That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon race suits comfort vs speed, Super shoes for slower runners, and more!

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

This week we start out with a TTL Spelling Bee: fueling edition. In the middle of the episode, we challenged ourselves to draw the TTL logo from memory (and with our eyes closed) We then move onto your wonderful questions about triathlon. This week we talk about:Cold plungesTraining plans for maximum funEssential items for van lifeBest type of bike for XTERRATTL PictionarySuper shoes and how effective they are for slower runnersClip-on aero bars on tapered handlebarsWhen to replace a saddleTri suit aerodynamics vs comfortHow to handle dogs and children in bike pathsAcclimating to crazy time zones for racesA 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/podcastSilca Link:Chain Waxing System

Hey everybody, welcome to that triathlon live podcast. I'm Erica Lockerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And this is our triathlon podcast. We talk about stuff going on in triathlon. We talk about what's going on for us in triathlon. And for most of the show, we take questions from the people who ride in.

So thank you to people who write in questions. We couldn't do without you. Paula and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlete, lover of the sport. And we like to have a good time and talk about stuff. I'm still sweaty from a interval run. I'm like, I don't know if you can see it in my shirt. It's so real.

So real. So we're out here. We're not pretending to be. We are being. In it. Fully in it. So speaking of busy weeks, you guys have had a very busy week. You just finished out a crazy weekend.

You want to talk about that for a second? Because I feel like it's pretty cool. And were any of these people podcast listeners, by the way? Yeah, two of them weren't. Two of them were. Okay. So we had the Castelli. We put out a like a content.

basically, where people could enter to win a weekend in Ben to spend training with us. And we picked two winners and they could each bring a friend or a husband or a wife. So we had four people here in total. And then Steve from Castelli was here. And two amazing people from Costelli came to help. And basically we just did a couple of gravel rides, did a couple runs, had pizza, hung out with them, went for coffee at Thump, had a community run. and it was just a whole weekend of kind of doing like an in real life that triathlon life event, our first one, with the enormous help from Kestelli. They basically carried the weight of it and got all the food and all the organization and the Airbnbs and everything.

So we are extremely grateful for them and putting this on. And hopefully it's just like one of more to come. I think my only regret is that there weren't more people there. But it's obviously a cost to have people come and pay for their flights and everything. Yeah, I think in the future, if we could turn this into, you know, it's not a completely all expenses, free paid trip, and we could open it up to more people. And I think plenty of people will hopefully would be willing to put in something to make this happen versus this was just like your flights were paid for, your house was paid for, your food was paid for. They brought an espresso machine, like full kick-ass experience to which you have no expenses. Yeah, but it'd be cool to do it in the future with some expenses, but more people.

Yeah. Anyway, the people here were great. A lot of them hadn't been on a gravel bike before, and they just got on a gravel and powered through, and they were all really fit and competent at cycling skills. And it was really impressive. And most importantly, like, fun to talk to. Yeah. We were a little bit concerned that we would get some people who just couldn't carry on a conversation or, like, we're afraid of, I don't know, just groups. Of course, of course.

We had a blast. It was super fun. We kind of stayed up a little bit late, a couple nights just hanging out after dinner and chatting. and I don't know. I couldn't have asked for more for a first experience doing something like this. And Paula, then today, on the heels of that, you did some bike skills, not testing.

You did some bike skills work today. Well, yeah, so our coach, Paula, was in town for the week. And he basically came for some in real life coaching. And that is always extremely valuable. This is maybe his third or fourth time coming to Ben for a week. and Summer Rapapur, who's one of the top U.S. ITU short course athletes, is also here to do the sessions with, you know, we could train together and then Paula was working with her a bit on her bike fit and skills as well. So we did some parking lot bike skills on the road bike today. And I actually was told that I was doing a great job, which is surprising to me. I mean, I'm not notoriously great at bike skills and I get nervous on my bike a lot. But I actually, think when it comes to a closed environment and I've been riding my road bike so much doing the crits. I've just gotten more comfortable and better at cornering. So from that perspective,

I'm actually doing well. I think what I need work on more is my time trial bike, descending fast on my TT bike and all things that I get better at in a real life situation, like in a race. But in training, sometimes I'm a bit nervous. So we're going to work on TT bikes tomorrow and you would think like, okay, he comes for a week, how much can you really get better? But doing a little bit of a dedicated focus on that one thing actually does make a huge difference because the fitness is there and skills are something that you can kind of sharpen within a one week period if you put effort into it. So that's the goal this week. Is it more just getting the reps in of trying these skills or does he give you philosophical

kind of advice that then you take with you afterwards and you think, oh, when I'm cornering I should put my weight lower and put my heel on my outside foot down more. Is it any stuff like that? I mean, yeah, not philosophical, but just, yeah, physical, how it's supposed to work to corner well. Yeah, sorry, that's not the right word. Yeah, so, yeah, there's cues that are given throughout the session and just knowing someone has eyes on you and trying to do it faster every time you go is different than just riding your bike and doing a hard interval workout. And I think when you get those skills and you get better at them, they come more naturally. So no, it's not like he leaves and then I'm thinking so hard about it every time.

The hope is that it becomes more natural and becomes part of just the way I ride. Yeah. Was there anything today that he kind of said that clicked for you that was one of those magic moments? It was only a short road bike session. The only thing that I was proud of was he said, you could go home because you're riding. That's good. And I didn't want to. I was like, actually, I'm having fun being good at something for months.

Right, right. For once. Can I please stay? That's fun. That's fun. Cool. The last thing I want to talk about before we move on to a very fun test of Eric's spelling skills foreshadowing is that last week we were talking about silka and waxed chains and their wax chain system. And we actually reached out to Silka and now we have an affiliate link that will be in the podcast notes this week.

So if you want to buy any silka products, but specifically we're talking about the waxing stuff, if you use our link, it helps us out a little bit. And we would really appreciate that. This is not any sort of pressure to buy anything from Zilko, but the way I always think about it, if you were thinking about it anyway, this does help us out a little bit and keeps the show going. So that is it.

We are, it's all kind of part of the thing that we're doing on the website where we're trying to put our favorite stuff into one spot where you can see it and help cut out some of the decision-making process with, man, which wax do I get? What is the best system? We want to kind of collect all that in one place and save you some work. Yep, well said. Well said. Okay, Eric, I don't know what you need to get warmed up for this kind of thing, but we're putting your spelling skills to the test here and the TTL spelling bee. This is not going to go great. I still got a little brain fog coming off the back of my sickness. I'm just going to throw that pre-excus out there, but I'll do my best.

By the way, we're all having a horrible day. Yeah, all three of us for different reasons are having a tough day. We're not talking about it. Why, but we're just saying we're all having a horrible day. Yeah, it's okay. It's, it gets better. I've been told. The day or life? Life, life gets better. I've been told. Don't cry now. I know. Let's hope. I have no tears left.

Okay. So this Eric, lucky for you, I didn't come up with most of these words. I did add some because I thought they were a little soft. Okay. Ashton came up with these words. And Ashton started by saying, hi, Paula, Flynn, Nick and Eric. Eric, we came after Flynn. Love the pod, vlog, and all my TTL gear. I'm 11 years old, but my favorite day of the week is still Thursday. I have a crewneck, jersey, bibs, bottle, Ventura Collection stickers, and Ventura Collection

shirt. All right. Yeah, that's pretty great. Pretty great. As long as I'm writing in, I came up with a TTL spelling bee for Eric and Paula. Thank you, Ashton. Yeah, this is Fueling Choice Edition, okay? Okay.

To be clear, I don't do the spelling bee. Well, that's up to you. That's up to you. Eric has savant level spelling skills, but you feel free to enter when you like, Paula. Okay. Okay. All right. First one here.

How many carbohydrates do you take in an hour? Carboh-H-D-R-A-T-E-S. That's correct, Eric. Very nice. Next one. To prevent cramping, people need to consume electrolytes. How do you spell electrolytes? E-L-E-C-T-R-O-L-Y-T-E-E-S.

Oh, very nice with the Y in there. Okay, very good. Okay, next one here. On most Iron Man courses, this is a brand name, but I think you will know how to spell it. On most Iron Man courses, aid stations provide Morton gels. How do you spell Morton?

I could come up with a lot of really entertaining ways to say Morton. Spell Morton. M-A-U-R-T-E-N. Very nice, very good. Okay, now we move on to the ones. Actually, no, this is Ashton's last one, and then I have two. Many sources of fuel contain multidextrin.

How do you spell multidextrin? because I would get this one wrong for sure. M-A-L-T-O-D-E-X-T-R-I-N. Oh, that is correct. Very, very nice. Very good work there. Okay, the next two are from me. And these up the difficulty, okay?

The process that allows the body to form glucose from non-hexose precursors, particularly glycerolactate, pyruvate, propionate, and glucos, whoa, and glycogenesis, amino acids is called gluconeogenesis. How do you spell gluconeogenesis? G-L-U-C-O-N-E-O-G-E-N-E-S-I-S. Yes, that's it. Very nice, Eric. Very good. Wow, that's really amazing. I would just

get lost in the middle of the word. That's a throwback to my chemistry days. I used to know how that works. Oh, really? Like, you're familiar with that process. Yes. Oh, yeah. See, we're even educating people in chemistry on this podcast. the value we provide is outrageous on here. It cannot be quantified. So far reaching.

Okay. And last one here, I definitely would get this one wrong. A common electrolyte abnormality caused by an excess of total body water when compared to the total body sodium content is hyponitremia. How do you spell hyponitremia?

There's a, to me, for me, there's a trickular in there. I got it. I think there's a one letter, but yeah. H-Y-Y-P-O-N-A-T-R-E-M-I-A. Oh my gosh, Eric. 100%. How do you do it? How do you do it?

Let's go. It's that A. I can't believe it's an A. You were going to go without a U, weren't you? For sure, because I feel like I've heard it said hyponutremia. Because for nutrients, no, it's hyponutriamia. Those uneducated slops. Wow.

I would have. I would have. I would have. I don't want a hypernutrieneia. I'm a freaking chemist. That's not even like a spelling thing. That's just remembering it from college. Yeah, yeah.

Well, good job, Eric. You win a TTL bottle in socks. Just send your address through the website, okay? Sweet. You guys, is there any way I could get my iPod Max, AirPod Maxes back? Because these AirPods, these little dinky things are horrible. Yeah, we'll swap them in.

We'll see how they can go. Eric, that was incredible. I'm always in awe of your spelling skills. If only those could translate into real life a little bit. Actually, we have monetized your spelling skills via the podcast. So, congratulations. That's true. And I'm sure your middle school teachers loved you for it as well. Yeah, I don't know. They were pretty strict. Well, yeah, middle school. Yeah, it really came about

in elementary school, going to private school. And they were serious about spelling and grammar. And now I'm cursed with being a grammar stickler the rest of my life. Yeah, well, that's good. I'm a grammar stickler as well. Oh, I shouldn't say that in the podcast because then people will call me out when I make a grammatical mistake. Okay, let's move on to real question. here. But thank you very much, Ashton, for that awesome spelling B. And it's so cool that you're 11 and you are rocking the TTL stuff and doing triathlon. That makes me so happy. Yeah, so cool. Ashton, send this your address and we'll send you a bottle in socks. Yeah, sure. Wow. I'm into that. Wow. Wow. That's awesome. Ashton, thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to our questions

submitted by listeners. You are a listener, and that means you can submit questions as well. You can do that at That TriathlonLife.com slash podcast where you can also become a podcast supporter. The podcast supporter is the only way that this podcast exists. So thank you to our podcast supporters. And we're going to do something a little special halfway through the podcast today where we're going to do a little segment and everyone's going to get to hear the audio, but only the podcast supporters are going to get via email a little video of what we're doing.

And that sounds like who cares, but you'll see why you will. care and you will want to see it. So if you want to see it, become a podcast supporter and you will get to see it as well. Okay. Question one. Hi gang, I'll try to keep it simple. Cold tubs. Do you use them and in what scenario are they beneficial or not? Should I use one the day before my race or long workout? Looking to use as an added recovery for workouts. Thanks so much. No, we don't do cold plunges. I did back in college in high school, but everything that I've heard lately indicates that it's really not advantageous to recovery or not significantly and, you know, for most people. But we'll still jump in the river for fun. It feels good. I was just going to say

sometimes just cooling your body down after a hard workout just to get back to neutral quicker could be a good thing. So you're not just like sweating and hot for a prolonged period of time. I actually used to do an ice shower before I raced cross-country back in the day or a track or anything. I would like wake myself up with a cold shower. Oh, I see. And I think neurologically, it did have, like it became a little bit of a habit and a routine, but it definitely made me feel like ready to go. I'm awake.

I'm jolted, ready to do this. That was back in the university. That's the thing is some people really like them because they have some neurologic. benefits. That can be nice, but the effects on an endurance athlete have been like minimal at best, it seems, from the research. Yeah, it's interesting though, because if you have a really bad, like, sprained ankle or a knee injury, you're told to ice it and submerging in an ice would do essentially the same thing. So it must have some effect at reducing inflammation. And whether that's like just systemic inflammation from exercising or an acute injury, it's got a, it's, it's,

restricts your blood vessels like it would reduce inflammation whether that helps with making you feel better the next day or not. Maybe that's up for debate, but I think people that do it and like it, there's no harm, right?

Do you think if you had a tub? No, definitely no harm. Absolutely definitely no harm. Do you think if you had a state-of-the-art cold plunge system in your backyard, you would be using it? I think it would be fun to do contrast. Yeah.

We've done like the Nordic, like Scandinavian experience where you cold plunge, plunge, hot tub, sauna, cold plunge. And that, man, you just feel like jello after doing that a couple of times. And that's a nice feeling. Yeah, cool. Okay, next question here's from Mitch.

Hey, y'all. I'm at a point in my athletic journey where I seek to enjoy the process rather than be as fast as humanly possible. If you were coaching yourselves, but when writing the training plan for next week, you were looking to maximum the vibes rather than the fitness, what would your week look like, Mitch? Wow. I think I put a note in there, Nick, to include this one for sure, because it's Eric right now. I mean, he still wants to be as fast as possible, but he's also like maximizing the vibes every week.

You can do both. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. For me, going for maximum vibes has always been a goal. And I'll just use an example of how I liked to train for escape from Alcatraz. Back when I lived outside of Portland, we had kind of a road that we had kind of a road that we were, It was like the called Historic Highway and going up off of that. There were a bunch of like three minute little climbs that you could do. And I really would like, I'd do one interval up, one climb and then like bomb back down at the bottom on my recovery.

And then I'd do one interval on the flat getting to the next climb and then flip down and, you know, mess around for my recovery and then go up the next climb. And really try to just in my mind, I'm playing through all the different hills at escape from Alcatraz and enjoying the process of, okay, now this next one I'm going to try to do the interval going slightly. downhill and like keeping it dynamic right like that rather than I'm going to start at the stop sign every single time and try to get a little bit further every time and I'm doing that this week and next week and the week after that that can be a little bit overwhelming but for me having that dynamic like playful attitude with the intervals not all the times but sometimes like really keeps me engaged and excited about training I think the thing that sticks out to me about that is that you're not removing the intervals you're not removing the intensity

which I think is where most people's mind goes maybe when you're going for maximum vibes. It's just beauty and easy pace. No, you can still do the intensity, but you can also make a game out of it. The opposite being like sitting on the trainer and doing erg mode, you know, just like to the T. Yeah, because I think a lot of people get like a rush

and a positive thing out of doing hard workouts. Like it's different than the feeling of getting back from an easy thing where you just been out cruising. Yeah. Yeah, that's me. I'm not, I mean, I'm not, training for races, but I do the training for the sake of the training, and I just did a hard run workout, because I prefer to have that. You just got to be able to, I think, like, loosen up a little

bit and go, okay, it's five by five minutes, for example, three minutes recovery, but this hill's five and a half minutes long, and I know that one over there's three minutes long, and it might may take me 20 extra seconds to get to it on the recovery, but that's okay. Like, the gist of the workout is the same, and I'm doing it in a way that excites me. I also, like, before I had my best result at 70.3 worlds. That summer, I was doing a lot of, instead of going out and doing TT bike intervals, I was riding with my friend Curtis on the trails. And we would do like four by KOM attempt going up a trail. And that was just like I was bleeding out of my eyeballs on the mountain bike, but having so much fun. And then I kind of like cut that out, you know, six weeks before

70.3 worlds and did TT bike stuff. But I came into that race just feeling like my top end power was super high. I was not mentally exhausted from doing the same thing for the last 10 weeks. And it went great. Maybe I should take that advice. Let's go. Let's do it. I don't know, Paul. You're doing pretty well. Okay. Next question here is from Naomi. This fly. The fly again? Oh. Seriously, it's all over me. Yeah, there's a fly that's been living in here for like a week. Wait, but Eric killed the fly from last week. Isn't it so weird, you guys, that flies can crawl in

you and you don't feel them? Well, sometimes you can't feel them. Sometimes you can. But he just crawled on my leg. I watched him and I didn't feel it. Okay, let's do the question. Sorry, Nick. Sorry, I was feeling the interruptions.

It's brutal. Love the pod and following the journey. Retired triathlete turned ultra runner with a van and two working cocker spaniels. What's a working cocker spaniel? Like, she put bow ties on them and they butler at weddings? Maybe she's working and has cocker spaniels. Oh, I see.

No. No. No, it's two working cocker spaniels, is what she said. Like, their legs aren't broken or like they heard, what is Cocker Spaniels? I think they look fancy and smoke cigars. I don't know. Maya, I would assume they're bird dogs, but okay. Awesome.

You sound like a cool person. Yeah. Question is, what things do you have in the van that you couldn't live without when on the road? Naomi. Wait. What? What do we have in the van that we couldn't live without while we're on the road? What is it like an indispensable van thing?

Oh, okay. It's not like, what do you have at home that you need to take in the van? No, no. It's like, what's in the van? Like, I guess for me, it's my mattress in the front of my car. I need that because I want to feel like I can adventure anywhere. Like the fridge or the sink? Oh, okay, okay, okay.

Or like the speaker that you guys have that, like, charges and mounts to the wall. That's pretty cool. No, if we left that at home, that would be okay. Oh, wow. My favorite thing in the van is the, like, that makes me feel like we could be in it for a long time, is the fridge. and the climate control. Like the AC and the heat. Yeah.

That sounds practical. But that's not like a thing where you're like, oh, I can't live without my coffee grinder. I'm like that. I mean, that is a thing that if we were to get another van that would be an absolute necessity now that we know how great it is. Yes, that's true.

Our last van was, it felt very restrictive of we'd have to look at the weather and make sure it wasn't going to be too hot or too cold before we went. And then, yeah, the fridge thing, you're dumping out ice water and you're having to think about going to get more ice. I think it really was good that we had our previous van was very bare bones because it makes us really appreciate all the upgrades of the current Mercedes. Oh, yeah. Storyteller.

Because we had to go through the process of having a cooler filled with ice and emptying it every day and then not taking Flynn because he can't stay in the heat or not doing a bike ride because he can't stay in the van. Remember, he would just sit on the floor. That was crazy. he has his own chair. Groove lounge. Yeah.

And the comfortable bed. We had got an upgraded mattress from Canyon and Venture vans. So I feel like I could sleep better in the van than I can at home. There's so many things. I had this effect big time when I was riding my fixie for the first couple years

and then bought a road bike. And oh my God, the improvement in comfort and rideability and cornering and sprinting, everything is so much better. Yeah. part of the, just thinking about that, I think part of the reason I'm so comfortable on road biking right now is the SL8

and the tire choice. Right. What tires, how thick are the tires thick? How wide are the tires you're running? You put pretty wide tires. They're 30s. 30s. 30s.

And then before the bike skills, I like, let some out. Very nice. That's cheating. I love it. Totally cheating. Yeah, now with the hook list, we, I mean, we got the exact tires, the Victoria Next-T, but they can.

come in a 30. I've got 32s. Yeah, yeah, totally. And then we can run them with the hook list that like we both run like 52 to 55 PSI and just freaking dreamy. Yeah, having a nice road bike just makes you feel like you're on a rail around the corners. I also think just riding 30s or 32s is like probably incredible the difference between like 23s, you know, that people used to ride. Back in the day. Yeah, yeah. Crazy. But good question about the van. Another thing that we outfitted our van with, which is a super, snobby of us is snow peak design bowls plates cups cutlery it's like the super lightweight titanium which is like for campers that actually hike that would be the top of the things that are not

absolutely necessary yeah yeah but we went for it and we every time we use them and make you happy it is true and they're not that expensive feels nice yeah yeah cool okay well thanks Naomi next question here is from Aubrey hey TTL family my name is Aubrey and Aubrey's special specifies, I'm a dude, and currently living in El Paso, Texas for a military school. Looking to get into Extera as I'm getting bored with traditional triathlons. I'm looking at bikes and getting very overwhelmed with all the versions of mountain bikes. I was thinking a hard tail, but now I'm thinking full suspension. For someone just getting started, what do you think is best?

I feel my skill set is up there since I raced BMX as a kid and built trails to rip. So I'm looking for a bike to shred till bed on. Very nice, Aubrey. So, Eric, first of all, who, do you think there is a person out there who for Xtera, a hardtail is the best tool for the job? I don't think so. If it's really like a big price thing

and you can't find a full suspension that's anywhere near your budget, then I get that. But there are plenty of Xterra courses that are just even through grass field where having a full suspension and being able to stay seated and peddling and putting out your best power

is going to be a huge advantage. So I think riding around bend, I could get away with a hard tail and it would be entertaining in some ways. But I still think most of the time the full suspension is the way to go. And the full suspension these days has gotten light enough that it's not like the hard tail is in a completely different classification. And I certainly wouldn't say that picking one or the other has anything to do with like your skill set. What are you going to ride? So do you think that if someone's buying a full suspension, they should be getting the lowest travel version that is available from the manufacturer? Or do you think there's a sweet spot that's a bit more on the travel side?

I would say for Xtera, you can pretty much get away with the raciest most cross-country lowest travel bike. But again, it comes back to like where are you training and is where you're training more intense and rocky or whatever than an Xter. or is the bulk of what you're riding going to be like Boulder dirt, gravel roads? In which case, you might be happier with a hard tail and then just accepting that it's going to be a little bit bumpier when you do race next era. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Cool. Well, thanks, Aubrey, and good luck. Have fun. Next thing we're going to do here, this is the crazy little fun game that I came up with. And a friend of mine suggested we do this months ago. And I just didn't think we had the opportunity to do it right yet. but what we're going to do is, okay, so this is tricky. Is this the special thing that only podcast supporters are going to get to see?

Yes, exactly. So podcast supporters, everyone's going to hear it. We're doing it live, but only podcast supporters are going to see it. And this is one of those things that's like really not good for radio because you need the visual element to it. But I told you guys to prepare pencil and paper or pen and paper. So you need to pull that out. All right.

Whipping it out now. Okay, now, from memory, without cheating, that means if this is around the room somewhere or on your own person, you cannot look at it. Okay. You have to, from memory, draw the TTL logo. Okay. The circle one? The circle logo. The main one.

The main one. It's on me. So I'll just go like this. Yes, perfect. Do that. I also turn my hat around since it's also on me. Okay. You ready?

three, two, one, go. Is it a race? It's not a race. Oh my God, I'm so bad. Oh, my God. This is a pen. Done. Oh, it's not good.

It's not good. Well, Nick is fixing. I'm going to fix mine while Nick is wandering. Okay. Okay. So, okay, once everyone's done, we're going to turn it and face it and show it to the camera. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay, so three, all right, you ready, Derek? Three, two, one. Oh, not very good, is it? Ouch. Okay, the TTL game, good job, Paula. Okay, next thing we're going to do is flip the paper over.

So who wins? Like, how do we decide who wins? I think mine was best because Paula's words were technically on the outside of the second ring. That's true. That is a mistake. The words are actually part of the outer ring. Well, it depends on the logo that we're talking about, because some of them have no words. that is only because it is really hard to print the tiny little words

when it's a very small circle Oh I see That's the reason for that Okay, got it Okay, so now Now the next part of this is You're going to do it again on the back

But with your eyes closed Okay, no Yes, yes I'm gonna be good at this Okay, so close And I'll say this It has to be big It has to be big

It can't be small It has to take up the paper. Okay. Yeah, okay. Okay, you ready? Let's go. Let's do it. Oh my God, no.

This is ridiculous. Mine was so bad. Gonna be worse. This is freaking... Oh, God. Okay. Everyone on the pot, let's listen to this podcast should try this.

Oh, my God. Yeah, if you can... Oh, this is... Oh, wow. I made some modern art. Are you ready looking? I'm done. Yeah, well, it's terrible, but I did it.

This is really, this is really so... Wow, mine's pretty good, guys. Really? Okay, you're ready? I think mine's kind of good, too. Let's expose. Way better than I thought. Look at that.

You guys made you're so small. No, Paula, that's... What are you talking about? No, I'm just holding it close to the... Oh, you are, you are. Okay. Yeah, wow. In my mind, I was going off the edge of the paper.

That's pretty good. Wow, guys. I think this is what it was. would look like if a three-year-old drew it for sure. Mine looks like someone who is mostly lost their mind has probably had a few. You're fired. A few ails. You're off the team.

Well, that's hilarious. I love it. But I definitely won the little eyes closed one, right? I think so. I think we can say that. Can we like add a poll to the video thing? No. No, that's so ridiculous.

We could be next level. Maybe we could add a poll to it. That's interesting. I guess you could leave a comment. I think what would be more fun is making up a name for this game and making a jingle for it. What do we think? And then we'll do it again next time. I think it's called Pictionary.

Pictionary. TTL Pictionary. Okay, I love that. TTL Pictionary. Maybe we should like, like what's another thing we could do next time? Like draw the, a picture of the male who won the Olympics with your eyes closed. Oh, Alex Yee. Something like that.

I can't even draw on with my. eyes open. That's true. Neither can I. Okay, well, that was fun. And, yeah, we're going to auction these off on eBay, and all the proceeds will go to. Yeah, we'll sign them. Oh, my gosh, you guys, that is hilarious.

Why don't we say, like, whoever donates the most to the divot team will send these works to our team. Oh, my God, get our horrible drawings. They deserve better. They deserve better. Include the pens we use these things. They deserve better. The TTIL bottle. are worth more than the drawings.

Anyway, good job, guys. That was fun. All right, and if you're a podcast supporter, you'll get that as a video in your email. When is a good time for me to tell... Maybe we'll tell that right now, because it could be in your email or it could be somewhere else, Eric.

Where else could it be? Well, you're going to be getting a very fantastic email. So if you are a $10 a month podcast supporter, or if you've been a podcast supporter for over a year in the $5 category, either one of those things, we have a, I shouldn't even say a special opportunity, but a thing that we need your help with. We have been working very hard in the background on something for the TTR community, and we need some help testing it out.

So I'm going to be sending inside of, I guess it can be one email with this video and then also a special link to get access to the special thing with some instructions, keep an eye out for that. It's very cool, guys. It's freaking cool. And it's going to be, this thing is going to be for everybody, but we just have a limited capacity to test said thing right now, and we need just a little bit of help.

So if you're down for that and ready to engage, we would love it. Eric, do you think it's possible that eventually these people that are helping out now could get some kind of future, how do I say this? Notaryity attached to their name? Yes. That could be cool. It is not possible. It is, it will be. Ooh, I like it. I like it. Well, you, I mean, you will benefit. This is not a one-way thing. We're not just asking you to do something for free. They will come with some positive benefits down the road. Cool. Okay. Next question here is from Jess. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. Love the pod and it helps me get through some tough bike sessions. I'm very slow runner and wondering if there is any point. in getting super shoes for races? Is it worth the investment

and will it help the back of the pack runners? Jess. You know what? Here's the thing. We're all slow runners. These shoes were designed for people going for like a sub two hour marathon just insanely fast people.

We are all pretty slow. That's smart, Eric. 100%. They will benefit everybody. What we always told people in the bike shop is like, oh, these race wheels are like going to help me? You're out on course for way longer than anybody. else getting benefit from those wheels.

And I always like to say with bikes too, yeah, I ride bikes that are better than my skill level, but it makes me want to ride them. It makes me want to ride more. And if those shoes are going to make you feel excited about race day, that's more valuable than whatever performance benefit you get from it. Yeah. And plus a huge upside of the super shoes, which we've talked about on several occasions here, is like how much they help with fatigue, just because they're soft and they have

the little bit of rocker thing to them. Like our legs, back when we didn't have super shoes and the big cushions and everything, we would be so sore after a 70.3, could barely walk for a couple days. And now next day feel pretty fresh. Yeah. That's the biggest thing for me. Well, plus the speed, of course, but I rarely get sore anymore. For the slower people, the speed benefit is decreased compared to faster runners. But the cushion benefit seems like it's even more beneficial because you're out there for so long. Yeah, I think I'm giving a shot. And most companies now have like, like On has like a shoe that has like the plate technology and gives you the vibe and the feel of the super shoe for not the same amount as like the top of the line thing. So if you just want to like even try them out and see if they feel good and you get that excited feeling,

then that might be a thing you could look into too. When I first got a nylon plated shoe, which is what like a lot of them would do that. It was a difference was huge. Yeah. So nice. Okay. Next question here is from Andrew.

Love the pod and love following the Devo team. Proud to wear the TTL Devo kit while racing. Wow, thank you, Andrew. That's awesome. Thank you. I was at the T100 in Milwaukee and really enjoyed spectating that pro race. Hope to see you all in Vegas, excited to race that distance. I've integrated arrow handle bars on my road bike and would love to add clip-on arrow bars. Problem is the upper bar is flat, as many of the new ones are.

Anything you know of that would work, Andrew. So what Andrew's referring to here is on his role. road bike, instead of the bars on top being a perfect sphere, they are a cylinder, they're shaped kind of like a... What do you call this shape? We can call it looks like a plain wing. It's an aerodynamic wing. And the clip on arrow bars are designed to clip around a circular bar.

So, Eric, have you seen this before? Is there a solution for this? Yeah. Certain manufacturers out there have ones that mount onto a stem. I haven't seen that as much lately. you might have to get a whole new handlebar. There are certain companies that have, like I said, mounts onto the stem or mounts on,

like there's a specific way that they integrate to an integrated stem bar combo. But Paula has this currently on her SL8. She's got like the new zip, ergo, arrow, tops. And yeah, I just can't see clipons onto that, to be honest. I did some research on this and the only solutions are, you mentioned one of them,

which is that they are, things that clip onto the stem, but everything I saw, it was like old. I don't see people doing that anymore. Yeah, the last time I saw that was in like 2012. And then, like, for example, when specialized head, like the Venge that I have comes with these like arrow fly bars, I forget what they're called, but they're just like a plain wing, like you said, and specialized manufactured clip on arrow bars specifically for those bars. I think TREC also did that at some point. Yeah. Pro. Some manufacturers will do it. but oh yeah.

Yeah. I mean like the stubby arrow bars is very quickly, is not currently in style in the WTCS style of racing. And I feel like that whether or not those are available sort of goes in trend with whether or not that's in style and people are using those to race. Well, it's just not legal. You can't race with them now. So why are, why, you know, why put them in two?

I think there's also a lot of like aerodynamic research that just doing low on your hoods and hunching that way. It's actually really aerodynamic, but the problem is it's hard to hold that for an entire triathlon. Yeah. Yeah. For like 20K attack. But switching your whole handlebar is a feasible solution. They're not crazy expensive.

And it is a lot faster to have the long arrow bars on. So it might be a worthwhile swap to make. Assuming it's not like an integrated stem and all of that fancy stuff that makes it look really nice. The bigger expense could be paying a mechanic to redo the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if it's an integrated stem, which they often are. If you're really committed to this triathlon thing, I think that might, that's kind of

just what you've got to do. Yeah. Or you could also, if you're a small size, buy one of Eric's old argons. Yep. T.T. bikes. Just get a whole TT bike. That's a real nice bike. Real nice.

We have all phases of niceness. We got like some rim break argons. We got some cracked frame prototypes. Oh, boy. We don't have a cracked frame one anymore, but we do have a process. prototype. Yeah, we sold the crack frame one. Yeah, that's right. RIP, whoever bought that. No, they knew, right? Yes. Yes. It was a very, it was a superficial crack. Got it. Okay, next question here is from Kara, from Chattanooga. TTL fam, how often should you replace your saddle? I've been using my current saddle since 2020 and starting to show visible signs of wear. I normally replace my running shoes after a certain number of miles. Does a similar concept apply to replacing your saddle? Or should I base this on feel? As always, thanks for the great content. content podcast and YouTube. We love it. Kara from Chattanooga. I've never even thought about this.

I mean, if it's not hurting, I wouldn't mess with it. I think there is for sure a lifespan, but the problem is like saddles often get more comfortable, the more you use them and they're kind of shaped to you. But they do kind of sag and lose their integrity a little bit. Yeah, but I mean, you could put out a brand new one of the exact same saddle and that could hurt because it's not where you're used to anymore. I guess. I guess. maybe one thing you could check is if it's actually like squished down a couple millimeters, you would have to maybe raise your saddle a little bit. If it's, you know. Oh, I see. If it's like a banana and it's kind of a second. That's interesting. Yeah. But I mean,

four or five years old, I don't think it's going to break down on that amount of time unless you're riding your bike 20 hours a week. I've got saddles that are like two or three years old. Yeah, same. What I was going to say is that I think your saddle will wear out, like the actual material will wear out and you'll see it and it'll start to disintegrate before you need to replace it functionally, at least in my mind. Like you crash or something and it scrapes up

or like something starts to rub off on it. Really just if you crash. If it's a good saddle, it shouldn't wear off that much. Unless you're wearing sandpaper bibs. Yeah, unless you buy your saddle from China like Nick does with all those bike parts. Okay, next question here is from Machia. I, a quick question about trisuit for age group fighting for top standings and world championship spots.

Do you believe there are any real differences between arrow trisuits in terms of performance? I have seen Lionel's YouTube video and Wind Tunnel and differences were like one to two watts between different kits. But would there be any larger differences between those and like $200 and $250 suits? Machiae. This is, I mean, this does not. necessarily follow price. It's kind of rider-specific and then just some suits just for whatever reason. I remember this with Zoot. Paula tested like the Zoot suit, which was, I don't think the same price as like the top of the line S-works Arrow Racing Suit. And it actually tested pretty

darn well and better than some suits that were lower in price. So it's really, the wind tunnel thing, arrow testing is really tricky because I could wear the same exact suit that Paula wore. and get different results just based on like the way my shoulders are and where the seams fall in the suits and et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, the way it fits you is really important. That's true. When I tested the Zoot suit, it was faster than every other suit I tried. And the price point is good on it.

But Alina went to the wind tunnel and he switched kit sponsors because one tested faster than the other. Wow, for one to two watts. No, I don't even, it might have been more than that. Yeah, some of the ones that we tested, I guess, I didn't even test that many seats, but like that Paula tested, there was more like six or seven watts.

Oh, that's a lot. Really? I don't remember that. Well, yeah, like year one. Okay, okay, yeah. Yeah, like the first time you went to the wind tunnel. I think we were doing someone a favor and we like took kits there and tested them.

We had no affiliation with the kit, but it was slow. Oh, I see. Well, do you think then that for someone who does not have access to a wind tunnel, it's smarter to focus on comfort because there can be a big difference in comfort from suit to suit. I would say, yeah, if you can't do a wind tunnel, then focus on comfort and getting something that fits tight

and is not baggy, is not moving around. You know, it needs to be tight against your stomach when you're in the arrow position. So if you look at our Castelli suits, when we're straight up right and running, a lot of the times, it'll be a, it'll be hardly connecting like the upper part and the shorts together. But that makes it so that when you're bent over arrow,

you don't have like this floppy thing going on your tummy. Yeah, or a bent zipper or something like that. Wrinkles anywhere are bad, right? Yeah, like if you're getting out of the swim, I think it's worthwhile running up to transition to just kind of pull the arm straight so that they're sitting flush. Because if you're wearing a swim skin or something

and the sleeves get wrinkled, that's slower. Yeah, that's great advice. That's great. But I would say, yeah, I think it's generally well known, like pro athletes who are racing at the top 10 at T100 type of level, all those suits are fast.

If you pick one of those suits, you're probably going to be fine if it fits you all. Yeah. In my opinion, within a couple watts. Yeah, fit is paramount. Yeah. I will say though, both of us have tested very, very fast as any other or faster than other suits in the Castelli

PR speed suit. Which is a sponsor, but obviously, but that's a pretty sweet coincidence. if you will call it a coincidence. I'm not going to call it completely a coincidence. And it's also just like the most comfortable suit. That's planned for. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. We don't have sponsors with things that we don't love wearing. No. Absolutely not. Yep. It's not worth it. Okay. Next question here is from John, from Spokane.

Hi, guys, just had a wild experience and thought I would share. This is a crazy story. I was writing my new to me. It's not quite as crazy as the Gordon Rampe's story. A little story. Yeah, no, that was crazy. That's our new standard. That's our new standard, yeah.

I was riding my new to me speed concept practicing descending in Arrow on a paved trail when I came up to a family walking their two dogs in the opposite direction. I pulled one arm out and braked as they moved to the other side of the trail, but at the last second, their chihuahua ran out and I hit it with my front wheel. Oh, no. The dog ended up being okay and I stayed upright, but it got me thinking how many other people have had a similar experience. Have you guys ever experienced anything like this? It's the forbidden speed bump. Oh, God. I'm usually pretty careful as I pass people with kids and dogs for the exact reason,

and I feel pretty fortunate that the outcome wasn't worse. John from Spokane. P.S., I started listening last year looking for beginner triathlon help, and now I'm stuck. You guys rock. My kids love watching Paul and Eric Race and listening to Nick's tunes. Oh, that's so nice. Keep the content coming. I can't get enough. Also, additional info. The owners apologize. and took full responsibility for letting the dog run out in front of me. The dog, Mary, was on a retractable leash, which apparently is faulty. Okay, so has this ever happened to you guys? No, but I was about to like...

I've never hit a dog, but it is just like what dogs do to get in the way on trails. I think that... Flynn does it, all dogs do it. The paved multi-use trails are not a good place to practice arrowbar riding. I'm not blaming him or pointing fingers or anything, but that would not be my first choice because that kind of thing happens can happen anytime

and could have been much worse so practicing downhill arrowbird riding on a place where people are walking their chihuahua's I don't know that seems scarier than doing it on a road yeah that's tricky I mean who knows where this you know I don't know what Spokane is like

for road bike riding but we ran on this exact trail I'm thinking oh you're right we have it's like a river path with a center line for pedestrian use and bike use. Yeah, that's tricky. But yeah, a lot of bike paths will have speed limits because for this particular reason,

bikes are going so fast and pedestrians aren't paying attention and it can be kind of dangerous and scary if they're doing something crazy or the retractable leash doesn't work and you're trying to practice your new speed concept. Yeah, I do always on... We used to live next to one of these trails

just outside of Portland and I would definitely break arrow well in advance of seeing anybody but that being said anyway the Chihuahua was on a leash like you would not have decelerated to zero under any circumstance

I wouldn't have and you couldn't have like you would hit the Chihuahua at one mile an hour or two miles an hour no matter what so what I will say maybe this is a good opportunity

to practice your bunny hopping skills so you could have just hopped Oh my gosh do not bunny hop chihuahas while on a TT bike you can squash the Chihuahua Oh because you can't clear it I mean I doubt

the average person cannot clear a chihuahua. I can't leave the chihuahua is okay. I could clear it on a mountain bike, but not on a... Well, is a chihuahua that much bigger than a bunny? Like, it's called a bunny hop. No, they're probably the same. But they're like, there's so much angrier though.

Bunny hop at your own, you know, discretion, you know, if you have full confidence in your bunny hopping. Wow. Well, have you guys, around here, it's more... I've almost hit kids a couple of times who just like dart out in the middle of, like, the bike path. I hit a kid on a trail here a couple weeks ago. Ouch.

Fortunately, going very slow. slow. Same situation. Just dumb, walking behind his parents. Just a dumb kid? Edit that out. No. No, I'm saying. It was a dumb situation. It was a dumb situation, not a dumb kid. But he was just looking at the ground walking behind his parents. And we were actually going in opposing directions. And the parents got out of the way. And right as I'm passing the parents, I didn't even know there was a kid back there. He just literally walked across the trail. And I just like freaking smacked him with my mountain bike canto bar. And we all just

kind of like stood there and looked at you. each other. What, who? Bye. Yeah. Sorry, got to go. Nothing anybody could have done about that. Sorry, I can funny off your child.

Yeah, you need a funny off the kid. Hit your kid or go down this cliff. So I chose not the cliff. Yeah. Ouch. Anyway, yeah, it happens. Yeah. I'd say it's pretty lucky that the owners were apologetic with this Chihuahua.

You know, the dog was probably fine. Those dogs are like, they run. head first full speed into a wall and then they're fine. To a rubber tire filled with air. Yeah, I mean, all dogs. I've seen Flynn do it many times. That's true. He smacked his head pretty hard.

Yeah. Okay. Final question here. How do you approach training and acclimatizing following international travel for a race in a completely different time zone? I'll be racing at 70.3 worlds in New Zealand this December and I'm not sure how to think about training

or preparing in the weeks leading up to the race. My wife and I are planning to make a big trip out of this, three weeks plus, and figured it made the most sense to save the bulk of the trip for the back end. With the stress of the race out of the way, on the other hand, I still feel like I need to give myself enough time to adjust the time zone before the race, which will be 18 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Following a 20-plus hour flight, yikes. I know some pros would probably just fly out and spend two weeks there training, but don't

think that will fit in our plans. I'll be tapering so that may help, but just not sure how to a press. this logistically. Yep, you nailed it. There's a general rule of thumb of like for every hour of time change, you go one day early. And obviously you can't go 18 days early.

But I will probably go, if we go, quite early to it. I don't know about 18 days. Is an 18 hour time change even possible? Well, it depends. Almost the whole day. Yeah, but there's just like, then you go backwards and it's six hours.

I mean, it starts to get easier at that point. Exactly. Yeah. It's like a 23-hour time change. It's like, okay, so it's a one-hour time change. Yeah, yeah, right. It's like you go to Alberta and you're like, man, this 23-hour time change is real rough. Nice.

I mean, you're right. Ultimately, it's like going to be four hours difference or something, but you've just been asleep for an entire day on the airplane on the way there. But I think that's kind of the move. Like the more that I feel like just the more that I can sleep, sleep, sleep on the way there and just kind of arrive at the said location, just so topped up on sleep that I do feel like I can wake up at like the normal morning the next day. That seems to help a lot. That and like on the airplane and immediately once you get there, starting to do food on the

normal schedule thinking like, okay, like what time is dinner as I'm on this airplane? If you can time it like that, great. And then immediately upon landing, having breakfast at the appropriate time, that helps me a lot get the circadian rhythms synced up. And don't succumb to the urge to nap too often. Ideally, don't nap on the first day. Sometimes you'll nap and it'll be like a five-hour nap and then it just makes falling asleep the next night on the proper time zone much more challenging and you'll be up early.

So that's, yeah, napping you really want to do it. But also if you haven't booked your flights yet, there is some strategy to like getting on the long-haul flight in what feels like nighttime for you so that you're tired and you can hopefully sleep a bulk of that and then when you land

you can't control this obviously but if it's nighttime where you land you get to go sleep in a bed pretty soon after so if that's the situation a lot of the time I wake up normal the next day in the new time zone feeling like I've just had two nights of sleep I don't know if that's possible

and you can sleep in the bed you can sleep in the bed after you've slept like your normal night you're able to get into a hotel and sleep in the bed? Yeah, because like, airplane sleeps aren't great. So off and on, you're uncomfortable. I usually have a great sleep after I, after I land somewhere and I'm like,

oh, lying vertically. Bring some melatonin as well. Horizontan as well. Read about that. Try that. Yeah, melatonin helps. I'm convinced that all high-performing athletes have exceptional sleep skills. I think it's like across the board, you guys sleep, you guys have way better sleep.

capabilities even, not just habits, but like genetic capabilities than non-like elite athletes. A lot of the time when I'm on a long-haul flight, the entire plane is sleeping and feels like the only one not sleeping. Oh, yeah. You're right. I have seen that too yet. Yeah. It's so uncomfortable to sleep sitting. I might argue we're just permanently like tired. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. Something I did last time I went to Europe is my watch has like a jet lag compensation mode. So you put in in your calendar when you're going and where you're going and when your flight is.

And it will a certain amount of days before start to tell you like avoid daylight until this for the next two hours. And then like try to start winding down and do not exercise after this time. It was why I saw it and I'm like, I'm not doing any of this. It was so inconvenient. but if it means a lot to you, this is, I have the Garmin Epics. It does it. The Garmin Phoenix does it, but you can look it up.

I wonder if some other brands have it as well. That sounds like purely a Garmin. Yeah, maybe. Party trick. A Garmin gimmick. We like to call that a Garmin gimmick. I think it's, it feels like a gimmick. But hey, it's getting them talked about on our podcast.

Yeah, you're welcome, Garmin. Well, it's just like if you're, yeah, what you said, Nick, it's just so inconvenient. Yeah, I'm not doing. Oh, between 1 and 2 p.m. It's going to be. real late in China, so try to... Yeah, don't eat lunch, you idiot. For five days before going.

So you just hate your life prior to your trip. For sure. Every time I looked at it, I was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that. It's not worth it. So, yeah. But good luck. It sucks for everybody. Yeah. Be kind to yourself the first few days when you're there. Don't expect to feel awesome

and workouts. Just like, get out, do it, check the box. Use coffee. And then on race day, you're going to be so amped that it doesn't even matter. Yeah. And realize that people that racing in New Zealand are mostly not from New Zealand. They're from all over and everyone's going to have to deal with that crazy time change. Yeah. Well, those were all our questions. I hope everyone enjoyed our various games. Eric's incredible spelling skills are horrific drawing skills. I'll speak for myself at least. And we had questions, podcast supporters. We had everything.

This really had this really had it all. And hopefully it cheered the three of us up a little bit. I got so lost in the moment. I had a great time. Thanks, you guys. I had a pretty good time too, except it's still the worst I ever, just for the record. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Paula. It's okay.

There's always tomorrow. Paula, you can listen to the sad song that I put out last week to console yourself, okay? No, I can. It'll make me more sad. Yeah. Happy songs only.

Crank out some happy songs, bro. The next one's a happy song. The next one's a happy song. I started it out with a sad one, but the next one's happy. It's coming out in a few weeks. We had to set the stage for the comeback. Here we go.

Yeah. Anyone who wants to listen to Nick's new song, go look up Nick Goldston on Spotify. Or Apple Music. The song is called Glacier Point. It's nice, but it's a little, it's a little sad. It's nothing to do with events than Nick just experienced them. Of course not. Totally fictitious.

No. Made up, made up circumstances. Made up stuff. All right, before we all start crying, we'll say goodbye. Yep. Bye, everybody. Thank you, bye. We'll talk to you next week.