That Triathlon Life Podcast - T100 madness, training for your first 70.3, triathlon self coaching, and more!

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

This week Eric and Paula are training in Victoria, BC, so we get some travel stories before jumping into rapid fire and a batch of listener-submitted questions. This week, we discussed:Have pros lost trust in the PTO/T100How often to do a spin-down on the Wahoo KickrHow often to re-wax a chain when it’s used exclusively on the trainerChristmas gift ideas for a young mountain bikerHow to fuel for a 50-mile road run as an Ironman athleteHow long a beginner needs to train for a 70.3Whether power pedals and their extra data are worth itSelf-coaching during the off-seasonIf swimming more compromises bike and run fitnessBalancing local racing with Ironman-branded eventsA 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 Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. We are coming to you from a friend's guest room in Victoria, BC. At least Paul and I are. Nick's still in L.A. And it's just cleared up, but it's nice and sunny there. So he's a happy boy. Paul and I are both professional athletes. Nick's a professional musician, amateur athlete. and this is, we're going to be talking with you about trathon. Wow, my brain is a little bit dead. It's been a little bit of a lot fried, huh?

It's been a little bit of a long week. This is not our normal audio setup, but Nick, I can hear us from your headphones, I think. You can hear. Oh, I see. I see. Okay. This should be better. Yeah, that's way better. Yeah. Perfect. Wow. That's like night and day. Why didn't you do that before?

Well, all you have to do is ask. Wow, is that the secret to getting what I want? All I've got to do is ask. Okay. Yeah. And it's the first step. That's part of the equation for sure. Okay.

Good to know. Good to know. Anyway, we love triathlon. We love multi-sport. And the most of this show is made up by people sending in questions. So if you do that, we appreciate you so much. But we're just going to kick things off here, as we usually do with a little bit of what's going on in triathlon world and our world. Yeah, well, what is going on in your world?

Why are you in Victoria right now? We're on Vancouver Island to visit my sister, who lives on Vancouver Island, not in Victoria specifically, but Victoria is on route and on the way home from where she lives. I used to train in Victoria, so from like, I can't even remember exactly what years, but when I went to the Olympics, I was training for that in Victoria. So I have so many memories from here. And as we were driving back through, we're like, well, we'll stop for half a day and catch up with Simon Whitfield and ride some of the roads I used to train on and go to

the pool I used to train at. And, you know, we just like changed our ferry reservation three times now because we just want to stay longer and longer. And I love it here. So it's really, really crazy to be in a place where I can like remember the bike sessions I did and the runs I did and the going to the pool when I was 20 and now it's, you know, been 16 years since then. So crazy. But that's why we're here. We're heading home. tomorrow unless we change our ferry reservation for a fourth time which is possible

but yeah we are planning to head back home tomorrow where all of our treadmills and Wahoo kickers and bikes are yeah but Paula you did like an on foot

thing yesterday yeah I'm so fucking tired of this injury so I'm like I'm just going to hike up a mountain flush run how did that feel it didn't feel great but honestly, it doesn't feel worse today. It feels kind of like better.

Well, this is the thing about those injuries is that a little bit of use, like straining it to the point of some pain is beneficial for the recovery time. But you just can't go over the edge. Yeah, well, I did like a 6K run slash hike with over 500 meters of climbing and I like ran down.

I was like, man, this is going to be not good. But it feels fine today. It feels totally fine. fine. I mean, like, if anything, that's just such a completely different stimulus than the thing that injured it in the first place. And like, we find this sometimes with like Achilles pain. Sometimes if you run like a steep incline on the treadmill, it's just enough of a different range of motion from like where the fibers are torn or whatever that it doesn't hurt. I mean, I'm not going to say it was pain free. But I'm also, no one's saying that. Sometimes with injuries, like, you have to obviously be smart, but you can't baby it so much that you never like return. I don't know. It was really a dumb thing to do, but I did it for the fun, and it was enjoyable. And then today, it's okay. I ran up the, it was my idea.

I was my idea. I wanted to run up this mountain. And then Paula just kind of like came along and was going to hike, and then did a little run and did a little bit, you know. I wasn't there. But it was, it was such a cool spot, like very inspiring and just felt right. So I feel like age groupers, like myself, we think about. traveling and I think a lot of us want to travel and then we're a little bit we have this guilty conscience devil on our shoulder telling us that oh are you going to be able to swim bike

and run when you're there you know are you going to be able to do the training are you are you are you betraying the months of training that you've done and the stuff that you still have ahead of you but there you guys have bikes you can run as there a place to swim too oh trust me we we've definitely sacrificed training optimally to be here oh you have oh I was going to ask if if you had. I mean, we've swam. I've ridden every day. I swam three times. I mean, we're still training, but it's much more like prioritizing, visiting family. And healing. Personally, I really enjoy being in a new place and going for a bike ride on a road that I've never even really been on or that I used to ride on. It's more exciting for me than riding and bend up Skyliner again, plus

getting cold there. So I think there are a lot of like, not just training. benefits to being in a new stimulus, but like mental benefits and being a little more relaxed. And I was aware that when I left home, I was, you know, I'm still thinking I'll go to Qatar at this point. So I'm not taking time off, but I'm, yeah, being a little bit more relaxed, I guess, for this week to, for my mental happiness. Although it does feel like I haven't trained in three weeks, but that's okay. well Eric you've been with her this whole time do you feel like you've noticed something from the outside I mean I think this is what in my opinion like is good for her and for us right now like got an injury and could be at home and just like thinking every minute about what's up with the injury and like dwelling on it not having much to do but instead we're she's still doing a good baseline of training letting the hip recover see how it feels after four or five days and then like as soon as we're back home Like, I think with this little bit of mental break, like, if training is possible, you can hit it harder for like two really good weeks leading into that race versus just kind of like being stressed for an entire month.

So I think it's beneficial. And it is nice that not being able to run coincides with this trip. And it's, if we were trying to swim, bike, and run train this through this week, it would have been a lot more stressful. Oh, no. I think that if you're able to run while traveling, it's 100 million times better because it's so efficient. Anyway, yeah, Eric's rolling his eyes at me, but that's the truth. We don't have to do three sports right now. Yes, she would just be running and skipping bike rides, but, you know.

I'd rather do that. Biking is a pain in the ass to do on the road. You got to like, I mean, we're so lucky to have a van, but hauling the bikes out of the van, getting dressed, finding all your stuff in the, it's a lot of work. Yeah, I guess the way that you feel about running, I and I think a lot of people also feel about cycling, is that you get to explore these unexplored areas, and you get to, you get to explore, and you get to go so far on a bike. Yeah, much further than running.

Yesterday, as I was getting my cycling gear on, I had this thought of how much I hated putting a wetsuit on to go surfing when I was surfing more, just because it's such an ordeal. And as I was putting my cycling stuff on, I thought, this doesn't take any less time than putting a wetsuit on to go surfing. And yet, I don't mind this at all. I think it just comes down to the fact that I actually just didn't like surfing that much, and I really do like cycling.

Okay. A wetsuit's a little bit harder to put on than bibs, but, yeah. Like physically challenging. It's a physical insertion of putting on a wetsuit. Yeah, putting on a wetsuit is hell. Yeah, I hate it every time. Anyway, let's move on. We're going to do some rapid fire right now

before we move on to our main question. These were submitted by T.J. And this might be the, I don't know, there's such a large delta between the quality of the games that we get sent in sometimes. No offense, everyone. but this is at the top of the quality list. All right.

I mean, when I read them, I was tickled by them. So here we go. Rapid Fire first. Can only use one going forward carbon shoes or carbon bike. Carbon bike. In racing? Just in general. Well, is there any other material you can make a bike out of that's not?

Oh, yeah, titanium. Steel aluminum titanium. Okay, I'll take a carbon bike. Yeah, the carbon. shoes are like relatively new and we were kind of okay before them but carbon bikes is tough. Unfortunately we just have to go down like to such a crazy low level of bike relative to what we're used to to like get one that's not carbon. Like $2,000 bikes are carbon now. Like that would be the bigger challenge like in the time trial arena. Right. Okay

next one. We got to keep this rapid. Next one. When using a pool buoy fat side down or fat side up. I've been going fat side down lately. I always go fat side down just because it's harder for it to slip through my legs that way. You're just giving yourself more buoyancy. So, you know, if you go fat side up, then you're just tougher.

Yeah, I'm not tough, especially in the pool. Paula, what about you? My pole boy is same on both sides. Is the world's most hydrodynamic bull buoy? She's an ambiturner. Like Derek Zoolander

Quick, quick funny story At the pool that we swam out today, Crystal Pool They have a pull-booie bin But pull-booie is spelled Pull-boy Oh, like a boy, like a girl in a boy? Yeah, like what I am when I'm pulling. I'm a pole boy, yeah.

Yeah, you know, that's what I do. Not to be confused with a pool boy, which is yet a different thing. Yes, I know. So I was like immediately thinking of like a bumper sticker that had like Pool Boy and Pull-Booey and Pull-boy.

Yeah. Like all different. Pool, buoy. Right. Yeah, exactly. Well, whoever made that sign definitely thought that's how you spell pull boy. Or they're just being funny. No, I think they, I think it was.

Yeah, yeah. I think they're confusals. Okay. Oceanside or St. George, R.I.P. St. George. St. George. That's not even hard. What do you mean? That's not a hard decision.

Why is it not hard? Oh. St. George is a way better course. I don't know. Oceanside is just like such a cool week. Yeah, the experience. Okay, I'll go Oceanside. Okay, and entertainment on a long run, podcast or music? Music.

I think podcasts make the time go by quicker on an easy ride, but for a hard ride music. What about you, Nick? You're not participating? No, I'm happy to play. And it's sometimes podcast, sometimes music on longer ride. Sometimes I'll listen to a podcast, but for the most part, it's only one AirPod and right side, of course, and it's music. Yeah. Okay, next one, muffin or croissant?

Muffin. Do you think that's just because it's more calorically dense and your subconscious knows that? Or do you think there's a taste preference? No, it's because there's so many more kinds of muffins, croissants are just a croissant. Yeah. And I just feel like you're eating butter. We can do croissants when we're in Europe, you know, when in rice. right

went to rum literally bike tech with Eric or swim sets with Paula bike tag with Eric it is a lot of fun and just the jingle and the jingle my jingle sucks

Jarris who's Flynn's dog sitter whose house we're at right now we were like driving to go mountain bike today and one of the TTL jingles popped into his head I don't think that we can refer to Jaris as Flynn's dog sitter he'll be crushed he's more than a dog sitter

he's one of our great friends But he did dog sit. We've been talking about how Flynn had a great dog sitter. Anyway, the guy, our great friend, who was Flynn's dog sitter for the last, you know, while we were in Spain. Anyway, and we both agreed that bike deck with Eric is some of your best work. Thank you. I appreciate it. I think it might have been the first one, too. In the jingle realm. Yeah, yeah. Okay, this one is great.

What's a better gauge? Heart rate or RPE? And RPE is a rate of perceived exertion. RPE. I do think it's RPE. Yeah. Yeah. Funny because the technology you'd think. It should be like the end all, be all.

I was talking to Kat Matthews, though, who she would never listen to this podcast, so we don't need to worry about talking about her. Yeah, never a million years. She uses heart rate really religiously to like cap her efforts. Because I think in a race, like your RPE can be a little skewed because you... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially in an Iron Man probably when you feel really good and you're tapered and...

Or you feel really bad. and you want to get your heart rate up, you know? Like, my RP feels high, but I'm not, but my heart rate is low, therefore I can try harder. It's funny. I would say that in a race specifically is the best time to not look at RP because there's so many factors. You mean not look at heart rate? Sorry, not look at heart rate, yeah, because there's so many factors that change it. But, hey, if it works for Kat Matthews.

I guess it depends how in tune you are with it, how much you watch it, and how good of a job you've done of like nailing the sleep and the new. nutrition and the hydration to like minimize those variables. Oh, I just think it's the type of thing you have to use every single day in training to know it so well. You can't just like throw on a heart monitor and a race and... Well, for sure not. Yeah. But I mean, I'm never even looking at it during training. I only look at it and post-mortem. What about you guys? I just never look at it at all.

I've been using it this year on every single workout because the coaches I have now want to see it. So now I look at it. And I know what it generally is. Like when I'm writing 200 watts, my heart is 120, that kind of thing. Right, right, right. Okay, this is a good one. And there is a right and wrong answer here. Friends or Seinfeld?

Friends. Paul is going to say friends. I knew it. One million times. I've really only watched Seinfeld. I've watched like half of one Friends episode. Oh my God. Seinfeld.

We're getting divorced. Seinfeld for me too. Sorry, Paul. I guess you and I also getting divorced. Can curb your enthusiasm. I've watched every single first. Friends episode a thousand times. Pasta or rice.

This is the last one. Yeah, pasta. Well, that's it. TJ, thank you for that great and contentious rapid fire. Wow. It was good. You were rather silent on pasta versus rice, Nick. My mother listens to this podcast, and if I say rice, I'll get an angry call from her.

Yeah, I know. I have pasta for lunch all the time, like three or four. times a week, like a good Italian boy that I am. But I often, and I've been really liking how easy rice is to make at night and just throw it in with vegetables and chicken. Rice goes with more things. Yeah, you can have it with eggs. You can have with chicken. You can even make it sweet. Yeah. Rice pudding. Yeah. It's much more versatile. And I don't know, I feel like I can eat so much, so many carbs in that rice. So good. Okay. Let's move on to questions. And don't worry, we will address some of the weekly triathlon atrocities and news that took place this week.

And they're built into some of these questions. You can submit questions to the podcast at Thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast. You can also become a podcast supporter for the cost of a muffin, a month. A muffin a month. You can become a podcast supporter. Join the family. We appreciate it so much. Love the podcast supporters.

first question is from Lauren do you think the pros have lost trust in the PTO slash T100 wow we're just straight out with it straight out of the gates straight out of the gates that's probably appropriate in a if you just had to say yes or no

I would say more yes and what is Lauren referring to the thing that happened this past weekend if you're not aware is there were some snafews with people doing one to many laps on the bike at T-100 Dubai. And then the second thing that happened is a large percentage of the field did not do enough laps on the run. So at the end of the day, I think only four athletes did the entire course properly.

And there's a lot of like, you know, who's to blame here? Is it more of the athletes? Is it more the T-100? and I don't know if we'll get so much into that versus like kind of broad strokes of where T100's at but that combined with some earlier stuff in the year of like schedule changes there's it it's hard to put trust in

the organization right now to like yeah and extremely extremely maybe we could take that out but yeah I mean we can talk about that but I don't know how many people know about that yeah and I don't know, we've listened to some podcasts and had some time, you know, to formulate our own thoughts.

A lot of podcasts have dove into this. But we do feel like if there's anything to be a little bit frustrated about, it's perhaps the T-100's lack of having the athletes back, I think, to use someone else's phrase. In a situation like this where there was mass confusion around the number of laps on both the bike and the run, it would be awesome to see the T-100 just first. fully owning it and saying, yeah, you know, we do acknowledge that the athletes have some responsibility to get this right, but we also acknowledge that we're trying to put on a world-class event with a lot of prize money in it. We really should have it as close to full

proof and impossible to do the route incorrectly. You know, like that's what I think it would be really awesome as athletes to see the T-100 owning that and just making a lot of very, you know, just like walking the walk in every possible situation to protect. the athletes and do this for the athletes since that's what it was ultimately founded for, the pro-tra athletes organization. Yeah, it's hard to really be critical because people make mistakes

and obviously this is on a huge scale and it's pretty catastrophic. But like I know the people that are organizing these races and working so hard to put on nine events a year and many of them brand new races with new courses and the amount of work that it takes to set up one race, let alone nine, and organizing that Spain race at the last second when Valencia got taken off the calendar.

It's just been so much on these organizers. And to have one little mess up like this is obviously very sad for the athletes that were affected, but you also feel for the individuals who are responsible for organizing. these races and I know them personally and we go to these 2100 races and we are treated so well and it's really professional in many ways that you as the viewers don't see because this is like behind the scenes type of stuff you know we're taken so well care of with our bikes there's amazing bike mechanics at every race massage at every race transport hotels Dylan's working like so hard behind the scenes to make this as seamless as possible when you're an athlete racing these

events. And so it's just too bad that one like very large mess up is all people are talking about when they've done a lot of good at the same time. Yeah. And I think it's like we want to be very upfront about the fact that we want this to work. Like I think everybody wants this to work. Nobody wants the T-100 to fail. I think they have made it. Jack Kelly said this and I like a lot of the times really don't like some things that he says but he said it really well of like they're making it easy to not like them in situations like where they just completely ignored the like the issue with this when sam renew like did his speech on instagram versus owning up to it but ultimately baseline like we want this to succeed it's been so good for the

sport it still could continue to do so much good and elevate the sport so much and it's just it's like just sad and hard to watch when it goes wrong. want it to go right. I think that the reason it's easy to like for people just to hate on it so much is the media that they do surrounding it. Like the, what happened is so embarrassing for the race in the T100 and the media team who seems like they're on a completely different planet than the actual T100 PTO best interest people. And they're utilizing these fuckups to get engagement. And it's just like they've done this before with athletes. athletes when they have a something happened to them in a race that's like kind of embarrassing or

you know they're missing bottles grabbing bottles it doesn't look good to promote this to get five million views on the reels but that seems like in ways that's their only goal so they leverage these really unfortunate situations and then the comments on these reels are just hundreds of comments of hate towards the t-100 and it's like they're almost asking for it when they when they post these things immediately on reels and on social media. There's no cooling off period. It's like real time, Mika Newt, crossing the line with like highlighting all the things that Hayden's saying while he's racing.

It's just so cringy to watch it. And they're like, look what we did. Anyway, that's my biggest problem with it. Yeah, totally agree. It's hard to trust an organization that you feel like, oh, I say one thing that's like, and they could just take it out of context and clip it or like if I trip and fall in my face, that's going to get a million views on the internet. For sure.

I have zero trust that anything they post is going to highlight me in the way I want to be perceived. So you have to be so careful of what you say, what you do. I actually think that's the best feedback for what happened is because really the only thing that it appears that the only thing they did wrong was that the lap counter was wrong on the run. Hayden doing the extra lap It's kind of on him Even though the bike course was a little bit short The run there was an actual mistake And to finish

Even though there was an extra lap left So the real problem was Like this is one of the main critiques of AI Is that you tell it Hey make something that is going to be Viral And then it doesn't realize that it's doing things That are hurting the brand

But yes it's viral It's almost like there's not real people behind this, like, hey, you don't want to share this thing so instantly without thinking about how it may affect the brand or athletes doing something that's embarrassing or something that shouldn't be put up. There needs to be just one more level of maybe checks and balances or forethought before posting that stuff online. Totally.

And it's like they're comparing this to, you know, like looking at drive to survive or looking at, you know, these bigger sports. And like, Max Verstappen doesn't go anywhere or talk to anyone without a media. person from Red Bull Racing with him. That's like you're going to go in here. They're going to ask you this. This is what you say.

And like they have intense media coaching. And then we've just like brought this whole system into triathlon where the triathletes like you could have been an accountant three years ago. Right. You know? It's like it doesn't feel like fair. But anyway. Well, okay.

We don't need to talk about that anymore. But it was something kind of crazy and exciting that happened. I think all of us woke up and Paula, you FaceTime me and you're like, did you see what happened? And I had just woken up, so I hadn't seen yet. And then the whole world had exploded, basically. Yeah, I guess if I could leave it any way, just feel free to go listen to other podcasts

and get all the dirty details on it and everything. But our take on this was like, is there anything that we can put out there that might be helpful or just like adding thoughts versus pointing fingers or just saying what happened? I mean, we have skin in the game, so we can't really be too critical. Yeah. But let's not forget. It's for the athletes. It's supposed to be for the athletes, and you're an athlete.

Yeah. I don't agree with absolutely everything they've done. Of course. Well, moving on, next question is from Christine. And it's actually a double. Ola Tripod, I've got a two-parter for y'all. As we move into the hellscape that is turbo trainer season, yes, it's true. I'm wondering how often should we be performing a spin-down on a kicker,

the Wahoo Kicker. By the way, Wahoo is the sponsor of this podcast. podcast, but we do believe in the products. Wait, Wahoo is or isn't? Well, they're not a sponsor of this podcast. They're a sponsor of you, too. And so by virtue, we have a bias. Yeah.

People in the past have said that we're a little sketchy with that. Really? Yeah. So I just think when we talk about a sponsor... On the podcast? Yes. When we talk about a sponsor, I'd just like to mention that you guys are sponsored by them. Those people can go and listen to the triathlon ever.

I listen to some other podcast that doesn't have ads. That's right. You're welcome. Today was my first day back inside after a glorious season of outdoor riding. So I did a spin-down, but it's never occurred to me until now if they should be done more frequently during indoor season. So that's the first question. You guys ride kickers all a lot. How often are you doing spin-downs? Do you find that they are necessary, that they help maintain accuracy?

I have never in my entire life done a spin-down. Not in years. Well, there's your answer. And you find the wattage to be in line with your expectation. Within five watts of my cork all the time. Yeah. Okay. So that's easy.

I mean, there's no, I mean, if you're feeling insecure about it, go for it, Christine, but it seems like it's not important. I think you had to do spin-downs with, like, compi trainers, like back in 2010. There's a kicker does have a do-it-down. Yeah, there's a spin-down mode on the kicker as well. Oh, there is. Yeah. Okay. If it was ever reading drastically different than my cork, then yeah, I would.

But it's usually within, literally within like five watts at race power. Yeah, yeah. I wonder if we like transport it to somewhere like usually it's in bend at this altitude and this humidity. And you're going to sea level at this humidity if it would be with it. I've never, I didn't even know you could do that. Like power meters, same thing, right? When you change the atmosphere conditions, that's when it's the most important to zero it. I've also never done that in my life.

And that's also worked fine for you. Well, of course, can auto zero. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Question two. How often should I refresh my waxed chain during indoor season?

I'm only on the kicker, maybe five hours a week. Thanks for all you do to make such a great community. Please give Flynn hugs and kisses. I saw some of that earlier, actually, off camera. So it's happening. Don't worry, Christine. So, Eric, can you think of a good time interval or maybe even better, any good cues? if it's making a ton of noise

that's the cue but I just I don't bother with this in the winter I just drip some more wax-based lube on it you know like we lubed the chains with whatever the silco drip wax and wax them with the silica wax so yeah the sound is the way to go

indoors and outdoors for me at least that's my trigger yeah and since there's no grit involved it's just less I'm less neurotic about it Yeah. Next question here is from Joanna. Hello, Penn and Flynn. Usually we go pence with that, but I guess Flynn gets his full name. He's getting priority here. Greetings from Canada. I'm writing in with a Christmas gift question. My bonus son, who will be 15 in March. What is a bonus son, by the way? I was wondering that too when I read this. I have no idea. I was like, okay. Maybe like, um. Is that a creative way to say accident? I think it's like, yeah, her other kids are like 35. 32 and 30, and then there's a 15-year-old.

Or like a stepson. Right, right, right. Yeah. We're not critical of it. It's just a funny way to say it. Yeah. My bonus son, who will be 15 in March, has developed a love for trail riding after spending some time in BC with his cousins.

He saved a lot of money and bought himself a really nice secondhand mountain bike last summer. We're in Nova Scotia and in the city, so he doesn't have access to the same opportunities around here, but loves to be on his bike whenever he can. He has most of the basics, so I'm wondering what kind of fun special things I could get him for Christmas. I'm simply a runner who enjoys swimming, so my bike knowledge is not very high. Thanks so much for any suggestions you may have. Love the pod, love the videos, and love watching you all race.

Cheers, Joanna. So I think, Paula, you ride dirt sometimes too, so I would love to hear if you have any input on this as well. And I know you don't ride mountain bikes, but maybe there's some cruise. crossover there. Just looking for a Christmas gift for a mountain biker. Yeah, and something that a mountain biker wouldn't get themselves, but that's really nice to have.

I can think of something lame that I've been looking for lately, which is that little pump adapter that you screw onto your suspension to put air in there. You know, to like get the sag right, it's not a great gift. But, do you know what I'm talking about, Eric? Like a shock pump? Yes, a shock pump, yeah. Okay. I think a good, he might already have this, but a good byte computer with like map function is cool.

Like a Wahoo. Right. Sponsor of Eric Impala. Like a Wahoo element Rome. Yeah, Eric, you see, you're, you're chomping at the bit right now, Eric. You've got something delicious. Plain ticket to somewhere with awesome mountain biking. Oh, that's a really good one.

That's fun. That's really fun. Man, winning Christmas so hard with a plane ticket to Whistler or, you know, or Fayeville or Bend. You could do somewhere in, even Quebec has some mountain biking. Like, that's what I think that would be, I would lose my mind. Yeah. That's the thing that I probably wouldn't get myself, but if someone else got it,

give it to me, I'm definitely going. Yeah. And he's 15? Well, that has to include then. Like, I mean, that's a bit scary for a 15 year old. Maybe, maybe. Well, you go with him. But, yeah, go with him.

What about a full face helmet? Is that crazy? Is that nerdy? What are the kids like? I mean, if he's doing anything remotely rowdy, yeah. A full face helmet? Maybe he probably already has it. But yeah.

Another nice gift, actually, because like, you've got to think of things that regardless of if he already has it, it would be nice to get a new one. are a really nice pair of sunglasses because I think for mountain biking specifically like different light conditions and it's nice to have options of different lens colors and yeah, I don't know,

that could be a good one too. Yeah, yeah. Trail Forks Pro. Oh, yes, and like an app subscription. Yeah, that's kind of cool. Yeah, smart. Docs. The good socks are cool.

I mean, I love socks. I love socks. I'm wearing my toe socks right now, just to keep the women away. Okay, next question. Next one here is from Vince. Hi, I'll, podcast supporter, and big fan since day one, your honesty, humility, and you know what? These are too much. They're not too much. We love reading it, but I'm not reading it on the podcast. Sorry, Vince. My question is about nutrition and hydration for ultra-marathons. As a middle of the packer triathlete, I have my nutrition dialed for full Iron Man distance. Wow, that's quite a feat, by the way, Vince. Congratulations. on that. Thanks to your inspiration. I'm off to tackle a 50-mile road run. Oh, boy. I don't think we inspired you to do a 50-mile road run. Yikes. That's no one here has an interest in doing a 50-mile road run. We did tell people to follow their hearts. True, true, true. What you want? We're happy for you. That's nowhere near my heart. But good for you. A 50-mile road run next fall in Wisconsin. By the way, congratulations, Nick. Thank you, Vince. What things should I consider for

adapting my nutrition and hydration plan for race day. Do I try to do exactly the same as triathlon or make some adjustments specific to ultra-long running races? Thanks, appreciate you all, Vince. Okay, so, Eric, you've never done an Iron Man, which I love to say out loud, but you have done 50Ks. And I'm curious how a 50K changes the way you fuel compared to the run portion of a triathlon, because that's my gut, is to tell him, do what you did on the run portion. of the Iron Man. Yeah, that's kind of my gut, too. The one thing I'm thinking is, like, 50 miles on the road is,

well, how long is that going to take? I mean, that could be like 12 hours. I mean, it would, maybe, maybe 8, 8, 8 is 2, 4-hour marathons, which is, well, that's a pretty fast time. So it could be 10, 11, 12, yeah, it could be. Yeah, between 8 and 12. So it's like, that's a long time to be going on no, solid food. So that's my

one thought is like, is it possible to incorporate any solid food? Is that something you want to do, can do? Plenty of people go longer than that without solid food, but some people like too. And I think the fact that you're running on the road,

does that mean that you just cannot run that hard because it's so much pounding that you necessarily have to go a little slower, which allows you to eat more solid food? Yeah. And And just, you know, it's hard in an ultra to eat while running uphill. And then it's hard because you're breathing really hard.

And it's hard to eat while running downhill because you're bouncing so much. So theoretically, this should be a pretty optimal scenario for being able to, like, do nearly bike level intakes and stuff. Right. And as always, Vince, you know, try it out in training, of course. Yeah. Next question here is from Paco. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick, and of course, Flynn, big fan of the teacher. TL pod. I discovered this podcast a few months ago and have just been listening to every episode

when I do my workouts planning my first triathlon next year. My question for you guys is how long of a training block do you think a beginner needs? The race I'm trying to do is in September 26, Jones Beach, New York. Oh, I wonder if it's the Iron Man, New York, 70.3 New York. It's currently November and I'm planning to use this winter as an offseason to gain more strength and muscle. When should I shift my focus to more triathlon-specific training? P.S. just started cycling in July, and my swimming is probably a four out of ten. I love four out of ten. Real low self-confidence there.

What's a ten? What's a ten? Michael Phelps? Yeah, Michael Phelps? A. LeDecky? Yeah, so then a four is not so bad, actually. I feel like I'm a four. Thanks for all that you do.

It really gets me excited about the sport, especially all the crazy things. Eric does swim run just sounds awesome. Paco. Okay, so let's assume that it is a 70.3, at 70.3 New York, which is that race on Long Island. When is it? September. So, and he's going to do strength training more so in this offseason in the winter, which I think is great. No, I disagree. I think he needs to start some endurance right now. Yeah, so what would you do now knowing that it's the winter as this person, as Paco? I was, I mean, I don't think that you could just like only do gym until April and then start swim bike running.

Oh, I was thinking starting in January. I'm thinking like through the holidays now, do your strength training and then like January 3rd, you start doing, start doing your stuff. Because nine months is a long, that's a long time. Oh, it's plenty of enough time. But I just think if you, the longer you have to kind of start to build your endurance base, especially running because you can't just go from nothing to 20K runs. It has to be a really gradual progression to avoid injury.

So even if you're doing 5K runs or like warming up for the gym on the treadmill for 25 minutes or 20 minutes, I think that could be helpful to start doing a bit now, especially for swimming. Because like swimming is such a feel-based sport and getting the feel for the water and your technique that it's only going to be better. to do it for longer, you know, regardless of how much time you have till your first race or whatever. So maybe we're doing like three lifts a week, like three, five K runs a week,

and a couple of swims that are like drill focused and some like, you know, just working on your technique a little bit and getting some feel for the water. Yeah, and the cycling, which takes up most of the time in triathlon training, you can push that off a little bit until maybe it's a little more fun to ride outside.

Yeah, I kind of, you know, everyone does like base training and long endurance in the off season or when you're trying to get your aerobic base. But I think the flip side where when you're forced to ride the trainer, you're doing more intensity. And then once it's nice outside, using that to do your base building. I was talking to someone about this recently. Kat. Yeah. Mark.

It was, it was, it was Mark, it was Mark, I thought about this money. times. He said there's absolutely no proof that periodizing your training as far as like base first and then like getting more and more specific as the race comes closer. There's no proof that that is actually beneficial. I thought that was really interesting. He was saying to do it base first, intensity. He said, you know, he was saying the order is no important. The order is irrelevant is what he said, which is. So like basing it on the weather and what you're able to do outside versus inside, as long as you're doing a phase of VO2 work and a phase of threshold work and a phase of base work.

I would love to fact-check that because it just sounds impossible but if it isn't then like that's too interesting. He said it with a lot of confidence. As he does all things. No, I think it's probably right. I mean, and it's also just way more enjoyable. Like who wants to sit on the kicker for five hours?

In the winter. So even if it's not true, like believe it and do it. Right. A lot of this is like what you believe is correct because everyone's training hard. Everyone's doing different stuff. Yeah. If you show up to the start line,

confident you've done the best training and knowing you're as fit as you can be, that's all that actually really matters. Yeah. Not when you did your VO2 block. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. Totally. So true. And good luck, Paco. It's going to be great. Hopefully you get good weather. That race is a little bit cursed with bad weather. But this year it was good weather. Next question here is from Heather. Hey, guys, I have a long commute to work each day and I love listening to the pod during it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on power pedals. I would really like to work on improving on the bike and was wondering if the additional information provided by the pedals would be helpful enough to make it worth the investment.

Thanks so much for all you do for the multi-sport community, Heather. Do either of you guys have any experience with power pedals? No, but Wahoo makes them. We're sponsored by Wahoo, by the way. I think that in the past, like the first iteration of Garmin power pedals were wildly inaccurate. And this, I mean, I think power pedals over the years have improved a lot. And I could totally see the benefit in them in terms of switching them between bikes. And I was having the same.

That's the benefit. Having the same power meter on all bikes. Yeah, totally agree. Best bang for your buck in that situation. But also, it's just easy to install. Like, you don't have to get a new crank. You don't have to get a new crank arm, whatever other ones are built into. It's just easy to put on pedals.

The question is the metrics that are afforded to you because of the pedals, they have much more, They can tell you when you're out of the saddle. They can tell you, I mean, the garment ones at least, I don't know about the Wahoo ones, can tell you where you're applying pressure. I think those things are useless. No, I think they're fun, but useless, to be honest. No, but if she's saying, like, no power meter or power pedals, for sure, power. For sure.

Yes. Any kind of power meter is better than no power meter in terms of the data and the feedback and the more structured training that you can do with it. I would say the only situation where like that I've been interested in the extra stuff from dual sided power is like if you're coming back from an injury or just you use them and just discover that you're right

like putting out 200% more power than the left and then like okay maybe this is something you discuss with your PT but 99% of people find it's like 51% 49% right to left and it's just you're not like you're not going to make that better and it's not worth making better you're just not the same

Yeah. I think ultimately, Paula, what you said, the fact that they are exchangeable between bikes is actually the best part about it, not this data thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't even know they did anything else besides just power. Yeah. Crazy. Next question here is from Lindsay. Hey, Tripod. Any tips on self-coaching? I'm trying to save a couple bucks this winter after an expensive race calendar this past year. You know, I just remember the guy who went, what was it, $1,200 to spend the whole year for triathlon? Yeah. Oh, boy. Hey, bro, can you check back in? We're curious to hear how that's going.

He's like, water, Sandy. But I'm planning to go back to a coaching model in this spring. I came from a swimming background and have access to master's workouts. Looking to maintain and build on bike and run fitness for middle distance triathlon, Lindsay. I have a thought on this, but I'm curious what your guys' thoughts are. I wish I could self-coach. when I have the freedom to do whatever I want for a week, I really love it more than anything. And how much, okay, how does your training change when you have the freedom to do whatever you want for a week?

Oh, it's just like, you know, if you have a coach, you're not questioning anything. You're coaching yourself, you always have that little like, oh, is this the right thing or not. And I wouldn't say these weeks where I have no structured training is like being self-coached. I'm like actually supposed to be doing less. So it's not really the best. Right, right. But I think there's a lot of online free, like, is yours free, Nick, your online coaching with training teams?

No, no. Oh, it's not free. But is it cheap? I mean, relatively, yeah. The way it was when I purchased the plan is that it was based on how many weeks long the plan was. So I think I paid like $110 for my Iron Man advanced, whatever, 40, or whatever, 36-week plan or something like that.

And so you wouldn't consider yourself, right. You wouldn't consider yourself self-coached then. This person's fully wanting to write their own program. Well, I think my advice was to do this, was to actually buy one of these plants and just use them as maintenance. If you're like me, you like the structure. You like not having to, as you said, Paul, question your own reasoning and just following a pre-made thing. So I really enjoy that side of it. I would enjoy more if I had a coach, but I don't want to, I don't know.

I like the balance however than that. That's what I would say to do. Yeah, so fairly minimal investment for what you're getting out of it. Eric, what about you? What would you recommend if you were this person? I think it just kind of depends on the personality type. I'm sure that there are some people that would love to dive that deep into some research and some structure and they maybe have the ability to lay out the whole season

and then commit to it in their brain. But if that's not you, then it's just. just so nice to do what, yeah, do what Nick's got. And then you can vary it on it a little bit and whatever. Yeah, you can always change stuff up a little bit. But I think if you're making your own program, it's so much easier to like bail or change at mid-session. Yeah.

Because you're like, oh, I made this up in the first place. I'm just going to do six instead of eight. But this is what I did this week and last week is there were these sessions that I really didn't like, which was 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off, 40 times on the bike. And I'm like, no, I'm just going to go for a PR on this 30-minute climb. And it's, you know, it's a different type of stimulus for sure. But at the end of the day, I'm also trying to have a good time and it was fun and it was a stimulus in my body. Did the AI coach yell at you and you did that?

No, it doesn't. It has no yelling feature yet, which I'm thankful for. Does it comment on your activities? No, it doesn't comment. It's not AI. It's a pre-made thing. It's just based on my training zone. No one's looking at it.

No, no one's looking at it. No one's looking. Although there are a few people who have access to it. you at paul i think have access to my to my training peaks no i don't and i don't want it i think you do no i don't i think you do i think you do and then um yeah a few other like people in the past who've wanted to look at it have access to it um anyway let's move on here i have a goal of doing a 70.3 but i haven't ever done anything other than a sprint because my swim is atrocious especially open water me too i've done almost 20 half marathons and ride

thousands of miles, wow, thousands of miles on the bike each year, so I'm confident in my bike run capabilities and have good for me, fitness in those areas. Wow, fitness in those areas right now. My concern is that I will have to put so much work into my swim to do a 70.3 that I will lose much of the bike run fitness I have worked so hard to build. What advice can you give an adult onset swimmer like me that will get me where I need to be swimming without sacrificing fitness in the other disciplines? Thanks. Okay, this is not a matter of sacrificing fitness. It's a matter of sacrificing happiness.

Totally. Because I think a common misconception is that swimming is not really like building your fitness. It's the complete opposite. Swimming is an absolutely amazing way to build your fitness without impacting your joints. Aerobically amazing exercise. It's hypoxic. You get to breathe all the time. You get super fit.

It's super hard. It just sucks. It's just so unenjoyable sometimes. So I don't think you have to worry about your increased swimming, making your fitness on the bike and run lower. But obviously there's some compromise with you won't be able to do as much bike and running as you would like to when you're going to the pool three times a week. I think this goes back to something that you guys said. I can't remember which one of you said it. But you had listened to a coach talk about the amount of time it takes to drive to the pool.

to get changed, to do the swim, to shower, to change back into your clothes and drive back home. It's such a huge time commitment that you could be spending that time riding or running. A two-hour trainer ride. Exactly. And so the question is ask yourself, really, why are you swimming? Do you want to be a more well-rounded triathlete? Fair. Do it. Go for it. That's why I swim. But are you trying to get a faster race time? Because I don't know if like spending a ton of time on swimming is unless you're at the level of Eric and Paula where you need to stay with the pack and every little percentage point matters. It's really, it's, who do you want to be as an athlete? Yeah, how much time does it take to take three minutes off of the swim versus to take

three minutes off of the bike? Exactly. Yeah, much more commitment. I think the biggest thing for swimming is just feeling really comfortable that you can complete the distance without any stress. Because, like, how much faster are you really going to get? I don't know. It's not going to be life-changing, going to the pool five times a week versus two times a week. It could, but it's definitely not guaranteed.

Right. And five times versus two times is a huge amount of time difference. Commitment time. Yeah. Yes. Yes, for sure. Yeah, yeah. I think being efficient with the time you do spend at the pool, like if you are only going to

go twice a week, spend. spend an hour swimming or an hour 15 minute swimming instead of just going and doing 2K five times. That's more of a waste of time. I don't know if I'm answering this question properly, but I guess what we're saying is like, you don't need to swim that much to be able to complete a 70.3.

Right. And it does help your fitness overall. I have noticed this as an also adult onset swimmer, unlike Eric and Paula, that my overall fitness has benefited from my swimming. Increase swimming, yeah. And another big thing about swimming

that people don't realize is it actually has some recovery benefits from biking and running as well. Like Eric doesn't necessarily have to swim as much anymore but he still comes because it makes his body feel better

after hard runs. 100%. Yeah, yeah, great. Okay, last question here and I left this philosophical one for last. Hey all, I'm Radu. Longtime listener and follower

of all things TTL and now proud member of Team TTL 2026. Let's go. I'm a strong believer in Eric's philosophy to race local. I try to find local races as much as possible, but listening to all the post-Marbea podcasts and having completed a few Iron Man events myself,

I find myself in a bit of a conundrum. I want those experiences as well. I want the awesome expo vibe. I want the big community feeling you get from a big race. I want to feel like I'm surrounded by the fittest people around the world, and I get to pretend like I'm racing against them, even if I'm just a middle-of-the-pack guy. how would you suggest to reconcile these different motivations?

Sometimes it's hard to not look beyond my backyard for a world-class experience. What advice would you have for someone who wants to race local, but who also wants the Ironman-level experience that only comes from traveling to places further away? What a great question, Radu. And I wouldn't dare answer it first. So what do you think, Eric? 100% go after that experience. I think when, you know, when we said race local and that philosophy, that was a bit, that is a bit more of response to, I think a lot of people get into the sport because they saw Kona on TV and they're like, hey, what is the closest Iron Man that I can do to now to qualify for Kona and do that?

And like, they only see the sport as Iron Man events. I'm saying, hey, there's this awesome scene that is local races and smaller events with these character and everything. and people should try that out. But, like, you're completely right, Radu. Like, there is this really big event, hollabaloo, excitement, energy that we love. We talk about it with St. George and Oceanside and World Champs and definitely go experience that.

Experience as many different things as you can. At the end of the day, the local races and Iron Man events, the race experience, as far as what you're actually doing, you're still swimming, biking, and running on roads. It is the magic that. that Iron Man brings to it on everything else that is so special. And we recognize that too. We are not impervious to that magic that Iron Man creates.

Yeah, not at all. No, we love it. It's great. We feel the same way. We prefer going to a big event like Oceanside or World Championships as well. So much more fun to race on the courses with tons of people, with hype around it, with attention around it, with like crazy experts. Bose on the beach, you know, when people in the industry are there, it's much more exciting. But I think what have you said about backyard races?

If that's not your thing, or if you can't ever qualify for World Championships, realistically, other races also exist that are really fun and really welcoming. Yeah, I'm not saying, I will not go as far as to say that we prefer that bigger event. It's just, it's a different experience, and both things are really awesome. I had an amazing time at swim run because it was this small thing and it was new and different. And like, is it better than Iron Man or is Iron Man better? No, they're just like two different, very cool aspects of the sport. The feeling I think of is when I'm at the start line of one of these local races and I'm like, wow, I'm not that nervous.

I'm actually enjoying this moment right now. And I'm looking around at all these people who are local people. and there's the same way that you enjoy being around these world-class people, it's kind of fun to be around the people who are, maybe it's their first and only ever triathlon. It's just, it's fun in such a more tangible way, I guess.

Yeah, Nick, I think Nick is much more equipped to answer this because you do go to much more local stuff. But you guys did too, once upon a time. That's how we, yeah, so we, at least how I grew up in the sport. I literally never have. Oh, yeah. You did one. right? You did one, your first one, that you won overall.

University of Alberta Traffland. Yeah. It's different if you grew up in ITU, which Eric also did. Versus Nick, you literally have the choice to go to Ironman, Wisconsin, or to go to... Totally. San Diego International Traflon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I love both.

And just like Eric said, for totally different reasons. There's some overlap, of course, but I love just driving there the morning of waking up in my own bed. And showing up to people who are just, no one's been training six months for this big thing. You know, it's like people are having a good time. It's a little more like the spirit of gravel. Like a training race. If there's such a thing.

But yeah, it's fun in a more light way. Also, it's like you can't go to big races like Marbea several times a year. It's too expensive. Yeah. Well, at least for most people. And you know what? We're lucky because Bend and Southern California have a lot. of races.

Like, Bend is full of athletes. So is Southern California is full of athletes. Maybe if you live in Arkansas, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe there are. And I guess I just know these places and they seem so athlete dense. Okay, we'll see you in the niece.

Where's the world's next year? We'll see you in Nice next year. Nice, yeah. And Nice, Radu. Yeah, Radu. And like, Eric, when Eric's talking about racing local, I don't think he's ever meant to shame anyone into not, into not racing. local. We just want to encourage people to race

local. Am I right, Eric? I feel like that's what I said at the beginning of this whole thing. Like, I just wanted to, when I brought that up, it was like, hey, there's a really cool local scene. You don't have to go straight to world champs. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Look for things where you can find them. Oh, Fala.

Very nice. Okay. Well, that's it. That's the pod this week. Next week, you guys may be in Bend or you may still be there. We don't know. Only time we'll tell. Yeah, any final thoughts? Any final words? Words of wisdom. Wear arm warmers and gloves because it's getting cold out there, folks.

Getting cold out there. No, nothing. Dinner's smelling good. Oh, we had a really nice visit with Simon today. Simon Whitfield? Highlight of my... First triathlon gold medalist ever? Except we had to freaking sit outside the coffee shop because there were a bunch of triathletes

inside of the coffee shop and Simon didn't want to get... Yeah, so we sat outside and froze our asses on it. I wasn't cold. I was under the heater. I was cold. Yeah. Yeah, our mormers and gloves, like I said. Oh, no. Hilariously, we went to the swimming pool this morning,

and Paula's like, Eric, walk the dog, take Flynn for a, you know, potty while I go start warming up, which I'm fine with. And I made it one minute into the walk, and a lady came over and asked for a picture with Flynn. Wow. Did she know who Flynn was? Yes. She wanted a picture with Flynn. That hurts. Taken by me. I'm not in the photo. Wow. That is, like, God, that hurts. Welcome to Canada. Oh, Flynn. I like how to blame her. Even on the podcast, Flynn has nothing to do with the podcast and he still gets called out in every freaking question. It's ridiculous. You know what? He's our, he's our mascot. He's lying right here. So he does actually have something to do with it, Nick. Yeah, nice. Okay. He's you? He's you? He's been here for. He's been here for. pretty much every episode.

Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks. Ciao. Bye.