That Triathlon Life Podcast - Swimming long course meters for triathletes, exploding carbon wheels, and more!

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

This week we’re all together just outside of Las Vegas for the very first TTL Base Camp. We recorded the episode on handheld mics, so please forgive the sound quality, but we covered all kinds of topics as we rapid-fired through a stack of listener-submitted questions. Next week’s podcast will be recorded live with the Base Camp athletes, so be sure to tune in!A big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lockerstrom. I'm Paula Finlay. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are coming to you from Lake Las Vegas in Nevada. We are deep inside of day two. It feels like day five, to be honest, of TTL base camp. The first time that we have held a training camp, really any sort of in-person experience whatsoever, we're having an absolute blast, but we are still carving out time to record this podcast. And we're going to do everything we can to have this out by tomorrow because we have had no seconds free today. We've been swimming. We've been running. We've been adventuring.

We've been eating. That's for sure. These are all great things. These are definitely not complaints. No, that's been great. We're going hard. So what have we done so far, Eric? What have we done in the camp so far?

So far, campers arrived, put their bikes together. We took a sunset spin out to the Hoover Dam. Oh, my God. Was that incredible? Yeah. You can, we don't have to describe the entire thing to you. You can look on the TTL Instagram. We're posting updates there.

We've got some beautiful pictures, but it was an incredibly dreamy bike path that we rode out there. We got there just as the sun was hitting the dam in the best way possible. Yeah. And made it all back together. And then some people went for a transition run because they're total training crazies. And we handed out bags. We have these bags with a, just a whole slew of goodies. Yeah.

from partners of the camp. Tailwind hooked everybody up with some nutrition. Thump gave him instant coffee. We got Castellie jerseys and running shirts. It's a sweet bag, you might say. Even the bag itself is sweet, I might say. Yeah, we wanted the entire package, the whole experience, to be top-notch. And in that bag, we got shirts that we all wore today on this epic trail run.

So from... It was so cute. I think people watching us are like, who is this mob of fit people running around Red Rocks Canyon? Yeah, it was predominant. tourists taking pictures and then a bunch of us running around like skinny folk looking like crazy people. It was pretty fun. That was epic. It turned out great. We did have an epic trail run today. So that was the main, the meat and potatoes of today. We did this basically like hour 40 long trail run with a little bit of hike excitement in it. Nick's working on a little video with the highlights

from that, also going up on Instagram. And then we got in a threshold swim. Some people did, how many 50s did you end up doing? I ended up doing 50. And let me tell you, if you need to pad your Strava pace, no better way to do it than to do 50s with 10 second breaks. And we established that Strava swim pace is essentially like normalized power. It takes out the time that you're sitting at the wall. Yes. So I agree. This is the best.

This is the hack. You're trying to impress someone with your Strava pace? Two 50s. Yeah. 5050 is what I did. I think some tryhards in the group might have done 60 50s. Wow. Well, good for them.

Good for you. It's actually only 3K. It's not that much. I know. It's funny because we were just talking yesterday about the 100, hundreds. and Eric is like very vehemently opposed. You're just like, why?

It's not like a fun trail run where an hour three are like, wow, we're really out here. You're really feeling it now. 80 hundreds and you're like, I'm never swimming again. Poor choices. Poor decision making led me to this moment. So anyway, next week we're actually doing a little bit of a live podcast after one of the dinners here.

So we'll be taking live questions from some of the campers that they will prepare. They better prepare good questions. if you guys are listening, be thinking about your questions right now, campers. But for, I guess, we're just going to do a regular podcast for the most part from here. Yep, we are going to do regular podcasts. But, man, it's been amazing. If you have FOMO, I'm glad. That was the point.

And we hope to see you next year. Yeah, Eric, what are the chances of something like this happening next year? Well, we're only two days in, but two days in, we're like 100% yeah. So we'll check in for like day five and see how we're all feeling about it. But the vibes are incredible. Everyone here, all the athletes who came are incredible. We're having a great time, having conversations, talking story. It's exactly what we'd hoped.

So far, so great. Love it. Sweet. Well, we're kind of running by the seat of our pants here. Is that a thing? Flying by the seat of our pants? We could run by the seat. That's the triathlon version.

But I think we could just roll right into questions. Heck yeah. Sounds good. Okay. We're going to hit it pretty intense right off the bat. You know what? Let's mix things up. Oh, Eric's going to read it.

Never mind. Paula doesn't like change. Well, you know what? You're holding the mic, so I think you should do it. You can try it and see how it flies. Paula's just making sure that if it doesn't sound good, everyone knows she said so. That's fair. Hi, tripod, friends. As someone who comes from a difficult life background, at what point does my training discipline turn into avoidance?

And how can I tell if my training is helping me grow or just helping me avoid something uncomfortable in life? Eric can't do the reading It's so weird Okay well he just did And I think everyone deserves to hear what that sounded like And then the next one we can revert back to our former selves So Paula, what do you think? About avoiding things by training

I do that all the time So you're like, go for it Yeah I mean it's different if it's just like a to do list Versus things you need to sort out psychologically or mentally But I mean I think at the end after you do some kind of training or physical exercise, you're in a better position mentally

to kind of sort through those things. So as long as you're not completely avoiding them, I think often we are in a better mindset afterwards. That's interesting. I love that and completely agree. Yeah. What this made me think of is that we often conveniently place things into this is good or this is bad category. And I think you can potentially be using training as an avoidance, and it can still be good, right? I think then coming home and then not thinking about the thing as well, because you're on a high from the endorphins, that can be a mistake. So if you make time to sit with the problems that you're having, if you come from this difficult background and still do the training, you probably can get the best of both worlds. And I think our brains also do this

thing when you're worried about something. When you go on a run, it's kind of like a little bit solving those problems in the back of your head without you having to specifically focus on the I don't know if you guys ever have that. No, for sure. I feel like I am my most creative. And sometimes when I can't figure a thing out, whether it's like an actually creative pursuit or if it's just like a life problem that requires some creative thinking.

Like exercise running, you know, even being on the treadmill, like it feels like a little bit of lubrication to like the brain where sometimes it just in the middle of the run, it's like, oh my gosh, this was so obvious. And it just all of a sudden made sense. And starting out might have felt like avoidance,

but midway through, it just becomes very clear and obvious, the solution. You guys know when you sometimes when you look at the night sky and you're looking at a star, when you look at the star, you can't see it. But when you look away, then you can see it. I think there's a little bit of a similar thing with exercise there. I love that because your peripheral vision is stronger. Exactly.

Okay, let's do the next question here. Paula, do you want to read the next question since we're switching it up? How dare you? No. A shake of the head is all we got. Okay, so we'll do the next question here. Next one here is from Scott. That last one was anonymous, by the way.

next one here is from Scott. What's one conspiracy theory you each believe? Ooh. Ooh. If it's conspiracy theory and you believe it, does that mean it's a conspiracy theory to you? Well, something that socially is accepted as a conspiracy theory. I'm just wondering if I think something that is actually a conspiracy theory. Right.

I mean, how do you feel about the moon landing? Because there's a lot of people who think that was fair. I think that happened. Yeah, it did happen. but there's a lot of people who think it didn't happen. It's an interesting, the theory that it is conspiracy is very interesting. I can understand. What about any, like, are there any sports conspiracy theories?

We're like, you know, Russia had an inside thing with all the dope. Well, that turned out to be true. So is there something like that that you could think of? I can't even think of any really good ones. There are definitely some theories about people who were at the top of their game and retired relatively suddenly. Oh, I see. And that being a Ironman just kind of like asked them to go away because they didn't want to report a positive test. So those are some conspiracies.

And you can like draw some conclusions and think about that on yourself on your own. Right. I don't want to throw out the names. Right. Right. Paul, can you think of any good conspiracy theories that you believe? I can't think of any. I'm just Googling sports conspiracy theories.

And you're right. There are some related to doping and people retiring when actually they're just suspended. Right. Right. I'm not going to say any. Who? We're not going to drop any names. Yeah, I don't know.

In general, I'm not really like that. Yeah. But I do think some, I think that the moon landing for sure happened. Something, something that this reminds me that I saw recently is that you, we kind of think that there's this class of elite people who are super smart and who communicate differently than we do. And then you get kind of access to their emails or text messages sometimes. You're like, these people rarely know how to spell.

You know, they're communicating so poorly. So it's like, it's not as, it doesn't go as deep, I think, as some people think. One thing that actually I think maybe does happen is during the playoffs for hockey or like something where it's best of seven. It always seems to go to game seven. And just think about how much money is made in each game. I'm on board with this. So I think maybe some of the officiating or like I don't think the players are in on it,

but I think maybe some of the games are a bit skewed to making sure one team or another wins so that the games go to the last game. This happened in Italian soccer. it was uncovered and a huge fines and suspensions came about because players were betting on the games and then throwing the games themselves to make money. That's a betting thing. Yeah, yeah. But I'm talking about like the Stanley Cup final or similar thing. Players obviously have a influence on whether they win or not.

Or like a boxer can like take money out on himself and then throw the match if they're in favor. Yeah, but this is different. I think this is more like externally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you're getting the Oilers tons of penalties. and, you know, something like that, if the refs. Right. Cool. Okay. Great. Next question here is from Louisa. Oh, from Australia. Really just a question for Paula. So keeping things ASAP as short as possible. Do you structure any of your

training and racing around your menstrual cycle? Think harder efforts and workouts during follicular phase choosing B minus races. B minus. Are we really going into minuses and pluses? Choosing B minus races that line up with your ovulation phase, more low intensity, core strength during literal, which I think she means ludial. Yes. Sorry if this is A, way too private or B, delusional given the level you train and race at. Sending love and warm from Australia, Louisa. Wasn't there a string of bad luck you had of like three races in a row?

Yeah. You can't pick your race schedule around your menstrual cycle, really. Like if you want to do this race and it's important, you have to do it. You're saying you can't email Iron Man be like, could you just one week later? Yeah, I definitely don't structure any training around it. No, I think probably some athletes do, but. What about when a hard session comes up and it happens to land in a bad time? Are you like, ugh, extra annoyed about it?

Or is it just like, nope, I deal with it, I do it? Usually I can do it. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. Like, I might feel worse, but then if that happens in a race, then you know you can persevere. Yeah. But that's not a very scientific answer. Well, no, it's a proper way to do.

It's your experience. Yeah, that's what I do. It's your experience. Yeah. Okay, next question here is from Sam. With Eric's encouragement in the summer of 2026, I'm diving into swim run. My first race will be Casco Bay, medium distance, but I'm also training for Iron Man Lake Placid. Do you have any suggestions for integrating swim run training with triathlon training? Most of my long runs will be on trails, and I'll try to work some paddles and buoy sets into my swims, but beyond that, I'm not sure what to do, so any advice would be welcome.

This feels like the best. I think that is totally sufficient. I think if you do one swim a week where you do kind of a disproportionate amount of paddles, put them on for like three by a kilometer, or three by one K or just do three K of paddles once a week, I think you'll be fine. Like the amount of gear that you have on when you were like floating your legs with a giant buoy and you got your shoes on and everything and the swims are not that insanely long. Like you will be tired. But I think your overall fitness from doing long runs on trails and preparing for an iron man

and the volume have to swim to do an iron man, you'll be okay. Yeah. There's no swim in a swim run that's as long as the length of an Iron Man swim. And do you think there is, I mean, I love doing my long runs on trail. Would you say usually when I get closer to a race to last month, I try to do them on road just to get my body used to that? Would you do that? Or do you think stick to the trails, do keep doing the thing? I think whatever makes you happy.

If doing a trail run makes you happy, I think that's fine. If you have intervals that are built into your long run, you know, you're trying to do something that's like iron. man-specific effort and pace, then you know, you make the call on whether or not you can get the confidence by doing it on trail with some uneven pacing versus doing it flat. That said, I would also just look at what Casco Bay's elevation profile is like, it could be very flat. Like what I did in Orcus Island, that is the most elevation gain you're going to find on a swim run in North America. Yeah. So check that out. And this might, these two things might just fit together perfectly. Right. Perfect. Cool. Okay. Next, we are just, we're just crushing these questions.

And dropping some good knowledge. Definitely. This is from Kevin, not from the night shift, by the way. Says it right here. All right. Very nice. Good for you, sir. That's a good pod get.

Very nice, Kevin. What's up, tripod? Two questions. And you know what? We're going to answer both because you did a little callback comedy routine here. Semi unrelated to each other. One, how much water are you drinking in a day? Oh, this is an interesting question.

Not mixed with anything, but just plain, boring water. I drink a minimum of one gallon per day and have other drinks on top of it. I'm a bigger guy, six foot two, two, thirty five. That's a lot of water. That's a lot of guy, too. Yeah, that's a lot of guy. I'm approximately half that tall. And wonder if excessive liquid drinking is hurting me at all.

Okay, well, let's hit that one. First of all, how much plain water do you guys drink, which is, that's one question. Is it bubbly water count? Yeah, no, I think no. I think plain, boring water, no bubbly. How much do you drink? Probably like four glasses for like four pint glasses. And then there's all the stuff that we drink during training.

Yeah. Do you ever drink plain water during training? Yeah. Oh, during training? Sometimes. I do almost exclusively because I'm too lazy to put in stuff. It's embarrassing. No, usually the only way I drink plain water on a ride is if I fill it up at a spigot.

Oh, after you. Yeah. I leave the house with like fully cold. carbed up bottles. Yeah. I just think that is the way to do it. If you're serious about your athletics and you don't mind putting stuff in there always. But you still have to drink water, whether it's electrolytes.

You can't just take 100 grams of carbs in a bottle and not drink water. But I have a lot of friends who do not drink plain water. They just put noon tablets into their water. Yeah, that's fine. I think that's good. I don't know, man. I feel like plain water every once in a while is probably good for your body. Well, nude is just electrolytes.

Yeah, yeah. So it's basically plain water. water, but it has a little bit of flavor. I start every day with a full analogying of plain water. And then I'll probably have another throughout the day as well, in addition. Is there? Yeah, it feels good. Actually having a large glass of water prior to eating anything, I read something about that being like a good jumpstart in some way. It feels good. And now, let's think about this. Do you think a gallon is, could it be hurting Kevin? I honestly just don't think we're enough, experts enough to answer that. Yeah. Yeah, but intuition says,

I don't think so. Unless you're feeling bad. It's probably not bad for you. You just got to balance it with electrolytes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay, question two, I'm doing an extended sprint. 0.75 mile swim, 16-mile bike and 5-mile run. That is quite extended.

Are clip-on bars worth it for rolling hills and one decent climb, or is the extra weight not worth it? Bike is my weak point. I'm a front-pack swimmer, and my run has improved, but I'm trying to make the most gains with the right changes, just trying to beat my own time on the course. It's nine years ago, so I'm nine years older, but also 201 episode

Smarter in my Triathlon journey. Thanks for all you do and good luck this year. Kevin, not from the night shift. I don't think we allow two questions that are completely not related. Well, it's just because he said Kevin not from the night shift. We don't normally, yeah.

We usually pair that down. But is there any world where... I think it's worth putting clip-ons on for sure. Yeah. There's no world that's not faster for sure. 100%. Agreed. And also you feel like a triathlet when you do that.

And they're not that heavy. No, they're not. Even the aluminum ones are not that heavy. Arrow. The arrow benefits relative to the weight here. Way outweigh. Fastly outweigh. Okay, we're going to do this next one.

Another Australian from Sienna. What does communication with your coach typically look like? Are you giving them weekly and daily updates after every session, leaving comments on training peaks? What are you talking about with them? Is it more how you felt during the session or something else? You know, I don't think we've actually, we've, I haven't really talked about this, but I think this is an interesting question. I'd like to hear what you guys think and what you think other pro athletes do.

Oh, I think it's all over the map. And it totally depends on the athlete and the coach. Some coaches are going to be bugging you every day asking how you're feeling. And some athletes like that. And some coaches, my coach is like I text him when something's wrong or when I feel like I really did a good job on this or I have a specific question. But he's not going to be texting me every day, giving me, you know, cheerleading or should we modify things? He puts me in the driver's seat to like ask a question if I have a question or. communicate and then we have like a monthly check-in.

And when you do ask, or even during your check-in, how much of the conversation is emotional versus practical? Generally, mostly practical. Every once in a while, I know that he can handle me having an emotional thing or asking something that has some emotion to it. But for the most part, I like having a relationship with my coach that is pretty much about what I'm doing. I had the first coach that I had,

we very much blurred the lines of friendship versus coaching and it became very challenging to like bring things up and feel like oh is he mad at me because I didn't do the set right or is he mad at me and like what does that mean we were going to get we're going to hang out and get burritos after this and so I enjoyed my current coach that we could get burritos but like the basis of our relationship is very much get the work done I could see though you're having an emotional thing that has everything to do with only the training like dude those threshold intervals were so beyond traumatic for me. I don't think I can do those again in the month, you know? We've had conversations like that. And then also it's good for him to know, you know,

oh, my dog died or my mom's in the hospital or whatever. And this week is going to be like kind of all over the place. And so he's not, you know, wondering what the heck's going on when I missed two workouts or just went for like an all out smash up a hill on my bike because I had to get some rage out. Do you guys know what other pro athletes do as far as the kind of communication and the frequency of communication with their athletes? I think the more, the better. Like, if you're the type of person that is able to communicate well with your coach, that relationship is only going to be better and they'll only be able to help you more.

So if you're able to put a comment or how you felt in every single workout that you did on training peaks, whether it's one sentence or 10 sentences or however much you feel like writing, obviously some workouts deserve a little more description than others. like if you're just doing a easy run, you don't need to say much. But it really helps, I think, to avoid injuries if you can communicate well in advance of something's tight, something's hurting, I feel tired. And especially if you're not seeing your coach in person ever or not often, that becomes even more important because they can't see you face to face.

So for the most part, I'd say that pros at the highest level are communicating daily with their coach. Wow. Yeah. And I think that the more that you communicate, that you communicate, the easier it is to bring up a thing that hurts. If you haven't talked to your coach in three weeks and something's hurting, it's harder to bring it up

versus if you talk, you send a text every single day and it's just a little check-in. Right, right. Next question here is from Phil. Wait, what's the name of the Groundhog? Paxatani Phil. Who, by the way, said six more weeks of winter,

sorry for everyone who's experiencing life under three feet of snow right now. At least the winter that we've been having in Bend, we can totally handle that. Yeah, same with L.A. you want to send No, no. Hit that uncancel button.

Where's the, that's coming right out. Hit that key a lot. Yeah, don't worry. That would really be the end of us, wouldn't it? All right. She really doesn't want to do the podcast. Yeah, that's right. Okay, question for Eric.

I was out on my road bike last week for a nice weekend long ride. After the ride, I parked my bike up in my house where it sat untouched for one week. When I came back to it six days later to prepare for another ride, I noticed that my rear wheel had kind of exploded, kind of exploded. The wheel exploded. Kind of. It's a 60 millimeter deep carbon wheel and the sidewall is all cracked and broken in one place. Oh my God, the wheel is actually exploded.

Yes. I didn't hit any potholes, et cetera, on the last ride. What could have caused the carbon wheel to break when not in use, Phil from Ireland? I'd like to know where Phil got this wheel. Did not say the brand. Well, anyway, Eric, what could cause something like this? We have heard of very legitimate wheel brands having something like this happened, but it is extraordinarily rare.

Yeah, usually this is kind of something that's gotten past quality control. They maybe had a batch where the glue was a little bit weak, not baked quite right or something, and just the pressure from the tire being on the rim even could cause the rim to fail. Like that. I mean, just luckily you weren't riding at the time. Or maybe you were and you didn't notice until you finished. Yeah, that's what I wonder as well.

Yeah. We actually know of a pro who had their disc wheel completely delaminating, like the brake tracks pulling away from where the tire is the day before 70.3 worlds wrote it. This is luckily now replaced, but it does happen twice. Yeah, it does happen. So this is a good argument for buying from a reputable wheelmaker. Is there anything this person can do? to actually can you fix this basically i would reach out to the manufacturer the wheel it might still be under warranty they might just see it and go oh wow that's not you know how we want our brand to be

experienced and and help you out with it but um yeah that would just be my recommendation is if you have the opportunity to buy a a wheel and you can buy it from you have the means to get it from a larger company this having it replaced is more likely and having help in this situation is definitely more likely especially if there's no obvious point of like impact, then even if it's out of warranty, I think you have a good chance

of getting a wheel replaced. You would hope so. Next question here is from Marshall. Hey guys, question about hormones as they are vitally important to both women's and men's health. Well, second hormonal question.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to answer this right. Well, let's see the rest of the question here. I see Lionel and Sam doing rhythm blood testing. I recently found my own hormone levels, 36-year-old male for reference. Oh, that's Eric and myself are also 36-year-old males.

were a little bit out of whack and I wondered if it was due to the busy and longer distance 2025 training and racing schedule, 250Ks and my first full Ironman, which is a lot for me. Do you guys track your hormone levels or associate said levels to all of the hard training? The three of you do, honored to be a part of Team TTR. Marshall.

Okay. This is an interesting topic, I think, because of how people treat hormones in sport. and what a lot of training can do to your hormone. So, Eric, have you ever gotten into this stuff specifically as a 36-year-old male who trains a lot? Yeah, when we did, we got Inside Tracker, is a company that does, similar to Rhythm Health, they give you a full blood panel, everything. You don't really have to leave your house or you get a blood drawn somewhere and they process it for you.

And yeah, your hormone levels totally fluctuate. And at the end of a hard year of training, your testosterone is going to be a little bit lower. Your cortisol is going to be a little bit higher. But the method of rest and recovery is that those start to flip. It's like you train a lot. Your testosterone drips a little bit. Your cortisol goes up. But then when you recover, the cortisol goes down, which allows a testosterone to go back up.

So it's a natural cycle. And I think it's important to actually try to get blood tests if you're going off of one blood test a year at the same time each year. Right. Your tired hormones are going to look different than you're fresh off of off-season hormones. The thing that I see some amateurs doing is, oh, my testosterone levels are low. I need to take testosterone. Wait. Yeah.

Yeah. Sure. Yeah, I'm sure. And like you can go into any doctor and I'm sure you can get that quite easily. Just like I'm a 60-year-old, 50-year-old guy, I want to feel better. The problem is that you cannot do that if you're racing triathlon legally. That is doping. up.

Yes. Obviously. Yeah. Not obvious to everyone. I guess not maybe. But yeah, that is straight. You need to get a specific allowance to do that. Which is going to be nearly impossible.

It's almost impossible. Yeah. So. This is like a decision that you have to make. It's part of the thing. Yeah. You train too much. Yeah.

Your testosterone is going to go down. It's going to make it harder to this. This is part of it. You got to rest and recover. This is the art of resting and recovering appropriately. because that's the definition of like performance enhancement is you trained really, really hard and you need a thing to get out of that hole unnaturally, the hole that you could have avoided by resting appropriately. Perfect.

So, do you guys track your homeless? I've never gotten my testosterone tested. Did you, did you, Eric, during that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's not like I asked for it specifically, which is part of the panel. Usually if you do one of those blood panels things, it will not include testosterone. You have to pay extra for those kind of things.

We were sponsored by InsideTrivers. So you had the full. We had the big daddy package, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting though. Cool. Next question here is from Javier.

Coffee question. I recently got the Breville Barista Touch espresso machine, and I've been practicing for the best brew lead time. I don't even know what that is, but Eric, I assume you do. The machine typically says 8 to 15 seconds for brew lead time to be good. What is yours? Also, where can I get the TTR coffee? Cheers from Puerto Rico and Wisconsin.

in cookies done. Cookies are done. You heard that beep. That's great news. I think these mics do not pick up, they're very directional with their sound. A little beep. And I wish I could, God, everyone listening? I wish I could give you the smell of these cookies that we are experiencing right now because they are divine.

Okay, Eric, what the heck is lead time and what does 15 seconds mean? I'm assuming by lead time, we're talking about brew time. And that's actually the amount of time that the coffee has been, the water has been touching the coffee. God. from the time you flick the lever. So there is a thing that's a pre-infusion cycle that you can set up where the water is just

like ever so slightly just touching the water and getting the grounds wet before it actually starts pushing water through and creating pressure. I hope that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about lead time. That's a long time for that. Okay.

But so when I pull a shot of espresso on our brevel brest de pro in Canada or the cotton fancy machine that we have in Bend, like I always pull shots. of espresso for 30 to 33 seconds. Got it. So you can pre-infuse whatever you want. Cool.

Yeah. And what about where can you get TTL coffee? Online in another week and a half, baby. Okay. And that'll be at that triathlon, life.com. Slash world's best coffee. Is that right? No, I don't know.

Okay. But it'll be on the front page. We'll be talking about it a whole bunch. We're really excited about it. So we'll talk about on the podcast. You'll see it on Instagram. You'll see it everywhere. But yeah, it's a collaboration with Thump Coffee.

But you'll get it on our website. Awesome. And we didn't mention it. earlier, but that's also where you can submit questions to the podcast at that triathlonolive.com. Slash best coffee ever. Slash podcast. Slash podcast. But you can navigate to it from the website. Thanks for the question, Javier.

Next question here is from James. I started swimming in a new 50-meter pool and have gone from doing mid-to-high 1-30s, comfortably for long sets to fighting for my life to hold anything in the low 140s. So that's over 10 seconds slower. per 100. When I swim in my regular 25 meter pool, I don't do a huge kick off the wall, so I'm at a loss. Is this pool just slower? Is it me? It's not the pool, but why is it so much slower to swim 50 meters versus not even 25 yards, but 25 meters? Especially if this person is saying that they don't kick off the wall that hard. I, you know, I guess if you really are not a good flip turner and you really don't think you get any advantage from that, you still do.

You do. You still do. It's a little bit of a rest. It breaks things up. It's a reset. Paula's sitting a little far away from the mic. We only have two mics for three people. Yeah.

Yeah, so whatever I said, it was the rest. Yeah. And, um. I think. kicking off the wall, even if you're not kicking very hard, is such an advantage. And it's just hard. If you're not used to swimming, 50 meters straight, it is really hard. Yeah.

It's mostly the rest. The fatigue builds up a lot. Yeah. Even today when we were swimming, there were a couple of reps where I accidentally, instead of taking 10 seconds rest, I took 12 seconds rest. And then my 50 time after that was like two seconds faster. Even giving yourself a little extra rest, you don't realize, or the option. opposite. It's also true. For one, I took like five seconds and I was slower.

It feels just as hard, but your body just knows how much rest it's getting each time you flip turn or rest at the wall. Yeah, think about it when you flip turn and then push off. That's like six seconds of rest. I mean, you are holding your breath underwater, but I think that has a lot to do with it. Yeah. But I wouldn't worry about it. I still think swimming long course is super valuable. It makes you really fit at swimming, and it's much more applicable to triathletes. Yeah. To be doing the more continuous. Like I think swimming short course meters is infinitely better than short course yards

and then long course meters is better than short course meters. If you're talking about getting the best at triathlon. The difference between 50 meters and 25 yards is humongous. 25 meters and 25 yards? I'm saying like 25 yards, 25 meters I don't think is as big. But going to 50 meters is huge. It's a meter per length. It's not that much.

25 meters to 25 yards? Yeah. Yeah, it's a meter per... But time-wise, it adds up so much. I guess what I mean is, like, effort-wise, though, when you're going twice as far without a break. You guys may not notice as much because you're great swimmers, but I notice it when I'm halfway through.

I'm like, oh, my God, the walls all the way over there. How am I going to get there? Yeah. You're just saying that it's a much, much more significant difference from 25 meters to 50 meters. Yeah. Yes, of course. Sure.

Next question here is from Wilson. Wilson Farrell. could it be will feral we're honored that you're a terrible alias will you could have picked something a little more of a disguise hey pod please don't read this on the pod damn it okay sorry uh sorry wilson i guess you're not going to get your question right moving on to olivia's question hey tripod and flin okay i know this isn't a relationship podcast but no one ever talks about this cover your ears kids sexy time as an elite endurance athlete My non-endurance partner is starting to... Okay, I'm not laughing at the question. My non-endurance partner is starting to get a little over me, always being too tired for cuddled time at the end of the day.

But we both both... Oh my gosh. But we both also have full-time jobs. Do any of you relate, how do you balance training fatigue with actually having energy for your partner? This is from Olivia. Is this something we want to answer? Yeah, it's a good question.

question. And obviously, Olivia, you're not the only one in the world that feels this way. How do you balance it? I don't know. I've been single for a while, though. Don't. I mean, if that's the thing that's a priority, I guess don't get so completely destroyed that you can't. And I'm just going to talk about this. And in a broad, not personal way, sure. I think you need to prioritize your relationship, certainly at times, or be very clear about I'm getting ready for this race. This period will be over in two and a half months. And then I promise to pay you back in whatever you've been lacking.

Right. So this reminds me of something that a friend of mine told me, I think I've told you guys this and you guys, for like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But it's worth a shot. They said no, let's call it cuddle time. No cuddle time before 10 a.m. Or for whatever, for triathletes,

let's say before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. That's kind of like, okay, those are the times that you're the most tired, like, I just want to go to sleep. Okay. So then you're like, okay, well, then you got to make time for it in the middle of the day when maybe you have a little more energy. Oh, because you're saying, if I'm putting it off till after 8 p.m. It's not going to happen.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As an idea, just like, all right. And this is something that ideally you both want anyway. So I really say this is a place from total ignorance, sadly, but. No, I mean, from the outside. I thought it was an interesting idea.

Yeah. No, I, I shouldn't comment on this. Well, I was just, I mean, I could say, like, can confirm that as a great rule. Because if you, it's just always, oh, yeah, tomorrow, oh, tomorrow, no, it's this, no, it's not happening. You got to, like, get into making it a priority and realizing that if, if it's at X time, you're not, it's no way. Yeah. That doesn't, that doesn't count saying this evening because you know there's no way ever. Is it like, you know, couples make date nights.

You make date appointments. Yeah. So is it just too taboo to talk about that and make time for that and like get excited about that days in advance? And I would hope not. I don't know. Is that like, does that take the magic out of it? I think that's a component. Maybe.

I mean, it depends what you're into. Like for me personally. Two men talking about intimacy. Like I, that's the thing that should not, I don't want it to be like freaking scripted and on the scale. schedule. Right, right, right. I've said like five words in this podcast because I don't have a microphone. I can't just be like, I have a joke that's coming, quick. She's just giggling from the sidelines as usual. So Paula, please share your... No, I am opting out of this question. Why'd you grab the mic? Because I thought it was funny that I haven't said anything this entire time.

Okay. So you don't have anything to add as an advice here? No. No, she hollers from the background. Okay, got it. well you know Olivia Godspeed I guess I don't know what to tell you okay sorry next question here is from Hannah but I do want to say that I think we could

barring your guys opinion we could field some more relationship style questions on this podcast that can be tangentially related to triathlon but I think that could be kind of fun if we incorporated that as a component of this podcast just you guys talk about those ones be a good idea

Okay, great Okay, back to Hannah's question here Hey, I'll quick style question Is it about style or is it a Is it a question a quick style? When wearing long bibs, do you wear your socks over the bibs, aka the socks show or the show or under the bibs?

Thanks, Hannah from San Francisco. I think you do over the bibs, right? This is on tights. Yes, tights. So tights that go all the way down to the ankles. We're undecided. Yeah, I feel like when I put my socks, over my long tights, I feel like I'm trying too hard to look cool.

Oh, I see. Because that's how the LA cyclist. I should know, don't put that in. That is, it is, though. It is. That's how, I don't know, I think it's more comfortable underneath. What's warmer? I think socks over is warmer because the, the material from the tights is warmer than socks,

and that's just like right up against your skin. Maybe, yeah. but pretty much all of the baby tights that we have are designed to go over a booty or like to go they have a zipper so that you can like have socks underneath them and then just like those come down and then the booty goes over that top of that it's like this layering system they're not going over the booty but they're definitely designed to go over a sock and then think about because they have zippers like you want the zipper right up against your Achilles or a sock Oh, mine don't have the No, the espresso. Yeah, mine don't either. Oh, the first ones I've had it. Got it.

Okay, got it. But I have... I much prefer it without a zipper. Okay. I have three pairs and none of them have zippers. But maybe a zipper's nice because of that exact reason. Yeah.

If you have a zipper and then you're putting booties on over top, that's a lot of zippery. Oh, yeah. Next question is from Shana. Offseason question. All the pro talk at this time about getting fit after offseason.

me thinking. As a pro, how much fitness do you actually lose in the few weeks off? Not sure how best to quantify this, but say you were to race a 70.3 in peak fitness versus coming out of offseason, what's your best guess on what the difference in finish time would be? That's a great question. So in a 70.3, Paula, how much you think you lose from the last day before you do off season into the first day from when you start trading again? Overall time in a 70.3. Or when you're in the fittest of your year to maybe... No, because... No. No. Because I think we want to quantify exactly how much you lose in that time. You lose over us every one of time.

Yeah. That's really interesting. I've never thought about that. If you were to do a 70.3, three weeks after a complete break or something. I don't even think it would be that much slower. How much? Because I have an idea in mind, but I wonder how off I am. I think it could be the same or faster.

Really? You think the freshness that you gain might offset the fitness that you lose. It depends how long we're talking. It depends how. three weeks. Yeah. What do you think, Eric?

I was going to say maybe only like five minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say like, like three to five percent. Oh, okay.

That's more than five minutes. Yeah. I just, I don't think like the fitness is there, but I think that I just, I'd be so impressed if you could do it just because of like the brain where your brain's at and how long it's been since you went hard. Yeah.

I think that would just, that would be the shock. Even if physiologically it was possible to come within, 1% I think the 3% of just like how uncomfortable it is and foreign feeling. That would be my guess. I bet you'd make it pretty well like halfway through the bike and then shit would fall apart. Not fall apart, but you just can't sustain the pace as much anymore. But Paula, maybe.

Maybe. No, I'm also thinking about a three week break where you're still moving. Right, right. And go into the pool twice a week. I don't know. If you really did nothing, then yeah, maybe it's a little more significant. But I think the question of how do you know, like, How do you quantify your fitness when you're getting back to racing?

That's kind of an interesting question because it's a little bit feeling-based. And a lot of people use data to see like their TSS scores or whatever it is. But it's hard to know how you should feel before your first race of the year, unless you're comparing to previous years. I hear you guys both talk about this all the time, how you, even at your level and having raced for over a decade, you still, by the end of the season, you're like in the group. groove of racing and you're just familiar with everything and you just feel more comfortable racing. Your body, your mind feels more comfortable racing. I think that can be surprising to someone like me or other age groupers to think, well, yeah, but they, like, it's just second nature for them. They don't get used to it. It's in their bones. It's in their DNA at this point.

No, you definitely get rusty and nervous. And after taking three months or four months off of anything, get a little rusty. If you didn't play the guitar for four months, you'd be a little rusty? I've actually been reflecting on like for me skiing. I can not ski for two years. I get on the skis and I feel like just as good. That's not fitness. But I'm probably, yeah, it's not fitness. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. That's more like a ride in a bicycle. You never forget. Yeah. I think I don't, yeah. I think in triathlon, at least for me, like the idea of race fitness. Like I can come back from an off season just feeling really good at like zone one, zone two maybe like pushing tempo a little bit. but then like okay we're going to do like a max 50 or whatever and it's like that just feels like

absolute death and then once you've had one race of the year and you've started doing more speed like specific workouts and I feel like that speed feels less searing and awful yeah and you get that like race fitness of searing and awful is such a such an accurate description of that feeling yeah yeah um okay next question here is from y shang john sina announced his retirement one year in advance the triathlon equivalent would be Yon Friedina or Sebastian Keenley. My question would be about how you envision your retirement announcement to be like one year in advance, or like David McNamee calling his next race is last, or perhaps like Alistair Brownlee or all the other hanging up their boots after the last race of the season.

Thank you for all you do. Cheers. Yechang. What do you think? I think it would be cool to have like a final year. Yeah, I like what Sebastian did. I think his was kind of like two years. actually, but just the idea of I'm done racing professionally after this year.

And here's like the list, my short list of races that are really special to me that I want to have a good performance at. You know, it'll be over after those. Yeah. Paula? Yeah, I'd much prefer the idea of having a final year and knowing that this kona will be my last kona. But it's really scared to do that.

So I think it's much easier to wait until something happens like you're sliding down the results or you're getting injured or something. But emotionally, I think it's... Because it's kind of the way if you kind of go out, like the way Yon did, it feels like, damn. Yeah, if you're that certain that this is the last year. that you want to have. And he was like winning T-100s that year. So he was still so good. I kind of like that, though, when you're going out on the top, still winning. Instead of sliding down the ranks. Yes, I would much prefer that. Yeah. But it's really hard to do. Okay, you guys are going to love this one. It's from Howard. I recently had this debate with my friends at work,

so I needed to hear your answers. A Costco rotisserie chicken is maybe around $9 Canadian. The hot dog plus pop combo pop is soda for the uninitiated. combo is $1.50. If you had to finish the whole thing at Costco food court area, would you rather eat the whole chicken or six Costco and pop combos? Six. Six. I mean,

would eat the whole chicken. Six. Absolutely no one on earth would pick the hot dog soda. Kobayashi would pick the hot dog and soda for sure. Just, pop, pop, pop, p, p, p, p, 30 seconds, all gone. Like, regardless of if you're thinking of what's easier or even what's healthier, you're always going to pick the chicken. Well, I'll tell you what, six soda certainly is not the healthier option. That's insane amounts of sugar.

Oh, man. Yeah, but you're doing hot dog plus soda or the chicken. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is this question? Well, it's crazy that the hot dog and soda combo is literally a dollar 50. Okay, is that. That's a pack of gum is not a dollar 50. Yeah.

that's crazy. Yeah. I mean, I think we'd all rather do the horser of chicken. That doesn't even sound that bad to me. I think I could probably do that, no problem. It would not be hard at all. I could go for a run a couple hours later. Don't tempt me.

I'll do it. Okay, and our final question here, I think we'll take some thinking from all of us. It's from Zoe. Oh, wow. Hi, TTR. Eric said, oh, wow, not at the question, but at the cookie that he just ate.

Hi, TTR. I love triathlon and triathlon training, but I am slow and objectively. terrible at it. Think 12-minute mile at an FTP of 130. Is there anything you guys do that you suck at just because you love it? Thanks.

Zoe. That's interesting. Because no things that I suck at. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I sucked at music, I sucked at photography, I sucked at snowboarding, I sucked at triathlon.

and I have made those things part of my life and now have become good at them. I was not naturally gifted at, you know, despite what my mom would say. I was not naturally gifted. But did you love them even when you did suck at them? Yeah, I did. But I think part of it, part of the gift was I did not know how much I sucked at them. I kind of thought I was maybe okay at them. And only now can I look back and think, oh, I know, now I see when people were gifted at these things and I was nothing like that.

So does that count? I feel like this is almost, you need to be aware of that you're not good at it. I think I knew that I was not good at, like, long efforts in endurance sport. I was, because I knew how good I was at short efforts. And I'm like, wow, I really, this is not translating. I mean, I'm still better at short efforts. And yet I'm not quit racing. I'm an enthrathlon.

You know, swimming is kind of interesting because this is making me think of swimming. I was so wildly, incredibly mediocre. Like, you know, the 12th fastest kid on my team. Wow. And like no one at school gave a shit that I swam or knew what swimming meant. So it was like all I was was like the only way to rank myself was inside of my team. And then I'm going to like regional's at the best, never made it to nationals. So in the world of swimming, I was like very mediocre.

But I kept doing it because like I loved the kids that I was with. They were all my friends and the system of going and getting better. But like nobody was like, you're really good at this ever. and you then became, according to the T-100, at one point you were, I think, were the number one ranked American swimmer in triathlon. Oh, number one ranked American swimmer. Yes. On a Tuesday. Yeah.

It was a Tuesday at 4.30 p.m. for a moment. You were number one. I'm honestly very good at open water swimming relative to how I swim in a pool is. But still. I'm not still not the best swimmer in triathlon by any means. Yeah. But yeah. that's all I can think of that in

that I was a lot yeah but a lot of many things that I've done I've zero percent of prodigy level but they're enjoyable and I didn't suck to the point of it being unenjoyable. Paula I'm not trying to insult your singing but don't you kind of like singing? I hear you sing I hear you sing quite a bit like you like you like singing along to songs it seems like you genuinely enjoy that and it's not because you're good or bad at it. You just like it. I wouldn't say I suck at it.

Would you? No, but you're not a singer. You wouldn't call yourself a singer. Well, it's up to being ranked in the top ten. Yes, exactly. I wouldn't say I like to sing. Wow, just dismantling my question from every angle. Fine.

What about, yeah, dancing, you did dance. I'm just trying to think of something maybe in the arts that you actually enjoy. I would say maybe one answer to this would be like painting, coloring. drawing. Are you not good at that? Not that good. Yeah, I guess... But then again, I don't do it that much, so I don't know. It's a really interesting question, because, like, I actually was thinking about it from the opposite way of, if I sucked at triathlon, I wouldn't do it.

Yeah. I don't understand how people do it. A lot of your enjoyment comes from being good at it. Or not even my enjoyment, just my feel like I'd... need to do this. Therefore I do it. I think a lot of people ride bikes because they love it, not because they're good at it. Yeah, that's true.

I think that's really one. And it's not because of the health benefits. It's because there's a visceral joy and balancing a bicycle. Yeah. The feeling of freedom and flying. Yeah, exactly. For sure. Yeah, so it's more common in endurance sports.

I think so, like compared to swimming. Like, I do in a weird twisted way enjoy swimming. but it's because I don't like it. It's because I'm doing something that is not fun for me. And I'm like persevering through it. But it's not really the answer to this question. That's type too fun. That type too fun.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I still have to edit this podcast and has to go out tonight. We've had a really, really full day. We just put out a reel of our day today running. If anyone wants to check it out on that triathlon life Instagram, you can see a little touch of the immense amount of, this is not sarcastic,

although it sounds like an immense amount of fun that we're having. It's really great. It's an incredible group of people. Everybody's super positive, fun. We're in a beautiful place. And, you know, we're not trying to, like,

flaunt it or anything, but we're appreciative that we're able to do this. It's really freaking cool. Yep. And next time you'll hear from us, we'll be doing a live pod in front of our campers.

That's going to be fun. Yep. See you next week, everyone. Bye. Bye. Bye.