That Triathlon Life Podcast - Sleeping the night before a triathlon, PTO points, Inclusivity, world championships, our favorite bike, and more!

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

This week we start off debriefing the Couples Triathlon that happened over the weekend, and then dive into some questions. We talk about how sleeping poorly the night before a triathlon effects your race, why pros are so interested in racking up PTO points, inclusivity in the sport, and more. Visit http://www.thattriathlonlife.com to learn more

Hello, everyone. Welcome to That Triathlon Life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Lagerisham. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are here today on episode number I lost count because it's been so many now. This is eight, Paula. Eight already. Wow. It's just becoming a Monday night routine. So this is actually Tuesday night. You guys missed me already or are you glad I'm gone? Just to continue with my intro, Eric and I are both professional triathletes.

Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlete, best friend. and just kind of does everything. And Nick graciously came to Florida with us this past weekend for the couple's triathlon for many reasons, most of all to keep us in a level head space and in a good mood, but also did a ton of editing and actually did the whole vlog this week, filming, editing, all the things for your viewing pleasure. Luckily, I didn't have to do the racing, but I did do the rest. You did everything but the racing, which was arguably harder.

Yeah, yeah, the amount of time we spent racing was one-tenth of the time. I'm sure you spent editing as I know. So by the time this pod goes up, the vlog will also go up, kind of an unusual day for us. We usually release them on Sunday, but we wanted to get our little race recap of the couples try up as quick as possible while it's still relevant. Nick did all of the editing and check out the YouTube channel for that. So if you really want to know all the details on that and how we feel about it and what it looked like and everything, I highly recommend go watch that. But we kind of thought we could just do a little outro on that whole. experience and like what we think it means you know for the sport and how you know just just a little more

casual rather than I dove into the water right right yeah there's plenty of that in the vlog if you if you want that you can check that out but Nick do you have a real job are you just now doing all the shit for us and not getting paid it's wildly out of control it's true it's true Nick's like pausing our pod recording so he can go and upload our video on his other computer. Meanwhile, he's like doing this 100% for fun. Well, it is fun. But anyway, about the race, I thought the area was very cool. We'll see if next year, if that happens, if it's in the same area.

I think the original idea of having it twice through each athlete instead of once through is a really solid idea. And I would love to see that next year. Yeah, it would have definitely changed the results. think? Yeah. Yeah, like going one time through, definitely, like, it hurt us a little bit, I would say, and anyone who identifies as a long-course athlete, because just like having done the island house triathlon years ago, the second time through, diving into the water, kind of tired and getting onto the bike and trying to push power again, that is a very interesting, awful experience. And I can only relate to, like, the last 15K of a 70.3 bike ride where the wheels are coming

off. I think the overwhelming response from people that I've seen is criticizing the broadcast, and I have mixed feelings because it does suck to pay money to watch a broadcast that doesn't really show you the race accurately and is hard to follow. There is a learning curve to that, obviously, and I think Heather and Greg Bennett did a great job of commentating it with the visuals they were given. But I think the overall goal of it was to show that, I mean, professional athletes, there was this huge prize purse, and I think we all deserve to be able to make that much money when we race. And like looking at the Oceanside start list, it's absolutely insane. It's like a world championship. And the

prize money is maybe $5,000. So to have a race of this magnitude, I guess, in terms of the prize money investment, it's similar to what the PTO is doing. And it just kind of elevates the sport in general and gives us the opportunity to make a living at this. So that was cool. Yeah, and it's just a unique idea, right? You know, I've always been a big proponent of that and wish triathlon would have more unique courses and stuff and just give people more stuff to talk about. It's not like an entirely new format, but the idea of having a relay is very cool.

And so many triathletes out there, non-professionals, do the sport with their significant other. I think a lot of people can identify with it. And, you know, like Paul said, it's been a bit. of a learning curve and I know that they'll nail the broadcast next time, but just so much, you know, spit off trying to put this together basically in four months without having a huge team of people that have done triathons. And relatively speaking, it went really well. Right. From an athlete perspective. Yeah, from the athlete perspective. Like, no one went off course or anything like that because they didn't know what was happening. No one got hurt. Yeah, very clear. Exactly.

Well, I was wondering, when's the last time you guys like did a sprint? Because was, is this, Was it like you remembered it as far as the feeling? It was unique because it was on a TT bike, and I don't think we've ever done a sprint on a non-draft bike. It's more like get out of the water, and then you have this pack, and then you're running as fast as you can. Yeah.

Different dynamic. It's been like five years, four years since we've done a sprint race, but it doesn't feel that much different than doing a non-draft Olympic bike. It's just since we haven't done any training, really, for the true sprint distance, you're just kind of stuck in somewhere between Olympic distance pace and 70.3 pace trying to go harder when your body's kind of like, what do you mean? No, thanks, I'm good.

And you guys finished just off the podium right and forth? Barely. So were you the fastest long course couple? Well, I guess the French couple technically is a long course couple, right? Yeah. Yeah, kind of depends how you define long course couple. Some of the people in front of us are kind of in the process of transitioning to long course like Aaron and Non. and we don't know the French couple very well,

but I think they do predominantly 70.3 or... Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good recap of the race. We should have so many good questions this week from people that are emailed in. We do. That I'm excited to get to.

So thanks for following along the couple's try saga. Yes. If you want to know more about that, go watch Nick's beautiful, beautiful video. It's such a cool video. It, like, captures the vibe perfectly. it's a lot of not raw footage

because it's obviously edited but not to music so you really get the feeling that you're almost in the room with us that's how I felt anyway That was the feeling it was supposed to be just like

what it would actually have been like to be there there's this great movie called Boyhood by Richard Linklater I think and it follows this kid through his life

and it leaves out all the big moments and this gives you all the in-between moments and the end feeling is like it just paints this big picture without hitting you over the head with the story.

That was kind of the idea that we tried to do with the blog this week. Yeah, I think you nailed it. It's really cool. Anyway, by the way, before we start questions, the email address for questions, and we love getting your questions, is that triathlon life brand at gmail.com. So send those in.

Maybe we'll answer your questions on the pod. Oh, speaking of which, one last thing, a few people came up to me at the race, because on the last episode I said, if you recognized me and didn't come up to me, I would hunt you down. And people were really nice. And there were a lot of people wearing TTL stuff at the race.

Like there weren't even that many people there. It felt like half of them were wearing TTL stuff. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, it was a bit of a kind of a hard place to get to, I guess, like a little far from everywhere in Florida. But everyone who came was like a diehard TTL Nation. Yeah. TTLNage, bratt.

TTLN. It was amazing. Yeah, the total number of people that I thought would watch was like the number of people that were wearing TTR shirts. Yeah, exactly. Same. One guy even had a transition four hat on, which is just, if anybody listening even knows what transition four is, that goes back a minute. And I think they're about 12 to 15 transition four hats even in existence.

Yeah, that's so funny. Anyway, first question. This one is from Sarah. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. My husband and I are big TTL fans. We are loving the content and really appreciate you opening your lives up to us. I wanted to thank Paula for talking about how she dealt with her injury and having to be on the, sideline while Eric was able to race. I'm currently watching my husband crush the Napa Valley

Marathon while I have a tear in my calf and I'm not cleared to run. Also, I'm getting so many compliments as I stand here and cheer about my green T.TL travel mug. So I have a couple of questions I want to throw out to you. One, my kids want to know if Flynn is fully grown. Oh, God, I hope so. Please, please be fully grown. Yeah, he is. He's over two now, so I hope he is. But he is like maybe still filling out more. He's still pretty lanky, so he might get heavier, but I would say he's not going to get any taller. Yeah. Great. Number two, do you sleep well the night before a race? This is such a timely question. I am constantly out checking the clock because I get stressed about missing the start. So how do you guys sleep the night before the race? Oh my gosh. I can't remember having a worse night sleep than I did before the couples try this past weekend. It was horrific. I have an aura ring, so I know how much sleep it got.

It was under four hours of sleep. And it wasn't because I was particularly nervous or because I was worried about not waking up. I was just like, I had to go pee a bunch of times. I was sweating. I was so anxious and not sleepy. It was so weird. And Eric was the same.

Like Eric was up all night as well. So was I. Not because of me. That was I. Oh yeah. Nick was in a room with us. Yeah. We actually, we got in an argument at 2 a.m.

I guess I was sleeping because I honestly did not hear that. I think we were, yeah, or you just pretended not to, which I appreciate. I would do that, but actually, no, I'd probably join in. I'd take one of your side just to feel the fire. I think the major contributing factor, at least the only thing we can think of for the reason with that is, is that for the race, we weren't like declaring who was going first in the, you know, relay until, I mean, we could both stand there in our wetsuits and then just one person walks forward and 10 seconds later the gun goes off. So it was just so hard to imagine or predict or visualize anything that was going to happen. And it was just like so many unknowns and everything.

But more particular to the question, I think it doesn't matter too much how much sleep you get the night before a race. As long as you're well-rested leading into the race, have a good night the night before the night before. And then the night before the race, you know you're going to have to wake up early. It's kind of a mess. But what I was trying to think to myself, as I was lying there wide awake, sweating, out all of the fluids in my body was that at least I was horizontal with my eyes closed

and that's got to be doing something. I heard you ask Eric like four times like it's good that we're lying down though right? At least we're not like out partying. I mean on the plus side of it not having fallen asleep we really didn't have to wake up yeah like we weren't that tired and zero percent tired upon waking up.

Yeah we're just like wow this is the continuation of yesterday we just pulled an all nighter. Yeah, I've heard the same thing that the night before, the night of the race or the night before the race is actually not that important. It's the nights leading up to it, especially two nights before the race. That's what's really important. Night before the night before. Yes, that's right. And if the reason you can't sleep is because you're worried about waking up, just set like 10 alarms.

That's what I do. Yeah. I feel like there's nothing that's going to take that away. Everyone's always having those stress dreams about missing the start or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, but I have those dreams randomly like two months. before the race, you know. I've never had one of those.

That's not a nightmare. That's like a dream come true. Like, you mean I slept through the start? Wow. Too bad. Oh, thank God. Oh, but at least my dreams, I'm always like trying to run to the start in slow motion.

And my bike tire is like popped. And I've got 30 seconds. And like, yeah, it's just all this stuff. So it's not that you just like blissfully slept through it. It's like you're there. You just can't get there. Right. Yeah.

You know, like everyone has those dreams that they're trying to run, but they can't run fast. Now, imagine if the thing you're trying to run to is a thing where you're running fast. It's just the worst. Terrific. Okay, number three, how do you choose your races? Are you looking for a specific terrain, or is it the build up to worlds? That is your focus. Yeah, I don't know.

It's a very complex algorithm where we compare how much it costs to get to the race. Can we drive there? Is it a cool race? Do we think it's going to be an insane field, prize money? And also like PTO points now? Do you think about that too? Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Like this year, the year is a bit dictated by the PTO schedule and then Royal Championships and doing what we can before the PTO tour to get points to get to the PTO tour. So that involves racing pretty much every North American 70.3 that comes up between now and the summertime. And on the flip side of that, Eric can speak more to this. I'm rambling on. But there are actually a lot of Olympic distance non-draft races this spring. St. Anthony's, Alcatraz, and L.A. Triathlon, which don't count for PTO points, but Eric loves the Olympic distance non-draft, so he wants to do all of those. So I think we pick our schedule is kind of

what we like as well, because generally that's what we are good at, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I think we do a pretty good job of picking races that actually get us emotionally interested. Like, we don't particularly either of us really like to race in Texas that much and like humid races, races that are just completely flat versus some races that have some undulation on the bike and anything that's a little bit interesting. But yeah, I mean, to Paula's point, the non-draft Olympics scene seems making a little bit of a comeback right now. And those races all have decent prize purses, like around $10,000 to win them.

So it's, I would personally love it if that distance made a bit of a comeback in the next couple years. So speaking of distance, her next question was about how important. World's as to you. It sounds like as a 70.3 athlete, you can, you don't have to put as much stock into that one race. Whereas as a full distance athlete, it's like, even when you do your races, it's to like potentially get a slot to qualify at Worlds. Is that true? Or do you guys feel like World's is actually a really big deal for you? I would say Worlds is a big deal for us and probably even more so Paula versus me because I truly believe she has a decent chance of winning it or being on the

podium versus for me, you know, like getting seventh last year was, I was over the moon about it. But that's not like necessarily a career result that's going to change the outlook of how you get sponsored or how well known you are. But it's kind of a bit of a changing landscape because it used to be that you could go to, there were so many 70.3 race around the country and you could go make money at ones where there was maybe 10 guys racing. And I don't want to say cherry pick, but it was a little more spread out and everything. And now it's like there are less races. less money, more people racing, and it's a lot harder to maybe make any sort of a living with not being involved at World Championships.

Yeah, also to qualify, it becomes more challenging as well because every race is so competitive. But in terms of, I think the PTO tour races maybe have slightly increased importance for me because one of them's in Edmonton, my hometown, the prize money is insane, like double what worlds is. But I think the prestige of being a world champion or on the podium at a world championships is most people's big goal and dream in the sport when you're racing long course, whether that's Kona or 70.3 Worlds. So that definitely has an important piece of our year. Totally. Right. Great. Well, she finished it off by saying, wishing you all the best this race season. We will be cheering you on. That includes you, Nick. We are so pumped for your Iron Man. Yeah,

me too. Thank you, Sarah. That was a great question. So next question is from Bryn. Wait, that Bryn? Yeah. She's a friend. So this is the person I think it is. She worked at the specialized bike shop in Santa Monica. And she is such a badass. First thing, she's extremely fast. Like, had a lot of K-O-Ms in L.A. She's super fast. Like, she raced her first, she was a triathlete growing up, and I see that she says that here. And then she raced her first, she raced her first cat five race and just annihilated the field in a solo breakaway. That's great. Anyway, she says, Hi, TCL folks. I love the podcast and Nick is truly a gem, one of my favorite people to ride with when I lived in L.A. I grew up doing triathlons, age 5 to 18, and then found my way into other sports,

but I'm inspired by y'all and would love to get back into triathlon after grad school. Paula, I appreciated your conversation around race weight because I think it's really important for badass female athletes to lead the charge in expressing that the number on the scale should not be the focus, rather to fuel yourself and get as strong and fast as possible. Couple questions. Number one, what do you think needs to happen to promote inclusion in the culture of triathlon? I definitely think it has come a long way, but there are still tons of barriers to entry for many people. So how do you see the sport evolving in a positive way? For me, I think the biggest thing that people think about when there's like a barrier to entry

with the sport is the cost of a bicycle, right? Maybe that in like pool fees. are your biggest things. But I mean, I did my first triathlon. Granted, I was a youth swimmer growing up, but I did it on a Schwinn traveler bike that I got for $15. And I wore duct tape on, like, my Adidas tennis shoes and made it across the line. So my total upfront investment for that race was, like, the $70 for the entry plus the $15 for the bike and some duct tape. So I think, like, letting people know that triathlon, you don't need to go out and get at least a $2,000 bike to go out there and have fun. do one, like you can do it on almost anything and get across the line. That's a big,

a big component of it for me. That's like a cultural shift too, I guess. Aside from financial barriers, I think generally triathlon is a fairly inclusive sport. There's equal opportunity for men and women. I feel like the vibe at most races is pretty welcoming and accessible to people of any ability. And also there's a ton of different distances you can do from try a try all the way up to a full Iron Man, which makes it easy to select kind of within your ability. So the barriers, I guess, are more financial potentially with all the gear involved and the entry fees. But in general, I think it's a pretty inclusive sport. But something that I have noticed is as far as race goes, it does seem to be predominantly white people that do it. 100%. Oh, yeah. And I'm not

totally sure why, but when I think about it, I see a similar thing in cycling and in swimming. Seems like cycling and swimming, cycling less so, but swimming more so. It's, and there's no reason for it, right? It's just horrible, racist stuff that happened decades ago still having an impact today. To me, it's like, these are sports that are not inherently enjoyable. They have almost no financial, you know, potentials for them or anything. And if you're, I don't know if you're if you're if you're a kid of color living in an inner city neighborhood or whatever like you have instant access to a basketball the earnings potential are limitless it's a thousand times more fun than going to a swimming pool it's just like why would you try to become a swimmer like that's a really good point like it pays like nothing compared to other sports yeah right if I was talented enough to be a football player I would have done it yeah this is the fallback Got it. Yeah.

Now, I was just going to say running is so accessible to anyone, anywhere. Yeah. No matter what country you're in. You don't need a single thing. It's like almost up to our current generation of people in the sport to be more inspiring and make it appear more interesting just to get the total number of people interested in doing it up. So it's still just such an niche sport. Yeah, that's true. Well, we definitely need to think more about that.

And we're not smart enough or culturally aware enough to figure out the answer to that question. But it's something that we're all interested in is trying to get more a variety in the sport. Number two from Brand was, what is your favorite bike you've ever ridden? Oh, I know, I'm going to start. My uncle in Italy had this bike where the handlebars obviously turned, but then the seatpost and rear wheel also turned together. Oh, yeah. And I learned how to ride one of those when I was really young, and that's still my favorite bike to ride.

It's so fun. You can ride it forwards and backwards. Backwards is pretty easy because you can just steer with your hips. Yeah. And it's really fun. It's a weird experience. I was not expecting that as an answer. Wow.

Yeah. What about you guys? I would probably say my mountain bike. It's not necessarily a specific mountain bike, but just mountain biking in general is such a fun, all-encompassing experience with skill and fitness and you fly through the air. That's right. I'm just going to say my specialized tarmac. I thought you were going to say the trainer. That's not a bike, Nick.

You're right, you're right. I like riding my specialized tarmac on the trainer. Right. Like riding it up hills. Yeah, that bike is amazing. It's so beautiful. Wait till you see my new one. The paint job is like, oh my gosh.

It actually sleeps next to me and Eric sleeps in the guest room. One of the folks going to see it. One of the folks at home going to get to see it. We're just waiting on the parts to show up. The strand parts just shipped yesterday. So then my mechanic is going to... Your mechanic is going to... Your mechanic.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll see if I can slot it into the schedule. It's honestly, the nicest bike I've ever seen in my whole life. Like, the paint job is so cool. I can concur. I wish you guys, I wish I could show you on the ball. It's almost as nice as my TT bike. It is nice, yeah.

We've got some good paints, got jobs coming out from bike companies these days. It's a good time to be getting new bikes. Number three, do you have a good luck charm or song? Flink. Wow, you guys said that at the exact same time. Wait, did you say Flynn, Paula? Flynn is the opposite of a good luck charm. Yeah, I said Flynn and Eric said Nick.

Oh, you said Nick. That's great. That's great. Yeah, that's true. Well, next time, we need a race where there's both Flynn and Nick. That'll be the ultimate. Oceanside. Perfect.

We're doing it. That's going to be so hectic. Oh, my gosh. I'm getting anxious. Just thinking about it. Two people with that much energy, me and Flynn together, it's dangerous. Oh, by the way, T.T.L.Nesh. We need a dog sitter, potential.

for some of the time during Oceanside because we're bringing Flynn and it's stressing us out thinking about having Flynn in Oceanside, but we also don't want to leave him and bend for weeks on end. So if anyone has any interest in taking Flynn for a walk that week, let us know. Oh, and if there's too many people, I'll be doing a competition. And it's going to be in form of song. You have to write and perform a song about why you're the best person to take care of Flynn, and I'll be judging it. Or the biggest Venmo deposit.

Yes, that's right. You have to pay us to look after Flint. No, you know what I'll say this. If anyone writes a song about why they think they should take care of Flynn, a very good chance will play a part of it, at least on the podcast. So you can send those in. It can be as simple as like a voice recording on your phone. If anybody ever writes a song, period.

We will play it on the pod. Okay, number four, what did you want to be when you were a little kid, and would you still do that job as post-pro racing? I wanted to be a doctor. I would 100% do it post-pro racing. It's just so much school that I don't know if I have enough life for that. I wanted to be a pro athlete of some sort, any sort. Kind of jumped around what I wanted to be.

I didn't. When I was really little, I wanted to be a pro motocross racer, and then that switched to pro snowboarding, and then when I was like seven, I was like music, and now here we are. I stuck with a music thing, yeah. Wow. You guys both followed your dreams, and I was just like, that's too hard. I'm being a...

It's funny. I like how doctor is too hard, but professional athlete made sense to you. Yeah. There's a lot more doctors than professional athletes in the world. I would say doctor is definitely a simpler pathway. You just get on it and pay the money and get off of it. It's not just paying them. You have to be smart.

Well, yeah, but it's like totally laid out and planned out versus we just like are fully making up how to make money and just everything as we go. It's different. It's different. No, I'm definitely not saying it's easy. It's just like there is a clear pathway to the end. Yeah, that is true. Although you could say the same thing about triathlon, right? Like, if you just keep winning.

Not hardly. Like all the people who just kept winning but hated social media, they're all gone now. Just since we've been in the sport, it's evolved so much. It's wild. Well, that's from Bryn. Thank you, Bryn. Bryn lives in Portland now. She moved to Portland, yeah, for school.

But she's a badass. You guys should ride with her if you're ever in Portland. She's extremely strong. That's awesome. We do need to get back to Portland for a little bit of like curvy, twisty road riding at some point. I miss it there. Okay, next question is from Rachel. She says, hey, TTL squad.

My question is about nutrition. Do you track macros, use any supplements or vitamins? Thanks, love the pod. I'm a beginner in the sport. I've learned so much from you already. By the way, my jaw drop when you mentioned tricksy. Mattel in the first episode. Yes, honey. So you guys went into this a bit, but you do not track macros, right?

Just about Trixie. When we were in Florida, Nick was facetiming Trixie while she was like in drag asking questions about the mic and stuff. And I was just like, my jaw was dropping to the ground. I was like, this is cool. Am I in a reality TV show? It would be safe to say that Paula could not even. She could not even. And then Nick let me. even let me talk to her. And I said, Trixie, girl, I am so proud of your running. Keep uploading to Strava. I'm your biggest fan. Actually,

I don't know, she probably has bigger fans than me. She definitely has bigger fans than you. I have seen them. Yeah. Biggest fan of her Strava. Oh, Trixie. Okay, on to the question. Yeah, so do you guys, any supplements or vitamins? Do you guys take vitamins or anything?

We actually have started taking vitamins now that Live Momentus brought out a multivitamin. We're pretty big fans of that. I did a bit of research on it and dove into it and like kind of checked, oh, what's the best type of magnesium and what's the best type of calcium and blah, blah, and it had all of the things that the internet says is the best source of all this stuff. So I was sold on kind of just starting to do that. We're pretty careful about what we take because we are drug tested. But I really honestly

trust Momentous as a brand. And this, I'm not trying to make it be like a sponsor plug. but when you have one company that you know does diligent screening and testing of all of their products to make sure that they're safe for athletes to take, that makes me feel better about it. So right now we take their omega, we take their multivitamin, and we take their collagen, along with their protein powders. So those are pretty much the only supplements we do. The one other thing that we do that they don't have is an iron supplement, which is just kind of, we've gone over that before, but it's pretty important for any endurance athlete, especially women, women, to take an iron supplement. Yeah, yeah. But in terms of like macronutrients, again, we've talked about this before and we've talked to nutritionists in the past and like gotten a pretty good handle on what, you know, just like intuitively a good micronutrient balance ends up being throughout the day. And we kind of just live by feel at this point, but don't break it down and get in the weeds with it.

I think it can be important to track it at certain points so that you have a general awareness. And at this point of our career in racing and training and eating, we have a like Eric said, a good feel for what encompasses. is a good diet. But something I've been wondering actually, and I've noticed, is do you guys think compared to pro athletes of your level that you are more or less careful with how you eat, when you eat, what you eat? Less. I'm going to guess less, but I also know that there are people that are even less than us. There's definitely a range. I think you guys are definitely on the extreme end of just eating to taste. You eat what you want, you eat what you like.

I don't know if that's a compliment. I mean, it's a compliment, yeah, because you're still racing really well, so it must be working. When I get to races, I get into this kind of a negative spiral of like, oh, why am I not fitter? Why didn't I eat better?

Why didn't I do more yoga? Why didn't I stretch? Why didn't I do more core? Like, you know, I get back from a race and I'm all motivated to improve all of those things because when you get to a race, they're kind of exposed, like, your performance. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. But at the same time, like, no matter what you've done, it's almost all the time you're going to have those thoughts come in. Yeah. You can always kind of think, not always. I mean, every once in a while you ride to a race and just you're so confident in your performance, but a lot of the times it's like, oh, there's a thing. And, you know, I was injured for two days.

Well, I haven't had a single treat since the couple's try, so. Oh, my gosh. How are you surviving, Paula? This is what happens when you leave me. You start eating healthy again? Oh, and ocean side. Those two squares of chocolate didn't count. You don't have two squares of chocolate?

That's like a... Oh, yeah, at the coffee shop. Okay, fine. I've had treats. Arrest me. Next. Officer, it's true. Okay, great.

So last question. This one is from Tommy, aka elevation every weekend, which might be his online persona. E.P.N. and Flynn. I guess that's us. I'm a long-time cyclist and I've become

fanatical about working towards doing a triathlon and following the sport. As a result, I binged the last few years of the YouTube channel in recent months. Keep them coming. I'm also enjoying the podcast and some TTL swag as well. I'd love to hear it. Man, this guy's great. Here are a few questions

for your consideration. Do you guys focus much on the PTO rankings and year-in bonus is connected to that when looking at the race schedule and deciding which or how many races to compete in or is it incidental and your focus is race specific? Yeah, you definitely, because of the amount of money involved now, and in order to even qualify for the PTO tour, you have to be ranked highly.

So it has to matter. And every single middle distance, long distance athlete now is focused on that. Like it or not, like the ranking system or not, you just have to be in it. And you go into a race not knowing what your time goal is for certain points, but you just have to race as fast as you possibly can and hope to get as many points as you can. So I think it definitely impacts people's race schedules. And the points are set up in a way that if you go to a less competitive race, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get way more points for winning.

It's definitely more time-based to make it more fair. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I mean, it really just places much more an emphasis on the speed of the race. But what I was thinking was just that now that, that there's three of these events of the main events per year, that's drastically affecting the way that you have to look at the season. Because if you want to make sure you get into those events, you have to have some really fast races early on. It's pretty much pointless to go to an event if you're not in peak fitness because your time is all that matters. And then you have to kind

of rearrange the whole middle of your season and make sure that you're ready for these big, big events. Yeah, there's a lot of huge events on the calendar this year with people that are doing Ironman St. George and then the three PTO tour races and St. George World Championships. Just like tons of races where you really want to be like a really good fitness. So balancing the year to make sure you can stay healthy through all of that. But at the same time trying to qualify for all those things, it's kind of overwhelming. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if we see even more injuries happen this year versus any year in the past just with people trying to like pushing it so hard on the run. when they otherwise would have jogged it in because they were winning by two minutes already or whatever.

Yeah. That's a good point. That's really interesting. That is a brand new dynamic. Mm-hmm. Even my race in Oceanside last year, I was off the bike six minutes ahead of second, but I could not just ease up on the run because I needed PTO points. So you're really still going full gas to the end no matter what.

Yeah, which ultimately did hurt her foot and affect her ability to go to, her final race of the season. Yeah. It's, uh, yeah, it's totally, it's weird. It's different. The point of the PTO is supposed to be to help you guys out, right? And it does. It's hugely a net positive.

The amount of money that you stand to win is just colossal and, and it's probably prolonging the amount of time that we are able to live in the sport, be in the sport by a few years, at least, I mean, relative to like the Iron Man money. So it's a net positive, but you have to be smart. Very smart about how you do it. Yeah. Well, the last little question he had was, regarding the bike, how do you feel about the draft distance in the sport currently?

Should it be increased? Because it's undeniable right now that at the pro level, even at 12 meters, there is still an advantage in being with a group compared to by yourself. So do we just accept that that's part of the sport? I think it should be the challenge races and the PTO races are 20 meters. That's what it should be like for everything. I like that you basically said inside of the question what I was going to say is that it's at 12 meters you are getting a little bit of a benefit. We'll say it's 10 watts or something, which does make for a certain type of a dynamic in the race.

You could argue that it's more exciting. You could argue that it's less exciting versus 20 meters where it's just you know there's no benefit at all. everybody's going purely all by themselves. I mean, I don't think anybody would ever argue that ITU racing is not more exciting than watching an Iron Man for, you know, for the duration of the event just because of how many people are still in it and how it has this like a tactical thing to it instead of just redline the whole way. So I was just kind of, I'm just talking out loud. I'm just kind of thinking out loud and it's kind of interesting and that it's. I'm thinking about it too. I don't know.

I don't know the answer because. Now that I think about it, like, it is kind of fun where, you know, some guy goes off the front away from the group. It's like, wow, he's so strong that he's not staying with other guys all riding together. Even if it's a minimal advantage to being in a group, they're still an advantage. And when someone breaks away, it makes it just that much more exciting. It shows how strong they really are. So I don't know.

There can also be a disadvantage to be in a group at times. It can get slowed down. If you're at the back of a seven-person group and the person at the front is going slow, but you don't think you can go all the way to the front. That can enhance the ability of someone behind you riding solo to ride up and catch because they're able to ride a consistent high pace. So, I don't know, it's just, yeah, it's a different dynamic, but it's... I would also argue that it's more of a factor in the men's races, at least what I see.

I think the women's races tend to spread out more and have less pack dynamics in the 70.3 distance anyway. Do you feel that's maybe because there's a greater difference in bike fitness between women, so the packs don't form because in the men, there's more of a consistent average race speed? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why it is, but it's definitely a thing. I've never been in a pack, like a quote-unquote pack in a 70.3 race before. You've definitely had people, like, sitting on your wheel.

Around, yeah, but I wouldn't say that's a pack. Not like a full-on pack. I would say it's a couple of different things. Like one, if you go through most start lists, on average, if there's 50 men racing, there's 30 women. Right. Like roughly, there's just, there's a few more guys on the course in general.

And then I would say typically ITU included that like the density of guys inside of the, like in how close they are inside of the top 10 is the same sort of a factor, you know, tighter than the women. So like the top man and the top woman in the world or we'll say the top three men and top three women in the world, I would say are all equally spectacular and awesome, but then like the next five guys in the world

are maybe just as good as the next two women. And it feels like there's just like a little bit tighter concentration of ability in that like next 20%. That's just like my gut feeling. Right. And that's where the packs are. Oh, cool. Well, that's all the questions that we had for this week.

You can send those questions to that triathlon life brand at gmail.com. Eric, Paula, do you have any final words? Is that it? How long have we been talking? It feels like we've been talking for 20 minutes. 37 minutes. Wow. No, I know.

I consolidate the questions so I know that we have lots of other good ones, but we will save them for another week and then add ones that come in this week as well. So thank you so much for everyone who submitted them. I'm like so impressed with the caliber of questions. They're all things we're genuinely interested in talking about. And I think that shows with the depth that we go into for each one. So yeah, just another reminder to check out the video that Nick made for us. It's not Nick.

It's you guys are very thankful. But yeah, it's that Triathlon Live video on YouTube. It's that Triathlon Live video that Nick ended it this week. Yeah, it is on our YouTube channel. Yeah, yeah. It's not Nick's video, although it is next video. I didn't just post it on my Instagram. Yeah, the reason I'm saying this is because Nick took freaking two days straight.

to make this vlog and it's we appreciate it so much it's amazing so i want everyone to watch it thank you guys appreciate it yeah um cool that was fun we had one more thing we actually did bring a mic to florida with us hoping to do like a recording with all three of us in the same room yeah but somehow the day just slipped away from us we were on the beach we were living it up on the beach eric eric had a nice marg it was it was pretty sweet we were we were doing what one should do when one is at a tropical triathlon and we laid on the beach for a little while. So maybe one day in the future

we'll all be in the same room while recording. Yeah. There's just a lot. I kind of want there to be a video of that. It feels like it's such a special thing and I don't want to just slam it in before you get on your airplane, you know, at the end of the day. We're going to have time for Oceanside

and maybe some fun that we'll have after that too. We'll have time to make it work. I'm getting so excited for the whole ocean. side and what comes after experience. I know. It's going to be great. Thanks so much for listening, guys, and we'll talk to you next week. See you. Talk to you next week.

Bye.