That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon swim intervals, tubular tires and their worth, foggy helmet visors, TT drafting while training, and more!

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

This week we start out with Eric giving us his expert opinions on tires in our "Bike Tech with Eric" segment. After that, straight into questions about Triathlon! How often Eric and Paula do speed work, power meters, split boarding, and more! For gear and our new collaboration with Dusty Nabor Wines, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hello everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are here to answer your questions, talk about triathlon, cough up our lungs, because it's Tuesday after a hard bike workout for all three of us. And yeah, we're excited to get back to kind of a more normal episode where we'll power through a lot of questions that you guys have sent in over the last three weeks. No race recaps to do this week. Thank God. Although we did have a lot of positive feedback. I think people like the re- race recaps. But yeah, didn't race this week. We just kind of, Eric and I had a bit more of an

easy week. Nicky were in Mammoth for a fun weekend. So yeah, we got a huge list of questions to get through. But how are you guys doing? Coughing. Well, yeah. This was my first bike workout since I raced a week ago. So legs felt really fresh. But speaking of biking, you guys have been like cleaning up KOMs and QOMs in your local area there. What's been going on? You just been on a tear? Well, that's kind of what happens when we have a week of unstructured training. Because, like, I felt pretty physically back to normal after a couple days after Dallas, but still didn't get a schedule from our coach because I needed to mentally just, like, have some flexibility and get over that race. So the fun thing was, my legs were feeling fine, and I could

just go do stuff like that. And then Eric smashed a QOM by like five minutes or something on gravel. He told me to before he's like, I'm about to go get this KOM right now. Yeah. It's, yeah. Anyway, Eric, Eric's not talking. Yeah, normally, I was not feeling this way. I was feeling way more tired from Paula's race than Paula was, but I don't know. Randomly, I saw this gravel KOM that is not just climb a mountain the end. Right, right. You have to go up and come back down, which is the type of KOM I enjoy, and I went and got that. So kind of unusual, but fun. Eric was texting me like three, four days after Dallas being like, dude, I'm just exhausted. I think that was physically really hard on you and just like mentally really also.

Well, I'm sure it was mentally really hard on you too, but it was mentally very draining for Eric too. Yeah, the turnaround from Santa Cruz, like the hive from that. And then to turn around and get to Dallas and be working full on with like trying to support me and video and photos. And then to have a bad race and then to have our flight get canceled on the way back. It was just a tough week, so that's why Eric was tired. But we're both feeling kind of better now, so that's good. I had some questions for Eric's a little, a little, we haven't done one of these in a while, a little bike tech with Eric.

Bike Tech with Eric. I'll add you to the song this time, Paula. This will wake Eric up. Come on, Eric. So first of all, if one rides tubeless, should one still bring a spare tube, and CO2. Is this a race or a training ride? No, this is for training.

And I'm asking selfishly because my race bike is already tubeless. But my road bike is not. And I'm thinking once I go through these tires, I'm going to convert it to tubeless as well. And I'd be very excited to not have to bring around a spare tube. Are your wheels compatible to switch to tubeless? Yeah. Oh, cool. Okay.

So basically, when we switched to tubeless for like the first year, I didn't fully trust it. so I carry it around a tube. But now I pretty much just carry around, what are they? The bacon strips or whatever? It's not a bacon strip. It's like a speed plug. Oh, okay.

It looks like a tube of lipstick or something like that, and you just like, you pull off this little cap, and then there's basically this brass spike that has like a thick bacon strip sort of a thing attached to it, and you just jam that into the hole, and it fills up the whole, still will see us who. None of this like put it between the tweezers. So why didn't we do that today when I got a flat and the sealant was going all over?

Because we were 800 meters from the house and like why use up one of those strips? Because it's cool. Yeah, we definitely could have. Look who wants to use all the toys now, Paula? She doesn't have a drone, but she wants that. What is it called? It's a dinah plug. I wanted to see it in action because I got a flat today and like the sealant was just like

you know, like spitting everywhere. And Eric's like, stop! So I stopped, and then he tried to put his finger on it to seal it, and it didn't work. So I think we should have brought out of the darts. You've been getting some flats, Paula. We could have, but I was... Nick, when was the last time I got a flat? Like a week ago.

On the same wheel. I forgot it. I had to had a flat. That sealed. It's the same hole that just basically loosened up and... Yeah, it was very dumb. Got it. That's okay, though.

That's okay. We were close to home. So, yes, anyway, we could have done that. The thing is, putting in a tube, a lot of the times, like, if you get to that point where, like, the dart won't seal it, like, the gash is so big that there's nothing, like, this tube is going to explore it out there. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. And also, it's really hard to get a messy, tubeless tire off the wheel. It's, like, tighter, and then there's the sealant.

It's just such a mess. Yeah, that's an Uber ride. I'd rather call an Uber. Yeah, I'd rather call on Uber. I guess if you're one who rides totally solo and ends up like 50, 60 miles from home where an Uber is going to be super far and no one can come get you, maybe carry a tube is like a backup. But for us, we're never really more than like 20 miles from home.

And there's almost always somebody that we know, namely one of us, that can like bail you. Right, right. Yeah, I'm kind of in that first camp where maybe not 50 miles away, but I'll go like 30, 40 miles away and like into the mountains here where it would be inconvenient or I might not even have service. So, Dinah Plug.

Got it. The actual product is Dinah Plug Racer Pro. Okay, so maybe I'll just get one of those and bring those with me. Will it fit in a jersey easily? Or would you put on your body somewhere? It's like the size of a... It'll fit in your nostril.

Like the size of a pen. It's super, super cool. And one end has like a big fat one and the other end is a smaller, pointy one. Eric, can you get me a pair? Can you get me some? We did get you some. Okay, can we order some more?

Because I don't know where they went. Paula, remember that time you did 400 watts for a minute the day before you raced? Six of them. Yeah, but you only did the first one at 400, right? No, I did them all. Was this before Dallas? No, before Collins got. That is so crazy.

I was doing 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off at like 400 and something, and I was like, I can't believe Paula did this day before she raced. Yeah, that was dumb. It was two days before, though. Okay, got it. So next question, if you don't bring a two, should you at least bring a valve extender so that maybe if you get an Uber to a shop and they don't have like 80-mail valves, you can still use a regular tube.

Because that's what I used to do on my road bike. I mean, if you're, if this is so bad that you need to get a ride to a shop, I think you're getting a new tire at that shop. Right. Not a tube. Got it. So don't bring the valve extender. Yeah, I don't know if you saw LA Salt, though, not Ellie Salt House's, but Zachie,

Ellie Salt House's partner. I did see the Instagram. She'd like rolled across a razor blade or something and it just sliced completely across the tire. Nothing is fixing that. That is a new tire. Yeah, I did see that. I did see that.

They've been getting pretty unlucky, actually. And then last one, should everybody be riding 28th? Or should people be checking their wheel width? It seems like it's very trendy right now for everyone to be riding these wider tires, especially with tubeless. Do you think that's a good general theory or should people be checking with wheel manufacturers?

I think I would check with the wheel manufacturer, just to be 100% safe. Like if you have one of these new generation tubeless, I mean, not tubeless, but hookless wheels, and you know that's what you have, almost for sure our 28 is going to be the recommended width. But if you've got something that's like previous generation of that that is like tubeless compatible and like the rim itself is like 23 millimeters wide and this is going to make this huge bulb shape out of your 28C tire, that's probably not aerodynamically better. It's probably not really rolling resistance any better. And a 26, you know, might be more appropriate.

The thought here is that wheel manufacturers started making their wheels wider and wider. So a wider tire actually was aerodynamic. Whereas before putting a wider tire on those, like the older rims, like you said, it was bulbous and aerodynamically it was not wider. That's why this whole discussion is happening, right? Yeah, aerodynamically and also just ride characteristics for a lot better. Got it. Got it. Cool. Okay, thank you. Well, that was our bike tech with Eric, which we haven't done in a while. And I get messages from people all the time saying that's their favorite segment. Oh. Thank you. Thank you for your expertise, Eric.

And Paul, I know it's Eric's thing, but I love when you jump in and give your two cents too, because you ride bikes a lot. Even though Eric's your official mechanic. Yeah. Eric does most of my mechanic stuff for me. But I like to learn it, too. So I love this segment. There you go. We need something with Paula. What's the Paula one? I have no expertise in anything. Fighting through the pain with Paula.

No. Suffering out on the race course with Paula. Smashing bikes was with Paula. Okay, well, we're going to move on to questions now, and you can send your questions into that triathlon life brand at gmail.com. We've been getting a lot of them. Love it. It's getting harder and harder to pick the best ones.

but here's what we're going to start out with, and I particularly love this one. It just starts out straight up with, why is swimming the worst? I got to race the 100, which actually ended up being a 66K, PTO Dallas race this weekend. Is that right?

Yeah, so we race the 100 kilometer distance. The whole race was shortened because of the heat. Got it. I've been swimming master's workouts for a few months now. I've dropped my 100s and 200s repeat time significantly, in my opinion, and it did not translate into the race. Sore shoulders by four to 500 in and just a general exhaustion on the swim back in.

I've heard that most pro-triathletes do 800 reps. How do you build the endurance strength, Tim? Yeah, that's not true about the 800 reps, but it is a good question because a lot of the time you see improvements in these kind of like short sprint type of distances, like 100 or 200, because, It's over before you get any kind of muscular fatigue. But I don't think the solution to that is necessarily doing longer repeats of things because your stroke will just break down. I think the solution to that is doing maybe more meters per workout. Like if you're doing 2K per time you go to the pool, do 3 or 4K. And it's really just like frequency and time in the pool that will build that strength. And another tool you can use, as long as you're not using it too much, is pull and paddles. Because paddles are kind of just like creating this resistance that will actually make you stronger in the water. So they're an effective tool. But yeah, really the best way, it is interesting because we race two

kilometers as well in the race, but we never do repeats longer than maybe four or 500 meters. But we do swim for 5K six days a week. So the frequency in the pool is pretty high. Yeah, I would, I mean, my question for you is like how many hundreds are you doing? Yeah. Are you doing like 20 to 25 100s at this like pace with like a decent amount of rest so that you can keep your stroke together? Yeah. Or are you doing like five one hundreds and hoping that's enough or, you know. Yeah.

He's swimming with a master's group, so I'm guessing he's doing more than five one hundreds, right? You never know, man. Like the most master's groups that I've been to, it's like this slow build to where like the last rep is super fast. And so you feel like you swam hundreds. fast, but it's just like this gradual build to like insane pace. Yeah. Versus like we, they suck so much, but they work. Our coach, Apollo gives us these workouts that are like 20 by 100 with like 15 seconds

rest at, like a little faster than race pace, you know, like race level intensity feeling, but then with the rest you end up going a little bit faster. And it's just, it's so painful and so terrible. Like that gets you race fit. And then there's still just like this little bit of time between where you're able to hit these times and workouts. And then you can like actually put it all together in racing. That's just for whatever reason, there's like a lag on that. Yeah, yeah.

The one thing I thought of for Tim that's not based on training is that I had this same thing happen to me in Edmonton. Remember where my shoulders got really sore? And for me, I think that problem, it wasn't a fitness issue. It was because I also was swimming really well in the pool and then had a bad swim there. It was a, my wetsuit wasn't on well. So if you're used to swimming in the pool in a speedo, and then all of a sudden you throw your wetsuit on, it's a different dynamic.

And if it's not around your shoulders, you can have extra material there. Also, I found that I didn't warm up that race at all. Like, I didn't even, like, do any shoulder warm-ups at all. And I think that contributed to it because my next three races after that, I didn't have that problem since I had warmed up. I think we're all used to jumping in the pool

and warming up for two, three hundred yards. and in a race, especially amateurs, we jump in and we expect our body to just work. And I feel like it might need some time to... I mean, it's definitely not what you're used to doing unless you're going out and your workouts and going all out. Yeah, Dallas definitely wasn't a wetsuit swim, but that is for sure a factor.

But I think you're right about the warm-up. I didn't even think about that because we get a bit of time in the water before we race, but yeah, age group athletes don't. What do you think Tim could do as a warm-up? Sometimes warming up before races with those bands, but is there anything that you can do on land that maybe doesn't have bands.

Like if you're in an Iron Man and you're waiting in that line to jump in the water, it can be there for like 30 minutes. Is there anything you can do that you guys know of from swimming that could warm up your swimming muscles? You could do like go into a push-up position

and just do like scapula push-ups or I don't know, really any activation type of thing doesn't have to be fancy. The band is good. Like also just, yeah, like a high plank and then you like lift one arm and the opposite leg up. Do that a bunch of times, you know?

I think a lot of people's poor swimming is due to like poor core activation as much as like your arms being warmed up or anything. Yeah, yeah. That has helped me a lot on races like Alcatraz where you can't swim warm up at all. Right. But we are happy to tell you that the solution's not to start doing 800 meter repeats. Yeah. So just keep.

When I have 400s on my schedule, I'm already like, oh, really? Today, not today. Oh, God. But good question. Thanks for sending it in and just keep going to math. that'll help. Just consistency. We all feel similarly to you. Swimming still sucks. You just go faster.

I'm so jealous of people that love swimming. They're just like, I just love going to the pool and staring at that line for an hour and a half. I don't think they're going hard enough. That's right. That's right. I'm like, I can't breathe. All right. Anyway, next question is from Brett. Paula, Eric, and Nick. I love the pod. Thanks for all the work you do each week to put out an awesome product for all of us. You are so welcome. It's our pleasure.

Eric Huge Congrats and the Santa Cruz win I bought my first tri-bike this spring. I want to upgrade the wheels, but I have rim brakes, and it seems like everything new is made for disc brakes now. When I look for used wheels, all of the rim brake wheels are tubulars, which I cannot believe that. That seems crazy. Would you recommend a tubular?

I don't know much about them, and I'm curious why there are so many used ones for sale. Do you know of any brands that are still making clincher-tubless rim brakes that you would recommend. Thanks, Brett. Is this crazy? Yeah, don't buy tubulars ever. They're all for sale because no one wants them anymore. That's true.

Yeah, do not get tubulars unless you have a freaking race mechanic with you 24 hours. It's fine. It is not that bad. You can definitely get tubulars. And if you can get them for like a third of the price of clenchers, fine. Like, whatever. They're still fast. We all used tubulars for a long freaking time right up until tubeless came out like five years ago.

They're just not easy. You have to get someone to install them for you From what I remember Could you do it yourself, Eric, if you get the glue And all the stuff? I always did it myself Wow, see, Eric did it But we're not Eric.

We literally have a podcast where we ask you about Bike Maintenance Advice, so I don't know if you're the right person To the average show here I'm just saying like if your options are $2,500 tubular race wheel set, I mean, that's tempting. Yeah, yeah.

It's not like they're slow. They're just, if you get a flat, not a lot of people can change that flat. I feel like there's some kind of racket going on mob thing. Why are there so many tubular wheels for sale? Because everybody raced on tubulars until five years ago, Nicholas. Wow. Wow.

Not only is Eric tired, he is edgy. He is so grumpy. He is so grumpy. It's very obvious to me why they're all out there. and it's because they are all hardly used and outdated now. Are they even used in like the pro tour anymore? No. Really?

Tubeless. All tubeless for sure. I mean there might be a few people. I think Holly was like a holdout and raced tubular even as late as like early last year because the guy who was like the track mechanic was all about it. But that's the last person that I know racing. But he has the track mechanic to look after it. Yeah.

Yeah, I would say don't get a tubular. Probably not worth it. But there are definitely... Unless there's a crazy deal. There's definitely a market now. Like, for example, we have some bike wheels that we need to sell. Maybe we don't anymore. But rim brake race wheels, because a lot of pros now have switched to disc brakes and age groupers.

So everyone that had a rim break bike with rim break race wheels are now trying to sell those. So I would just keep your eye out for those with non-tubular. I'm so confused. Clincher. Yeah, a clincher. We're looking for clincher. Rim break. Rim break.

Yeah. I mean, that's like the most common wheel ever produced, so it shouldn't be that hard. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. But it's not so outdated where everybody is dumping them as fast as possible. Yeah, right, right. And do you know any brands that are still making clincher slash tubeless rim breaks that you would recommend? Yeah, every single brand is still making. Every brand.

Zip. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, well, there you go, Brett. Hopefully that helps. Good luck. I don't know where you live, but maybe you live. but maybe you live near a bunch of former pro cyclists

and they're also on their tubular. I would check pros closet. They usually have a lot of options for stuff that's really good, in good shape and things like that that pros don't need anymore, but are still like really, really good. Slow Twitch, which also has classifieds and pinkbike.com. Yeah, pink bike, yeah, that's what I use to. Isn't pink, it's not pink bike not only for mountain biking?

No. No, it's not, I mean, it's primarily a mountain bike site, but it seems like their buy-sell section has plenty of road stuff. A lot of road stuff. Oh, cool, cool, cool. Next question is from Jen. Hey, Eric, Paula, Nick and Flynn. I love your podcast and TTL gear.

Thanks for all you do to create such a strong triathlon community. Do you have any tips for preventing the visor slash shield? I cannot say the word slash, and I feel like people are starting to catch on. Preventing the visor slash shield on your race helmet from fogging up. I got a Gero Arrowhead and have lots of issues with the visor fogging. Thanks for your help. Jen, have you guys ever run into this? Yes.

Did you have the problem at Santa Cruz, Eric? Because I had it last year at Santa Cruz, really bad. No, I did not have it this year at Santa Cruz, but I've, like, thrown away two different visors on the Oceanside course from bad fogging. Yeah. I've actually, I would use the Gero head as well. And I've never, when I wore the Oakley helmet, I always had problems with fogging, but with the Gero I never have.

Maybe it's a matter of, like, the position of it on your head. when you put an arrow helmet on and you're just standing up, you should, the visor should almost be above your eyes so that when you're in arrow, the tail is touching your back and you're just lifting your eyes and looking out the visor. So maybe that's a way of creating a little bit more airflow underneath than you otherwise would and keeping it from fogging. This is fully a hypothesis, but... Well, I love what you said about that because I kind of learned that the hard way to like angle the helmet further up than it would feel normally like in a road, regular road helmet.

Yes, yes. But I didn't realize the only problems I've ever had with fogging, the helmet got foggy on the bike while I was in the swim. It didn't get foggy while I was riding. Got it. Yeah. Because as soon as the airflow starts, then it kind of unfogs. So my, this dawn on me while I was doing Iron Man in Wisconsin, where the transition was

indoors and my helmet was actually in like a soft case. Yeah. And I thought for a pro, this is not going to be helpful, but not many pros. Listen to this podcast. A few do, but not many do. So I think for age groupers, a solution is to like, you're going to lose whatever, four seconds, but my helmet came with a soft case. Just keep the helmet in the soft case right near your bike, unzip it, open it up. It's not going to be foggy in that case.

Yeah. So maybe that would help. It definitely would work with my helmet. Yeah. That's a good idea. Wow, Nick. That is a real loose. loser answer, but it might work.

I know, I'm sorry. But you know what's even more loser? Looking like me and Santa Cruz with your visor flipped up for the entire bike because it's so foggy. That's true. And then it's slower and it's a whole thing. But the other option is just to not wear the visor and put sunglasses on. That's actually not that much slower than the visor. Okay.

So did you leave your helmet in transition overnight for that for Santa Cruz? No. I'm just kind of wondering because typically that's like a temperature differential thing between like you and the outside. outside air, causing this condensation. Everything was just soaking wet. It was due, I think. Yeah, yeah. What do you think about like the anti-fod?

No, no. Don't go for that. Because then it just gets smeary. And yeah, I would say try tilting it up so you get more airflow or Nick's trick of putting it in the case. Yeah, if you want to be super cool. Wow, Eric seems so mad at all our answers. Well, he's a cool guy and these are not cool answers.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. It's true. Okay, well, there you go, Jen. Hopefully that helps. Hopefully this next one's good for, uh-oh. It's actually for Paula. Okay, next one is for Paula. Now that you've raced Dallas,

I'm curious how you would deal with the heat down here if you lived here. I live in the Houston area, which is around the same temperature as Dallas, but the humidity is even worse. Moving is not an option. Thanks, Seth. Yeah, that's tough. I would like to think that I'd get more used to.

to it if I lived there. But I mean, we weren't even there. It doesn't it get even hotter when it's like actually the middle of summer? Yeah, I would honestly have to just do a lot of indoor training and air conditioning. I think that's how I deal with it. It's so miserable otherwise. Or get out ultra early and then just do like your swims midday. Is it that much cooler?

Your training is just going to be not as good as it could be if you're that hot all the time. There's just no way around it. There's no way around that, right? Yeah. But then on the plus side, if you go do a hot race, you're going to be ready for it. Because like we saw in Dallas, it didn't matter how fast I was. It was a matter of being prepared for the conditions. So if you live in an environment like that, I would say just seek out hotter races, you know,

because you're going to be having an advantage over anyone else if you live in the heat like that. But do we think that the ideal for performance, and obviously this Seth doesn't have this as an option, but just as a curiosity that I would have to ask you guys is do you think the ideal would actually be to train in a place most of the year where you can get the most out of your training and then do whatever a certain block in the heat and humidity to adapt to that? But that's not an option for most people. Yeah, but I was just curious if it would be better to do that or to just suffer through the heat all year and then gain fitness that way. Yeah. Well, doesn't it cool off in the winter in Dallas? Yeah, but yeah, I'm sure it's still, the problem is the high.

season lasts for so long. It's long. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, thank you, thank you for the question, Seth. Next question is from Pam. Hi, all. Triathletes training on their bikes who draft their training partners while on their arrow bars, and while drafting are pretty close to their friends or significant others wheel, it seems so dangerous. I think some fancy themselves to be so skilled on their bikes that they can respond fast if needed, but things happen in literally a fraction of a and moving from arrow bars to brakes takes longer than that. Also, if their MO every time they train is to go on with others and get in a little paceline, they're not getting the full training benefit they'll need for race day where they need

to do all their own work. Thoughts? Pam, which is perfectly appropriate since you guys do this a bunch. So there's two questions here. If I'm in his draft and sitting on his wheel in Arrow, it's doable, but it's freaking scary and it's really dangerous. I 100% agree with her. Like, I'll try to leave, like, a 10-meter gap if I'm riding with Eric in arrow. Or if I'm right on his wheel, I'll be up in my bars.

I never ride aero. No, I completely agree with that. I would not ride in my arrow bars behind somebody else, like, right on their wheel. Unless this is, like, a team time trial, like, where the result matters and we've practiced it, and it's just, like, very predictable. That's different. Yeah, I just, if you're just riding in second position, just sit up. or if you're going to ride in your aero bars back off two bike lengths or whatever.

So there's two questions here. The first is riding right up on someone is that dangerous. And if you're in your error bars, the answer is definitely yes. And I don't know. I don't see that too often. I don't think people should be doing that. Usually if triathletes are riding together, there is like a gap there. Yeah.

But the second question is, is there this fitness? Are you cheating or whatever? And I think the answer is like, Paula, when you're riding 10 meters behind Eric, you're still working really hard. It's still hard, yeah. Yeah. So I don't really see that as an issue.

If I'm sitting on his wheel and sitting up, it kind of, I'm still getting the draft effect. So I think overall it's still quicker. And then we can ride together and I can stay with him. Yeah, I don't think everybody who's like riding around, drafting off of people is like, oh, I'm so fast. I covered so much more distance than that person who's riding by themselves,

arrow on their, no, it's just like they want to ride with people because they're a social person and that's fun. And Watts or what? If you're putting out high power for you, whether you're in someone's draft or not, is irrelevant. You're still getting your workout benefit. Yeah, that can actually give you the best power that you ever have because you're riding with somebody who's significantly faster. You're just trying to hang on. Yeah, totally.

Well, there you go. Guys, this podcast is heated. Heated. This is a funny thing, though, when I was riding with Eric on our T, on our T.T bikes when Paula was here, I had the radio in my ear. and we did like an interval starting around the same time and I left a 10 meter gap Apollo was like stop drafting in your ear yeah that's great

he actually said stop drafting don't put that in the front we'll bleep the name which I really appreciated that yeah of course that's good I like that good job Paulo next question is from Pam Pam says triathletes oh did I just read it twice I did read it twice.

Yep, next one. Sorry, I'm drunk. You should leave that in. You should leave that in. That's funny. Okay, next one, sorry, I used all my brain oxygen for the bike intervals. Next one is from Alexa, from Boise, Idaho. Hi, Eric, Paula, Nick, and Flynn.

I had two questions that are very unrelated. One, do you ever get worried about long-term medical slash dental health-related? People need to stop using slashes in their questions. Dental related to training slash racing fuel. I drink a lot of my calories so that means a lot of simple sugars that may lead to dental cavities or increases in cholesterol. I know we're all doing the healthy thing by exercising, but do you guys do anything to combat what all the sugars may be doing to the body?

I've seen that you work with Inside Tracker and was just wondering if this ever comes up. So that's the first questions. Let's take that. I do think about it. Yeah. Not so much in terms of cholesterol, but I definitely wonder about the dental aspect of it. Yeah, you should book a dentist appointment, I think. I've been meaning to book a dentist's point for a long time.

Me too, dude. Oh, me too. This is where I try not to eat as many sugary things when I train and I try to take like real food. Maybe this is why I suck at nutrition, but I don't want to eat like gels on every single bike ride because, yeah, they're really bad for you. Where are they bad for you? Because they're 100% sugar in chemicals. Maybe a good solution to that is to like brush your teeth after a long ride.

Yeah. I mean, it's not a bad idea, right? But I think that's probably a really good idea. Because you're having a shower anyway. You might as well just brush your teeth. We're going to start seeing triathletes out on their bike course, just brushing their teeth. Yeah. Paula said, Paul said brush my teeth.

Maybe just like a mouthwash so you're not like destroying your gums. Yeah. With five brushings a day. Right. Right. And then I would just say, like, if you're concerned, that concerned about sugar, like, I think the more appropriate strategy would be to, like, cut out all other sugar. Like, if you're like, oh, I'm not going to have a gel, but as soon as I'm going to get off this bike, I'm going to go for a donut.

Totally. I think you should flip that around. Totally. And just like, if I'm going to have sugar, I need to save that for when I'm exercising. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's a good idea, Eric.

I mean, it's not a fun idea, but it's, well, I think what makes most sense. The one thing. that I think maybe is important to remember here is that for people who are doing triathlon and part of their goal is to lose weight, if that is part of your goal, the wrong time to try to lose weight is during your exercise, right? Like, fuel your exercise really well, and then you can worry about that losing the weight when you're not on the bike or not running. I think this would be a really, really great time to say that we are not professionals, we are not dietitians or nutritionists. This is just us talking amongst ourselves about what we think and what we have done.

Yeah, my only advice is to brush your teeth after rides. There we go. I mean, that can't be bad. That's four out of five dentists recommend that, I would say. Yeah, right. Also, one more thing, one more thing thinking out loud. Maybe gels are better than like cliff blocks. Because when I eat a cliff block or like a, like a chew, it's stuck in my teeth the whole time. But a gel, you kind of just like throw it to the back of your throat. Like you don't like swish it in your teeth. Yeah, that's true. I'm sure both are not good for your teeth, though. For sure, but one's worse than the other.

I don't know. Anyway. We should get a dentist on the pod next week. So a good roll of thumb. Just kick it straight to the back of your mouth. Don't swish it around. Yeah, exactly. Just inhale it.

If you can inhale the gel, that's even better. That's usually what I do anyway in a raise. I don't want to taste it. I'm just like, oh, that's right. Speaking of which, my friend, Kathleen, who just did 50K this weekend, a mammoth, She like barely ate the whole time and felt terrible the whole time just because she didn't like she she she didn't want to eat even though her stomach felt fine. And then finally when we forced her to start eating, she was eating a bunch. Then finally in the last like three, four miles, she felt good.

But it's amazing how much certain people just will never eat while exercising because I get it. Like you don't feel like eating. Yeah. But anyway, that was a bit of a tangent. But next question is from Pam. Just kidding. Next question is from Donnie. I have a question for most likely Eric about the new GoPro 11 creator bundle.

I live in Bristol, UK, and have been racing 70.3s with my dad all summer. I'm on my way to Nationals as we speak. My question is a creative bundle for the GoPro 11, is it worth it? It comes with extras, but how much value will they really add? I'm a total amateur video creator but want a professional feel as they get better for business marketing. And Eric, just so you know, the bundle comes with VoltaWOLF. hand grip, a little the light mod, and the media mod. Oh, I would say for sure go with the bundle.

Yeah, I just Googled it. Oh, there you go. Because, like, how much is it without the bundle? So this is 580 minus, like, GoPro subscription or whatever, and what is just the... The GoPro itself is... I feel like that's, like, 350 or something. And it says it comes to the Enduro battery, but the Indira battery, I think, is the only battery GoPro makes now.

So either version comes with the Enduro battery. versus 400. So you're paying $180 for all those extra things. Oh boy, that's a lot. I think the light mod is worth it and the media mod is probably worth it if you're doing like vlog style stuff. Yeah. So here's the thing. I think the most valuable, usable thing here is probably the grip with the tripod.

I have the media mod for the whatever, the nine. And I haven't known. notice this like huge jump in audio quality, but what I have noticed is it like it messes with how quickly the camera turns on and off via just the red turn on button or the mode button on the side because it's it's plugged into the camera. It's one more thing that has to process and I've noticed a lot more like SD card freezeups using the media mod than I have without it. And it makes it not waterproof anymore. Oh. Wow. Which is so it's like, okay, so now I've got this thing I'll set up. But

then we just got to the pool and I want to jump in the water. Now I have to take it out of the media mod, make sure that I brought the little door that goes where the media mod covers with me, put that on, get in the pool. What are the chances I'm going to want to put this media mod back on after the pool, you know? Right. So it's like, for me, for my workflow, it makes more sense to just have like a camera that I use that's not an action camera

or I just use my cell phone. And then I use the GoPro for everything where I'm jumping around, jumping in the water, jostling. And you're just like, the audio is going to be what it's going to be. So she's trying to do like glamping kind of vlogs, that kind of thing. Okay. So it seems like if you're doing action stuff, the GoPro really is amazing. But if you're not, the iPhone is really amazing too.

And Eric actually uses the iPhone all the time for the YouTube show. That's true. And I use a GoPro all the time, and I don't have any extras. I just have the GoPro. And I get really good results with that. So I think either way, I don't know. Yeah, I guess if you're glamping, the one upside of this medium-mod, then would be like that light.

The light. Because the GoPro is terrible. It's terrible in the dark. Yeah. Well, hopefully that was helpful, Danny. Next question is from Jordan. T-TLN, are you doing speed work basically every training session, intervals in the water, on the bike, and also while running?

I've read various opinions here about intent. intensity on your workout. So curious about your general take on training days and what that looks like. I've signed up for Chattanooga 70.3, round two in May, given a disappointing outcome and cramping the first time around. Hope to see some fellow TTL Nashers in Tennessee. TTL Nashers is great, by the way. Keep up the good work, Jordan. We don't do speed workout in every session. Definitely not. That would be way too much. We do a lot of like easy base cruise type of workouts for like volume and, you know, muscle endurance and resiliency and all that stuff. And I'd say we do speedwork maybe, I mean, we don't even do a lot of speedwork really,

maybe mostly in the pool, but most of our intervals on the bike and on the run are at like 70.3 maybe Olympic distance effort. If that counts as speed work, I don't know. Yeah. Like, you can't do intervals every day. Every, this is, I just noticed this about really great athletes like you guys, is that your, I don't know, it seems like your Olympic pace and your 70.3 pace aren't that far away from each other.

Whereas for most amateurs, those two numbers are very different from each other. So I think it can be a little confusing for people when they see your Strava, for example, and they see you're going out for 7.30 per mile pace run. And for you, that's actually quite easy. But they think, oh, here's them doing another speed workout. Right, right. It's all relative. Like Eric and Santa Cruz ran 530, 6.

per mile. I mean, that's like insane. So 730 compared to 536, that's two minutes per mile different. That's a huge difference. So imagine you race 830 pace for your 70.3 running. That's like 1030 pace. You know, that's the equivalent there. So maybe that's why, because I know you guys, you guys do tons of workouts where you're not like doing quote unquote speed work. Yeah. So basically just real quick breakdown is like we do two hard swims a week. two hard bikes a week and two hard runs a week. And we ride our bikes like five out of seven days of the week and we run six out of seven days of the week

and swim five out of seven days. So there are a lot of workouts in there that are not hard, but we do two quality sessions each sport each week. And I would say that's a lot. Like some people, most amateurs can only handle like three quality sessions a week overall. Yeah, well, if you're only doing eight sessions per week, that's a pretty high percentage of the total number of sessions, right? Right, right. Yeah. So good question, Jordan.

That's something that I definitely was curious about before I actually got to hang out with you guys and come with one of your training rides. Do they just go hard as hell every time? It's easy if you watch like Lionel's channel, it seems like every workout he's bleeding from his eyes. Yeah, yeah. Everybody who has a YouTube channel or Instagram is only going to post their biggest hero stuff. But also, if you follow Lionel and you see his really, really open with his watts on his Zwift and stuff. But for him, 250 watts is easy.

It's insane. So like similar to what you were just saying, Nick, like don't look at our paces in Lionel's watts and think that we're doing speed work necessarily. Or if you do look at them, look at them with perspective of what your race pace then is. Yeah, like, okay, Lionel holds 400 watts in a race, but he's, you know. Right, right, exactly. Okay. Next question is Martin from Quebec. Thank you. Thank you, big, big fan of the vlog, but now addicted to the podcast. Also, love the TTL brand, as do we. I want to invest in a power meter.

What would you guys recommend? Inside training is okay with the trainer, but I would like to get more feedback from my outside sessions. Thanks again and keep up the great work, Martin. I feel like we've answered a question like this before. We just get this a lot. Yeah, we do get it a lot. That's fun. Yeah.

We're like 50. podcast deep, so it's not like everyone's going to hear every question. The only answer is a cork power meter from SRAM. That's the only answer. That's a nice one. That's a really nice one. That's the best one. But seriously, we both have, what do we have?

Like three corks each, none of them have any problems. They all read. Same with mine. They read the same. We don't even think about it. And that's what you need with the power meter is like, don't think about it. It's consistency. It always works.

If you have to like doubt it or. if it's different between bikes or it's way different than your kicker, it's just not helpful. So pick something that's more expensive maybe, but it's going to work. So at cork. Maybe would it, would, would this be good advice to tell them that if they do put a power meter on their bike, to use that on their trainer as well, to not go back and forth between the kicker power and their bike power? Do you think it's okay? I think it's okay, but I think what you would want to do, like, first round is like, put that bike on the

trainer, compare with the kicker at, let's say, 100, 200, and 300 watts, and make sure, just get an idea for what they mean. If they are the same or if there's a 15% spread or what. Yeah. That reminds me, DC Rainmaker has a tool where if you record power on two different things, you can then overlap them over each other and see exactly how different they are from each other. Oh, wow. That's crazy.

Yeah, that's too scientific. Yeah. I remember I did that when I got the power meter. I was happy I did it, but maybe because I'm a little bit nerdy like that. No, it's interesting. We've just honestly, like, that's why I'm truthfully saying the cork is a good one, is that we've never had to do that because we don't really have discrepancy between the kicker, really, and all of our power meters read the same.

Yeah. I'll just finish this off with things that I have lately heard not great reviews on, unfortunately, not throwing these companies under the bus, but the power pedals from Garmin and the stages have heard very mixed reviews on, like, reliability. day to day. But they might be good too. I mean, any power meter is better than no power meter. We're just telling you like the only ones that we have experience with are the cork and it's been amazing.

And the pioneer, but they don't make those anymore, which is now made by Shimano. Oh, they don't even make them anymore. Shimano absorbed that technology, which is good. So those are the ones that I have experienced with. Okay, next question is from Maisal. Yep, that's all I'm going to say. Last name is never going to come out right. Ola from the best border town in the world, El Paso, Texas.

The question is mostly for Eric. Fall is here, and I can't wait for winter sports. I've been training for Iron Man, Arizona, and I have been missing snowboarding like never before. How often do you snowboard during the winter? I know you have a splitboard. Do you always splitboard, or do you take the lift sometimes? So first of all, Eric, do you want to explain what a split board is for the people that don't know?

Oh, sure. For the people who don't know, a split board is, well, it splits in half, basically. at the bottom of the hill, you take the board apart, you put skins on it, which are just like a thing that glides one direction, but not backwards. And that allows you to like walk up the slopes. It's the same thing as ski touring, but just with a snowboard form. And then you get to top of the hill, you put the snowboard back together into one piece and like latch together and you ride down like a snowboard. That's cool. Yeah, I've never, I remember when Burton came out with one like, I don't know, 15 years ago. I was like, whoa, that's really cool. But then the next time I think I saw one was when you were, using it. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's a way for snowboarders to be able to do backcountry skiing,

basically. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot simpler to do it to do backcountry skiing, that is to use boardboarding. Do you have a regular snowboard? Not anymore. I grew up regular snowboarding and riding lifts and love that. Like, I would definitely say I enjoy the downhill more than I enjoy the uphill. But like for us, the positive of doing backcountry and walking up is that we can kind of call it a workout. At the same time, we go do this enjoyment thing. And it's like just this awesome off-season activity where otherwise we just basically be riding lifts for four hours. And that would be it for activity for the day. And it's zero percent applicable to what we do for a living.

Do you do it ever still? Do you ever take the lifts? No. honestly like we only live 40 minutes from our ski hill so we don't have the problem of like trying to cram in as many downhill runs as possible we can kind of in the winter time when we're quote unquote off season we can go up every other day every day if we wanted to just as much gas as we want to put in the car and we can get up there and do like there's a short loop that we can do that takes like 20 minutes to do the whole loop and then there's like an hour loop that we can do and we'll just kind of do one and then the other and then one and the other and some days we'll go up and drive up and just do like one of the short ones and then just sit and talk to friends and have a beer in the parking lot and tailgate or whatever. Yeah, it looks so epic.

For those of you who haven't watched those episodes of the YouTube show, they're always really fun and so scenic. Taking a lift is also just, it's expensive now. Yeah. How much is it at Bachelor? I don't know, but it's more than zero, which is what we pay to walk up. Yeah, that's the nice thing about walking up

is it's totally free. If you invest in the equipment and then it's free to go ski. And like it's super, social going up. Like you just, you walk up with your friends and you're chatting the whole way and then you stop

and like switch over the height of your boots. And like, it's just, it's like a fun social activity that we do. We don't really enjoy doing it like just Paula and I going up,

but we'll go with the Corbans or our friend Danny. And it's just like, it's a fun thing to do this group. I just found out how much lift tickets cost at Mammoth because I was just there this weekend. So I grew up staying,

yeah. Do you want to guess? I'm going to guess like 140. I would guess two. $200. What? Dude, I got a season pass to both resorts on Mount Hood in high school for $300. Yeah, that's, so I grew up skiing in Italy, and in Italy, like, in the Dalamites, where the region, it's like unbelievable skiing.

And you can go anywhere. You can do, like, new slopes every day, and it's like $50 or $60 a day. And the Italians complain about that being expensive. $200 is mental. It's just because it's between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's like people can afford it. Is that just, are they also just trying to cut down on the total number of people on the slopes? They're like, well, we're just going to like price out.

Nope, because it's so packed. Apparently it is so packed. Well, imagine if it was 50 bucks. Okay, well, I think that, I don't think everyone's paying that much. A lot of people get seasons passes, which is infinitely more affordable. And that's what we would do if we wanted to ride lifts at Bachelor. We'd just get a seasons pass. The icon pass, which is this thing that spans California and Colorado and maybe other places, too.

It's like $700 a year or something, and it's unlimited skiing. So everyone I know has one of those. Right. Anyway, cool question. That was kind of a cool little. Next question is from Andrew. First, love the podcast and following along on the journey. Curious about who is your current sponsors and supporters.

There's a slash in there, but I'm not saying it. Do Eric and Paula try to negotiate with the same sponsors, or do you keep it separate? And then Andrew says, why does Nick not think he deserves a sponsor? their sponsors just go with whomever give them the brands their most positive exposure and ultimately sales. You don't have to be the best. You either just have to inspire being the best or good helps or relatable to the public while showing their product in the best light. Andrew. Why don't you guys go first? First off, Andrew, 100% agree. And I have told Nick the exact same thing.

Sponsorship is all about bringing value to the company and how much exposure and positive exposure can you bring them. And specifically also just like does your brand and what you do align with what their brand is all about? Like environmental causes is a big thing for Patagonia. So it would be really dumb if they like brought on an athlete that drove an F650 spewing diesel all over the place. It just doesn't make sense. Versus Alex Honnold who like doesn't have a car slide. Right, right. Well, that's why Rivian endorsed Alex Honnold.

Exactly. It makes so much sense. So for us like to lead into us, we don't necessarily. try to get the same sponsors, it's certainly more convenient when we do because rather than us having to like call and talk to two different bike companies or two different shoe companies, if we can talk to one person and make sure that they're happy and satisfied, then, and that simplifies things a lot for us. But also the downside of it is that you're like pulling from their budget for two of us.

So sometimes when we spread out and we each have a different sponsor for one category, we're like taking from two different pots so we can maybe get a higher salary. Because I'd say like now maybe 70% of our contracts are combined. So it's like one amount for both of us, which like Eric said is super simple. It keeps things easy. We're both tagging Zwift. We're both tagging Wahoo. We're both.

It's Eric taking pictures of me using the Wahoo is like a check in the box for both of us. So it's super convenient that way. But it's not always good to. be 100% matching, you know? Right. And we don't just like go after matching things just for the sake of it either. It does so happen that we both believe, like certain products are, are really good and aligned with us. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we could go on about sponsorship all day. Did you have any thoughts, Nick? I remember especially earlier on in this, like the show, even before we had the podcast, but I'd often think of you guys getting sponsorship and the value of Eric and Paula and how valuable that

is like outside of the racing, outside of your performances, if I were a brand, how much I would want you guys to be reppping my stuff. And I think this is one of those situations where one plus one does not equal to. I think, Paul, you're saying like, it's harder to get more money because it's like there's two of you. But I think that two of you is like, it's like having five people because it's so like, oh, wow, they both love this product so much that they were. It's not just one person who got lucky with a contract. Like, no, they believe. leave that Zip makes the best wheels. That means that Zip is probably the best wheels.

These are two very different athletes. Eric and Paul are very different athletes, and they still both ride Zip. There's so much value in that, I think. That's really true. And also, like, my value to specialize, for example, is way higher because of Eric, and he doesn't work with Specialize right now.

It's undeniable. It's the way that the videos come to, I mean, even just like the Bik, the Shiv Bike Build video, so many people watch that video, and it's not even Eric's bike, right? It's your bike. Yeah.

No, I think that my individual sponsors that I don't share with Eric are Very, very lucky. Way, way, getting way more exposure than they would if it was just me. So Eric's the best. We know this. We know this, sweet Eric. Well, I mean, from my perspective, it's a pretty perfect slam dunk. Like, Paula has a bigger platform on Instagram as a result of like her results.

of her results and as a result of me providing good pictures. And it's just, it's like, for me, it's really exciting because if I had just been trying to take really pretty pictures of nothing slash my bike slash what I'm doing, like putting camera on a tripod, it's just like, I don't know, it's just like all these pictures that I take, I know they're going to a really good home

and a lot of people are going to see them and multiple companies are going to be super excited. And it's just like, it's the dream come true to have your stuff be appreciated as much as possible. This is, I have this exact same thing. in music. When I'm working on a song for an artist that I know, no matter the quality of the song, it is going to be heard by millions of people. Like, for example, working with Trixie, I get to really pour every ounce of effort I can into a song, because I know that no detail

is going to go unappreciated. Because it's going to get to so many different ears. And it is a great feeling, right? Because I, Eric, I'm sure you've had this too, but man, how many times have you worked so hard on something for it just to never go anywhere. Oh, yeah. So often. I was doing YouTube quite a while before Paula came along, and I can tell you, it did not have the same magic sauce. It was not the, I mean, like, I was still trying really hard, and it was fairly high quality,

but it just, yeah, it wasn't the same. It starts to get to you. It starts to be like, well, why am I doing this? Every time I, like, am emotionally vulnerable enough to create this art, and then it's not appreciated for what I think it's worth. So what you're saying. So what you're saying is me and Trixie are just like critical in this equation here. Yes, you are critical.

We need you more than you need us. Yeah, Nick and I would be taking pictures and doing stuff no matter what. I love being in the same. I just be taking pictures of Eric's mullet, I think. That's what I'd be doing at this point. He has a haircut booked on Friday that I booked for him. Against his will, poor Eric. Well, today I was like, Eric, you need to shave this mustache.

I cannot deal with it anymore. So he goes into the bathroom, I hear I'm like, oh my God, he's actually doing it. And he comes out and he had just shaved down his beard around it Oh yeah, baby, let's go. Looks way more intentional. Like this wasn't just, uh, bleh. He made it more pronounced.

I was like, that was the opposite of what I just asked you to do. Really nice. Really good. Don't try it. Anyway. Oh, wow, we got to an hour, guys. We did. We did.

We made it. I don't know why. We should be shooting for an hour, but yeah, we did. We went off on a tangent. But hopefully people who are on their long runs or whatever can just laugh along with us. I feel like that's what mostly people do all they're listening to this podcast is they laugh. Hopefully. Hopefully with us and not at us.

But Paula, I was thinking maybe you wanted to talk about the wine. Oh, yeah. So we have a really cool collaboration coming up. It's actually our second time doing a collaboration with Dusty. And it's a wine, which is really exciting. This time it's a rosé. and I can't really speak. We've tried it.

It's delicious. It's amazing. We love it. We would drink a bottle a night if we could. I find that rosé, I don't know a lot about wine, but it's a little bit less. I don't know. I feel like red wine as more of like an opinionated thing where some people like some red wine better than others. But rosé is just, everyone likes rosé.

Well, Eric, do you remember that dinner that we had with Dusty up the street here? And he went into like this 20-minute explanation about how most people mess up Rose. And like he has this whole theory and this whole thought process. It's, he's so smart. And he listens to this podcast too. And he was telling us that when he listens, sometimes he yells at the car radio. Because like, we'll say something that he doesn't agree with and he just yells at it. He wasn't shy about hiding that. Yeah. He was not shy. Oh, no, he's not shy about hiding it at all. But the way he went into about Rosea and like what kind of grapes are used and when you get them and how they're used, it was really interesting. I was like, wow, I've never.

never thought about that. Dusty is a genius wine. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, for people who do know, it is a Grenache rosé. Which is he's saying is the only one it should be, right? Well, he's not necessarily saying that, but that's like that is what he feels is like the gold standard. And I don't want to say too much because I don't want to mess it up and speak for that year. Because he's going to be yelling at his radio again. But you can make a rosé with a pinot. And it kind of comes down to like at what point in time

I think you like mix in some red wine and all of that. So basically we're selling them in packs of packs, like it's a bubble gum. We're selling them in like collections of three. Collections of three. I think it is a pack. So you can't buy an individual bottle. We had this problem last time with our red wine that we did with Dusty is a lot of people just ordered a single bottle. And to Dusty, he like ran out of single bottle shipping boxes because he's like, people don't buy one bottle.

That's crazy. So trust us you'll like it. Get three. And if you don't think you can drink three, give it as a gift for Christmas. Find somebody else who lives in your city. Because the other thing with this is like if you buy one bottle of wine, it's whatever we sell it for, $30 bottle of wine. And it's like $20 of shipping. If you get two bottles of wine, it's $20 of shipping.

If you get three bottles of wine, it's still $20 of shipping. Yeah, yeah. It's like up to like six bottles is still. $20. And so it's a lot better for everybody. And you are going to like it. I guarantee it. It is so good.

Yeah. So people can find it on that triathlonlife.com, right? Yeah. Yeah. And we'll aim to have it up Thursday. Thursday, the podcast comes out. Thursday, it should be on the website. We're going to make it happen.

And if it's not, it'll be up Friday or very, very soon. Yeah, exactly. Okay, well, I think that's all we had. Do you guys have any last final thoughts? Yeah, that's all for this week. That was fun. Sorry, we're tired. Tuesdays are a hard day to record.

So I think next week we're going to do it midday on a Monday. All right. Thank you so much, everybody. We really appreciate the support for listening and all of your emails and send us your questions. So we have a fresh batch of 100 questions to go through. Great. We're going to run out of stuff to talk about if you don't keep asking questions. That's right.

Thanks, guys. Bye.