That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon helmet visor vs sunglasses, day before the race training, 1x drivetrain, and more!

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

This week we start out with a very special announcement about Eric and Paula, talk about the release of our film with Foreign Rider, and then answer your questions about triathlon! To submit your own questions, as well as become a podcast supporter, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finlick. I'm Nick Goldston. And after a fun week last week with my sister, all three of the musketeers are back. Paul and I are back in Bend. Nick's on the other side of the world. So we're doing this at a weird time, but we're all here and we're psyched. So where do we start? There's about a hundred things we need to talk about here before we even get into them. First thing. First thing's first. It's Eric's birthday today. We are committed to the trade. I think it's fun. Eric thinks it's fun, yeah.

Once we're all here and doing it, it's fun. Yeah. The planning that's not fun. Right. When you're trying to fit in a birthday cake celebration and picking up the birthday cake and three workouts. And getting my engagement ring fitted. You're what? I'm sorry.

It's too big. Oh my God. But it's okay. I've been wearing it around on my middle finger. I don't know if that's like super taboo. But if I want to wear it, I got to wear it on the, on a fatter finger, which is the middle. I'd rather it not get lost, so whatever finger.

Yeah, but honest, okay, bend is so insane. I went into the jeweler today. Never in my life have I been to a jeweler, by the way. And it's like a month out to get it resized, and you have to leave it with them. And I'm like, could I just come back in a month? What's the reason for this? How come this jewel, is this jeweler not very good?

No, I think it's just the demand is so high. The town is growing very quickly. I don't think industries, like plumbers, ring modifiers, tailors. I don't think these trades are growing at the same rate that people want to move here to mountain bike and trail run. Plus, how old are the people that are moving there? You know, that's like all... Probably better age. Yeah, it's all the same age kind of people. Yeah, yeah. But I love the ring. Eric and I, Eric, we got engaged on Monday and that's that.

This might come as a surprise to some people for different reasons. I bet half the podcast thinks that Paul and I are already married and have been for a while. Of course. But we're actually not. I guess we should back up just in case you're new here, Paul and I are both professional triathletes. We're romantically involved. We are now engaged.

No shit. Nick is our really good friend, amateur triathlete and professional musician. You did it. It's finally happened. Now people can stop bothering both of you about this. Yeah. And the comments that are like, oh, finally.

Like, okay. nothing really changed. He's had it for a little while. I've had it for a little while, and there's been a lot of people who've made comments about the like, how long is it, you know,

the finally people. And like honestly, if you're one of those people who do that, I would recommend don't do that because that annoyed me to the point of where it made me frustrated about it and I didn't like,

especially when someone pretty close to you does it, what if I was planning on doing it the next day? Then you have to live with that person being like, oh, glad you. I was able to push it over the edge. I'm not going to give that person that satisfaction.

So anyway. I totally agree. I don't understand what the best case scenario is, right? When you tell someone who, when are you getting engaged? It's like, okay, either one, you're making them feel awkward about something that they're struggling with, or B, you're taking away something that should be special and you're making it seem kind of just like this compulsory thing that everyone has to do. Either way, it's...

Either way. But we're not turning this into a negative thing. It took a while, but I really... wanted to be a special moment and you know like a lot of people I wanted us to be able to do it in nature on a bike ride or on a run or something and that's tricky because we're

ultimately also doing it while we're at the office yeah like the first of times where I'm grumpy on a run is pretty high but um on this like before it was our last run in Canmore so I was like Eric can you bring your phone in case we want to get like a picture on a last run obviously had no idea that this is coming he forgot his phone so after the first kilometer

or I was like, did you bring your phone? He said no. And I'm like, okay, well, then you can carry the bear spray. So I came on the bear spray. Perfect, of course. So it's carrying the ring and the bear spray. Good thing you didn't mix the two up in the moment mattered, Eric. Exactly.

Okay, anyway, yeah, that's very fun. And also, the feedback from last week's podcast was pretty amazing. And I personally thought Elise did a super good job. Very articulate. I was very interested. and I wasn't there when you guys recorded it, but I was, I did listen to it and I thought it was awesome. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of crossover too with triathletes who either do trail running or are interested in it. And even if you're not, it's still like an epic endurance event, which is relatable to us.

So either way, I think it was fun for people to hear. Yeah. Okay. And then we have gear that is dropping on Friday, but I'll let Eric talk about that a little more. So that's tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. When this comes out, it will be officially tomorrow. Friday, it'll be in the morning. We haven't said an exact time yet, but probably like 7 or 8 a.m. Pacific. And this is like, this is pretty exciting for us because this is the first time what we've done like a pretty cohesive launch all at one time.

Over the last, since COVID, basically it's been really hard for us to put out, you know, T-shirts and shorts and hoodies like all at the same time. And it's been like, oh, we got the blue hoodies. And then in two months, we'll have the green ones. And then in a week, we'll have the shorts. And we don't have the ability to just like hold. stuff, you know, so long to keep it all coming out at the same time. But this all worked out. We've got new trail hats. We've got two women's shirts, two men's shirts, two men's shorts, two women's shorts. Super cool. We went for this like retro color block, really fun summer collection. So check that out on Friday. Yeah, maybe we should call it the color block collection. It's so far unnamed. So this is how we work at TTL. Like you know, some companies, they're like, have things planned two years out and they're like picking their summer 2020 four collections out.

And we're like, oh, it's coming out tomorrow. What should we call it? The blue. But usually like Eric comes up with really smart things like on a dime. So we can. I've been busy planning this, this little event, this little run that we did in Canmore. I was busy. Oh, you were busy planning that? That wasn't for the moment. We're busy. We've been busy with a lot. No, I mean, I've been planning that for a long time. But we have. We have. have had a lot going on. The other thing that we have going on, also apparel related, is finally Nick and my film with Foreign Riders coming out, that's going to be Saturday. Yep. And we, I mean, we did that. We flew straight from Oceanside, 70.3, way back in April to Hawaii and shot this film with Ralph Dunning, of Foreign Rider, to basically help him launch the technical

apparel side of his brand. And more importantly, kind of tell a little bit of a story of what the brand is about and what it means, Foreign Rider, and their motto is the exploration of freedom. So we would absolutely love it. If you go ahead, if you go and watch that, it'll be on Foreign Riders YouTube. We'll make a big deal about it on Instagram. So it shouldn't be hard to find. But Nick and I are really, really proud of it.

Yeah. I think it's probably the, well, we do different kind of things, but I feel like it's maybe the coolest thing we've ever done as a complete package. I think so. I think in terms of it having multiple layers of meaning and just being the absolute best we could do with, you know, cinematography. You know, we shot Controlled Burn in one evening and we were late to pizza. We were.

We had trouble. Texting us like, where are you guys? Like, one more shot, one more shot. But this, we went to Hawaii for four days. All the locations we wanted to go to took the time, did it right. and it's awesome. Yeah. Although you did buy the fancy drone after this trip,

so it couldn't be that awesome. That's true. That's true. It could have been like 3% awesomer. It would have been nice to have the fancy drum because when I'm punching in on some of those edits, I'm like, uh, yeah, this is not quite as crisp as the new one would be.

Well, that's the thing. I guess we'll just have to shoot another one then. That's the only solution I see. There will be more. We're just getting started. Do we mention that it's Eric's birthday today? Yeah, we did. We did. Okay. We did.

Eric, you're turning 21. You're going to have your first drink? Can't wait. Got any recommendations? Yeah, my first drink was a Mai Tai out of Cheesecake Factory in Boston. Really? Don't do that. My first drink was actually a beer.

Yeah, because I'm a male. Classic. Classic. A male human in Oregon. Okay, so the first thing we'll do here is a little bike tech with Eric. This is just a one question. question one, but I do think it's a good one. Okay, this is from Tom. Tom says, hi, we'll add to those keeping the intro short and the Apple podcast reviews long. This would likely fall towards

the bike tech with Eric, which he abbreviated to BTWE, which I love. I'm starting on a TT bike built. Yeah, that's good. I'm starting on a TT build for mainly middle distance 70.3s, and I'm looking for input on a one-by or two-by drive terrain. Looked like Paula was using one-by Canadian TT champs and maybe in 70.3s this season as well. One buy is a little bit cheaper and a little lighter, but is it just going to limit the gear range too much for the average 70.3 even with a 12 speed cassette? Is there any variety among pros you see or most are two buy? Curious what you've seen. Thanks, Tom. Yeah, this is going to be a little bit individual. I think Paula and I and a lot of pros can get away with a one buy because I'm surprised how many

pros don't use a one-by. Yeah. I love the one-by. I freaking love it. Like, I put a two-by-on when it's a really hilly course, but I don't like it. And I think in St. George, we put a two-by-on, and I honestly didn't even get out of the big ring. Yeah. So I would just...

Even up Snow Canyon, you weren't the big ring. Yeah, because the 12 speed at the back gives you a huge range. Yeah. It's just if you want, like, ultra-tight options for... I'll let air cancer, because I don't know. But my personal opinion is I love the one buy. And it's not a cost thing or a weight thing necessarily, although it is lighter and more arrow. But for me, it's just simpler.

It's like, yeah, they go up or you go down. You're not fucking around with the front derailer. I agree. I mean, Paula pretty much nailed it. But kind of where I was going with my original line of thought was that I think a lot of pro athletes can get away with it because we're strong enough even going up Snow Canyon to stay in the big ring. whereas, you know, Paul is FTP is whatever, 280, and mine's 310 or whatever, and it's like we can go above that for a bit and almost for sure the dynamics of the race

are going to dictate a pretty high pace uphill. Whereas if you're just trying to pace evenly and you have an FTP of 160, you're probably going to want that two by would be my guess. Unless you know you're doing like Texas, Florida, and you don't have any hill. Although I would say that like Eric and I both have two buys on our road bike. And for a training purpose, I think the two buys nicer because you want to be able to spin up a hill if you need to. But we only are really using our TT bikes for racing or race specific workouts where we're practicing being at really high speeds and don't really need to spin up steep hills. So depending on what you're using the bike for, if it's going to be a primary bike for training, two by.

is definitely the way to go. Yeah. Even if it's not your primary bike, even for someone like me, I'm very grateful to have a two-by setup on my bike because of the training purpose, you know? And where you live. Yeah, and where I live too, it can be very hilly. But if you're going out for a ride that's not high intensity,

you want to be able to like kind of slowly spin up a hill sometimes. Yeah, totally. It's not just all out all the time. So for me, I find, but maybe if you live in a really flat place and you're only doing flat races, maybe that's the one scenario where a one-by would be better. Yeah. Or if you want to go real fast.

Real fast. Like if all those little minor differences with arrow and weight make a difference. But what I often do is if you buy a one buy, you can also just easily switch it to a 2-buye. Like Eric switches mine back and forth all the time. I don't know how much time it takes. It just takes money because the power meter is built in.

Oh, yes. Oh, it's expensive. Unfortunately. At least with like the dinner plate, solid chain rings. My question for you, Eric, is, I guess I haven't really thought of this until this question, but how complicated is it with the front derailer to remove and install that every time? Do you have to kind of like re-index it every time?

Is that easy? I can do it in like 20 minutes because with the SRAM E tap, it's wireless. So I leave the derailer like attached to the hanger, and on the SHIV-T-T, the hanger actually is entirely removed. And so I just have to bolt the hanger on and then tell the whole system, Hey, you're a two-by again. Oh. Change the chain length.

The chain length changing is probably the biggest thing, but. Oh, you do have to change the chain length? Yeah. Okay. So my follow-up question, do you put a new master link in every time, or do you keep reusing the same one? So far, I've only done it at enough times where I just put a whole new chain on. Oh, okay.

Got it. Because obviously, like, one direction, you can't, like, make the chain longer. I don't know if you've heard this before, that you should only put the master link on once. You shouldn't be taking it on and off constantly. Have you ever heard that? Yeah, I have heard that. And I'm sure SRAM probably says that, but I don't do it every single time.

Yeah, that seems, I mean, how bad can it really be? I don't know, because they're just worried about a point of failure. That's a master link. I'm sure if I don't know, a lot of people don't know. Yeah, right. There's a link that's in a chain that basically you use a master link tool to like pinch it and that splits the chain instead of having to use a chain breaker to physically push a pin out of the chain.

It's designed so that it actually kind of like comes apart unlike every other link in the chain. Like a necklace clasp or anything like that. So you could use that to clean the chain really easily travel without the chain on the bike, etc. I already showed to ice friction

just on a whim. I was like, I really want to waxed chain because everyone's doing it for my TT race and they sent me like two within a day. Yeah. Great company. We want to take over their Instagram and revamp it a little, but their product is amazing. Yeah, that's great.

That's great. Can't do everything. It's hard. Okay, so we're going to move on to questions now, but that was a great bike tech with Eric's little segment. Tom, thank you. And we kind of spiraled, but spiraling with the bike tech stuff is always great and interesting. So for anyone that's listening, you probably already know this. But if you don't, you can ask questions for this podcast yourself at that triathlonlife.com

slash podcast. And you can also become a podcast supporter there. And that helps keep this podcast ad free. We just get straight to it. Hot tip, for those considering doing that, we have got some good stuff coming up. We have a couple different companies that are interested in giving away some good stuff. Including the podcast supporters. So. And it'll be only to the supporters, right? Not to all the listeners. Right. Exactly. Okay. First question here is from Jacob, from Wisconsin. Hi, Eric, Paulinick, and Flynn. My question is about your routine the day before a race, specifically what you do for workouts. It appears on YouTube videos.

You sometimes do multiple workouts the day before a race. Can you give some insight in how long and hard these workouts are? I have a 70.3 coming up, and the plan I'm following has the day before as a rest day, but I usually feel better doing a short workout. Thank you, Jacob. Yeah, it's so funny to call them workouts because I wouldn't. I would say they're like tune up, gear. check, make sure your body feels good, and you're right. Taking a rest day before a race, I think is

insane because I never feel that good after a total rest day. But usually we'll do a swim on a bike and a run the day before. Really? I don't think I knew you did all three the day before. We do like a 2K swim maybe. That's just a choice. And then like an hour. It's not choice. There's a workout too. Like there's an incorporated set within the 2K, like some pickups and whatever. And then an hour ride and a, a 20 minute run. The run is usually optional. This is like optional, you know, with strides or something like that.

And the bike will be like some six second sprints. And honestly, like, that activates your neurological system a little bit. But I also think it's a good check to make sure your bike is all together. Because when you're doing a six second max sprint, you're cranking on that thing. And if anything's loose or anything's not like set properly, it'll break. So I get confidence how to doing those six second sprints, honestly. Also a little scary though. I feel like.

Yeah. You break your reader right there straight off at which point you go to the bike shop and they tell you they're three months out. Yeah. Well, whatever. You know what I mean? Like if you've traveled and your pedals are loose or whatever. I know. I'm just joking.

But usually the way I'll structure the race, the day is like get up first thing in the morning like 7 a.m. Do the hour ride and then it's done. And then I'll clean my bike. Make sure it's all good to go. Go check my bike in. And after I'm done checking my bike in, do a little swim on the course if that is. feasible at your race venue. And then go back to your hotel, chill a little bit,

maybe do a 15 minute pre-dinner jog. So there's so much time in the day to rest and get ready, even with fitting in these three shorter sessions. So that's how we do it. Yeah. Most of the time I feel like you're getting cagey because you're so rested. You've been sleeping a ton and you're just like want to race. And it's almost like, oh, thank God it's time to go for that run.

And it's a thing to do. I just, I'm feeling restless sitting here on the couch anyway. Do you guys ever get worried that your wetsuit may not be dry by the next morning? No. Does it even matter if it's not dry? No, only in like Florida where it's a thousand percent humidity. But even if it's not, if it's that hot and humid, it's not a wetsuit swim for one. And it is possible to put a wet wet wetsuit on if you are determined.

Yeah. Oh, it's possible. I just feel like it's miserable. The last thing I want to do. Between like noon and the next morning, that's plenty of time. If you turn it inside out and hang it up outside, you're good. My joke went right over his head. I was trying to say something and I didn't, and I totally missed whatever the joke was.

It was a good joke. It was a good joke. You'll have to listen to the pod to catch it though. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. So Eric, on our ride last week, we were sharing AirPods because he forgot his AirPods. and I was listening to the Elise pod and he took the AirPod out and refused to listen to it.

Eric does not listen to the pod guys. Hot Inside Tip here. No, I mean, I really, I did want to listen to that one and I, but also I was there. But for me, like, it was just a very weird feeling like listening to us in my head and I felt like I was there

versus like I'm here on this road doing this workout. And it wasn't, It wasn't just an easy spin. So I was just, I was having this, like, very weird sensation of, like, I'm having a conversation with Nick and my sister right now, or am I riding with Jordan and Paula in Canada? I can't.

I think this is what a lot of people like about this podcast, is that they listen to it on the trainer or on a run or something, and they do feel like they're here with us instead of suffering with the effort. Totally. Yeah. You know, with the effort. Maybe. I get it.

Different when it's yourself on the other end. Yes, that is different. Yeah. This was the session. where Eric and Jordan and I were like softly going for a QOM from Lake Louise to Banff on the highway. And when I say softly,

I was like, I knew at the kilometers an hour, he had to hold 42 kilometers an hour for an hour and nine minutes. Oh, that's not that soft. Jesus. So it's like kind of hauling ass, but also there was like a bit of a tailwind, so we thought it was a good day to do it. It was one of those workouts

where we were supposed to do fat max riding. So instead of like four by 30 minutes fat max, we just did 90 minutes fat max. My watts weren't like crazy. I wasn't drilling it the whole time. But we were moving fast. And by halfway, our average was over 42K an hour. Kind of like taking turns and stuff.

So is this the one that you, I don't want to give it away. But did you get it? No, I missed it by one second. Yeah. Oh, no. I missed an hour, nine minute, 27 second QOM by one second. And I didn't have it like saved on my Wahoo with the Strava segment thing. So when we got halfway, we were.

doing this climb and Eric and Jordan are just like chatting. And I was like, okay, we're giving up on it. Whatever. For the record, I was going 330 watts while we were chatting. Oh boy. This is fun. I was like, come on boys. We're low key going for a segment. So then. Ride arrow please. So then the last 20 minutes I was like, okay, I need to take this into my own hands and I went to the front and started riding pretty hard. And then this like, most insane thunderstorm you've ever seen and rain. started coming down, couldn't see like blinding

rain. Absolutely crazy. With hail, like hurt. There was like probably two centimeters of water just standing on the road because it was scary. It wasn't draining fast enough. And I was like, man,

if we weren't like softly going for a segment, I would just stop right now. Under a tree. Yeah. But I kept going because we were kind of within the range of maybe getting it. So we kept riding through this crazy storm crossed like the arch at the end of the parkway

and still had no idea if I'd gotten it or not got to Strava when I'd finished and missed it by a second. That's funny because if you see that on the leaderboards, you're like, well, clearly those two people were riding together. There's no way that an over-hour segment is a second apart. I'm not like sentimentally attached to that segment or anything. It was just like a fun reason to kind of go hard. Yeah.

So I'll try it again. But anyway. We'll wait for a good one day too. That was maybe my biggest tangent ever. That's great. That's this great story. Love that. We're going to need a theme song for tangents now. Tangent with Paula. Yeah, well, if we had tangents theme songs, it would be constant.

And it only happens if I skip a week. Okay, anyway, next question. Fun. Next question here is from Mary Nicole. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. My question is for Eric. Have you ever considered doing the Leadville 100 mountain bike race or any event similar to that? I've supported friends and family during that race and your mountain bike montage

and the latest TTL YouTube had me thinking about it. Plus, after the pod was Elise last week and learning about her trail running, I think it would be so cool if she did the Leadville 100 run and you did the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Anyways, thank you all for what you do so much, Mary Nicole. Interesting proposition to have you guys both do that race.

Yeah, that would be interesting. I put this question in, though, because... The coincidence. It's kind of a coincidence. I'm doing a hundred mile mountain bike race on Saturday. I'm sorry, what? Did you not know this, Nick? No, I did know this.

I thought I told you. I thought I'd tell you. Yeah, you did. Yeah, I've definitely considered doing events like that. Leadville does not particularly interest me that much because it's not really a very technical mountain bike ride. It's kind of more about like,

yes, you're on a mountain bike because the road sucks, but you're at 10,000 to 12,000 feet. That's the hard point. And I have nothing but respect for people who do it, but I'm kind of more interested in the type of mountain bike race that I'm doing this weekend, where it's predominantly single track and it's not just about altitude.

So yes, I'm very much looking forward to dabbling in such things. Maybe, I don't know. That's that, yeah, I won't say no, because the with a least kind of concept is pretty entertaining. And would you do one of those 100-mile gravel races, like does that sound interesting to you, or do you like the very technical mountain bike aspect of it to make it fun? Um, for sure. You know, I, I did some gravel racing back, uh, before COVID, before gravel, like, became a thing and everybody made gravel bikes. And the one that I did was the Vermont overland. I guess I should say my favorite one that I did was the Vermont overland. And that is like a very technical ride. Um, and it's shorter. It only takes like four hours. And I just, I personally don't understand why there aren't more gravel events of that length. It kind of seems like, oh, it's a gravel race. It has to be 120 miles. And it has to be, um, and it has to be,

a thousand degrees or whatever. So, yeah, just like triathons, if a certain course captures my imagination, like, I'm going to go for it. So it's less about what everybody else thinks is cool rather than kind of what it gets me excited about a course or a culture or a story around a certain event. The idea of being able to do the FKT style thing

is you can still go to a place, make a cool video about it, that isn't like trying to somehow get a video alongside of everybody there's a person's videographer at Dirty Cans at Unbound

Yeah, like we could actually go and do have the best of both worlds you're doing a cool thing in nature and we can also present it in a way that gets people really excited and is artistic Yeah, cool

Cool, next question is from Derek Hey all, after finishing my first triathlon last weekend I was wondering if any other followers or members of TTL Nation were around Any plans or ways for those who support you all to connect somehow?

It would be cool to connect with someone in the area for workouts or other races as the training can sometimes be a lonely endeavor. Keep up the wonderful work you do, Derek. So, I mean, we've talked about this before. I feel like right now the most convenient way to do that is kind of like wear your TTL stuff to the race. And that's kind of like a little beacon, you know, of, hey, I'm here. You know me. I know, let's hang out. Let's talk at least.

Yeah. But it did. It was an interesting thought because if you were. at a race and you want to plan in advance to meet someone before the race for a ride or after the race for a beer or something. It's kind of awkward to do that maybe in person just because they're wearing the same t-shirt as you. So it might be cool to have a, yeah, we've talked a lot about having a Slack channel or

a Facebook group or something like that. We're just at capacity for adding stuff to our to do list. But I think it could kind of self-maintain because the community would keep it going. Yeah, like that's how a subreddit would work like that too, right? Like you have a moderator or something or not, and people can kind of like make posts within that and discuss through that. Or like you said, a Facebook group or a like channel or something like that. Yeah, that would be cool. And I honestly think that like unlike Slow Twitch or some of these other forums that can bring some negativity,

I don't think the TTL community would need moderating. No, you're right. That's not really the point. Everyone is so positive. So, yeah, I think just does a network. community thing, it would be cool. So good idea. Thanks for bringing it up. Yes. Very top of mind for us. And it will happen at some point. We're just growing. Yeah. Cool. Growing. Yeah. I guess I want to put this question in because we get asked this a lot. And it's not like we don't know it's a thing. We do want to make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. It is crazy to us still like how many freaking hats we see at a race. So It's like still very shocking to us, how big it's become. And even the fact that something like this is requested is kind of insane.

So, but it's a good idea. Yeah, cool. Next question here is from Joy from Minneapolis. Hi, TTL team just finished my first Olympic try and want to thank you for your company on many runs and inspiration. Your attitudes and race stories keep it real and tips put us kids above the competition. In my race, everything went to plan or better until the run. Hot headwind in every direction. I know that feeling. Lost my caffeine pill, passed by 24 people, and slower than expected. I didn't bunk, but didn't really perform. I saw my mental chatter declining

and getting more nasty. Also, I had two songs on replay in my head. I practiced running empty-headed without content, but this was torture. So the question is, what do you think about while running without music? Are you talking to yourself, pep talks, or what the hell am I doing here? The pot is so impactful. I'm hooked. Thanks for all you do for the community joy from Minneapolis. So I feel like something we maybe need to clarify this. Let's say during a race or during training,

because during a race, I feel like I don't know if I'd even want music. Like I'm so overstimulated already that I kind of want to be paying full attention to what's around me. But I don't know. I mean, am I alone in that? Do you guys feel like if you could wear headphones at a race, would you? No. I don't wear your headphones when I run either in training. I think it's a bit distracting.

I think we've talked about this plenty of times on the podcast. We have. But I don't know if we've talked about like in training, you said because you don't want to get used to like the high that music can give you when then you can't utilize it in a race. Yeah, it drowns out your breathing and you don't get used to that feeling of hearing yourself or a card. Yeah. And it's a bit distracting.

In training, what I'll do, a lot of times I want to bring my phone with me because I'm using trail forks to like try a new run or something. and then I'll just have like my familiar pump-up list or whatever playing on the speaker phone. And you're obviously not getting the full immersive music experience, but if you know the song, it's like having a movie on in the background that you like, you still get a little bit of emotional response to it while being able to hear birds and not have a mountain biker take you out from behind or whatever, safety and all that. But do you have a tip for someone who maybe is kind of like, let's say,

let's use the word, addicted to having some kind of content, music or podcast or something, who then has to switch to silence or the sound of their own body and of what's going on around them. Do you have any tips for someone that's trying to make that switch? Because I get that it can feel like, uh-oh, I don't have my crutch. Panic-y. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a lot of the time what I'm thinking about during a race that's hard or a workout that's hard or even just a nazy run is like workouts that I've done that are harder than what I'm doing right now. Like if I'm in a race and I have 10K to go. I'm like, I did a 35 minute tempo last week.

10K, it was no big deal. So I can do that right now. So it's just like I draw confidence from training. And I do so much math in my head about like time I have left or distances to people. Like I'm the opposite of Eric. I'm pretty sure he does not think about what's happening with the time or the distance or the pace ever. But it's literally all I'm thinking about, maybe too much. I'm like, okay, I've done 4K in this amount of time.

doing all this math. How often are you checking in with your body? Like consciously. Like, how am I feeling, is this pace sustainable? Not often, but I do often tell myself to relax my shoulders. That's kind of my cue, and then that'll smooth me out a little bit, because I tend to get really high shoulders if I'm running hard. Yeah, that's more what I think about is, like,

I have quite a few cues that I cycle through, that have helped me over the years with my running or my biking to kind of like work through the hip issue that I deal with. So I kind of go back and forth between thinking about my foot strike being light or like my shoulders being relaxed and like leaning forward and trying to do these things and like immersing myself and feeling as smooth and fast and strong as I can versus yeah, like I definitely can't do math while while racing. It's funny to think about You know, one of the many differences between being a professional and being an age grouper that wants to get the most out of themselves is that you guys have like a range of potential outcomes for a race that you would consider to be a good race. Whereas like for us, we are kind of just trying to get the most out of ourselves each time.

But so for you like you're saying you're not really checking in with your body that often. And that's because like to a certain point it doesn't really matter what you think or how you're feeling. like you have to go that fast for the risk to go well, you know. But for us, it's like, no, like there's a big difference for me between totally bonking and having to like walk a bunch or like slowing down a little bit and making it to the end, like relatively okay. Yeah. I mean, we're still making, we're still making those calculations.

Just the calculation is like, do I go with this move and risk that or stay where I am, stay comfortable and know that I can get fourth versus all in for first and then maybe I blow up and get seventh. Yeah, that's the thing is, I don't think, I don't know if, like, the only time I think, other than maybe the top end of the age groupers,

I think the only time anyone's like, should I go with this move? And it's like that, it's only for, like, because I will like the motivation that it will give me to go with this person, not because, like, they're passing me. You know, I don't know how often that goes through age groupers heads.

Yeah. Yeah, but you're still trying to make the decision between like, taking a little bit of a risk with your pacing to get a PR and stepping into space that you is unknown versus staying comfortable and completed. No problem. But for this person, I would say,

practice doing some runs outside of a race without music just so you're used to the feeling, even though it's not fun. Yeah, run somewhere new. Pick a new route. Even run your normal route backwards. Just do something that's like a little bit visually stimulating, listen to try to hear all the sounds,

try to see if you hear birds, if you hear a garbage truck two streets over, just like immerse yourself in where you are. Yeah, cool. Great answer. Next question here is from Matt. Dear TTL team, I have a question regarding arrow helmets. I recently started to use the Gero Arrowhead helmet

for racing and participated in the Iron Man Happy Valley 70.3 last weekend and had an issue with my visor fogging. It happened when light rain started around mile 48 and was also the most technical part of the course, so I had to slow up. My question is, one, do you have any suggestions for anti-fogging? I used Rain X prior since rain was in the forecast. And two, what is the arrow impact if I remove the visor and just use regular sunglasses?

Many friends suggested this approach. I also represented in my TTL Nation kit and received numerous shoutouts on the run course. Ben Folds went running by me between mile four and five on the run course and was having an impressive performance. Thanks for all you do to support triathlon and enjoy listening to the pod each week, Matt. So first of all... That's awesome. I was going to say Ben was there and got second. I was wondering if he saw him.

That's so cool. That's like the dream. That's the dream. DTL development athlete goes running past TTL Nation athlete. They feel a connection. Yes. Love it. Love it.

All is right in the world. That's great. Eric and I both use the Gero Arrowhead. And to be honest, I haven't had a fogging issue with it. Me neither. I had fogging issue with my Rudy Project helmets. Yeah. And like maybe one other brand.

The Oakley would fog up for me all the time. Nick, yours fogs up, the cast. Oh, yeah, big time. But that doesn't help him because his is fogging. So I would say, spit on your lens. Just spit on your lens and lick it all around. Like Eric does with his goggles and Paula hates it. So first of all, doesn't the Arrowhead come with a hard case or do you have to buy that separate?

I don't know if it comes with it, actually. we usually use like the case of the specialized TT helmets to carry. We just have a lot of arrow helmet cases. Okay. Well, what I was going to say is I find that the fogging up usually happens when your helmet is sitting there in transition, not when you're actually wearing it. And then once you're wearing it, it's a nightmare to try to get off there. But I find that if you keep the helmet in the case until you get on the bike, you hate this, Paula. Because you're going to lose what, five seconds. but then you'll have a non-foggy visor.

I disagree, though. It's not foggy when you put it on. The fogginess comes when you put it on and the temperature difference is so crazy between your head and your breathing that it fogs it, right? I see. For me, it's never,

it's the only time it's ever fogged up has been before I put it on. That's crazy. That's never happened. I don't know. Are you leaving your helmet out overnight at the transition? No, no. It's just like the morning.

Like, I'm thinking of it happened. It's happened to have a bunch of times to me. But the only time you put it on and it's already foggy. Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, the only time it fogs when it's on me is when I take it off, turn it around and put it upside down on the top of my helmet. Then like the hot air of my head fogs it up. But not when it's on me. There's like enough ventilation.

But you know what? That might just be my specific helmet because what you're saying makes much more sense. It's like, yeah, it's like the heat of your head and all that stuff, the temperature differential. That's what fogs it up. Nick's helmet is the only helmet in the world. that does that. So disregard. So yeah,

disregard. Just kidding. But do you guys have like, do you ever use Rain X or anything like that? My advice would be flipping the thing up and putting it on top of the helmet is not that much of an arrow penalty usually. It's kind of a touchy subject to talk about arrow penalties now because it's so individual. But I've had the Gero on before where I had the dark lens and it was a dark foggy day.

So I flipped it up for the race. And it looks super dorky with a. the lens thing, but I don't think it's necessarily slower, so I think you could wear glasses. What do you guys think? Wasn't there a bunch of testing done on the glasses and the glasses are almost never any slower? Yeah, which makes no sense. You would think it would be like, it looks so much more arrow to have the actual built-invisor on, but apparently like aerodynamics are tricky. Yeah, totally. I think if you're racing, you know, UCI Time Trial World Championships and you're going 48 kilometers an hour, then the difference between glasses and visor being one second

over 40K might be worth it. But for a triathlon, if you can't see and you're like having to wipe it and lick your lens and wonder what to do, then it's definitely slowing you down. Go with the sunglasses. But if you're going to do the sunglasses, I would maybe even get a different helmet than the Giro. Yeah. Like I just can't, I can't explain how dumb the Giro looks without the lens. You don't have to explain. Just go look at some pictures. You can Google it.

Even when I'm riding to the race course in the morning and it's pitch black and I got to flip the thing up like to see. It's so awful. Oh God. People can see me. But I think Gustav uses like the giant TT helmet with glasses. It looks fine. And some other athletes too just because generally glasses, lenses will be more

anti-fog and more comfortable than a helmet lens. The more air circulation. in there. Yeah. Nick, sorry to be to shut down your idea so hard. No, I think it's great. I mean, you can try it. I think that's great.

You're probably right. And when I think of the Gero arrowhead shape, it's much more like enclosing than my cask is. So I think my cast, the problem is not so much. Like I think the heat from my head dissipates quite well. But when there's like so much moisture in the air, that's the problem with the fogging. Gotcha. And the anti-fog coating is completely gone.

on my cast because I made some mistakes when I was cleaning it. Right, right. Okay. Next question here is from Everett and Gresham. In Gresham, as in like Gresham, like Portland, Gresham? Is there another Gresham? Where I grew up? Where I grew up.

I mean, there's probably more than one, but. We hope it's that one. That's where I grew up. Greetings TTR team. I have heard Paul and Eric referenced their coach telling them not to run directly after or before a long car ride. I would love to hear the reasoning behind that if you know. My partner and I are about to embark on an epic

five-week camping trip, and I plan on getting some runs along the way. Any advice you have on doing that would be awesome. Thanks, Everett. Yeah, it's a good question and applicable, because I can I just both drove 13 hours to get back here. It's less of a thing like waking

up, going for a run, and then getting a car in the car. That's not really much of a concern. The concern is you just drove for six hours and you stop, and within the course of five minutes, you throw on your running shoes and you go running along the side of the highway, to fade it to run and your hip flexors are completely tight.

Everything's tight. You've got all this extra fluid in your legs. It's just like not worth it from an injury perspective for us. I can definitely get away with it a little more easier than Paula, but with Paula specifically, our coach is just like, it's not worth it. That's not the run that's on your two-day drive. Yeah, on this particular road trip,

we ran before we drove on both days. And a lot of it is like your ankles get puffy or like Eric said, your hip flexes are tight. Everything just kind of feels stiff after you've driven for that long. And you're not in an optimal body state to go run, especially if you're injury prone. So like Eric said, it's just not worth it. Like riding totally fine. Swimming is probably the best thing you can do if that's possible.

It kind of flushes everything out and you feel really good after. But yeah, for us, it's just kind of a rule that not only driving, but also like long haul travel or any amount of flight time. Don't run after travel. What you want to do right after your flight, you get to the hotel and you've got an hour until dinner. Of course, you want to throw on your running shoes and just go for a quick run because that's super efficient. But, man, it can just, yeah. Yeah, the one, like, kind of nightmare I had with this was I flew to Australia. Back when I was coached by Siri and I had, like, Maluluba coming up in a couple of weeks and ran really hard, even the day after I arrived.

Because I was dumb back then and, like, tore something in my Achilles. I mean, everything was just. still so tight and off. And then I went and tried to run hard. And if I hadn't traveled, that wouldn't have been the case. So it's just not worth the risk. Yeah. Yeah. But everyone's individual. Do what you want to do. If you're super, you know, resilient and you're going to go for an easy run and you've got soft trail, like just, you know, use your best judgment. And if after the first time you're like everything hurt, then maybe run before you drive. Yeah. Great. Love a good advice. Next one here is from Andrew from London. Hi, all, loving the podcast and all the

awesome insights and how friendly you all are with the pros. I saw a picture on the gram of you guys, Holly, Emma Pellant Brown, and their partners after race having dinner. And I just thought it was so cool that you race hard, but are friends afterwards. And Ellie. And Ellie. Yep. Anyway, my question is about your bike setup and why you both choose watch shop in front cockpit. And did you experiment with any others? I'm looking to have a similar setup, but haven't decided on which yet. Also trying to find shops that I can try the feel before buying. Is this what you did?

All the best, Andrew from London. We went with Watt Shop. One, because those guys, they're super cool. And we messaged them. They were really interested in helping us find a perfect solution for our bikes and everything. And we were in this tricky position where Paula had just gone from a small shiv to an extra small shiv, trying to have some accommodation for the TT championships. I was just coming on to a shiv from an Argon 18.

and the nice thing about their bars is that they come with these brackets, essentially that they can move forward and backwards, up and down, tilt, really easily just with two bolts, and you're able to really, really dial in your position super specifically. Yeah, honestly, I like the look of those bars and they look really comfortable just from seeing pictures of them, like having kind of the full arm cup situation that comes all the way up your forearm and the grips are really comfortable. So I reached out to them and to like AeroCoach and a couple other that look similar.

And Watt Shop are really the only bar aftermarket bar company who've ever expressed interest in helping me. And they have been awesome. Love them. They are very helpful. They don't ask a lot from us in return, but go above and beyond to make sure that we're dialed and set up. So like Eric said, they have these adjustable mounts that we used for the first couple of months just to make sure our positions were really set. We took those to the wind tunnel. We took them to the wind tunnel.

then we sent them the measurements for those, and then they made us custom risers that are super sleek and clean and light that mimic that position so that it's just like one piece and the bars. So it's really, really light and clean. And we had a bit of a misunderstanding with the tilt of my original custom risers. It wasn't UCI legal and I had TT champs in two weeks and they like express mailed me the compliant risers. So they're just great people. And I think that time trial racing and riding is much bigger in the UK in terms of like age group athletes doing it. There's not a ton of like open time trials in the U.S. So not as big of a market or a demand necessarily. But I think in the UK these guys are like super popular. Like they help athletes of all levels get dialed in their TT position for UCI races and for triathlon. They work with Alistair Brownlee. Anyway, I would for sure give them a try if you're looking.

for an aftermarket thing, and I think they can adapt them to really any TT bike. That is my TED talk. Love it. Love it. No, I remember you talking about this to me, too, that they're super knowledgeable. Yeah, no, it's just super cool when you like a product and then the people end up being awesome and it works for you and the wind tunnel set it's fast. And it's just something that we're happy to talk about.

And me particularly who I'm really, really nervous on my TT bike in general and picky about the bars and the angle, and it took me like a year to get the right setup on my shift try. But with these bars, I tried them once and liked them instantly, which is not normal for me. That's not normal. I did a lot of bar swapping in January. Erica's PTSD. A lot of bar swapping. We were like jerry rigging all these things together for my other bike to try to get the tilt and all things right.

And these bars just instantly, like, I sunk into them and they were great. Love it. I need a pair. I need a pair. No, you do need a pair, Nick, because I hate your extensions. Yeah, I do too. Oh, my God. They like break my wrists every time. I mean, how worth it do you think, like, who's the age grouper that you think should get something like this? You.

Is it someone who's unhappy with their curtains set up? Or is it someone who's like, you're already very fast, but you want that next level comfort and speed and aerodynamic thing? Yeah, I would look at it more like as a comfort sort of thing, less. than a speed thing. Yes, it's obviously going to allow you to get into a better position, but you're never going to know for sure unless you go do some wind tunnel testing. So if you can do wind tunnel testing, then definitely a great thing to look at. But if you just haven't been able to get comfortable with your bikes stock bars and adjusting the tilt and you go in and they've got like a five degree riser and then you try a 12 degree riser, but they don't have a seven. Like that was Paula's thing. Like the Shiv came with like a zero,

a five and like a 15 and she really wanted 10 plus like her hand. to be relaxed instead of like bent over forward you know like the wrist position that just gives you a lot of flexibility and they're not that expensive relative to some of like the full custom bars you have to commit to first try yeah you know yeah in terms of an investment they're not crazy when you think about how much people spend on other stuff in triathlon i would look at it as a comfort thing though cool yeah that's that's kind of what i was curious about we'll try to get you a Pro deal, Nick. Thank you. I appreciate that. I need all the pro deals I can get. Things are expensive. Okay, last question here is from Carita. Hey, all. Really enjoy the pod and impatiently wait for it every week.

My question is, how do you mentally cope with not having a weekend? Most people feel the weekend is something to wait for, and it's freedom of sorts. Even if it means chores at home and lots of training, there's no work day rush and no day job. All your work days seem the same swim, bike, run, and for you, it's the job. When do you feel the sense of freedom most people experience on Friday? Keep up the good work, Carita. I've thought about this all the I think about this all the time that you guys don't really have that. And even I, like, even with my job, which feels like barely a job, it's, I don't know, like you really never, ever stop. Like, if anything, the weekends are more, um, are worse. Or worse for us. Because the train. Everything is harder and everything's busier.

It's hard to find quiet roads. I have to edit all day on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, so for us, like our easy days are a little bit of relief, but we do try to jam in a lot of like TCL or whatever stuff on our easy days. So yeah, it doesn't come around often, but I will say that the trade-off of that is our lives in general are pretty flexible and we don't have to like clock in, clock out. And I like that about our lifestyle is not being...

Yeah, after, like, like, like swimming, I'd say at least every other day. We go for a coffee for 20 or 30 minutes with whoever we swam with or whoever we're getting ready to go for a bike ride with or whatever. So we spread out our Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings over all the other days of the week and little bits. Like it sounds pretty cushy when you talk about what we do in a day, but the training does severely suck a lot of the time. So people don't think about the 5K swim that we do before we go for coffee.

And then there's just never time. Yeah, there's never time for like, we want to get our house painted because like the paint is peeling and it's a protection thing. And of course it's going to look good too. But like we've had jugs of paint to like paint test watches on at the side of the house in the garage for a month. And I just still have not had like, okay, I've got three hours of time here where I can go and mix the paint and paint it on and make sure it's dry. And it just never happens. Like our free windows are like 45 minutes. That's why we really live for the off season. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Basically our weekend. is December. Yeah. And also. Even that, like, how long are you really taking there?

You're still training. You're just not doing all the volume, but. It's the mental, like, having a race upcoming that really makes this time of the year tense. And personally, after the end of August, there's no more really that important triathons left. This is a nice year. Yeah. Like, I'll kind of have a more relaxed fall this year just because the worlds are at the end of of August instead of the end of October.

So that'll be nice. But then 2024, I think it's, like, full. on and worlds are in December and it's back to craziness. But anyway, we're very, very, very, very lucky to do this. And not having a weekend, quote, unquote, is just like a small part of the many, many good things. It's a good trade-off. Yeah.

So we're not whining. We just, I think that if I worked nine to five every day doing a more conventional job, I would need a weekend. But I feel like what we do is pretty. sustainable because of how we structure it. But do you have, so you guys don't take one day off a week ever, right? You don't take, you don't have rest days. You have days that are, you would count as like recovery days, but you're still training.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like Monday, I say is like typically what feels like a weekend to me because I've put out the vlog on Sunday. And Monday we usually just have like a 5K swim and a 40 minute easy run. And if I'm feeling really tired and I want to indulge, we'll switch that to a, 3.5k swim, we'll just like cut half of the set out and go get a little brunch afterwards.

And that just feels like, that feels like a little mini weekend. And then put off the run until like 6 p.m. So it feels like the whole day is open. It's all relative, right? Like to most people, 3.5K swim in a 40 minute run is like, no, that's a pretty good day of training, you know? Well, anything that feels like you treated yourself, that's the key. I remember, I mean, this maybe is irrelevant, but I remember when, like, two a days now,

are just so normal in training. And even having just one workout a day feels like, am I doing enough today? But I remember when one workout a day felt like, this is really hard. Yeah. Like Eric and I do so many three workout days. Oh, man.

Those days feel like there's no time for anything else because we're tired and trying to cram stuff in. It would be nice if we just did two every day instead of like three every day and a couple of two days, whatever. But it's okay. It's the reason we're racing fast. Yep. Love that.

Love that. Okay, cool. Well, Eric, are there, can people follow along on your race on Saturday? There might be, there might be like live timing checkpoints, yeah. The race is called High Cascades 100. He's also the best man at his friend Danny's wedding that same day. So if he's not looking like he's going to finish in time for the wedding, he's bailing. Yeah.

Okay, got it. So fear not, fear not if he doesn't finish. There's a good reason. What a life. Stay tuned. Will people be able to follow along someone on that triathlon life Instagram? I'm going to just trying to do my own training that morning. So maybe, but maybe not.

I would say there's like a 1% chance. Our friend Sam like sees me come by the trail for a split second. But I'm not definitely not counting on it. The thing about it is this is like this is very much in the woods on single track. It's not easy to get to. There are two sections. There's like a spot at 50 miles and 86 miles or something where they say spectators can see their person go by. But otherwise it's like you out in the woods doing your thing.

Yeah, cool. Cool. And then other than that, like we said, on Saturday, the foreign writer film Exploration of Freedom comes out on Friday. The day after this podcast comes out. The color block collection comes out if we're sticking with that. Color block collection. Yeah. We also had that name plan forever.

We had people say, like, can the subscribers get early access? But we ordered, there is a lot of this stuff. We don't expect it to sell out in a day. So don't worry if you can't get to it like at the crackadon. But it always surprises us, so who knows? There's something that you're like, oh my gosh, I really, really want that specific thing. And if you're like an extra large or some size that there's only a couple of, then why, yeah, I wouldn't wait. Yeah.

The crack of dawn might be the best move. Yeah, I'd hate to be like. I hate to be like, there's no way we're selling out. And then it sells out in an hour or something. That would be terrible. Right. Cool. All right.

Well, thanks, you guys. Happy birthday, Eric. And thanks, Nick, for chiming in from Italy. You're welcome. My pleasure. Later, everybody. Bye. Bye.