That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon equipment in training/racing, and more!

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

This week we got sidetracked with 2-hour marathons, trail running, photography, and more before finally diving into some Bike Tech with Eric and answering your listener questions.On this episode:What it takes to switch from mechanical to electronic shiftingDoes equipment quality actually matter for training?How to find the right triathlon coachCan paddles hurt your swimming?Building a healthy relationship with StravaSolving leaky gogglesChoosing the right shoes for the Bachelor Ascent 50kWhat to do when air quality gets badOur hype songs for a first marathonA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey, everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. And you've stumbled across our triathlon-related and adjacent podcast. We, Paul and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is an amateur triathlet. We're also, you know, we dabble in some trail things. I do a little bit of Xero. We've done some swim run. We like all the things that involve getting your heart rate up. The bulk of this show is made up of us answering questions from people like you who ride in, give us stuff to talk about. Feel free to write us in a question about absolutely anything.

Paula will read it and maybe put it in the show. So welcome. Sometimes when we do random shoutouts of random stuff, people are like, oh, I work for them. I'll send you a 10,000 canes. And this booch, hard kombucha is good. Oh, wait. How alcoholic is it, does it say? So much alcohol.

So it's called Boochcraft, hard kombucha. I just bought it. It's 20-ounce-tall-boy can. and 7% alcohol. Seven, oh my God, that's like a intense beer. Yeah, so this is going to be a fun pod. I think when they make hard kombucha and stuff, they're just like people who want to like low-key get fucked up.

Right, right, right, right. We're not messing around with like low alcohol content on this. We're just going straight to the moon, baby. I mean, it tastes so good. It tastes so good. But it's also extremely way too big. Like I would drink a can that's half the size. We got it to split.

Over the course of the evening. Anyway, if anyone works at Booch Craft. Feel free to send them. Feel free to send it. I have an alcoholic kombucha that's been in my fridge for like eight months. Do you think it's still good? Probably. They last forever.

I don't know. Maybe it's just getting better. kombucha has like yeast and stuff. I mean, I wouldn't just treat it like wine. It probably does expire. Yeah. I could check my can, though, once in. I guess.

Well, if anyone wants some, come over and you can have my hard kombucha here. You should just have it. I just don't. I don't know what it is about alcohol, but I just don't ever want it. I don't think it's still good. This says it expires August 18th, 2026. So I'm pretty sure. That's so soon.

Yeah. Yeah, so it probably doesn't last forever. Maybe like the alcohol in the kombucha makes it go bad quicker. I could definitely just like become vinegary. There's a conspiracy about expiration dates, though. You guys know about this? like medicine that expires after a certain point. Oh, right.

Oh, my gosh. I just went through our medicine cabinet to throw out expired stuff. And we had bottles of stuff from like 2020. Yeah. I have this ibuprofen that expired in 2020. And when I take it, it's still 100% works. Yeah. And I take it often so maybe I'm extra sensitive to it.

But there's stuff. I can't imagine what could possibly go bad with that? Correct. It's freaking powder. It loses its efficacy, apparently, slightly over time. By like 1%. Exactly. Probably got a half-life of a million years.

Yeah. But I think when you're taking medication, maybe not ibuprofen, you should probably just take stuff that's not expired. Why not? It's a principal thing. Is it not? I'm not spending money on more ibuprofen. So yeah.

I just got back from a trail run and it was just so beautiful. And the whole time I was thinking, I'm so lucky I get to do this stuff, even though my legs are so fucking trash. How long have a trail when are we talking here, man? Very short, very short. Like six miles. Not very short, but like an hour and a little over an hour. Just went with some friends.

I thought you were going for like three hours. No, sometimes on Wednesdays, it'll do like two, two and a half hours. But today was just, we're all feeling a little tired. And a few of my friends just did marathons. And so we're all kind of just cruising up and enjoying the views. A lot of photos were taken, you know, those kind of us. That's strange. Have you ever done around and not taken a single photo?

No, my interval runs are usually are low on photos, but the trail runs I just constantly expect. Not devoid, not devoid, never devoid. But yeah, that's where we're at. Although Eric, so I just bought one of those like three point harnesses for cameras.

Have you seen those things? First of all, I cannot figure out how it works. Well, two things. They're very hard to figure out how they work and they work about half the time. That's not a great ratio. I've had two different versions. They're more for bike rides. Oh, totally. It's for bike. It's for biking. I don't know. I just brought it up. I still don't think it's better than just a regular

camera strap, at least for me. Like the regular camera strap, yes, will occasionally slip around a little bit if I'm out of the saddle sprinting or something. But otherwise, like this, this three-point thing I got to unclip and I can never really get the camera very far away from my body easily. I can certainly never take the camera off and, like, get it close to the ground and then put this thing back on while riding. It's like great if all you want to do is literally, literally shoot from the hip. And it's like the camera never gets that far away from your body. And do you think is it unrealistic for me to think that I could use my Blue Mix on there? I do it all the time with my A7.

But like also that camera is from the Stone Ages. So if it falls, I get me one. Well, I just, I'm not even worried about it falling, although that would be tragic. It's more just the weight and the size of it. Do I need to buy a more compact camera, do you think? I mean, if you wanted to, but like, I don't know. I shot a bunch of pictures from our ride in Portland the other day on my, what is it called, ZV1

No, not so ZV1 RX100 Mark 7 or something like that And it's like you can totally tell the difference Between that and a full frame Right But depending on how extreme you want to get with the edit Which you generally want to get pretty extreme But if you were going to choose something that's not

What you have, that's the camera I would go for Probably Okay And that's pocketable So it's like to me it's like This is getting out of hand Paula doesn't like this conversation But I think some people do

Okay so we have a bunch of things here. First of all, the two-hour marathon officially is done. Two people did it. Two people went under it in London. Insane. I don't know how it happened all at the same race because then the person who was in third also broke the record. The world record? But just wasn't under two hours. Yes. Crazy. Top three people all went under the world record. Perfect conditions. The world is getting faster. The shoes are getting faster. The nutrition's getting better. The pacer's were great. Everything lined up. But it's crazy to think of what a ordeal it was to get Kipchoga to break two hours with all of the things that made it a non-certified world record when he broke two hours with all the Pacers and all the absolutely perfect course, wind conditions, no elevation gain. And then for it to just happen in a marathon. Frankly unbelievable.

It's unbelievable. Well, it's like the four-minute mile. Now I bet you a lot of people will break it. I don't know if it's like that. I wonder if it will be because we've been, people have been trying to do this two-hour thing for so long. This is such a modern age of training and technology and marginal gains and all these things. And I just, I don't know, my pessimistic brain goes to like, well, I wonder what they've figured out or found or discovered. Well, I think that a reason maybe why it won't be like the four-minute mile is because all courses are so different.

True. Whereas a track is a track, you know. How long do you guys think you could hold that pace? 30 seconds. It's 250 per kilometer. I mean, I used to be able to do it for a few kilometers. Like, doing like kilometer repeats, but... Oh, yeah.

I don't think I could do it... I don't think I could do a 250. Well, certainly not right now. Well, even in your prime. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I could do a 250K at my prime, yeah. So crazy. Around a 40-0-1-1500.

Oh. It's a relatively. I mean, you can think about, yeah, could I do this? But their ergonomics are different. They are completely trained differently. It's not worth comparing, but it's unbelievable. It's just crazy that we, like, you know, we think of like whatever Christian Blumenfeld's running so fast off the bike. We're like, oh my God, that is amazing.

And then. Well, I think Christian running a 2.30 off the bike is just as impressive as a two-hour marathon flat or without biking before. You think about even swimming an hour, even if these dudes had to swim in a hour. Even if these dudes had to swim an hour and then run a marathon, they would not break two hours. I mean, they wouldn't even be close. It's so crazy to think what men. They're so hyper specialized in that thing. Yes.

Yeah. The ability to run a 230 marathon after doing what he does on the swim and bike is equally as impressive in my mind as a two-hour marathon. I don't know. Maybe that's crazy. I mean, in our world, it's so funny because I don't know if you guys see this on your YouTube or whatever, but Christian constantly shows up on my suggested videos in things that have nothing to do with triathlon.

They'll be like, the fittest man in the world as a V-O-2 max of like 101 or whatever. Let's see if we can blah, blah, blah, or whatever. Like there's this climber at YouTube. He's a ruler to measure against. I would maybe say that Christian is fitter than these guys that are running a two-hour marathon,

just VOTU max-wise. Like, ergonomically, like, they're so primed for running fast, these runners, but are they as V-O-2 maxi fit? I don't know. I think Christian may be the most in those terms, fittest person that has ever been tested.

Well, he is the fittest person that's ever been tested in terms of V-O-2 max. Because V-O-2 max is affected by your muscle mass, right? And if he's using his upper body for swimming and that, I mean, he's got more muscle mass. Talking about Christian and his fitness is how I feel about that is how Paula feels about us talking about cameras. Right. Okay, let's move on. Right, right.

Mugs. We have mugs. Eric made this beautiful video that highlights the new TTR mugs. Yeah, like 150 people saw it. It was amazing. And we all loved it. We all loved it. The mugs are super cool.

They've got a cool design on the inside. They're a really cool, special, unique shape that I doubt you have in your cupboard. We still have some left, too. So check them out on the website, ThattriathlonLife.com. calm. They are so, so, so sick. And you know what? You can never have too many mugs. Am I right? I feel like you can never have too many mugs. All I'm saying is you definitely don't have one that goes three, two, one, go as you drink it. And that's what I were going for. It's like this, this makes put a smile on my face as I was thinking about it. And so we had to make it.

I think you're right, Nick, because a lot of mugs are like sentimental. They don't all have to match. It's fun to have a bunch of mugs from different places. Oh, definitely not matchy. Yeah. So you always have enough room in your cupboard for another one. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What is the appropriate amount of time from first sip to last sip of a cappuccino?

Or you can give me a range. I mean, it should not be more than 10 minutes. Okay. What about no less then? Because this is where I'm afraid I sit. Probably like no less than you don't want to go like sub three minutes, I don't think. Yeah, but Nick, you're having most. Like, of course you can slam that in three minutes.

I don't always have mochas, okay? Sometimes I have, if I have a cookie, which is very often, I'll do a regular cappuccino. Decaf, of course. But if I have a treat, which I rarely, if ever devoid myself of a treat, then I'll have a regular cappuccino. But if I'm just having a coffee, I'll have a mocha. Okay. I mean, you want to drink it before it gets too cold is my rule. Yeah.

But you want to sit there and enjoy it too at a coffee shop. And the bubbles, the microphone starts to break down after too long as well. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Generally, like an espresso shot, you should pretty much slam the second it's put on the counter to like have it as close to the shot being pulled as possible, for example. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Anyway.

Well, that's our little housekeeping stuff for the day. to our marathons, mugs, joy, trail running, fun. But we have questions, too, and we're going to start out with a bike tech with Eric question. Bike Tech with Eric!

This one is from Charlie. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn, and now Harper 2, question mark. Did you add that? No, I didn't add that. I think that we should not be including. She's furious. She just went from zero to 100 so fast.

This is the thing. We're not. including Harper in the podcast questions. That is Flynn specific. And we still have Harper. Oh, yeah, right. It's just a matter of time. That is, I am still trying to keep really special things for Flynn because we brought this senior citizen dog into his life, which I think is a bit unfair to him.

So I'm making sure he gets extra snuggles, extra attention. He is the only one that contributes to this podcast. Harper does shit for the podcast. Do not even think about. Flynn does less than shit for the podcast. He just doesn't eat the timbits. He's a personality, okay? Harper is still in our lives.

We like her a lot. But she is not pulling her weight in the TTL sphere yet. Definitely hit a note for that. I don't know. Every story I've posted with her on Instagram has gotten like a billion more comments than like when I freaking broke my hip. Yeah. I'm done posting about trathlethon.

I'm just posting about dog walks from now on. She's not zero work. She doesn't. listen as well as Flynn. She follows me around all over the house, like she's glued to my hip, which she fucking annoys me. Chinks in the armor. Yep, here we go.

But she looks at me with those eyes, and I'm like, you are my daughter. God, this poor dog, the emotional whiplash. It's kidding. She's so affectionate. Back to the question here. Sorry in advance for the long question. I currently have a mechanical shifting setup on my tri-bike and was considering switching to electronic and riding in to ask.

if that's possible. But after last week's episode, hearing you guys talk about the benefits of electronic shifting, I've decided it's fate that I need to make the quote-unquote shift. Very nice, Charlie. Especially so I can shift from the base bar.

What's involved when upgrading to electronic in terms of new parts you need? For reference, my mechanical shifting setup is Shimano 105. I'm guessing at the very least, I'll need new brake levers, derailers, and blips. But would I also need a new crank set, cassette, arrow bars, or anything else?

Also, since I currently have Shimano, is it easier to stay with a Shimano setup? Thanks for all you guys do for the endurance sport community and best of luck racing and recovering this season. Charlie. All right, Eric. You pretty much are going to need everything on the bike. With the exception, I don't know,

did he say what speed, how many speeds? Is he rocking 10 speed? No, it's Chimano 10 speed. I mean, it's probably 11 speed. I would guess it's 11 speed, but I can't be sure. So that could, that would be your only, if you had an 11 speed and you were just trying to do 11 speed electronic or, you know, like if you were just keeping it the same, then you could keep your cassette and you could keep your crank set. Otherwise, if you're going from 11 speed to 12 speed or 10 speed to 11 speed, et cetera, you're going to need to get all new everything. Except for maybe arrow bars?

No, yeah, you don't need new arrow bars. because all of the I mean the air bar the extension shifter stuff like plugs into the end of the air bar the same way but yeah you need new brake levers

because at least on Shimano last I checked the shifting is built into the brake lever so then you also need new brake calipers so like literally everything oh dang

dang new calipers dang unless oh shit okay actually or is this did he say his disc brakes doesn't say that's the other

yeah that's the other question mark here is like are you are you are you have oh boy do you have yeah rim brakes or what and there's like

the rate of pull coming out of man I good luck finding a electronic shifting rim break on hydraulic yeah

set of cable actuated break yeah it does exist but it might be hard to find and as always you are going to get the best deal on this whole thing

if you buy all of your parts attached to a bike. Like when they make, if you go look at the cost of a bike frame, it'll be like $5,000 for SWorks at such and shuts. It'll be like $5,500 for like the bike built up. So you get a lot better deal that way. I mean, if you're literally buying a crank set, cassette,

levers, blips, this is coming up to the cost of a new bike with all those things on it. Unless it's all used in old, Jen, then it might not be, none of might not be that terrible. God. Buying those things new, I think, would be the same as buying a used bike with all those things already on them already functioning. I'd be really tempted unless this bike that you currently have is just like massively

sentiment, has massive sentimental value to just go full new everything. Yeah. I would be, I'd be very tempted to do that. Sell the current bike with intact. Yeah. That's the other thing. Like, you're not going to get hardly any money selling those parts. off of that bike, so you're just like straight up burning cash to get a new setup.

Right. That's really wise, too. Selling the bike that actually works as is is going to be your, for sure, the most money back on that. Yeah. Wow. Well, Charlie. Good luck.

Godspeed. Yes. God speeds, 11 speed, that is. Okay. We're going to move on to general questions here. And you can buy mugs on that triathlonlife.com. You can also submit your questions at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. You can also become a podcast supporter there.

And this week's lucky podcast supporter randomly chosen, you're going to get a really cool TTLX orca swim cap, which I wore in the pool today. Stacey Brink! Stacey, thank you for being a podcast supporter. Thanks, Stacey. We love you so much. Love you.

Send me a little message on IG, and we'll confirm your address, and I'll send that out to you early next week. Okay. Here's our first question submitted by our beloved podcast listeners. This one's from Steve. Love this question. I wonder if we'll be divided on this.

Steve, on from the night shift? That's Kevin. Oh, that's Kevin. Yeah, don't forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. Does the quality of your equipment matter in training? For example, can I go for a long ride on a slow touring bike

and do an open water swim in boggy board shorts and still get a decent training benefit? Of course, it's not comparable to race day setups, but hopefully it's better than nothing. Steve. I've swamming my running shorts all the time. Basically, every time I forget my swimsuit. Right. I have done that, too.

But you're not getting as good of a workout. I mean, there's something about having spandexy fast stuff that makes you feel fast. I'm getting a better workout. That's the thing. Like, Eric, you're right. It doesn't actually impact how hard you can work, which is the point in training. But for me mentally, I'm less stoked to train. I'm like less invigorated to train when I'm not in my fancy stuff.

There's two things, though. Like swimming in board shorts, that sounds like hell. That sounds like something you do to like increase drag to punish yourself. But like riding in a loose fitting tea. Recovery vibes. Recovery vibes. Yeah. Maybe you get like a little more.

I don't know. It's less serious. but if you're riding on a fast bike and you feel really sharp and snappy, I feel like you're going to try harder. For sure. I think it depends on the person, but it's like,

don't you get a boost sometimes when a certain song comes on? Don't you feel more powerful when a certain song comes on? Okay, well then I also, and I think many people also, feel a similar boost when I look down and I see my nice cycling shoes

and my nice bike, I'm like, fuck yeah, I love this thing. and then boom, I got extra power. Yeah, I know, I agree. Like, sometimes I'll do like a bike interval workout where I'm going like 300 watts for intervals. And then I'll get on the e-bike to go right over to the grove. And I don't even want to push 50 watts.

Yeah, exactly. Like it feels like a monumental effort to push 100 watts. And I know it's like maybe because I just done a hard workout, but it's just a different feel. You're like, no, this bike, I'm putting no effort in. Yeah. But I think there are people out there that don't, that that doesn't do it for them.

And then in that specific scenario, no, there is nothing wrong with training like that. Here's one exception. If you've never tried a fast thing, then of course, yeah, you could go fast in your board shorts and on your touring bike. Of course. But if you've, like, had a little taste of what it's like to ride a fat... It's all over. It's all over. It's like flying first class.

Like, you're ruined. Yeah, can't go back. You can. You can. I mean, you must, but it sucks. None of us can afford to fly first class all the time, or even part of the time. Eric, I feel like of anyone, you can do this.

You can ride the non-ideal stuff and still feel totally ready to go or no, not even you. I just think for me, like what is considered to be ideal has just changed a little bit. Like Castelli makes that Marino long-sleeved shirt that I just feel incredibly comfortable in and I want to ride in all the time. But yeah, I won't deny that if I'm going,

if I, next time I get on a TT bike, my new sweet TT bike, I'm putting on the tightest shit I got. And I'm going for maximum speed. Okay. Before we move on to the next question, Eric, where is the world where we have the shiv

without the arrow bars with just the base bar? How do we make that an actual bike that is rideable? By us? Or like for the general public? No, not for the general public. For you. Like is it too financially irresponsible to keep one and keep it just in that state? No, honestly, I think this, the shiv that Paula's riding currently, the small shiv T.T.

So the bad, she wrote that for like two years. I wrote it for two years. And then she's like riding it again for a year because it's her training bike. So that thing is like got so many freaking miles on it. I think it would be, I would be irresponsible to sell. I don't know if, you know, it's like, yeah, that would be a fun one to convert into a single speed. It's completely fine. Yeah, but it's just like got so many little scratches in the paint and.

No, people, it's fine. I support Eric's theory of keeping this really, really, really cool bike. You know what would be really sick too is if you custom painted it or something. This was just like fully this one-off bike with a base bar. Don't look at her. She's fine. Yeah, she's fun. Vibe crusher.

No, I love the idea. This bike would, it would be so cool. And if you could actually film some cool stuff on it, like some cool riding through the city fast stuff, oh my God. I love it. It's like a little urban river. And then we can sell it. So, you know.

Everyone's happy. Yeah. No, I hate selling bikes. Like, I get attached to my bikes. I don't like it. But I do think that bike is sellable, even though we've ridden on it a lot. Well, just so, I mean, I looked into this a little bit when I was selling and I still am selling my Venge.

By the way, he is still selling his Vans. Still selling it. I actually lowered the price today just on my own merit. Oh, wow. Thank you. For consulting me in that. Thank you for consulting me. So. Just a little.

I wonder. Not that I wonder. I look this up and carbon really does not degrade. Like you can continue. It can over the long haul and like UV can have some effect on it. but for the most part, unlike aluminum or other materials, like I think titanium also pretty much stays the same the whole time. Carbon will can last forever.

Yes, you can scratch it. The components wear out, but the carbon itself pretty much will last forever unless you have sharp impacts on it. So that is good news for that bike. If it ever wants to be sold, the miles are somewhat irrelevant on it as long as it's been treated well. That's not the one that cracked in flight.

No, that's long gone. Okay, got it. What do we do with that? We repaired and sold it. Yes, and the person knew that it was repaired. Oh, yeah, always just closed that. Yeah, I remember that. Okay, next question here.

Hi, Eric and Paulus. This was just for you guys. How best do I go about finding a solid triathlon coach that understands age specificity and training? I've been doing triathlons, Olympics, and 70.3 since 2003, and in the past five years, I've had chronic issues. on the bike with dead legs, either right in the first five kilometers or deep into the bike. So bad that it impacts my run severely, let alone having a suboptimal bike.

I turned 60 this year and I trained for 12 to 16 hours a week and I was competitive swimmer for 20 years in my misspent youth. I've already had several triathlon coaches, but none of them have been able to solve my dead legs issue. I appreciate the guidance here. Regards Graham. I feel like these are two different things. One is how do you find a goodbye coach for yourself?

And the other one is what is going on with this dead legs thing? Yeah, just because you find a good coach doesn't mean they're going to solve your tired legs. I don't know how to find a good triathlon coach. I don't know. That's hard. Does USA triathlon have like a database of approved coaches that like maybe in your area that you can start reaching out to? Yeah, even training peaks has that has a database. Yeah, but you have to be careful because some people are.

even if they're on there and certified, it doesn't mean that you're going to jive with them or that they're necessarily experienced. This would be a massive undertaking that I'm not suggesting that we're going to do, but I had the idea of having TTR approved coaches and if you could actually go through and be like, yeah, we certified this person is not a loose cannon and et cetera

and has the blah blah and is in your location. Like that would be, we're not doing it, but like somebody doing that, that could be a very valuable service. I do think, yeah, the only way to really know if a coach is going to be good or not, is chatting to someone who's been coached by them. And it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you. Like, everyone's different.

But if someone has a good reputation in the community, then I think it's a safer bet. I don't know. This is how everyone I know that found their coach. It was through a recommendation. Through someone else. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it's not necessary that it's local, but I think there is an advantage to having someone that you can at least see a little bit.

even if it's just at races. And what's the reason for that? I just think in person is so much more valuable than online. Yeah, when I was growing up, my triathlon coach would have like a track session on Saturdays and like a bike workout or thing like on Tuesdays. And so like he could actually see me running. We could do some run drills and I think like little drills

and swim practice and stuff like that. that can be super invaluable if you have access to it. Paula would come to visit us for like a week at a time. When he lived in San Francisco, I don't know if you'll still do that, but that one week with him was so helpful for like bike skills and being able to read the athlete and if they're tired and on deck and everything. I know this is not feasible for most people, but there is some valuable things that can come out of it.

Yeah. But yeah, I'd say, I don't know about the dead legs though. I would think the last thing on the coach thing, before you start on that, like, process, like maybe write down some things. Here's what I want my coaching relationships to be like. Here's what I'm hoping to get out of it, et cetera. Like, I want a coach that text me every day or I don't. Or I want to have power coaching or I don't.

And then when you interview some coaches or when you're talking to other athletes that are recommending coaches, you'll have a little bit of a rubric instead of just, oh, they're really nice. Oh, yeah. That's actually a good tip about interviewing a coach first and maybe choose. choosing five and having a serious conversation with each of them through Zoom or something, you can get a really good sense of a person just by talking to them. And remember that you're hiring them. You're going to be giving them money. It's not like you're doing them a favor or

anything. I mean, yeah, of course they are going to make money, but it's your decision and you have to be the comfortable one with it. So don't be afraid to say no to someone just because you want to be nice or you feel bad or make sure it fits. I do think also a Zoom call or like something where you can actually see this person's facial expressions when they're talking to you, it gives,

we all have this sixth sense about people and I think we know who we jive with to have someone, I mean in person would be best, but if you can do it over Zoom, I totally agree I think that's a great way to discern that. Sweet. Dead legs. Yeah, dead legs. I don't know.

No idea. First of all, what does that mean? Does that mean legs don't have power? Or does that mean you're like a Charlie horse? Is that on the bike or on the run? On the bike? Oh. I don't know. The only things that come to mind are like if you have some sort of sciatic nerve impingement or something.

And then there's also this like pretty rare condition where enough impinging of the front of your legs can cause some restricted blood flow through scar tissue building up like in the blood vessels that are like on the front of your hips basically. it's not very common but oh if this is like truly a medical thing yeah i mean i'm we're just i'm going there rather than this is a fitness issue well what it makes you think of as eric the experience you've had with your torn labrum about how one of your legs goes kind of numb and you just don't have that much muscle recruitment available to you yeah that's a full-blown like there's some tingling and some numbness not just like oh i didn't have power if you just don't have power that's more that blood vessel restriction thing. I think I knew one person who had this and a bunch of people over the course of

triathlon conversations that suspected they had it and it just it wasn't the case, but those are literally the only two things that I personally can think of. I don't know, Paul, if you relate to this at all, but Eric, when you're like this condition where if you have too much hip impingement, you get not enough blood flow to the legs, I'm like, oh, I for sure have that. Yeah. I think all triathletes think we have that. We're like, oh, yeah, that's what's stopping my power for sure.

Right, for sure. But this is like legitimately you've been crunched over enough that it builds up scar tissue because of like a large artery is just being like pinched, pinch, pinch, pinched every pedal stroke. Yeah, I see. I see. Uncommon. Yeah. Well, it might be worth telling your doctor about Graham and seeing if there's an issue there, like a nervous system issue.

Why not? I mean, I mean, why not? Yeah, sure not. Graham lives in the UK is what I'm guessing That's such a that's a bad That's a bad guess But Graham the name Graham just strikes me as an Englishman Because of Graham O'Brien

You literally guess because of his name? Yeah Oh my God I don't know Okay Moving on to Chris Chris is from Ohio I'm gonna guess

Hi TTL Love your podcast on each of your stories My question is about the addition I don't know it doesn't say We know Chris from Arkansas Arkansas and Ohio. Are they even different? Have you ever seen them in the same room?

My question is about the addition of paddles to my swim training. I was inspired by Eric's stories about swim run and started a process to get ready to do one. I'm a long-time, long-course triathlon participant preparing for Iron Man Switzerland. Thun. Thun is that the name of the place? T-H-U-N. But now... Zeta, it's tuna.

I don't know if you're pronouncing it right, but it is a place, yes. Yes, yes. But now pining for a swim run. My question is why, since adding paddles to my pullboy segments in swim sessions, have my pull boy times gone down so much, while my paddle sessions have gone up so much. Seems like my non-paddle pull-boy sessions should also be improving. Any thoughts, much appreciated. Good luck to you all with your seasons ahead, Chris. Also, he's spelling pull-buy, pull-boy. Did we go through this once? Don't some people spell it pull boy? Aren't there some parts of the world? You spelling it B-O-Y? B-O-Y.

Like a boy. Like a boy. Like incorrectly. No, I think people, some people truly do think it's a pulled boy. I think that's right. Not a pull-buy, like a buoyant. Yeah, a buoy, B-U-O-Y. I know what that's, I guess if you somehow managed to buy one of these items without reading it, then.

And you just heard it. Well, you just get one at the pool. At the pool. You borrow it. Right. And you spell a pool. P-U-L-E? Pool.

Okay, so what could be happening here? Roasting Chris from Ohio. Sorry. From Arkansas slash Ohio. We're spelling sticklers. Okay, so what's going on here? How could you be getting better at using paddles, but then slower when you remove the paddles?

Well, because you get better at what you do. train for. And I think when you don't use paddles and pullboy, it's harder. So you're, I mean, by using paddles and pull boy, you're getting stronger, but you're not getting as much of a fitness. Aerobic. Aerobic workout as you are when you take those toys away. So maybe it's just gotten, you've gotten used to having this really high hip position and this optimal body position and you're strengthening your arms because you're pulling with these big paddles, but take all that away. And it may be over-excentuates the hip drop and the feeling of like not having that good of catch that you

have with the paddles. But this is with the pull-buoy still, just without the paddles, he's saying. That has gone down even. And I wonder if it's because with the paddles on, he's grabbing a lot of water with the paddles and he's forgotten to have a good catch with his entire arm. Oh, maybe. And so then when he takes them off, he's kind of just like slipping through the water more than he did before when he had no choice.

I would say so. And there's also just a major turnover difference. Your velocity is different, but I think your guess is probably the most accurate. An interesting thing would be to have a friend film you using paddles and using no paddles and checking if you can like notice that the catch is different or something. I don't know.

Yeah. Also another option would be to have a few different sets of paddles that are different sizes and not always gravitating towards like the biggest possible ones. because I think that some of those like the finesse tactical paddles that are barely bigger than your hand but they just go into your thumb

they actually encourage a proper catch and hand position and can help your technique but you're still getting the advantage of like getting a bit of strength through paddle work so you don't always have to use the same kind of paddles I think it's good to have two or three different shapes and sizes

especially for swim around you've got to have a full quiver of options it's like the cool thing quiver of paddle yeah they're huge Those are so big. Like if you always swam with your swim around paddles, you'd get a shoulder injury. Maybe. They're so big.

I did, my first 900 in the pool today was with paddles. And let me tell you, it is so much better than swimming without paddles. It is so much easier. Pull-boy and giant-ass paddles, your heart rate is like you're walking. Yes, totally. Feels so good. Oh, God, I love it. That is, that is something is matching the paddles in the pole buoy is, like, that I think is important.

I try to, like, if I'm swimming with big, paddles that, how do I describe this? Like, I, I've been doing a lot of swimming with like no paddles and the pole buoy lately. And if you have like a large pole buoy and you're swimming without paddles, I feel like that's more unrealistic of a thing than swimming with paddles and a pole buoy. Right. It's not because it's really not helping you. It's just like fixing your position kind of, but then, yeah, like I'm trying to like match like the good body position and the buoyancy with the increased ability to like pull water and like try to get my stroke turnover as close to like what it would be if I didn't have that lift and I didn't have the paddles if that makes any sense.

Do you guys ever swim with just paddles and no pull buoy? Sometimes and I was just going to say that actually is quite hard. That feels very, very weird. Because you get, it's muscularly hard but also aerobically hard because you're not getting the effect of having your entire body lifted up. I do like doing it sometimes though. It's faster, but it's definitely just as hard as swimming with no paddles. I feel like that can, especially if your paddles are even remotely in the category of big,

I feel like that can just mess with my kick timing so much. Because you can kick your legs really fast, but you can't move your arms as fast. Like that just confuses my brain. Yeah, but when you're talking about swimming, the more fun things you could try, the better. Right. Just to just get the time in and the pool and whatever you need to get through it, go for it. But if your goal is swim run and you're getting slower without paddles, who cares? Yeah, no problem.

Right. Right. Paula, by the way, don't think I've forgotten that we are supposed to do a swim run at some point. I thought about it yesterday. Can't wait. Should we pick one like in November or something, you know? So season's kind of over then? Yes, exactly.

Oh, really? Well, I was thinking triathlon season is kind of over by then. That's why I was thinking it would work for Paula. Okay, we'll check it out. We'll look into it. Yeah. I'm not against it. You're going to murder me.

I'm going to be so annoyed with you. Yeah. You're going to kill me. Yeah, we have to think about I mean, I just think it's really interesting that you don't have to be tethered, right? Right. That's, that's...

We're going to have to be tethered, otherwise you're going to be dropped. Paul is just going to be waiting for me at the finish line, 20 minutes, furious. Get the fuck across the line, you slow-be-shed. This was actually the basis of why I was thinking about it

is I was imagining that scenario as I was getting dropped by Paula on our bike right the other day. Right, right. You guys doing a swim run popped into my mind. Hilarious. Like, well, Nick, we would have won if you didn't suck. Yeah, exactly.

I'm like dying. I'm an inch from death. There's no we and you sucking. Oh, my God. No, Nick, I don't think that we'd be that bad of a team. Yeah, of course, I'm a faster swimmer, but I don't think I'm a faster runner. Oh, my God. You're a faster everything.

Oh, my God. On our trail ability, I think we'd be okay. It depends on the trail, maybe. But I still want to do it. We have to pick one at sea level. You also got a thing that it's like you're running. If you do the full inch of lot of thing, you're running like 35K.

So that's like quite an equalizer of Paula having to slow down and pace herself more, you know, versus if it was a 10K. I do Iron Man's now. Ultimate speed might come in more into factor into play. 35K is so far. Damn. Not even as far as an Iron Man. Which I'm training for.

It's almost as far as an Iron Man. It's on trail. It's definitely as long in time as an Iron Man run. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Moving on. Ben's question.

Hey, TTL parents. I was watching a recent GCN video about Strava. and whether it is healthy or toxic for our mental health and how we view ourselves in sport. I have personally fallen to comparison and bias more times than I care to admit. Do you guys notice this in your lives? And if so, what would you recommend as age groupers to do to try to slowly pull ourselves back on the center line of balance with comparison and just doing the things because they make us happy? Wishing you guys all the best and extremely happy to see your healing progress. Eric, Ben.

Didn't we talk about this like last week or the week before? Yes. Paolo texting Paula that Strava is like the root of all unhappiness or something? Yes. This was a big, this Jucian video was big. I watched part of it myself actually. I talked about it a bit. I recorded a podcast with Jackie who's starting a podcast called The Women's Race,

if you guys want to go listen to that. And we talked about it there as well. So is comparison the Thief of Joy? I think it's Rob's joy of everything and comparison sucks. Yes. But the thing is, as a pro athlete, I understand this. I understand why it can be bad. I understand why Instagram is bad too.

You're constantly looking at what your competition is and your livelihood and your identity is wrapped up in this thing. But as an age grouper, I don't know. I have only felt great about Strava and it's not because I'm fast. Because I'm not. It brings me joy to see my friends what they do. Like my friend yesterday did 381. for 10 minutes. I can't freaking do that. And I was like so stoked for him. I'm never going to be able to do that.

It's very possible to just like fall into that. Like oh, I Strava says like I'm in the lower 20% or like why. And you know, like, okay, now I thought this was good, but I didn't even get inside the top 10, you know. And like you have to. Takes the right person to be able to do it in a healthy way. Yeah, for sure. And you treat Strava so much like social media, Nick, where you're posting photos and like who did you run with and you like seeing the other friends around with other. So like if you were more of a lone wolf, I think you, if you went on Strava and you didn't have that aspect of it, you might start diving more into like

where you are on the leaderboards, et cetera. Or maybe if I were more competitive and I was like, yeah, if I were more like, I'm here to win. And I think that is totally fair that a lot of people who listen to this podcast and a lot of triathletes, that is what drives them is to be faster

than the next person. And when you're clearly not, then that removes a lot of the enjoyment. And Strava's like you're on there with pro athletes and people who have gone out and spent like a lot of time thinking about this particular little stretch of road. Like it's hyper competitive and don't forget that. Like, you know.

I usually, these days I've toned down the amount that I put on Strava. I probably just share like 60% of my workouts. And I only share them if I think the root was kind of cool or I have a cool title or I took a picture or too. but I don't post everything and I think that brings me a little bit of satisfaction to know that no one can like go on and see 100% of the training I'm doing in my entire week but I do understand the fun of like having a cool title or posting a cool picture of it and or location like if we do a cool ride in Portland that I thought was cool but I don't think it's necessary to basically

give people a full open book view of your training peaks. You know, that's what you're doing when you post everything on Strava with power. Yeah. At least for a pro athlete. Yeah, this is not really what the person was asking, but yes, good point. But Paul, I think you've touched on something that's pretty interesting, which is we just live in an age where it's totally normalized to share every single aspect of our conscious life. Yeah.

And there's probably some negative pathology in that. And intentionally restricting that. And you being the one who decides to restrict it sometimes and just keep some things as an experience that you have, it probably is a healthy mental thing to do. Like, damn, the only time I don't put stuff on Strava is because I'm like, people don't need to see my strength workouts, right? Because people are going to find it annoying.

I never think like, I'm going to keep this for myself. Maybe that's an idea. You should try it out. There's a weird satisfaction about it. I did a six-hour ride, but no one needs to know. Try it, Nick. I think, I dare you. I think what Paul is saying is a good thing to keep in mind, too, as your potential.

I dare you, Nick. I mean, Eric's been showing everything. I like seeing Eric Strava because he's on the road back to, you know, being healthy. People like seeing that. It's like, damn, Eric did road two hours today. I'm stoked for that. Yeah, I think Paula is, what Paula is saying is a good thing also to keep in mind because it Strava can be exactly the same as Instagram or any other social media where people

only post their best stuff. Yes, I agree with that. So don't, like, you can very easily be like, oh my God, you know, so and so just as like every single workout is like a seven hour ride. Yeah. Like, they're only posting those ones. That's true. That's true.

Yeah. Whatever things like that, you've got to tell yourself and remind yourself that this, that Strava is, this is not a direct translation to life and your self-worth should not be dictated by what it says. Yeah, I do think Strava is a cooler app than Instagram though. Yes. Because, like, I think also you can find motivation in it. I just like looking at the like my weekly totals and you like, you know, Strava just yesterday told me that I did my longest climb on the bike of 2026, which is like really exciting. I think they just started doing that. Stuff like that.

Does you notice that? I do not anymore go on to the leaderboards in my current state of mind to see where I stack up or look at anyone else's training, unfortunately. Like I like my mom's walks because she's also coming back from a surgery. I go on there for like the people, specific people. I like Nick's pictures.

He takes the best pictures of anyone on Strava. Okay. So these are all positive ways you can use Trava. Yeah, turn it into your little art project instead of a one-upping fitness thing. I also appreciate when like Nick you do descriptions and stuff I think that's kind of cool versus just afternoon ride

Oh really? I thought you did not like that for some reason No I think having an insight into like how people felt is cool Yeah I'm not as in depth But I do like reading them

I feel more attached to Strava than I do to Instagram for sure And so maybe that's why I put that in there It feels like a more appropriate place to put that stuff sometimes. And you can go back and see what you did last year and remember it. God, I do love that. I do love like a segment and seeing how I've progressed over a segment here.

That's fun for me. I think if you're a lifelong athlete the way you guys may be less so. But when you're relatively newer to it, I still feel like a motivation around, oh, I'm still getting faster. Or I'm, you know, marginally, but still getting faster. Yeah, yeah, that's true. But if you, last thing about this, if you open your Strava, does it say like last year on this day? this is what you did. And it's kind of cool to be like, oh yeah, I was in Santa Monica last year and we did this right?

Like, it's a bit nostalgic. Yeah, yeah. As long as you're not injured and comparing yourself to like what you did back anyway. I had a crazy thing. No, we're not going to go into this. I'll tell you after the podcast, TTL after Dark. Tell me. Next question.

Well, I'll tell you now. We've like tangented on this for like, there's like tangents upon tangents upon. Well, I feel pretty passionate about it. Well, do you even remember what the initial question was? Yeah, it was like, Talking about Estrava is bad for you. Okay. All right.

Which it couldn't be or it can't be. Okay. It's totally dependent on the person. I had a gravel ride that I did two weeks ago and I called it something. And then I saw like, oh, interesting. I'd done this route already. I wonder how I did compared to it. And I went to that ride.

And it was exactly a year ago. And I had named it the same thing, which was a song title that really had nothing to do with anything. And I was like, what is my brain this freaking weird that? Something about the ride there. You didn't remember? No. That's crazy. It was a coincidence. It was like a legit deja vu.

Yes. Especially because last year you were like in the s** thing. Correct. And the song was a song about that reminded me of her actually. That is insane. I know. It was very weird. It was very weird.

I thought Strava had an error. Yeah. But it was like, no, I do now remember calling. at that because I was listening to that song. Anyway, weird stuff. It was your brain and not your conscious. That's wonderful. Okay, next one here is from John.

This is a long one, so I kind of paired it down a bit. Hi, everyone, love the pot. I listen to it every week pretty much since day one. Day one or John, appreciate that, thank you. My question is about swim goggles. When I swim in the pool during the first 150 to 200 meters, I develop a leak in them, which, as you know, becomes very annoying.

It's not an issue since we're stopping at the wall to rest, and I can clear them out. It only happens once and then they're good for the rest of the hour-long swim. I think that's really interesting. Any tricks or tips to prepare the goggles or fancy swim tricks to clear them while I'm swimming? Maybe I need to try different brands. I've been using the aquasphere cayenne goggles and I look these up. They're kind of similar to the ones I use.

They're not swimmer goggles. They're like triathlete goggles. Bigger. Yeah. Not the same ones. I do replace and update them since they mostly work for me except for the first 150 meters. Thanks, John. There's more information there, but that's really the just of it.

Okay. Get them wet. Isn't that what's going on? Get your face wet, get the goggles wet. That's the only possible thing. Create a good seal. It's like when you put a gasket in any part of an engine, you put oil on it, helps it seal better.

That's got to be it, right? Yeah, it's that or like you going level in the water is actually causing your face to swell enough that it's creating better suction. My God, that's crazy. I don't think that's it. That's interesting, Eric, though. Like a literal change in your anatomy is affecting the seal of the goggles. Wow.

It's got to be that. Get both wet. Also, I just want to say that years ago, we had talked about foggy goggles, and I had a few podcast listeners message me and tell me to try Johnson and Johnson, like, shampoo on the inside of the baby. baby, baby shampoo. Oh, shampoo. And I was like, okay, sure, whatever.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I finally, I had these goggles that were just, the anti-fogg was so gone and I could barely see out of them. So I bought the Johnson & Johnson. I took a microfiber towel and I cleaned out the inside of the goggles until they were, they looked brand new. And then I swam in them. And they immediately fogged, like within a hundred yards, they immediately fogged. Then I put the Johnson and Johnson in, swirled it around.

mixed it with some pool water, they act like brand new goggles. For how long? Two, three swims, and then you just do it again. It takes no time. It takes no time to do it. So when you put the drops of shampoo in, you do put a bit of water?

Yeah. Last time, it seems to work, even if you don't do that. Last time, I just did the Johnson Johnson today and swirled it around with my finger and then mixed it with pool water and then kind of like, you got to get it out.

Otherwise it has like a film on it. Yeah. But then when you, once it dry, eyes, they feel like they look like brand new goggles. And it totally works. Just baby shampoo? It's just like less harsh on your eyes. So if you do get a little bit in your eyes, it won't sting.

Okay. So today I did have like a little bit of burning in my eyes. And it wasn't because it touched my eyes. I don't think it's like maybe like some of the, I don't know, fumes. Fumes is the wrong word, but. The fumes from the baby shampoo. Do you ever put sunscreen on your face? Because I get sunscreen on my eyes on the outside.

And it really burns. I just put it on my arms and shoulders and neck. Okay. But we have different skin, very different skin. That's a good tip though, Nick. I feel like that's more of a problem than leaky goggles a lot of the time. I couldn't believe that I've been buying new goggles for no reason now because the anti-foggis is what ends up making you buy new goggles,

not the seal of the goggles. So this really works. And the pro tip that I haven't tried yet, but that apparently is the best thing, is to put it in, mix it in a little spray bottle, 10 to 1, I think, water to shampoo. And that way, you don't have to deal with like, like right now I have a whole Johnson and Johnson shampoo bottle in my pool bag. But apparently with this little spray bottle, you can just and then you're good to go. So I'm going to try that next.

To answer this other guy's question, maybe it is worth exploring a different brand of goggle, though, prevent this from happening. if you're worried about it happening in a race. But also, like, if you have to stop in a race for three seconds to adjust your goggles, it's okay. It's so fun. Yeah, it's so fun. So think about how much time you're... Unless you're winning the race.

It's so fun. Even then. Three seconds is fine. Do you ever stop in a swim? Do you ever, like, stop and look around? Do you ever, like, adjust your goggles? Does that ever happen? Uh, not often.

I'd say maybe a couple times. But if I had to, I think I wouldn't panic. Yeah. It's remain calm. The best thing you can do while you're swimming in a race is remain calm. I wouldn't know. Right? I mean, that's hard.

Yeah, of course. Of course. Zen out, flow state. Okay, next question here is from Inga. Looking for Trail Running Shoe recommendations for the Mount Bachelor Ascent 50K. First of all, is this thing? Let's go. It's brand new this year.

It's going to be a big deal. Unfortunately, I think it's the same day as Nice. Is that right, Eric? It unfortunately is. Because remember Kyle Glass was talking about us, talking about it with Eric and I. Is it 50K all uphill? Yeah, that's what you do. No, you like go up to mount in two different ways.

Because there are now two trails that go up to mountain. The old trail and the new trail, so they can like, you can do like a figure eight. So is it like the easy one I did? You do both. And you end at the bottom. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a freaking awesome event because they've got like an uphill, a classic, which is like a 1K up and then 1K down.

you know, vertical K and then this 50K, it's like going to be I'm just really, really bummed that we're not going to be. God, I really want to do stuff like that. Eric, I'm so, if it doesn't conflict with our world schedule, I will 100% fly up and do that race with you and we can battle it out for first place.

All right. Sounds good. Speaking of which, I think I'm going to do the new Northern California 70.3. Oh, you are. Redmond? I think so. Redding. Yeah.

I don't know. know if this is okay to say, I'll make sure I ask him before I post it, but Mark from Zoot, he's like, hey, I have an extra Iron Man registration. And I'm like, I was thinking about, that's why I texted you, Paul. I'm thinking about Placid. I'm like, right, I think Placid's too much. So that new race in Redding, yeah. It was one of the ones I said you should try maybe. Yeah, that's right. We drive through Reading all the time when we're coming back from California. Yeah, if you race at all for sure, go down. Oh, sweet. Yeah, I think, I think right now that is the plan. It'll be a first year race. Even if you did Boise, we could come to that.

You wouldn't do Boise? Well, it's the week after Placid. Oh, right. You might be a little not able to move. Anyway, back to this question. I live on the East Coast and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Beautiful. I train for 50K races on my local trails like the Appalachian Trail.

Also amazing. How can I best prepare for the terrain and altitude of the Bachelor Ascent? The trails here are. are dirt, roots, rock scrambles, not lava rock or sand. Research tells me to get shoes with rock plates and large nubs for the pointy rocks out west. What would you recommend? As far as altitude, I can run plenty of elevation here through multiple ascents, but our highest peaks are 6,000 feet versus Oregon's 9,000 plus, and I'm worried about the thin air. Anything to help prepare for that, aside from coming out several weeks before the race, as that's not feasible with work

and family. Thanks all. Looking forward to exploring Bend while I'm out there this fall. Inga, yeah, 9,000 feet and 6,000 feet are very different animals. You're definitely right. You're going to want a shoe that has some sort of an actual rock plate in it. I've run up and down that in the whatever on racey trail shoe is because it's got a plate in it, which is for speed and also protection. And then like Solomon has got several shoes. that have a more robust, like whatever Courtney runs in,

I think like the Matrix or something has a good plate in it. And then I'm trying to think about what this course is going to be like, I don't think you're going to be running through like actual scree to the point of where you would need gaiters to keep.

What scree? Scree is just like straight up dust in little rocks that is, it's like, like, it's close to sand mixed with rocks, as you can imagine. And our dust here is like literally, dust. It's like volcanic dust. So it's closer to like brown powdered sugar with little

pieces of pumice mixed into it. And that gets in your shoes and it sucks. But Bachelor does not have hardly any of that where you're going to be, to my knowledge. So I don't think you have to worry about gators to keep stat out. So you said the on shoes, but are those ideal? Is that what you would recommend? I wouldn't necessarily recommend those, but I'm just, I know that those do work. I've run in something that is that quote super around there. But those would also be great

for like the more flatter non-technical way up? Yeah. I mean the non-technical way up, the thing the thing about the non-technical way up is it's like piled up large pieces of lava rock. So there's a high likelihood of turning

your ankle. So you want, do want something that you feel pretty confident in like the ankle stability on versus the, quote, old way up, the more technical way up, has some of that as well. But when you're at that part, like you are not really running. You're more hiking versus I think some of the like the piled lava rock path on the new trail up has the potential to be running over that. So yeah, I would go for something.

It's a very mountain, it's like a mountain sky running style course once you're over like 6,000 feet and I would have something you're very confident in the ankle stability and that you're not going to turn an ankle. What can Inga do and all the way out there? For altitude.

Yeah, I mean, let's say this. You can't do anything all the way out there. So how can you best prepare yourself once? Do you get to bend a week before? Do you get to bend as quickly, as little as possible before? Actually, I don't know that for the first.

Well, no. So when I did Big Bear, the race, you know, that you came to Nick, Mammoth, whatever, Apollo wanted me to go into that like 24 hours out as late as possible. Yeah. The difference, I think, is that you can go to Bend, which is at 3,000 feet. You don't have to time it so carefully. Whereas, like, Big Bear, you're at Big Bear, you're ready at elevation. Whereas 3,000 feet, it's not going to tire you out that much. And then you go to the race, it's like you're getting there same day. That's true. You're right, Nick. Yeah. And you might as well enjoy Bend. Which brings us to our next question. We're going to do two more.

I know we're kind of going over time here, but the last one is just a fun one. So this is the last real one. Hey guys, longtime fan, but only recent podcast listener. Question. I moved to Bend 10 years ago, in part to be in a great place to train. Unfortunately, smoke season is a new reality now. And I'm especially worried for this summer after the lack of snow this winter. What do you guys do when the smoke hits?

Having a full-time job and family makes it tough during an Ironman build when those long bike rides on the schedule are smoky and a long ride indoors is torture and travel isn't an option. Is there a certain AQI where you don't go out? Escape to the coast in the van. I usually plan on going to the Oregon coast in August to avoid the smoke but have yet to find a great safe cycling road there. Any suggestions? That was like a 20-part question. Yeah, and there's more, and I just didn't read, actually. So thanks for being awesome, Matt.

I was riding up Bachelor today for the first time because it's the mountains closed, so it's relatively low to cars and there's no snow. And there was a controlled burn happening one foot off the road. There was trees flaming on fire. It was the most crazy experience ever that we were fully allowed to be riding there, but I was seriously six feet from trees on fire. It was so crazy. Could you smell it?

Yeah, of smoke. Yeah, of course. Oh, so yeah. Oh, my God, that's bad. But there were firefighters all over controlling it. But it's crazy because smoke season for us is the summer when fires are happening and you don't want them to be happening. But then in the spring, they're doing all these controlled burns to hopefully alleviate damage during the summer. But that's also creating smoke.

So it extends all the way to April. Wow. So is there an ACU? eye that you don't go out for? The pool closes at 200, which is super high. Yeah. I don't like doing... Like 150 is high.

Yes. I don't like doing hard intervals over 150. We've sort of tried to like smoke proof our garage. Like we bought the thickest possible garage door we could get. We have filters that we run, like a couple of them. Because it is much better than doing a session outdoors. But the problem is a lot of the time smoke season coincides with brutal heat. So you're in the garage really hot plus a little smoky, which is a really claustrophobic feeling.

So the best way to avoid it is to leave if you can. And there are some really good roads on the coast that are quiet that we found. Do you know the names of them? Yakima Bay Road on Newport is super quiet. Yakina Bay Highway. Yeah, that one. Which like hooks over to Salettes. We did it, Nick with you.

Salets Highway is very good. Unfortunately, there's been a big landslide on it that cuts it in half now, but it is still good to ride on. And the stretch between, it's a good loop to basically loop the Salets Highway with the coast, with the Aquina Bay Road. That's a cool loop. This question's pretty specific for people that are living on the West Coast. Yeah, this may be just DME. But I mean, smoke is a reality in most, like, California, and you don't really get it too badly there, Nick, right? No. Until our whole city burns down, then we get it. Yeah. We've also headed to Canmore during smoke season, but it's not like 50% of the time, Canmore will also be smoky. The smoke maybe coming from there.

It's a same, like, you guys, the smoke that you guys get in the summer isn't even fires in Bend very often. Rarely. It's fires from far away. California. Usually. It just brings it over to you. For some reason, Ben sits in this little pocket where the smoke kind of stays. Like, it doesn't often clear out quickly.

And it's the biggest downside of living here, for sure, is the smoke season. Last year was fantastic. But, yeah, a lot of people are concerned about this summer because of the lack of snow. But it really has a lot more, in my opinion, to do with spring rain. And if you actually get, you know, we've had obviously not a super, wet winter, but if we were for whatever reason get a wetter spring, that keeps things, that helps a lot. That's what worked last year. If you can, while you're thinking about it now, buy a couple of these, like, I think ours is a shark brand air filters just to have in your

house because they do start selling out when smoke season actually hits, but they're really good. We have it on in our bedroom and in the garage and do the best you can, I guess, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, final question here. This is just a short one and a fun one. I saved it for last. It's from Alice. Hello, running my first marathon in a week. First of all, Alice, that's so freaking cool. It's funny, we've normalized the marathon, but it's so far to run.

It's so far. It's crazy far to run. So that's amazing. I would love any recommendations for the best songs to hype me up, keep me going, please. Thanks for amazing community and podcast, Alice. Okay, I'm going to go first. I've mentioned this song before, but I can't stop thinking about it, how great it is and how much I love it. St. Lucia has a song.

song called Elevate. It's just, it's big energy the whole time and it's so positive and so uplifting. That's my go-to, like, hype-up song. Oh, nice. I do like that song a lot. That's good. It's so funny because it rotates for me so much. It's like I'll hear a song and I'll get obsessed with it. It'll be my song for a week and then I'll get another one will come. Totally. It's such a rotating menu. And I always have one right now because I have one right now that's not elevate, but it is so inappropriate for the podcast audience. It's so inappropriate. It's like, it's like, it's just like, it's an instrumental, it's like metal. And I don't think there's going to be a lot of people that enjoy. It's a, it's a, it's a song called, uh, from Pliny,

P-L-I-N-I. I think it's called like after after everything. It's so good. The guitar solo in the end is one of my favorite guitar solos of all time now. Really? After everything. Yes. It's like, it almost made me cry the other day on my run. I'm like, oh, this is so beautiful. But I wouldn't say that it's generically not liked. I'm like to. I mean, everyone likes different kinds of music. Yeah. Yeah, totally. I just went and pulled up top songs from 2019 on Spotify.

My number one song is Put In Work by Bubba Sparks and Yellow Wolf. I know that song. I think through you. That's like extreme, specifically pump up. Did you use it on a vlog ever? I mean, I might have put it in like a TTL sweat. Yeah, that's what I was. Or something at some point in time.

But, yeah. My favorite thing to do, this is not a specific song, but if I have a hard session or something, lately, I've been putting it on Eminem radio. Nice. Nice. Because it's not just Eminem. It's like, mom spaghetti. Another thing I like is like Much Dance 2000. Remember those albums?

Much Dance? No, I don't know that. Much Dance, 1999. Much Dance, 2000. It's a Canadian thing. Got it. And it was all the songs that were hype songs in that year. Yeah.

And I had them all. from like 1995 to 2006. Obviously I don't have the physical CDs anymore, but anything that brings you back to your teenage years and a lot of the songs back then are so much better than current songs in some ways. I don't know. I think they are. As I listen to old stuff,

what I like about some of these old stuff, things that we've been listening to are like, they feel like simpler, like just pure fun and simple instead of like, there's not like 12 layers of deep meaning of, you know, mental health and it's just like the sun's out and it is fun. Yeah, boom, boom. There's so much inappropriateness that you're like,

I sang that when I was 11. Dude, when I think about some of these songs, I'm like, I cannot believe my parents let me listen to this. And they were right. Like, my parents listened to the podcast. I'm very thankful you guys let me listen to all the Blinkin 82 stuff. But I'm like, damn, I was singing, I want to fuck a dog in the ass. Like, that's the name.

Who's saying that? You don't know that song? That was a bonus track on Take Off Your Pans and Jacket. No. I want to fuck a dog in the ass. I want to fuck a dog in the ass. I want to fuck a dog in the ass. Says them just like, do you think we can get away with?

Yes, exactly. Exactly. Oh, my God. We were watching, our YouTube, like, served us a Britney Spears, the creation of the music video for one of her songs, back when she was like 17. Do you remember which one it was? It's one where they're in a nightclub

and she starts out as like a waitress. Wait, not the airplane one. Not where she's a She's a She's a wait for like one millisecond. Okay. I'm going to find it one sec. Was it like yeah?

Oh, yes, I don't know. And there's like four famous people in it. You drive me crazy. Oh, that was such a good song. I just can't see. And the production of the music video was so good and so big. Yeah, they used to spend like $200,000 on these music videos. Yeah, and I think they did it all in film too, didn't they, Eric? Yeah. It's too long ago they had to for

sure. Yeah. Yeah. But watching, I mean, it was super raw because it was like 1990. I forget, but the actual documentary of the creation of it was also very interesting because of how different everything is now and how raw and pure it was back then. And she was so innocent and now you know what happened to her over the years. Not that innocent. She was so talented and so young. Yeah, too young. But songs like that, where we were just

jamming out to that song all night because it's nostalgic and it's good. What do you think Jen Alpha thinks when they listen to that song? Like, do that's so cringe? Can't listen to that shit. Fuck them. Whatever. They'll get into it later. Do they not like that? Like, they like the 90s. They all want to wear dress like

we did in 90s. Yeah, so maybe they do. Maybe their like 90s core now. Yeah, it was a great song. That's my pick for your hype up. You drive me crazy by Britney Spears. Okay, great. Put that on your fucking marathon playlist. Super loud.

For a kilometer 30. Yeah. Oh, brutal. You're going to have to bleep so much of this episode. That's okay. It's so great. I love it. And I have to do it right now, actually.

Oh, yeah. It's pretty late. Well, we were in Portland for two days. Yeah, thanks for doing this so late, Nick. That was my fault. My pleasure. Love the pod. Always.

I love the pod so much. The reason that this is delayed is because we went to Portland for my six week, eight week, surgery, follow up appointment. We're not going to get into right now because it's the end of the show. But tune in next week and I'll fill you all in on how that's going. A little cliffhanger? Love that. Yeah.

The doctor was like, most people are starting to go to the grocery store by eight weeks. What have you been doing? And I was like, I roll. There's the cliffhanger for you, folks. Oh, yep. Check in next week. Later. Bye.

Bye. I'm