That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon bang for your buck upgrades, riding with traffic, swimming with one arm, and more!

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

This week we start out with some "this or that with TTL" and then move right on to your questions! Questions about being a mom and racing competitively, using the Lever treadmill system for injury and more, what cycling groupsets are worth it, and much more! For gear and all things TTL, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggersham. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And on this podcast, we talk a little bit about triathlon. Actually, we talked exclusively about triathlon. And we talk about some of our races. We talk about some questions that you send into us. And just for a little backstory, I'm a professional triathlet. Paul is a professional triathlet. Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlet. Pretty good one. And that's the format. We like talking about stuff and answering your questions. Paul, are we allowed to say how many emails you had to go through this week to get the questions?

No. I don't want people to know, you know? It's a, it's a staggeringly large amount, though, this week. Like, I had to leave out probably 50 questions maybe. Wow. And I still sent Nick, like, 40. It was a lot. Yeah, it was a lot. Is there some reason for a lot this week, or is it just the new normal?

I think that it's just getting more popular. And then also the subscription is really, really cool. And all of those emails are also coming into my inbox. So, again, thank you to everyone. who subscribed to the podcast this week. Super, super cool for us to see that. And we don't expect it, but we certainly appreciate it. And I think it really picked up steam this past week.

The first week we kind of teased it a bit at the end of the podcast. And then we like kind of fully released it last week. And we are so, so grateful for everyone who signed up for that. So, yeah, we won't go too much more into that. But if you want to subscribe, go to that show, palmlife.com, slash podcast. and help support us a bit. And stand by for sweet personal messages and exciting gifts. We sent our first one out, and I think it was awesome.

I think it was cool. I mean, it was like, that's not as cool as it's going to get. It's going to get even cooler. It was just a little taste. So, okay, I was just thinking today, I'm like, I should get to ask you guys questions too. So I have a question for you guys, before we really get started. Okay.

I don't know if you've ever felt this, but I am sure a lot of age group athletes have felt this. As a lot of age groupers, including myself, part of the way we think of ourselves, part of our identity now is that we are triathletes, competitive triathletes. I use the word competitive as in we race, not as in we're at the front of the pack or whatever.

I feel like when we take two, three weeks off, I think a little bit of imposter syndrome starts to set in, where you're like, I tell myself I'm this triathlete, but I haven't been to the pool in two weeks, I haven't put on my bike shoes in two weeks. Like, who am I really? Have you guys ever felt that? Are you like, no, this is my living.

Of course, this is who I'm. I don't feel like I have to prove anything to myself. I don't really feel that in the off season in that way, but that does creep in sometimes. If you've had like a couple of bad races or just like workouts aren't going well for a few weeks because, I mean, that's like how we measure how well we're doing at our jobs and everything. But in the off season, it's more like, oh, I am so excited about this vacation. like I'm in Hawaii. Right. Right. Right. Right. I can definitely wait to go back to work. Right. What about you, Paul? Have you ever felt that?

Yeah, I hear people who like say the word imposter syndrome. I don't fully understand the definition. But I suppose that I sometimes deal with that from like a confidence standpoint. Like, I'm supposed to be one of the best in the world at this. People are expecting me to podium or win or whatever it is. I can't do that. That's crazy. I'm not good enough for that. So it's more like it's not that I have a trouble identifying as a triathlete because I think think our lives revolve around it pretty steadily. But yeah, sometimes when it comes to just like expectations and dealing with pressure that can be a factor. But then you just really, really have to go back and just look at your training. And that often helps me to be like,

okay, I did this. That gives you the confidence back. Yeah, yeah, sometimes. I wonder if it's one of those things like for me, when I buy alcohol now, which is rare, but when I do, I'm still like, oh, they're going to know I'm not 21. Like, they're going to know. I'm like, I've been 21 for 11 years now and still that feeling like lives in my head. So I wonder if it's just one of those things that maybe just doesn't go away for some people. Yeah, Nick, are you dealing with that right now since you haven't trained for three weeks? Yeah, oh, very much, totally. I'm just like, I feel, and I think it makes it even more intense when I'm like talking on the podcast with you guys about triathlon.

And a lot of people listen. And I'm like, man, I can't even run right now. Oh, Nick. That makes you relatable. You know how the many gushy emails I'm going to get being like, oh, Nick, stop. I'm actually doing this on purpose. Next stop. People are mid-email and just delete, delete, delete, delete.

Never mind. Okay, well, are we done to move on to a little segment I have for us here? What's the segment? It'll be really fast because we have a record number of questions we're going to try to get to today. There were so many good ones. I hated not picking some of the questions. But the segment will do a little this or that. Okay, so first one, what's a more underrated equipment purchase?

Good wheels or good tires? Tires. I say tires. I think most people don't think tires. It doesn't even think about it until, like, maybe the day before the race. Yeah, I told Eric today actually text our tire guy and Sean in Bend and ask him if we can get a fresh pair of tires for worlds. Because I feel like that's a race that deserves a fresh pair of tires. Totally.

Oh, yeah. And everyone knows like, oh, blingy wheels. And they're so, you see them, right? like, oh, envy or zip. But tires are like what actually touches the road. And I feel like the re-churchers coming out. And Eric knows this well. And I guess, Paul, you do too.

That tires can make a huge difference. Very large rolling resistance difference. And if you're doing any degree of turning whatsoever, like good tires feel really good and are like much more controllable than just a $50, whatever. So treat yourself. Get new tires. Yeah, treat yourself, folks.

Next one is, would you rather your feet be too hot or too hot? cold in a race. Wow, that's really tough. I might say too hot because when they're too cold, I find the numbness is really awkward to run on. It's happened a few times in ITU races

when it's like really freezing cold rain, and you just feel like you're running on pegs, and it's super awkward. I know, it's like, it feels like there's like something in your shoe or something. It's like this weird feeling. It's my foot.

That's my frozen foot. It's in my shoe. Overall, like, as a body feeling, I'd rather be cold than hot, but when it comes to, like, feet, I guess I'd rather be hot than cold. Yeah. Yeah. Like, people put their feet in hot tubs. It feels nice. Yeah, yeah. I guess, like, when I think of hot feet, I think of where it feels like you're about to get a blister because the bottom of your feet are like that hot and on fire. And that's just like, man, that's a toss up for me with the club foot coldness.

Right. But I don't know. I might go with the cold. Just, I might go with the cold. I think, I think for me it would be cold too, just because I think, of the run I'm going to be hotter, so I know that it's not going to get colder. Whereas when my feet are hot, I'm like, I need to be careful because this could get worse and worse.

And then last one, okay, this is kind of a crazy hypothetical, but I was just trying to think of funny things to talk about. If you couldn't access these things until you actually use them in the race, would you rather trust an amateur to fill up your tires or lace up your running shoes

without being able to tell them what you, what your preference is? So they just have to go off what they think is right. Running shoes, I think. Yeah, probably running shoes, because if we ask them on the pump up our tires, they put them in like $1.10. Yeah. That's right. Like, hold up.

How badly can you possibly mess up running shoe time? Some people like their shoes so tight, and some people like their shoes like me. I like to slip, I can slip on my running shoes without doing anything to them. And then I'm a friend David. And go for a run? Yeah. Nick, that is weird. Otherwise, it hurts my feet.

Wow. That's weird. plastic laces on for an Ironman? Oh, shit on. Well, this question is dumb because, yes, every triathlete should. Right. Okay. Just kidding.

It's not a dumb question. But it would save you valuable seconds in your one-hour transitions. You're right. Excuse me. One hour and five minutes, I believe it was. Get you sub one hour with the lactic laces. You want sub one hour in a sprint? No, no, no, no.

My T2 was sub one hour. That's what I did. Okay. So right on to the questions. We have a lot of them. You can submit your questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. First question is Paul has directed specifically towards you, although I think I'd also like Eric's perspective on this.

Coming at you from Bozeman, Montana, I'm looking to lean into triathlon more and wanted to get your take on the best bang for your buck items. This is very related to what we were just talking about, actually. Or in other words, your opinion on what will provide the biggest gains and best experience, both in training and racing dollar for dollar. For consideration in no particular order, upgrade from road bike to tri-bike. I think he addressed me only because he knows I read them. Oh, I see, I see, okay.

Fair game for everyone answering. So what is the idea here? Basically, if you're trying to, no, you're trying to maximize the amount of arrow gains or performance gains you get for dollar spent. So he wants your opinion on, is it worth it to go from road bike to tri-bike? Is that one of the things you would look at improving if you're trying to make the most of the money? Yes. Yes. Okay. If it's an extra $1,000 for a good TT bike, yes.

I would even venture to say literally any TT bike frame that fits you is going to be miles faster than any road bike frame. Yeah. That's great, right? So you don't necessarily have to get the super expensive top of the line TT frame. Anyone is going to get you far as long as it's a good fit for you? Yeah. Okay, great. then carbon shoes for racing

Yes worth it 100% Eric you're on board with that too Yeah I guess I guess it wouldn't be like my first thing But important Probably if you're a fast runner already Then they're a great upgrade Working with a dietitian No

That's like if you're at You've already reached your maximum potential You're trying to squeeze every ounce Yeah and you've already got a coach unless you really struggle with, you know, controlling your eating or knowing what to eat. Maybe that's it. If it's like really a crux or a hard thing for you, yeah. But otherwise, I would say coach would come before that.

Personalized training with coach support. Yeah. That's the next one. Yeah, that might be one of the biggest ones. Yeah. Even for your motivation and your health, which is like your health and your body is your main tool. Yeah. With the right coach for sure.

an at-home swim trainer What's an at-home swim trainer? Not necessary. One of the vests, is it, what do they call it? Vasa trainers where you are just lying on a sliding plank basically. Oh, I've seen those, yep, got it. We looked into getting one during COVID, but we didn't. Highly unnecessary to have an at-home swim thing.

I'd say if you want to do any kind of swim conditioning at home, you could just get a pair of stretch cords, which are like 40 bucks. Yeah. And that's just to kind of fill the gap between days where you can actually get to the pool. but there's nothing that replicates swimming like swimming. Adding strength workouts into a swim bike run routine? I'd say it's highly individual, that one. And strength coaches one-on-one can be really, really expensive.

So I think there's a lot of value into maybe doing an online type of program. Like ECFIT has some really great online that are affordable because you're kind of like looking at a pre-recorded YouTube video, but you can follow along a program. So it is individual, but I think there's some value to it for injury prevention, obviously, and then just overall getting faster and stronger. And you can do a lot of that strength work without spending a dollar. Exactly.

You don't need all the equipment. You don't even really need a gym membership sometimes. No. No, a lot of its body weight is enough. An arrow race helmet? Yeah. That's like one of the most aerodynamically beneficial things, dollar for dollar. I remember reading about that.

Yeah, but also, like, if I could go back in time to DALA, I don't think I'd wear one. I think there's some conditions where if it's so hot and the TT helmet is, you know, just make you hotter. Although I was really surprised pretty much every single person in Kona wore a TT full-on helmet. Yeah. Also, there's like a lot of, I'm sure you guys have seen in the studies that the visor seems like it would be so much faster than sunglasses, but it's not that much faster. Sometimes. Sometimes. I've heard both. I've heard both ways. Yeah, it's just surprising. You wouldn't think. You would think it's just like, yeah, of course the visors, like this perfectly smooth surface is going to be fast.

faster. Definitely. I mean, it's like everything with arrow testing. It's person specific and how that's specific. And then the last one is other. So what I don't see on here,

for example, is like your kit. I think power meter. Oh, yeah. That's great. Yeah, I think that the ideal setup here is like an old TT bike. That's like, that's 11 speed. Get like the oldest 11 speed

TTI bike that you can get. Probably going to have mechanical shifting on it, but you can get like Old TeGri-Di2, great. And then buy some like old race wheels. You might have to go tubular and just like suck it up and deal with that.

I highly disagree. If I'm just going, if we're just going for like the cheapest possible fastest stuff, like I would do that and then get yourself like an arrow helmet, do a coach, have a power meter, and like you could win a lot of stuff. You could win a lot of stuff for the low cost of $10,000. Wait a second. I have a question.

This is probably so dumb. Can you do tubular tubeless? No, those are two different things. Tubular is one thing. Tubular is one thing. Right, but I'm just thinking, like, could you put sealant in a tubular tire? Yeah. And then just, like, run, like, would they seal?

Yeah, they would seal, right? Yeah, people have done it for sure. I think I saw Tim Reed do that. Wow. Years ago. That's funny. Well, thank you for those, Garrett. Hopefully that helped you a little bit.

My parents are both from Alberta. Love going up there to visit family. So there you go. So we got some hometown, some hometown love. Next question. is from Jason, fellow Pacific Northwesterner. Eric and Company,

I'm exploring getting a trailer to travel to races rather than always going to a hotel slash B&B, pronounced hotel slash B&B, yes, thank you. Have you managed to find places

to park your amazing van? Have you had issues with camping in it? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. So maybe the question is, how do you find places to park? We haven't done any races where we're actually in the van

on race night. Erica's, but maybe not both. of you? No, I don't know. Or maybe for an exterior or something, but whenever we drive to a race in the van, we usually get a hotel for race night because it's not more comfortable.

It is possible, but the struggle with a lot of races is that they are kind of more in cities. So, like, the risk of it is, I think you could definitely find some on-street parking somewhere that was, like, kind of dark and more of an industrial area, where it's just, it's not in front of somebody's house

who's going to call the cops. But you're running the risk of the cops coming by and knocking on your door at 2 a.m. anyway. Which was a nightmare. So for like night before the race, I would look at a campground or just get a hotel room for that night. But like there's some apps out there. There's like free campsites.com or dot org. Outland.

I overlander. I overlander, yeah. That have some kind of like crowd sourced. I parked here. It was okay. Sort of things out there. And there's now, I don't know if you ever use these. and I would imagine if I had a van I would not,

but now there's a lot of people who put their, like, driveway or something up on a site and you pay them a certain amount of money for the night. And so you're at least guaranteed that no one's going to bother you. Yeah. But it just seems like if you have a van, it's nice to not have to spend the money. Yeah. I mean, it still could be – I don't know, I haven't looked at those, but hotel rooms now are, like, super terrible, awful hotel room

in the armpit of the city for, like, $270 a night. Exactly. Exactly. It's savage. Okay, next question is from Andrew. Hey, Eric, Paul, Nick, and Flynn, in Lionel's Kona post-mortem, I love that video, he briefly talked about how he doesn't feel like he let anyone down or disappointed his followers with his Kona result. I'm curious to hear how you all perceive the support from your growing fan base. Does having a large fan base motivate you

to perform your best? Does it burden you thinking you have to perform for your fans, or does it not even come across your mind when racing? Thank you for answering my question. I love all the content. You all put in and good luck with the rest of the season. Um, for me anyway, like, I don't really think of it in terms of letting people down, but, like, Santa Cruz, for example, in my mind, it sounded super epic to, like, drive the van down there and sleep in it and, like, win Santa Cruz. So, like, I got excited about, like, the positive side of it, but I, I don't know, fortunately don't typically think of, like, oh, people are going to be disappointed. Um, but also, I don't think, I don't perceive that a lot of people out there, like, oh, well, Eric should win frequently and always. I feel like the expectation might be a little bit lower than for Paula, for example. Or for Lionel. I'll just use Lionel as an example. No, I don't feel like having our vlog audience or our podcast audience or TTL supporters

adds any pressure to me. I think that it just adds excitement when you actually do well. And then additional support when you don't do well. Because I think everyone like, Nick, you did a whole podcast about your result at the Ironman and the outpouring of support was like outrageous. It helped me so much. Yeah, for better, for worse, if your race goes poorly or if it goes well, you have this entire network of people that are behind you.

And I think they are kind of like riding the highs and lows with us because everyone can relate to that, you know? Yep. Everyone's had good races. Everyone's had bad races. And ultimately, no one's expecting us to go and win every race we do. That's not realistic. It's not possible. So it's not, in my mind, an additional.

factor. And I think Lionel also alluded a bit to the people that are negative or the haters in his comments and he gets way, way more comments in interaction than we do, so we don't deal with that really as much. But I liked how he just said he doesn't read it and he doesn't care.

And obviously he loves the support and appreciates it, but doesn't let the negativity or the outside experts get to his head, which is kind of how I think of it too. I usually do read the comments and I delete the bad ones just because I don't want Eric to see them or like I just don't think they deserve to live on the comment board but there's not a lot of negativity so we're pretty

there's not a lot even the ones that are negative I feel like sometimes I can tell the people didn't intend them necessarily to be negative yeah Nick I know but you've never seen the negative ones I deli no more often it's just somebody who like came across our video for the first yeah they don't even know who are these two super grumpy people who are doing the thing that I want to do for a living and it's like right right right okay yeah yeah sorry it's it's our job you know whatever it's right or they just to like really fully understand any TV show or anything you kind of have to have an idea of who the characters are and what their personalities are totally if you just walk in in the middle you'd be like this

freaking Kramer guy is yeah whatever psycho yeah this Seinfeld guy is so sarcastic I can't stand it you're like no that's the whole point yeah yeah I don't think it's bad at all no I was saying if anything it's more like the opposite of where we kind of feel like because of what we've because of the following or you know the community and the YouTube and everything it's like and what you experience with with your race like if this does go poorly this isn't like the end all be all and the only time that we have an opportunity to be like to like do something notable is is what the result and if we mess it up it's like that was it that's the way things were 10 years ago when it was just magazines like if you didn't get a big

result that was your only chance um so I wonder if to a smaller degree Strava has given that to amateurs. It's like I don't have to do that well on this race because I know that my friends have seen my training for the past four months and they see that put in the time. It's not like I just didn't show up on race day. I tried. It's just, you know, I didn't have the legs or whatever. Maybe.

But for me, I also, I have the same feeling as you guys, like, obviously to have a much lesser degree, but it makes the bad times better and makes the good times better to have, like, this community. For sure. Next question. John from Pittsburgh. Hi, Paul Eric Nick. I live in a city and am new to road biking, still getting a feel for all things that come with it. Aside from a trainer, which is on the way, how can I develop a better handle on my bike instead of going on these crazy traffic-filled rides my cyclist friends seem to have no issue with? I end up feeling more stressed after a ride with them than when I started. Thanks for all you do, John. Wow, so relatable. That sounds familiar. Yeah, I hate traffic.

I hate cars. I have this huge fear of it. And it, like, cripples me with fear. I hate riding on our Bachelor highway that goes up to the ski hill on the way down because there's cars, like, flying past you. And it scares me so much. So I don't have an answer for this other than ride the trainer that's on the way. And I do feel like, I do feel like when Paula and I ride together, it almost like freaks her out more because she's like, it doesn't bother me.

And I don't know. And it's like, re-infor, makes her think like, oh, I'm doing poorly at this. because Eric's doing giving no, like I was going down Bachelor up in my bars and Eric flies past me in his arrow and like in the arrow position. And I'm like, that is so fucking dangerous. Sweet Eric. How fast were you? Wait, weren't you going really fast? And then he says it's not dangerous. Yeah, it is dangerous. No matter how you put it, riding down a hill head first with no brakes in a TT bar position is dangerous.

No way I see. But it's dangerous with that traffic. The closer that I'm going to the speed the cars, the less the impact is going to be, you know? Oh, God. Yeah, but then what happens when you're rolling down the highway at 50 miles an hour? I don't know. It's just like, if you're going 40K an hour and you hit the deck and if you're going 60, it's like whatever. Like 40 you might bounce 60.

You're definitely sliding. Yeah. That's true. That's true. The other thing is like it definitely gets to my head more. Like it's in everyone's personality. Like their tolerance for that kind of stuff. So your friends who aren't as nervous about it probably have more experience with it or just

their threshold is totally different than yours. And I don't think it's necessarily. something you have to change. Like, if you're nervous around cars, that's okay. And it means you're going to be extra cautious and probably never get in a car incident. So, knock on wood. Or you can be a super rad mountain biker and never deal with cars. That was going to be my next thing. Like, if gravel riding is at all an option, I've been doing that on every ride where I'm not on my TT bike. I'll go on my gravel bike on the trails or on the gravel roads. Another nice tool, we're not sponsored by Garman, but they do have a light that beeps at you if there's a car coming. So maybe if you're on

like more rural roads where cars are a little more sporadic, but when they do come, they're coming fast. That gives me a little confidence because I see it coming. And actually it works, it's compatible with Wahoo. So you can see it on your screen, the car approaching. And then you can move over when it's approaching. The entire point of this is if you want to ride more in the middle of the road, but then get out of the road when cars come versus just always riding really close to the shoulder. It's not even that. It's like if I'm bombing down Bachelor

and I know there's no cars behind me, I'm way more confident. If I know a car is coming and it's going really fast and it's a big truck, I can be more prepared for that coming. I get that. But what? Then what?

Like if a truck is going to hit you from behind, you're dead. It doesn't matter if the thing beeped. Well, here's my argument. No, but knowing it's coming. Then you know you're dying. But Eric, we're not talking about you. We're talking about people who are, let's say, irrationally scared of cars.

Thank you, no. So instead of every second being like, is there a car, is there a car, is there a car, is there a car? You just look down and be like, no, I can be calm for the next three seconds. Exactly. That makes sense. Thank you, Nick. Wow, this is getting heated. If you have to ride inside, ride the rollers.

Don't ride the trainer. That'll at least help you, like, maintain your balance. Okay. Oh my gosh. Why can I not add that? That's like totally... No, rollers are a good tool. but not exclusively.

I think the trainer also makes you super strong. And the other thing about it is if you're... We're talking about how to get more comfortable with bike handling. Okay, but also, if you are in going and doing a triathlon, most of the time, it's a lot less fear of cars because the roads are like fenced off or clothes. You're a great example of that, Paula, right? Like in a race, you have none of that fear anymore. Yeah.

And you're going fast down descents. And there's something on the line. Yeah, yeah. I guess that's true. Okay, well, let's move on to the next question before we come to a, Physical blows here. Next question. Hi, I'll question more specifically for Paula. Odd questions, so I totally understand if this is too personal to answer.

As a female coming into the sport in my 30s, I'm constantly worried about how to balance working, possibly becoming a mom, not one yet, and keeping triathlons as a priority. How do most pro-women triathletes balance being a mom and a professional athlete? Chelsea Sedaro is an amazing example of this, and Jackie Herring, but is it hard to imagine giving up a whole, year of peak training to be pregnant. Would love another female's thoughts on this, as well as what you have heard from pro's mom's, from pro moms. First of all, do you have to give up a whole year of peak training? Probably.

I feel like I'm seeing like Gwen and Chelsea that were training well into pregnancy and started training again pretty soon after they gave birth. Yeah, but I think just afterwards it's a big question mark, how you're going to bounce back and how quickly. I see. Okay. But you for sure can get back into training, you know, within. maybe a month. I'm not really sure. But it's for sure a scary deterring thought to imagine,

I would say it probably takes you up for at least one race season. Like it's going to be really hard to hit April or October on the other end when you're pregnant having a baby. So I think the PTO maternity leave policy helps with that a lot. It basically freezes your ranking and pays you what your salary would be with that ranking for the previous year or for the following year. that's mostly only useful if you're kind of ranked highly though because obviously if you're ranked lower the amount you're going to get isn't going to make you feel secure for a whole year but it's something this person is not a pro correct or are they no okay it's for sure something i think about erika and i are like we think we want kids but we're also not married yet also you have a dog that takes up a huge amount of energy as it is it's a little snapshot of what having a kid would be like The last vlog or the last podcast we were complaining about Flynn, I had a few friends with kids who were like, you have no idea. I forget I have a dog now that I have a kid. It's so, so much different. So I think that the biggest thing is once you have the baby to be able to have help with it. And if you live near a family or you have friends that can support you or you have the financial ability to hire a nanny while you're training or something, then it's really doable. And we've seen Chelsea just win Iron Man Royal Championships with an insanely supportive. family and it has not been easy for her. I know that, but she has made it work,

Rini's made it work. A lot of that pro athletes have. So that's inspiring for me to see as an athlete of that age who should probably have a kid soon if I want to have a kid. I wonder if part of being a successful mom, a new mom, is having a partner that's willing to do a lot of the child duties. And that seems like we live in a time where that's more and more the case. For sure. And I think, I think Chelsea's husband as a firefighter he works two days on four days off or something like that. So there's a little more flexibility for him to take Sky on the days off. But obviously, Eric's also a professional athlete.

Well, I'm not racing. He will be racing. And then we do have this additional kind of job with the YouTube and the TTL stuff. Yeah, I personally cannot at all imagine having a child while trying to be a professional triathlet. I would just want to retire and make sure that I like did the child rearing completely myself and you know versus like handing it off to a nanny that's just kind of like would be my desire it's not like every single second the nanny's raising the kid no i know i'm just like as professional triathletes we do have fairly flexible days so i think that it's maybe more doable than someone's

working eight to five every day you the problem is you can't tell the kid like hey can you actually throw a fit later we have to go swim at the pool right now you know it's like we'll have four hours later you can cry later just right now we need this that's why it's hard i was thinking of chelsea i'm like oh, she's waking up to go to swim of the pool, but if her husband's at work, it's like, okay, well, I can't leave the kid here or whatever. That's why I feel like that balance probably needs to be somehow made. Yeah. Well, my parents were just visiting, and they now want to buy a hils and bend, so maybe... Oh, perfect.

My mom can raise the kid. That's right. The next tier of professional Finley triathletes. Yeah. Okay, next question. I currently have a shoulder injury that's preventing me from swimming, and it's killing me. I've been told the rest will do the trick, but it's hard for me. My question is, is there any benefit to getting into the pool doing one-arm drills,

kickboard, etc? Not asking you to comment on recovery from an injury, more asking if doing one-arm drills will be good for the next four weeks, or will it hurt me in the long run and if I should just continue to bike slash run until the shoulder is healed. Just want to get in the pool regardless because I feel like I'm losing ground on training. I don't know. Yeah.

I feel like that's... so silly to go in and be doing one arm drills the whole time. I feel like the time would be better spent on like biking more or running more. That's my thought as well. Like one arm swimming is not two arm swimming. I think there's

I was going to say the opposite. I think there's something to keeping your feel for the water even if it's one arm, your brain doesn't necessarily know that. I was, I fractured my shoulder one time crashing on my mountain bike actually. Right, bro. That's Supercal. Wow.

The reason I crashed is because I was riding my mountain bike on pavement and I was like rip in the corner and I slid out because whatever guest pavement doesn't grip as well as mud. Eric, did you not know this story? No. So I went to the pool and did a lot of single arm swimming with the other arm down and I got my swimming back super fast after it was healed. I think the kicking, the body position, the awareness of the water, all of that. sculling with one hand. I mean, don't do it five times a week, but going one or two times a week while you're in this recovery process is really good. Okay. Okay. Yes. I agree with that. I was basically,

my brain went to like, oh, I'm just going to go to the swims normally, but, you know, like just swim with one arm. It seems like that could open up a whole host of new problems. Right. For sure. Right. I'm also just thinking of how much I hate, not hate, but like how much mental convincing it takes for me to get to the pool. And now you're telling me that I'm going to go there and just swim with one arm like no. That's not happening. Every day of my life I pray for a swim injury and it's always a run injury. That's right. That's right. Oh, I can't go swimming for two months. Oh, shucks. Yeah. Yeah. So one approach to this is just enjoy your time out of the water, but not everyone hates swimming as much as we do. It sounds like they don't hate swimming. It's just a thing to go

and get in the pool and, you know, jumping in the water. But like, try flippers with one arm. I think that's a really good tool because when you're swimming with one arm, you're going to be going so slow it's going to feel really awkward. So if you can keep some consistency with your kick, you're actually going to be moving forward while doing the single arm. And then on the flip side of that, also wearing a pole boy with single arm and maybe one paddle might feel a bit less awkward. Because it's really hard to get your kick timing right when you're like off balance with the single arm thing. So yeah, go and do a kick set or go and do a... The fins? Swimming with the fins, I just started doing it recently. I was surprised at how much it helped me get like a whatever

feel for the water of like how to kick better. So yeah, that's probably good. I'm going to do that. Yeah, totally. Cool. Next question from Becca. Hi there. I'm racing 70.3 worlds in a couple of weeks and currently live in Florida, so it's hot and humid plus hot all the time.

God, hot and humid plus hot all the time. Love that. From what I saw on the weather app for average temps, the average low can be in the 40s in St. George towards the end of October. Got any recommendations on how to stay warm coming out of the potentially cold swim in the a.m. without getting too hot towards the end of the bike. Looking forward to meeting you out there soon.

Best Becca. I mean, my first thing, thought with this is just like, don't get cold in the first place at all. So, like, put on your wetsuit in, like, 20 minutes before the swim and, like, jog around in a little bit. Just make sure that you're, like, almost sweaty in your wetsuit, and that is, like, starting the whole thing off on the right foot, and I think that'll, like, alleviate a lot of issues further down the line.

I think the thing about, St. George is it's going to start out very cold in the morning. And then when the sun comes up and is around the bike and run, it'll actually heat up to a pretty comfortable temperature. So hopefully it won't be like your Iron Man Nick where it's just raining all day and you never really get that warming up effect throughout the day with the sunshine. Crossing our fingers, it doesn't actually rain. But it looks like it's been pretty sunny every day. So like Eric said, if you can be warm before the start, usually I don't even think about it in this kind of temperature because you're getting on the bike, going hard.

The race is not an Iron Man. It's, you know, you're not out there all day. Have a good jacket before the race, have tights on. And then if you're really concerned about it, you can put some arm warmers in T1, like pull those on and you get on the bike. But a big positive, if you haven't done St. George, is that it starts with like a 10-minute climb. Yeah.

It's a big climb to get out of Sand Hollow there. So you should be warm. Dry and warm enough. Dry and warm by the time you're getting on your bike. bike. But like Nick, you experienced, I mean, she's coming from Florida, so she's not super acclimatized to any kind of cold, which we kind of are because we live in Oregon. Yeah, that's true. So like you experienced, Nick, if it's worth it for you to take an extra few minutes to put a jacket on that you maybe don't mind checking on the side of the road later, it would be worth it.

Yeah. I do think, I can't imagine that they'll actually be cold on the bike. I think they'll just get warmer and warmer, though, even if you're not acclimatized to it. Unless it's a really cold day, which I guess it could be. Yeah. Bring a vest. Bring a, bring a to marmowers, bring a lightweight jacket, just in case. Next question is from Gordon. Hi, my wife and I are huge fans and love everything you do. I've got a couple questions for you. One, how do you keep all your bottles organized in your house?

Do you have a drawer, a cupboard dedicated? It's something we struggle with as there seems to always be bottles everywhere, and they never fit well in spaces. I know the answer to this question, but I'll let you guys go for it. How do you know, Nick? Because I've seen that drawer of heaven with all the Paula Finley bottles in there. Oh, right. Yeah, so I recently reorganized our bottle situation because they used to just be like in a drawer and they wouldn't all fit. But we have this kind of awkward cupboard with two slide-out drawers that are pretty wide. They're kind of like double wide. And I basically took the top slider drawer and layered it with bottles. And you can do like triple layers almost because it's so deep and tall and slides out so you can find the bottle you on. I mean, we just happened to have a cupboard when we moved in that was like that. So it was really convenient. But I've seen on. I almost bought on Amazon these water bottle stackers that you can put into a regular cupboard,

and then you can have like three layers of bottles just kind of stuck in those. I'm an organization fanatic, so I really get into this kind of stuff. Eric just made eye contact with me when she said that. Not intentionally. Not just because I have nothing to contribute except for I appreciate the bottles being so organized. Yeah, because it was a source of stress for me because they'd come out of the washing thing, and I'd be like, oh my God, there's no room for these. Like, Eric can you use one right now

because it can't sit on the counter. And there'd be dirty bottles in the garage. Well, how many bottles do you have at your disposal right now in the house? Well, let's say we have like 20 in rotation. Including, like, shaker bottles for smoothies and stuff like that. I'm only counting bottles that fit in a bottle cage. Okay, maybe like 16. That's a lot.

It is still a lot. Like, we really only need, like, five. Yeah, I really think it's either you cut down the total number of bottles. as you have in rotation or you just dedicate a huge amount of space. That's a good tip though, Eric. Like, go through your bottles and throw out old ones and buy some new TTL ones. They get moldy. You've said that before.

It's like you don't keep those forever, especially if you're putting nutrition in them. Yeah, they get really yucky. Specialize sent me like 200 Paula Finley bottles. I know. I have two of them. Those are my go-toes. So as soon as they get like moldy or yucky, I don't really have, hasn't any hesitation to throw them out. If you're really struggling with the idea of throwing out water bottles,

take those ones that you want to get rid of and use those at the race and chuck those at the aid station. So at least they went out in a blaze of glory. I love that going out in a blaze of glory. That's great. That's great. His next question was, what do you do with your old bike computers and watches when you get upgrades?

Sell them? Give them away. Can I buy one? Thank you and can't wait for more TTL gear. Well, first of all, I get the scraps. Yeah, we get it to Nick. Like first priority is our friends We give them to our friends

Right And it's not like we have like dozens of these Like we just got new Wahoo's Because Wahoo came out with a new rival So we have perfectly good rivals That now we don't have use for So we prefer to donate them to our friends But we guess

I guess we could sell them Yeah friends and families are number one You should sell them for more than their The more than the market price It's like getting assigned baseball Yeah Ultimately with like a lot of the gear We have that you could sell it for $100 or $200, but if you can give it to someone who truly needs it and who will use it, that brings me more joy than, you know, giving it to someone for $100.

So, yeah. That said, if this person wants to send us $500, we'll send him an autographed Rome. Yeah. Oh, and the sticker. It's not brand new, used. Yeah, it's done with a sticker. Heavily used. And I'll throw in a specialized water bottle.

There you go. Yeah, with your name on it. Exactly. priceless. Okay, well, great. Thank you guys. Gordon, thanks for the question. Next question is from Clay.

Hi, TTR. Love the Pod. Can't wait for Thursdays each week. I just finished my first triathlon this year at Iron Man Montremblant and really appreciate you guys sharing some of your experiences and knowledge with us. My question here is for Paula. I'm looking into a lever system for my treadmill. Wondering if you could touch on your experience with the product and the team's opinion on it

if it would be useful. You think it would be good for age, groupers to build speed slash add volume or is it mostly just for injury recovery? Thanks a lot, Clay. No, I think the main marketing goal of lever lately is to appeal to people that are not only injured, but making it known that it's a tool that you can use when you're perfectly healthy and just want to, like you said, increase your speed or increase your mileage. And my experience with the lever, I've used it mostly when I'm injured because I much prefer to run outside and I use it a little bit to offload if I'm really tired, but the main usage of it for me was to take load off while coming

back from a stress fracture. But I've tried ultra-G trainers. I've tried the elliptical. I've tried lots of things. And I can honestly truly say the lever feels like a very natural, it doesn't compromise your run form that much, but it does take load off. Like it really truly works and it is more comfortable and smooth than it might look or than you might think it would feel. And I would 100% recommend anyone to get one. And it's a lot cheaper than the other options too. Yeah, yeah. It is like going to an ultra-G at a physio clinic could cost 70 bucks a run or more.

The lever is like you'll always have it. And if you have a treadmill at your house anyway, it's a super quick setup. This is not a sponsor plug. I truly love the company. I think it really, really does work. And anyone who's ever asked me, I have said, get one, try one. They actually have a rental thing where you can rent one for a business. bit. Oh, that's smart. And then maybe at the end of that you can buy it, but if you want to

try it, that's one way to do it. Eric, have you ever used it? No, I haven't, but I've used what altergies, plenty of time. So, like, in my mind, it sounds great, like, to get on it and, like, do some extra speed work or whatever, but I think I would want to, like, consult with my coach or just at, like, at least really kind of plan out. So, like, every Friday, I'm going to do this, And I'm going to start at whatever, 50% of my body weight, and that's way too little. But, like, 80% of my body weight. And over the course of an hour, I'm going to work down to zero, you know, like full, regular body weight and just kind of like have a little bit of like a plan built out for that.

Well, where I think it really comes in is if you're training for Iron Man. Like, we're not doing such absurd mileage on the run that we're like, oh, this run I really need to, you know, take 80% only run at 80% body weight. But if I were to start training for an Iron Man or if Eric was, to start training for an Iron Man and our mileage was suddenly bumped up by a little bit, that might take some gradual getting used to. So for maybe an age group athlete who's training for their first Iron Man, it could be a good tool to implement to help ease yourself into that kind of load

that you need to do an Iron Man, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's an interesting thought. It's like especially for people who are just injury prone, even if you're not necessarily injured at the moment, like you said, just like taking some of the weight off. Yeah. It's an attractive idea.

I think Lever actually sponsors the ProTri News podcast sometimes. They do. They have, yeah. This is a purely free plug. Yeah, that's right. But Lever, if you're listening, we will take your money. Maybe we should, you use it on the Nick test dummy and like going in the next season. You're going to do, we're going to go with the like, you just run at five minutes per mile with the lever until you can't anymore.

Yeah. Twice a week. And then we'll see how fast you run a 5K. I love that. I love that. I got to get my 5K under, I want it under 18 minutes. So that's the lever. If you want to sponsor Nick's 5K experience to 18 minutes.

What's your current 5K? Like just under 19. Well, I don't know. That was years ago. So I haven't done it. Maybe it's faster now. All right. So we need to get baseline first.

And then we'll establish like a really big goal and try to just set the lever at that pace. Okay. I love that. I love that. That's great. But the catch is you have to move here because we have the lever and we have the truck down. Okay. I see what's happening here.

Lever camp. Lever camp. We're going to do this. Same thing with the MasterSpot. We're going to just going to set it at one minute per hundred and hang on. Does it go to one minute per hundred? Yeah, theoretically. Wow.

I'm going to say it feels more like 105. Okay. I can't do 105 for more than like I don't even know if I can do it. Well, that's what we should put it in maximum speed. Oh yeah. When I did the all out 50 meters in Bend, wasn't it like 36 seconds or something? You time me. Yeah.

So I mean I cannot do 105. Yeah. That's long course of meters though, everyone. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. I think it would be fun. We've talked about this privately. If at some point, maybe next year, beginning of next year, I come up. I just try to follow you guys and try to see how long I can hang on for workouts and slowly become an elite age grouper. It's up to you, man. You just say when. We're ready anytime. Great. Okay. Next question. Hey, guys. I recently came across a new tri-bike that I was thinking about buying, but a friend who knows much more about bikes than I do advise me not to buy it because the group set was, quote,

pretty weak. It was Shimano 105, which I know is on the cheaper end, but is there really a difference in group sets for age groupers like me? Wondering if you all can touch on the group sets in general, what makes one better than the other, and what is something I should be looking at for my limited budget? Thanks, Jenna. I don't think we've talked about group sets before on the podcast. Not really, no. And it's interesting because I think Schram Red and Schram Force, I mean, yeah, we're going to ride Shram Red because we're doing this for a job. But Shamp Force is perfectly good. It's like I would any day get that over Shram Red if I was an age group athlete doing it more recreationally.

It's not even that much worse. Maybe it's heavier. But it's much more expensive. It's fractionally heavier. Shram Force. Yeah. Yeah. But also much more cheaper.

Yeah. Much, much, much cheaper. That's what's crazy. Like I'll talk about from the Shimono side of things. Like, 105 is so good now. And the problem is, like, the question is how old is this bike? Because it used to be that 105 was, like, didn't have integrated cables and, like, wasn't even hydraulic brakes. Like, now that's, it's, like, so nice.

Like, the 105 is as good as, like, the Durae's from a while ago. Basically, exactly. That's the way it is. Dura Ace of right now will be 105 in three years. It'll be Ltegrin in two years. It's just, like, this constant cycle of things trickling down. So it's really like 105 is yeah Gonna be heavier than Dura Ace by a bit

But it's gonna last a long time I like what you were saying Paul Like if you're sponsored of course you're gonna ride The best of the best And if you have the money and you want the best of the best Freaking go for it Like get all the best of the best stuff Yeah I think it's like taking all of the parts

In your car engine and like swapping them out For titanium parts like Okay so your car is now 100 pounds lighter And it's like a little faster And it will beat the other car but by such a tiny amount, can you feel it? No. You know, but you know it's there and it's cool. Yeah, another, so SRAM came out with a rival ETAP axis,

which is a little bit more entry level, but it is completely like a wireless ETAP system, which is really cool. And it's, you know, comparable to the red and the force and that it has no cables, no housing, no wires to manage. And it comes with a power meter if you want it to, and the cork power meter on it is only 250 extra dollars on top of the price of the group set.

Oh, that's great. Super good way to get a power meter incorporated into your crank. A two-by with a power meter is $1,600. A one-by with a power meter is $1,400. So, I mean, when you're talking about group sets, that is super affordable for the complete group. Yeah. Including the batteries, the charge of the brake rotors in the broad market.

That's, like, basically free. That's insane. Okay, it's not free. No, I mean, like, a freaking Dura Ace or a SRAM red E-Tap group set is like $4,000. It's, yeah, that's. So, Schramm made this push last year. Rival is like 105. Go by it.

Okay, got it. But I would get that on every bike if I was an age group athlete. Like it's, or if I had a gravel bike and I just wanted like something good to put on it that wasn't going to totally blow my budget. This would be a good pick. And we didn't get this and try it and ride it because we're riding red. But when Tram came out with it last year, I was like, wow, this is really cool to actually be able to have an electric shifting bike. My dad actually wrote Eric's bike this weekend with ETAP for the first time he's ever tried electric shifting. Did it blow his mind?

It's a game changer. I'm never going back. That's great. So for someone like him, rival would be amazing. It's like the same feeling of pushing a button having it shift all wireless and then not paying an insane amount of money. Can you guys enlighten me on this? If you're a pro tour cyclist, does every component on your bike have to be available to the public or is it just the frame? I don't know.

Because I feel like I've seen Tour de France-specific tires or whatever or like someone riding something. Because I'm wondering, like, does your group set have to be? The helmet, your helmet does. We learned that from Specialized. Yeah. I don't know. It's kind of interesting because you definitely see prototype stuff that isn't available yet, but that 100% will be coming out. I don't know where like the line is drawn with that, you know.

Okay. Yeah, I have a little table here, like a cheat sheet. And basically it goes rival force red, 1,400, 2,025. So $1,000 less for rival than red. And the weight of the complete thing is 2,700 grams, 2,600 grams, and 2,200 grams. So red is significantly lighter, but not to the point where it's going to make a break your race. Especially as triathletes. It seems like it's even less of a big deal.

Wow, I'm getting so into this. This is a great article. I mean, I know all this off the top of my head, but I'm just confirming. Right, right, of course. Okay, great. Oh, my God. One, two, three. Oh, we have so many questions left, and we are already. Can we go a little faster then? Yeah, let's go. We're going real fast. With getting new gear consistently, do you have any sentimental triathlon items that you've kept around?

I like this question, because we do have so much new stuff. And, you know, we're not going to get sentimental to a bike computer or a watch necessarily, but things like bike frames, yes. Oh, yeah. Especially if they're like custom paint or something like that. The bike I won Dayton on. I haven't sold that. I still have it in the garage. I don't really have anything.

I can't think of anything. I get sentimental about everything. About like a wrapper to a gel that I used in a race that went well. I'm like, should I really throw this out? I'm like, I think I'm a hoarder or me secretly in my mind. I'm a little like superstitious about throwing race numbers out. Like, you know, if you get home from a shitty race, you're like, throw this thing out. I never want to see this number again.

But after a good race, you're like, oh, I'll just tape this to the wall. Yeah, yeah. That's great. Put it on the fridge. So, okay, in the interest of moving quickly, we're going to move on. Next question is from David. Hi, guys, I'm an Irishman selling burritos in Spain. I started listening to the podcast, and it's really been helping me through my post-Ironman blues, and I'm binge listening to them. I just completed Iron Man Barcelona in 1135, 40.

I'm disappointed as I wanted to go under 11 hours, but bad stomach cramping on the run and couldn't take any nutrition for about 15K. But it just made me more determined to do it next year. My question is when you talk about race-paced training sessions, I feel my steady training rides are my race-pace. I average 162 watts on my six-hour rides, so should be doing under this on training rides, which I feel is too slow. Or should my race-paced be harder?

But if I push harder, I'm worried about not having enough left for the run. Hope that makes sense. Loving the pod, and if you're ever in Spain, I'll hook you up with some free burritos, David. So do you understand the question? Yeah, but I love the burrito offer. Yeah. I want a Rio now.

It's really hard with this because a lot of the time your race power, especially in an Iron Man, shouldn't necessarily be the benchmark for your training because race watts are so all over the place. They're dependent on conditions. They're dependent on hills. They're dependent on how you felt on the day if there's lots of drafting. So I feel like a more maybe accurate baseline test for like what your FTP would be. And based your training off that would be like to do a ramp test or do some kind of a power test. instead of just taking your Ironman watts from a race you weren't particularly happy with

and then basing your training off of that. It does give you some indication, but I would agree the 162 watts is it'll feel too easy if you're going like 150 in training. Yeah, right, right. So I think that this is one of those situations where you have to train a little bit above what your watts were in the race in the hopes of bumping that number up when you do race. Yeah, Iron Man's a funny, we can't speak to a. but super intelligently because we've never done an Iron Man.

Yeah, and like I feel like the energy zone maybe that pro athletes race in is slightly different than what completing a 12-hour Iron Man is. That's like four extra hours. But I think it's even more than that. Like for example, even 70.3, you guys compared to me. Like for 70.3, there is up until recently, all my training runs, even my easy long runs, we're done at faster paces than what my run would end up being in the race. And I feel like it's the opposite for you guys.

You're rarely ever going faster than how you actually, how fast you run at the end of a 70.3. Is that accurate? For running. Running's different than biking, though. Well, I know, but like, I'm warming up at my runs 20 seconds per mile faster than what I end up racing at. And it feels like the runs are fun, which is, that's like,

it's so different how the pros and the amateurs will try. Yeah. I mean, like for us, for example, like in a few days, we'll do a 50-minute tempo run or whatever, and that will definitely be like at the pace that we end up running in the race. We'll warm up a little slower and cool down a little slower. But it'll feel super hard. It'll feel crazy hard. Like how are we possibly going to do this for a whole half marathon in a race after biking?

Yeah, so I'd say that that's a good attitude approach to take into your bike training is maybe you're aiming for like 180 or 200 for your intervals. And you think in your head I could never hold this for an iron. man, but ultimately it's just going to like increase your fitness and your power and your next race, maybe your ravage will be 175. But definitely don't go out on your training rides and be like, oh, I need to stay under 162 because 160 is my race pace, you know? Right. I would say just aim higher, train harder.

Don't go crazy. But another thing where like having a coach or some kind of guidance might be helpful. Yeah. But that's just my two cents. Yeah. Cool. Next question here. Moving on.

Any recommendations on swim goggles that don't kill your eyes? After about 30 minutes of swimming, the goggles start to cause pain around my eyes. Are they too tight? Love the content and look forward to the pot each Thursday. I would say goggles, like, it's pretty specific for different people. Like, Paula loves a certain pair of goggles that hurt my eyes. But definitely, like, trying to get the nose bridge dialed in just right. And then, like, the actual pressure, sometimes if they're too tight, they'll let in water.

And they're just, you've got to go through a few pairs of goggles, kind of find ones that, fit your face. One thing you can do when you're trying them on, if you have the ability to try them on in a store, is try to get them to actually stick on your face, like suction on without a strap on. And if you find a pair that just kind of like suction on your face, ideal.

Get those ones. Yeah, that's a good tip. Also, don't feel like you have to look too cool in the pool. Yeah, that's another thing. Oh, yeah, you do. You got to look cool. A lot of the time, a lot of the time, the most comfortable goggles.

Like my mom wears these freaking scuba goggles or whatever. I'm sure. Those are the ones that I wear. I have big aquasphere goggles. And I'm so comfortable in them, though. I don't know. Often the visibility is a little better for open water when they're really big like that. You won't get the pressure right out your eye sockets.

Me and Sheila. Maybe the way to go is to just, you know, go big. You guys are comfortable with the small ones, right? Totally fair. Well, we grew up summer snack. Yeah. And it was a process. Like, even Blue 70 has like four different pairs of goggles for different preferences,

and we had to find the ones that we like. Got it. What kind of goggles is Flynn like since he wants to be on the pot? It's very clear. Yeah, Flynn is right in the middle of us. He just opens his eyes underwater. He doesn't care. Oh, that's right.

It feels good. I can see everything. Whoa. Okay, next question. Hi, gang. We'll be racing Iron Man 140.6, California. I don't think I've seen that before next weekend and had a quick question regarding carrying a bike bag while racing. I was not, I think by bike bag, he means like a saddle bag.

Yeah, he does. Oh, she, she. I was not planning on carrying one, tubes, CO2 cartridges, patches, tire levers due to extra weight on the bike. However, everything that I've read regarding what to pack includes this. Is it necessary? Won't there be on-course mechanics to help if I get a flat? Oh boy. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated best Lindsay.

I think it's smart to take your own flat repair kit. And it depends if you're running tubeless or tubes or what you're using. But if you're using tubes, it's for sure smart to take a tube, a CO2, and a adapt. thingy to put the CO2 in an entire labor. It's not maybe there's mechanics on course but even as pros

like they say there is sometimes. You'll wait like an hour. You'll wait forever. It's crazy. Yeah. So I would say just have you might even be able to fit it somewhere not in a saddle bay

like some bikes now have integrated places where you can like store that extra stuff but if not the ship try and the RGon 18 TTI bike. And my bike too has it the canyon. Yeah.

Speedmax has it. Yeah, speaking of bento. But if your options are like to put a saddlebag on the back or have nothing, I would for sure put something in the saddlebag. And also that course is not very hilly. So the weight loss from that is not that great. Yeah. Another option, well, I guess you could get like those two bottle cages for the back of your bike and then have like a bottle with all this stuff in it. That's a great.

That's a great compromise there. Yeah. Because then it's like aerodynamically doesn't, it seems like it makes a very small difference if at all. and you still have it with you. Yeah. Well, Eric would say it would make a huge aerodynamic difference. Oh, is that true, Eric?

Do you feel like it does? I mean, the closer it's tucked to your saddle, the better. But, like, for me, if I needed to do that, I would make, like, I would take electrical tape and tape the things that I wanted together and then, like, tape them under the saddle

just for... Right, tucked away. But it's just, if you want to deal with that or not. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. And our last question, finally. Hey, all, first, love the podcast and the YouTube channel.

I always look forward to your content. On to the question. I'm a little bit on the larger side for a novice endurance athlete. Six foot seven and 250 pounds. That's in like the 1%. That's like Jordan Bryden. Yeah, yeah.

Grizzly man. But I still love all things multi-sport as it has helped me lose and keep off over 80 pounds. Well done. My question is centered around the bike on how to best maximize the gains I could receive from upgrades.

I ride a road bike, an alloy framed canyon endurance, or endure race. I just bought it this year and it's been a great bike. In a sprint triathlon, I can average around 20 miles per hour, so it's capable of some speed, even with a heavier rider. However, alloy is still heavier than carbon, so I'm trying to make the best upgrades to get some more speed.

What is the best upgrade where I could see noticeable gains in a sprint-slash Olympic distance race? I already have arrow bars that I can put on it, so my thoughts are carbon arrow wheels, maybe 40 mils or so. Does it make sense to spend that kind of money on an alloy-framed bike, and could a wheel upgrade give me the gains I want to see? Thank you. Wow. I would say like 50% of the emails we get, the questions are like,

how can I get the fastest equipment with spending the least amount of money? What's worth my money? What's not? Should I get a TT bike? Is my bike too heavy? Like there's so many equipment questions. It's insane. Yeah.

That's the number one thing. That's what I said earlier. Here's my like best bang for the buck cheapest, fastest, aeroist. Yeah. It's just funny when I see this. Like, this person lost 80 pounds. And, like, have they... Scotty, have you thought about how,

what the weight difference between a carbon bike and an alloy bike is? Because it ain't 80 pounds, you know? He's Jonzen for a purchase, man. Let's help a brother out. I think he wants a carbon bike. Yeah. His partner listens to this podcast.

It's like, you're not getting a carbon bike. Yeah. I would say, if at all possible... I mean, it totally depends on what you already have. But if you were to upgrade the wheels, that is definitely going to be a big arrow benefit, but trying to get some wheels that could potentially go on the next bike

so you can kind of like leapfrog your upgrades. It might not be possible just with like disc brakes versus not, but something to think about. Yeah, I think alloy is not the problem here. It's just usually that car... It seems like triathlon bike frames are very often carbon. Yeah.

Because of the shapes they need to make. Even though they're carbon, they're just heavy because like wings are heavy, wing shapes. But yeah, keep it up. I think... Go buy... Go drop 10 grand on a super sweet bike with car. Yeah, that's right.

And tell me Eric sent you. We're going through like a very different thing right now with the van situation. Like Eric wants a four by four van and all these little upgrades are so like so exponentially more expensive than the thing below it, which the thing below it's not even that bad. It's just like it's the same kind of thing with bikes. And it's ultimately how I'm thinking about it is if you have a budget and you can afford it and it's thought out and you want to do the sport for a long time. you're never going to regret getting the better thing. And similar thing with the van. Like if Eric wants this van that's 10 grand more than this van,

in five years we're not going to remember that it was 10 grand more. We're going to appreciate the betterness. So you're saying he should get the van. There's a lot of factors. That's what I'm hearing. But I'm just saying this guy should get the carbon bike is what I'm saying. Okay, got it, got it. I mean, I guess the final closing thought is you do get a lot better deal

on all of the things if you get that all together. So, like, if you were to buy a carbon frame tomorrow, you'd spend $5,000 on it or whatever. And if you were to buy the wheels to go with it the next day, you'd spend $3,000 versus you'd probably save 20 to 30% on the whole thing, buying it as a whole unit. Yeah, yeah, I agree, yeah. And then you don't have to go through the headache of getting all the components and the wheels separately and treat yourself. Yeah, treat yourself. Mo some lawns.

And Eric, go buy the four by four. Just go by the four by four. Eric, go now, go. Okay, well, there you go, Scotty. buy the bike, get the thing. Treat yourself. Fulfill your dreams. Fulfill your dreams.

And keep the Canyon and Durae and turn it into like a gravel bike because it's got a lot of clearance and you can just put fat tires on there and have fun. There you go. Yeah, totally. Sometimes it's nice to be able to justify the expense of purchase by being like, well, I'm going to sell this for 1,000. So this one's really only 8,000. Not 9,000. You know, that's what I'm trying to think about with our vans.

I'm like, well, if you sell this for this, this van's really only this much. Purchase psychology. I love it. Just like training, man. Whatever games you've got to play with yourself. Okay, so next week, we're going to do the pod together in one room. Amazing. From St. George.

Nick, what are you getting there? When are you getting there? Well, I was going to ask you, when should I get there? Monday. Monday? What are we doing on Sunday night? Getting there. Is the Airbnb available for us on Sunday night?

Okay, so you could get there as early as Sunday night if you want. Well, I don't know if you guys want some time to like for yourself there before I show up. and take over your lives. What do you think we've been doing for the past six months, slash forever? Nick, we've had four years to ourselves. Okay, got it. Got it. I can't wait.

I'm so excited. Because the closer gets to the race, the less I'm going to want to record the pod, of course. Right. Okay, great. So we can record it on Monday, just like we do, which is like we're doing now. Yeah. That's so crazy to think next Monday we'll be recording the pod from St. George. Yeah.

I'm not ready yet. I need more time. It's okay. I'm ready. Oh, by the way, speaking of St. George, I told you guys I swam with Gustav and Christian last week on Wednesday after we recorded the pod. And I just had a funny anecdote. I'm there like I organized a lane for them and then we went to lunch after and all this stuff. But during the swim, actually, I did swim with them for a bit. And as most of you know, I'm a swimming is my weakest of the three.

I'm not a professional in any, but swimming is my weakest. And I jump in and I start swimming with them and I'm like, oh, this is like doable. Like, I could do this. And I do my first 100, and I look down and it was 1-18. I'm like, oh, wait a second. I can't do this for more than, like, I probably would die in another 30 seconds. I kept this going. But it's funny how much you trick yourself in to me like, oh, yeah, I could do this. This is no problem.

Like, just like, I'm sure, like, riding with you guys, I do the same thing. I'm like, okay, I could do this. And then 20 minutes later, it's like, someone call an ambulance because I don't think I can move from this spot. Nick, when you told us the story, I was just going to say that is the devil of using a watch in the pool or using like being so glued to your number feedback. Is it if you didn't see that you did a 118, maybe you would have done that for 10 minutes? Oh, I think that would have caught up with me real quick.

Real quick. You'll never know. Like that's, I've had some really good races when my power meter wasn't working. It's like you can't look down and be like, oh my gosh. Like especially in ITU days when you'd look down as you're going up a hill and it's like, wow, 850 watts. Yeah.

Like my run is going to suck. If you hadn't looked, maybe you would have been. Yeah, sometimes all these data questions and power questions and percentage of your heart rate. Sometimes you just got a race. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cool. Everyone, you can ask your questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. I love it when you say that.

It's so professional. It is. We finally made it, guys. Yeah, thank you guys. Thank you all the listeners for getting us here because when we started this, it was like. Send it to this Gmail that we set up. Someone will find it. We were just like we FaceTime anyway.

We might as well make a podcast. And now it's a real thing. Yeah, it's a real thing. We've got subscribers. It's great. It's so fun. It's really cool. People actually listen.

And if you're in St. George, come say hi to us, but don't talk to us for too long because we're going to be super focused. No, just kidding. Okay. Well, hopefully see some of you guys next week at St. George. There will be another pod out before the actual race. Yeah, for sure. But we're looking forward to it. I will say that there's probably a 90% chance that I will be bringing some of our new.

camper, technical camper hats. Yeah. Fantastic. That'll be fun. Maybe we'll set up a pop-up in our garage or something. We'll see. So then everyone knows where we live. Great.

At the absolute very least, we'll have a little bit of a pop-up or some sort of thing, like the day after. Got it. In some way. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Awesome.

Well, thanks to you, everyone for listening. Yeah, thanks to you guys. Thanks for listening. And thanks for making this a thing. And we will talk to you guys next week. Later. Ciao guys.