That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon bike bags, tire inserts, racing, and more!

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

This week, we huddled around the mic in California to chat about training, racing, and managing fatigue. We covered:Carbon and aluminum disc brakes vs. rim brakesStaying fit while on vacationLast-minute race advice for a noviceTire inserts for road and mountain bikingBike bags—what’s worth it?Our biggest aha moments in sportA 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, everybody. Welcome to that trathon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggersstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are all taking turns, jumping in front of this microphone in Nick's studio in Santa Monica. Paula and I are here on our way to the wind tunnel. Morgan Hill. We just came from Tucson, Arizona, where we've been training for the last, wow, three weeks now. It's been hot and dry and awesome. But anyway, to back up a little bit, we're both professional trathletes, Paula and I and Nick's professional musician. and also an amateur triathlet, and this is our podcast where we talk a little bit about triathlon news, what's going on in our triathlon journeys, and then we really get into the meat of the thing,

which is questions submitted by everyone who listens. So thank you if you have submitted a question this week, and we can't wait to answer it. Also, we need more questions, you guys. Sometimes we've been running a little bit low on our questions, which is fine because we have a lot of backlogs, and we usually have enough to fill an episode, but blow us away with the number of questions that we have to be selective.

It's Monday, and we've already had bagels, coffee, I had another bagel, and then pasta before 11 a.m. My Italian ancestors are rolling in their grave. When I say I'm hungry and it's like, I can make you pasta. And it's like 10.30 in the morning. I'm like, okay, let's go. Let's freaking go. Is it because you saw you have or it's because you want that? I'm not the best cook, but I can do pasta.

I can do a trade of Joe's mariner. Yes. We did the creamy, what was it? Creamy something. Creamy basil. Yeah, it was very good. That was the move for sure. A little parmesan on top.

Okay, so you guys are here in Santa Monica. How was three weeks in Tucson? I mean, do you feel, by the end, you feel like you got stronger? Paul, you did some really cool stuff up Mount Lemon. Wait, did we even talk about that? I think that was in the last week. I'd love to hear a little bit about that, and then hear about how you're feeling now. Yeah, we just feel.

finished up three weeks of a training camp. Nick, I can't sit any closer to the mic. Well, then scooge up. This is so annoying. Okay. We're in a very professional recording studio, but we're all huddled around this fucking microphone. Just kidding. I love it. Yeah, I can tell you. Love it. Yeah, we just finished up three weeks in Tucson. To be honest, I think I went out a little hot on the first week and did a lot of training. And then the fatigue kind of hit me, and week two was a little harder. Week three was really hard. And I still did some really cool, challenging things.

Like I went after the Mount Lemon QOM last week. Missed it by a minute. But it's like a 90-minute effort, so a minute is actually quite close. And did the shootout three times. Did some good run sessions with people that were there. But I think overall it just kind of wore on me being in the heat, in the dryness. I got a lot of allergies from I don't know what's down there. or the dust, or I'm not used to it.

So as the weeks went on, I was just like progressively getting a bit worn down. And by the end of it, which was a couple days ago now, I was, I was sad to leave Heather and Wadi, but I was honestly so glad to leave Tucson. I felt like that was kind of our maximum amount of time we wanted to be there for, which felt like a purposeful camp. And I was excited to come and get into California. And honestly, like the first day we got to California, my allergies cleared up. I felt like I could breathe better.

Or like, just a much more, like, gentler climate for my extremely sensitive redhead skin, I guess. Do you think you're extremely sensitive? Like, do you feel like your body's, I don't feel like either of you have sensitive bodies? Like, oh, I can't eat this thing because then I feel irritated or, like, I have to sleep in this way. Yeah, that's why this has been so crazy. It's like, I usually don't get allergies at all. But I was seriously breaking out in rashes all over my body in Tucson. And I had this cough, but I wasn't sick.

My nose was like running. I had swollen lymph nodes. Like my body was severely reacting to that place. And now that I'm here, it's gotten better in one day. So it had to have been the climate. Don't you think? Yeah, that does sound right. Yeah, I mean, I'd...

Or like randomly pool chemicals. Like, whatever. No. I don't think it's that. I mean, that pool is not that harsh of chemicals. And everyone was swimming in... Two different pools. Swimming in several different pools, yeah.

Anyway, it was, it was productive. I think I got fitter, I got stronger through it all. I feel like it was a good time of year to go. Like we really needed a break from the winter in February. So that was nice to look at the weather back home and have it be minus 15 and snowing. So last year you guys did a winter camp in Ventura, which did go on for quite a bit longer. This year it wasn't really an option because the fires really ruined a lot of the places that you'd be able to ride. But how would you guys compare the two?

Were there pros and cons for each? Is there one you feel like is a better fit for you guys? From my perspective, there's a much higher critical mass of triathletes and community going on in Tucson. So if you want to meet up with people for rides or runs or swims, like it was so easy. Paula was meeting different people for swims every day. She never really ran alone. Meeting Sophie and Heather and so on. Chris Lieferman for swimming and Chelsea Sadaro was down there for a minute.

Sophia. Yeah. Gravel riders. The shootout, the whole thing. It's not even close. There's zero people in Ventura. Yeah, we were training alone all the time. I would say for me personally, going to Tucson was way better because I, like Eric said,

I never trained alone. It was crazy. There was always people to train with. And I think some of my lulls or my like, you know, my unmotivated spells that I've gone through the last couple of years have been because it's been a bit of a solo grind with Eric and I. So that was refreshing. having Heather there every day, and even if I wasn't training with her for every session, it was just we were mentally in a training camp mindset.

So it was really fun to be around her and Wadi. And personally, like, as a place, I prefer Ventura much better. And Eric would say the same. But for a training camp spot, Tucson is hard to beat, not just for like the ease of training, but like Eric said, the people that are there. That makes all the difference. And if you're talking to an age group or a serious age grouper, who wanted to do like a one week winter camp.

Don't go to Tucson and book all the lanes. Don't take up the swim lanes. Yeah, oh my gosh. The one downside of Tucson is like Oro Valley, you have to book lanes for 55 minutes maximum. So we were trying to come up with all these creative ways where we could team up with people and actually swim for more than 55 minutes

because we got to swim for like 80 or 90 minutes. And it was often full because there's so many triathlon camps there. So, I mean, that's the only down. downside was it was a bit challenging from that perspective for swimming. Yeah. Yeah, it's logistically much simpler. Ventura has a lot of, like, you know, you have to know how to get to a certain road. And I would say we actually probably ended up driving more while we were in Tucson because the pool is 22 minutes away.

All of the pools. And like the traffic there has gotten really bad. Ventura, we drove to go bike riding twice a week. But we would do a run at the same. time it doesn't doesn't feel like there was a significantly higher amount of driving in one place the other to me and i don't remember being furious at any point in in ventura you're like on a freeway that's flowing in well the problem with tucson is it's not built for how many people live there now and it's just the stop you know stopping at every intersection we don't need to get into this though let's next thing the next thing is eric is going far far far away in a couple days and actually now that i think of it will we have time to record next week's podcast before Thursday?

No. No. I'm leaving on Wednesday. Yeah, no, I'm saying, okay, Wednesday and then you're gone for? I'll be back on the 16th. Yeah, I think if we put out a pod next week, it'll just be Nick and I. Maybe we're being guest in. Okay.

Yeah. Like Flynn. We can see if he's down. He's like, what? You said my name? I'll be on the podcast. What are you doing, Eric? Did we talk about this?

I'm going on the Fireflies, Patagonia. gravel charity ride, I guess what you could call it. It's a charity ride. I think they have one that's in California as well. Fireflies is like a

well-known charity ride organization, but they have one that's in Patagonia in Chile. I think we actually will cross over into Argentina like one day because we had to declare

all the serial numbers on my cameras and bike and all that stuff. And I got invited by Ian Boswell. He wanted to make a film about this and the film will come out

on specialized YouTube. So I'm really feeling like I'm taking a huge leap of faith here because they don't actually tell you like what the route is going to be until the morning of each day. And it could be very intense and it could be rainy and all these things. And I'm trying to capture this in real time and come up with a story and tell something that's extremely meaningful to a lot of people without, I've never been there before. I have no idea really what I'm in for. I've just seen some pictures. So it'll be. Dang. It's going to be flying by the seat of my pants, and I hope I can do it justice. Do we know when it will be up for all of us to see? It'll be after our film, Nick. They know that we're launching that at Oceanside, first week of April. So ideally a week or a couple weeks after that is when I'll be able to get through the edit on that.

Okay. Oh, you're doing the edit, too. I'm doing all of it. Oh, boy. I mean, I might be calling on you to help me with some coloring. Got it. Yeah, I'd love to help. And just advice, but yeah, the entire things in my hands.

But you're shooting the whole thing on the A7 and the Osmo and some, will we have some, like, drone stuff as well, do you think? There's a guy who is going to be in charge of getting some daily content, and he also can fly a drone. So I am bringing my drone. I'll try to get some of my own drone stuff just for peace of mind, but hoping to rely on him for a little bit of extra stuff. He'll be in a vehicle following us all riding.

Sweet. Okay, well, Eric, I'm going to call on you once again here. Do you have any triathlon news? I think the biggest news, like in the triathlon space, just that it was applicable or interesting to the maximum number of people are the new drafting rules that Iron Man has put out. They have changed. So now we're allowed to draft. It's over. We can just. Yeah, exactly.

Just whatever you feel, listen to your heart. If it's for you, it's for you. If it's not, then that's fine. Yeah. But they reduce them. Correct? The penalties. They reduce the penalties.

Nick and I were just talking about this earlier. I'm not like super equipped. It's two minutes for 70.3 drafting penalty and three minutes for an Iron Man distance drafting penalty. Right. I think I'm personally a bit of a fan of this. At least I think it's been a positive change in the pro field where referees are a little bit less afraid to give out penalties. So because it's not going to necessarily destroy someone's day. Because it used to be five minutes, right? Yeah. And I think if referees are a little bit less afraid to give out penalties, they'll give them out slightly more. People will hear about penalties more. They'll draft less.

I think that's better than, oh, man, if I give someone a penalty, it's like ruining their life. Yeah. So. The T-100 did this, too, reduced the drafting penalties. Yeah. And then they ended up giving more. We did see that. And I got one last year, my first penalty ever. I remember.

But it didn't really affect my race that much. It may be a place or two, but it wasn't like my race was over. So. I feel like we calculated that it didn't even affect you by a place or two. Oh, no, maybe it, maybe it did. I think it did. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, maybe it did. But I mean, if you're being penalized, it's good that there was some kind of penalty, but also not that my day was over, basically. And then that with Race Ranger together really could make this feel a little more like a fair racing environment for everyone. Yeah, I think the one thing that's missing on Iron Man side is just reducing the increasing the draft distance. From 12 meters. Make it 20. Yeah. But I think that's an ongoing thing.

That's an ongoing thing. Do you think that's the main thing holding them back is that they do not want to differentiate between the pro drafting distance and the amateur drafting distance because their whole thing is like, you're doing the same thing, the pros are doing? Yeah, I don't know, because you're not.

You're in such a huge field that it's like there's just inevitably there are going to be a big, such a mass of people moving down the road at the same time. I would argue that probably if everyone was spaced out by 12 meters in the age group field, that would be more than 56 miles of people in some of the bigger races. So I think you're just running into a physics volume of people on the road problem at a certain point. Yep. We've talked about this a bunch of times.

It's just kind of an insurmountable problem unless you rethink about what racing looks like. Yeah. Like in a perfect world, I would almost say there's like a sub-elite or like an elite amateur field where it's like, hey, if you think, if you're trying to go for the top 10 in your age group, all of you need to go in this field, there's going to be a little bit of time before everybody who's like doing the fondo. Right. It just like wants to finish an Ironman.

That's interesting. And it doesn't matter if they draft a little bit. Like they're not trying to draft. They're not going for time. They're just trying to finish. Right. Right. You know, I think because there's like kind of two different people.

Yeah. For sure. For sure. All right. Now I got a little bit of rapid fire. All right, guys. Let's see how quickly you can fire these back because these are not that easy. Okay.

First one. What's the worst possible thing to eat right before a race? Barbacoa tacos. Those are coming right back on. My real spicy. Paula? Yeah, I would say anything spicy like Mexican flavored burrito, something like that. 20 minutes out.

You're burping that up. If you're lucky, you're green curry. Yeah. Okay, next one. What's the most questionable thing you've ever eaten mid-race? I've never had anything questionable mid-race. And in Ironman, Wisconsin, they do like this broth in the middle of the run at night. And I was having that, and it was keeping me company.

But it wasn't, I wouldn't call it questionable, but it was odd. When I paced my sister for the last 20 miles of her 100-mile race, she wasn't feeling good. But every time we got to an aid station, she wanted to stop for a second. So I was like, y'all try the broth. Yeah. I'll have some snickers. Oh, you got some peanut M&Ms? Yeah.

And like the second aid station, I felt so sick. I was just like, I'll try everything. Were you guys running? No, I mean, like a little bit. She was power walking, which I realized I could not do. It hurt too much. Really? My hips just couldn't power walk.

So I was like jogging 10 steps and then like walking three steps and jogging 10. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know. But Paula, you can't think of anything? No, all I've had is like gels, real safe stuff. Maybe mortal hydration. Yeah. You have to swap one piece of your race kit with something from a dollar store.

What do you pick? A hat. Hats good. I was going to say socks, but I think hat is the right answer. Yeah. Or sunglasses. I'm going to go with a lot, like a time X. Oh, that's cool.

Like an Iron Man Timex would be cool, too. Like if there's just a watch at a dollar store that just has the time. Yeah. Not your pace, not your heart rate, not your power of your stride power meter on your foot. just a plain-ass timer. How many minutes have I been running? Yes, sometimes I like that. And then also, when I've done this in the past,

I used to do this all the time, but there's mile markers and K markers in the race. So it gives you something to think about because then I would be like doing math based on the case markers in the race, and it's something to do for the race in your brain. I kind of enjoyed it. It's like old school. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

What about if your bike could talk? What's the first thing it would say to you? Quit changing around my fucking position. Leave it as is. Gosh, make up your friggin' mind. We're good. Just leave me alone. That's actually a perfect little opportunity to talk about what are you planning on getting out of your time at the wind tunnel?

That's the next question. It's not, but we're going to, I make the format here. So we're interrupting your scheduled programming for Arrow updates. Okay, yeah. It's crazy because I think that. that I feel every year like this time of year I'm like making some changes to my bike setup. And I, it's kind of like an endless pursuit of chasing this optimal position. And there's so many factors because there's comfort and then there's speed and there's aerodynamics.

And there's, do you actually have the physical ability to do it with the equipment you have and the adjustability of that equipment? So I think this year what spurred my thought of making some changes is that last, Last year and the year before, I was focused a little bit on the UCI cycling position, getting comfortable with that, which is a lot more crunched, a lot more, you know, comfortable, but only for short periods of time and now doing the Iron Man, wanting to be able to be comfortable for four plus hours in this position and have enough hydration between the arms, behind the saddle, to make it through an Iron Man. So it's a completely new race to me.

Like when I jumped from short course to 70.3, that was a completely new thing. Now I'm jumping up to Iron Man. Completely new thing. And I think that requires some adjustments in position. So it's not like I'm just chasing every year for no reason. I feel like this is a very purposeful visit so that we can test. Maybe being like is going up a couple centimeters slower. For comfort.

Is that actually any slower? Maybe it's not. Maybe it's actually faster. Sometimes it's faster. Yeah. Tilting my arms a little bit more. I've always kind of been at like the 15 to 20 degree angle. to fit within UCI regulations

is going up to 30 degrees faster, things like that. So that's what we're going to be testing in a couple days. Tomorrow. We're going to be testing tomorrow. Also something else that changed this week is that part of the rules of the bike position are changed.

So like the extensions now cannot go beyond the furthest point of the front wheel. Yeah, I feel like my particular position has been so conservative in every way that I didn't even read into those things because I'm not doing it. extreme things in any way with my bottle mounts, with my tilt, with my reach, anything. So I'm like, does reaching forward two centimeters make me faster?

I'm not trying to go a foot for them, you know? We've just been seeing that with some athletes where they're like extended so far. Yeah, I'm glad that they're kind of paying attention to this and putting some rules in place that prevent these completely extreme positions that ultimately I think are a little bit dangerous for bike handling, maybe not for the very best cyclists, but for an amateur who's looking at that and trying to replicate it, it might not be actually very safe to ride some of these wacko positions that are fast in the wind tunnel, but can you ride it on a windy day? I don't think so.

Yeah. Yeah. Good call. Eric, you're not going to get any bike position stuff done, right? It's just for Paula. Yep, just for Paula. Nice. This time, yeah.

And I don't know if we want to say this, but you're going to be riding the Shivt, TT? Yeah, I'll be on the Shiv T, T. Okay. Even for a full distance race, you're going to be on the shift T. Yeah, we do have the option of riding the Shivtri, which is the bike that I first rode to specialized, and they've discontinued that bike, so they don't actually make it anymore. But it is a really fast bike still and actually aerodynamically faster than the Shivtiti.

It's a little heavier. It's a little more like, well, it is more of a triathlon bike. It has the integrated hydration. Would be possible to go to that. But I've just, like, gotten so comfortable on the Shivt, TT. And for example, that TT effort I ended up Lemon last week, The shiv T-T-T is barely more heavier than the tarmac. It's just such a light, nimble bike that I love it.

But we do have that option to go back to the other one. How easy do you think it would be to take your measurements and just, boom, put them right on the shiv-try? It would just require some different mounting for the bars. But Watt Shop would for sure. Send you whatever you need. Have a solution for that, would you say, Eric? Yeah, great. Probably just like the two mounts.

things are different. Yeah. Yeah. You got some mono mount instead of a oh that's right. The shiv try is cool though because the base bar flips down. For travel? Yeah. So you could put it in like a super skinny case because it didn't have a base bar. Yeah. That was like honestly my favorite thing about it. Yeah, that's great. Okay cool. Thanks for the update. Back to rapid fire here. Oh wow. Eric, what would your bike say? The first thing to you if I could talk. You're looking at my bikes? It's hard for me.

Like I ride, I feel like I can't even decide which bike I'm going to, you know, speak for here. My mountain bike or my gravel bike or my road bike, my T.T. bike would definitely be like, hello? No, I'm riding that. I'm riding that right now. I took it. Hello? Anybody?

I think his current diverge would be like, bro, what's with all the bags? Yeah. What are we doing? Yeah. You don't need a frame bag? You've never ridden over five hours with me. Don't even look at me with that fender. Yeah.

Do not want to get wet. Oh, that's good. Okay. What's the most absurd sponsor you'd 100% say yes to? It can be a category of sponsor too. Absurd? Yeah. Grocered store.

Oh, Wegmans. Any grocery store. Ralph's. Whole Foods. I mean, any, I literally, any grocery store. Mm-hmm. How about you, Eric? That would be pretty life-changing.

Yeah. It's our biggest expense, I think. If you got free groceries, you'd be like, yeah, put a name, tattoo it on my forehead. Yeah. I don't know. I was thinking something that was like home-related. Oh, right. Like, just get sponsored by a landscaping.

A landscaper. Or a contractor that could re- Remodel our kitchen or build us an ADU. Very nice. Okay, great. Well, thank you guys. Those rapid fires, we, you know, we tangent, but that's what we do in the podcast here. And I hope that whatever you're doing right now, if you're on a long run, if you're on a long ride,

if you're on the trainer suffering, that this entertains you in some way. And like Paula said, we rely on questions from the listeners. Please, this week especially, we want you to blow us away with our questions. So when Eric comes back, we can have a great show for everyone. And also, if anyone ever has an idea for a game that we can play in the podcast, we've done that a few times. Listener submitted games, feel free to send those in. We'll give you a little shout out for that.

And you can send questions into the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, where you can also become a podcast supporter. Podcast supporters last week got a little extra video that we made about the high volume, high intensity debate that has been going on in triathlon. And we'll continue to do stuff like that for our podcast supporters. On to questions here, Hi, all.

I'm a longtime listener and pod supporter. I've learned so much from all of you and really appreciate everything you share on the pod, et cetera. I have a question about descending and brakes. when I bought my current road bike, the guy who sold it to me, told me that for longer and steeper descents, disc brakes would be better, and he mentioned something about pads or wheels

potentially getting too hot and causing problems. At the time, the budget did not allow for a bike with disc brakes. I got an excellent carbon road bike with rim brakes and aluminum wheel set. I'm sure, pretty sure. I'm probably still overbiked and nowhere near able to push my bike's limits, so all is good. I race a TT bike with deep. carbon wheel set anyhow.

They didn't mention if it's disc or rim break for those wheels. Yesterday I did my first longer descent in Malibu, Ensignal. Nick will know it if Eric and Paula don't. Yes, Encinol. Do you guys remember it from last year at all? No, I remember it. Oh, you guys wrote it a lot. It's not my favorite, but it's very...

Actually, I have a full video of Paula descending Ensignal. Nice. I mean, it's not very techy descent. It's pretty fast descent, though. So that's a lot of cars on it. A lot of cars, yes. Definitely. Not super steep, but steep enough for me, and quite long, I was terrified.

Having trained in L.A. for a few years, I'm pretty confident in traffic. I feel okay going up to about 30 miles per hour on less steep descents. But something about being so high up, a few cars whizzing by and a little wind in my ear, so I can't really hear a car coming, has me riding the brakes hardcore the whole way down. Ironically, I kind of actually trip out even more by going this slowly because I'm going much slower than the pace of traffic. Of course. Do I really have to worry about my brakes overheating from riding them too long as I get more used to going down these hills? Is this not a thing with aluminum wheel sets? Any maintenance I should perform on brake pads before such rides. I figure one less thing to worry about couldn't hurt. I suppose confidence just comes with more experience, but do you have any other tips for improving and getting more comfortable on such dissents? Hope to see you at some races in 2025, Mike. Okay, so let's kind of approach this systematically.

aluminum rim brake wheels do we have to worry about the wheels heating up and becoming like damaging the wheel or damaging the brake pads I don't think that they would damage it but they definitely heat up right Eric this used to happen yeah Eric wouldn't know yeah yeah I don't

I don't know I haven't heard of anybody's like brake pads on rim brakes just completely melting off on anything yeah I just haven't heard of it, to be honest. There was early concerns with carbon clincher brake rims because there's a lot of heat being put on the carbon and that's been glued in epoxy. The way that carbon's construction is kind of like paper machet and just like fully melting

the glue that's holding the integrity of the brake surface, which also holds the tire on. I haven't heard of it. There have really been many issues with that in the last couple years. Carbon clincher technology is pretty, I guess, old now. I would say that this is really only a problem if you're like holding it down for minutes at a time without releasing it. That's what Mike is doing. This is kind of, I'm answering Nick's question, but really what I wanted to contribute to this was it's a good rule of thumb to not hold your breaks down for long continuous periods of time. Feather them.

Even if you hold them down for 10 seconds, let them go for 3.7. seconds, hold them down for 10 seconds. Like that three seconds does so much for cooling. The pads and the rim down, it's actually incredible versus just holding them down for 30 seconds straight. So what you don't want to do is like hold them, hold them home. And then instead of fully releasing them, you just kind of drag them along a little more. No, fully release, like break in chunks, you know? My, I thought aluminum wheels with rim brakes is like, this is the nice thing about it,

is that you can't screw it up, you know? Like, they're bulletproof kind of. And you just replace the pads every once in a while. you're not going to wear through the aluminum brake surface the way that you could in a rim brake carbon wheel. I would say for the most part, yeah. What always used to worry me was like you riding carbon wheels with carbon brake pads and riding the entire descent on the brakes.

Yeah, yeah. Versus like you said, aluminum is a lot more hardy. The brake pads are like rubber, so they're also just a lot more sensitive. Like braking actually breaks it versus carbon on the carbon brake pads doesn't have like that same immediate effect. Traction, right. Modulation is less predictable. Yeah, especially when it's what.

So it's been a long time since I've ridden a rim brake bike. But I do remember when I was younger being like, okay, don't hold it down forever. Like, be brave, let the brakes off. Okay, we're back on the brakes. Yeah, yeah. Like just kind of feather it. So I feel like the period of time where everyone was switching over to disc brakes, It was the same period of time where brakes were switching over to hydraulic brakes.

Yeah. But I'm sure there was a period where you could have rim brakes that were hydraulic? Because I think so much of what we love about disc brakes too is like the hydraulic feel is so much better. The P5 had Magura hydraulic rim brakes. Ah. And did that feel like somehow in between the two? Like you still had better control? Yeah, theoretically.

And there was like a little bit less lever throw to get the brakes to actuate. and they were stronger, but it was very short-lived. Yeah. That being said, just like, you can also overheat rim break. I mean, disc brakes. Yeah. But you need to be, like, descending on a mountain bike. Oh, I've done it here, going down to and on a road bike, and it is scary.

And it's, like, kind of a different thing. Like, the brake fluid and the hose, like, heats up to the point of where it's, like, that is not... I have good... I have... I think that it... Instead of talking about this, though, for another... 30 minutes. 30 minutes.

And a good solution to this fear that he has, because ultimately it's a bit of a fear of these descents, which are rightfully so, because they're very technical. You say it's not technical, but it's technical. I mean, Ensignal is not very technical. It's technical. There's big, sweeping turns. It's not a straight, flat descent.

Okay. So what helps me a lot on these types of roads is having the radar light behind, which tells you if there's a car coming, and allows you to kind of ride the correct line so that you're not as scared hugging the outside of the road and worried there might be a car blowing by you. You know when there's a car coming,

and then you can appropriately move over at that time. That's great advice. What is the radar? Well, Eric and I bought ours on Amazon. Not Garmin brand. We didn't buy the Garmin brand one, and it works really well. But, I mean, we're not trying to sell a certain radar here, But there's plenty now light radars which beep at you if a car is coming.

And a lot of the time these lights are very annoying if you're riding on PCH where there's so many cars. You don't want it beeping out of you. I know there's cars there. But on roads that are a little bit more sporadic traffic. That's helped me a ton. I've used one going up lemons so you can ride the tangents a little better. It helps on the ups and the downs. And it connects to your bike computer, right?

That's how you can read it. Yeah, and different brands are compatible. Like, we have a Wahoo bike computer, but any radar would be compatible with it. It's just Bluetooth. Yeah. Yeah, I think that is a great, that's great advice for Mike. Just like, stop worrying about that so much, worry about what's in front of you. And Eric, I heard you nod in agreement when I first read the question.

Like, going closer to the speed of traffic oftentimes alleviates a lot of that fear, because then people are just not blowing by you as fast. That's what happens on Lemon is, yeah, you're going fast. And the cars just, they'll wait till it's safe to go around you versus trying to get around as soon as possible. And another thing about these Malibu Canyon roads is that Encinnell is like the busiest one. Yeah. You can take other ones real easily. There's so many.

There's so many. And because it's not as switchbacky as many of the other ones, the cars can actually go faster than bikes versus. Yeah. Nobody's going faster than you down Lattigo in a car for a large percentage. No, you're catching cars. Yeah. For the most part, I download it to go. Yeah.

I mean, the one that's right there, too, is Decker. Check out Deckerd. That's steep, and there's no cars on it. It's very switchbacky, but good place to practice descending as well. Well, thanks for the question, Mike. I hope to see you out there, riding soon. Next question is from Lauren. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn.

I'm going to keep this brief. I signed up for my second Iron Man, Switzerland, at the end of August this year. However, I'm in my last year of university, so the month of May, I'm going to a road trip to a grad road trip to Italy. Do you think it would be worth it to go to gyms to ride stationary bikes or just take the month of May off of bike training? I plan to swim in the ocean and run to keep my fitness up, but also want to enjoy the trip. P.S., I love the pod. Thanks for all you guys do. Lauren. I don't think I'll be able to run at all when I'm in Patagonia.

If I can, I will whenever possible, but I'm not going to force it to the point of missing out on the experience for itself. So that would probably be my approach. which is if you can get to a bike, if you can borrow a bike, if you really want to go for a bike ride, go for it. But don't force it and make yourself miserable the rest of the time because it's logistically really hard. The concern is, do you think it would have a meaningful detrimental impact on an Iron Man to go a whole month without biking? Yeah, for sure it will. But what are your goals? Like, if you want to do 100% your absolute best at this Iron Man, of course it's going to impact you to take a month.

off of biking, three months out of the Ironman. That's a no-brainer. But what I would do, if I was this person, is Italy probably has amazing riding. I would rent a bike. I wouldn't go and do stationary bikes at the gym. Like, that sounds like a punishment. If you rented a bike just like two or three times for an epic ride, which sounds fun anyway, that'll, like, help you maintain that kind of fitness.

It won't feel like you're ruining your trip. You know, I can't imagine going into a gym and getting spinning on a trainer. That feels like such a bad use of... Yeah. Even as like athletes who need to ride a bike, if I'm on a spin bike, I'm like 45 minutes maximum. That feels like that is all I can do. And not because it's boring. It's just because it's like uncomfortable and awkward and the position is nothing like an actual.

Right. Is it that you're very upright? I don't know if I've ever been on a saddle. Yeah. The saddle is kind of uncomfortable. I don't know. so you don't have to worry that much. But if you're worried about impacting your performance,

yeah, of course it's going to a bit. But you have all of June, all of July, to get back on the horse and prepare the best you can. But I don't know, planning to swim in the ocean and stuff. Like that's not training. Of course it's fun, but I mean, it's not training. You're not swimming three times a week in a pool with efforts and intervals. Yeah, yeah.

It's going to keep your feel for the water. but you're kind of just like moving. Maintenance. Keeping a little bit of preventing a catastrophic fall in fitness. I mean, you could just run a ton, I guess. What you should do in Italy is start the carb load a little early and just get all those Italian carbs in. That's going to help you.

I'm not trying to deter you from going on this trip. That's amazing. I'm just saying that, yeah, you're for sure going to suffer on the bike a bit. You know what? You're going to suffer on the bike anyway. That's part of the whole thing. What do you say, Eric? Oh, you already said.

Yeah, no, I totally agree. That's just, that's life. And maybe this won't, if next, if you're like, oh, man, I wish I could have done S Y and Z, then next time you sign up for an Iron Man, don't book that vacation and see what all in feels like. But no, it's kind of interesting is like, in 10 years, are you going to be like, oh, I really wish I went five minutes faster on the bike at Iron Man, Switzerland. Are you going to be like, I spent a month in Italy on a grad trip. Yeah, exactly.

Like, you're going to remember the grad trip for your entire life. nobody on earth cares how what your bike split is on Switzerland and Iron Man. Even you probably won't care. Yeah, right. Okay, next question here. Hey, Femp. No offense, Paula, just switching it up a bit. I'm entering race week for my first ever triathlon, a local sprint race.

Watching the Iron Man productions on TV got me interested, but your audio and video content put me over the top and led me to signing up for a race. What last minute advice would you give a newbie like me, going into their first race, Andy. I always have the same advice for the noobs. Okay, Nick, let's hear it because I don't have an answer. My advice is you have the rest of your life to try to get faster and squeeze every ounce of performance out of the race.

Make sure this one is fun. And for me, that would mean personally on my first one, not pushing myself to my limits and just looking around and trying to absorb the vibes. That's usually my advice. And then you can get faster later. Yeah, usually when I do the first time I do a thing, like the 100 mile mountain bike race or the 50k,

I go in with, do not blow up. Do not hate the back half of the race because I went out too hard in the front. So just like conservative, enjoy the atmosphere and like build into it. And if you feel really good, you can go hard the second half of the race. I think that not just races,

but any hard thing, get harder if you know what you're getting into. So not to bring out the shootout again. Right. But the first week that I did it, I had no idea what it was like. I had no idea where the hard parts were. I had an awesome ride for me, highest power numbers forever. And then the following week, it was a little bit more mentally challenging and physically challenging.

The third week, it was awful because I knew exactly what was coming. I didn't feel good. The group dynamics were really weird. So I think that a little bit of naivity. Naivete, yeah. Naivete is actually like a really cool thing. And like Nick said, you should embrace that because it doesn't last. long to be a complete newbie at something and to do something for the first time. And it's an

exciting thing. It's a little bit scary, but it also takes away all expectations or all worry of what it might be like or what you're expecting it to be like. So yeah, just like keep an open mind. And I think, I don't think you should listen to Nick about not pushing yourself to your limits. Like, yeah, push yourself to your limits. See what you can do in your first one. That's really cool. And that's part of the satisfaction of finishing it, knowing you pushed yourself so hard. And then of course there's still room to get better and train more and do a longer one or whatever it is that's the next challenge. But really embrace the opportunity to be a beginner. That's kind of cool.

And maybe blow up. Yeah. And if you do, it doesn't matter. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You can't beat yourself up. That's true. You're like, all right.

Well, I went for it. You know, I did try it. Yeah. If you finished and you're like, well, I could have gone way harder. That's less satisfying than like, I bonked. Yeah. I crawled across the finish. Yeah, I did a really hard thing today.

Nice. You learned your donuts. Nice. Okay, cool. Next question here is from Joel. Hello, I appreciate the genuine vibe of the pod. I love making music and training for triathlon. What are your feelings about tire inserts for mountain biking?

I have a hard tail without tubeless ready wheels, so I put Tannis armor inserts in so that I can run low tire pressure with more grip and peace of mind about flats. They seem slow, but it seems worth the trade-off. Should I be considering another solution? As a special education teacher with four children, living in an expensive area of Southern California, money is a factor. Okay, first of all, let's answer this. Are tire inserts meaningfully slower?

The tannis armor ones are. Why is that? They are super heavy and not the ideal. Yeah, those are not what you want. But it's just weight, right? Like, there's no, it doesn't change rolling resistance at all. Can we just like take a quick pause and explain what tire is? inserts are because even for a lot of triathletes, I have no clue. I didn't know what they were until

two years ago when Eric got some. Do either of you guys run them in your road bikes? No. No. You would never do that. I'm going to do that on my new bike. Absolutely. Why? Because I... Wait, what are they? Eric, do you want to go on? You can just imagine on the simplest level that it's like a pool noodle inside of your tire. It's not that different really. No, it's much thinner diameter. So it's not actually like contacting the ground in any way. It's just creating a layer so that if you slam your on something sharp, you don't cut the side of your tire by slamming against between the ground and the rim. It's like putting a foamy inside your tire.

Yes, it's exactly like that. And you're like, how much did you pay for this? Yeah, they are expensive for what they are. I could just make one. Well, there's a bit of, there's actually a bit of technology that goes into it because they not only prevent the flats, but they also give a little bit of sidewall support on mountain biking and gravel biking as well. I think road biking, the tire pressures are such that it's,

less of an issue, but if you're running 15 PSI on a mountain bike tire, they actually give a little bit of support to the side wall so it rolls over less at low pressure in high cornering situations. So Eric's used them a lot in his races, especially depending on the terrain, like in Oak Mountain, you used it? The very first time I did Oak Mountain, I flatted three miles into the course because I slammed my rim super hard, broke the carbon rim on a rock, obviously flatted, and if I'd had the tire inserts, would have saved your race. Probably would have saved my race.

So maybe if they're a little bit slower, it's still worth it. 100% worth it. You may not have even flatted if you had it. Exactly. I may not have even flatted. So I used them in mountain biking. I haven't put them in a gravel bike just because of the terrain that we have. I'm less concerned about flatting on the gravel bike than I am on the road bike.

It's also like less of a problem if you're just training. If I'm just training, yeah. If I was going to go do a gravel race, 100% would put them in. Oh, really? The reason I want them in my road bike is I, I think for slight peace of mind while descending if I were to get a flat going 45 miles an hour knowing that there's an insert there

that I would be riding on that instead of the rims of my carbon wheels just makes me feel a little bit safer and I'm willing to take the weight penalty for it. That's interesting, yeah. I'd be curious to ride them down the street while flat and see if they're actually less squirly or worse. Right, right.

Then riding on a flat tire. I mean, this is a catastrophic flat of like boom within one. One second. Airs all out. Yeah. Yeah. I get scared when I'm going like 40 miles an hour down to internal around a corner.

Yeah. With traffic around me. I'm not sure. I'm not sure this would save you in that situation because the instant like change in how much. You need to ride your brakes more. Yeah. Because you're just, you're not going to have like great grip. You're still going to have an instant loss in grip.

Yeah. So, yeah. I don't know, but it'll be interesting idea. Okay. Well, we'll see. Ride your brakes. Get a radar light and don't put foamy's in your tires. That's the safer option.

If you want my recommendations, tubo lights are really good, and the Vittoria ones are really good for, like, actually really light to have cross-country race version. I have the Votauri ones in my gravel bike. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thank you, Joel. Great question.

Heated debate here in Santa Monica. Next question is from Tara. Finally making the decision to race an Iron Man that is out of driving range from home. What travel bike cases do you recommend for flying good, better, best, and any recommendations on bike packing and unpacking and do's and don'ts for flying with a bike. I've been a little shy traveling with my bike

with a bike transport service, as I have heard, those have had issues in the past. Yeah, no kidding. Thank you, your podcast is amazing, and I enjoy the information you share. So, I feel like as time goes on, we change our minds about what we would recommend. Yeah, we've had this question so many times, but...

We just need to really, like, make a YouTube video about it that just lives on forever, I think. The tough thing is, like, there is no perfect bag. We've said this so many times, and we don't get a bag for free from anyone, so we're not like plugging anything necessarily. Yeah, yeah. Totally.

We don't even have any sort of affiliate. No. No, the one thing we do get is I have a friend that works for Tully. So we get a proteal on Tully stuff. So we actually have a couple Tully bike bags, which are awesome for road bike, mountain bike, gravel bike. They're trickier for a T.T. Which has the base bar and is harder to disassemble.

But Eric uses the Tulees exclusively when we have road bikes. And I think that they're the nicest bags in terms of, appearance, rollability, size, packing simplicity. Your airport experience is the best. Are they soft, rigid, hybrid? I would say, yeah, they've got like a plexy, some sort of a hard plastic thing, but then they're soft on the outside, so there's some flexibility, but they're not going to get it. They're not like a Saigon that's so floppy.

No, not a bag bag. Yeah. That's my favorite bag. And then for a TT bike, you and I, Nick use the Evok Pro, which is this massive accordion. and looking thing, but you don't have to disassemble your base bar. I take off my arrow extensions when I use it, but... I don't even do that.

Yeah. Which is maybe a little scary, but I don't even do that. But those are easy. It's like four bolts for me, so it's so easy to take those off. Yeah. But the only downside of that bag is that it's huge. So if you get to the other end and you're trying to fit in a taxi or whatever, that's the

same problem with the bike box Allen's. They're so big. And heavy. They're pretty heavy. They're pretty heavy. Yeah, so Uber-X-L sort of situation. Yeah. Yeah. But most of the, if you look in like the T-100 Pro room where everyone stores their bike pegs, I would say at least half the people have this Evoc Pro bag. Is that right? Yeah. It's very popular.

It's also $1,000, I believe. Yeah, but I mean, we need to buy a new one actually because we used our so much the zipper broke. So we have to just like pony up and buy one. But truly my favorite bags are the Tuleys. but we also have used sions Scyton. Sion is the car. Sion is the car that I drove back from race. Okay, Scycon is the floppiest bag,

and it's like your bike might break. You've got to like bubble wrap and put padding, and it's super easy to pack. It's relatively light. It's a good size. We've only had bikes break two times. Then they're both in Scycons. With the Sikon over 15 years of pro racing.

We've only had it twice, but yeah. I, twice is a couple times too many. Yes, for sure, it's a couple times too many. And it's like the seat stay that snapped, so at the bottom of it, just like really fragile parts of the bike. So I don't know, the scycons do scare me a bit, but they are easy for TT bikes. And then for tips, what do you take off? Pedals, rear derailer, anything else? These days, we take off Paula's extensions.

She does have wireless blips, so it's very easy. we take off the pedals we take off the rear derailer take off the chain oh you take off the chain I don't even do that that is like real annoying if I'm traveling alone

and I got to put it back on so I don't know how why why not just like it's just so clean to take it off it's really satisfying and what Paula experienced was it in Beijing where I didn't go

and so I thought okay it's annoying to put it back on I'll leave it on but then it like flopped all around and it got It got twisted and Paula couldn't figure out how to untwist it. This was actually in Dubai. This was in Dubai.

Couldn't figure out how to like untwist it to have it oriented properly. Because I mean, I don't know. I'm not saying do this, but if you've been in this situation, you know how like it is not really obvious when your chain and your derailer have like done a 360 or gotten twisted and it's just hanging there. All of a sudden you're trying to imagine what it should look like when it's tight with the wheel on it. Not always easy. Yeah. And I was like trying to describe it over the phone. Like, we'll, I remember.

Look at it from the side and do a 360 to the left. That's why I think some of these bike bags that are, yes, they're massive, but you don't have to take off as much stuff, that is a little bit easier for someone who's never traveled with a bike before. If you have Eric with you, yeah, you can take off every piece on the entire bike and it's never going to break and everything's going to be perfect when you get there. But the disassembly reassembly is such a scary thing for most people, me included, that I think you're really safe going with the Evok Pro. and if anyone out there works for Evok. Yeah, exactly. We really need a pro-discount code. No, just kidding.

But, yeah, that's the bike bag I'll use all year next year once I buy one. Okay, last question here is from Joshua. Super stoned for the FI. Me too, dude. Okay, morning, Paul, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. There's a little typo here, but we are going to read it as is to respect Joshua's writing here. I love the pod and super stoned for the foreign rider. suits to cone in for my wife and I.

Same. I'm about halfway through being caught up completely on all the podcast episodes and curious, what was that aha moment that made y'all, Paula and Eric, go all in for triathlon. Was it a single performance or a coach who told you what they thought you were capable of as a junior? And for Nick, too, what made you do your first race and what hooked you? Thanks and looking forward to running into y'all at a race this year. maybe IMLP, which is Ironman. Placid?

Placid, yes. For Paula's full distance, sorry, Phil distance premiere. Joshua, Joshua. Wow, I can't help it. That was your own. Yeah, that was my own super stone moment. No one's stone here, by the way. We're just high off of 11 a.m. pasta.

Totally normal. Everything's fine. So do you guys remember this moment? Paul, you were so young. Do you remember your, like, the aha moment? You're like, yeah, I'm going all in. No, I never thought that. I still don't think that.

Really? I'm still like, should I go all in? I don't know. You're having a trough on podcast. No, I do remember when I first started trath on my, I was swimming competitively eight times a week. I was running track. I was swimming very successfully, but not like at a national level of swimming, more at like a provincial level.

And then for running, I was a good runner without doing much training in running. I was just fit from swimming. So my coach at the time, Glenn Playfair, said, you should. should get a road bike, try a triathlon, and I think you can make the junior national team and go to world championships. Did that excite you when you heard that? Or you're like, whatever, I guess I'll do it. It was like kind of surprising and an intriguing thing because as a swimmer, I was, I had big goals. I wanted to potentially go to college and swim or maybe go to the Olympics, but I wasn't good enough as a swimmer for that to be realistic. So when Glenn told me this,

it did kind of make sense because I had this running success as well. So I got a road bike from for Christmas for my parents. Oh, wow. A track. And then I did my first triathlon, one overall, even with a men. And then that year qualified for junior worlds, went to Switzerland in 2006 on the Canadian team. And that's when it kind of felt like, oh, wow, I am all on a national team. Like, Simon Whitfield is here and Christian Sweetland.

And I think I came like 12th or something. So I was like in the race. And that's when it made sense, like, I could be good at this. I could go to the Olympics for this sport. And at the time when I was 16, so I was still thinking, I'm still going to school, I'm still a university student, I have so many other, I want to be a doctor. Like, this is not my only thing I want to do, but it is the sport that I'm the best at. And it's an interesting challenge to continue to try to be better. So that's kind of the clicking point for me as my first national team.

And it happened like, do-do-do-do-do so quick, you know? And then the whole thing was a snowball. Is this coincidence that, like, your swimming fitness translated so well? Um, I think it's kind of... Because a lot of swimmers, when they try to bike and run, are, like, terrible at it. Yeah, I have a little bit of the genetics on my side, because my mom and dad were both runners. So, I guess, like, the run form came fairly naturally to me. And you're right.

A lot of swimmers, they have this, like, kind of swimmer build with, like, really big shoulders, and they're kind of awkward on land. But for some reason, I was pretty natural. in terms of like a run stride when I started running and then yeah, the aerobic and fitness from swimming transferred over but I was a little bit blessed, I guess, with just being technically good at running. Right. So that I could use my aerobic engine to go fast at it.

Right. What about you, sweetie? I'm not sure that there was, it would have been, it probably was like really late. And in my mind, it was I'm listening to Paula talk about her journey and realizations or thoughts. Like, I think pretty early on, I just identified that I really loved doing triathlon, and I wanted to see how far I could go. I don't think I had that thing of like, man, I don't know. Maybe when world championships non-drafting were in Vancouver, B.C.

And I was actually able to drive up to that with my parents. And I was on Team USA, and I got... How old were you? Man, I would have been like 19. I raced there too as a junior Yeah so you guys were there together Yeah he raced as an age grouper I'm assuming Yep I raised as an age grouper

Watched the pros race Was very excited by it And the swim was cancelled because it was very Oh bummer Very cold water You were already a great swimer right That was my thing Yeah so it was a run bike run

And I ended up getting third And I think that kind of lit up Age Ruper overall In my age group Okay Now we're close to overall but that and this was a sprint distance and I think that

no it's Olympic yeah it was the Olympic distance and I think that kind of like let a fire into me of like man like I need to continue like it reinvigorated me at a time when I was about ready to go to college where I could have just done anything and could have just swam to like I got to continue

to be on this pathway and then I think I kind of started to get more fired up about it the more that my parents were like you need to go to college and you get a degree this is not a thing and I realized more and more that there weren't any careers that were, you know, college fit into that excited me as much as the idea of being a professional athlete and traveling and being outside. And I just wanted to dedicate myself to seeing if I could make that in my life.

Do you remember seeing Paula in Vancouver or were your, no. I remember Simon Whitfield, Javier Gomez. I was just singing in the junior race. I got a flat actually speaking of flats. Americans. I was, yeah. Sarah Haskins won, I think. Or Helen Jenkins one. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. No, I remember... It was a cold rice. It was very cold. Water was freezing.

I'm trying to think of, like, back in the time when I was deciding what to do, I don't think I ever even, like, did it for the reason Eric did where he's like, I love this, how good I could be at it. I was more of, like, a perfectionist being the best, trying to be the best at things. At something, yeah. I was perfectionist at school. All I wanted was 100% on my grades. And then swimming and running, I wanted to win.

And then at triathlon, I wanted to be the best of that. So it was almost this, like, addictive perfectionist mind, which maybe it still is a little bit. And I'm not, I'm not driven as much by, like, I absolutely love this and my soul needs this. Right. I'm more like, I want to keep being the best at something. That's interesting. I don't know if those are so completely separate. Even for people who love it, I think there is, I mean, I see it in my sense.

in the music that I make too. It's like, yeah, I love the music, but I also love making this thing the best possible thing can be. That is what you are doing. You're trying to do the thing at the very top level that you are capable of doing it. Yeah, yeah. But I'm thinking like back when I was 16. I wasn't like, oh, I'm so in love with this and I just want to make it my life.

I was thinking, like, I mean, I had so many things on the go. I wasn't even thinking. I was just good at a thing. I am surprised at how many professional athletes at your level throughout other sports share this thing where it's like you would assume anyone that gets to that level, they live and breathe it. And it's they need it to get to the next moment of their life. But very often tennis players, golfers, soccer players are like, my parents put me into this and I did it. I definitely needed it. I literally did nothing else except train.

Right. And go to school. Like I had no friends. I had no boyfriend. And I had no partying. I didn't drink until I was 21. Right. I was all in.

But it wasn't because of like a love affair of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was so hard to explain. But I think that's cool. And you still made it. You still did it. You still achieved this thing. I guess.

I think that's interesting. And for our podcast listeners, probably not everyone, maybe someone feels insecure about the fact that they don't have a love for it. I know sometimes I wake up and I'm like, am I really going to go run two hours in the wind today? and do I, am I a fraud? Am I doing this sport because I love it or am I doing it because I feel like I have to tell

myself to do it? And either one is okay. Even Paula gets to that level. I think Eric does it because he loves it. And he's also good at it. But he's like an example of someone who really loves it. Yeah, I love the individual acts, but I was also thinking that it probably has impacted, like, the heights that I could achieve it sometimes because I get out of it.

I'm like, what is the most fun way to do this bike workout? And I might make some compromises that are not as high performance for this specific session or run or whatever, but it keeps me happy and not so core to why I do it. So I think that's kept me in the sport a lot longer than plenty of people who do it just to be good at it, but also it may have prevented me from reaching some of the highest heights that one could. Yeah, yeah. Good question. Great question.

I didn't really give my aha moment, but if I can keep it brief here, it's that it was an aha moment because I did. It was when he became the co-host of that Chathlon Life podcast. Yeah, no. It's like, oh, shit, I'm in it for good. I'm in it for life. No, it was before that. I thought I was going to be racing bicycles. And I did one bike race, and it went well, but I didn't love it.

And there was a lot of aspects of it that it didn't feel quite like a right fit. Can you just say, did you have this moment? was music? I feel like that's almost more applicable. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. I've always felt that way about music since I can remember. I was a way. Just like, this is who I am. This is what I want to do. Like I had moments when I was younger. I was like, I want to be a pro snowboarder. I wanted to be a pro motocross rider. I had, but I was really young. And in the back of my head,

I loved what music, I mean, if we're really going to break it down, I liked what it said about me to the rest of the world, that I had dedicated myself to this artistic. pursuit. I like the light that it painted me in. That's like, that's the maybe more uglier version of it. I do feel like I have this special response to music and I love it and I think I have somewhat of a natural gift in some aspects of music, but really I liked who it made me feel like that I, this was my thing. That totally makes sense. And I still feel that way about music and it's uh you know after having gone to college for music at a very very specific music college so many of those people got burnt out on it and like kind of hate music now and i feel so lucky maybe it's partially because i have also found triathlon and filmmaking and photography but i

still love music yeah you know it just like what you were saying with with that kind of makes me think of like the back end of our triathlon careers and anybody who's leaving pro sports of like this is a huge part of what we love about it is the identity and it gives us a purpose and we're good at something and it feels good to be a professional athlete and that's something that we at least I dreamed of and I think we love and then man now now what if you're whenever you retire because that's not something that you can just like music you can a bit decide this is going to be my career and like professional athletics at a certain point it's it's out of your hands it's out of your hands it's out of your

hands and you have to find a new identity and a new love or be involved in the sport in some other way. Yeah, that's interesting. All right, guys, we've got to hit the road. Are we getting coffee first? Yeah, we're going to get coffee and then hit the road. Eric needs a new iPhone, too. Oh, shoot, okay. So we got like a couple errands to do.

Yeah. We got to leave before the traffic gets bad. But I'm glad we got to do this in person, all three of us. Yes. Next week, it might just be me and Nick. Yeah. We'll make it fun, though. Yeah, we'll make it fun.

That'll be a fun dynamic. We'll be missing Eric's, like, um, like his stoicness, you know? The stoicosity. Yeah, we're going to have so much fun without me here. Eric, what were you going to say? I was going to say, just in case you don't check your emails tomorrow on Friday, tickets for the Oceanside screening of look for things where you can find them are going to go on sale. That's our film that Eric and I have been working on tirelessly for a long time at this point.

Yep. We have, I honestly don't know how many, we could sell out instantly or we could not say. sell out at any point. I'm not totally sure, but we're confined by the size of the theater. Also, I watched one of the scenes yesterday, and it's insane. That's the first time that Paula saw. It's better than anything that you'd see at any film festival, in my opinion. And I've been to quite a few. I don't want to go that far. Cinematic. I mean, it's amazing. In the world of multisport, we have put a ton of time and

effort into it, and we think is really special. We love the message and put great care into it. If you're going to be at Oceanside or if you live in like the California, California area. Or if you want to fly in for it. Yeah. I know a couple people are flying in. Do you want to say the ticket sales are going to... Yeah. To a good cause. Yeah. The tickets are... I'm pretty sure we're going to make them $20.

And all of the proceeds from the tickets of the screening are going to go to World Bicycle Relief. We math it out and that should put about 25 new bicycles in the hands of people in Africa who can use them to do business, get to school, get water. That's awesome. It's a really freaking cool. And before the screening of your video, there's going to be... be a little tiny video by World Bicycle Relief explaining what this Buffalo bike is. Exactly. Oh, I'm a Buffalo bike.

Oh, you do? Yes, I do. It's this, like, really simple. It's like bulletproof bike. Speaking of rim brakes and stuff, yeah, it's this bulletproof bike that they send to people in Africa. And it's, it doesn't need a lot of mechanical work. It needs, like, no maintenance.

Like, ever. I think it even has two chains. The new version has, like, two different cogs so you can switch and, like, some redundancies for longevity. Two chains. So if one breaks, I remember seeing that that chain is like, you don't even need to loob it. It just lasts forever. The Buffalo bike is like the perfect name for it.

Yeah. It's like, Bobproof. Yeah. Anyway, we'll talk more about that as time comes, but. Yep. And we're, man, there's a whole bunch of stuff. There's some, we got so many cool things where there's going to be some giveaways involved and both online and in person.

And if you are, if it does come down to it, there will be some tickets available for sale at the Castelli booth in the Iron Man Expo, Day of the Race. Not day of the race. Day of the showing. Yeah. Day of the showing. Morning of the showing. There also happens to be a race going on.

She says with eyes half open. Some people will be competing and doing racing. We'll chat with you guys next week. Bye guys.