race. But that is, I think, a good thing. And if, for example, he has to come away with me to a triathlon, of course, he's sacrificing a little bit of his training for his next event.

And that's what this person was suggesting that that's a challenge. But you do what you can on those five days, improvise a little. It's not going to derail you, but it is going to help your significant. can another be their best and then they'll flip the favor the next time. So I think it's a really healthy balance to have. Yeah, I would agree. Overall, worth it. Next question here is from Andy from A-B.

Is A-B Alberta? Yeah, Alberta. What's Alabama? AL? AL, I think. Yeah. Yeah. This one is, question for Eric and Nick

regarding their creative process. Whenever I watch Eric's YouTube videos, it feels like the music playing in the background perfectly fits the mood and vibe of the video. just curious as to what comes first Eric's fist pumping just curious what comes first the theme of the video

or is there a sweet tune you want to match the filmmaking to same question for Nick what comes first when writing songs lyrics or record progression love the content you guys rock Andy that's interesting

because we could potentially have different answers we do have different answers from different perspectives I know your I know your answer but I'm going to let you tell the world yeah I go by feel and I approach a scene and I have just like a feeling in mind and maybe a genre

and maybe like an instrument sort of in mind. I go find a piece of music that fits that feeling and energy level and then I start and I put it in and then I'll start kind of editing the B-roll and the stuff to it and let it feel flow and feel and sometimes I'll get halfway through and like that's actually not quite right and I'll go find something else that feels just slightly different, more positive or more pensive. So yeah, I have an idea in mind, but I don't start with the music and then start editing

necessarily. Eric, this is feedback that you get all the time from people that they love the songs that you pick for the show. It's like one of the main things. I think it is what this kind of what this person said is I pick music that is appropriate. I don't just like,

techno-banger every time, you know, I try to match it to the tone of what I felt like the scene or, you know, where it into the piece of the video overall. Yep, I love that. And then in terms of what I come up with first, lyrics, chords, melody first, a good songwriter is able to start from any point. And so I try to do that.

Sometimes I get inspired by a line. Sometimes I get inspired by a melody. Sometimes I get inspired by a core progression. And then those other things fill in, you know, you write those as they come along. But something that, Eric, I'm sure you would agree with me. and it's the same thing when you're creating a visual with music is that it should never sound like anyone took priority over the other. It should feel like they exist only perfectly with each other.

And neither one was compromised for the other. And it's the same in songwriting. You don't want to feel like the lyrics were compromised to fit to the melody or vice versa. It should feel like they're just perfectly living in symbiosis. They came into existence at the same time together. Exactly. Exactly. Cool. Okay. Next question here is from Styn. TTL FAMS short intro, short question. Now, here's a real short question, okay? For all those people trying to live up to the short question hype, who is the most famous triathlon or non-triathlon person in your contacts list? Love what you guys do. Stim. Oh, boy. Trixie Mattel. No, that's my answer. Is Trixie really?

So, yeah, she's in my in. I mean, she has my number. I have her number. We text. She called me the other day. Man. I did hear she called you the other day, yes. So that's my answer.

We can have the same answer, Nick. We can. I think for me it's also tricks. I was thinking about this today. I don't think there's anyone. Is there even a close second? For me? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl. It was quite close with her at one point. Okay. Depending on who you are, that person might be more famous. I would have to do some. I would have to do some digging, but I just started going to athletes.

Kate Courtney, Carson Storch. Yeah, those are big. Do either of you have Yon's number? No. I think I might in my WhatsApp. That's part of like a group chat or something. I'm just thinking of like triathlon, big triathlon names, you know? Ricardo De Eckers, she's a super famous artist in Italy.

I have Lionel's number. Lino, nice. Mark Allen followed me on Instagram this week. Not the same. Mark Allen followed you on Instagram? Mark Allen? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Funny.

Yeah, I don't know. I haven't really, that's a great question. I haven't thought about that. Well, we'll give your honorary answer, Eric is Trixie because Trixie likes you. All right. Okay. Next question here is from Derek. Hey, TTL leaders.

Quick question, because of you and the pod, I jumped at the Wahoo Tread and now have had it for two months and love it. Eric, what maintenance do you do to your tread to keep it going? How often do you calibrate? It's kind of a bike tech with Eric, only no bike. Let's crush 2025. Thanks for all you guys do, Derek. When I read this question, I thought it was a good opportunity to bring up that we actually now have an affiliate code for the treadmill set up with Wahoo. We do indeed. So if you have any desire to buy the Wahoo treadmill, it would help us so much if you could go to our website. click on the Wahoo treadmill and buy it through that link because we would get a kickback. And it's a relatively expensive item.

The kickback is relatively bigger. Yeah. Yeah, it costs you nothing, but it just helps us. Yeah, I mean, the same with all the other affiliate stuff that's on the site with the things that we legitimately like and recommend. Yeah, but mostly the treadmill. Yeah, you'd have to buy 10 pairs of on shoes to equal one treadmill. Yeah.

Actually, I have done zero maintenance. on that. I haven't calibrated a single time. It seems to be just be kind of clicking along pretty well. What kind of maintenance would you do on any treadmill though? Like would you loo bit or place the belt or? When we got the, when we had the belt replaced on our like our gym treadmill that we still have, no actually that we sold. We still have the woodway as well. But we had the belt replacing the guy who was a treadmill maintenance tech gave me like a little bottle of silicone lube. And he said if the belt is ever starting to get squeaky, you can kind of like draw a line, you know, widthwise on the belt underneath it, you know, between it and the deck.

And that'll just help lubricate it. That's about the only thing. And then actually on that treadmill as well, it was really just starting to squeak all the time. And I did have to replace the drive belt on that. But that's probably like a 10,000 mile sort of occurrence. But the drive belt is not what you run on. No.

No, no. That's between the motor and what you run on. Right. Yeah. Got it. I don't think anyone who asked the wall. treadmill has put that many miles on it up because it's so it's such a new thing. Yeah, I mean, maybe Jim Walmsley, I don't know. Yeah, maybe. 10,000 already. That's too many. Yeah. I

actually go check and see how many we have on ours because I've been running on a fair bit. But yeah, stay in touch because I'm super curious just to like have contact with anybody who has one just to also learn things because I'm constantly like every time I run on it, I discover a new little feature or a new sort of thing or like, you know, a question that I have for the techs and that kind of thing. So it's, uh, it's cool to have a new piece of tech. Yeah, and you, you guys still really like it, huh? Oh, yeah. Freaking love it. Everybody always asks what it feels like to run on and I put it somewhere between, so like the woodway feels like you're running on a very stiff, like a track, like a Mondo track surface or whatever. And then a traditional treadmill feels

like kind of springboardy and bouncy because it's like a relatively flexy piece of wood is the deck. And I feel like the Wahoo is really right in the middle where it doesn't have that slotted design, but it's extremely stiff like a woodway. And it feels very true to life to me. That's my take. Nice. Cool. Great. Next question here is from Laura. Hey, fam. Okay, you've got me proper hooked on Beast games and it had me thinking what I would do with five mil. Yeah, right. Polly retire and go on my own Iron Man World Tour. So my question is, if you want all the money, would you retire from pro triathlon? Laura.

It's funny that if she won beast games, she would retire from her real job and race triathlons. So basically what we do? This is the opposite. I think about this a lot. If I wasn't doing what I'm doing right now, what would I rather be doing?

And it's exactly what I'm currently doing. Yeah. So the money has always felt to me like, this is freaking awesome. I'm not going broke. I'm not super stressed about money month to month, but this is exactly what I want to do. I want to be building a little brand. I want to be getting people stoked on things by showing them visual stuff and like conveying the energy that I feel

when I go on a run or a bike or whatever. Like that's what I want to do. I'm psyched on it. So it would be nice to have that money and not have any of the stresses that go along with just like maintaining sponsor relationships or like picking out a schedule that you know, just like total complete freedom to live inside of what we do exactly how you want. And like, oh, I want to, I just want to fund this own thing that's a passion project of mine instead of having to ask 15 people if they will all chip in to make it happen so that I can tell the story. That, you know, that kind of thing. That's beautiful. Love it. Paul's like, I quit. Yeah, but if I said that on the project, would cut it out. So next, next question. You got to get, you got to give a,

when they answer, Paula. I think I'd be a bit similar to Eric. I would just never race anything that I, even Iota didn't want to do. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I would only be doing things that I extremely want to do. Would I change my day to day?

Oh, probably not, but I, we could get a house with a view. I thought Mount Vue would be cool. And a smug fridge, etc. I think the proof in the pudding here is that when we're on offseason, I feel like I constantly kind of tell Paula do a little less, do a little less, do a little less. And as soon as like it's not training for a race and she doesn't have to do a bike workout or whatever,

she still wants to go ride her bike and she still wants to ski and go for a run and like, hey, do you want to go to the pool today? I'm like, absolutely I don't know, I want to go to the pool, but okay, we can go swim one kilometer. Does anyone work for smeg, by the way? We want a free fridge. Slide into our DMs. You know, I didn't want a free fridge. An extremely classic.

nifty cool. Yeah. I want a discount. I wouldn't suck. Yeah. Doesn't do a fridge any better than any other of the fridge? Probably not. Looks good, cool, though.

It just keeps the food cold. Yeah. We are... Although, on the flip side of this question, I would absolutely never go on Beast Games ever. Ever. Even if it meant I might win $5 million. Absolutely never.

What would the odds have to be? Like, how many other contestants would it have to be for you to do it. That and play those crazy games that they're playing. If you just were instantly in the top 10. Yes. Is top 10 enough? Yeah, maybe top 10.

Got one in 10 chance of $5 million. Oh, I see. It's ideally top three with the three of us. Yeah, okay. And then we're splitting it. See, now that would be, the triathlon world would watch that. You know what's funny is like,

when you're in the top three, your chances of going home are very high. When you're in the top 10, your chances of going home are very low. Going home? Oh, like for each game, you mean? If you're just getting, eliminating one person,

like the chances of you winning are still equally low, but it depends on how your brain works if you're afraid of like going home or like a, you know. If you really want to drag out the experience, okay, top ten. I think if it was just us three, I mean, I'll go home first.

I'm still getting free cappuccinos from you guys for life. It's a win, win, win. We should think about doing some TTR style beast games down the line when we have a bigger. budget. Oh, we've been thinking about it. So we can afford to make the TTL Beast games. I think we can do this with almost no budget slash no budget.

Yeah, but they don't need to know that. Okay. We're not doing any more things, guys. No. Next question here. This is from Andrea. Hi, question for the pod. Can you recommend a shoe that works well for trail and the pavement to get to and from

the trail? We run a couple of miles of pavement to get to and from the trails, and I do not wear my cloud monsters on trail. Winky face. Appreciate that. reference to a previous episode, Andrea. Is there a shoe that can do both pavement and trails for 10 miles or less? Yeah, I actually have a good answer for this.

I think it kind of depends how trailly the trail is, for sure. Yeah, but my initial thought of this thinking of just on is the cloud surfer trail. Because it's basically like the cloud surfer that is meant for the road, but it has tread, which is not bad for running a little bit on road to get to the trail. So that would be my suggestion And if you can go to our affiliate Did we mention? Guys, we're trying

We're getting in all angles today. Oh, God. All right, that's going to be the last one. Yeah, I think it really depends on how, on like, is this a trail or is this like a crushed gravel walking path? You know, if you need something that's like really technical, I would lean trail specific just so you don't twist an ankle and you don't slip and fall. I guess to not reference an on shoe,

I did just get a Solomon shoe that is called the gravel. It's like the GRX or something, and that's like, I think, kind of like the cloud surfer trail. Whereas like basically a road shoe, but they kind of put some grippier rubber on it. Oh, nice. Okay, next question here is from David,

from Cincinnati. Hey Pence. I'm an adult onset swimmer, and it shows, oh no. Slow in the pool and a complete disaster, open water. Since my wife and I are expecting our third child early this summer, I'm taking a bit of a non-traditional year to really focus on my swimming and prioritize open water experiences over training for and doing a bunch of triathlons. One such event I have, my eye on is the Great Ohio River Swim, which as far as I can tell is a cross-current out and back swim across the width of the

river. I think about 500 meters each way. So a few questions for you. One, have you ever done a cross-current river swim. What advice would you have for it in terms of sighting, picking a line, etc? I think that's a great question. Two, my doctor has advised that I should start wearing a nose clip while swimming due to sinus irritation. Do you have any advice for how to navigate that transition? And three, can we please get another swim set with Paula? I love the first one. Well, you're welcome, David, because we gave it to you this episode already. So let's answer the first question here. Cross current swimming. I'm sure you guys have experienced this in just regular triathlon racing. how much does it affect your perceived direction?

Do you have to cite more? What do you think? Escape from Alcatraz is technically a cross-current swim. For those who have done it or have paid attention, there's an insane river of water that's going out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge as the Bay, the San Francisco Bay, is emptying. So this is a, if you're ever going to do that, this is an extremely applicable question.

You are sort of swimming. I don't know. Man, that it's hard to describe. But you're swimming essentially like across the river, but at the same time being carried down river, so you are going at a diagonal. And I think you have to cite often and just, I think you actually kind of feel it in real time

and adjust. Your brain just kind of does it automatically. Of if you know what you should be siding for, generally, if someone can give you that tip, and you like triangulate. I disagree that you can feel it. Because a lot of the time in a river, whether it's being carried downstream or cross the river or upstream even,

I have a really hard time telling that I'm moving in a different direction than the way that I'm swimming. For example, across a river, like I feel like I'm going straight and then I look up and I'm way downstream. So I think that sighting for something that's way left of the actual exit, if you're swimming downstream is very important. That would be the better safe than sorry approach. Like you're not aiming for the exit.

You're aiming for something that's a little higher upstream. Higher upstream. Yeah. And I wasn't saying you can necessarily feel it, but go by feel is what I was trying to. Oh, I see. I think your brain sort of like starts to figure out, oh, I'm swimming this hard this way and I thought I was going that way,

but actually I'm not. And as long as you're citing consistently, I think it just put it together. Definitely have to cite more and use a little bit of, like ideally do a little bit of preview before or talk to someone who knows how fast the current is to do a little bit of game planning. Yeah. What they do when you jump in at Alcatraz

is they say, site for the red roofs and you're actually getting out of like, I can't remember, it's like the white roofs, but the red roof is exactly like Paul has said, upstream. And so you're swimming for that and you kind of just end up at the white roofs further down. Alcatraz is crazy because like you're citing on these red roofs and then suddenly you're just at the exit.

I think I've said this before on the podcast. I had no idea where I was at any point, where I was aiming for, couldn't see a fucking thing. And then suddenly I'm at the exit. Yep. That race is insane. Except for last year when it was the T-100 and they just like lined up the boat perfectly with the current and we all got out at the same time. That was also very dumb.

That was a race that was at San Francisco. Yeah, that was unusual because they didn't drop us off in the normal spot. Yeah. But good luck, that's cool. Imagine that having a year to focus on your swimming. Pretty cool. Good for you. Yeah, cool.

Okay, and the last question here is from Martin. In Little Stukili, I'm sure I pronounced that wrong from the UK. Hey, TTL, I noticed you recently answered a question about replacing the cassette on the bike trainer to match that of the new bike purchased. I recently did this with my new 12-speed SRAM bike setup. I bought exactly the same cassette to replicate this on the trainer. Unfortunately, the experience isn't particularly smooth at this point. Awkward shifting and undesirable, louder than usual whirring sounds. Is the solution to re-index every time I move to the kicker?

I'm reluctant to mess with this as I've never done it before. Any advice greatly appreciated? Thanks for the pod, Martin. Did that happen, Eric? Is that a thing? Man, riding on the kickers just, it is noisier. It's a little noisier, generally. Do we know if this is SRAM or Shimano? and if this could be a spacer issue on Shimano.

If it's Shimano and you left a spacer in there that doesn't need to be in there because it's 12 speed, for example, that could be a thing. But man, no, I, you really, I've never had to re-index any of our bikes as we switched back and forth. So this is like a one-off problem, you think?

I wouldn't say he's the only person, but it shouldn't happen. Ideally not. Like you're not re-indexing it. time. Absolutely not. We would never put my bike on the kicker if that was the case. Yeah, same thing when I bought that cassette for the disc that you gave me, Paula.

Put it on there. I put it on my bike and it just perfectly matches. And I imagine it's kind of somewhere to go in between a kicker and your bike. One thing. Another thing that I can think of is just like if your derailer hanger is a little loose or a little bent and like how tight you're putting it on one versus the other can, you know, tighten it down. can actually pull the derailer hanger into alignment or not.

Something like that. Sometimes just like jiggling it around, shaking it a bit. Yeah, just throwing it. Kicking it. The spacer is like the smoking gun, but if it's SRAM, then that's a real head scratcher.

Maybe he accidentally got a Shimano cassette. Or an 11 speed. Those are, they're all your things that you can look into. Right. All those options. You know what happened to me this week first time it's ever happened. I was on my first, technically my first bike ride of the year.

And I was going up a hill and I shifted and the chain went into the spokes and the cassette and also came off this front chain ring. It fully just came off of both. It was just dangling down. Luckily, I was able to get it out and no harm, no foul. Brutal. And you didn't like rack yourself on your bike, top tube. No, I was going so slow that it was not a problem. You're going uphill. Yeah. My heart just skips a beat when that happens. Imagine if you were going down now this is a huge problem.

You wouldn't be on the gas. Oh, like just because of the chain one of the spokes. Yeah. Yeah. Nick, I only have one solution for you. You need a new bike. You know what? I am in the market for a new bike.

I have a Venge bias that has been so good to me, but it's just like the thing after thing after thing I've had to replace. I just had to rebuild the wheel. with new nipples on all the spokes. I'm putting on new calipers. Thank you to a podcast listener, by the way, who sent me their extra

calipers. And I just think it's time for like, I was looking at the new tarmac, like the right below the S-Works tarmac. That's kind of the, that's what I'm shooting for, but it's $9,000 before tax. So,

you're definitely going to buy it in Oregon then. Yeah, definitely. Definitely not buying in California. Yeah. Oregon would be nice. And then maybe there's a bike shop who's willing to give it to me for 95% off. That's what I can afford. We'll start making some calls. We think you should just buy Eric's tarmac.

Yeah, that way for it. Yeah, that's an option. That's an option too. Conveniently loaded in Oregon. It doesn't have the top tube that he wants or something. I don't know. No, no, no. It's the, I like the integrated cockpit of the new tarmacs a lot.

But I can potentially buy that. And I'm trying to not own a black bike. again, but you know what? I can always get like a custom paint job for it. That's the thing. It's raw carbon with stickers on it. So, you know, it's a canvas ready to go. There's some cool people in LA that do it. It's the black edition.

It is like the above the S works. Oh, wow. It's a limited edition, black edition. Oh, that feels like sacrilege then to paint it. I don't know. Nick, could your mom paint it? I think you need to know like bike specific stuff.

She gets the right paint, but she's an artist. Well, I bet she could paint it and then you could take it to like a bike paint specialist You could put the clear like hard coat Yeah That'd be crazy We're spanking a call That's kind of a cool little project

If it happens we'll definitely share it with you guys If I end up doing a custom paint Tarmac which I'm not against All right We'll do spelling bee next week So Eric, warm up those brain cells Sounds good You know what we didn't do

That I had written down in my news is we didn't talk about what we did for training this week. But that's okay. If you have not already, go watch the most recent vlog that we put out on YouTube. People have been saying it's pretty good. Not my words, but we put out a little bit of... They're my words.

I say it's pretty good. Put out a little bit of what I've been doing for training for the Black Canyon 50K, and Paul's doing a little bit of bike fit tweaking. So you can go check it out and get the update on the training stuff. I'm not switching my bike fit because of slow twitch just so you all know. Absolutely not. Just so I really know.

Totally unrelated, people. Write that down. Okay. Well, thank you all for listening. Thank you for sending in all those amazing questions. Keep them coming. And we'll chat with you next week. Wonderful.

See later. Bye.