That Triathlon Life Podcast - Running shoe rotations, TTL Devo athlete Lydia Russell, and more!

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

This week Paula is in Qatar, so Eric and Nick held down the fort until TTL Development Team athlete Lydia Russell joined for some fun. We started by talking about Alex Yee's incredible marathon in Valencia, outlined an exciting TTL training camp for early next year, and then got into questions. This week we covered:• Our running shoe rotation• What to do when your snorkel starts taking on water• Gravel tire options for snowy conditions• Racing 70.3s while training for a full Ironman• How to get past a swimming plateau• The correct number of cats for a 2:1 cat to bike ratioA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcastTTL Base Camp 2026

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that Traathlon Life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And that's it. That's all you got. You might as well just turn off the show right now. Well, we do have a very special guest coming on at the end, but unfortunately it's not Paula. No, but it is a lady. We're not just going to have to listen to two bros talk for the entire podcast. Just half of the podcast. If you're new here, I'm a professional athlete. My wife, Paula, is in Qatar, right? now. She's also a professional triathlete. And she's getting ready to do the T-100, so she could not

be here with us. Nick, the other bro, he's a professional musician, amateur triathlet, Iron Man Finisher. Oh, wow. I don't know if we need to append that to my name. Yeah, it's just you and me hanging out. I can take the jabs. Yeah, yeah, of course. And we just, we just like talking about triathlon here. We pretty much all things multi-sport. I do a little trail running, a little mountain biking, little gravel riding. We love it all. We're big fans of being outside and pushing your body. So welcome to the special edition show.

The special edition show, just Nick and I. Flynn is in the background, though. I do see him. He is part of the show. He is here. As always. My dog Flynn is here, and he's a little smelly because he just got out of the water. Okay, so you said, multi-sport, Alex Yee, who is, for those who don't know, and you should know

by the way. Everybody knows. Like my, the most ultra-running people are sending me, Alex Yee, did you see this? You know, like people who'd have never

run a road marathon. Right. Ever right. Right. My running friend sent me all the Alex E reels from this weekend as well, as if I don't know.

You know what? I kind of told one of my friends who sent me this is like, I think it's almost more impressive how fast this guy can swim. Right. This is a world-class runner that like happens to like

triathlon is almost like, Like, if you go either way with that, is he a triathlet or is he a runner? Like, that's a freaking amazing runner. I saw, I saw on a reel, some guy said this is maybe the greatest endurance athlete in the world right now. And everyone's like, well, he's not running marathon times compared to these other people. I'm like, guys, he's a professional triathlete first. This is a side quest. And then he has the second fastest ever UK marathon time.

So this was in Valencia. But Mo Farras, the only person who's ever run a marathon faster than Alex E that is from the UK. That is unreal. Alex E for those who don't know, ran 206 this last weekend. That is bananas. So, Eric, you have a skewed view on this a little bit. But I'm friends with runners here who they don't bike, they don't swim, their life is running the marathon. And they prioritize that over work, over relationships,

over friendships, socializing, they run. And they run like two, high two-twenties. The idea that a triathlet could run 20 minutes faster is unbelievable. It is so, so, so, so fast. I do not have a skewed perspective when it comes to this. This is just straight up amazing. There's like no other way to, like, yes, people are running too flat. 202, you know, whatever, but

this has not been that long since like 2-0, sub-205 was, like, becoming like a regular thing. Right. It's absolutely, it's incredible. Credit where credit is due. I like your, I like your perspective of like,

it's a miracle that he can swim this well and bike this well. Right. Because, I mean, just think about it, if you were going the other way, you'd be like, dude, this guy's a 206 marathon. Can you imagine if you did a triathlon? Right. Yeah, but there's no way he would like drown

within one second. there's no way and he can bike well I don't know I mean we the last person like kind of similar

that comes to mind I guess that reminds me of him is Lucas Verz Beekas from the US who just like had a much shorter career and everything but was on a similar type of trajectory

of just phenom runner that did triathlon as well and yeah incredible So, Alex, congratulations. That is an unbelievable and kind of inspiring to other triathletes,

I think, too. Don't expect to run a 206, though. That's a little hot. That's a consecutive 30-minute 10-Ks. I saw a reel today. Wait, let's see if I can find it. It was, oh, I'll just, I think I remember it. It was keep in mind that if you ran,

if you ran consecutive 16-minute 5Ks for the Valencia Marathon, you still would not have been in the top 100. Disgusting. Yeah, it's disgusting. Try to run one of those. That is quick, I promise. Okay, we are going to later have,

should we just a giveaway who we're going to have on later? Can we choose it? Yes. We have our third and probably final TBD development team athlete, a 2025 development team athlete, Lydia Russell. coming to join us and talk about her season. She had an amazing breakout season, and we're just saying breakout

because it was her first year really racing non-draft, but she's been kicking around in the draft legal ranks lurking and just building the fire, and she came over and started racing non-draft this year and just what a trajectory. So we're going to chat with her. Exciting.

We're going to get to questions now, and it's just Eric and I, and we're not going to do a little segment today because Lydia's our segment, and it's at the end. But you can submit your questions to the podcast at That TriathlonLife.com slash podcast. Speaking of things, TTR, we have something really cool that's... Eric, how public can we be about this very cool thing

that's happening with TTL? Extremely public now. I and Jordan are newest tire, Jordan Briden, freaking Superman behind TTR logistics right now. I've been working super hard on putting on the first TTL in real life experience, I guess, is what you could call it, which is, I've been like kind of tickling me because I feel like we've done a podcast, we've done YouTube, and we've like had meetups at races, and designing an experience for someone in the form of a training camp, which is what this is, it's a spring

training camp, it feels like the ultimate flex of creativity, this like junction between creativity and affecting someone and presenting them with a way to like have this elevated feeling and so it's i don't know i'm i'm super excited about i don't know how else to say it but um when we were in Vegas in lake las Vegas doing the t-100 um man i guess not this past year but the year before uh we did a lot of running around there we've swam at the pool there we've done bike rides in the kind of Henderson area, and it occurred to us that this would potentially be a pretty cool Tucson alternative for a training camp. So now that Jordan's involved, we have finally been able to make this training camp thing a reality. And there's a cap of 40 people, so the

spots are filling up fast. We did open it up to Team TTL people first, but anyone can join it now. And it's going to be a lot of swimming, a lot of biking, some running. it's going to be freaking sweet it's on the TTO website highly recommend checking it out it's we're putting everything we got into it

I want to also highlight some of the cool things I mean I'll just do you mind Eric by all means give me your your feelings okay because I've been around there quite a bit and I also did

the T100 Lake Las Vegas race which was a nice race and sure fun but if you did that race this is going to be way cooler than that race We're going to bike through Valley of Fire on a five-hour ride.

Valley of Fire is one of the coolest national. Well, I think it's actually a state park. It is a state park. But it is so cool, beautiful visual stuff. If you're near a computer, Google Valley of Fire, and you will see some amazing images. We're riding through that. We're also running through Red Rock Canyon, which is another beautiful park. There's a loop you can drive around.

Maybe some of you have done it if you've been near Vegas. Gorgeous. And then also visit the Hoover Dam. which is right there, which if you went to public school in the U.S., I'm sure you've heard of the Hoover Dam. Super cool, and it's all right there. It's not far at all from the headquarters

of late, the TMTTL headquarters, the Lake Las Vegas camp. So it's more than just an opportunity to train with us and we'll all be there. But it's also an opportunity to experience these beautiful natural marvels. Yeah, I mean, it's TTR does a camp. like how what do we like we like just being are having our minds blown by things around us so we're

not having a camp like anywhere besides the best coolest looking place that we can go so yeah yeah thank you nick for your pitch you're completely right and uh honestly if uh if three people there's more than three people coming but if only three people were to show up i'm gonna be there because it's gonna be awesome yeah i just want to do it i just want to do those i just want to do those rides. But I have a feeling this will sell out the day the podcast comes out now that we've mentioned it. So everyone who signs up, we are so stoked for you to be there. Yeah, can't wait. We should say it's happening in February. It's happening in the first half of February, first week of February. February 3rd to 8th. God. The logo's cool.

The website, go look at the website right now. Everybody, it looks real good. Nice job, Jordan. I'll put the link in the description of the podcast so you can check it out. All right. Frost. Frost. Okay, moving on to questions here. This first one is from Paul. Hi, TTL. Question about shoe rotation for Eric and Nick. See how I saved this one for when we were just the two of us?

Eric, from what I can tell, you are sponsored in most things like Paula, apart from a shoe sponsor. And having watched a lot of your YouTube films, you have a fairly large shoe rotation. Can you take us through your shoe rotation, especially around your trial. lineup, especially around your trail lineup. Miles of trials, bro. Yeah. Paul, you threw me under the bus.

Trail is spelled T-R-A-I-L. What you prefer also. Nick, thanks for all the content, Paul. Okay, so, Eric, get as nitty-gritty as you'd like here. Are you dancing? What's going on? Just loosening my shoulders up, I lifted a day. A little tight.

You're lifting? I'm lifting like three days a week right now, Man, I'm getting swall. We talked about this. We said that we were going to start lifting. I forgot. You're right. I forgot.

And I pulled my hamstring today on a run right before. This is kind of sore subject. No pun intended. And so I feel like I need to strengthen things. Pretty sure you wouldn't have pulled it if you'd been lifting. Oh, that hurts, but you're so right. That's right. Be better tomorrow.

Hard lessons. Okay. Trail shoes, yes. I think let's use this as an opportunity for any kind of activity shoes, including road. Okay. So when I run on the road, I pretty much run in the, cloud monster, whatever freaking generation they're on right now. I can't remember we're on the two.

I believe so, yeah. If I'm totally honest, I preferred the one. The two is pretty stiff, but I still like it. And if I'm running on the road, that's the only shoe I'm going to run in that doesn't just make my knees and my ankles and everything hurt. If I run on the treadmill, I'll run in the cloud stratus, or if I'm trying to do a speed workout on the road or something, I'll either run in the cloud stratus or I'll run in,

I kind of have a few different like speed shoes left. I have like an old cloud boom, echo, whatever the old on thing was. I have some Adidas super shoes. I have some Solomon super shoes that are actually surprisingly fast and awesome.

I can't remember what those are called. Just their carbon shoe. But for the most part, I don't run on the road anymore if I can help it. It just hurts too much. And trails are more fun. So when I'm running on trails,

it's like mountain bike tires. It totally just depends on the type of trail and I think I probably have 15 different trail shoes right now, much to the chagrin of Paula. For racing, I am either running in the Hoka,

rocket carbon, whatever like the newest rocket carbon thing is. They gave me a pair before Kodiak UTNB race. Really liked them. I'm either running in those or I'm running in the on-cloud boom

ultra-super, whatever there, trail super... Okay. I can't keep track all the clouds. I'm sorry. Cloud Ultra Pro 3. Something like Cloud Ultra Pro.

Anyway, I think that's a, both of those are really fantastic shoes for having like a good amount of superness to them, but also being able to handle fairly technical trails. And then if I'm running something that's like completely technical that I just want to be, have as much control as possible, I like to run in the Solomon S-Lab. Pulsar. I think it's the Solomon, the S-Lab Pulsar is what they call it. Man, I got to check. I don't memorize these things. You were right with the on, though. That is what it's called. Okay. Okay. The road running shoes are the Phantasm 2, Solomon S-Lab Phantasm. And then the trail race shoes that I did my swim run in that are lower profile for technical stuff are the S-Lab Pulsar 4. and then

I think it's just called like the Pulsar Pro or something like that that is the shoe I just kind of like running in that and the matrices from Solomon so

the phantasm tell me about that shoe because that's a phantasma in Italian means ghost so I'm curious if they're like super light or thin or breathable or something

it's a road super shoe it's a road super shoe so they're squishy and bouncy and awesome other things that I've tried that I like the Hokka mafate x that is just like dreamy if your legs are feeling beat up or if i'm going for a really long run that's not too technical and i just kind of want to be cushy and fresh for

tomorrow um the brooks catamount that's a really nice shoe that i would sometimes switch in instead of the polestar from solomon uh low to the ground great ground feel not going to twist an ankle with that one um yeah there's more but those are the latest. Got it. That's a lot as advertised. I know someone at Brooks. I know somebody at Hoka.

I know obviously I can get shoes via On. Solomon. I've tried a lot of stuff. Yeah. Wow. Happily. Nice. Well, for me on the road,

I will train in the on Cloud Monster Hypers. Those are, I really like those. They are very cushy. and not super light but they're great for training and then I'll race in, it depends on the race

but if it's a shorter race definitely the on cloud boom strikes I believe they're called and that's like the latest super shoe that doesn't isn't 3D printed that's right

that's right and before that I was in the cloud boom echoes and then I did have a pair of the Sockney super shoes and I really liked those a lot as well

and then on trail I used to wear ultras because they had a wide towbox literally just for that reason not because I liked anything else specifically about them not necessarily into the zero drop nature of ultras but did really like the wide toebox and then I was on a trail run in Colorado and I ran I was running up the trail and I ran into this girl who was who recognized the TTL hat and we stopped and talked for a it and turns out she works at North Face and then she sent me some North Face Trail running shoes

which were the Eric, there's the same ones that you like the Vective Endurance ones is that right? I like those shoes so much but it's just that little plasticy thing hits my big toe I kind of want to like file that down and then they'd be the dream shoe for me they are I love them and now I have switched to those

I now run in those. She also sent me a pair of the super shoes but those similar problem for me on my big toe they kind of hit a hot spot and I can't I wouldn't want to race in them but I really like the

the Vective I think Vective Fours is what I have I really really like those a lot and then I also had a pair of the Sockney peregrins and I also really enjoyed those I ran with

Heather and I paced her for 20 miles in Black Canyons or not 20 less than 20 last year and really liked those as well so those are kind of my trail rotation as well and I don't race like Eric does so it's a never-ending journey fine in the perfect shoe I like it I think it's kind of a fun endeavor yeah I mean this is like what I like about mountain biking and trail running and gravel is like there's just

so much more gear to dive into it's this it's like in triathlon like you know what the perfect tire pressure is you know what the fastest tire is you know what the like it's just there's just like a book and you just like follow it versus the conditions in trail running and mountain biking gravel riding dictate your gear choice and that's fun and terrifying sometimes but mostly fun yeah yeah nice okay next one here is from sean spelled shawn that's the cool way to spell it by the way i'm an adult onset swimmer building to my first Olympic distance i've been following a triathlon specific learn to swim build strength and comfort in the water program now that's a handful the program uses a fair amount of drills and swimming distance with a snorkel.

However, I frequently struggle with the snorkel, especially when swimming at faster speeds. I find water gets in the snorkel and I have to blow it out, sometimes with every breath, to the point that my breathing pattern becomes a short, hard exhale through the mouth to expel the water and then a choppy, careful inhale, and I am much more tense in the water. Why is this happening and how can I fix it, Sean? this is an extreme I mean this is completely unsustainable

that is you shouldn't have to expel water every single breath Eric when's the last time you used a snorkel for swimming 15 years ago okay I've really seriously never used one

and every time that I've used one I hated it like my swim coach growing up Did you have this problem though? Yeah but I mean I just I didn't take the time to like find out if it happened

every breath I was like one flip turn like now I'm out there's no way that whatever this is supposed to do is worth that experience cannot believe that something is not going very wrong here definitely not functioning as designed so what do you think eric should he just like film himself and like something may obviously stick out it's like oh your head is six inches underwater that is the problem here yeah maybe something that that's what i gotta think the angle of your head is just making the snorkel, you know, taking more water or your arm stroke just like throws up

water right into the snorkel. I don't know. Like I said, I feel like a bit unqualified because I just have not, I've never had a coach that really believed and, you know, prescribed snorkeling. Right. I think the point of a snorkel is to help with technique, right? Yeah, for sure. I think in a roundabout way this is, it's going to work because I think you need to film yourself discover what is getting water into that snorkel

and I bet you that is the smoking gun of some kind of problem that you have in your stroke And if you don't want to do and if you can't figure it out just breathe every five That's a hard drill but breathing every five does kind of make the same thing doesn't it? I mean it sounds a little bit more enjoyable

than choking on water every breath than waterboarding yourself at the community pool, yeah. Awesome what I'm saying. Do some breathe every five. Yeah, Sean. You know, and if not, just get a different snorkel. That is like crazy.

You should not be expelling water every breath. Yeah, maybe the snorkel's broken. Blame the gear. That's what I usually do. Somebody swimming right next to you in the other lane, just like splashing water in their snorkel because they want your lane. Right.

Right. Going back to the swim etiquette we were talking about a couple weeks ago. Okay, next question here is from Maggie. Hey, Paula Flynn, Eric, and Nick. I'm looking to get a gravel bike so I can do some outdoor riding in the Midwest winter and get some breaks from the kicker. I've heard getting studded tires would be the best option for the snow.

Any suggestions for tire set up for the snow and slush conditions? Within 42mm clearance, by the way, thanks for all you bring to the sport and keeping it fun, berating every week. Barating? Who are we berating? At each other? Listening? Is that a suburbating?

It's aspirating. Well, Maggie, sorry if we feel like we're talking down to someone here. Okay, so Eric, what do you think? Have you ever run studded tires on any bike? No, I've never been somewhere long enough to make that jump. It occurs to me each winter in Bend, and when we go to Canmore, and then, you know, like inevitably after a week and a half, we leave or the snow goes away. Right.

So I haven't ever gotten to that point. But man, if you're in that situation, full support, and I want to hear how it goes, because I've always been intrigued. I'm curious how much they wear down if you're riding in not snow. Right. Like compared to car tire studs.

I mean, car tire studs wear down not that fast. So, I don't, yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't want to ride on the road much. That would be terrible. Also, it feels kind of unsafe, and you could be sliding around more than you'd want to, just because of the studs.

Like, I think most people, people in Bend have just do the fat bike thing and go like to the fat bike trails. Um, if you just like really want to ride through the winter outside versus cross-country ski or something. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Next one here is from Nick. T.T.L. Question about doing races while training for another. I have a goal of doing Iron Man California in 2026, but have already signed up for other races during this year. See otter gravel. Oh, that's so fun. Escape from Alcatraz. Ooh, also so fun. Some local tries. throughout the year as well. Question, when

do you start Iron Man specific training and how do you deal with other races during a training block? More broadly, how do you train for B, C, and D races, never heard of the D races, if they fall before your A race. Thanks a lot. P.S. longest race I've done is a 70.3. That is a

kind of a helpful detail to know, actually. So, Eric, I think we should both answer this because the way a pro handles this and the way a non-pro handles this, I think, could be very different. I've never trained for an Iron Man. So, I don't know, particularly.

I'm the epitome of I like to let my coach do the coaching, and I just do what's on the schedule. But I guess for me to just having like a baseline same fitness of like training for 70.3s and a little this, a little that, I would probably want like 12 weeks. And you're already training before that? Yeah, just assuming you got like a general. baseline of fitness? I mean, that's not based on science. That's just based on what I assume

would make me feel confident to complete and do it, like, to a decent level. Yeah. The thing that I find interesting about this from your perspective, Eric, is you don't really have the liberty of a C race, of a D race, right? As a professional, you're not going to races that are not of priority to you. Otherwise, you would not be doing those races. Am I right? Or is there a little bit of a gray area? Yeah, for sure. I'm not going to, I can't just show up to an Ironman branded event and just be like, yeah, I sort of trained. We'll see what happens. There's an expectation of me, et cetera, that I have of myself, and I'm going to be comparing it to the peak of my life. So show up for that, going to be ready to go.

Yeah. What I want to tell you, Nick, as my alter ego here, is the bad news is it's not bad news. It's all good news. I think you start training as soon as possible for the Iron Man. And I say as soon as possible, what I really mean is as soon as that amount of training sounds exciting for you. So if 42 weeks sounds not exciting, then don't do 42 weeks, right? Maybe it's 30 weeks for you. And then you just do these races as they come. You could do a mini taper going into them, you know, be reasonable. But the great news, for me at least, is as I have gone up in training volume, even all the way up to Iron Man, my times and the other distances have all gotten faster. Because at our level, at the non-pro level, doing more volume so often is just good. You get faster. even at much faster paces, you get faster, faster even than if you were to target those specific kind of race paces. More volume does so much. So I say, train for the Iron Man the whole time,

pepper in those races, use them as learning opportunities to see what it feels like at different intensities. I think it should be golden. Eric, what do you think of this advice? Yeah, I mean, I completely agree. Basically, doing an Iron Man is just like giving you the go ahead in your brain or for like maybe your loved one to I have to put in crazy amount of time and truth be told if you wanted to have the best 70.3 ever you should probably put in that amount of time but like it just it doesn't scare the shit out of you in the same way to like do that extra volume so yeah I guess you're completely right Nick it's like how far out how many weeks do you think you can actually tolerate and your relationship can tolerate full Ironman

training maybe that should be your starting to jumping off point I did reflect on that a few times while I was training for it. I thought, oh boy, how many more times in my life will I be allowed to do this? I don't know. It's up to you, man. The iron divorce. It's a thing. Yeah, iron divorce.

Exactly. Exactly. Okay. One final question before we get to Lydia. This is from TJ. First race was in 2023. I'm a newer triathlet and I've been going nonstop since. Listen to this.

I've done four fools and five halves. Damn, T.J. That is a lot. That is a lot, dude. All right. Hookline and sinker. Set the record. Most recent Indian Wells where I had a PR of 450. That is amazing. By the way, this question was from today.

So that was yesterday. Congratulations, T.J. 450. What's your 70.3 PR, Nick? So I have an idea. New Zealand 441. Okay. All right. I honestly feel like I should be doing much faster than that

but that is my fastest 420? Maybe like 4.30. Okay. Yeah, maybe I don't know. We'll see next year. If I can stay healthy. I've made huge gains

everywhere but the swim. I'm from Utah, so I did not grow up swimming and despite getting my best swim time this past race, 38 minutes, 38 seconds, I still am frustrated at my progress. I know Eric and Paula grew up swimming, but Nick, I've stocked your times and you crush it in the swim. Oh boy. How did you become such a proficient swimmer? I normally swim three times a week for a total of around 10,000 yards a week.

All my YouTube and Instagram algorithms are people giving swimming advice. I feel like I do their workouts, but I'm never quite sure how well I'm doing them. Is it time for a coach or am I just at a plateau and need to do more volume? Thanks. Nick, my Italian brother, congrats on Iron Man Wisconsin. Lalls. how desperate you must be to come to me for swim advice oh boy tj i do you know i feel like the you really turned a corner in your swimming nick when you came to bend and i just gave those couple of like little tips to you to think about i agree you know like i'm not just to my own horn but there was there's definitely some correlation there i agree and honestly i think if if i could give you know say one thing to anybody

it's that it's like figure out who in your town is a little bit of a swim guru ideally like actually and not just trying to like do it on instagram or something but and if you can pay 30 bucks to get a like 15 20 minute 30 minute learn to swim have somebody with a little bit of experience look at you give you some drills that you can go and take and focus on when you swim for the next month go go see this person every three weeks every two weeks every what you know whatever you can handle, like that, that's the secret sauce is you think you're putting your hand in in front of your, you know, in line with your body. And it's like really like way out on the other side of your body and you're completely crossed over and, you know, you're not rolling properly and

you're breathing too early. But in your mind, you look great until somebody tells you and says, yes, that's it. That thing that you just did, that's it. Do that more. And just for context, this isn't just for adult onset swimmers. Eric, you've had this before too, where you can see footage of yourself swimming, you're like, damn, that's not how I thought my recovery looked or whatever. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, yes. Of course. And it's, it's easy to forget that. And it's easy to just, like, you develop this idea of what you are swimming like in your head because you're trying really hard to do this thing, even though it might, swimming is so strange like that. You can think you're doing a thing and you're putting all your effort into it

and it just doesn't manifest in any way. I mean, this is, this is the secret. This is the secret to so many people's things. We have so many, we have multiple friends from Indian Wells is the most recent thing that if they could swim faster, they would win. Whether it's the pro race or their age group race or whatever. And so like this is the thing I think is somebody with experience looking at you, giving you some tips, giving you something to work on. Yeah. Yeah. It's like practice makes perfect and it's like the perfect practice makes perfect, you know, that data dot adage. You have to practice properly. also want to point out that 2023 is really not very long ago and I made I've made a lot of

progress and over over you know nine years of swimming and I'm still now improving at swimming and a lot of it in my opinion comes from just doing it a lot and and we talk so much about swim technique of course but there's an aspect of swimming that is also just aerobic efficiency your body learning how to distribute energy well and getting better at it. A big turning point for me was flip turning because of peer pressure from the podcast and you guys. And I think not so much the flip turning itself, but having to be hypoxic and holding your breath for that extra time where I was usually getting an extra breath, I think just made me a better swimmer also, even without the flip turns. So I think there's a lot to be said about just you got to trust it. keep going out there. I never swim more than three times a week. So I'm just like you in that.

I respect. TJ, sounds like we swim very similarly. And I also, when I was two years in, was obsessively watching YouTube videos, all kinds of tutorials, and was kind of taking all that information in. I'm also very lucky that I had Eric and Paula look at my stroke, like Eric said, and pointed out a few things that helped me a lot. I'm sure yours would be different. But, I mean, Eric, do you think a master's group would be a good idea? I think that's a great place to start. even if you just go to a master's group and ask the coach or ask any other athlete in the pool, like, hey, is there anybody who does coaching lessons for technique or something like that? I just really want to get better.

Like, you're going to eventually find somebody. And swimming of the master's group is a thousand times better than swimming by yourself, if you can do it. Well, yeah, everything's better than swimming by yourself can confirm that stinks. And also for further context, if you're finishing in four hours and 50 minutes and your swim time is 38 minutes, almost 39 minutes, that is a, that's a big difference. Those are two different athletes. So this swim shape is a big low hanging fruit there. That's way off of where you should be, T.J. And obviously you know that. But that tells a story of an athlete who really, if you could fix

that swim, that would be huge. Yeah. It could be a simple thing. You just never know. You go see three different coaches. And the fourth one said the magic thing. that works for your brain and clicks. Yeah, love it. Good luck to you, T.J. I hope you become a much better swimmer than I am because you should aspire to much more than that. Yeah, I mean, we're all just trying to be better swimmers.

Yeah. Every single one of us. Yep. Okay, that's it. I guess I'll take this opportunity to say, congrats to everyone that raced Lakeinta. I had a couple friends, Ryan Lewis, who won the overall age group field.

that was awesome had a bunch of friends who raced my friend serena raced she did really well my friend rebecca raced she did well they're both pros female pros adele our friend adele raced she did extremely well especially since her disc

was backed into by a golf cart in the morning and damaged and our friend jackie raced as well and her bike was damaged so badly that she had needed a wheel replacement and had problems with her yeah a lot of problems with jackie's

bike unfortunately. This is life. This is racing. It really sucks. And I can also confirm that the new course is the new golf course is kind of, it's kind of cool. I biked alongside it for a bit trying to find a friend. And it's, I think it might be cooler than the old tennis gardens run course. So transitions in a different place. Run is similar though. It's on a golf course. Swims in the same place. Swims in the same place. The bike course is very similar, but of course ends. somewhere else. And then the run course is all around this bike course. So the old one, oh, sorry, golf course. The old one was, started in the tennis gardens, and then ran along

the road for a bit and then went into a golf course. This is all around a golf course. Cross country, baby. Yeah, yes. It was kind of cross countryish. And Lionel even like twisted his ankle on a little turn there, which sounds like it was pretty bad. Yeah, not good. But yeah, So I maybe would even do it next year. As much as I say, I don't like this race. I mostly don't like that swim. We would have been there this year, but Paul had to go to Qatar.

Yeah. Hopefully next year. Yeah. All right. Shall we ring up Lydia? Should we call her? Yeah, let's call her. But first, to give a little bit of context,

Lydia is one of our members of the development team. She had a fantastic year. First season race in 70.3. came over from draft legal biggest race of the season would definitely be her win at 70.3 Happy Valley, which is North American Championships

next year. She raced Jeannie Metzler, Chelsea Sedaro, and won. So, let's get Lydia on the phone. Let me dial her up here. Hello? Yeah, we're looking for Lydia

Roussel, Russell, like Russell, like a leaf. Lydia Russell, this is she. Oh, hello Lydia. This is Eric and Nick with That Triathlon Life podcast. How the heck are you? Oh my gosh. Am I on air?

You're on the air, baby. You're flying. How the heck are you? I feel like, but this is the Bob Babbage show. How the heck are you? How are you doing? We've got a puncho man here. What a legend.

Okay, where are you, Lydia? I feel like I haven't seen you in like 24 hours, maybe. I know. It's been like 30. hours. It's crazy. Little spoiler alert for everyone. Lydia and I surprisingly saw each other yesterday with no plants. You both. Surprisingly to me. Yeah, both are completely out of the blue took a trip to Indian Wells at the same time. Amazing. No, Nick knew I was going. I did know she was going. And Nick said he was not going. And he also told Adele he was not going. Well, Nick didn't give me the whole story.

I told everyone I was not going. I had many friends going. And the reason is because I had had no plans at all of going. I had plans on Sunday evening, and then they got canceled. And so I woke up Sunday, and instead of doing a long gravel ride, I thought, why not just drive out there? By the way, we've been calling it Indian Wells, Eric and Paula. We call it Indian Wells. But as of this year, I think it's of this year, it is just called Iron Man 70.3

Lakeinta. That's it. Actually, it's probably been called that the whole time. It's probably been called 70.3 Lakeinta in Indian Wells. And we just call it Indian Wells because that's where we need to drive to or like the largest thing. So Lydia, you drove there too. Yeah. And why did you drive?

Because you did not race. Right. My girlfriend's sister was racing in the age group field. She got third in her age group. So she's going to be east with me. Oh, nice. Yeah. Shout out Katie because I know she'll be listening.

And you had shirts made, right? Yes. we had family shirts. Nick and I were actually having this discussion while I was driving to where I currently am because I'm just always driving places. And what, you were like a Sherpa. And Nick was there and like sort of Sherpa and bumped into like five other people that were like crewing for their, like, what does this mean?

What did you do to be the world's best Sherpa or crew at the race? Well, apparently I was a bad. Sherpa for the first half of the day. Oh, no. Because I wanted to do my long run. But I was having fun. Oh, no. So that was great.

And then, well, I watched her come out of the swim and I took some videos. So I got lots of videos all day. Content. And then I stood in front of the row of her rack in T2 and shouted, Katie, your bike is here. And it was good because she was looking a little lost. Good, good, good. But she found it.

And then I proceeded to take more videos while she did her transition. and then I sprinted the fastest I've ever sprinted to catch up to her while she was running out and then jogged next to her for a minute and gave her some nutrition tips and made sure she was okay. And then we went out to the golf course and we sprinted around even more and I cheered really loud for every single person I know. Oh my gosh. This is so far, award-winning Sherpa behavior. Go on. Sounds like a double run day to me. It was like, I think I ran like 20 miles, like actually. So is your friend, is your friend famous? Are these photos for

the gram? Are these for like you guys sitting down and reviewing footage after the race and optimizing or just like family photo album? You know, for her mom's Facebook, for her own personal use? Right, right, right. You never know.

I mean, she did pretty well. She could be pro before you know it, so. Pro before you know. That's a new segment we might do. Watch out everyone. All right. Well, let's get to what we were here to talk about, and that is you. You had a fantastic year. Great. I mean, far exceeded any expectations that we had ever had of you or anyone on the development team.

So congratulations for that. Thank you. Yeah. And we're excited to see what you do in the future as well. Thanks. Yeah, it's been fun. What would you say the highlight of your gear was? It seems obvious to me, but maybe it's not. I mean, obviously, like, Happy Valley was really a highlight. I mean, I just had a lot of fun, like, because I went home the week before because I'm from Pennsylvania, so that was, like, super nice to, like, be home. And then I just drove up. So that's nice, like, using my family's car, you don't have to fly anywhere. And it's pretty familiar to me.

Like, I ran track there in high school. So I don't know. That was just a pretty fun week. Like, I'm very excited to go back next year, regardless of the outcome, just because I really liked it there and really liked the course. That was a highlight. I think St. George was also a highlight because I saw a lot of improvement from Oceanside, even though I still kind of got shafted on the bike.

Like, I was more in it than before, and then on the run I was, like, actually among people being competitive. I mean, I was an Oceanside as well, but it was definitely different. So, yeah, Augusta was fun too, but I don't know. I liked it all. Well, let's talk for a second about Happy Valley because this was, I mean, this is, if they made a movie of your life as an athlete, this would be a turning point. Winning a race at that level, what did, you started the race thinking this could be a good day, of course, but there must have been a point during the race where you thought, oh my gosh, this is different. Something is happening here today. Did that, did you feel that?

Was there an inflection point? that slowly come on? Yeah, I think definitely out on the bike, I don't know when, but say like halfway through the race when I was still with Grace and Chelsea and Jeannie, I was like, oh, whoa, I'm actually doing this because the two races prior, you know, I'd be with somebody or like be in a little group and then a turn would come or a downhill or something like that and I would just fly off the back never to see them again. Right, right.

So this was different. And as the race kept going, I was like, oh, wow. Like, if I just stay here, don't mess anything up. Don't do anything crazy. Like, this is going to be a really good race. So, yeah, definitely that moment. And then what about when you were running and you realized, I'm going to win this race? At what point did that come?

And did that feel, I guess I'm asking is, did it feel like what you were hoping that moment would feel like? Did crossing that finish line? did breaking the tape feel like what you were hoping it would feel like? Honestly, like, I don't think during the race I had a moment where I was like, oh my gosh, I did this. I was kind of like making myself laugh a little bit because I was like, are we sure? Like, I haven't messed something up. I'm doing the right thing.

I was even like asking the lead bike guy. I was like, like, I didn't do anything wrong. I don't have a penalty I need to take. I'll be sure I'm all good like I don't need to go back and like run part of the course again like I didn't cut anything off some kind of nightmare so it's too good to be true yeah

well Lionel finished yesterday and he got decued for his kit being unzipped and you know so it can happen you never know he got undecued by the way everyone I know I was like we're not having one of these because I have gotten decued in a race in short course for leaving a gel

outside or I left a gel on the ground Oh, no. My box and didn't know I had a penalty or didn't like realize and then finished and had podiumed and then was DQed. So I'm a little hyper aware of that now. But it's okay. It was a good learning moment. But yeah, Happy Valley was really special also because my mom and my high school coach

were both at that race, my high school running coach. So that was really fun to cross the finish line and have them there. That's a great moment. do you feel like did your life change did it did did you like have a wave of new confidence like our sponsors calling you like I think a lot of people when they're approaching pro or you know imagining what it be like to win their first race it's like oh my gosh and then I've made it and like everything's different and like I guess how is that experience for you going I mean to having this like fantastic day that you I'm sure kind of

kind of had an idea that you were capable of, but to finally execute it. Yeah, I mean, I think, obviously, you go home, everything's the same, but I don't know. It was definitely a big confidence boost, and I mean, I have to say, I was lucky in a lot of ways that a lot of the women who showed up for that race showed up because, you know, it could have easily been a much, like, easier field, and I could have had the same performance, but I think a lot of people, especially sponsors, like they look at the people who you beat when you have your first win and what the field was like. So I think, you know, the quality of that field was really what made a big difference. And, you know, it's not like things immediately change,

but it is a really good data point moving forward to be like, okay, look what I did this one time in my third non-drafting race ever. Let's see what I can do moving forward. And especially with the run split, like being able to really show what I can do on that, I think. shows like it's very clear to people like the quality of runner i am as well yeah it's one thing to be running really fast coming you know from 10 minutes or five minutes or you know whatever the deficit is off the bike and another thing to start with everyone like people notice that that is undeniable in your face okay so to turn towards something i don't want to say opposite but more complex was Nice, right? You went there. It was your first world championship. Sorry, Marbea. Your first world championship, first time racing in, you know, Happy Valley, big field, good field, but Marbea really is this big step up. I'm sure you had high hopes there. And then the race day for you and for many was surprisingly different and difficult in.

new ways. When you think about that day now, do you think about, does it bring you pain? Or do you think about opportunity? Do you think about lessons learned? Yeah, I think it's easy to dwell on it and like to let the negative thoughts creep in. But I know like that's not going to serve me to feel upset about it or like to regret stopping. And you know, I can say like I would could have, could have, should have all I want, but that's not going to change the day that happened. So I think for me, it's been like, what lessons can I take from this? And I think Nick, you and I were talking, like, the day after and, like, talking about what I'm going to do moving forward. And I think, like, that's been the biggest thing for me is, like, taking the lessons

from it and saying, okay, this is what I learned. And also saying, one thing I, like, wrote down to myself when I was on the plane home, I wrote, like, if I had had the day I wanted, would I be taking the steps now to like make these necessary improvements? And the answer is definitely no. Like if I had had had a good day, if I had finished top 20, I would have come back to the US. I would have continued doing exactly what I was doing and I wouldn't have worked on any of the weaknesses that I now am realizing like how much I can gain in those areas. So I think like yeah, it wasn't the day I wanted. It wasn't the day I'm capable of. It wasn't the day I worked for, plan for, dreamed for, whatever. But I think, you know, looking back when I write the whole

story of my career one day, like, I think that's going to be a really powerful chapter of it is to be able to say, like, look, I had this horrible day at my first world champs and like, then look at what my best world champs result ends up being. And to like contrast those two is going to hopefully be really good. It's a bit of a gift too, because not only do you have these, these clear things that you can work on now, right? They're much more tangible because of the starkness compared to what you were hoping for. But also I think it's a gift that it happened in your first time

early on. Because when this happens when you are much more subject of interest and people are really paying attention, that's a harder pill to swallow, I think. Which is right now all you have is this one time. But in five years, you're going to look back, I hope and think, man, I'm so glad that happened five years ago and not today. Right?

Those lessons learned came at the right time. I would personally hope that you can continue to have that attitude because that is the perfect attitude to have. And every time that you have a hurdle, it's an obstacle, like the book, the obstacle is the way. Like these obstacles, these challenges or things, they're just like such good learning opportunities. and the only bad day is if you have an obstacle and you don't learn anything from it. So I don't know. I'm so psych to hear you say that and congrats. Yeah.

I don't know if you guys saw, but after, I think like the day after, two days after I posted on my story a screenshot of a comment from my Facebook or a teacher from my high school who still teaches, I think, I don't know, middle school, high school. She said that she shows my Instagram posts about my races to her students and particularly the ones about the hard days and she said that she like uses it to show her students that like the really bad days are catalyst catalysts that get us to the really good days like the best days ever and I think that was super meaningful to me because I was like okay I'm not just posting this for me like people are actually seeing this and it's helping people like kids or people are showing it to kids like at the end of the day that's what it's all about so it's like okay I didn't have a good day but like

maybe that taught somebody a lesson they need to hear so that that's thought that was really meaningful to me. Heck yeah. Okay, so we're beating around the bush a little bit here, and all three of us know exactly what happened, but can you tell us what happened? What are we referring to? What adversity are we talking about?

Yeah, so at Worlds, I mean, I had a decent swim. The race started pretty well. Had a decent start to the bike, and then the descending started, and I was just way in over my head. overwhelmed. I felt just scared. Like, I wasn't performing. I was just riding, like, trying to, like, survive. I felt like it was so windy and felt like I was going to get blown off my bike, and it was just, like, I've never experienced. For anybody who didn't watch

this race, this is very justified. It was absolutely insane wind on the bike. You could see it on the broadcast. Lucy and the lead, just, like, getting blown all over the wind. I'm making lots of motions with my hands that you can't see. But it's very convincing. It was, it was quite the day from the wind perspective. Yeah, I think Lydia, you kind of underplayed, you're saying that you were scared descending, but

that fear came from these extreme winds, right? Yeah. Yeah, like going the first kind of like turn into a, or like descending turn you took, like the way I felt the wind hit my disc was nothing I've ever experienced before and I had no idea how to handle it. Like I didn't know

kind of even from like a science perspective I was like what can my bike handle I mean obviously other people are riding in front of me just fine so like clearly I'm not objectively going to go down but I didn't know how to wait the bike I didn't I was like I don't know anything in this moment and so I kind of trudged along for a while and eventually just like broke down crying on the side of the course and was like I it was before the last descent and I was like I don't feel comfortable going down this. I don't feel like I'm going to make it to the end of this course safely. I'm sure I would have slowly enough. But it was, yeah, just like a pretty low moment of feeling really in over my head. And like I was not prepared for that scenario at all.

Okay. So, you know, of course, the thing to have done, retrospect, is, okay, let's work on descending. And let's see if I can find some windy places to descend and work on that. But that wasn't the case on the day. So in a hypothetical scenario where Lydia from right now could go where that first descent started and you could talk to yourself for 30 seconds, what do you think you would say? Would you say, hey, this is going to stink and you're going to DNF? Or would you, is there something you could tell yourself that would have eased your nerves and maybe helped? This is also to tell anybody else who finds himself in this situation.

Yeah, I mean, I think since. Like, I've talked to people who are very expert in bike handling and just all things, bike. I've been shown a few PowerPoints, and I think my- Oh, God. All right. Yeah. Am I'm forwarding those? I'm committed. But I think the key things are like, A, the bike has no terminal velocity.

Like, the bike can go fast. It's not going to, like, fall apart. And B, just that, like, the way. wind gusts will die down. So as long as you're not literally getting, like, don't ride so close to the side of the road that you're going to get blown off. But other than that, like, you know, you can go with it. So I think those are the two key things that in my training I've been trying to remind myself. I guess what I was wondering if you would tell yourself from that moment is it's going to be okay. At a certain point, it's going to be over. You're not going to crash.

Just finish the bike. Or is that not what you would have told yourself? Well, if I could only tell myself, I don't know, if I could tell myself multiple things, I'd tell myself a lot of things, but in 30 seconds, like, it's not a lot of time. So I think the key thing would be, maybe, no, I think if somebody gave me a hug, I would have cried, and stopped earlier than I did. True, right, right, right. I don't know, I think, like, at the point I was out in the race, whether I had finished or whether I'd stopped, like, kind of the point I'm at now in December mentally would be the same. So I don't think, like, looking back now, the message is, like, finish. I think I'd try and give myself just some tangible, here's what you do, and then see what that self, who then knows that, does with it.

I feel like this is such a hard thing, because, like, the number of times you're going to encounter wins and downhill speeds at this level in a race is just so limited. Like, we could probably count it on one hand, if not, like, a couple of fingers. It's just, this was a pretty crazy day. And it's like, yeah, you can put, like, maybe come up with some things. to tell yourself in the event that you find yourself in that situation, but it's almost like

you're trying to find us like a strategy for just like hard things that happen rather than like the specifics of like this high speed or whatever you know? It's like like Nick said, what are you going to do? You can't like find a hill and go to Florida during monsoon season to like find the winds and the hills

you know to like practice this but like what you know it's like just finding the thing that allows you to like maybe be more comfortable or confident, like, when anything like that were to come up. So anyway, that's what we're, that's what we're fishing around for. Yeah, I don't know. There's, like, places you can get, I mean, not the same conditions, but I think it's just

similarly, like, finding places to ride that it's, like, scary and doing that, you know. My gut feeling is that the better you are as a bike handler in general and as a descender in general, the better you're going to be able to handle these kind of variables, like wind. when they happen to you, even if you don't have specific experience with that variable. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Like, for example, now if I'm riding in rain and, like,

I'm scared I'm going to slide out in the rain. I think back to Happy Valley when it poured rain the whole time. And I think, like, I was riding as hard as I could. We were going really fast. And, like, I stayed rubber side down the whole time. So it's things like that, I think. That's great. Love it.

Lydia, thank you so much. I do have one question here that we, We were going to answer on the pod, but I just realized that you are such a perfect person to help us answer it. So I'm going to read it. It starts with a joke, so at least we have that. Okay. Yeah, yeah. This one is from Eric with a K.

Well, Paul is out here, so I'm going to read the intro too. Nick, congrats on Iron Man, Wisconsin. Two-parter. Two-parter. One part, great joke, one part great question. Wow, the humility. We're missing some humility here, but let's see it. It better be good.

What's the difference between a well-dressed person on a unicycle and a poorly-dressed person on a bicycle? A tire. That's not bad. Wow. Eric, if you came up with that yourself, I'm impressed. I was legitimately trying to come up with something. A tire is good. Yeah, me too.

That's not where my brain is going either. That's a good one. Okay. Here's to this question. my fiance and I have a deal for every cat we have I can have two bikes we currently have two cats if you had a four bike limit what would your four bikes be I want details and you have to account for one city slash commuter bike so it's actually three left in play all right let's start backwards here amazing amazing question better question than joke what would you do

where's the sweet spot of this ratio, would you say? How many cats are running around your apartment to justify the 2x bike? I mean, we're kind of getting close over here. We have a similar ratio. We have two cats. I mean, there's more bikes, I guess, than four, because there's two of us who have bikes and two cats. Yeah, I guess are the cats your cats or your girlfriend's cats? they're my cats the dog is technically her dog but we oh shoot so like you get no bikes she gets four bikes

oh that's right that's how this works so now she needs to start getting cats well no we have an equal number of bikes yeah no she has more bikes all right okay so maybe this it's holding true all right Eric what what's the ratio for you by the way where how many cats are you having to like like if you actually had to live with this ratio I mean if you like divide Flynn by a very heavy cat to get the number of cats that equates to a flin then like we might be appropriate

for a total number of bikes in our household. Right, right, I see. I think two cats is good. I think three cats is a little unhinged and six bikes isn't it necessary? Is it better be outdoor

like taking care of themselves cats? Yeah, yeah. But okay, so let's get back to the question here. So one of these bikes is already a Yeah. Hall, obviously. Right. Specialized haul. What would you do for the other three bikes? And maybe we have three different answers.

So Lydia, we'll start with you. Oh, okay. I thought you were going to give me a moment to think, but that's fine. Wait, how specific do I have to be? This is, like, going to embarrass me. I don't know as much as Eric. Type of bike. You can go, like, gravel. Yeah.

T.T. Yeah. Well, obviously, gravel T.T. Road. Like, that's. Don't say it. Don't say obvious. Some people might say Enduro bike.

Okay. No for me. XC bike, you know. Okay, fine. I guess I'm just, I'm too vanilla. So you said TT gravel road? Fat bike.

Oh. Ooh. Nice. Okay, wait a second. That's not even a bike. That's a uni. That's a great answer. That's true.

Can you ride a unicycle? I would need, no, I have some special talents, but that's not one of them. I was going to say if all three of us on this podcast can ride a unicycle, that would be amazing. What, you both can. Yeah. Oh. Only counts as half a bike. Right.

So Eric and I together ride a bicycle. Got two. Okay, sweet. Okay, Eric, what about you? If you have a commuter, now the other three are. And I'd say, answer this as 2025 Eric Loggerstrom. Probably, man, I feel like if I had to go down to just two bikes, you know, for the apocalypse, it would be my gravel bike and my electric mountain. bike turbo levo and sTR and then like that's just like baseline because like the electric mountain

bike can do everything that a regular mountain bike can do plus a little bit more you know uh so i might go like the electric mountain bike the gravel bike road bike yeah right now that's cool to cover literally every terrain known to man. Yeah, man. I want to say like a trail or XC bike as one and then a road

bike and I need a TT bike, you know, I'm but I think the mountain bike. Just throw the clip-ons on the tarmac, bro. You're right. You're right. I think I would do the mountain bike just so I could have an option to mountain bike.

So it would be Mountain Bike T-T bike road bike because I can't live without the road bike either. Okay, here's a fun twist on this question. Zombies are coming. You've got to escape on one bike. What bike do you take? Yeah, the gravel bike for sure. Gravel bike?

Yeah. I mean, what if the... Can zombies swim? I'm going to say no. Well, it depends what zombies you're talking about, because like the 28 days later zombies can sprint, so maybe they can swim. That's what I'm saying.

Like, what if the difference between surviving and not is like the difference in speed between a gravel bike and a road bike? You don't know. And where are we? here? Are we in Bend? Because in Bend, I might want a different bike than in L.A. True. That's true. Okay. So, yeah, you're you in your place. I'm, and then I'm, I may be a TT bike. It's just like, I am gunning it out of here. Straight down PCH. Yeah, see ya, losers. All right, Lydia.

I feel like T.T. Bike. So do you take the bike path in Tucson, or do you go, like, surface streets? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I might go, I might go straight down the freeway. Yeah. And I'm, the thing I'm worried about a T. T-bike and the zombie apocalypse is, you know, I've seen the movies. It's not pretty out there. It's not like it's just zombies. There's also carnage of car crashes and debris everywhere. So my little skinny race tires on my T-T bike, I'm not, I feel like they might not hold up. You need some gator skins. All right, we could go on about this. Maybe we should do this as a real serious question again, follow up to the zombie apocalypse bike, because this is important things.

Very crucial. Lydia, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. You had an unbelievable year, as we said, and we are so excited to see what kind of racing you do in the next several years. Very proud. Where can people see you next? What's your next race? Either Dallas or Oceanside. Sick. All right. 70.3. If you're an ocean side, we'll see you there. Well, I will be an Oceanside for sure. Dallas is just before. All right. Yeah, just race 40 times. It's the cool thing to oh yeah that's yeah 22 years old you can do basically anything yeah nick i am you're 23 sorry i knew that i knew that yeah yeah i knew that yeah i knew that all right thanks for hanging out

thanks lady all right thanks guys she's great and very very fast very fast she's got a bright she's got a bright future i think yeah it was she was stunned and happy that we ran into each other yesterday. I just was really excited and happy for her to hear her have such like a mature outlook on a bad day and working on things. And, you know, I feel like not everybody has that realization or they have it kind of late. So yeah, she can hang on to that. It's a good skill. You know, she kind of alluded to the fact that we talked. We talked for like an hour and a half that next day pretty intensely because she was feeling intensely about the day. And, And there were a lot of moments in that conversation that exposed this kind of, you know, call it maturity or call it whatever.

But ability to process at least, like a little bit of self-awareness. Yeah. God, I think she could really be such a tremendously great athlete in the future. I'm so excited. Yeah. Sweet. Well, same. Hope everyone enjoyed the pod this week.

Next week, Paula, we'll be back. We'll wait until she's back to record the podcast whenever you. she returns. Right. Right. And Flynn, I can see Flynn in the corner of your screen, by the way, and a ball in the ground. Yeah, he's had a good day. He's been a, he's just had a couple of runs around on the beach, his favorite place. Love it. What's left of the beach? Geez. Oh, my gosh, man. King Tides, watch out. Or watch. It's a sight to see, I have to say. Thanks for hanging out, everybody. See you next week. Thank you.