That Triathlon Life Podcast - Should you keep pedaling or tuck on a descent, getting comfortable in aero, draft-legal racing for beginners, and more!

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

It's a warm, smoky evening in Bend, the kind where you drive to Sisters for training and now you're recording a podcast instead of sleeping. We kept it deliberate and efficient this week, which means we absolutely went off on mattresses, California Chicken Cafe, and ice cream. In between, a great bag of questions.This week we discussed:1x vs. 2x drivetrains: the actual advantages of each and why most people should just stick with a two byWhen to stop pedaling and tuck on a descentDraft-legal racing for a first-timer: how the pace works at the start of each leg, why staying near the front of a group saves energyBuild our ideal triathlon city using places we've actually been: road running, trail running, road cycling, gravel/MTB, open water swimming, airport, coffee, pastries, donuts, restaurants, and weatherXterra racing and the suffering question: is it a matter of learning to dig deeper or a matter of training?Getting comfortable in aero on a TT bike when you're scared, Paula's day-before-Challenge-Daytona story and why race day has a way of sorting it outHow many pro races have Eric and Paula actually done? Pro Tri News has a number that may or may not be rightCrank length and hip injury: when to experiment with shorter cranks and when to leave well enough aloneWhat actually constitutes good bike technique, and whether the pedal stroke matters as much as Eric thinks it doesLong rides on a gravel rail trail vs. TT bike before an IronmanAQI thresholds for training in wildfire smokeHeart rate spikes in T2 from bike to run, what's happening physiologically and the breathing reset trickDisney princess themed bikesA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive. To submit a question and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. And welcome to our triathlon podcast. Paul and I are both professional athletes, Nick's professional musician, amateur triathlet, lover of the sport. And we're just going to talk about what's going on in the triathlon world right now in our triathlon world and get into some questions submitted by everyone who listens. So if that is you, thank you. We appreciate you. We got a lot of questions this week. And we're going to try to hit as many of them as possible in a semi-rapid fire in an expedious manner. That's the idea this week. I got to be in bed in 53 minutes, so...

Okay, great. Well, that's the goal. And I need to eat a bowl of ice cream first. It's a lot of evening. Evening's really heating up. What's the flavor of ice cream? I'm not sure yet. It'll be decided later. Oh, I see. We have options. We may have options. I don't know if we have options. This might require some sourcing. I see. Okay. Same here.

Very warm here. It's been smoky. We woke up this morning. It was very smoky. So we had to pack everything up. Drive over to sisters, one town over. Paul, it did a three-hour bike ride with intervals in it. Then we drove back to town. Got to swim in. Had a bunch of chores to do.

And here we are now. So just a little warm and worn out. There's a little question about smokiness actually this week. So you'll get to talk about it even more. I know you're dying to talk about the smoke and bend. It's all we talk about. Happy to. It's all we think about.

So I'm going to start out here with a bike tech with Eric question. Okay, this is from Joshua. Two-part question, that's sort of a bike tech with Eric. Part one, aside from it looking super slick, what kind of measurable benefits are there for swapping between one by and two-by versus just sticking with one crank and maybe changing cassettes? A little confused by that wording there. but I'm running a 54-41 with a 3610 cassette that's been perfect for hilly races like Nice and flat rolling as well.

Part two, during a descent, when you run out of gears, when is it better to stop pedaling and just tuck in, Joshua? Funny, these are kind of related questions, both to gearing. So let's start with the first one. What are the actual advantages between a one-by and a two-by? two-by you have more options a one-by is theoretically a little bit lighter weight and more aerodynamic because you don't have the derailer hang in there

and you're never going to have to worry about dropping your chain basically because you're not shifting the front derailer that's it right for 99% of people I would say do a two-by we just happen to use one-bys because we have SRAM as a sponsor and we can switch all the time we have like four different front chainering options

but if there is a course it necessitates it like Nice or Lake Placid, Paula ran a two-by. So I kind of just say for most people just stick with a two-by all the time. Well, the other downside of the two-by is the cost. You have to buy a front derailer and I mean, it's more expensive to have a two-bye slightly

if you're worried about that. If you're building a bike from scratch, yes. It's just so many bikes come with a two-by and then you will buy the additional one chain ring set up, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

To answer the question fully, swapping back and forth, just because we can. And okay, what about the part two? During a descent, when you run out of gears, when is it better to stop peddling and just tuck in? That's kind of a feel-based thing. How comfortable are you pedaling at like 140 RPM? I think when you,

have you ever gone downhill and you're next to your buddy who's pedaling and sitting up versus you tucking in? And it's almost always faster to tuck in than it is to pedal when you're going that fast, I think. Well, you're not allowed to do a super tuck, though. No, no, but even just like a... Yeah, what just occurred to me is that my brain went immediately to dissents

that you're going to not be able to pedal at all versus one where it's like you're on that line of like riding down Mount Bachelor. I could keep pedaling, pushing 350 watts to go half a mile an hour faster, or I could not conserve energy and take a drink of water. Yeah, I think when you're racing especially,

it's good to use those opportunities to recover and get your heart right down. a bit. Yeah, maybe come up with a rule, like if going between zero and your threshold power only increases your speed by half a mile per hour, don't pedal. Don't do it. And think of it holistically, too, like, yeah, maybe that descent is slightly faster, but at what cost for the rest of the race? Also, a lot of the times, if you're not peddling, you feel more stable if you're tucked in a bit. So if you're like pedaling at 120 cadence in your bars and it's, you're going really fast, Sometimes you feel a little bit more in control

if you can just grab your base bar and talk a bit. There you go. Listen to your heart. Yeah, it is very field-based. Listen to your heart. Okay, let's move on to questions. You can submit your questions to the podcast

at Thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast, where you can also become a podcast supporter. I feel like I say those exact words every single time at this point. There were about 50 to 60 episodes there where I was making it up each time and now I feel like it's a well-oiled machine. But yes, please podcast supporters,

we love you. Thank you for supporting the podcast. We know that it's mostly a show of your love. And we are very happy to receive that love from you. So thank you podcast supporters. We're big love receivers. You have to mix it up just enough that people to know that it's not a script that we're just like hitting play. Oh, no.

There's nothing. There's no script here. I love the podcast when they're like talking and then it's just they like clearly hit the play button and it's the person's voice from like 10 years ago and they sounded younger and happy and happier. And then it gets back to the regular show after they've done the intro. I also don't appreciate the AI ad reads in the middle of podcast. That's a thing? Yes.

Like how? You just can tell it's not a person saying it? So even through our podcast services that we use, you can type in a script and it'll read whatever you want. In his voice. In an AI voice. Actually, and for the three of us, we can have it in our own voice. if we'd wanted to. And it's very convincing. I did it with my own voice,

and it sounds like me. What do you mean for the three of us? Not for everybody, though? No, for anyone who uses the same service that we use, if you have enough hours with the voices, it knows your voice, and you can make it say anything you want. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Just read the script. Somebody's paying you to read the script. Ain't anybody got time for that, Eric. Well, maybe the AI makes it sound more natural, whatever. No, no, it doesn't. It doesn't. It's literally just, it's a useless thing that is destroying the environment for no reason at all. I mean, I guess if, like, we could use Bruce Willis's voice for, like, our ads, then maybe we could do ads. We wouldn't pick some famous people. Right. We don't do ads on this podcast, but Eric and I are in the market for a new mattress. If there's any mattresses, companies out there, we'll do a mattress ad for you in exchange for a mattress.

Can I recommend temporepetic? That's what I use and I just love it. Are there, is it worth it? I really like it. I've had mine for since college. And there are thousands of dollars. Yeah. Have you ever had like another nice mattress? No.

Okay. No. Well, temper pedics are nice. Well, yeah, I mean like, if he came from like a freaking lumpy college mattress straight to a temperedic versus you've like sampled a few spending off. Yeah.

The mattress that we're on, we got in exchange for a YouTube video back in like 2020. So it just feels like it's getting. really saggy and Eric's not sleeping well and my hypothesis is maybe we need a new mattress. But we really got to go to the mattress store and just lie on all of them and I don't really want to order another box

mattress. Although maybe some of them are good. If anyone has, I'm going to get a billion emails after this, but. Well, it's the one in the guest room a box one? Yeah. I'll end up going and sleeping in the guest room when I can't sleep. I don't like that one though. That's my bed. Well, yeah, I don't know, but, you know.

I think we need to go and get like a I don't know what we're looking for, but... I really like the memory phone ones. I really, really love them. Is that what the Temporepatic is? Yeah, but since then, a lot of companies have made their version of it. So I'm sure... Temporetic is also this, like, big name.

So I'm sure there's people who have the same technology, but for a better price or have figured out something else about it. Right. All right, on that tangent. On that tangent, here's our first question. from Jake from Florida. Hey guys, thanks so much for the realness, vibes,

and creativity you all bring to the sport. As I was listening to the pod last week, I was wondering how many total professional races, WTCS, 70.3s, T-100s, and, you know, Iron Man, looking at you, Paula. Eric and Paula have done. I looked it up on ProTri-News's website, but I wanted to see if you guys could guess.

Answers are below. Nick definitely chime in. We all want to know. Every single pro race we've ever done. I'm looking at the numbers right now, and it's a lot. They are very, very high numbers. I feel like I saw the number because I was the one that did the questions, Nick.

And I actually thought it was a bit low because does pro tri-nees include escape from Alcatraz, St. Anthony's. Right. There's some kind of alternative-style races. Alternative races, like L.A. Tri. I did a ton of those races. Xteras. Yeah, does it include Xteras? Because I think that numbers are actually pretty low.

I've been racing since 2006. That's 20 years. So if that's my actual number, that's only like four races a year. That's completely wrong. Yeah. Is it 107? That's my actual number? 107, yeah.

Yeah, I think that's wrong. Damn. Because that's only five races a year. Your first race on here is 2008, the Connie Cup. Okay. even before 2008, I'd done a ton of races in six and seven. Yeah, so that's not right. But did I check if they have like St. Anthony's and all this stuff.

Yeah, yeah. So it's not on here. Yeah. What about Alcatraz? Not on here. Olympics. Are those on there? Or like...

You assume they scraped the WTCS IT website. Yeah, probably. Olympics would show up on there. Yeah, Rio is on here. Well, okay. So yeah, Paula, your number on here is. 103 and it's low. It's not even accurate.

I don't think it's close. I would have guessed 200. Oh my gosh. 200 times. Yeah, I would have guessed like 150. Because that's 10 races a year, which is what I did on. Like when you're racing short course, you raise more than 10 times a year sometimes. Yeah, 16 times in one year.

Yeah. That's so many times to wake up early and be nervous about a thing and like plan out. Just get used to it, man. It's just another day. Do you feel like you guys were less nervous? for those. I feel like you get more nervous when you race less. Like I feel like time and time again we hear, oh, I just had

a great Iron Man block and I'm so fit. It's the best I've had six months of unbroken training and then you go to have a terrible race. It's like you're so locked up and haven't just like raced lately. Yeah. Okay, well let's just tell the pro Chinese guys that their count is wrong.

Let's bring that to their attention. Your count is wrong guys. And I know they listen. So, um, okay, Eric, what do you think your number is? Yeah, I would have guessed 150, so I'm going to be way off. 70 on here. It's so wrong.

It's completely wrong. Wow. You see it? You're saying Eric's done three races a year. Wow. I did my first pro race in, I guess, 2012. So I've been racing pro less time than Paula. Right, right.

Whatever, you know, whatever that means. Yeah, okay. That is, you know, there's, I think a lot of people, listen that have raced maybe three or four times ever. And they feel like, and as do I, that triathlon is a big part of their life. So to think that you could race 100 plus times, 200 plus times, it's so much. Yeah, but I've never worked a job in my life. Because we love it.

I've never, like, had an actual job ever. So if you put it that way, it's not that crazy, you know? Yeah. I'm just looking at my own USAT results and I have 35. One second. I keep doing this. I've only raced twice as many times as you. False.

We need to get to the bottom of this. You know what I love? I love Rapid Fire podcasts. Can we move on? Yeah, we can move on. Can we just agree that I've done more races than you and move on? Oh, poor Eric. Just kidding.

That's all the matters, isn't it? No, actually, I don't care if I've done more races than Eric. That's not what I'm bad. have. I mean, if it's pro races, then yeah, for sure. Anyway, yes, many, many, many, many races. Okay, next question here is from Phil. I'm racing Ironman Kalmar this weekend and I've shipped my bike with team truck from Ireland. The good thing with the service is that I don't need to disassemble the bike. It is secure in the truck by removing the front wheel and locking it to a bracket with the through axle, which, Erica, I think is how you guys have it set up in the van, right? Yeah, yeah, that's

Great. No bikes smash into each other. My question is, do you think I should loosen screws and add fresh locktight prior to the race? Or should I rely on the locktide that was placed on all screws about a month ago? All training rides have gone well since with none coming loose. Do I risk creating a problem that doesn't currently exist if I start disassembling and reapplying locktite?

Thanks, Phil. What? I would say yes. We don't have locktite on any of our bikes. Yes to what? I mean there's like a couple of bolts on our bikes that have locktide on them but not all of them yeah yeah especially if it's a month old that's like that's basically new yeah well easy question easy question phil and this is because of the fear of the travel and the like the shakiness

of the yeah i guess oh yeah no i wouldn't be i wouldn't be right i would check it when you get it yeah on the other side just bring your little torque right you're and just make sure it's up to spec. A little torquey, torky. Okay, easy. Next one. I absolutely love your podcast. I had a question that kind of ties into Nick's comments about the objectivity and lack of tactics in triathlon.

In September, I'm heading to Europe to race my first ever draft legal sprint triathlon as an age grouper. I'm a middle of the pack swimmer and my strength is running. Also, never done any bike racing. So the tactical side of draft legal race is completely new to me. How would you suggest managing the bike portion of the race? race, Carl. Wait, what did he say at first that you say triathons not tactical at all?

That's what he said last week. Lack of tactics. I was saying that compared to bike racing. Oh, okay. In long course triathlon. Yeah, in long course, yeah. I don't know, it's kind of interesting because my expectation of an age group draft legal race is that it's going to be much less of a group

than in a professional draft legal race because just like the spread of abilities will be slightly wider. So my guess is that getting comfortable riding like in a crit with a hundred people is really not going to be that important versus if you can find yourself a hard group ride to get into and practice paying attention to who's strong,

who might be a little sketchier and not handling their bike, who might be looking like they're weaker and might let a gap open in front of you. I feel like that'll be the most applicable exercise you could do. Do you feel like this was one of the big advantages that you guys had training with Powell is that you basically had this as much as you wanted it with people that were actually doing this racing?

100%. Yeah, on the bike and the run and the swim. Racing is often as we wanted to. When you're training it with a group. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a huge difference. You can't really train for short course racing on your own.

If you're younger, I think someone like Gwen could get away with it because she's done so much group training, but it's such a benefit. Yeah. Yeah, group ride. And it's fun. Yeah, and if you, all you do is, even if you have like four friends, like that's, that's worth shot, like practice pacelining a little bit. Yeah. Somebody, like, take turns being the person that's going to attack the group randomly in the middle of a 10 minute paceline, something like that. And then everybody else has to chase you down. Like, just practice some things like that and just get comfortable rotating in a group, I think would be the biggest thing. What's the actual question? What do you suggest for managing the bike portion of the race?

For a, yeah. Is there anything that you feel like is different in in draft legal bike racing, draft legal triathlon, the bike portion of it, that you would say to look out for as someone is doing it first? Like, are there attacks that happen in places that you wouldn't necessarily expect? No. I think the biggest thing that you need to get used to is, have you ever done a cross-country race, cross-country running,

or have you watched one? Like, the swim is going to start really, fast because people want to get, you know, establish a group, try to drop somebody if they're a good swimmer. And then the bike is going to start really fast because people are going to try to drop any week or cyclist or get into the next group and then it'll settle down. And the same thing with the run. That's how the professional racing works anyway. People are thinking, oh, I want to get into a pack or I want to drop that person out of this pack. So the pacing is completely, there's no pacing. It's just an X effort until it settles down. Right. That's kind of, that's how it works for us anyway.

And that's unusual. Also, if you are in a big group and you go around a corner or a 180, the further back you are, the more the accordion effect hits you and you have to do a bigger surge after the corner. So if you do happen to get into a big group, it's better to stay near the front if you can, even if that means you're doing more work. Because then you avoid crashes and you avoid this accordion surge you have to do. Yeah, near the front, not necessarily on the front. And do you feel like it's worth trying to hang on at the beginning of each leg to see if it settles down and you can stay with it? Heck yeah. That's going to be the fun of this thing. You don't want to go to a draft legal race and just time trial because you want to stay within your watts while the group goes and works together. Embrace the whole thing. Try to get into a group.

Great. Well, good luck, Carl. Next one here is from Taylor. High tripod, thought it could be fun for each of you to build your ideal city. And let's just do this together, actually, by taking elements from places you've been rapid fire. style. In building your ideal city, where are you choosing for each of these categories? Okay. This is fun. Yes. I'll read them all now so you know what we're talking about. Road running, trail running, road cycling, gravel slash mountain bike cycling, open water swimming, airport, coffee, pastries, donuts, restaurant, social activities, weather, and places that give you the most training, stoke motivations. So let's kind of go quickly with these, but for road running, where would you prefer.

Road running. Yeah. Of the places you guys have been. Ew. Wait, we have to say a place? Yeah. Road running? I don't like running on the road.

I've never evaluated a place based on road running. I don't know, Portland. Yeah, maybe Portland. Cool. Trail running. Banff? Yeah. That would be it for me. Or someplace that I haven't been yet, perhaps.

At least we're evaluating the U.S. Yeah. Doesn't have to be the U.S. Or North America. Yeah, Banff. Just because we don't have intimate knowledge of all of Europe. Road cycling. Portland.

Malibu. Well, we're just saying places we've actually been to. Well, yeah, of course. Not the best in the world. That's the question here is where the places you prefer. You're building your ideal one. Okay, yeah, the Malibu roads, for sure. Gravel slash mountain biking.

Could it be bent? No. The bend gravel riding is horrible. I wouldn't say horrible compared to some places, but it's really sandy. Mountain biking and gravel. Vancouver? Like when you cross the bridge there and you go up into those areas there? I mean, for mountain biking it would be hard to beat like North Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler.

Okay. That's tough. Open water swimming. Nemo Bay. It's a little cold. Elk Lake here. Yeah, those places are so serene and ideal. Yeah, it's hard to beat that.

I might also say like Vancouver Island, honestly, just in general, because they've got some really cool lakes there around Victoria. It's really neat. What about an airport? Does that even count? Is that fair to ask you? Portland Airport. Yeah.

Portland Airport. Okay, easy. What about best place in the world for coffee? Are we thinking Europe maybe? In the world? Well, yeah, your city. No, I've been to some Euro trips where you cannot find good coffee. Dang.

Like that T-100 in France we did? Yeah. There was no coffee shops at all. They were just making like an espresso pods. Totally. No, I would say like one of, I don't know the East Coast well enough, but my guess is like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, L.A., New York are going to be

top for coffee. Yeah. I think you're right. I think all signs you're pointing towards we need to move back to Portland. There's a lot of signs that point me in that direction. If I'm totally honest. I do love Portland. I do really love it there. Okay, what about pastries and donuts? Portland.

That might be Europe. That might be Europe. And mine is the donuts. Yeah. It's just like Portland is great because it's like super foody culture versus over like coffee and the pastries and all there's like so many little tiny micro bakeries and coffee shops.

You know, I know this isn't exactly the question but my parents have been sending me pictures of the ice cream they've been getting and how much they paid for it. So like they sent me today, this picture of this ice cream that's like it's a great portion

and it's two euro. And I guarantee you it's extremely good. And my friend and I split a kiddie ice cream last night and it was eight and that. half dollars for the kid's size you suckers straight to jail did you tip of course not

of course not of course not okay what about restaurants is this question ever ending yeah we could we could just say restaurants Portland social activities Portland and weather not Portland yeah Santa Monica for the weather

so not social activities I think social activities like bend Boulder the fit towns Right, right. Like, our social activities are we want to go for a hike and we want to go palp boarding, et cetera. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Well, there you go, Taylor. We gave you, that was a lot of time for a rapid fire style question. So hopefully. We just increased the population of Portland. Yeah, exactly. Okay, next one here is from Natalie. We'll try to keep this short. I race primarily Xera.

From listening to the pod, it seems like Stara is similar to the short course racing as far as effort levels. My coach often talks about how much I'm willing to suffer and how deep I'm willing to go is what will improve my race results. I typically feel pretty on the edge while racing, and my heart rate data supports that. Should I expect to dig deeper, or is it more a matter of my preparation and training? Sincerely, an athlete trying to decide

if I should switch to longer course racing, or if I can reasonably expect to continue hurting myself emotionally on exteric courses, Natalie. Do you understand what this question is? Because it's a little kind of confusing. Should this person figure out how to dig deeper, Natalie? dig deeper, even though it sounds like her heart rate is through the roof on the hard parts of the exterior course. In training, yes, you need to hit some really high things that make you want to completely throw up,

do like shorter, more intense intervals. But then inside of the actual race, just like a regular triathlon, you can't go completely into the red line 150 times going uphill. You have to get good at going 90%. or whatever, you know, to still make it up those climbs and maintain the momentum if there's rollers, but not blow yourself so hard that you fall off through the course of the bike effort. Does that answer the question? Yeah, it sounds like a very individual thing too.

Yeah, I think the digging deeper or going harder is just a, that's an onion that you slowly unwrap over time as you realize just how hard you can push. if you're doing five, you know, deadlifts or squats to maximum effort. Same thing with the bike. It's like, oh, wow, like I really unlocked an extra there and tapping into that during training, I think that's going to be the key. Love it. Yeah.

Okay. Next one. It doesn't have a name. I'll get to how it's signed at the end, though. Hi, TCL, new follower and loved the debrief of Lake Placid. I'm a former college swimmer, and after years of nothing. I stumbled in to try. I love it, but I'm very anxious cyclists.

I raced last year on my road bike and got my doors blown off repeatedly, as one can imagine, a non-cycling swimmer might. Yes, on your left, on repeat, becomes a soul crush, especially when you are as far right as can be already. Oh, that's rough. I put in the work this winter and now just bought a TT bike. The fit is great. It's cozy on the trainer and as pretty as can be, but I can't mentally get myself to

stay in Arrow more than one to two minutes without panic on my first few rides. Any advice on the mental aspect of learning Arrow? Race 70.3 is in six weeks and my outdoor time is insanely limited. I'm a single mom and a surgeon working absurd hours. So a lot of 5 a.m. indoor rides here. Signed, it's safer in the water. Oh, boy. So, yeah, Paula, maybe you're the right person to answer this question.

Because I am scared of my bike as well. That is inside of you somewhere and you overcome it. Yeah, it's actually crazy how many people that do triathons ride TT bikes. It's actually the most dangerous activity ever. You're riding head first, unable to break. And it's extremely scary, especially with traffic. So I completely understand your fear here. Something that I've gotten more comfortable doing and I think is good practice is

realizing how quickly you can get out of your error bars if you need to break. And it's not quite as instant as like holding your base bar all the time in breaking, but within a second you can react, get up and break. So keeping that in mind, just because you're riding in TT, it doesn't mean you can't stop or that you're stuck there. I think when the race comes, you'll naturally be much more comfortable because of the closed course. There's no cars around.

and it feels like there's something on the line. So at least for me when I'm training and I'm getting scared and I, like for example, the day before I won Challenge Daytona in 2020, it was so windy and I was so scared of my TT bike because we've been training in the winter in the garage for the last four months. I couldn't even ride a full lap

of the Daytona track in my aerobars. Do you remember that, Eric? Oh, yeah. Well, this is like the one I had the squiggly insides. No, this was Daytona, just a straight circle. It was really windy. Yeah, I remember that. And I was really scared of my bars and I couldn't even ride a single lap.

But somewhere in the back of my brain I knew I'm going to be fine tomorrow in the race. I think I vaguely remember you saying this actually. Yeah. And then I ended up having the fastest bike split in winning. So there's something that clicks on race date, hopefully for you as well. So even if you're still scared up until the day before the race, it's going to be okay. And honestly, the best answer is just practicing it. And if your time is limited, it's really hard to do that outside.

But it will get easier the more that you ride it outside, even the more you race. Like, do one race next time it'll be less scary. I'm really, it's a good thing that you feel really comfortable on it on the trainer because that's step one. It's like, does this fit feel good? Is this a position I can actually ride? And for a lot of people, that's not the case. So the fact that you feel comfortable is great. Push pedal on the powers to push power into the pedals and your bike will be more stable.

Remember that too. Maybe next time you get scared, just be like, why am I scared? Can I keep pushing a little harder? Nice. And then you make it 30 seconds longer. Yeah. Love it. I mean, I tell myself that sometimes. I'm like, why did you just get out of the bars? Everything is fine. Go back in them. I'm loving this internal dialogue. I love it too. I didn't know she said these things to herself. You guys, shut up. No, that's great. Love it. Maybe not joking at all. Love it, love it. Okay. We're going to end it there.

We'll end on top. This next one is from Imka. Greetings Tripod. We've all seen Lucy's mermaid-themed bike. If each of you could design a bike after a Disney princess, who would it be and what would it look like? Paula, you're my biggest idol, and the reason I keep trying to get better in this sport.

Congrats on Lake Placid. Can't wait to watch you, Akona. Imka. Eric, can you even name three Disney princesses? I feel like this. I can't even answer this question. Like, I'm not getting a Disney princess themed bike. Are you, is your masculinity being challenged here?

Okay. Okay. Mr. Los Angeles. I'm going to say the girl from, what's her name? Princess and the Bride, Diana, I think is her name? No, I forget her name. But it's a movie about New Orleans jazz and she turns into a frog at a certain point. I think I would, that's what I would do.

I don't even really know the Disney princess is that well. Bell. Bell from Beauty and the Beast. Oh, I guess she counts too. Right. Yeah. Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat? Ariel from Little Mermaid. Well, that's what Lucy's is. Oh, right.

Cinderella, Snow White. Ariel. Jasmine from Aladdin. Yeah. Pocahontas would be good, too. I might pick Pocahontas. I always felt like Aladdin when I was a kid, so maybe I would do Jasmine. I don't know. I feel like I looked like Aladdin. Pocahontas theme bike would be kind of sick.

Yeah. I think so. When you think Disney Princess, you don't. doesn't have to be Cinderella, crown pink sparkles. No, no, for sure. I think the colors of the wind. Colors of the wind. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. Yeah, that's the answer. Nice. Nice. Okay. Next one here. Jenny from the Hills of Connecticut. Hi, all, congrats to Eric and Nick for being an amazing support team to Paula at Lake Placid. Hoping Paula will appreciate that enough to read this question. As I watched Paul's Ironman and the long game coverage, which is Eric

series that he did on the Ironman YouTube page and continued to be blown away by admiration and awe I've been wondering about individual strength and needing others by doing triathlon I have grown my own resilience and capability at the same time there's nothing like hearing go TTL and recognizing the community support and feeling gratitude for my own supporters how do you three think about blending individual grit and knowing when to let others carry you along thanks for inspiring me to become a triathlete jenny from the hills of connecticut It's interesting, right? Because I think a lot of what keeps people excited about triathlon is the individual effort that it takes to achieve it.

But then we also all love this community aspect of it. I was actually just talking about it this morning about how the community has kept me excited and working hard in the sport. I'm more of a lone ranger. Like in terms of my motivation and why I do triathlon. I don't feel like I can remember leaning on someone being like, I just don't want to go train today or whatever, should I just quit being an athlete or something? I get a lot out of going with friends on bike rides

to train with them and enjoy the community aspect of it, but it's not like, I don't know, that just makes it so much more enjoyable, but it's not a matter if I wasn't going to go ride without that, I guess. I don't know if that makes sense. Perfect sense. And then, I don't know, I just, like,

I do think the sports, it breaks you down and can make you really tired and that sort of leaks into other things in my life and when I'm struggling with just being tired and unable to deal with something else, then that's usually when I feel like I have really good friends that I can talk to like four or five different guys, including my dad about I'm struggling emotionally or whatever where I'm going with this or, you know, this thing. And it's a lot of times I do think it happens because I'm tired. I'm a bit, I don't understand the question. How much of your motivation in the sport comes from a personal...

A motivation in the sport, so it's not like while you're racing. I mean, it can be while you're racing, yeah. That's also motivation. Would you still do triathlon if Eric and Nick, your best husbands weren't there, you know? Or would... I don't know, Nick, why don't you answer it? I feel very similar to Eric. I like the community thing and it adds a lot to me, but I think it's kind of a nice bonus.

It's not at the core of what's motivating me. But truly, if I didn't have the two, of you, I don't, I was thinking about this, I don't know how much I'd still be as committed to this sport versus maybe I'd be more into gravel racing or trail running or something. I think there's something about the two of you that has kept me in triathlon specifically. And I'm grateful for that. It's become more part of your life. Yeah. Or like your, your, you're, every day, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool. Next question here is from Matt from the Pacific Northwest, with it being smoke and wildfire season, I was curious what triggers you to move

training indoors or to travel somewhere with cleaner air? Is there a certain AQI number when you can't see the mountains from your front door or something else? Matt from Pacific Northwest. We look at the AQI, but it seems like every app has a slightly different AQI, but we generally, at least for me, I don't like doing hard sessions above 100 AQI and I don't like doing any training at all above 150, the pool closes at 200. And that's pretty high. But under 100, I think, is good. It's so hard because sometimes it'll say a really high number and you'll go outside and it'll kind of smell like smoke, but you'll still see blue sky a little bit and it's not that bad. So if it visually looks really smoky, 100% I'm not going to go.

Do you have the opposite too, where it'll say it's clear, but it actually doesn't look like it? Not really. Yeah, usually it's like the numbers are bad. Because who knows where the sensors are and these things can be very isolated. Like the wind is blowing here more than there on the east side of bend. So maybe it's worse over there. So I don't know. But like today, there was this huge squiggly, I just posted it on my story actually, purple air cloud above bend. But in Sisters, which is only a 30 minute drive, it was green and AQI 50. So we drove out to sisters and had a completely clear, beautiful ride. So it often doesn't take much to get out of it. But it is super annoying. And we do a lot of indoor training because of it with like air filters in our garage. Yeah. Yeah.

And the coast almost always stays clear. Yeah. That's really nice. Although last week it did get smoky. Like the wind blew so far east that it is scary. And I've thought more and more about it this year, just the fear of even been having a fire nearby. because we do get a lot of smoke from other places, but there's a lot of forest here.

Yeah, it's a scary, weird time of year, and a lot of people in many areas of the world don't have to worry about this, but this is like the reality of our summertime. And dare I ask, does Portland get smoke? Not as much. Not as much, but... It kind of gets caught in the...

What are we? In the Cascades? We're up to the east of the Cascade range. Caught on the east side for the most part. Yeah, for the smoke to get over the mountains, usually doesn't do that. Yeah. Okay.

Next question here is from Alex. Hey guys, my question is regarding a comment that Eric made in one of the recent bike build videos. Eric mentioned that he may have gotten his hip injury because of the 172.5 mil crank that he had been using. It reminded me that Vingago used last year, not sure if he still does, a 150 millimeter crank. Feels like a big gap between both sizes. I was wondering if you have any considerations slash tips on how to think about crank length. Would it be something that would vary person to person based on body type and kind of writing? Or are there some general guidelines associated to performance and or injury prevention?

Thanks for everything you do. Big fan of Look for Things Where You Can Find Them, which by the way is the film that Eric and I made. It's on YouTube. The whole video was great. And more than a year later, I still listen to the soundtrack, obsessed with the song The Long Way Home. Have a great day. Alex. Thanks, Alex.

We appreciate that. Do you guys have thoughts on the crank length stuff? we were actually just having this conversation with Jason Pohl, who's another professional triathlet here in Bend, because he came over to borrow some 165s from us. I think he's like 6-2, maybe even three. Right. And he's had some hip discomfort,

and so he's giving that a shot. Paula basically responded to him asking her if she's gone down in crankling significantly, and she said no, because she hasn't had any serious hip issues. So if it's if it's not broken, if you don't feel super restricted over the top of your pedal stroke

or there's something weird or your hips hurt or, you know, then I would say don't mess with it. But, well, at least when I started bike racing and doing triathlon and poll, it did people our size, the medium bikes all came speced with 172.5 millimeter cranks. I don't know if that's still the case.

I actually haven't looked recently since all our bikes come as frames. But I would say it's more appropriate for, seems more appropriate for someone of Paul in my height to be on 165s. Yeah, 172.5 is, is pretty long. Yeah, there's, I mean, for, yeah, for Vingo go to be on a 150,

I think he does have the advantage of being able to ride, like, on an erg and be metabolically tested with these different crank lengths on top of, you know, a person looking at his geometry of his bone structure and everything. arriving at conclusion that this is the best, but it's definitely not just shorter is better 100% of the time. And you've got to understand there is going to be some sort of a,

there's going to be an adaptation period. If your cranks are now two centimeters, you know, shorter than they used to be, like that your muscles are firing differently. Yeah. Two centimeters, is that the difference? Between a 170 and 150. Yeah. Oh, okay.

That's a big jump. Yeah. Yeah. That's a huge jump. Yeah. Okay, next one here. This is funny. Hey, two Iron Men and Eric.

Paula mentioned doing long sessions as part of Full Iron Man distance training, specifically four times 40 minute sessions. I'm curious, what do you guys do between sets? All the donuts stretch, fluid, or doom scrolling. Thanks for keeping real. Between sets of 40 minutes? Yeah, so that's funny. This is outside.

Yeah, it's outside. There's no options for that. But if you were on the trainer, would you, you're not, you would never, would you ever get off? And no, you're riding the whole time, even on the trainer. Yeah. No, if you're on the trainer, you just ease up the watts a little bit and drink or eat. And I think that's one of the benefits of trainer riding that make you so strong is there's never a break in the pedaling. So it's, it's really hard to do. But if we're outside and we're between sets and we have like 10 minutes cruise, then, yeah, it's just trying to get your heart rate back down.

relax a little bit, not spin so easy, like still put tension in the pedals, but a lot of the time I actually get a prescribed watt range for the off. Yeah. And often it's not even that easy. It's still like trying a little bit hard. So it just depends what the goal of the session is. How do you try to stick to the off watts if like you try to go too low? Yeah, I always stick to them. Yeah. Because my tendency is always to go high anyway. Right, right. So not a chance in hell I'm going below. Yeah, right. Of course.

Of course. Couldn't have that. Yeah. Okay, quick one from Alexa. What would you say constitutes good bike technique? For example, good swimming technique includes good catch and early vertical forearm, but what do you think about on the bike? Thank you for all your advice and inspiration, Alexa.

I can think of a few things, but it's not as punished as the swim, for sure. I think the bike peddling technique is very It's kind of in You know You just do it Some people love better than others And of course you can fix it and work on it But it's very natural

I kind of think like pedaling is one of the only things That it doesn't matter that much I think of like Oh I think it really matters Your elbows flaring and No I think the pedal stroke Pedal stroke matters more than anything I think

Wow like what's bad what's a bad pedal stroke do you think Like super toe down like not engaging the right muscles, having your seat too far forward or back, how much your ankle flexes. I think there's a lot to it. In fact, I think two people with the exact same wattage, one could go much faster than the other

based on their peddling technique. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really believe in that. I think Taylor Nib has a perfect pedal technique. Wow. It's not something I ever really think about. I think about other things, my body position, where my butt is on the saddle, where my hands are, how low I am. If I'm out of the saddle, what my body is doing versus what the bike is doing. I don't think a lot of people think about their pedal stroke.

That's what I was saying. Right. It just kind of happens. But what do you think, Eric? Are you agreeing with me or no? No. But I understand what you're trying to say. I do think you can go like the same power but have like less torque, less hot spots in the pedal stroke.

but I don't know. I really have a hard time believing that one person can be doing 250 and that person can be 250, but one person's just peddling more smoothly and that's equating to, I guess it kind of just depends how rapidly your power meter like samples, maybe if we're going to argue before Paula's point. I guess it's like it's remotely possible

if you had a very smooth, smooth 250 watts versus a herky jerky, 250 watts. Also it just affects how your body moves. if you're stable, if your core is strong. There's... But we're not answering the question. She's asking what is considered good technique on the bike. I mean, whenever I think of good technique,

I'm thinking more of cornering ability and body position and center of gravity, all that. It's got nothing to do with, like, you're peddling while in an arrow position. Like, that's literally the lowest skill activity I can think of is pedaling while in an arrow. It's not just pedaling. You're fully locked into the position.

But, Nick, you say this all the time. some people look so bad on a bike compared to others look more natural and professional. Yeah, yeah. Right? Even really good athletes that get on a bike, like good runners or something. They'll get on a bike and look super awkward and be super stiff. It's very obvious to me when someone gets out of the saddle. You immediately can see it when someone doesn't have it or when someone does have it.

Or like when someone goes around a corner and they're like sitting up instead of getting low and shifting their weight back. It just looks weird. It looks off. It looks like they're not comfortable on a bike. These are all road bike things. Yeah, they're not TT bike things, I guess. That's the truth. That's road bike things. Yeah, I would say the number one tip is to be relaxed.

Bend your elbows a bit. Like, don't be stiff and upright. The bike is part of you. Yeah. You want to have a stable upper body, so core work is important. There you go. It's a hard question. Yeah, that's hard.

Okay. Next one here. Second to last. Look, we're being so good about time. Hi, tripod. I'm training for Iron Man, California. I've been using a rail-to-trail for long rides on a gravel bike. Have a TT bike, but I feel a lot safer doing my long rides on gravel without cars. The distances take a lot longer than they would on my TT bike. So my question is, what's your take on century rides before an Iron Man?

Would I get the same benefit doing a hard gravel ride for less distance but the same amount of time? Sky. No, you have to ride your TT bike. Didn't we talk about this two weeks ago? Yes, we did. You have to ride your TT bike, Sky. It's not the same. I'm sorry, it's horrible. It's not the same. It's not the same. It's not the same. It's not the same. Riding gravel is way more fun. We know, but it's not the same. There's a lot more. If I go out on a gravel ride and I'm not super technically good, there's so much zero power time as I like go down a little. single track thingy or I'm just coasting down a bumpy hill. Of course, I'm not peddling. And that's not what we're even talking about. Like that's just another, that's another problem. Well, no, no, no. That's the difference between if I go for a long gravel ride or a long TT ride. If I'm doing a long

TT ride, I'm pedaling for 95% of the ride. If I do a gravel ride, I'm pedaling for 70% of the ride. You know, maybe that's just me. But because of the technicality of gravel riding, there's a lot more time, or you're doing super high watts to get over something or no watts because it's a little too technical. Yeah, fortunately for this person, they're talking about a gravel rail trail, so it's going to be pretty consistent. Okay, never mind then. Right, Nick. Right. But we still think we need to ride the TT bike to do a TGRAC. It's just a position. There's like a physiology associated with that you need to develop with riding a TT bike that is not the same on a gravel bike. I've learned this the hard way. Just ride the T.

bike on the rail trail. Yeah, put some gravel powers on there. Like, you could ride a TT bike on all the boulder gravel. Oh my God, that's kind of funny, actually. Like, what do you think about this idea? What do you think about putting arrow bars on your gravel bike and riding in your TT position?

I mean, that's totally... If you can get the fit the same, yes. If it's the exact same fit. That's a great idea. Because it has nothing to do with, really, with how faster going. Although there is a skill development part of riding your time trail bike quickly and getting used to that feeling versus being on a gravel bike and going slower.

But yeah, if your body's in that position, it's like riding the trainer versus the road. It's not that different in terms of what surface you're on. Do you feel like you guys kind of have an intuition when you're riding the CTT bike in Arrow that you kind of know what to manipulate in your body at certain speeds to make yourself go faster? It's almost like you can hear it or feel it or something. Yeah, sometimes I mean, I'll usually shift back if I'm on a downhill. Yeah, I feel like certain speeds like, oh, my head is actually, I need to be like a little lower here and my shoulders need to come a little closer here. I don't know. Maybe it's just, maybe it's a placebo effect, but.

No, this is kind of the same reason you would use a long stretchy rubber band around your waist in the pool. I don't know if you've ever seen somebody do that. No, I've never seen that. You like stretch the rubber band the entire, it's like an exercise physio cord, but it's like 20 yards long stretch at the end. entire length of the pool and then you swim with it pulling you super fast and so you can feel all these spots where your shoulders sticking out or your head is too high out of the water it becomes so accentuated with the speed that it's really helpful that was so fun in swimming it's also super fun yeah we used to do every Friday power hour when I was a swimmer and you'd get to use the buckets where you're just doing super short explosive stuff and that was included in this you put the

there was some serious injuries by the way that happened when these cords was like break but a kid stands behind the blocks yes a kid stands behind the block and the other kid has it around his waist and usually you'd walk down on the side of the pool because it gets so stretchy well you can do it either way you can like see how far you can get resisting it or somebody can just walk down if you're going for just the speed half oh yeah if you swim against it you're just swimming slow but yeah if you walk down the pool and you get to the end and you're like it's pulling me so hard and then you dive in the water. It's the most fun feeling ever,

and the thing is just pulling you back and the kid on the side with the blocks is like cranking it back. Yeah. And you literally are probably swimming like faster than world record pace. Yeah, but you do get... I get the same feeling at home.

If you want to try this with fins, you get a similar feeling. You're swimming so fast, you're like, oh, I see where I'm supposed to be with this thing. This is another level. Yeah, it's next level. You're not putting out any more effort

than you would normally be. You're going to get one of these and bring it to base camp. That's my new thing. Everybody should experience this. Great. Yeah. And injuries, you'll have to sign a waiver beforehand.

It's a brand new one. It's not like one that's been used by 600 children. Yeah, I can't remember the snapping was so bad. Oh my gosh. Like cut someone. Oh, my God. Wow. That sounds great.

Things you do back in the day. Anyway. Yeah, I love the idea, though. That's fun. Okay. And final one here's from Aaron. Hey, TTL team. I'm completing my first ever triathlon.

this weekend, sprint distance, with an Olympic one in September. My question is, why does my heart rate spike when I transition from the bike to the run? And how do I minimize it? Even if I run slow for the first five minutes, it still spikes. Thanks, Aaron. Well, Aaron, what's the problem with your heart rate spiking? That's my question. Doesn't feel good?

It hurts. It hurts. Life hurts. Triathlon hurts. Nick, you're being spicy in this podcast. I feel like Aaron, like you chose this not because it was easy, but because it was hard. And it's going to... I'm into that. I'm into that for sure.

Don't let I have a heart attack, but I agree to some extent. Yeah, I don't know if there's like some master's solution to this other than being fitter, but... What's the question? But I think even when your body's doing a different thing. Yeah, even when you're fitter, when you go from one sport to the other, it takes time for your body to figure out where to put the blood and adapt. Yeah. He's talking about swim to bike or bike to run? Bike to run.

Okay. And like when you ride your bike, like you just cannot get your heart rate as high as you can get your heart rate when you're running. This is fact. Yeah. And when you're biking, you're using, like, some of your core muscles and stuff, but mostly your legs and like a lot of glutes and quads, right? And then you switch to running and your entire freaking body is involved in this. And so, yeah, you just basically doubled the amount of muscles that are being activated,

more oxygen. And it's hard. And your body knows, like, oh, my God, this is hard. Yeah. Also, your body was like thinking that you were about to be done with this stupid activity and now you started a harder activity. Exactly. When my heart rate feels like it's getting too high or I'm breathing too hard, I think, and actually they were talking about this with Demi Vollering and the tour, I don't know if it's accurate or not, but doing a little bit of breath work. Like take a really deep breath and it kind of resets your brain. And of course you're still working super hard and your heart rate's high, but I think it lowers your heart rate. a little bit, or at least you can settle into a more natural breathing rhythm, and it just

feels like a good reset. And I do this when I touch the wall in the pool too. Sometimes if I feel like I'm so out of breath and I can't imagine doing the next one, I'll just do an extra big breath and instantly I feel better. Yeah, that's good advice, I think. Yeah, I like that. You can do it, Aaron. Just like we did it today on the podcast. We made it through. Did what? just it we started with high well we didn't really start with high heart rates

no what Aaron is going to get through the race just like we got through this specific podcast today sometimes things are hard and you just do them sometimes things are hard but you do them

this is probably one of our worst podcasts it's not one of our best it's not one of our best which we've really gone downhill I feel like last thing's also good fire lately in my opinion Last week's was not very professional. Professional.

Since when are we professional? No one comes here for professional. That's boring. All right. Well, yeah, we're going to go discover what ice cream flavors are. Don't we have one more question? Freezer holds. No, that's it.

Oh, that was it. Yeah. Well, it is 805. It is 805. 805. No, the questions are so good every week. Honestly, reading through them is really fun because for as long as we've done this, You think there can't possibly more questions about TRAflon.

We've hit them all. And yet there's really interesting, thought-provoking questions. So thank you to everyone who sends them in. If we didn't get to yours, try again. Doesn't mean your question was bad. Maybe we just ran out of time or had too many. Maybe shorten it. I even read the long ones lately.

The ones I tend not to leave in is if they're so hyper-specific to this one person that it wouldn't necessarily be useful to the greater listener, you know? Like locktight on your bike that you put on a month ago, but then you're traveling with the bike? That's pretty specific. Yeah, you're right. But I thought it might like bringing up locktight. I like the specific questions personally, but yeah.

No, Nick, you don't see the ones that are so specific. You're right, you're right. Well, it's ice cream o'clock and I still have to have dinner, so. You still have to have dinner. I came straight back from the run. What are you having for dinner? I've been being very good, and I'm having a chicken breast in a bagged salad. And what about your carbohydrates?

There's carbohydrates in the bagged salad. No, there's not. I guess I could make rice, but I had a huge, huge portion of pasta for lunch. Okay, what do you guys think about this? Can he skip carbs at dinner if he ate carbs at luncheerick? What would you say? Why are you skipping carbs at dinner? Because I'm lazy.

What are you going to eat for dinner? A chicken breast and a bag salad. The time I've had to repeat questions on this podcast. Exactly 200 calories. No, it's like 7,800 calories, I think. The bag salad itself has like dressing. The bag sales is like 650 calories. I would seriously eat a bag of, not a bag, but I would eat a bowl of cereal.

There's no way on this earth I would go through a dinner without carbs. If I want to train and be a serious athlete the next day. Is ice cream a carb? Yeah. You won't be under-fueled, but will you be optimized? That's the path you want. You got to walk. No, you're right. You're right. Maybe I'll make some rice. Throw some rice in there. Okay, I want photo proof of this.

Oh, God. With a timestamp. You can't just Google a rice pool. You know what? Take notes. Do it. And see how I feel. Go out in the morning. Try to do a tempo run. Report back. Let us know. Yeah. Wait, do what? No rice? No carbs for dinner and then go train tomorrow morning. And I'm just curious. But I have oatmeal before I go. So I do get carbs before I train next. It's just not for sleep. Okay.

Well, I mean, this is still a valid experiment. We're not asking you to go to a fasted thing. We're just saying you didn't carboload, quote, unquote, right, right, right. Right. I got a little more energy storage than either of you to pull from. That's the other side of the coin here. That's not the point. Anyway, I don't know why I am ripping on your dinner.

Well, I don't love the dinner either. I'd much rather have pizza. Go get California chicken cafe. I was just talking about it like 30 minutes before we started the pod. I love California. Do it. That's got about eight noodles in it. No, that's got carbs.

That's like the perfect full meal. I agree. Sponsor us California and chicken cafe. And a mattress company. Hook us up. Yeah. Okay, let's top it before we go any more off the rails. Bye, bye.

Bye. Later.