That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon Coaches, Sinky legs, Stairs in races, socks vs no socks, and more!

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

Happy new year! We're all together in Bend, OR this week to record the podcast and work on some new fun projects. This week we get Eric to try and spell Italian coffee vocabulary, and then get right into your questions. Questions about indoor trainers, rollers, training for multi-day cycling events, remote coaching,  and more! To submit your own questions to the podcast, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Laudersham. I'm Nick Goldston. Eric and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is an amateur triathlet, although none of us really feel like triathletes right now because we're barely training. And when we do, it's a bit pathetic. But Nick's actually in Bend right now. So we're all three in our office slash recording studio. Yeah, we're really lucky to have Nick here for the week to help us with a ton of stuff and mostly just hang out. And we can't even talk about any of the stuff I'm here to help you with. It's all top secret. Yeah, it's all like new sponsor stuff that we're announcing. And we're just kind of getting product, getting videos lined up now to be able to get content this next week. And as you all know, I'm not very good with the camera. So it's really hard for me to get stuff of Eric.

And that's where you come in. Well, no, I wouldn't say you're not good. And actually, I think you've got it a lot better. I would agree. You're not not good. Video settings are tricky, but you're very good with composition. Yeah. Well, thank you, boys.

And maybe it's just that Eric and I have a very specific taste and we happen to align on it. Yeah, and you guys just get off on like your brainstorming sessions about cool things. And that's where stuff like Control Burn comes from. So having you here in person is obviously a lot better than talking about these ideas on the phone and then we're actually getting to execute them. Yeah, that would be sweet to do that someday. Yeah. So yesterday I flew into Portland because we were thinking that we would have one of the products to shoot. footage for in Portland.

We did not. So Eric drove all the way up to Portland from Bend over three hours just to pick me up and drive back and then we drove back like through the mountains in a snowstorm. Yeah. Full on blizzard. Yeah. I mean the only reason that I didn't go, but I feel a lot better

about that because we actually got studded tires on our FJ cruiser. We weren't planning on getting studs, but we found like a used set of HakaPolitas that are almost brand new and they had studs and they were on rims so we can install them ourselves. Toyota rims. It was meant to be. And they were like a fraction of the price we would have paid at a like a lush swab or something. So I'm not lying to you,

driving those things on the ice and snow, you are locked into the road. And then when it's not snowing or icy, we got the old four runner to, you know, cruise around town because they're not great for the pavement. But I have zero regrets. Like we can go skiing. We can go anywhere without any worry of slipping. And for someone with a low threshold for that stuff, like me, studs were a good choice. Yeah, yeah, totally agree. We were flying over Mount Hood last night. If you had come along, it would have been a little bit slower.

Yeah, I think that the danger of studs, though, is that you do get that confidence, and then you're just driving like it's dry road. And the problem is not everyone has studs, so, you know, other people could slip and run into you. Yeah, but you can slam on the brakes and stop in a millisecond if they were to come to your way. Okay, Eric, I just want to say, I think you should go slow.

I'm just joking. We were still going below where I felt nervous. Okay, cool. Got it, got it. Yeah, but Nick, we're so happier here. Oh, me too. We'll just do fun stuff and bend in the snow instead. Yeah, I don't know if you saw it.

It's supposed to rain for like pretty much the whole time I'm here. Rain. Like starting on Saturday. Yeah. Welcome to Oregon. Don't move here. Starting on Thursday. Starting tomorrow.

The thing about Oregon rain, though, it's not like, you know, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. raining. It's like bursts of rain and then it'll be nice. And sometimes the rain actually helps melt the snows. The trails kind of get clear, at least sections of them where we could do some filming. Well, the snow, I went for a little run right by myself today here. And the snow is, it's still so beautiful. And you can run in it. Maybe you can't do like a workout. Yeah. So the, the tricky thing is, as you were the first person to run, and now your footprints will turn to ice

overnight. And the next person who goes there is going to step on your footprint and break an ankle and flip, you know. It's like, if you're the first person, you're golden. Same thing with the roads. If the first person to drive along, it's great. And the next person slides to their death. Yeah, I see. So Eric, wanted to talk a little bit about the fact that we haven't put out of vlog in two weeks, and it's been a nice break, needed break. And it was like Christmas one Sunday, New Year's Eve the next, or New Year's Day the next Sunday. So we felt like no one's really going to be on their computers or their phones anyway. But are you doing one this Sunday?

I was just physically impossible. Okay. Well, are you doing one this Sunday? I'm trying. But I mean, our main excuse for why this is going on is because with the new sponsorships, we're spooling up and everything. We're working as if we have real jobs. I've got like six meetings tomorrow that we need to be on about how's the video going to be, how's the web page going to be, how's the thing?

And it's sucked up like 100% of my creative energy and time to where I haven't been able to edit anything. I haven't felt like I could go shoot anything. But I promise it will be worth it. It's going to be sweet when we start putting out videos again, ideally this Sunday, if we don't have more meetings come up. That'll be fun. And then we'll just kind of start rolling out these sponsorship announcement videos, which Nick and I are hoping to just make cinematic, beautiful things that happen to be sponsorship announcement videos.

Right. Speaking of videos that are beautiful and cinematic, this one is not. But today I made a little video of the new Zocco, the new Lomar Zocco machine that is here and is epic, by the way. It looks incredible. I haven't had a coffee from it yet, but Paula Vouches for it. She does this the best coffee in Bend. Yeah, we're going to go pick up some decaf beans so you can enjoy the experience as well here at home. I'll have a caffeinated coffee. I'll ruin my day for a coffee.

We got to deal with you the rest of the day. You and Flynn, bringing us toys constantly. Throw this. But yeah, so we made a little video and it's pretty funny. It's fun. It's the process of Eric making a cappuccino. Wait, was it a cappuccino? It was a cappuccino for Paula. And Nick's like, I'm just going to shoot this on my phone. And I'm like, yeah, let's keep it real basic as if we just texted it to, the podcast supporters. And like four hours of editing later, we have a beautifully shot and edited vertical video of an espresso.

Custom music made just for the video. We'll try to put that out on Monday for podcast supporters. Yeah, yeah, cool. And then something I was reminded of, we had someone right in about, last week we had a question about not running with AirPods in,

so you can be more aware of your surroundings. And someone wrote in and said that they recommended these bone-conducting headphones, a bunch of different manufacturers make them. They sit on top, like behind your ear. There's nothing covers up your ear, your actual ear. Oh, yeah. And so you can still listen to music.

The music, it's not as high quality, but you're still, you can still hear ambient sounds. Yeah. It's not the same as not having them. It's still better to not have them on. Yeah. You're still going to be more aware of your surroundings. But if people have used a lot of swimming headphones,

I don't, not a lot of people use these, but those use the same thing. Let's go off your cheekbones typically. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like this, it's this bone back here. They did make ones a long time ago. There were cheekbones. They actually had a little dongle that hung down and touched your cheekbone.

Those are good for riding, too. It's all connected. Because when you're riding, obviously, you have to be alert as well. And I don't think music quality is that big of a deal. You got wind whipping. Like, when I wear an AirPods, emphasis, AirPod, when I ride, I have it down pretty low. And I'm listening to music that I know.

Right. So it's like having a movie that you know in the background, you're getting the vibe without like hearing every single lyric and every guitar chord, but you're feeling the energy. That's a great point. Yeah. I like that. Did we ever find a way of making sure, like if someone's not getting the emails, because we've had a couple of people email in and be like, I'm a subscriber. Make an idea about an hour and a half of troubleshooting today. Yeah. Trying to figure all this out. So basically what we discovered is that if you go and you

check out from a lot of websites on the internet, it'll say like continue as guest or log in or, you know, create a login. Due to some sort of like update that's happened with Shopify, ours has not been. saying that. So you've been able to complete your purchase without technically becoming like having an account with TTR. But all you have to do is you have to go to that triathlonlife.com. And the upper right hand corner, you'll see you log in. And if you put in the email that you bought whatever item you bought at some point in time. Or the podcast support. Yeah. Exactly. So you put that email in and you can create a thing and that would just

basically activate your email and have a thing. You'll then have like an account with us. And inside of there, then you can go and make sure that you are signed up to receive emails. You can change your mailing address. You can change your subscription if you just want to cancel it. Any of that kind of stuff will be there. And we realize that that's a little bit cumbersome. And going forward, we're working with our tech guy, Danny, and we'll have that resolved. Right.

We were just, we also wanted to say that if you don't have a correct shipping address in there and you want to potentially maybe hypothetically get some cool. little free things every once in a while. Make sure that's on there. Otherwise, we can't get it to you. Yep. Okay. Well, that's clear as mud.

If you want anything, just go, you have to go create an account unless you've done that already through signing up. Yeah, some people have done it, but you can just check out as a guest and then you would not have an account. So just make sure, whatever, when you sign up, just use the same email you used doing whatever else you did on the site. Yep. And it'll be, it'll all happen automatically. Take it three minutes.

Yeah. Okay. First thing I want to do, in the honor. of this new beautiful machine. We're going to do a little TTL spelling bee. Oh, no. T.T.L. Spelling Bee. And the theme is going to be coffee.

Nick, I've had too much wine to do a spelling bee right now. That sounds perfect for our listeners. That's exactly what they want. So, to make it even worse, none of these words are in English. They're all going to be Italian words. Oh, no. Okay. So, first of all, I'll start with an easy one.

But I think it's one that many people might get wrong. Espresso. ESP-R-E-S-S-O. Okay, good. You got that one. That was a nice warm-up. I appreciate that. Are you telling me it's not pronounced espresso? It is not. You know who pronounced it espresso to me a week ago?

My own mother. No. She thought in English it was espresso. Oh, because we're all dumb. Well, she might actually agree with that. Dumb for you. But yes, no. For everyone, it's pronounced espresso, just the way it's spelled.

Okay. next one, slightly harder, and I have seen this spelled wrong at coffee shops before. I'll pronounce in Italian, Capucino. The AP, U-C-C-I-N-O. Very close, but no cigar. Two P's. Two P's. Capuchino.

Yeah. Two P's, two C's, right? Yep, exactly. All right, this one I have seen spelled many times incorrectly at coffee shops. Maci-A-T-O. M-A-T-O. Oh, 2-C-1-T-T-T-O. Two C's one T.

H-I-A-T. Machiato. Not machete. Oh. So that's in Italian, the double consonant, it means you just like, you pop off those a little bit stronger. I think it's you emphasize the next vowel. That's kind of how it feels. Next word, dopio.

E-O-P-I-O. There it is. Here he is. What is the dopio in coffee terms? It means double. Oh, sorry. Was that supposed to be a quiz for Eric? No, I would have the same thing.

Dupe in Italian means double. Okay. And macchiato means, maybe this is kind of cool trivia. Machato means like... Uched, kissed. It means stained, like a little bit of a stain. Right. A little bit of a stain.

And cappuccino is a little hat. Capucin monks. That's where I came from. And then how about a restretto. R-A-S-T-O. There it is. Very good. These are the hard ones and you got that.

Okay. E-S-Lito means are restricted. Yep. And then afugato. Ice cream and coffee. Yes, that's correct. Correct. Paula knows what it is. Afogato.

A-F-F-F-A-G-A-T-O. Afogato. Afogato. Afogato. A-F-F-O-G-O-T-O. Yes, that's right. Which, as Paul said, is a, I think it's just espresso over vanilla ice cream. I think that's right. Ding-ding, ding, ding. And then here's a little bonus one.

How do you spell café in Italian? C-A-F-F-E-E-E-E-E-S-O-G-E. Yes, that's right. So, but what's funny is in Italian, And you don't get coffee at a cafe, you get coffee at the bar. Which is just a kind of just difference in the way people see it. So good job, Eric. That was fun.

That was interesting. Merci. Those are a lot of hard words there. That's French. And Grazie. And Grazias is Spanish. We're big on the Latin. Very nice.

Very nice. Okay, well, let's move on to questions. But first of all, I wanted to thank our podcast supporters so much. It'll always be free for everybody, but you can support the podcast by signing up to be a supporter at that triathlon life.com slash podcast. It's also the place where you can submit your questions. So we're going to move right on to questions now. Our first one is from Mariah.

Carrie? Mariah Carey wrote in. Yeah, she had a busy Christmas singing her song a lot, and now she's back to triathlon training. The podcast has been my go-to when maintaining sanity on my treadmill for easy runs. I currently run cross-country and track and field in college and have been looking at incorporating more biking and brick-style workouts into my training. I also have been very intrigued to train for triathlon, but unfortunately, I cannot swim like sync.

So you have any helpful tips on how I can add different pieces of triathlon training into what I'm currently doing, which is mostly just running with one to two bike sessions per week. So we're trying to teach her how to swim via the podcast? I think the thing that I thought of right away is when I think of, Swimming has a lot of different things that are happening all at once, but we have tools or toys that help us focus on just one thing at a time. So I would maybe start with like isolating just the arm movement and swimming with a pull-boo and not trying to worry about the kick, for example.

But I don't know if you had something else that you could think of to help someone who says they sink. No, I mean, that's if you're kind of hell-bent on doing this by yourself, I think that's a good first thing to potentially go for. But it is so, so hard to learn how to swim without somebody watching you and giving you some cues. Because you can literally think you look like Michael Phelps. Yeah. And you're like a flailing octopus in reality.

Like Paul and I will see ourselves swimming and just like, oh my God. That's not what you imagine. That's not me. That's somebody else. So it's very, very hard. And if at all possible, if you could get to like a master's swim group or something and just get in the slowest lane and maybe ask the coach if he has any pointers, that might, you know, you pay a lot of dividends.

It's really tough to just figure it out on your own. What I'll tell Mariah is in my experience, coming from someone who didn't swim and then kind of taught myself how to swim marginally okay, the big things that I think helped me a lot. I remember these like key moments were swimming downhill. Have you guys ever heard of that? Where you like pretend like, to visualization. The visualization.

Like you actually like, you kind of like, did. your torso deeper into the water and all of a sudden you feel like your hips and your legs are much higher in the water. Yeah, pressing from the chest, like sternum pressing towards the bottom of the pool, that's another cue. And it's not the way you're going to actually be swimming, but it kind of helps you get this idea of what it feels like to be a little more balanced in the water. And then a lot of people that feel like they sink, their head is like out of the water and they look straight ahead instead of looking like mostly down. These are like two small things. But I mean, do you guys ever watch, do you ever watch any of those

like YouTube videos on like professional swim coaches critiquing other people's swim form? Does that ever? No, you don't do that. Yeah. No, this is, I mean, this is just a thing you could say we're blessed with or we were fortunate enough to grow up swimming. We learned all this stuff when we were like six and seven years old and from a coach who was standing on deck and we did drills and bobs and all this stuff and floating and everything. We learned this so long ago, but we went through that process of years of having someone

look at us and give us cues. Well, okay, so both of you, you say that you look at your own form when you're swimming and you're like, oh my God, it's not what I had in my head. However, to me, you guys look amazing. So you have a very, very, very refined eye for swim form. So is there something that when you see amateurs do,

you see come up a lot? They're like, a lot of amateurs crossover or whatever or don't rotate enough. Is there a thing that you see since you have such a keen eye for it? Yeah. Typically, instead of thinking that you're like on a skewer or something and you're just standing normally and you're just kind of like rotating gently from side to side as your arms are stroking, a lot of people would do this snaking through the water thing. You're like swimming in one plane and moving your arms, just getting them back around to the front. But that creates this snaking motion literally, if you can visualize yourself, rather than you're like on the skewer and you're rotating and your arms are coming up really high and going back.

back down into the water. It's like you're trying to fly, like bring them around like a bird or something. And that's just, just swimming further. It's not like the most efficient way to grab the water or rotate. It reminds me of something that you said that when you're swimming really well, you feel like your core is like the first thing to get that tired. Oh yeah. And I bet that's not something most age groupers experience. Because like you're swimming really fast. You'd think like your shoulders, your arms, your legs. It's like no, to keep that body like this torpedo through the water. And with it, with, all the torque you're using with your arms, it's a lot of core work. Yeah, yeah. I mean, a number one thing that swimmers are going to do in dry land is planks and variations on planks

where you've got one arm up and one leg up and stuff like this because ultimately you're planking in the water 100% of the time and trying to keep like a boat this like strong bow as you're stroking. So it's, I don't know, it's so hard to try to teach somebody how to swim. And I certainly don't consider myself a swim coach. and I have massive respect for people who can teach people how to swim because, like, where do you even start? Well, you've helped me. Both of you have helped me. But you've started somewhere.

Sometimes it helps to have someone film you. Yeah. And then you can see because if someone tells you to do something, you're like, wow, it's worse than you think when you see yourself swimming, you know? Your proprioception can be really off. Yeah, my elbows are up. I feel like my elbows are like in the sky. Pointing to Saturn. Yeah.

It's like, no. No, they're actually dragging on the bottom of the pool. And then she has kind of a little follow-up too that this is for both of you, maybe more for Erica, but Paula has so much experience on a trainer. She says, I currently only have a treadmill in my home gym,

but would like to invest in a smart trainer setup so I can have both on hand. So she was wondering if you had any suggestions on which type of smart trainer is better and what the best at home setup would be for a beginner. Yeah, the Wahoo kicker. Simple, right? I mean, the Wahoo snap's pretty good too.

It's the lower price point one, which is totally sufficient if that's your first smart trainer and you're not pushing like 2,000 watts and all of that. But we've never had any issues with our kicker. Do they have an in-between option that's like the kicker core that's still a direct drive? So like the gold. I think it's the kicker. Oh, the kicker snap's not the direct drive.

I think the snap actually attaches your tire. So the gold standard and the most, the best thing if you have the ability to do is a direct drive trainer where your tire is not rubbing against a drum. actually you take your rear wheel off and there's a cassette on the trainer. That is just going to give you a much better experience. You're going to wear out tires. That'll integrate with Zwift, which, again, if you can get yourself into the Zwift monthly thing, it really is a game changer in terms of like passing the time on the trainer and making it less painful. And you can use the treadmill with Zwift as well. So if you just have one account, you can use it for running in,

right? She does. So that would be perfect. Yeah. And, I could see someone being like, well, rollers are more like real biking. Do you think that someone's first trainer should be rollers potentially, or would you think that's further along the line? No. I would say that's later. Too hard to use. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Well, you're ultimately at first just trying to get like to lower the barrier of entry and rollers, there's a lot of complications with rollers. Like I have the Wahu smart rollers, which actually work with Swift and can do the feedback and you can change power. But like a traditional roller, they're just kind of like max out at a certain power. and it's just you shift and your wheels spin faster and it's it's more of a balance drill

than it is necessarily a thing you're going to do for two hours to get in a like a long training session. Yeah, cool. Got it. For most people. Well, there you go, Mariah. Hopefully that was helpful. Paula, did you have any updates on which trainer was which?

I might have been posted on our super cute Instagram story instead. I was just Googling it and I was like actually looks like she's doing it. It's so cute. Oh, it's me and Flynn. Yeah. We're doing it. Anyway, I never go on my phone when we're podcasting ever. Of course not.

If all your nose is getting longer, what is that? Kicker, core. I'm going to move on to the next question. You can keep Googling that, okay? Okay, next question is from Jay. Top of the day, Flynn, Nick Paul and Eric. I know Christmas just passed, but my anniversary is closing in fast. Writing in for help.

I know as much about coffee as Nick does ice hockey. Uh-oh. With that being said, I would love to get something for my girlfriend we can take with us when I drag her around on these races to make coffee. To me, gas station coffee and hotel coffee are as good as any shop. I almost got hit with the nearest item when I said this. After learning how wrong I was, we typically make trips to local coffee shops on our trips, but she has to have get ready coffee. So it's like a pre-e coffee. Yeah.

Any suggestions on what gifts would make her experience in the morning better? I mean, she has to walk around filming me all day. I can do is make sure she's fueled up. Love the show. Thanks in advance for the help, Jay. Nispresso? Oh, Nespresso. No, but that's not really portable to take to races and stuff. Don't they have a little, like a little black one,

like you could fit that in a suitcase, like what we had in, you had in Boulder in your apartment? Yeah, I guess you could take a full Nespressel machine with you, but I don't think that that's what they're looking for. The most obvious one would be an aeropress in terms of portability, but in that case, you still do need a kettle. And you need to have a grinder or have pre-ground coffee. Yeah, which you can use pre-ground coffee.

But there's this cool thing that we tried one time called the Wicaco. And it's kind of like a portable espresso. So they're still kind of doing it in the nespressoy way. Didn't we just... We may have talked about it on the podcast before. Yeah, and you just like push a button and it makes it there. And it kind of is the size of like a travel mug. So it's a lot more portable than a espresso.

Yeah, that's pretty fun. Yeah. Another gift idea, we're totally out of the fellow mugs, right? We're ordering more fellow mugs. We have more on the way. Yeah, that would be a good gift too. The fellow mugs that we make with TTL. Yeah.

Totally. Yeah, those are fun. They don't make coffee, but they store it really well. A lot of the time when Eric and I go to just a weekend trip, like a three or four day race, we won't bring a coffee-making device because there's usually a kettle in a hotel room that will make due for like the getting ready coffee as this person's talking about. And then we just really enjoyed going for coffee. And even if it's not the best coffee ever, like Starbucks can do the trick.

when you're on the road. So we are not super, super good at the travel coffee set up. We used to be better, but then we just, yeah, it's fun to experience the local culture via the coffee shops. Yeah, but in the van, we use the air press. If we go to China, we're bringing the air press 100%. Yeah, I don't even know what this, well, they just do tea, right? Yeah. China, I think don't they maybe do instant coffees?

I've brought like the packaged instant coffees, but I haven't been there for a couple of years. Yeah. Well, there you go, Jay. Also, loved your question. I loved how it was phrased. Hopefully that doesn't, hopefully she's not a podcast listener. She knows what she's getting for her anniversary. Next question is from Rob. I've been recommended a number of times to invest in coaching through various questions, comments, etc. on the pod.

Yes, I've been coached by a well-known company and a few independent certified coaches over the years. I received the workouts and feedback through training peaks. I have no problem completing the workouts to the best of my ability and know there's been improvement. Since the pandemic, I've been training on my own or with groups and seeing a noticeable improvement. My question comes from a place where I don't live near the coaches and all my workouts are on my own or with groups. I find it difficult to pay for the premium of coaching versus paying for a downloadable plan and following it myself. As much as I'd like to have a coach in person to give on the spot feedback, there isn't such in my area. When both of you talk about your coach, Paolo, he appears to be remote or lives in another part of the country or world.

I would appreciate your perspective on this type of coaching, especially if you're on your own doing the workouts. So you guys don't see Paul very often. Sometimes he comes here or you see him and you guys do do some kind of like cool like training course or something like that. But for the most part, he's just sending you the workouts. Yeah. Yeah.

And this kind of goes hand in hand with like the swimming question that we already went through. Like we've been doing this a long time. I did the first five, six years of my professional career with Paul. every single day. Although, I don't think that you necessarily have to have a coach in person. In fact, that's super unrealistic for most people. No, you don't have to. I'm just saying, like, our perspective is potentially a little bit skewed.

And I still think that you get a lot out of having somebody see you for like maybe potential fundamental technique things. But yes, Paula, you're right. Not necessary. I'll tell you what I have found just in my small experience from doing only these downloadable plans as you're talking about. about Rob, and now kind of experimenting with real coaching is you go somewhere for a week where you can't bike or something and now your coach can be like, okay, well, then we'll shift

these swimming and running workouts so that they suit that. Or you have an ankle injury. Okay, so then we're going to do this kind of stuff instead, whereas when you have the downloadable plan, you're just kind of trying to use your own understanding on, okay, maybe I shouldn't do this workout or I should double this work. And that's where it gets a little hectic. I think that with like the advancements in technology, online coaching becomes much easier because everyone has a power meter now. Everyone has heart rate. Everyone has a Wahu GPS watch. That wasn't always the case.

So training peaks even makes this more simple. So you can actually your coach can dissect your workouts pretty efficiently from afar versus being there in person. That was not necessarily possible 10 years ago. What I really like about this. what I really like about this anecdote, and I was just actually discussing this with our massage therapist, as it relates, I hope Heather Jackson is okay with me sharing this.

When she came to train with Paula a couple times last summer, she remarked how great it was and how much she was getting out of it. And I think, like, there is a scenario in which getting in on a bunch of group sessions could almost be more beneficial than having a very scientific plan that you are, like, trying to execute all by yourself in your garage, going, yeah, if you go on a group ride, if you do a swift race, if you go to a group swim,

you're going to get 10% more out of yourself just by that competitive edge in the atmosphere. And I think that's kind of what you're experiencing. But that's not to say that maybe you should have a coach overseeing all of this to make sure you're not overdoing it and that you're doing enough of each sport. Yeah, you could say, I've got a group ride on Tuesday and I've got a master swim on Wednesday and can incorporate that. That's the point that coach can, it's a human being. Adapt to that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Today I had a little conversation with Paulo because he gave us these 32nd max sprints on the bike. And I was like, I was holding 570 on my max sprints. And he was like, all right. Paul's a man, a few words. Cool story, bro. And then I was like, don't worry, I'll do 600 next time. And then he said, it's January 4th, Paula, with an eye roll.

And that's the end of the conversation. So a coach can be good for that too, just being like, oh, yeah, this is my first workout in a month. And we swam this morning and you guys. had these like max 50s that you had to do that were pretty intense. Yeah, that's why I like having a coach because we don't have to think about anything. We have trust in Paulo. In Paulo, we trust.

In Paulo we trust. We don't have to make up things and be like, oh, maybe in January we should be doing max efforts. Should we do six or should we do something? Yeah, we just do what he tells us. And then if we tell him our numbers, he tells us to chill a little. Yeah, because if I had made up that build to sprint and then sprint thing, I would have unmade it up real quick when I showed up at the pool.

So coaches are critical. In-person coaches are a luxury, not essential. Yeah. Good question, though. Yeah, good question. Thank you. Next one is from David and Surrey, BC. Hey, team, thanks for keeping us all entertained each week.

My question is about training for unique aspects of a race, specifically stairs. This reminds me of you guys racing when you had that race. Are you going to Alcatraz? No. Well, actually, he mentions Alcatraz and the question. My first Olympic distance race was the Lake Watcombe. triathlon last summer and I'm stoked to do it again. The run is mostly trail and at about 7K in there are about 40 stairs. The collective groan heard from everyone I was running with was

hilarious but it sucked. It looks sort of similar to the sand ladder at Alcatraz. Is this something you would train for specifically in how? Or do you just trust your fitness and run lots of hills? I'd really love to get through that portion of this year without walking it. But I live an hour away so it's not somewhere I can go regularly. Thanks. So first of all, also, what was that race? There was a race in Beijing. Yeah, I had stairs. Like a crazy amount of stairs.

Beijing has like 700 stairs. Yeah. So did you guys, you knew that going there. So did you train for that or for Alcatraz? Like, did you do, did that ever play a part in your training? Yeah, we ski all winter, uphill. So this is a little bit tough because like when we've done Beijing, and it's certainly not the only race on our schedule.

and we'll typically, we'll go to Beijing and then two weeks later we have another race or two weeks before we have another race that is absolutely not have 700 stairs in it. So you're doing some hill repeats and hill repeats luckily are applicable to flat running as well but it's not like we have the luxury of doing six weeks of only hill repeats

because we're getting ready for the Beijing International Triathlon. But that would be my recommendation. Do some like five by two minutes up a steep hill like nine or ten percent grade and really get those muscles firing. Wait, did you say two minutes up a hill? Yeah, like five by two minutes. I would say even doing 30 seconds up a hill can have the same effect.

Sure, it can. I'm just saying you could do it in place of like a mile repeat workout. You can do a bunch of strictly like a little bit longer uphill repeats. Yeah, that's true. That's what we did when I won Alcatraz the first time. We were doing once a week we were doing like five by two minutes uphill. or six by two minutes or something like that. And I have never been so fit and felt so relaxed going uphill.

And it also translates to flat running too. If you can be efficient uphill, you'll feel a good running flat. Would you say that the stairmaster at the gym is a good tool? I was kind of thinking about that in regards to ultra running because ultra running has these extended like 20 minute almost scrambles. But I don't know if the stair climber is explosive enough for a 10-K. pretty quick. Or a half marathon.

And it's really hard. I mean, it's stairs. I just from trail running in L.A., like you can be going really slow, but when you're five minutes into the effort, it's still not. It's still really hard. So I guess I would say if you live in Florida,

stair masters are like 100% better than nothing. Yeah. Or inclined treadmill running. Running up. Yeah. Uphill running on the treadmill. Well, let me ask you guys, if Beijing were the only race on your calendar,

would you have done stair specific stuff or would you still have just done hail repeats? It's just hard to find. If you have a great set of stairs by it, like you do buy your house in Santa Monica, Nick. Yeah, stairs are a slightly different motion than running up a hill. But it doesn't really replace, like, doing tempo runs and just general fitness and swimming and biking and all of that. Ultimately, you're having an extremely high level of fitness and being able to go up those stairs with your fitness and get to the top and be less phased is going to be more critical than this, like, muscle-specific. Another thing I was thinking is like running upstairs is a very explosive movement.

So some pliometric type box jumps and stuff. I've never done that. But I think that could play into like a gym routine that might make you. And we're just going too deep here on this. Last little thing. Do you think it's worth it to when you get to the top of this, whatever, hill repeat or stairs, to try to continue to run at a slow pace? Because that's what I'm thinking of this person.

They don't just get to the top and then get to recover in the race. And that is fitness. That is fully fitness. When I was running cross country and university, we would do like this really hard. It was called Keeler Hill. We called it Killer Hill. A few minutes up.

And then the workout was two minutes uphill. And then 800 meters on the flat, continuing to go hard. Oh, continuing to go hard. Yeah, because in a race you're going up a hill and then you're especially cross country. You're continuing to put your foot on the gas. So it's that ability to recover going flat

while, you know, continuing to move really efficiently was the idea. Got it. Well, good luck to you. That sounds really fun, David. Next question is from Grant. I'm going to be targeting my first triathlon ever this summer and have been doing a lot of research about gear. The thing that gets me hung up quite a bit is the topic of socks. I think I'd be uncomfortable cycling without socks, but certainly very uncomfortable running without them. I know there's special shoes for triathlon, but no brand seems to make them for feet like mine. Extra wide and need support for overpronation, which that's not true. Literally my shoes that I'm running. in right now. The Vangha, the VALANC-V-V-V-Vos are wide and have support for overpronation. But every, I think a lot of brands do. Yeah, A-6s are historically very wide. Shimano shoes for cycling, also very wide. The question is, how big of a deal is it to not wear socks?

I don't care about making the podium. I'm just having a good time racing myself. Definitely you should wear socks if you don't care about making the podium. If you can not wear socks, great. It's not, bro. It's a girl. If you can not. Oh, it's Grant. Paul, it might be. It might be.

In the middle of the podcast. I'm not texting. Definitely wear socks. Yeah, don't. The people who are not wearing socks are 100% trying to make it onto the podium. I mean, me and Eric wear socks. Yeah. And we're trying to win.

In a half. Like in an Olympic, it's 50-50 because it's, you're only running for 10K. It's such a short amount of time. A good compromise, I think, is not wearing socks on the bike. That's what I do, yeah. Because your feet are wet, putting socks on extra. hard. Do not put socks on for the book. But when you're transitioning to the run, there's a lot more friction in your shoe when you're doing that weight-bearing exercise. So that'll lead to more blisters than in a bike shoe. So I've never had a race wearing no socks where I didn't have like

crippling blisters after. I remember after Oceanside this year, Holly Lawrence was wearing those white Nikes and they were blood-d- Yeah, and then you can't run for two weeks. It's like an injury. It's not worth it. So even if you're trying to, like, yeah, 100% worth it. I think you might run. the percentage faster that it takes you to put the socks on. So it might equal it anyway. I think it's just this, there's this stigma of triathletes that don't wear socks. It's an I-2-U thing. Yeah.

It's for extremely short course racing where there are literally 15 guys crossing the finish line within seven seconds of each other. When I race DTIU, I would use this like tough skin glue and then tape my feet with mole skin or second skin. So basically I had like my feet covered in tape so that I didn't have to put socks on because you can't in ITU. You're trying to win by the margin of like a millisecond

and that would prevent blisters. But that is just way too over the top to... Especially if you're like saying yourself, Grant, that you're just trying to have fun. Yeah, exactly. Sox are very fun. Put on the socks. Feel good.

Definitely. Well, there you go, Grant. Next question is from Kevin. Hello, TTF. Happy New Year. And I hope you all had a great holiday. season. I will be riding the police unity tour in May, a 340 mile ride from Ground Zero in New York City to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C. over four days. I made it up to

35 to 40 mile rides in about two and a half hours when it was warm out. Now in winter, I'm currently doing 45 to 60 minutes on the trainer in the morning and about 30 to 45 minutes of calisthenics at night three to five times a week. Is this enough training to do during the winter or should I be doing more or less. What tips you all have here for winter training? Thank you all for everything you do. And I love listening to the podcast on my drives to and from work. Many thanks, Kevin. So a 340 mile ride. That is a long, long ride. What is that like 70 miles a day? Well, this is over four days. Okay. Oh my gosh. So no, that's, yeah, that's more. It's 80, 80, like 85 miles a day. That's a lot. That's all you're doing that day. On your current,

training load, you might survive. Will you enjoy it? That is unlikely. I think... Here's what I would suggest. Sorry, I don't mean to jump in, Nick. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just kind of overwhelmed, but that would, that would scare me to try to ride 85 miles a day with only doing... I think what you have to do is incorporate one long ride into your weekly routine. So on Sunday morning, ride 50 miles on Swift. It might take you two hours. or more, but... It's going to take you more than two hours, yeah.

Well, okay, well, maybe a three-hour ride. Like, if you're training for this type of endurance event, it doesn't have to be hard. It's just peddling your bike and getting used to that muscular endurance. I'd want to get up to at least a couple of five-hour rides. Not five-hour rides. Not per week, but, like, I would want to have had a couple five-hour rides. But not on Zwift either.

I think that, like, a three-hour ride on Zwift could be equivalent muscularly to a five-hour outdoor because there's so much coasting and so much drafting outside and stopping. It's not like the riding continue. We're also trying to do this four days in a row. And this is winter training, right? Like this, he's asking for if this is okay for the winter. When is this event? It's in May.

That's pretty early. Yeah, it is early. So it's not like you'll get that much outdoor riding, especially if you live in New York or around New York. Yeah, I agree with Paula. I would just, if you got the time on the weekend, see how long you can push up your weekend long ride, you know, just get into it, see how many levels you can jump in Zwift in one ride.

And then I might also say, I mean, work is probably a limiter to this, but maybe take one of those double workout days where you're doing the calisthenics in the afternoon and make that a 90-minute ride instead of doing the gym and the e-afternoon. Calcenaics five times a week is, that's a lot. Yeah, that sounds like a lot. That's why I'm saying you could probably do calisthenics twice a week

and then make all of the other rides slightly longer. So you're just doing the sport-specific exercise and not. Or at least just do a second ride instead of calisthenics. Oh, yeah, maybe that would be. Maybe do some 30-second sprints in the afternoon. Max. Running would even help. It's hard because when you don't know this person's history,

like if Eric stopped training for five years, and then this would be totally fine for Eric. Totally. For someone who's never done it. That's what I'm thinking is like if this person is an athlete relatively fit, he's going to finish this thing. So who cares what his training is in the winter? Like he's riding, that's box tracked.

Yeah. But it's, if you want to win a race, you have like big goals for it, that's different. I still feel like 85 miles, riding 85 miles, even like for any of us, It's like, okay, my body's going to feel that the next day. Then to do that day after day after day. Even just you're sitting on your bike seat for that long.

Yeah. Yeah. Get used to your bike seat. That's true. Yeah. Well, props to you, Kevin. That's really cool, though. If you have the motivation of a cool event with cool people around you and it's for a good cause,

it changes your mentality. Yeah. Next question is from Melissa. Hey, T T TL N, and Flynn. My question is about shoes. In previous years, I've done little to no strength training, focusing only on the actual events of swim, bike, and run. This sounds very familiar to many of us, I'm sure.

This year I'm trying to do better and have implemented strength training. So I've been going to a gym. I still do my bike at home on the trainer, but I will do most of my running in the gym as they have a treadmill, and it's too icy outside anyway. What do I do about my shoes? Like if I wear my running shoes for proper training on the treadmill, should I be switching my shoes for when I do my strengthening exercises at the gym?

Thanks to New TTL gear, a sweet weekly pod listener, paramedic working mom of four who loves triathlon. Wow. Awesome, Melissa. That's so cool. We're not busy. Yeah, not compared to that. So what do you think? I mean, if you're ready at the gym with your running shoes, is it okay to do your strength work with the running shoes? Or should you bring separate pairs shoes? Should you take the shoes off? A lot of people like to do their strength work barefoot? I would say if you're not lifting heavy weights and you're doing more mobility core stuff, stability, and then actually having no shoes is good. Some gyms don't allow that because the risk of dropping a dumbbell on your foot, even if it's just five pounds, can be very, very painful. Eric, I feel like I've been talking nonstop, but I do have a good answer for this question. No, that's exactly what I was going to say. Carry on. But if you're doing lifting, like squatting or dead lifts or something heavier, I actually don't think running shoes are the best for that because they have so much cushion.

And I think having a little bit more contact with the ground and stability with like a weight lifting specific. shoe, those things are flat and stiff and don't have a lot of cushion for a reason. I'm just thinking of people trying to do like deadlifts or a squat with an alpha fly and just like wobbling there. Yeah, they're wobbly or hoka or whatever. Do you have a weightlifting specific shoe? No, but I'm planning on getting one. Okay, okay.

It doesn't even have to be a weight specific shoe. It could be a tennis shoe or like vans even, you know, those have, maybe I'm speaking, this is so stupid. They just have more contact with the ground, so you're not, like, separated by layers of cushion when you're doing a squat. It's fine to do it with your running shoes. I don't know. I agree.

There's no technology built into the shoe designed specifically for running, is what you're saying. For the weightless. No, there are specific weightlifting shoes. I know, but I'm saying you're not using a running shoe. So if you're not using a shoe that was specifically designed for running and propelling you faster, potentially that's better for, for the gym. Yeah.

For weightlifting. Anything besides an alpha fly? Yeah. Yeah. Are we all just too tired? No. Because we're just like

looking blankly at each other. No. There's definitely weight lifting. We're not getting these freaking wrestling shoes. We don't lift that hard. I think a lot of triathletes are not lifting heavy.

They're doing stuff that's like activation stuff. And so I think it's probably okay to do any one of these things. But if you're not going to use weights, I do think being barefoot is probably really great. If you're doing body weight stuff or anything like that. It just helps your appropriate exception of your foot and makes them stronger, your little toe muscles and stuff.

Okay, Eric's shaking his head. That's Eric's time for it. Next question. I'm not in. Eric doesn't say it, but he says it. He says it with his body. Yeah, he says it with his eyes. Well, there you go, Melissa.

And good luck in your crazy, hectic and awesome life. Next question here. Hello, Paul, Eric, Nick and Flynn, long-time listener and first-time question asker over here. I recently have been considering investing in a Wahu indoor trainer. I have a stationary bike I bought while in grad school, but have started to increase my training and subsequently I'm spending more time on the bike. Being in the full swing of winter in New England, I notice I've started to experience more hip problems from spending hours upon hours on my stationary bike.

It's better than nothing, but the repetitive motion and the odd positioning on the stationary is proving to be a bit of a pain, looking to get a trainer so that I can get back into the more normal feel of cycling. Do you have any recommendations on the type of trainer to get? This is the same question. Well, I think we might have the opposite answer for this. Because I'm thinking the rollers would be great for this. Look at the smart rollers, baby.

I feel like I'm listening to myself talk. Yeah, because Eric literally has a hip problem. And so the rollers allow the bike to move in a much more natural way. Just a little bit so that I don't feel so locked in. And I still ride the regular kicker. But like the rollers just, I don't know, it helps keep some of that, like, tightness and stiffness that you're talking about at bay over time. Yes, the intimidation factor of rollers classically is because both wheels are free.

So there's a balance component with the Wahoo kicker rollers. The Wahoo rollers. It's just the smart rollers. With the Wahoo Smart rollers. It locks your front wheel in. So you don't have to worry about the balance aspect, but it does still have some. The back wheels is free to move. Rock freedom of movement.

So it's not like locked in. But it won't move on this axis like. No, no, it's not going to move in the tilting axis. It's just, it can like, It's a snaking access. It can like fish tail around a little bit. Does that still allow you, Eric, that has hip problems? Does that still feel better on your hip?

Yes. And do the full rollers where your front wheel is also free? Are those even better? Or do you not really notice a difference between those two? Yeah, that's better because you can get a little bit of tilt to it. But the resistance mechanism feels so terrible that I would rather ride the smart rollers and use Zwift. and it's just they have like a simulated large flywheel

which just makes it feel like you're actually can coast versus like typical rollers at the very best they have a magnetic resistance unit which just feels like somebody you're like your brakes are rubbing the whole time and so for people who are trying to get into the full roller system because the one that the Wahoo roller that's it's there's no learning there's no skill to it right zero percent skill required but there is skill required on the full rollers

for people who are considering to get into it what's the learning curve? How hard is it to actually learn how to do it? Paul, can you do it? The rollers? Yeah, the full rollers. If I like absolutely have to. Okay, so you just don't like it, but you can do it? I'm curious. Do you think anyone can get used to it and learn how to do it? Is it dangerous? Do people get hurt on it? People are afraid that they're going to fall off and their back wheels are going so fast that they're going to fly into the wall, but that's not actually how it works. The second that your wheel hits the ground for the most part, like you might get a couple inches. You're not flying into the wall at 30 miles an hour. No, no, no.

There's just, there's enough resistance and not enough momentum in the wheels spinning. So what you want to do is you want to start in a doorway or just like right next to a wall and really biased towards that wall or to the doorway, you know, and so you're not just going to fall off into nothing. I think Lionel rides his arrow bars and the rulers. Yeah, one inch away from a hill wall. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that, though. Nope, there's nothing wrong with that.

That's a great way to learn. If you build confidence and get up to that, probably, right? I don't like having a wall right next to me. I feel claustrophobic, but that's like 100% the best way to learn. Anybody can learn it. And it's exactly like riding a bike. There's nothing magical about it. You just kind of have to get your brain used to spinning in place on your bike.

Yeah. It's like if somebody told you to ride like the fog line, you're going to get all. It's, okay, now I should back up. If somebody told you to ride like a balance beam the size of a fog line, you'd freak out. fall off instantly. But if you just rode the fog line, I bet you can do it for 30 seconds without coming off of that fog line on a road. So yeah, it's just about getting used to the feeling of it,

but you think anyone could get used to it. Yeah. And I think the major downside of it and why Paula doesn't like to do it is because you can't do anything else. You can't text. You can't change the music on your phone. You can't like hit a power up on Zwift. You are completely committed to balancing. And whereas you can just like completely shut your brain off on a tip, on a classic trainer. Yeah. Got it. Cool. There you go. So two questions similar, but opposite recommendations. Next question is from Paula, not our Paula. Well, actually, this is also our Paula, just another hour Paula. Hello, all, especially Flynn. So I have my first 70.3 this year next March. The location is at Capulco, Mexico, which is super hot. The weather

is dry and up to 35 degrees Celsius, which translates to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I have the possibility to get there one week earlier. The question is, do you recommend getting that week to act, getting there that week early to acclimate to the weather, or get there later and just confronted on race day. Thank you very much. Your advice will mean the world to me, Paula. Well, what do you think, Flynn? He's running in his dream. It's really cute.

He's like twitching. He's definitely dreaming about running. Yeah, he's terrible in the heat, by the way. Yeah, he is terrible in the heat. Well, we all are. I would say doing some heat prep before you get there is important. If you're just going to go a week early, you're not really going to have any physiological adaptations within one week. It would just be more tired from the heat.

Just be more tired if you spend time in the heat. So if you could possibly do some sauna training, some heat training, getting in a hot tub after hard workouts, up to your earlobes, and sitting in there until you're uncomfortable, all of those things will just help your body be able to tolerate that once you get there. And at that point, you could get there last minute and you'll somewhat be adapted to it. But no one's ever really comfortable racing in that kind of heat. Unless you grew up in that kind of heat.

You're those genetic people. There are those people. if you were born and spent Yeah, I don't know. Something. Don't know what it is. Some people can do it. There you go. And our last question here is from Lexi.

Hello, TTR fam. This might be mostly for Paula, but how do you get your swim, but how do you swim in the morning, wash your hair and then do a run, bike, or both without your hair turning into a project. I'm not super great at the French braid life. So aside from shaving my head,

what do you do? We've talked about this before about like the products you use in your hair. Why do we say this is not a question for Nick and I. Yes, with my long flowing hair. Beautiful. But yeah, Paul, you have great hair and you swim a lot.

You've talked about this before, but how do you do that? Yeah. I don't usually, so after swimming, I'll wash it with shampoo and conditioner, which takes the tangles out, and then I'll brush it. So it's at least not tangled. Put it in a ponytail. I don't usually dry it when I get home before like the next session.

I'll just like leave it in a kind of wet bun. and then it kind of dries over time. But I think the key is just keeping my hair relatively short. Like I don't have super long hair that comes down like lower back. How long is it? Like how long down your back will it come? It's like my collarbone, I'd say. And I do have thick hair, but I think the key is just like, yeah,

keeping it brushed and using conditioner. And I think I've said before, I use the bumble and mumble oil. So it kind of keeps my hair hydrated and it's not getting frizzy. When do we use the oil? After you shampoo and condition. But I don't bring it to the pool with me? Don't you shampoo in condition every single day? Whenever I swim, I will, yeah.

It was really a struggle on offseason when I wasn't swimming. I just wasn't washing my hair. So I had to remind myself like, oh, you got to wash your hair at your home shower. Right. Wow. Yeah. Story of my life. And then she does have another question, which I do think is interesting.

Do you have to learn a new technique when swimming in a sleeved wetsuit or should I buy a different wetsuit? For context, I grew up swimming. And then when I lived in Redondo Beach, California, I had a sleeveless wetsuit. and never used one because it's, or never used one because it's so nice. I now live in Colorado where the water tip is 40 degrees sometimes. So I got a long sleeve suit and I felt less like a fingertip drag and more like a windmill. Yeah. So thanks for everything you all do, looking forward to cheering you on in 2023.

So what do you think? I think, unfortunately, growing up a swimmer, you're cursed with the need for a very high-end wetsuit. Because they're thinner and like the shoulders and stuff. Yeah. The difference between a $350 wetsuit. suit and in a $800 wetsuit is just light years of difference and you're not going to be happy. Is that true? Yeah, dude, it's insane.

Wow. A really high-end wetsuit is just you're going to feel like you don't have anything on and you're not going to have that same sensation that swimmers are afraid of of like, oh, I'm so restricted and I can't move. Yeah. When we put our wetsuits on, we hardly notice. But we're also used to swimming in them. I think there's a learning curve. And even if you could take your wetsuit to the pool once a week in the lead up to a race,

you will get used to that feeling because it's not like swimming with nothing. No. It's almost more like a sensory, a strange century experience versus like a restriction again. I definitely feel it and I definitely don't like it. I feel like even in my elbows, it's like there's more material there. Yeah. That is unfortunately where the more expensive wetsu comes in.

Do you think what suit manufacturers are making them, is it more, it's more expensive to make them thin and that's why they cost more? Or is it that better swimmers don't need as much material in those places to keep them buoyant. I mean, the arms is not really a place that you'd put that buoyance anyway, but I'm just curious why you think that is. Is it just harder to manufacture more expensive materials? Yeah, and typically a more

expensive Westview is going to have a couple more panels. So you'll have like 12 panels instead of four panels. And yeah, I do think there's a very thin neoprene that is not going to tear is it's got to be more complicated to produce than just like a five millimeter thick

sheet of rubber. And the more panels is just so you can vary the thickness more. So paneling on your butt where it'll keep you up. Yeah. So you'll have like, you'll have five mil in the butt.

You don't have five mil in your butt. But then in the quads you'll have four and then in the arms you'll have two and then in the shoulders you'll have one. And then also there are not, all the neoprenees are not created equal. There are different levels of neoprene that are more flexible per square inch than a...

Yeah. And so there's like, it's like Yamato 41 is what they call it. It's like that's what's in the high end wetsuits and in the low end wetsuits it's like the Yamato 39. and that was the high-end stuff like 15 years ago. All this being said, I would love to get rid of a couple wetsuits that we have sitting in our attic.

So send me a note if you're looking for a wetsuit. Small women, medium men, gently used our last year's suits. I'm a small tall. Oh, Eric's a small tall. I'm a women's small. Gently used. Also maybe won a few like huge races in them, no big deal. Just casual.

We have so many wetsuits in the attic. I don't even know what to do with them all. But they're really nice wetsuits. The other thing I was going to say is don't worry too much about changing your stroke with the wetsuit. I think I change my stroke a bit. You do, Eric. That's more to do with the buoyancy in the legs. Yeah, it changes your body position.

It's fine if your arms a bit straighter. You don't have to mirror your pool stroke when you're open water because it's just a different thing. And a lot of the times you're going to be way faster with the wetsuit open water than you will be in a pool with no wetsuit. It's kind of fun. Sweet Eric. A hundred percent of the time. Just get out there and go hard. Yeah.

Don't think too much. Yeah, that's our really overarching advice for this whole podcast. Just go out there and go hard. Well, those are other questions, and you can send your questions in at That TriathlonLife.com slash podcast. We love getting them. Podcast supporters, look out for an email from us on Monday with our cinematic masterpiece and vertical video of the Longar Zocco machine. It'll be very fun. Original music by Nick Gouldson.

Yes, I composed like a kind of cool boss of beat to it. It's funny. Team Overkill here. Team Overtail, of course. So that's it. Now we get to just sit back, relax, enjoy the snow. I don't know. Are we going to have another snack before we go to sleep?

For sure. It's only 822. We don't want to wake up at midnight hungry. Well, I keep saying, Nick, you want another treat? We got so many treats. And he's trying to be healthy for now, which is just so unlike you, Nick. You knew me. I know, I successfully in my life a few times have been like, I'm doing this from now on

and they have stuck for like my whole life. Yeah. This is not one of those things. This is not one of those things, but I'm going to try to ride some positive energy from it. So you're just being a little bit more healthy. A little bit more healthy. You'll still come and get donuts, get a treat. For sure. For sure. I started this actually before I left for New York. Just kind of eating

a little more, just thinking about like what would I feed the ideal version of myself. Is it pizza every meal like I normally do? Or is it like some veggies would be good. Lental soup like I made tonight. That soup is amazing. I think you're in a good place. We'd eat pretty darn healthy, except for when we come to L.A. and hang out with you and we eat donuts all the time. No, but the problem is we do have a lot of chocolate and treats on our house too because we love treats. Yeah, yeah. But that's okay. I think I applaud you for honestly what I'm doing is I'm trying to listen to what is so trite, but listen to my body and like what do I want. Not what does my brain want? Yeah, exactly. Now what do I know is going

to feel good? It's like what do I actually, what's going to help me my body function today best? And I've noticed that a lot of times it's like it's not what I, what my like short-term brain is really thinking. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Half of that's just not having the shit in your house. Yeah, which I, which is, yeah, that's like, for me it's more than half of it. Yeah, yeah. Well, we are terrible at that.

I just continuously buy Tony's Chocoloni. But my parents got you guys this very fancy chocolate for Christmas. So we got to at least go through that. That's like tasting chocolate though. It's like it's so good that you have to savor every little piece. So it's not like you're going to. going to eat the whole bar unless maybe you will. Well, we're going to do, we'll do the next one here together too.

How about that? Have you booked a flight home yet? Yeah, yeah. You did? Yeah. Oh, I was just going to say, maybe we could do the next two here. You're here. I love it.

Paul is she does the same thing out. She tries to trick me into staying as long as possible. I did this to my friends too. Oh, no, we're very happy to have you here. The 12th is a long way away. It is probably by that time you'll be ready to leave. Yeah. No, I'm never ready to leave.

All right. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks for sending in questions. And I look forward to reading the next batch next week. So keep them coming. Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Bye.