That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon bike groupsets, aero calf sleeves, hilly courses, and more!

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

This week we talk triathlon and answer your questions! We talk about mountain bikes, cycling progression, pacing out a hilly course, being single in triathlon, cycling groupsets, transition and racing backpacks, maintaining friendships through endurance training, aero calf sleeves, and whether or not Eric or Paula should coach each other. To become a podcast supporter as well as submit your very own questions to the podcast, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.comHelp our friend Zack reach his fundraising goal HERE

Hello everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Lovertsham. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is our triathlon podcast where we take questions from you. We maybe talk about what's going on in the triathlon world. But most of all, we like to share some insight into our knowledge and, yeah, what we know about the sport and try to show that with you guys. Who are you? Who's Eric and who am I? Oh, we, so Eric and I are both professional triathletes, if you're new here. Nick is a professional musician, which is why this podcast sounds so amazing, and he is an amateur triathlete. Our dog Flynn is sleeping.

Passed out. Super tired, boy. We're actually all together right now in Ventura, California, where Eric and I are training for the next month. We've been totally loving it so far. I can't even say a single bad thing. Even the rain has not deterred us. It has been an epic rainstorm of the century so far. Yeah, but I mean, it's funny because there was all these warnings and, like, you might be evacuated, but we, all Eric and I did to accommodate this, and I realized some people may have been in worse situations, but we flipped our Saturday and Sunday so we could do our long ride in the sunny day.

And then on the rainy day, we ran, and it wasn't that bad. It was kind of fun, actually. Are you dry yet, Eric? Yeah, I'm totally dry and fine. Good to go. What we were coming from was like three feet of snow with a layer of a one inch layer of ice over the top of that back home. So this pouring rain, we're still running in shorts. It's not like it's freezing rain. It's still pretty dreamy. And we just really like the town here.

Everybody that we've met has been incredibly friendly. It's pretty. It's by the beach. It's just got some good energy. Yeah, I think the most important thing to me is that we've been finding some great places to ride and then some like, off surfaces to run on and the pool is $4 per lap swim drop in. Just so cheap and always get a lane. It's crazy.

But also don't come here. Well, I almost feel irresponsible saying it because it's a hidden gem. It's like 20, 30 minutes from the climbs that L.A. is known for an hour from L.A. proper, but it feels like you're like three or four hours away from a city of that magnitude. Yeah, yeah. But to be honest, I don't think I would recommend it to hardly any triathletes that I know. I don't think many triathletes are as willing to like try to figure out a place and and drive a little bit of extra like we are. We're very adventurous.

We're not the most adventurous, but it's not like you can just roll out the door and be on a quiet road with no cars or anything. You kind of have to know how to get around and we've done the time to figure out to talk to locals and figure out how to do things. So it's not quite like Tucson where I feel like it's very easy. It's so easy. It's kind of boring, but it's very easy to just get on your bike and kind of go out the door and whatever. You're probably going to be okay. Do you feel like you'll come back next year? Ideally, yeah.

We have a really cool setup here where we're exchanging a little bit, well, I'm exchanging a little bit of a video about this Airbnb that we're staying in for a little bit of a deal on that. So we're able to swing it. But if at all possible, if we can come back again in the future, I'd really like to. It's also nice to be close to you, Nick. I know. That's why I'm hoping this will happen again and again and more and more frequently for longer, longer periods.

Eric wants to buy a house here. I'll just say it. Yeah, we cannot afford it. If we sold our house and then, we could afford it. Maybe. We could afford something, maybe, if we sold our house and bend. But I think we're ready. But it's very cool in that we're close to L.A.,

this huge city with this huge airport and a lot of infrastructure that I, I am jealous that Nick has. Ben doesn't even have an Apple store, for example, amongst other things. But it doesn't feel like it. And in between us, where we are here in L.A., is this really incredible area to ride called the San Monty Mountains. Yeah. So I'm just really looking forward to over the next month making some videos

and just exploring that whole area as much as we have time for. Speaking of videos, there is a little bit of Ventura in the most recent TTR YouTube videos. So if you haven't checked that out, definitely go and check that out. But I'd also like to say that neither of you have been to Ohio yet, right? No, we've been close. We've run pretty close to it along a bike path, and we've ridden pretty close, but we haven't actually gone into Ohio yet. So Ohio is, by the way, it's spelled O-J-A-I.

It's this, like, hippie-cheek town that's inland from here that's kind of like this blend of, like, yes, it's a little bohemian, but it's also, like, affluent bohemian. I don't know what the word is for this. But it's right at the base of these mountains, and the mountains are incredible. There's a beautiful climb that goes up to the mountains and tons of trails. Maybe we should go ride there tomorrow. That's what I'm thinking. I picked out a route that goes into Ohio.

It's kind of a big loop. But if we're down for it. I'm down for it. Let's do that. That sounds great. Okay. Let's get to the questions. We got a lot of questions.

Do we have any fun games today or any other things we need to cover? We do. We don't have anything that we need to cover other than we do have a bottle winner from a podcast supporter. One thing I just wanted to say, I got a direct message from our friend, Zach, a really good friend of the podcast. And he is doing a fundraiser, riding his bike to raise some money for cancer. So we're going to leave a link in the description of the show notes to that. If you want to support Zach and support cancer, that's just, I told him I give him a shout out.

So there you go. Yeah, super close cause to him. His mom is battling cancer, I believe. Yeah. And Zach actually sent us a bottle of whiskey. for Eric and I for getting engaged. And it says, Mr. and Mrs. Loggerstrom on it.

Wow. And I was like, this is too much. I can't. Cancel the wedding. It's over. I'm out of here. I'm whole feet.

Thanks, Zach. You saved me a lot of heartache and time and money and et cetera, et cetera. Imagine that was 15 years down the line. No, disaster.

Yeah, we all need somebody to do that for us. It's right. No, it is part of the cool part of TTL in general is like the connections we've made with people that were strangers,

but now they're kind of, you know, I don't know if we'd call them friends because we don't know them that well, but we've met them in person and we feel like we know their story a little bit. So if you can help Zach, go click on that link. It's funny you said that because people sometimes, even me will ask me, like, oh, is it weird when you meet people that have like heard your voice for 100 episodes? And I feel like it's exactly the opposite of weird. When you're meeting someone that you don't know at all for the first time, the scope of who they could be is so wide. But when I meet someone that has listened to the podcast for a long time. It's like, well, I know that we have a ton in common already.

You've sat through those episodes, so you know me. You like me? I like me. I went more like, I also know them in a way, right? It's like if we both love pulp fiction, the movie, we both have something in common about it. Flynn has something to say about this too. Anyway, that's kind of a non-sequitur. But let's do our first segment, our only segment, and then we'll move on to questions, but this will be a little. This or that with TTL.

This or That. So this, this or that is submitted by a listener. And as a fellow swammer, I built out a swimming-related this or that I thought might be a laugh. I'm just telling age, Eric, you can have some of my athletic greens. Oh, yeah. Is that athletic greens? It is. Paula hasn't shaken it up for about 40 minutes.

This is what I do with my athletic greens. It takes me like a full day to drink my athletic greens. But I do get through it. Oh, I pound it first. Yeah, same. I just like get into my. body green goodness. I love it. I love it. My tip with AG is to put half lemonade, half water. Oh, that is really good. I know. Yeah, don't do it. Don't do it. It's going to ruin you.

Once you do it, you can't go back. You can't go back. Okay, guys, this is a this or that. Let's keep a kind of brief. Okay. Would you rather do 100 repeats or 400 repeats for time? Assuming the total yardage is the same. So, for example, if you're doing 1,400, would you have to do 4, 400s or 16, 100s. Yeah, I think I'm going to go with the 100s. Are you a psychopath? Who would want to do 400s? I totally agree. But Eric says he sometimes gets

into these moods where he's like, I can just keep swimming and it's like, no problem. I'm zend out. I mean, if it's like aerobic pace and not a speed thing, then yeah, I'll do the 400s just to get it over with. But for time, hundreds. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Next one. Cold pool or cold lake? Death. Cold pool for me. Like, Eric Remember that time we swam in June Lake? We were so cold after that for a while. I think you were cold and I was. I was so cold. I have nothing but positive memories of swimming in June Lake.

It was fun. Cold, epic mountain lake every time over cool. That was just a great trip. That was just a great trip. Okay, next one. Skull or drill? I feel like sculling is a drill, but skull or, I don't know. Any other drill?

We don't have time for sculling. Sculling is so slow. 5K in an hour, get out. Skull is too slow. Yeah, my favorite drill is swimming with only one paddle. Yeah, I started doing that after you. Yeah, I don't know. Feels good.

It's like a balance, per receptive thing. So, yeah, that drill. I may have asked you this, and I was thinking about this this week. I'm seriously starting to lose count of what we talk about on versus off the podcast. That's fine if it's a recurring theme. Right. But I noticed that when I started doing that. Did I talk about this on the podcast?

I don't remember. But I noticed that when I do the single paddle, it's not like I spend more time on the arm with the paddle. Somehow my brain still spends the same amount of time per stroke. Like I don't think I'm doing like if we had the dual-sided power meter thing. It's not like I'm doing more time on one side or the other. They think that's good or bad? That's the point. As you're trying to swim normally, but one hand has extra resistance.

Okay. I don't know why it's good, but I feel like it really like activated. some things in an interesting way, like cross-body. It brings attention to it. I guess it just changes it in a way. I think Paula was even saying with like different-sized paddles. It's just, oh, wait a second, this feels a little different. Maybe it makes you aware of certain things.

Yeah, because ultimately you're trying to, even when you swim with paddles, you don't want your stroke rate to be completely different than when you're swimming normally. So it has something to do with that. Cool. Next, Speedo or Finis? It's Finis. Or finis? Finis?

I don't know. F-N-I-S? Yeah. For what? As a brand, as a brand. Oh. I use the finis paddles and I use Speedo goggles. I don't know.

Speedo just has like this deep rooted. Yeah. I've worn it since I was a kid. Mm-hmm. So probably Speedo. It almost, I mean, it has like the Kleenex effect. Just like a staple. Yeah.

It's just you don't even say, what do you even call those kind of like a brief? I don't say briefs. I don't think I have a single piece of Speedo anything right now though, actually after having grown up with it. Wow. Yep. Speed up for me. Snorkel or paddles?

Paulo, you're going to say snorkel, aren't you? No, because I don't even own one yet. Oh. Anymore. Hey, Phineas. Send us a snorkel. Yeah, after we said me like Speedo better. Speedo probably makes a snorkel too.

I don't know. I'm sure they do, of course. Eric, snorkel or paddles? Paddles. I cannot stand a snorkel. Yeah. Last one. Meat warm up or mass start try?

Like a swim meat warm up? Like when we're kids? Yeah, what does that mean? It means horribleness. It's awful. awful. It means at least 25 people per lane. Oh, you're just like...

Trying to warm up. It's like a game of snake on the Nokia. You're just like trying to fill up every nook and cranny. Yes. You're like, oh, this little gap dive in. And then the kid in front of he starts doing breaststroke for his breaststroke, kind of warming up for his hundred breast. So, mass start try.

I think it is less stressful, yeah. Yeah. That's so funny. For most people, it's like the pinnacle of stress is a master. Actually, the only bone I've ever broken is in a mastart swim warm up meat. What? How do that happen? Storytime. Breastrope kick to the nose, probably, right? No, actually, I did get a bloody nose doing that in a high school swim meet, though, warm up.

It's hard to describe, but I was coming up behind somebody who was going to do a flip turn, and I, like, brought my hand into the water in a normal stroke, just as they were initiating their flip turn and their heel jammed between my two middle fingers. Oh, no! And I actually split my knucklebone in half on my ring finger. Did you know right away? Oh, yeah. I did the rest of the swim meet with a broken finger. in hand not really knowing it.

Oh, wow. Except my 200 backstroke PR. Wow. We're definitely going to put our kids in swim club, though. It makes you tough. It does. If you can stare at a black line and... I feel like it develops a contempt for existence, though.

The crazy thing about swim meat warmups, though, is you're warming up from like 7 to 8, and then your hundred breasts is at 10.30. Right. It's like, why did you warm up? It's so stupid, yeah. Just keep sleeping. And to finish the whole thing, at a championship meet, there is a warm-up pool. So you can still get in a warm-up five minutes.

Yeah, but not when you're like 12 and under. No, it's more like you're just limbering up and making so that you don't feel sluggish and loose. Yeah, I guess so. Okay. Well, we're going to move on to questions here. And for everyone that's wondering, you can submit your questions to the podcast. That's how we do this. We just answer people's questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast.

There you can also become a podcast supporter. As you've probably noticed, we don't do ad reads on this podcast, so we rely on podcast supporters like you to keep us going here. And every week we try to pick a winner. Last week, we didn't pick a winner because we had two TTL Kick Challenge winners, which, by the way, I'd like to say we never said Keith's time. Remember? Because we said it on the YouTube multiple times.

So Keith, Eric, who was a friend of mine, he swam. He kicked a 102, which is about almost. almost 10 seconds faster than I can do it with my arms. Yeah. Unbelievable. So a lot of people were shocked and shaken from that. True excellence. True excellence.

But this week we're going to pick a random podcast supporter to get a bottle. And this week we put our random number generated to work and we found Hannah Francis, you won. Thank you for being a podcast supporter. We really appreciate it. When Eric and Paul are back in Oregon, they're going to send you a bottle. So send me a message on Instagram with your updated address and we'll have that as soon as possible. Okay, first question here is from Sabin. Hello, TTL fam, day one are here.

I have mostly been riding road and TT bikes, but want to dabble in mountain bike. There are just so many different types of mountain bikes. What would be the best choice for someone who just wants to ride mountain bike for fun and endurance building? Thank you and appreciate what you'll do. Sabin. So first of all, we've kind of answered this question before, but I think it's been a long time. Eric's wearing his mountain bike glasses right now. Getting in his own.

I just want to paint the picture here right now. Eric is wearing no shirt, shorts of beanie and sunglasses. He's full rock star mode right now. I'm going to take a picture and it'll go on my story. So if you're listening to this on Thursday, you can see. Perfect. Okay. So, Eric, for someone who doesn't know, in road cycling, you have endurance frames, you have climbing frames, you have climbing frames, you have aeroframes for road cycling.

And there's specialty bikes like TT bikes and track bikes. what about mountain bike what are the categories for mountain bike I feel like the names the categories have kind of been in flux and changed a little bit lately but the big thing with mountain bikes is like the amount of suspension that you have ultimately like there's a cross-country race bike which is going to have like a hundred millimeters of travel maybe 90 millimeters so that's as low as it goes that is as low as it goes unless you just go fully

rigid which is no suspension so the yeah I guess the lightest and less, least suspension that you could have would be like a hard tail, which only has a fork in the front, which would probably be like 90 millimeters of travel. And then you go to a cross-country bike like I have, which is 100 millimeters of travel front and rear. I actually added on a fork onto my bike that has 120 millimeters travel in the front. So it's a little bit of a Frankenstein. The next level up from that would be something that has like 120 millimeters of travel, which might be starting to get into the downcountry category.

That's what a lot of the specialized factory racing team races on, and they like those because they do some big boulders and stuff. This is too complicated. Pretend I want a mountain bike. You don't. Okay. Well, pretend. Which one would you tell me to get? Well, I think it's important that people who don't know have an idea of what the categories are.

So I agree. Cross country, down country, then like... Enduro. Trail. Trail first, then, enduro. There's this all mountain trail, endurance that is all, like, kind of just become one thing in this, like, one-thirty-thirty. 40. But basically, as you get more and more suspension, they get heavier and heavier and less comfortable to ride uphill and less designed to ride uphill. Okay, but the people that are

just wanting a mountain bike to get into it aren't going to go send it down really rocky stuff. Where we're getting to is that it really just depends how, what are you going to ride? It doesn't, like, I'm giving you the idea of how much, like, suspension there is out there and you just have to ask yourself, like, how rowdy are you trying to get? I don't think it's fair to say that there's just spectrum that you live on because it's like saying, okay, you could get, there's a Toyota Camry on one end and a Formula One car on the other end a little bit. You don't need the Formula One car. You also don't need the Formula 3 car. You also don't need the NASCAR. I think for most people who are getting into it, a cross-country bike,

will allow them to get a certain amount of rowdy. That's still very fun. Like if you're riding the trails in Bend, for example, which are awesome mountain bike trails, there's very little that you can't do if you're a good rider on a cross-country bike. More suspension is going to give you more room for mistakes, maybe, but I don't know if it's necessarily better for some of your starting. You could ride a hard tail and bend, no problem. So I think would you say that for most people, if they're a mostly competent road rider who wants to get into mountain biking, like a cross-country bike is a great place for them to be?

Yep. Yeah. In specialized line, I would look at the Epic or the Epic Evo. The Epic Evo has a little more travel than the Epic. I think that's probably the sweet spot for most people's 120 millimeters of travel like yeah that's where I would go

and what is in the like the Santa Cruz line like the blur yeah or something I don't remember their lines anymore they had like the tall a while ago the tall boy at 510 the blur yeah the brand Branson Brin

I would just I would go for a full suspension but something that's that's for cross country but not necessarily the cross country race top of the line thing. I think that'll give you the best bang for the buck. And then from there, you can decide, wow, that feels way too bumpy on the trails that I ride. Next thing I'm getting is more suspension or I need less, I don't even, I need to grab a bike. Yeah. Because night trails are so mellow. Yeah. Cool. Good luck, Gavin. That's fun. Mountain biking is really a great time. And it's a

way to switch it up and still get miles in the legs. Yeah, you'll be addicted. Next question is from Lois. Can you three talk about your cycling progression? Physically, where did you start and how quickly did you become competitive? I'm fairly new to triathlon and feels so weak on the bike, so I'm looking for some context so I can set realistic expectations. It'd be great to hear Paula and Eric talk about how long it takes to get fast, but as an age group, I especially want to hear Nick and how he did it too. Thank you.

Lewis. So do you guys remember your first biking kind of progression? I don't know. I can remember the very first bike ride that I went on that felt like a real, legitimate training ride and it was like 30 miles. I fell hard. A Schwinn 12 speed. He had to sleep after?

Extremely hilly. It was like a crowning achievement for the summer. Right. You know? But I think it was within, it was like the next summer that I was jumping in a bike race, you know, a 12th.

On the same bike? Like a, no, I think my first bike race that next year I got like a, a used bike that had, you know, shifters on the hoods. Not on the down. Exactly. And that was the first bike that I actually raced. So, I don't know. It's, I think it's just a matter of putting time on in the saddle and

a little bit better than yesterday. Do you remember how quickly you progressed in terms of your bike-specific fitness? No, no, dude, I was 12 years old. I was just riding a bike, having a good time. And a coach was kind of like telling me, yeah, you should ride on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yeah, right. You're like, okay. Yeah. And yeah, of course, I was like doing the 10-mile loop from my. door a couple minutes faster every week, but that was about it. I wasn't, yeah.

And the problem for both of you is that both of you, once you started, you started biking already very, very aerobically fit from something else, right? Yeah. I think the thing about biking is you need to learn how to like push yourself on the bike. And that can take some time. Like to go to like a deep place where you're like working really hard and training really hard on it is a bit of a learning curve when you're used to just riding a bike for like commuting or learning to ride a bike when you're younger. I don't know. No, you're right. There's something

about running and swimming that is a full body like experience and the biking, it's a little bit more focused in your legs and it's a kind of discomfort that you do have to learn to push through. And I've heard you guys say this a lot about in your opinion, there's a lot of people who are not meeting their potential because they're not able to push through the mental. aspect of it, let alone the difficulty of the physical aspect of it. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like a hard ride is way harder than running as hard as I can. 30 minutes really hard on the bike is harder than 30 minutes really hard running.

I think so. You know what's funny? Like to me, when I think about doing a 20-minute effort to try to get like up Mandeville all out, that is my least favorite thing. It's so hard. It's the hardest than ever. And biking is definitely a less natural movement than running. We were all born to run. We weren't born to ride bikes.

tap out on the run, like, you can only physically go so fast with your biomechanics, but on the bike, you're locked into this, like, fairly easy-to-do motion. So it's really just a matter of how hard your heart can push you. And it took me a bit of time to kind of learn that, like years and years and years. And I think that not running when I was injured, for example, allowed me to, like, get into that zone and push even harder and get even stronger on the bike. But I don't know. It's a hard question.

How I got competent on the bike from a skills perspective as I rode on the velodrome when I was young. Really? Yeah. Like our coach took us to the velodrome on a fixed gear with no brakes. Wow. And we would do like sprints and pacelines and just get really close to riding, close to comfortable riding close to people.

It was maybe not like a feasible thing for most people, but that's how it worked for me. That's so funny because that's what I attribute any of my, my early bike success to is riding a fixie. I was riding a fixie up hills and just like grinding out like 30 RPM, just like pushing back. And then when I finally got a bike, maybe it was genetically in me, but my like 15 second power was as almost as I had been training it.

It's like the same as it is now. I think it maybe comes from the fixed year days. Yeah, I don't know. That's pretty open to any question. But it does take time. It's not like you just hop on and you're good at it. I would say. Yeah.

The swimming and the running, you do not have this unchangeable static mechanical object between as part of your body. It's like you said, it's just your biomechanics, same with swimming. But that's also why a bike fitter is so important because you can't change, you know, once it's in a certain position, you can't change it. That's how you're peddling. Yeah, yeah. True. Okay. Next question here is from Evan.

Hi, I really enjoy the pod and everything you do for the sport. I have a question about race strategy for a hilly course. One of my A races this year is an Olympic distance with about 2,300 feet of climbing. That is a lot for an Olympic distance. And lots of fast descending. The climbs are about 5 to 10 minutes long, but the descents are steep and fast. I reached 50 miles per hour last year, according to my GPS. That is really fast in a race.

So it's very hard to put down consistent power. How would you approach this bike course? Hammer the climbs at Zone 5 knowing you can recover a bit on the descents or play it more conservatively and put the effort in elsewhere. Thanks again, Evan. And the climbs, carry the momentum on the downhills back into the uphills. Yeah. Because it sounds like if you're going 50 miles an hour, you're not pedaling. So that's full recovery.

For sure. That's hill repeats. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Okay. Tell me if you think this is the way I think about it. Tell me if you think this is the wrong way to think about this. I think about what is the greatest factor slowing me down here?

Is it wind resistance? Is it gravity? You know, so uphill, if you're going that, I mean, if it's that much climbing, presumably you're sitting up. wind resistance is almost a non-factor. So that's where your watts are giving you the most bang for your buck. Whereas downhill, you can put out, like, if you're going 50 miles an hour, you can put out 250 watts, you're going to go like 51 miles an hour, barely any, if that. So I would concentrate all my energy I'm getting as small and as arrow as possible while still being safe.

Do you see it like that? So that's like, would you think of it like that? Yep, yep. you're definitely going to want to focus on riding over the top of the climb so you're getting up to that maximum speed as quickly as possible, but then recovering as soon as you were at that point

of diminishing returns. You know, I just remembered that Jonathan Lee was telling me about keeping that average watts on that climb as consistent as possible. Because if you push hard in the beginning and then really trail off at the end and don't push over the top of the climb, you give up so much time

by doing that. It's better to back it off a bit at the beginning and keep it consistent. Yeah. But it's momentum, right? That's the point. Yeah. Yeah, if anything, you want to like accelerate your watts over to the, over the top of the hill versus starting hard and fading. Yeah, yeah. Smart. Okay, next one is from Pat and Fort Collins. Hey, Paula, Eric and Nick, where are all the triathlon singles out there? I'm newish to the triathlon game and planning my first 70.3 in Victoria this spring and finding out that the training can be pretty solitary. It's hard to talk to people while swimming.

not to mention that it's hard to have time for dates in between all the hours of training. Got any advice? What's the etiquette for chatting up people in the pool? Can you make a TTL singles dating app? Thanks, Pat. I don't think we have the bandwidth for the TTL dating app, but we were talking about this actually over dinner, this question specifically. We all kind of have different opinions on this,

but being people that it's their whole life, what do you think about this? I think if I was an age group athlete, my ideal partner would be someone who's like very passionate about running or very passionate about biking like so that they understood the pursuit of spending a lot of hours doing exercise and wanting to become better but didn't necessarily want to do all the swims and all the bikes and all the runs with me because I do think that there is like for me anyway even though this is my job like going in and riding my bike for a few hours is like a release and and a time that is energizing for me. And sometimes I like to do that by myself. And I think, um, like having a

little bit of space for yourself is good. I know like Paula and I make it look so cool that we can do all the things together and, and it just is awesome. But also just something that's occurred to me is that, um, there's not a lot of time in there for like a true hobby. So having a thing or, you know, even if it's just one of those sports that is your own while having a partner that can enjoy in one of them with you. It is probably like a good... She's asking how to meet that person. Yeah, I mean... It seems like a lot of people in the sport already are

paired up or they are too busy or whatever. I think it's easy for this person to think I should find this person who does triathlon and I think Eric is a little bit cautioning against that. Yeah, I guess... But to answer Paula's question and your question at the same time, I think I would... If I wasn't with Paula,

the way that I would go about that is go to a group run, go to a group ride, go to a group swim. and eventually you're going to come across somebody who is also single and likes that activity that you're doing and maybe people go get coffee after swim practice or donuts or like whatever the thing is. And I think that would be a good place to find somebody who's like-minded naturally, like going to a club. Yeah. But running.

And what about talking to people at the pool? What is the etiquette behind that, do you think? I mean, you just got to play that by ear. But that is just talking to people at a pool is incredibly difficult. and I would say more often than not, they're probably going to be, I don't know. I'm always surprised. No, I'm surprised when I talk to people at the pool.

Like my perception is like, if I say something, they're going to be so annoyed at me, but often they're actually so friendly. It's the opposite. Like, not in the context of trying to find a life partner, but just like, can I share a lane with you? Usually it's like, oh, of course, I'll move over.

What side do you want? Or, I don't know, some old guy yesterday thought he looked like he was so mad at me are so grumpy. But then he started asking me about my wetsuit, and we had this great five-minute conversation about wetsuit. So I think people are actually in a good mood at the pool, contrary to what we may think. And they're exercising, they're outside, they're whatever.

So I think it's kind of a cool place. Although, if they're time-crunched, they might not be as open to having, like, an extent. I get to know you conversation. That's where, that's, like, where my brain went. Like, okay, yeah, we're like, I like your wet-stubstubes. or whatever.

Oh, cool. I'll move over to like, so what do you do for fun when you're out of the pool? You know, I don't know. The way this is striking me is, I get that the pool is like the first thing your mind goes to because it's the only one of the three sports

where you're forced to do it around other people. But it's not the right place to do it. Like, these conversations come so naturally in a group ride or a group run. Like it's, you're just talking to the first message. Yeah. Ooh.

I would say, I would say like on the deck. You just got to read it. Like, if the person looks like they're looking at the clock and waiting to go and stuff, versus they're looking around wishing they weren't at the pool, maybe that person's open for a conversation. Stop looking at me when you say that. Yeah, this is, Nick and I are great polar opposites here. If you see Nick at the pool, just, you know, strike it up.

I will talk your ear on anything but to avoid swimming. Yeah. But good luck. And I think there's lots of, I don't know what the dating absolutely. In L.A., there's something called Venice Run Club. And it's a run club in quotations. It's, the people are going to get offended by this. It's a dating club.

Like, when you show up on the first day, they put you in front of everyone and they make you tell everyone if you're single or not. It's like, anyway, I'm sure every city has some version of this where it's like, yes, it's a run club, but really it's a social club. Yeah. And you get to talk and meet people insane for biking. Yeah. Yoga. Stuff like that. So anyway, good luck, Pat.

And, you know, maybe one day we'll make a TTL dating app. Next question here is from Tim. Hello to Flynn's parents and Nick. I'm Uncle Nick. Thanks for making my Thursday morning commute fun. I have a bike group set related question for Eric, but would love Nick and Paul's opinion as well. Being sponsored athletes,

you will of course be riding top tier group sets, SRAM Red, as it is furnished by the manufacturers. If you are not professional athletes and had to purchase your own group set, which would you choose? Would you sell a kidney to ride red? Would you sell an arm for force, a hand for rival,

or a finger for apex. I understand if you're obligated to say red for sponsorship reasons, but would love your insight, best, Tim. So first of all, I have a little context here. Every group set manufacturer has, like, tiers to their stuff, which is the more expensive ones are usually lighter, have a little more high-tech stuff, and sometimes, like, we'll get even more durable, right?

Like the low-end stuff will wear out faster. So for Sram, the top of the top is red, and you guys ride red. Yep. how much of a compromise is it to go like one step below that or two steps below that? Because the top line stuff is also priced pretty high. And it is the best. Yeah. It's not much of a drop off.

So if you were not sponsored, would you still like eke it out and get Sram Red as a professional? Or do you think if you were starting out, you could do one step below? Or would you even go two steps below? I'd go for Red. You would go for Red. Yeah. This has just changed in the last couple of years, actually, just because, I don't know, we're financially in a little bit different position than my first year of triathlon when I was trying to get through the first couple years with $5,000 total in my bank account or whatever. It's, I think it is so cool.

Like, Sramarad is freaking cool. Like having the project black tarmac is so cool. And this is the thing that I love doing more than anything else in my life. And I think that's, I would buy. a cheaper camera, I would do a lot of cheaper things, I would buy cheaper clothes or just not buy clothes, but I think I would still just have the coolest stuff, get Sram Red. All that said, like last year's Sram Red is this year's force. Like, it's so close behind and it's really kind of a weight thing is the biggest deal. It's like Sram Red is a total group set is like 150 or

200 grams lighter than Sram Force, but it's going to feel almost identical if you close your eyes and just like went through shifting it. It feels like 10 years ago, there used to be a bigger difference between the levels. And now even like three steps below is still so good, ergonomic, there's wireless options for it. It's like impressive how quickly that has come around. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's just because when we got into it, we're used to we internalize what shifting feels like. And now everything feels so magical relative to down tube shifters. But yeah. But I mean, I, I've been.

I put full confidence in force, rival, red, the whole thing. But if it was me, I think I would, yeah, really financially strap myself to get red. What about you? Yeah, I like the best of the best. Easy. That was easy. But weren't we talking about this the other day about something different? Yes, I was talking about this today with wetsuits.

We were trying to sailfish wetsuits, which are extremely comfortable. So, so good. They're nice. But they sent me, they sent us the top of the line. and then the one below. And as I was putting them both on and trying them both, the top of the line one I tried a couple days ago. And I was like, this feels like it was custom made for me.

It's so comfortable. And then today I tried the one below, which is cheaper. And I could tell it wasn't quite as nice, but I said to Eric and Nick, if I was buying a wetsuit for myself, I would buy this one. It's barely different. Yeah. It's cheaper.

And it's super nice. So, yeah, for wetsuits, oftentimes the one below is so good. Yeah. And that's similar to the components, I guess. It is. And I'll say other than I happen to buy some bikes with Chimano, and other than the chains that I buy, everything else is the step below the best or two steps below, Otegra or 105. And it works great. I mean, with the top of the line, the red equivalent, be lighter and better. Yes. But I think if you're not a professional, like, what's the difference going to be the end of a race? You know, it's probably not minutes. It's what Eric said. It's more about just like knowing it yourself and having the thing. And that's part of it, I think.

Wanting to ride it. Why do you think like all these, there are a lot of aid troopers that ride the top of the top of the top stuff? And it's probably not so much for the performance. It's just like that feeling you get. I think it's more important on a bike to have read because it's like everyone at the group ride is seeing it. But it's not like you go swimming and they're like, oh my God, that's the one lower sailfish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

That's right. You present. That's true. That's true. Yeah, bikes, we like to bling out our bikes. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we'll start blinging out a wetsuits. Oh, man. If you could. The gold-coated sailfish. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Well, there you go. So in short, the best is the best, but the rest are also pretty good, too. If you have an opportunity to test a couple of them, I would do that. I think that would be cool. See if you can ride a bike with red and one with force and see if you can tell the difference. Yeah, totally. Next question. Here is from Amy. from Australia, down under. Hi, team.

Hope you're having a great time in Ventura. I'm wondering if you could help me with finding a transition backpack. Do you guys have any recommendations? The more pockets, compartments, the better? Or is it better to get a backpack with one big compartment that you can throw everything into?

I've got a few tabs open, heaps, actually, with options like Patagonia Black Hole, which is, I have one of those actually. Saw one on the vlog. The Blue 70 Transition Backpack, Iron Man Backpack, two-time U-Transition backpack. but I'd love to know what you look for in a transition bag,

what you have enjoyed using your respective triathlon journeys. Thanks so much, Amy from Australia. So this is a great question for you guys because you've been swimming your whole lives. Wait, you missed a funny paragraph, which you crossed out. It's a little bit irrelevant. But it says I currently use my Speedo backpack that I take to swimming, but I find it to be pocket overloaded so it's a bit stressful. And I look like a grade one child who has been using their backpack that their mom said they need to use till high school,

which is so funny. Because whenever I see the throwback Speedo wet suit or Speedo backpack's like, yeah, I had one. They got like that pocket in the front that you put your wet stuff in. Like two kind of big messy pockets on the side. They're like sag down real low. They're so ugly. You know what?

Actually, this week I think it would be a fun poll to see if people prefer a swim bag with a lot of compartment pockets or a swim bag that's a big hole. Because we've actually toyed with the idea of making a TTF swim bag. So kind of interesting to get everyone's pulse on this. This is really hard. We've been personally

on the search for the best swim bag. And transition bag. And we like to use our swim bag as our transition bag and vice versa. Because when we go on a trip, it's like the backpack you're using on the airplane, et cetera, you're going to probably want to use as your transition bag. So you're not

like bringing two backpacks to a race. So it can't be ugly. It can't be too big. I can't have like a billion pockets. But Eric, you can go ahead. My use case is a little different because I have to bring my camera bag. So I look for a transition bag that can fold up as small as possible and fit inside of my luggage. I'm not utilizing it on the trip.

But I'm partial to duffel bags. And my dream bag is a duffel bag that can also be turned into a backpack for like actual race day. But for like swimming day to day, I love a bag. a duffel that just one big compartment that zips open and I can just see everything in there. I'm not digging through pockets or whatever. Like maybe one little side sleeve or like the Dabor bag was honestly great in a lot of ways except for that we had to cut, what did we have to do? We had to cut the backpack straps off or something because you couldn't detach them.

And you'd have detachable backpack straps, detachable duffel big strap and then one big main compartment, maybe one compartment that's a little bit separate where you can put a wet suit, not a wet suit, but like a suit that is wet. Oh, this sounds like the black hole bag from Patagonia that you're describing. It has all of those things. I think it's only one compartment. It is one, but it has a small outside thing for a Speedo. You can definitely put a Speedo.

Yeah. The black hole bag is good. I just bought the Arcteric carrier duffel, 40. That's the size. Was it $750? Yeah, it was so expensive. But I love the look of it. It's super clean and I got it because I want to use it as a transition bag.

but my only gripe with it is that it's only one compartment and then one small zipper for it where you could put your keys or your phone or something. So when I'm bringing like spare clothes to the pool or something, I often want like one other compartment. But I will say I left it outside on one of these torrential rain days and the whole inside was dry.

Wow. It's like completely, it's like made out of Gortex, which is probably why it's $1 million. Yes. But it's a good one if you want to spend a lot of money. Another one that's really good is the Zoot Backpack. The Zoot transition bag. I think that that is well thought out for a triathlete specifically.

I'm not going to say it's like the coolest thing ever for like using it on an airplane and stuff because it screams I do triathlon. But some people like screaming that they do. Oh, I think if people are flying to a race, I think they have no qualms against people knowing they do triathlon. Yeah, I like flying to a race and having like zero triathlon things on me. Some people. anecdotally from triathletes that we've talked to, there are some that don't want to advertise it heavily. Yeah. Just a little TTL logo.

Yeah. Settled. Yeah, maybe. But the Zootbag has even a helmet compartment, I think. That's interesting. So perfect for a transition. Yeah. Ideally, you could strap a helmet to the outside of it.

It's like got some sort of retention straps on the outside when it's in backpack mode so that your wetsuit could be on the outside of it or shoes. What do you use, Nick? I have a very old Roka bag that I got from the first year I was racing And it's I don't like it but that's because I It's super cheap I'm sure Roka makes a nicer one But that's because I have this romantic hope in my head that we're gonna make a TTR one and then I'm gonna use that one at the pool Yeah, yeah I do think we could through a lot of iterations come up with a

Insanely good travel transition swim bag But yeah we need somebody who is going to be on board with us developing that. I'm so down to like get into the weeds with that. The idea of making like the perfect TTL transition swim bag is I love that. I would love. I'd have said this to you many times. I'm just saying it for the podcast listeners.

So how much do you think people are willing to spend on a transition bag? For example. Maybe we could do this as a pole. If it's legitimately awesome. I would, I'm saying I'm a fan. Like I love TTL from the outside too. I would spend $120 for a backpack. And you can spend obviously way more for, like, Eric, your backpacks cost way more.

The Arcteric ones cost way more. I think 120 is too low. It's going to be cheap. Yeah. I think like 200 bucks, if you're the guarantee you will not be disappointed. You know? Like, my freaking camera bag is like $400. And I just watched an insane amount of videos of people saying like, this is the last bag you need, you know?

Okay, so the Zoot backpack, just for reference, is 135. So maybe you're not too far off, Nick. Yeah, but I feel like the stuff we'd make, I think, would be like I'd want it to be extraordinarily good. And I'm just thinking, like, the Dakota Paxi one I have is great. The in-case backpack I have that smaller is great. And those are for sure both over $200. And I mean, the ones we would make would be so functionally perfect. Yeah, I think $130 makes me think, oh, well, not a little.

last like a year and a half maybe right yeah so the arcterics one is 250 okay and i'm gonna have it until the day i die yeah archerics makes all they come out with another color yeah yeah it's right um okay next question here from nat hi everyone thank you so much for all that you do listening to you and daydreaming of bend and california has powered me through some miserable run sessions in the england weather oh boy so thank you two children a house a husband and have only recently gotten to athlons two years ago. I have lots of lovely friendships who have known for a long time and value very much. However, none of them are remotely into sport or exercise. And so our time together revolves around eating, drinking, too much, going out and generally having a good time.

Wonderful in the moment, but not at all conducive to getting up the next day in training. I'm finding myself starting to think about not going out so that I can be better for whatever exercise I have planned. Who even am I? Don't want my friendships to suffer, but it's hard to align the two worlds. I try to only have one or two drinks, go home early, not eat too much, but I'm such a lightweight that it affects me anyway. I've joined a tri-club in an effort to make some friends who are into the same things as me. My husband tells me just to get on and do the training anyway. He's hugely into road cycling, so at least I have him as a buddy. Anyways, apologies for the long ramble, all the very best, Nat. What matters to you?

Like, we're talking about this before dinner as well. What, is there a solution here? Is there a right and wrong answer here? No, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. Everyone's on a continuum of how serious do you want to be about this sport, how close to your ultimate potential do you want to come, and how much of your life do you want to give up to pursue that? Some people get a divorce and just go fully down the rabbit hole and can't control themselves because they want to win their age group

at Kona Iron Man World Championships. And some people are super happy to win the after party and do sprint triathons and just enjoy it. I think that... Where are you at, you know? I think the key to this is like phasing out your year where two months before a big race, maybe you're doing less of the socializing,

and then after the big race, you put a bigger focus on family and friends and do less training, right? If you're not professional, you can definitely phase your year out like that. Even if you are professional, we take our off season and we're a little more lenient with stuff like that,

and then before a race, we're less. The thing I'll say, as an age trooper who's like does us for fun who is also an extreme extrovert and loves hanging out with people i'll say the two things that that we were talking about before this too is first of all don't fall into the trap of longer triathlons make you more legit that's a total that's totally bogus and they cost more so it's very convenient for these companies to make you think that they're more legit but if you just train and race sprints and olympics really well and get better and better and better at those, that is just as cool.

And especially if you like it more, that's the best. It doesn't matter. The rest doesn't matter. But the other thing I was thinking of was that, for me at least, and I'm sure you guys felt this too, those days are like going out really late. I've noticed that my friends, I'm 34 now, that just happens less and less, not just to athletes. I think people are just less and less interested in staying out as late.

So I almost wonder if you could just ride it out a bit until, I don't know how old you are, but until you can get to that point. who do you guys know that stays out past 11 p.m. on weekends anymore? Nobody, but nobody in Ben does that. Everybody is going to bed at 8 p.m. so that they can get up and be the first person to go to the trailhead in the morning and do that epic all-day thing. It's just like a completely different culture.

So it's zero percent challenging for us. I think she said she's 42 from the UK. Oh, really? Yeah. So I don't know. That reinforces what I just said. Cultural difference. Yeah, it might just be kind of like a UK thing.

I think it's like a rainy weather thing. That's, that's, you go out and try. I've got a couple of friends in Chicago that they've told me that's definitely Trixie tells me that's what Wisconsin culture is like. Yeah. It's like, you, bars. I think that as your friends get to know what you're doing more, this is, this was me growing up all the time.

I was like, I was going to swim meets and I was training and I was doing exercise and going to bed early, but my friends understood that. So I just left early from the activities that we were doing. So I saw them often. I was participating in dinner, but then I would just go home two hours earlier than everyone, and they totally understood. Not that I can totally relate my 16-year-old self to this, but... Yeah, I also can't relate because I don't have to be at work at 9 o'clock in the morning every morning.

And that makes it easy for me to stay out a little later, and then I'll just train a little later in the day. It is hard. I get it, and I'm always so impressed with people who have a family and a job and who still train and race triathlon. And want to socialize. Yeah, right. It's like, it's like kids are not. Kids are socializing. It's like that triangle in college, it's like social life, grades, or sleep.

Pick two. You know, you can't have all three. Yeah. Triathlon, it's like you're training, your social life or sleep. You can't have all three. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, I agree.

And I think if you explain to your friends, doesn't need to be like as you're about to leave the party, but just in general, if they get the sense that you're really excited about this thing. And it's like good for your life and your happiness. and your everything, I don't think they're going to give you shit for leaving the party an hour early or whatever, because you want to go for a bike ride. I mean, you might even inspire them. I think that could happen.

That sounds corny, but I feel like all three of us may have had, and that points in our own, that effect on people around us. Nah. Nah. I just think that's going to, the people like that, they, like, got to go exercise, they're just annoying. You don't have to be preaching about it. That's what I was getting at.

Yeah, yeah. That's the problem. I feel like you're in just say, hey, you know what, I've got to leave early. It's not because I'm trying to be weird. Blame it on your kids. I'm excited about this thing. It's making you feel good. Yeah.

That's true. That's true. I feel like that works better than being preachy about it anyway. Yeah. Next question here is from Scott. My question is, we know arrow calf sleeves work for improving speed. Oh, do we though? But do they?

Yeah. It really depends. Do you even watch Ben Canute's vlog? Do you watch some blogs? So far, have we ever? scene of vlog where someone has been in the wind tunnel and the cap sleeves have been faster? I haven't, but I don't watch

as many trough on YouTube. But I mean, presumably, we know people that are at a very high level who have been in the wind tunnel, so I imagine they tested them, and for them it's faster. But that's what we're finding. It's what everybody's finding is that we all just assumed that everybody else tested them. You're right. And now we're all

in the offseason actually testing them. We're like, wait a second. Oh, the bottle down the kid's actually slower. Oops. I tested calf sleeves. They were not faster. Maybe they were like half a watt faster. Barely measurable. No.

After Paula's not any faster, I focused on other things to test. Yeah, right. So anyway, back to the question here, but do they have to be arrow, or can they just be compression sleeves? Also, what about gap between the sleeves and the bottom of one's shorts?

Should that be covered? Are we losing arrow from that? Also on the same note, arm sleeves, do they improve arrow enough to be worth it? I don't want to look like a point dexter, but a little more arrow is always a good thing. Scott. I think biggest thing is to shave your arms and legs. Oh, my God.

Hair is definitely slower. Hair is the biggest thing you can do to your own legs. There's not even a question about it. It's almost faster than training. That's how good it is. It's so good. Flynn just looked up. Is like, are you saying hair is slow?

Because he is a Chubaka. You're telling me. Arm sleeves, not as a triathlete, no. Like, if you're on the world tour doing a TT, then the long sleeve skin suit is probably faster, but not worth it in triathlon. And also just, like, hot, it'd be hot. And whatever a little two seconds that it's going to make per 40 kilometers,

it's going to completely be overshadowed outweighed by how long it takes you to put on those arm sleeves and leg calf sleeves while you're wet. Not to mention if there's even a couple of rings, wrinkles in them, you have now created the opposite effect where it slows you down. I don't know about that. Yeah, wrinkles are horrible. Rinkles are super slow. Yeah, but I don't know if like two wrinkles would offset the gains.

I mean, these gains are so minuscule. I don't know. I think for an age grouper, worrying about the arm sleeves is probably silly. Yeah. Shaving your legs is for sure, like Eric said, for sure the way to go. and the compression sleeves are not designed to be arrow at all. No. So I don't think those would have any positive effect.

Yeah, the calf sleeves are actually not compressive in any way. And actually they can kind of slide a little bit, right? Yeah, they have a, I think, I mean, the ones I've tried have like ribbing on them. I don't know how much that helps, but they're really specifically designed to be aerodynamic and not compressive. Yeah. But maybe compression socks. I was watching, I watched too many trouts. on YouTube's, but someone was trying out, like, compression socks and realized they were

faster. Did you watch that one? Oh, like wind tunnel faster or like blood flow biology faster? I don't know. I forget. No, I didn't see that one, though. Maybe it was Big Mets. Justin Metsler? Yeah. I knew it was Big Mets. I just didn't want to see it. He was doing like real-world air testing and he tried out compression socks. He also had to do a second day because the first day was completely non-conclusive and incorrect. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, yeah, don't wear the compression. If you want to wear calf sleeves,

it's probably not going to hurt you. But forego the arms sleeves. I think it goes back a little. Kind of, once I say this, forget that I said this, Scott. But it goes back to what Eric was saying about having the top of the top, Sram Red. Is it going to make you more excited? Is it going to make you feel faster?

Is it going to allow you to push harder? Then go for it. But I think the small arrow goes. gains that you get from it are probably... Another last thing I'll say on this is that it seems like a lot of companies are just like making a fabric to go on calves and calling them calf sleeves without doing any testing on them. I think it's really important to get a reputable brand.

I know Costelli's done a lot of testing on them. They're coming out with new ones. Swiss side ones are really good. But just buying a pair of fabric calf sleeves. Arrow calf sleeves, in quotes. Yeah, from someone, you know. From Alibaba? Yeah.

Not the same thing. Not the same thing. Okay. Last question here, and this is a bit of a thinker. It's from Anne. Who would be a better coach Paula or Eric? And could Eric coach Paula or vice versa? Who would be more coachable by the other partner?

So let's start from the beginning there. Who would be a better coach to me? If one of you had to coach me, who do you think would be a better fit for me? I think Paula. Paula? why do you say that? I have no interest whatsoever in coaching. Paula has actually done some coaching.

She spends a lot more time thinking about what we did yesterday, what we did last week, what we're doing this week versus last Wednesday. And I really just like opening up my workout at the last possible second and seeing what it is in executing it and then not thinking about it anymore. Yeah, I'm much more analytical, which for better or for worse, I don't know. But I don't, I think that like anything in life, you'll be as good as it as you are passionate about it. And Eric would so not enjoy it to the point where I don't think he'd be good at it.

I think if he had to do it, he would be good at it just because he's really smart, obviously, and he knows the sport so well. But it's not something he'd want to do. I feel like Eric would be like a good triathlon life coach. You know, it's like, listen. Yeah, like a vibe coach. Yeah. Or like a guide for.

for bike, a bike ride or, you know, trail run, stuff like that. Yeah, I would love to. Like a mentor in the sport is what he would be better at than a coach, I think. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's what I like about the development team is I like when, you know, the athletes ask us, oh, well, so-and-so offered me this, so, you know, to like wear their bike kit. But then I think I like this other thing over here and, like, what do you think? And I like, well, I think this would be good for your brand.

And I think this is my experience and what I did my first year. I really enjoy giving that knowledge versus here's what I think is the thing you need to do for your FTP on Thursday. Right. And then the second part of this question is who would better coach Eric coaching Paula or Paula coaching Eric? I think there's no way. Divorce. Neither way. Oh, I don't agree.

I think both would be bad, but I think Eric coaching Paula would be a dynamite. waiting to explode. I think. I think Eric would at least be like, okay, this is my coach. She's telling me what to do. I'm going to follow orders. I don't know why.

I feel like Paula is like, that's true. I think we can. She fights against authority, you know? Yeah, I think we can confidently say I'm infinitely more coachable. Sorry, Paula. More coachable.

That's not true. I do exactly what Paulo tells me every week. No. Yes, I do. When have you ever gone below the levels that Apollo asks you? like slower than he tells me. I always overachieved.

So wait a second. Let's rewind here where you always do exactly what he says. In terms of like the workout, this is it. I never skip a workout. I never do less. I don't do more. You. In terms of time distance.

Okay. Okay. Is that true? Oh, false. Okay. Tell me a time where I didn't do the amount. You like to change the swim set frequently. You like to go faster than the paces always.

Every time, always. You have conversations back and forth with Paulo about how you feel about what we're doing, what you want to do. And, like, yes. No, I don't. You're always kind of tweaking and tinkering just a little bit. No, I'm not. Yes. See this?

This is why Paula cannot be coached by Eric. You just got a firsthand. I think Paulo knows that I push the envelope a bit, so he prescribes lower. That's interesting. He's not dumb. He's telling me to go 250 watts. He knows I'm going to go 260 to 270. You're digging this whole deeper.

You're proving the point here. Anyway, that's hilarious. What's your ranking in the world right now? Both of you. Exactly. I've said this to Nick on multiple occasions. I don't understand what she's doing. She seems like kind of a lunatic to me,

but I'm also nowhere near as highly ranked in the world. So maybe this. is why. I'm a lunatic? You can't. Yeah, you're a bit of a loon. We do the same thing every day. Explain.

Cut. It cut. You know, the only thing I can say is when I watch, Paula was watching like the Lindsay Vaughn documentary or something and I was watching Lindsay Vaughn do things and I was like, this girl is like borderline freaking nuts. Like how obsessive she is about skiing and I see that in Paula. To where I go, I don't know if I am obsessive. intense enough on that level.

I'm a little bit too artistic and touchy-feely for how obsessive the greatest athletes on planet Earth get about their craft. To say coachable versus not coachable, it's like all the best athletes that I've ever observed. Their coaches are constantly trying to slow them down and put the reins on so they don't blow themselves up. There's obviously not a problem with pushing hard

and being obsessive about the details and all the things. It's more like, how do I downregulate this person just to the point of where this is sustainable? that's true paula is really good at that our coach paula yeah um and these glasses the lenses they just flip up yeah it's so insane full grandpa mode yeah so like they're on and then i just take the lens flip them up no lens it's the craziest thing ever they're so cool so thank you smith for sending us seven million pairs of glasses all right so we're all out of questions fires raging i think we're going to wind down here tonight. Nick still got to edit the podcast and put it out by mid.

It's Wednesday, by the way. By midnight or he turns into a pumpkin. I do love pumpkins, but I do not want to become one. So yes, I will be editing the pot. And I think tomorrow we're waking up, probably going for dog walk on the beach, kill some time. And then we'll go to the pool and swim. And then we'll go for a beautiful, fun bike ride and do OJai. Oh, I can't wait. The sad thing about the rainstorms is that the really awesome riding, you have to ride out the PCH for a little bit. And that has been now closed because of some destruction or landslides or something. So we're really hoping that that opens up soon.

And when I said that the storms weren't that bad, I didn't mean to diminish anyone. Diminish anyone. Yes, I realized that it actually might have been bad for some people. It just didn't hit you here in Ventura that hard. And actually, I will say when I was watching the storm, it really hit like L.A. And Ventura, I kept seeing it's like,

oh, it's not even raining in Ventura when it was pouring rain. Totally great. Yeah, but even today when we were like leaving the neighborhood, one of the streets that the GPS was taking us down was super flooded. 100 meter long puddle. We went over it with the van because it's like lifted. Yeah, it's fun. This is a bit fun.

But the Fiat would not do that. The Fiat, oh my gosh, no. He didn't have to know you could buy a Fiat 500. Okay, we're not selling Fiat's on in five places. If we wanted to, we could sell a lot, though. Great deal. We know this guy in Ventura, he has a Fiat Electric 500. You can buy them for $6,000.

That's so cheap. That's like cheaper than Shriam Red, isn't it? Also, I'm selling my Tesla. So if anyone wants to buy a Tesla, slide into my DMs, it will not be $6,000, sadly. That's a good, yeah, you might actually get a taker. Yeah, it's a silver Model 3 performance, and it's fast. Rips. It's really rare.

Nick will deliver it to you in person. I'll drive it and give you a kiss right on the mouth. All right. Okay, bye, guys. Bye. Bye.