That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon Swimming, swimming in the cold, flip turns, masters swimming, and more!

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

This week we focus on swimming and get Eric and Paula's professional perspective on some questions you all sent in about swimming. We also answer a few bike and run questions about wind and soft surface training/racing amongst others. To submit your own questions, help support the podcast, and check our gear, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everybody. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paul Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. And on this podcast, we talk about triathlon, hence the name. Paul and I are both professional triathletes. We have been for quite a long time now.

We're not going to argue about exactly how long. Nick is a professional musician and an amateur triathlet, pretty good one. And he kind of brings an element to this so that, you know, might not be obvious to Paul and I, what we know and what other people have questions about. So Nick tries to inject some of that into this conversation. Yeah, you guys have long lost sight of what us mere mortals are capable of. Yeah, when Paul and I start dropping like FTP and WKGs, Nick can like pump the brakes and maybe we should explain those terms.

Yeah. And also what you think a normal FTP is versus what an actual normal FTP is. You also have no idea of that. What is normal? I would bet a middle of the road triathlete has an FTP of like somewhere around 250, 260, something like that. Disagree. Really? You think high or lower?

That's high. Oh, okay, okay. I think it would be like 190. 190. All right, guys. You know what we should do? What is FTP? I think, okay, sorry.

That's right. I mean, we don't get five gazillion emails about people telling me what our FTP is. So maybe we should just delete this whole segment. I was thinking I could do a little Instagram poll and see where people lie and we could get a little like a little bell curve of FTPs of at least a podcast. You do that on your platform. You do that. Okay. Your Instagram platform.

Okay. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. Okay. On Monday, after the podcast comes out, you can find me on Instagram and vote on my story. And we will use that as our data set. All right. Nick's secret way to get followers on Instagram.

It's not a secret. It's not a secret. It's not a secret. I've been cultivating this. technique for a year now, and it's been working like gangbusters. Speaking of followers, you and Flynn are still neck and neck on the Strava following, and Flynn has been injured for a week now, so it hasn't really been uploading. But I'm happy to report that he is doing a lot better.

And we kind of hinted to this on the log that Flynn was injured, and we did have a lot of concerned TTR fans asking what happened to him. Are we going to answer that? Yeah, I think it was a bit of a soft tissue injury. So we got back from a And it was just a regular walk And he could barely put weight on his front leg Very strange

Didn't do any kind of weird movement Like pranced into the house And then 30 minutes later couldn't walk on it So we were like Should we take him to the vet? We've done that before And then it's been nothing And it's kind of a waste of money

So we waited it out a couple days Still limping Mega limp Went to the vet Got some remodel like anti-inflammatories Gave him that made a huge improvement. So that kind of hinted towards the fact that this is soft tissue.

And he seems to be doing better today. I mean, it's a shockingly, you know, parallel to a human experience here. We just had to keep him from like sprinting out into the front yard after a squirrel or another dog or like plane with a stick too aggressively. Bed rest. And couple that with anti-inflammatories. Yeah. And now he's doing great. It's kind of a good lesson that like, wow, five days off actually works.

Take that with whatever you want. but Flynn is doing better. He did a 3K jog with me today on a leash, which is part of his return to run plan. Is Paolo prescribing this return to run plan for him? No, I am. I am. We were actually going to throw him in the master spa

and just turn it on to like one mile an hour. Oh, some aqua jogging? Yeah. If the inflammation didn't come down soon, we're going to have to do that just to take the edge off the brain activity. You know what this reminds me of, you know how last year, I don't want to say drama,

but there were a lot of people who didn't make it to some big start lines because of injury, because everyone was pushing themselves really hard to get as fit as possible to race. And so it's like, oh, yeah, pros. And it's like, oh, it's like, this isn't a real world champion. You know, like, X, Y, and Z's not here.

They don't, it's like, well, they got sick and they pushed it a little too hard. And this is what's happening with me in Flynn on Strava. Flynn pushed a little too hard. And yeah, he had to take some time off, and that's why I've pulled ahead. So you're welcome. This is true.

World Championship starts in January. It's not the morning of the race. No, exactly. Exactly. No, I'm happy Flynn's better. I'll gladly sacrifice some Strava followers to make sure Flynn is healthy. If you're new to the podcast, Flynn is our dog. I'm not sure we were super upfront about that.

It wasn't clear until Paul said vet. It could have been a guinea pig or, you know, you never know. Right. We take our human child to the vet because it's way cheaper. I don't know if that's even true. I feel like vets are pretty expensive. That is true. Pound for pound for sure.

Anyway, are we okay to do some rapid fire? Let's rapid fire. Okay, these are going to be kind of different than our usual rapid fire. Someone sent in 10 questions and I thought, okay, we'll just quickly answer these. I didn't give you that. I don't people have this kind of time. When you send me some questions that I think would be good for segments, I set them aside in a separate note and I pulled from there together. Gotcha, gotcha.

Yeah. Okay. Okay, so let's try to answer these quickly, even though they could, each one of these kind of deserves a real answer. So one, recently upgraded to a kicker core from a dumb trainer and notice my cadence is significantly higher on the kicker. I was at 92-ish, now more like 97. Is this normal and expected?

Not sure if I should try to drop it back down and focus on glute drive. If they're on erg mode, then they need to take it off erg mode and treat it like a non-smart trainer. Your cadence should not be affected by the fact that it's a smart trainer in my opinion. The only reason I can think of that, is just like the feeling of a magnetic trainer versus a simulated flywheel of a smart trainer.

Okay, next two, any recommendations for how much you decrease my tire pressure in the rain on clinchers? 10 PSI. 10 PSI, that's a good rule of thumb. Three, was just watching your vlog from the couples try last year.

Do we know if there's any plan for it to come back in the future? No. No plans. It's probably not coming back. Number four, speaking of couples try, any tips for finding the best lines

on a chattery roads? Obviously, pre-riding helps, but trying to see if there are any other things that should be looking for while pre-riding. I would say if you're on an open road, like, you don't really have a choice. Just stay within the bike zone. There is a chance that, like, the ruts of where a car drives might be 10% smoother. But don't try that until where I stay. I think of the real good advice is to not be swerving around on the road and being unpredictable to other cars.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Next, any favorite training camp locations? I know y'all, Eric and Paul, I've done a bunch with short course squads as well as your own. Boulder. Everybody go to Boulder. It's sick. Don't go to Bend. Don't go to Bend. We like Tucson. It's just unfortunate how expensive it's gotten lately.

Yeah. We don't even like it. It's just warm. I mean, there's nothing really that special about it. Well, I didn't say love. Okay. My favorite training location is either Victoria, BC, Canmore. That's all I got. That's great. And best pickup lines you've used or received,

aka your best Martin move, Martin. We're picking up people? We're picking up chicks, Paula. Picking up chicks. Yeah. I've never tried to pick up. Neither have I. Never done it once.

A boy. Never done it in my life. Paula was just like actually built a career on trying to unpick up boys. Eric, have you ever in your life gone up to a girl and like said something? Yes. Wow. I don't see, I don't know why I don't see that in you. What did you say, Eric?

And who was it and when? Oh, no. I don't know. My favorite pickup line is you go up to the person and you say, hey, my friend over there wants to know if you think I'm cute. So you have said that, Nick. I've never said it, but I'd like it in concept. Yeah, it's a good concept.

I could totally see myself say on the heart. If I were more confident. Oh, my God, of course. Next one. What are the chances y'all are doing a restock of the sport camper? Came out while I was on a road trip and I forgot to hit the final purchase button. Ooh, that is an unfortunate mistake, my friend. Yeah.

But we are doing more. It's not going to be a restock. There are going to be some new colors. The 2023 color way is we're working on it as we speak. Nice. Nice. Do you all use training peaks? How low does your TSB, which is the training stress balance?

Actually, funny story about that. This is not a rapid fire answer, but our coach has never used training peaks, but he has access to our training peaks account so he can see our uploaded workouts. But just last week, Eric and I both get an email notification showing us our schedule for the week has been uploaded to Training Peaks. So we text Paulo and we're like, what is this? Are you now using Training Peaks? And he is in fact starting to use Training Peaks to deliver us our sessions. Because he used to send you like a PDF or something? Yeah. He still will. But this way, it's a much easier to keep track of your weekly mileage, bike hours, things like that. So it's just a clean way.

He's finally kind of like surrendered to the Training Peaks. Right, right. Ecos system. Yeah. Because it's very simple. He also just told us that he it's a notification on his phone anytime any of his athletes, like, leave a comment on a workout. And for me, that's kind of big because it's harder for me to, like, text him and say, hey, this workout didn't. Or, you know, it's a different, it feels different to, like, type it into training. Well, it's felt like for years he's been resistance to this. He's, like, sent us an Excel spreadsheet with our workouts, and he's had these weird

Google Docs to upload how you feel every day. And it's like, it's not an intuitive way for the athletes to go use it. So now we're using Training Peaks. And I think it's good. Yeah. Does he make, does he make structured workouts or does he just give you text in training peaks? Do you know what those are? No, no, just text. Just text. It just says like, do our bike. Got it. Science. Yeah. But we get the structure. We get the structure in a separate document. Yeah, yeah, right. Got it. Cool. Well, thank you for those, Jason. Those weren't quite rapid fire.

So we'll move on to questions now. And you can submit a question to the podcast and support the podcast. with your monthly subscription at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. The monthly support is what allows this podcast to stay ad-free. So we really appreciate that. First question is from Joyce. Longtime listener and early podcast supporter here. I have a question about the escape from Alcatraz swim. And just for all the podcast listeners out there, Eric won the Escape from Alcatraz

Triathlon last year. I was there to see it. It was emotional. I've done many cold water swims and I have even swam from Alcatraz many times prior, but for those, the swim did not start until everyone jumped off the boat. So you had time to tread water and stop hyperventilating. This triathlon allows absolutely zero water acclamation before you start. Last year at Alcatraz, I had to force myself to slow down and allow my heart rate to come down after that plunge. I didn't feel in control of my breathing

for what felt like a long time, which meant I also wasn't swimming at my best. I was shocked to find I led my age group. Apparently, I wasn't the only one suffering. I'm curious how you, Eric, just dive in and swim. There is a natural hyperventilation that occurs in water that cold, but the pros don't seem to suffer as much. Are there any tips or tricks? People talk about training in cold water, and I find that helps me tolerate the cold longer, but it doesn't take away that initial shock. You'll be there again this year. Crossing fingers, our swim is actually from Alcatraz this year, and we aren't racing in the rain. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for all the content you provide, Joyce. A hot tip here, Joyce. Don't think of

about the cold. We are not thinking about how cold the water is. We are thinking about how we're going to swim. Like the direction, we need to say for the red roof and the blue roof and get out the right spot, follow the boat, where's the other swimmers in the pro race? Am I getting packed up or not? Never once

at Alcatrazia have I even processed that I was in cold water. It's true. I've done it once. Do either of you feel like you are overcoming the hyperventilating or do you think you're just not even doing it? I honestly, like I think this could be potentially a mental thing that there's like a collision of I've thought about the cold so much. Oh, there it is.

It's crazy versus I don't even, it's not even a thing that I've ever thought about with the race. I'm just thinking about getting in the right pack. How is I going to affect the bike running out of the water fast? All of those details and focusing on that. If you can figure out a way to have Jedi mind trick yourself to not think about the cold, I think that's the move. The thing that's coming up in my mind is that I've hyperventilated plenty of times in non-cold races, just because I'm going out too hard and I'm very excited about the swim. And I'm wondering if Joyce is just, like you said, nervous about the cold water and is trying to warm up. So it's going a little too hard. And by virtue of that is also making the hyperventilating worse. Yeah.

I mean, things that I do on the boat as we're headed out and everything, like do a bunch of push-ups, do some planks, do some, you know, arm swings, stretch cords, all this type of stuff, anything that can kind of like get your heart rate elevated prior to jumping in the water. And your body temperature is going to be warm because you're already in a wetsuit on the boat. Yeah. And then I just don't think it's, it's just not that it doesn't have to be a bigot thing. Paula, do you remember doing the race? Do you remember what the swim was like for you? I don't remember loving the swim, but I don't remember thinking about the cold, just like Eric saying.

You kind of just get into the moment. And I almost think it's better that you don't get to warm up in it before because in races like Indian Wells, when there's the option to do a swim warm up, I got really cold during that. So then I was kind of just standing there shivering. So I actually prefer to just kind of be staying warm as warm as I can while you're on the boat or while you're on the shore of a different race. And then just let it hit you when the gun goes off and the adrenaline's there for the race starting. So you are less impacted maybe by the cold water. I can't help but think about Lionel who like really psyched himself up about the cold and then had a terrible swim in the cold because of it. Chase and point right there.

Yeah. And he's like, I mean, he's not, of course, he's not the best swimmer in pro triathlon, but he's better than 99.99% of all age groupers, and he still had that issue. So it's probably not a fitness issue. It's like there's some mental aspect. There's probably a physical component to it too. Yeah, no, it's a lot mental. Next question from TTL kiddo Andrew.

Hey, TTL crew, I just discovered the pot after signing up for Iron Man in Wisconsin as a Christmas present to myself and cannot get enough. I started on episode one last month. It will be catching up all this week. I'm a slightly above average age grouper with an Ironman, a 70.3, and a number of short course distances under my belt. Not good at and do not enjoy swimming. Yeah, we hear that. I know I should be doing flip turns if I could, but they never came naturally to me. I always get water at my nose, and my stroke and flow always break when I try to include them in a training session. So I exclusively do

touch turns. My distaste for swimming means I only go to the pool when it's part of a training plan, and so I've never invested the time and huge mental energy into going to the pool just to practice flip turns. I'm already into my training plan for Iron Man, Wisconsin. Should I just quit my whining

and add flip turns into practices to the end of my swim sessions? Or should I continue as is and find comfort in the fact that flip turns aren't part of my races? What do you guys think? Yeah, good question. I must say all of the questions this week

were very swim heavy. A lot of people are asking questions about swimming, which is good. I think it's like a new area for a lot of people that are just getting into the sport. Most people don't really come from a swimming background. So there are a lot of questions about it. And Eric and I grew up swimming, so hopefully we can help with that. I picked this one specifically, Nick, because you don't do flip turns and you race really well. And I think they're not necessarily an essential part of swimming. If you

grew up swimming, it seems completely absurd to not do flip turns because they're so much more efficient and faster than touching the wall and turning. But that comes with a little bit of sacrifice of, yeah, practicing them and getting to that point where they're comfortable and actually faster for you. Otherwise, they won't be. So, Nick, you, I want to you just tell us about how you approach that. Yeah. Well, first, I guess my, I thought of a question for you right away is, do you think that if you didn't flip turn and you had to do touch turns for whatever reason, do you think what part of that bothers you that you're, overall time is slower?

Or is there, do you actually like the recovery of a flip term? Because that's what I'm afraid of losing is, is yes, I would maybe be faster, you know, per hundred. For sure would be. Right. But why? Like then I can't use that in a try. I'm getting less strokes in, probably, per lane.

Mm. Per length. Yeah. I would say that the physical energy that you're taking to like, to, to, Touch the wall, crunch your legs up to the wall, dragging your legs through the water, and then pushing off. It's so much slower and takes more energy. Flip turns are just like, you already have... It's exhausting.

Every time we're like doing a freaking stupid butterfly 50 or something like that randomly, I'm like, an open turn just is painfully inefficient and too much exercise. Because if you think about a flip turn, you already have forward momentum. coming into the wall. So you're carrying that momentum into the turn in a streamlined way because you're going head first. Your legs are coming out of the water where there's zero resistance. Like the water has a ton of resistance when you're trying to pull them up to the wall for an open turn. So a flip turn whip your legs around. They're perfectly in the position to do the fastest possible push off and your arms are already in a streamlined position for that push off. So everything about it. I mean, I don't need to explain why flip turns are good. I think everyone gets it. But for

this person, I don't think it would take much to become competent at them. It's not like you have to go to the pool for a dedicated hour of flip turn practice. I think that if you can incorporate them into your warm up and your cool down. And a drill I used to do when I was in swim club is stand on the pool deck with your arms or on the pool floor if your pool is at like standing height with your arms in a streamline, do a somersault in the water and come back into a streamline. So you're like practicing flip turns in the water, but like coming back to a standing position. If you mess up, it doesn't matter, no consequences, but just keep doing that, doing that, doing that. And then your body just gets used to the flipping action. It's funny because exactly what you said about flip turns is how I feel about

touch turns. I'm like, flip turns, yeah, they're faster, but they're exhausting. Like, I get so gassed from doing flip turns every once in a while and I'm like, no, today I'm going to try to do it. And I'm like, nope, this is dumb. This is hard. Yes, it's faster. But I like the extra breath, I guess. at the wall. And it's definitely not as efficient, but I feel like to do that full crunch and flip, it feels like a lot of extra work. And maybe it's just doing it wrong.

Yeah, you must be just doing it wrong. Because here's the thing, you tuck your head down and just like the speed of your body moving through the water, you stick your head down. It's like sticking your hand out the window. Oh, the water catches it.

There's some natural resistance there. I think you're just, you're like trying to force it and there's a way to do it very, like, slippery and efficiently. Okay, now final question here that I have for both of you. Okay, Andrew could learn how to flip turn. Is that going to make Andrew a faster triathlon swimmer?

No. In a race. Is there any advantage to it? Something just dawned on me. If you are taking an extra breath every single wall, you're not trying as hard as us. Yeah. Wait a second. That's my argument.

I'm saying it is easier. And you're saying it's harder. It's easier. Maybe aerobically, yes, it's easier for you because you can't do flip turns efficiently. But if you want to get better, like the whole point of training is to become more, you know, tolerant of lack of oxygen, etc. Think about this flip turn is like you getting hit in the face while open water swimming or going around a buoy and getting dunked a little bit. It's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable. A little breath hold, never hurt anybody. Yeah, except it's once every 25 yards. I think if you are trying to be a better well-rounded swimmer,

then totally. But I feel like the hot take here, if your only concern is to be better swimmer in triathlon races, and this is going to take an amount of time and effort to do, I don't know if it's worth it. That's my non-pro, slow, uneducated age group perspective on this topic. That's someone who doesn't flip there. They should take no extra time.

time and effort. A little bit of thought. Must be nice to be a dolphin at birth like you, Eric. I was a rock at birth. Okay. Here's the thing, Nick, you were just telling me today, dolphin at birth. You were just telling me today how much you love the right paddle, left paddle, both paddle thing in warm up. That requires some thought. You're not good at swimming with one paddle. Right, right. That requires some thought, but you're getting better as a result. Your body awareness is better. Your swim balance in the water is better. Yeah. Yeah. If you're trying to be a, a legit swimmer, you should learn how to flip turn probably. I guess I'll just never be a legit swimmer.

Well, there you go, Andrew. Good luck, and if you do finally get the flip turns, please let us know. We would love to hear about that. Next question. Hi, all. No intro since Paul doesn't like reading the long emails. Good job. Very nice. Swimming question, like probably 90% of triathletes, I do all my swim training in a pool since there's no good and safe open water close by to train it. In races where the swim is in open water, I then strike.

quite a bit with the siting since it's hard to train that in a pool. Can you recommend some pool drills to get better at siding? How often should you do it since it slows you down and the goal of the pool is to get faster? Oh, that's funny. Train like you compete or just include it maybe like a month before the race. Thanks for the help and keep the awesome work you guys do. Matt from Switzerland and now in Florida, so he has alligators and sharks. That's why no open water swimming for me. This reminds me of something I just saw in the latest YouTube episode of the show. Paul, you were doing like some, I think they're called like Tarzan swimming where you just like keep your head out of the water. That's not what they're called. Nick, where did you come up with that? Nick, no more swim knowledge

from you. I think I saw it somewhere like years and years ago. What do you call that when you're swimming freestyle with your head out of the water? There's lots of different ways to call it. So Paulo sends us our swims every week in an Excel document and sometimes he includes terms that we've never heard before from Paulo because he's very like forward thinking in his swim training. So now we have this drill called polo on our swim schedule. So you go 25 polo flip and then 25 swim. And polo is just basically head up freestyle. And it's really hard because it's obviously not efficient to have your head up out of the water. But it is a really good way to practice sighting because it forces you to kind of have a higher turnover, increase your kick so that your head can be held out of the water.

And then just that's how you can sight and breathe while you're swimming open water. So yeah, I guess the way that you do it is just swim while keeping your eyes out of the water. And when you have to breathe, lift your head a little bit more to take the breath and then put it back under. I like doing, this works especially well if you're doing long course, but can you do it in a short course as well? And you just do like a 200 or 400 or whatever's a good distance for you. And every five strokes, side the blocks or have your neon fins on the deck and just make sure you see those like once every five strokes. and just practice that and practice trying to carry your speed while you sight, not like swim, sight, and then return to swimming.

Yeah. And integrate it into your stroke. I think that's critical, is making sighting part of your stroke versus making it a separate thing that you're doing while you're doing a race. Because if that's the case, you'll look up, your feet drop, your hips drop, you start kind of swimming like a barge, you know, you're at an angle versus when you're swimming, you're supposed to be very parallel to the water. So I think, like what Eric said, kind of tries,

incorporating siding into your everyday workouts, occasionally, not every day, but also not just before a race. Make it more of a natural thing. Yeah, it's kind of just, I mean, it's actually a lot like flip turning. You know, it's actually just part of your stroke and it's not, you know, like a rest at the wall. Yeah. Take a breath. Wow. Shots fired. But how often are you guys actually, like Paula, when you were doing that polo drill, let's call it? How often are you actually doing that in a race? Because it seems like in a race, you're doing that very, very quick. glance right before a breath kind of sighting, not the full head out of the water.

Or do you say that for like races that are hard to see or like bad water, wavy water? Sometimes when you're trying to like find feet or find a group, you might do like head up for a couple strokes, but generally no, the polo drill is a very you know.

It's a drill. It's an over-emphasis. Over-emphasis of that motion. And I think it has other purposes. Like I said, it forces you to increase your turnover a lot. It forces you to have a wider entry so you're not crossing your arms over, which might reinforce better patterns and different things like that. Next question here is a bike question from Josh. I've got a sciencey question for the group. Given an out and back bike course with a stiff headwind in one direction and a tailwind in the

other, are there any unique riding or bike configuration strategies you would apply? Is there a point where riding out of arrow makes more sense in a tailwind to take advantage of wind boost? This is from Josh. I've always wondered that. Like if the tailwind is faster than you're going, should you be sitting? up? I don't know. That is a great question. Yeah, that's why I included it

because I was like, I don't know, but the boys will know. No, I've wondered about this as well. I think yes, there's no way, right? That's when you want more drag. If it's, I mean, what is this? How often is that? Where your tailwind is so strong,

it's going, it's going like 35, 40 miles an hour in the right direction. Yeah. It's sustained 40 mile an hour tailwind. I think that's the answer here. Is that situation is so rare. And the situation where you'll be on such a straight road where you're continuously having the push from the behind.

Right, right, right, right. Often it'll be a crosswind, even if it's like, you know, from behind, but a crosswind. And in that case, of course, arrow is more, is more better. It is more better, for sure. I don't know. I also feel like if you have a behind tailwind pushing you, it's kind of fun to be an arrow because you're just going so fast. And you want to feel like a missile.

Yeah, and if you have a 30, 40 mile an hour tailwind, you should be. able to go like 55 miles an hour. Like you're still going faster than the wind. Still going to be going faster than the wind. Yeah. So maybe it's better to be an arrow. We probably have some scientists listening. We're like, you guys are so stupid. Oh, these people. Yeah. If you had to pick headwind or tailwind to sit up, definitely you want to sit up in the tail window. Totally. There's some knowledge for you. Yeah, there. You're welcome. You probably can figure that one up by yourself, Josh. Okay, another J name here. Jake, next question. Hi, crew, big fan of the podcast.

It's been super helpful as I've begun my triathlon journey over the last year. My fiance and I did the Blue Ridge 70.3 in Virginia as our first triathlon last summer and loved it. I convinced my two brothers to look into triathlon and they did by signing up for the full Ironman in Madison, Wisconsin. That's two Madison, Wisconsin Iron Man mentions in the pod so far. What is wrong with everybody? Why do you want to do that race? Everyone knows how I feel about that race. They've never done a triathlon at any distance before, but have run a few marathons and half marathons, so they're fairly fit.

Their goal is just to finish. Is it absolutely necessary for them to do a shorter distance race prior to the full, or is it plausible to finish the full if they train adequately? Thanks, Jake. Definitely not essential to do a shorter distance before the full. It might prolong your love for the sport if you try a shorter one first. Yeah, I just don't understand why people want to skip. like why? I just don't get that. But no, it's not essential. Like, I think Paul and I could probably go both complete a pretty, pretty freaking long ultra run if we like absolutely had to next weekend and be

super broken and not ever want to run again. But like, why not start with a 20K? I think there's something novel about finishing an Iron Man. It's like very, it's a very recognized distance when you just talk to the general public about triathlon. So I get it. And I think, the nice thing about triathlon is that it is a completable activity for most people with a little bit of training, even an Ironman. So if you just go slow enough, I think most people can finish an Ironman. And that's the case here. So it's certainly not necessary to do a shorter one. Eric and I are a little biased, but I think you might enjoy a shorter one more given like, you know, limited hours to train for this. But it's not necessary.

as a non-elite athlete I would really think it's a good idea to do at least a sprint or an Olympic just to get an idea of what it actually feels like to swim racing and then bike and then bike racing and then run I think it's very helpful that

these people have done marathons before as I feel like that's usually the biggest thing that holds people back but why not do a sprint or an Olympic it's fun. I also think because if you're going to approach this Iron Man as your first race you shouldn't necessarily tackle it like you're racing.

It should be more like you're completing it. So the effort will be dialed back to an intensity that you train frequently at. So maybe it won't be too much of a stretch. To me, it's just the fact that these people have never done a triathlon and they're signing up for an Ironman. To me it feels like I think they might need a little bit of a reality check on what it feels like even when you are going very easy. Yeah.

For that long of a distance. Totally. Yeah. What things do you need? Like what should you have in transition? what shouldn't you have in transition? Like a dress rehearsal. Just basic stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A dress rehearsal, partly because Iron Man's are so expensive. Yeah. You don't want to mess it up. If you like forget your... Five miles into the bike and stop.

Yeah. Wouldn't it be terrible if you trained for a whole year and then you did your first Iron Man and you made it to Mile 19 on the run and then couldn't finish it? God, that would be awful. That's what Nick did. At that race. Everyone runs out to sign up for Iron Man Wisconsin. Yeah. That's right.

I do think it's a great race when it's not pouring rain. Yeah, yeah. I've never done it, so I don't know. Next question is from Usain. Hi, TTL, friends. My name is Yusain, and I'm from Istanbul, Turkey, which just had some gnarly earthquakes the past couple days.

Really? Very, very intense earthquake. So, Yusanne, we hope you and all your loved ones are okay. I'm an age group triathlet who is aiming back to race this season. If you have any difficulty to pronounce my name, think about the fastest guy on Earth. Usain Bolt. It's really nice to listen to your podcast. It's fun and very informative. My question is especially for Paula because she mentioned many times she runs on soft surface most of the time, because she's kind of prone to running injuries. After three years of dealing with Achilles injury,

I started to run again recently. I do the same. Running on soft surfaces, when the season starts, how do you transition from soft surface to asphalt? You keep doing all your running on soft surfaces and then only run on asphalt on race day, or do you do some of your runs on asphalt to prepare your body for the impact of heart surfaces leading up to the race. Best, Usain. Super good question. I like this one a lot because it's very applicable to me and Eric actually. And as race's approach, we do consider this, that running on pavement is a lot harder on your joints, on your legs, on your ligaments, which is why we opt to not do it every day. But there is an element of preparing your body for that type of stress. And also just the feeling of running on

asphalt is much different than a trail. Like the responsiveness, your speed will be higher probably with the same effort as on a trail. So I would say three weeks out from a race, Eric and I will start to do our tempo runs, our runs off the bike. So maybe two or three times a week running on pavement, not necessarily in our race shoes, but just make it, yeah, maybe like four or five times before you race. And the rest can be on soft surfaces just to prepare your body for. for impact. I was wondering, Eric, do you think you would, I mean, I think we've answered this before, but there was a question about this that I didn't include, but I thought I would just tack it on

since Paul was talking about it. Would you, if there was a race on dirt, 70.3, that was like 70, 80% on dirt, but it was like packed dirt, would you still use super shoes, pillow shoes on those? Yeah, yeah, I think so. This was a question, Nick. Did I not include it? No, you did. I didn't include it.

Oh, I see. Since you kind of mentioned it, I would, we would try to tack it on at the end here. Someone was referring to Boulder 70.3. Would you wear Super Shoes for that? Yeah, I think so. I would, for sure. Yeah. I mean, I think the downside of Super Shoes is more to do with like sharp turns.

Yeah. And uneven surfaces rather than like a crushed gravel. Like the gravel roads in Boulder are just like pristine. The dirt roads are pretty, yeah. Like Eric said, what I would worry about is a rocky road where you're not like confident with every footstep. Boulder also does have some pavement sections, which obviously. you'll benefit from super shoes on that. And Victoria?

Is Victoria also like, is that pretty much the same? I think you could do super shoes there, but that's starting to push it with, there's a little out and back section that's pretty turny. Yeah. Okay. If you could, like, did you say the ons

are like a little more stable than the Nike? If you could pick a super shoe that's a little more stable. That's what I'd say. I think the A6 are slightly more stable. For sure. I think the Nike is the most unstable. So you're going to do a dirt road run.

figure for a straight line. Take something else. Next question is from Joe. Question for Eric. At the end of the day, which do you think you'll be more proud of between your career as a triathlet or your media and content creation?

I started watching in the Viking life and the Winnebago days and the growth in your video is amazing from Joe. Is this your dad? Did your dad write this? My dad's name is Joe. It's possible.

He was actually helping me make videos back in the Winnebago days. Yeah. I think he would have said something different. You know, I think really what I want to be remembered for is just like having left a positive impact on the sport. And like culturally. So like I would love if there was a metric or way to track it to be known to like know that I helped get the most amount of people into the sport, kept them into the sport. And just like people look back on what I've done.

I'm like, man, that was cool. Now we have videos that are like this. Like the bar was raised. Or now we have that trathon life has been around forever. And it's just like this great cultural hub of the sport. So it's kind of hard to separate results in videos into two separate categories for me. I think they're just, they're complimentary. And if I have good results, that brings more attention to the videos.

And if I do good videos, like that's just the whole, the platform I'm trying to build for like some positive impact or change in the sport. they're very interconnected. Yeah. I guess I would, I guess to like, to really just sum that up, I'd rather be known for non-results than just being like a killer, you know, yeah. Yeah, there's, I feel like there's always a new person doing, who has an amazing amount of fitness that is just, wow, they're going to be the next thing.

But there's not, not as many Eric Lagerstrom's. Yeah, I feel like on the talent scale, I'm an eight out of ten. you know like I've never had a really high VO2 max test I've no one's ever been like wow you should be world champion because of like you're you know comatocrat or anything so like I I'm doing the best I can with what I got and I think like what I can bring to the sport creatively is maybe a little more unique yeah great cool

next question is from Megan hello TTL my name is Megan from Salt Lake City I'm a new listener to the podcast and like many of your fans I too have become an avid listener to your guys pod while working out. My question is pretty simple and it's this. What watch or watches do you all use to train with, Garmin, Apple Watch, or the Wahoo smart training watch? My Apple Watch has recently died and I'm looking for a watch that could really help me see my training specs and help me improve while also being versatile in use. Thanks a lot and look forward to listening to more episodes, Megan. Well, to answer the question from the beginning, we use the Wahoo element rivals and I think

we've kind of gone over this before, but what we really like about them is they're extremely simple to set up and they're really good as a sports watch. But like tracking your speed, tracking your time, like they're very much geared towards that. When I hear you say like versatility, I do think a Garmin has more things like, you know, you can like start and stop your music or whatever. They like little widgets and apps and maybe Nick can speak more to that. Well, you can like pay for coffee with it. Right. It turns into like a little mini phone or an Apple watch is like that as well, you can see your text, you can reply to text, you can, whatever. But I think the Wahoo's good at what it's good at, and that's tracking your training,

being a reliable sports watch, being the most reliable sports watch I've ever tried, really in terms of connecting quickly, uploading quickly, and just being really user-friendly. Never had to reset it. Yeah, I'll give you a little anecdote today as I was going out for my like kind of intervaly run. I had a workout on my training peak schedule and it wasn't sinking with my watch. And I've now found a workaround that I have to set it for the next day and then go into the training calendar on the watch and find it.

And so, yes, Garmin tries to bridge the gap between like an Apple watch, which is a much more lifestyle watch and Oahu, which is a much more sports-specific watch. But I think it comes at the expense of the user experience sometimes. And Eric, I know you've experienced this too with Garman's many, many years ago that they're just like sometimes they just don't work and little things happen and you lose data. That can be annoying. Yeah. personally, I'd rather not have any of the functionality than like trying to get the functionality

to work as I'm trying to go out the door and getting frustrated about it. Yep, exactly. Like if I just, like, I don't, I can't buy potato chips with my watch. So I just, I bring my phone and I'm completely happy. And the truth is like a lot of these watches, they'll give you very similar data. There's not this huge difference in quality. But the Wahoo is, is a really, they are a great company. It's a great watch and they sponsor Eric and Paula. So we're team Wahoo

on the podcast for sure. Yeah. I think really where they shine is in their bike computers. We found the biggest difference between you use the Wahoo bike computers, Nick. And it's same thing as the watch.

The user-friendly setup process is really simple and never ever had an issue with them. So that's our two cents. Yeah, cool. Next question. Hey guys, love the podcast. I especially like how in the podcast Paul is much more vocal and enthusiastic, but Eric is quieter.

On the videos, it's the opposite. It really gives a chance for us to experience the best of both of you. My question is about swimming in the ocean versus the pool and salt water. In the ocean, no matter what I do, my nasal passages end up burning from the salt water, and it does not happen in the pool. I've been told to use in nose clips, but I'm worried that it'll restrict breathing too much. Any recommendations? Are you guys breathing through your nose in the pool?

like in through your nose? No. I mean, I say maybe a little bit of air escapes out your nose just so that you're not getting water in your nose, but not breathing in through your nose. That would be logistically challenging. Yeah, I think this person could try wearing a nose clip in the ocean and see if that helps with preventing salt water from getting up your nasal passage. I don't think it'll impact your breathing at all.

I think most of your breathing and swimming should be where you're getting the most oxygen, which is through your mouth. Yeah, I think the nose clip seemed like a perfect solution for this person. Yeah, I agree though. I've tried it on a nose clip before and I do have this sensation of restriction that I do not like.

It could be claustrophobic feeling. You know, it's funny, this is another outing me as a non-swimmer. That's part of the reason I don't like wearing swim caps is because they cover my ears and my ears are just part of my spatial awareness a little bit. And so I feel, even though obviously you know, breathe through your ears,

but like I feel a little bit claustrophobic with the swim cap on. And in a race, it's whatever I deal with it. You got to have the swim cap like 50-50 over your ear. Is that what you do? That's just where it falls typically. And I agree with you also. As I grew up as a swimmer, I just like, I would shave my head.

I would have super short hair because I just thought I felt so claustrophobic with a swim cap. And then just, you know, when I started getting into ITU triathlon, specifically, I was like, you know what? I can't keep having this thing where I feel claustrophic when I put on a swim cap. So when I get in a race, so I'm just going to start wearing one as a swimming pool. just the way it's going to be, and then, like, literally in a week, I got used to it. Wow. And it was a non-issue.

I had the TTL swim cap, and I really like, I want to, like, sport it at the pool, but I'm also, like, I don't like the feeling. So maybe I'll try it and do, like, the half ear. The half ear, do it for a week, and then you'll just not even realize that it's on. We're going to check back in next week. My next thought for this person was, like, you think Vaseline on your nose would up your nostrils a bit would? Oh, my God. Repel the soul? Oh, my gosh.

That feels honest. uncomfortable. That feels, well, no, any idea is an interesting idea, but it feels like, it's like saying, oh, my finger hurts. Okay, well, cut off your hand and your finger will stop hurting. I feel like the Vaseline up the nose is worse. Well, Vaseline is such a strong water repellent. Yeah.

That maybe if you just, like, coat your nose nostrils with Vaseline. Or maybe that's going to grease the pathways in the water going faster. It can really go either way. to your nasal passages. Nice. Okay, well, let us know if that works. You're welcome for that terrible string and not answers. Visualization, yeah.

There you go. Okay, next question here. Everyone, love the podcast so much. You guys have been on many runs in Wahoo rides with me. I'm in New Zealand and aiming for my first 70.3 in Topu in four weeks. Is it pronounced Topu? Taupo. Taupo.

You're thinking chopu. Chopu, the surf spot in Tahiti. I really want to be a monthly supporter for the podcast to give back something, as you guys have given me so much support already. But I'm wondering if supporters get first choice on when new merchandise comes on sale. I'm happy to pay for the postage, but I never seem to get to the page in time to buy something before it sells out. Please let me know if supporting the podcast would help me with this.

Thank you. Eric, I'm asking you this question because this is something I have talked about with you many times, and now I have you on the live podcast. I've cornered you. No, I think it's a real. really cool idea and something I would love to be able to implement. The thing is, is just like the way our website is set up and I've talked to our web guy, Danny, about it. It's a little bit tricky to implement, to like put something behind a code and then like you have to make sure you got the

code. And I don't want to, you know, like how many hours earlier are we going to do this? It's going to be two hours. You're going to be two days. And is there a chance that the code is just going to get leaked around and because people, you know, I just, we haven't, figured out a way that it's going to be really seamless, but we are going to try it at some point. It's something we talk about all the time, and so yes, we are going to try to make it happen. And I'll say this,

the next time that we have some kind of gear drop, if it's possible that we do this, we will absolutely mention it on the podcast. So as long as you keep listening, you'll know. The problem with all these ideas is like, we are professional athletes, we're trying to run TTL, we're doing the podcast. There's so many things and we have these ideas,

but behind the scenes to these, awesome ideas requires a huge amount of understanding of like email, backend stuff, coding, website. You fully need like a full-time person to be managing this stuff. So we do what we can with our amazing friend Danny who helps us, even though he has another full-time job, but it's not as easy as just pushing a button and making it happen. If it was, we would do so many more cool things. It's a process. Yeah. Like Danny and I spent three hours at a coffee shop on Saturday morning, just trying to figure out how to customize the text that you get when it's like, thank you for your order on TTO, like on one email.

Things you take for granted when you're a customer that gets, you know, you buy something from REI and it looks perfect and you buy something from, I don't know. These are multi-million dollar companies. Yeah, yeah. Huge teams working for them. We aspire to be that way and to have really personalized cool stuff going on. And we're working on it. But if you're wondering why, like, oh, I signed up for the pod supporter and I'm not getting monthly perks every week.

That's why it's like the ideas take a lot. First and foremost, being a podcast supporter is basically it's showing your support for the podcast and allowing the podcast to not have ad reads on it. Then every once in a while we do, we try to like have these little perks that go out. Yeah. Yeah. But that's kind of a bit of a bonus. Right, right. What is a perk?

Yeah, it's right. genuinely support or appreciate it. Well said. Well said, Paula. Am I getting too tired? We might be getting close to bedtime here. No, I'm serious. We really appreciate it.

We do. No, no. Yeah, no, it was kind of interesting because I like, just to like one more anecdote on that as I was riding on Swift the other day after like a TTL group ride and someone was like, you know, I don't understand why Swift hasn't figured out how to like allow us to ride upside down on our bicycles and through the clouds. Or, you know, it was something like that. And somebody else timed it in. immediately and it was like it's a matter of resources bro.

Yeah. Like there is a, there's like a giant room full of programmers just trying to make sure that nothing breaks. Yeah. Let alone figuring out how to allow you to like change this color of your socks at any time that you want in the game, you know? And keep in mind, TTL, the team is your, you're listening to it. 100% of the team is on this podcast.

Well, plus Danny, you know, but like it's, Eric's doing a lot of the designing. And then all of like the customer support is Paula. So this is the whole team. They're on my phone right now. I'm looking at them. People assume there's maybe like a team of people. Totally. Totally.

Yeah. Yeah. But the reason I put this question on the list is because it's a great idea. I love it and I want us to work on making it happen. So it might not happen soon, but we're working on it. It's going to happen and other cool stuff like that is going to happen. But we just need a little time. Yep.

Great. Next question is from Sam. Hey, T, T, T,L. Nash. I crashed my bike during the PTO U.S. opened back in September and broke my collarbone. Ouch. I have to take three-ish months to heal, and I'm now just getting back into consistent training. Running and biking are coming back really naturally, but I'm really struggling to get my swim back. As someone who only started swimming as

an adult, would you recommend going to the pool and focusing on drills or more focusing on volume to get my feel for the water back? I feel like I'm about to get put on blast here. Thanks for taking my questions and excited to see what this group can do in 2023 after crushing 2022, Sam. Yeah, we're going to blast Nick because he's been going to the swimming pool for an hour and doing drills for 10 minutes and coming good. That's right. But I think honestly the best answer here is that there's a time and a place for both. So if you've got four swims a week and that's the amount of time that you have,

dedicate the first half of two of them to drills and just kind of focus on getting as many meters in as you can the rest of the time. I think the only important thing here is that the drills are actually doing something. If you're just picking out a drill out of a book and you don't really know what it's purposes and you're mindlessly making your way through it, it's not worth it. But if it's a drill like the polo drill that we're doing or something like a single arm or something that's really actually enhancing your stroke in a way that's meaningful to you and you can feel the difference when you switch from drill to swim back and forth in the workout,

then it's worth it. Well, that's the thing is that each person might benefit from a completely different drill, right? Like if someone who really struggles with crossover or someone who really struggles with body turning, they need to do stuff that emphasizes that kind of stuff. I agree. And drills are really, I think, better if you have someone kind of overseeing you or at least like initially giving you the drills and showing you how to do them properly or watching a YouTube video to learn how to do them right and then trying them for yourself. but yeah, it's tricky to just read about a drill

and then try to implement it and make sure it's actually affecting. If you do, if you do that, like Paula said, just try to read about what is the point of this drill and what is the change that that drill is trying to affect in your stroke. Yeah, and also don't let it take over from doing some aerobic swimming.

That's, Paula's looking right at me when she's saying that. No, I think you've been better at it, Nick. And there's a time and place, like Eric said, the first half of the season you can start, or like the off season do drills, and then when you transition more to racing, you have to get your fitness up in the water. So doing 200 repeats, 100 repeats, fast-fifths,

that all becomes increasingly more important as races get closer. What do you think about this advice? If you're doing drills, don't do drills back-to-back-to-back, interspersed them with regular swimming to kind of actuate what you're learning from the drill and feel it right away.

Totally. Yeah, I like that. Cool. Okay, next question is from Blaine. Question for Eric. big fan of your video content, inspiring me to get into it myself, I looked way back on your channel

and noticed a Red Bull helmet. Can you give us any insight into that sponsorship and what happened to them? Thanks. Eric, I don't know how much you really want to talk about this, but... This is a legit question.

This was implanted? No. Yes, I was sponsored by Red Bull in 2016-17. And that was, I mean, it's any kid. dream come true to be sponsored by Red Bull and it certainly was mine. I think the reason that it went away is Red Bull was kind of going through this phase where

they were like looking at sports and trying to figure out just ways to cut down the roster a little bit and they looked at triathlon and we're like we have quite a few triathletes. Internationally, not in the U.S., but internationally we have like 10 athletes who are ITU-specific who's getting podiums at WTSs and who's not. And it was that simple. I'm the only Red Bull triathlet who has ever done a Red Bull video. We did the Solstice sessions. Is that true?

That's pretty cool. You find me a video, a Red Bull video with a triathlet that's like a passion project and I'll give you a lot of money. So like in my opinion, I really felt like I embodied the brand super well and did everything that I thought a Red Bull athlete should be pretty naturally, but people in Austria, not the U.S. team, the U.S. team really liked me, but people in Austria just were looking at the roster on a global scale and said, cut that guy.

Right. So it was, I'm, it's really sad, but I do still have all of my old Red Bull stuff, and I've got some jackets that I like to wear because I'm still proud of it, but it's, yeah, it was a bummer. Yeah. Still sounds to be really proud of, though. Okay, next question here. Hey, TTRCrew, I'm looking to make the move away from on-road triathlons to XTERA this year

and wanted to know how to approach training. Given that mountain biking and trail running are very different beasts compared to the road, how might I change or supplement my training plan to prepare for an XTERA triathlon? Love what you guys do, and congrats on the new sponsors. Ryan. Well, this question is 100% directed towards Eric. From my experience anyway, that most of the Xterras are very climb. heavy, like especially Beaver Creek, Ogden. A lot of them are like at ski resorts and you

climb up to the top of the ski resort on your bike and then you kind of bomb back down. And it's kind of of a similar run thing. So you're really going to be wanting hitting some steep climb hill repeats on both the bike and the run. I would probably do like four minutes, you know, two to three to four minute like repeats like repeats on the bike and then like two minute run hill repeats like pretty intense, pretty steep. Okay. Because like it just, I mean, that's the difference for me, at least coming from 70.3 and like anything else is that just like the amount of torque, high torque, and especially on a

mountain bike, seated torque so that your back wheel isn't spinning, that like, that can really make your lower back tired and that's a different kind of power than you might encounter on the road. Would you say that the exteras are less technical than you thought or maybe less technical than you think people might assume them to be? Totally depends on your experience. They're definitely less technical than I thought. But I think

just like a classic triathlet that has only ever ridden a TT bike or a road bike does a lot of training rides. Trainor rides. The X-Daras might be, you might consider them fairly technical. Got it. Cool. Next question is from Derek.

Hi, I'll fellow Pacific Northwest triathlete here. I haven't heard you guys address this question yet on the podcast, but what are your thoughts on joining a master's level swim team for triathlon and swimming fitness? As a newer triathlete, is this the right place to put fitness? Thank you for all you do. I feel like we have talked about this, but we're big into it. There are different like master's groups out there.

There are some that are very social. You do a lot of time sitting on the wall, and then there's some that are a little more intense. And I think I would advocate for a little bit on the more intense side, just because triathlon is, you swim straight instead of doing like the 200 breast and their weight in a hundred back straight. Oh, that's a good point.

That's a good point. Maybe that's just like no matter what group you go to or if you call or if you go to a first practice being like, hey, I'm training for a triathlon. I'm sorry. Is there like a distance lane with people who are like training for the mile or how often do you do? Like is Saturday the distance workout?

And then just make sure you show up for that. That's funny. I never really thought of. about that is that swim races are usually pretty short, right? You do have the mile and stuff, but that's a totally different kind of like, it's just like when you're lifting weights. Like you can leave like five minutes between sets to really like totally replenish or leave like 30 seconds to keep your heart rate up and like they do different things. I would say though that most people at a master's practice are ex-swimmers who are doing it to

stay fit. So they're not necessarily, they're not going to master's practice necessarily to like prepare for the demands of competition. It's like they competed all their lot. and swimming. They're now in their 40s or 50s or 60s or whatever and they're still wanting to do that form of exercise. And the master's groups are a fantastic way to have that group atmosphere, to have a coach on deck, to have a workout written for you. And if it were me who retired from professional sports and still wanted to swim, 100% I'd go to a master's group. They're fun. Sometimes we go to a master's groups. Like some of the swimmers in masters are really fast. Oh yeah, nice.

I guess I've always been intimidated by the idea, but maybe one day I'll dip my toe in that as well. They're fun. Nick, I think you, of all people, would love them. Because the social aspect? They're pretty social, yeah. Yeah. But also hard.

Yeah. And also they can make like 4,000 meters fly by. Yeah, the camaraderie of going to the pool and like everybody's getting at at 8. Yeah. But I kind of get the sense that those people are generally fast. Like, wouldn't I be beyond the barrier? There's always a slow lane.

No, I think you would fit in. Yeah, I think you would definitely fit in. And then last question here, a quick one. Hi, guys, are there any plans for a TTL headband? We would love to see one. My friend and I have Lionel Sanders one, but we want a TTL one. This is from Parker, who we know.

What do you think? Headbands are Lionel's thing. That's true. Like Lionel didn't, you know, Lionel didn't like make his logo like a sun over some waves or anything, you know? Like, that's our thing. His thing is headbands.

There you go. Fall, are you happy? I mean, never say never. We really like Parker. He is a big fan. He might be our number one fan, actually. Oh, for sure. One of you will just make a headband that says Parker,

T.TL headband on it. A custom one? That's a good idea. That's a good idea. I never wear headbands personally, unless it's to cover my ears and it's cold out. Nick doesn't wear one. Eric doesn't wear one.

We kind of like to make things that we all, at least one of us uses. But we do. love the product feedback. So keep the ideas coming, even if a headband doesn't happen. Okay, I think that is all the questions we've gotten to most of them. If we missed yours, we'll hit them next week. But please send your questions in. We love getting new ones. We kind of like to finish the podcast with a bang, and we didn't really finish with a banger question necessarily. Parker's custom headband wasn't a banger question.

Well, it was a good question. It was a good question, but it wasn't like profound or anything. But Nick, you ran into like a little bit of a celebrity on your bike ride. Yeah, Eric and I love this guy, Safa Brian, who does. He's a cyclist here in L.A. And he's not a pro, but he's an unbelievable dissender. Like, world class dissender. And he does these crazy YouTube videos of him descending these places around here. And it's funny, I consider myself a pretty good dissender.

and the Strava segments reflect that. And he is like always light years faster. Wow. I'm just like, is he really riding a bicycle? And then you watch these videos and he's like super tucking every time he can and just like 400 watts, you know, whenever he can pedal if he has, you know, if he's not spinning out and just flying. But yeah, so I saw him on a ride. I didn't even talk to him. I just, I'm kind of friends with Is King who we've talked about before.

and she was riding with him and he was over there. I didn't have my glasses and I said to her, I'm like, is that, is that Safa Brian? She's like, yeah. I'm like, oh my God, celebrity. He's a celebrity. Pinch me. Well, I have to go watch his videos now.

Maybe I can learn a thing or two about to say. You'll just watch me like, Eric, you were not doing this. This is not safe. You would be scared just to watch them. It's crazy. I just watched one recently of him going down Deer Creek, which is this crazy steep climb. And it's like you are just grandma gear out of the

saddle just like grinding up and he is flying at like 45, 50 miles an hour down this descent. It's terrified. Are they all, they're obviously open to cars. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. He just tries to go early to avoid the car stuff usually. Gotcha.

Wow. Oh my God. Okay. That could have been the final thing, but I think this is the final thing. Speaking of KOMs slash QOMs, someone flagged Paula's Mount Lemon QOM on Strava. Like two days ago. Yeah. Just like, uh-oh, someone's flagged your QM.

Yeah, they're like, that's not possible. Paula was a little fired up. Yeah. I was on the trainer and I saw it. And some of the functionalities on Strava are more limited on your phone than on your desktop. So I immediately got off my bike and went to my desktop. Wow. And I was, I needed to resolve this.

So, Nick, I know you are verified on Strava, whatever that means. Yes. Me and Safa are both verified on Strava. So I knew you had some email of someone at Strava. So I was like, Nick, give me the email. I need to email Strava headquarters. So do you want me to talk to him? Because I have the president on the phone.

Get the president of Strava on the phone. This QOM was legitimate. This aggression. Someone called Joe Biden. This is of the utmost importance. We need to get this resolved ASAP. And it's not like it was someone he flagged me who was like another female who like just missed it because I looked at the leaderboard.

and Heather was the new leader who I did the attempt with and she was behind me. So I was Googling like how do you, because the thing about Strava, as soon as you flag someone, like that activity's flagged. There's no verification process to be like, well, is it actually supposed to be flagged? But in the same manner, you can actually just unflag it yourself. Oh, really? Yeah. That's what I said.

You can just be like, no, no, trust me, I did this. And that's it. Yes. It's just honor system. Because I think for the most part, when you flag an activity, it actually was the wrong activity type or in a vehicle or something or something. So that person would never then go and unflag it. Reflag it. No, I mean, the person who did the activity wouldn't go unflag it.

But for me, I'm like, okay, I actually did this on my bike. No drafting. Anyway, unflagged it and it seems to be standing. But I did change the title of the activity to do not flag this. This was real. I am fast. You are slow. This was the highlight of 2020 for me.

Do not flag this. Yeah, do not take this away from me. How dare you? That's great. Eric, well done. That's perfect way to end it. Well, thanks for hanging out with us today, tonight, everybody. Really appreciate it.

The last thing I'll say here is that we have over half a million streams on the podcast. It's called downloads, actually. And actually, we're well beyond that now. but thank you all of you for making this possible. We started the podcast a little over a year ago, and it has grown far beyond what I think even our highest expectations could have been. Yeah, totally. My mom thinks we should do more episodes per week.

She was like, I listen to 20 minutes at a time so that I can space it out throughout the week. She's an addict. Okay, Sheila, calm down. It takes a lot of time. Sheila, you can edit it, okay? But I mean, my tips for my mom would be just to like go back and listen to old episodes throughout the week. And then on Thursday, listen to the first one. Yep, yep.

Or just call us. Yeah, FaceTime. Sheila, I'll answer your FaceTime calls too. Yeah, Nick Will. That's true. Don't worry. Okay, that's really it. Thank you.

If you made it to the end, I'm impressed. Good job. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Later.