That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon training away from home, sweat tests, Peleton bikes, and more!

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Next week Paula, and maybe Eric, are racing Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells. We talk a little bit about that, and answer your triathlon questions! Questions about fueling on the bike for a good race, favorite Zwift courses,  using kJs as a training metric, and more! To submit your questions, support the podcast, as well as check out TTL gear, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are coming to you again from Nick's recording studio because we have not left yet. We're just having so much fun. We are both professional triathletes. Eric and I racing next weekend and our good friend Nick is an amateur triathlete musician living in Santa Monica and Eric and I are crashing his house but staying in our van partly. I guess we're kind of like part band camping with the luxury of a shower and laundry and dinners and all that thing. So how has it been, like, you've kind of had like a soft opening of this fan, right? Because yes, you've been living in it, but you've kind of been like kind of living in

here. But how is the sleeping bin? How is the space been compared to the van that you had before? Yeah, should we give any kind of backstory for the podcast about our van? Yeah. Eric, do you want to talk so everyone knows you're here? Yeah, sure. We

posted on Instagram that we we were selling our van and we're going to be getting a new van and also kind of talked about it a little bit on the podcast, I think. And Mercedes Ben's vans reached out to us and asked if we would want a van instead of having to buy it ourselves. And also it's going to come with a built-out interior. So what we're doing right now is testing out some different builders. Right now we have a storyteller van that we're borrowing for this month basically. And it's been so, so amazing to have way more battery power than our other van and air conditioner.

more comfortable layout, water, fridge, fridge, like all the things we add on our list of what we would have in our dream van, this van has. And I would say the layout's actually been really good. Like it has this groove lounge it's called, which is a super customizable, movable chair basically that can go from like a passenger seat to a secondary bed to more like a bench. And we've kind of just kept that Flynn's area. So when he's in the van with us, he's completely out of our way and we can use like the walkway to cook, make dinner, get ready for beds, get change. and stuff like that. So it's been way better than I even imagined. Yeah, I think probably my favorite part of it at the moment, or the most convenient thing that it has over our van,

is how much overhead these bin storage it has so we can have our clothes in there. So we don't have like just bags, like duffel bags with our clothes. Like we're living out of a suitcase the whole time. It's just, I don't know, it's very relaxing to have everything have a place. That's what's going on. We're sleeping in it. Basically, we're just, we're hanging out in Santa Monica and doing fun things all day long. so it's not like we're having to just sit inside of the van all day. That's the difference.

Yeah, but it's fun to roll up to a parking lot, open the doors, do a run workout, do a bike workout, whatever it is, and then like hang out there afterwards and have lunch from the van and shower at the van, all those different things. So it's been cool. And then clearly the reason we came down here was for the weather, and that's been amazing as always. Yeah. How has your training benefited? Has your training suffered? It's hard to go to a new place and fully.

just get right back into training where you left off. It takes a little bit of getting used to where to go for certain sessions and the surfaces are different and what's optimal. So it's just easy in bed because we know what to expect and what to do. And we can always ride the kicker, like run on the treadmill in the garage. But in terms of the warmth, I say that's been worth it. To be able to ride outside four or five times, run outside, swim in the sun, all of that is just mood boosting. And our whole idea with doing Indian Wells was to keep it kind of like more relaxed, low-key fun prep, so this fits right into that category. The trouble that maybe some people don't know, people who don't know L.A., I think they think

of L.A. as like beaches and big city, but there's mountain ranges, like all around L.A. And unfortunately, all the dirt roads around here are all like, there's no flat dirt roads. There are very, very, very few. It's usually going up into the mountains. And near you guys in bend you have a lot of these like forever dirt roads that go in every direction that you can just kind of run pretty much on flat yeah i prefer to run on dirt flat for tempos and stuff but we've been doing on the pavement which is definitely i've noticed a difference on my body it's so crazy you just do like three hard runs on pavement i'm way more sore than i've been all year so i don't know if that's not great but i feel like you have to have a little bit of both like maybe we should run on a hard

surface slightly more often than we do and bend just for like leg strength that and stuff, but it's definitely risky with injury. Yeah. But I don't know. For me anyway, I have been training very half seriously for the last month, mostly just trying to keep Paula, like, company and thinking that maybe I'll race Indian Wells, but I've just, I've been having such a good time down here, like, swimming in the sun, running outside, like, getting to do some of the beautiful riding just outside of the city.

And so, like, my training's been going great, but I'm also extremely fresh from basically having tapered for four weeks now. the long taper, I'm sure. A lot of people out there are familiar with that concept. Are you racing in Dean Wells or not? Eric changes his mind daily, so what's the current stuff? I would say hourly. Yeah.

Right now, yeah, I feel pretty good, so I think I'm going to race. It's annoying to me because, like, since Worlds, I've been training hard doing these death sessions on the trainer, just suffering, dying. And Eric's like, I'm not racing. I don't need to do it. And then we get down here where it's nice, he does a couple sessions, feels good, and now he's racing. And, like, he didn't have to endure that suffering.

Oh, I did. before worlds though. The way you feel right now is exactly how I felt before worlds. I was like, I literally don't know how I can make it through the end of today. But did she also feel like that before worlds and also feels like it now? Yeah, it's dragging out. It's dragging out. Now you feel how I

felt a month ago and I'm just like starting this was my plan all along. I was going to freshen up and do a couple of fun sort of hard sessions as I felt like it and... Well, it's annoying. And with that, we're going to move right on to the next thing. Okay, so you may remember

You may remember two weeks ago I did a pop quiz with Paula Well, I have a great quiz from another listener And so we're going to do another edition of Pop Quiz with Paula I love that theme song, make it's so fun It's you. It's your voice. Oh, wow.

I just pitched it up. You're a musician genius. Okay. So this comes from Cohen from the Netherlands. He sent in a pop quiz. He loved the first one, and he loved how Nick didn't even realize that it was like a slash theme until the end. So he made up one for us too.

Number one, what do Brits drink instead of coffee? Tea. Correct. What is the little wooden riser called in golf? A tea. A tea. Uh-oh, I see what's happening here. Which women's fashion magazine has the same as the French word for she?

L. Oops, that's not right, is it? I was just, I'm feeling like we're going to get, it's going to switch up on us. I thought it, yeah, L is right. Yeah, it's L, yeah. Okay, okay, oh, that was a trick question. Uh-huh. It's either yay or? Nay.

Okay. Oh, I see what this is going. Oh, I see. I hear it now. I hear it now. What sound do you make when you want someone to shut up? Shh. Eric. Eric, no, shh. Okay, so what is that, what is that?

that spell, you guys? TTL Nache, baby. Whoa. Very nice. Tuvity 100. Very nice. He said it may be a little lame, but I thought it was funny. And I thought it was funny, too.

So thank you, Cohen. We are entertained. Cohen, I'll tell you what, if you follow up with your address, we will send you a very special sticker that is related to what you just said. We're still working on it. We got the first print of it. Yeah, we got a bunch of stickers, and they didn't come out to the quality we hoped. So maybe we'll send Cohen some of the...

Well, we can just wait until they... Okay, we'll send you some good secrets. As soon as we're back from Indian Wells, they're going to be at our doorstep. Okay, cool. Well, yeah, that was my contribution to the pod today. Round of applause. Let's just get to some questions. And just so everybody knows, we've recorded last week not that long ago,

and then now it's like a Sunday in recording again, which is really early for us, because Eric and I are leaving tomorrow. We won't have our pod equipment. So we've kind of just gone through the questions. that we got this week in the last like three days basically because they're so the timeline is shorter we don't have as many questions but we're going to answer what we can so the first question here short and sweet hi all i'm wondering about training with kilojoules as a work effort to achieve i usually train with various watt goals but just curious if kilojoules is even a worry and what your

thoughts are about it in relation to training the kilojoules data is shown in straba from my wahu element slash power meter seems important thanks derrick Yeah, this is interesting because, well, I'll let Eric answer this one. Is it a worry? Wondering if you can do it. Like, is it any better than power? Is it different than power? Yeah, of course, it's different than power.

Yeah, so we've done a fair bit of training via kilojoules over the years, and you don't really use it for hard workouts so much as just like a total measurement of the amount of work that you've done. And like, depending on how your coach wants to do that, it can be the total work for the week or per session, you know, and monitoring, work is the best way to say it. Because it's essentially how much power you're putting out over time is kind of where it comes from. So you could either go for a four-hour ride at 100 watts or you could go for a two-hour ride at 200 watts and you would theoretically have done the same amount of kilojoules, your body would be the same amount of tired. So that's kind of the concept.

I think the idea is so that if your coach says to do a three-hour ride, our coach would prescribe it as like an 1,800-kilail ride. because then if you ride easy, it's going to take you longer than three hours. If you ride super hard, it'll take you less than three hours. So it's just prescribing a certain amount of work. I don't necessarily agree, though, that riding for... This is the problem. Two hours at 300 watts is the same thing as riding four hours at 100 watts.

It's not the same... It's not at all the same. That's the same thing that's, to me, very flawed with using TSS as a really concrete representation of how much work you're doing. So that's why it's not a perfect metric, but it does allow you to compare other rides and just have consistent output as well and not like coast things, you know? Yeah.

And I don't know. We're throwing out very extreme examples here, but for the most part, any athlete, if you're going out for an aerobic ride, you kind of know the concept behind this and you're going to be within 20 watts or whatever. I think it's a really great normalizer for if you're riding in a place like L.A. versus you're riding in Bend, like to do the same amount of total work. you're going to have to ride for 20 minutes longer just because of the slowing down into a stoplight

and the starting out of the stoplight, coasting versus in bend. We can, like, it's weird. We can leave the door and just, like, pedal consistently for two hours because of no stop signs and whatever. I also think if at the end of your week and your weeks are structured,

similarly every week, when you've done more kilojoules one week versus the other, it's just like this slight increase in volume. That makes more sense. But, like, comparing a long aerobic ride to, like, a tempo effort and, like, looking at the kilojoules between those two,

I feel like it's a really, that's a tough one to use as a metric. I think it's more like total volume and then also it is a direct representation of calories. So it's a good way to also know. Is it four times? No, it's pretty close. A kilojoule is kind of like having burned a calorie. It's very similar. Typically if you've burned like 2,000 calories, your kilojoules might be like 2,100 or 1950.

It's very close. And so that can help with just like managing your food intake to make sure you don't bong. But when our coach prescribes us, it's definitely not used as like a weight loss thing. If he's not giving us kilojoules to make sure we burn 2,000 calories, it's purely just a measuring metric to make sure we do the actual work. Right. Yeah, I would just brought that up because we were listening to a podcast with the Norwegians coach, and he mentioned that of like building out a week based on how much he knows his athletes can consume

and make sure that he knows that they have enough fuel to like complete the work without digging a hole. Right. Interesting. Cool. Well, thanks to that question. Derek. Next question, emailing you from the East Coast, Halifax, Canada, the true East Coast. I'm new to triathlon this year, set a goal to complete a standard distance, and ended up completing three sprints and one standard. And by standard, I'm assuming he means Olympic distance. I just registered for a 70.3 main in 2023 as my midlife crisis goal. Very nice. I needed to justify that $8,000 bike somehow.

Hey, you don't need to tell us, whatever it takes. Two questions. One, sweat rate. I have never sweat so much since starting triath. I recently learned that everyone has a different sweat rate. Have each of you calculated your sweat rate? How important is it and is your nutrition based around it? I thought this was a cool question because we're not sponsored by precision hydration,

but we do, we're very good friends with them, and they are very nice to us. They give us product, and they actually have a sweat test mechanism. So at PTO races, pH hydration is a sponsor PTO, and us as athletes can go and have our sweat test we've all done it all three of us have done it yeah yeah so what you just you want to talk through the process of how they do it so you sit there and they kind of like heat up your skin a bit to get it ready to sweat

and then they put this it's like a vacuum that that pulls your sweat into this tube but then they test the sweat and they test how much you sweat actually no they don't test how much you sweat you have to do that at home that's a whole protocol but it's not hard to do but they test the makeup of your sweat how much sodium you're losing in your sweat

so you use that data along with your total sweat rate, and you plug that into their calculator thing, which is very handy and easy to use. And it spits out these numbers of how much you should be consuming before a race. Sodium. Sodium. And then how much you should be consuming in terms of sodium during a race to keep topped up. Yeah. I think you can also calculate sweat with weight loss over a workout. That's exactly how they make you doing. Yeah. Right. Yeah, but it's the same thing. But you just don't know your sodium concentration. You don't know the sodium. You need both. Right. You need both. You need to know. You need to know.

what the sodium rate of your, what the sodium concentration of your sweat is and your total amount of sweating. Because you could have a very, very salty sweat, but you might not sweat that much. So it's a different amount of sodium that you need to intake. Got it. Interesting. But it's really cool. Yeah, I think that as you also can have kind of an instinctual knowledge of like, how much do I sweat? If you're a sweater, you know it. If you're not really a heavy sweater, you know it. At the same with the salts. Like you look at your stuff and you're all salty. Some people are way salty than other people. But I think if you've had

issues racing in the heat or you struggle training in the heat, then it becomes more important to do a test like this and to be more on top of it. Someone who's kind of good at racing in the heat or doesn't really have issues or doesn't race in the heat, this is less important. I think it's one of the reasons I did well

at 70.3 worlds is that it was not hot at all. It didn't have to worry about any of this stuff. But when it becomes to racing in Kona, stuff like that, you have to be way more on top of it. Yeah, I think you could also just like something on the saltier end. If you didn't want to, you've been struggling in heat and you want to try to fix it and you don't want to get a sweat rate test, I think you could just get a salty

your drink, experiment with that in warm temperatures and see if it improves your experience. The thing about precision hydration is they have different concentrations of the packets. So you could do the 1500 or the 750 or whatever it is that is really tailored to be very specific for your own body. For example, me, they recommended I have two 1500s one night before the race won the morning of the race, but then during the race, race with the 1,000. Yeah. So it'll be different for every athlete. And also, something that's important to know is that your sweat rate can actually change

over your lifetime. And for example, like the fitter you are, the more you exercise, the earlier your body starts sweating into exercise because it's adapted to, it knows to cool you down really quickly. So these things can change. So it's worth checking out and seeing where you're at with it. Yeah. I think if you're at a PTO event, which you all should go to,

You can do this with the pH hydration. Yeah, you should. Go to their expo booth. It's fun. It's fun, too. It's a whole vibe. Next question, energy drinks. Watching all the vlogs and races,

it's hard not to notice that many athletes are sporting energy drink apparel. Do athletes drink energy drinks often? It's funny, I was just talking to you guys about this because I had the same question. I'm not a coffee drinker, but often find I need that extra caffeine kick after an early morning swim. I know fueling with bad foods can drastically impact performance. Do you feel energy drinks fall into that category? Josh. I think if you were going to hate on energy drinks for some reason, it would be because of the high amount of sugar.

So if as long as you're not having a punch of sugar in all other aspects of life, then you can get on that plan. But as far as the amount of caffeine, it's like a Red Bull has less caffeine in it than like a small black coffee. Black coffee from Starbucks. So I don't consider them to be unhealthy and we drink sugary things while we fuel in bike rides. I think it's important to note that what we're doing is not healthy. Like we're eating crap to get through long bike rides, we're eating sugar, we're eating gums, we're eating gels. It's not all healthy.

Sometimes you're sacrificing, like, pristine health for performance. So I think Red Bull can fit under the category of being something that you use for performance. But maybe after swimming, just to get through your day is maybe not the best. I was told when I worked with the nutritionist once, I don't know how true this is, but you should time your caffeine intake to use it so that you're, it's beneficial for your training session. Like, you know, if you're going to do a hard run or a hard ride, take it an hour before that so you're using it to train and not just using it to stay awake. Right. Yeah, I agree. I would say you have that Red Bull or Monster or whatever it is like 20 minutes before your session so that sugar is fueling you through the session.

You have the caffeine. but if you feel like you need to stay away through the day, afterwards, like, have an espresso and a recovery shake. Oh, he doesn't drink coffee. Oh, okay. Well, have some other form of coffee or whatever, but, like, more importantly to recover, like, you should probably have a good source of body fuel after a workout.

That's a good, that's an interesting thing. I think that often if you have a healthy juice or something or lunch, that can wake you up as much as maybe a Red Bull would. Yeah. Just feeling good, you know? Yeah, ideally something that has whatever lower glycine, emmecemic index that isn't just going to have a sugar crash. Yeah. And water.

Water too. I feel, I always feel like empathetic or sympathetic towards people that have to compromise their sleep to train, which is something I don't really have to deal with. And you guys don't really either, right? You just wake up and you do the training when you dean to. It does add this whole other level of difficulty into something that's already inherently difficult. Yeah.

Timing out how to get coffee and get caffeine. And go to work. To get through. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. I guess it's easy for us to be like, well, don't have coffee after something. because we come home and have a nap.

Right. Right. But yeah, there you go, Josh. Thanks for those questions. Kind of related. I like that. Next question. Hello, Nick, Paul, Eric, and Flynn. First of all, congratulations for the podcast.

I'm a huge fan and follower. Every time I see the brand La Mardzocco, I'm going to say it in Italian here. I hear Nick's voice. And then there's the, all right, quick sidebar here. There's the emoji. I did a little poll on this on my Instagram,

and it was very split. So for the two of you, you see that emoji? It's the pinched hands emoji. I think that's technically what it's called. A pinched hands emoji. What does it mean? It means like amazing. Crem de la creme.

So I went, there's a whole BBC article on this. Originally it was created by an Italian. And in Italy, this hand motion, for everyone who doesn't see it's kind of like I'm making like a duck bill with my hand and it points up. Yeah. Okay. In Italy, this does not mean that at all, what you just said. A lot of Americans have been using this emoji like that.

It's like the slight majority, like 55 to 60 percent of Americans, think it means that. It means perfect. It means like chef's kiss. In Italy, this means, what the hell are you talking about? Really? It's the opposite. It's like, someone says, like, I could hold 400 watts for an hour, no problem. You'd be like, what are you talking about as you shake your hand? So it's really funny. And it was created, or it was like, lobbied for, so to speak, by an Italian person. But then he ends up saying, like, yes, people are going to use it however they want to use it. But the original intention was, like, what what are you talking about? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, that is really interesting, Nick. Yeah. And I also think that, Nick, you were made for podcasting because you just described that so perfectly in words. Thank you. I do have a phase for podcasts. They've always told me that. Yeah, you too. The Lamarizocco, I hear Nick's voice.

They definitely should sponsor the podcast. We agree. My question is, in the last month, I've been looking into the Waucaco, nanopresso? Have you heard about this? No. No. Okay. A portable coffee maker.

To have good coffee when I go competing. I'm a heavy coffee consumer. and always drink coffee when I wake up, including race day. What do you think? Are there better options? Thanks, Ricardo from Chile. So when you guys are on the road, how do you do coffee? Is it always coffee shops?

Or would you ideally have some kind of coffee machine in the van? I mean, in dream scenario, you've got a little, I guess, espresso machine inside of the van that can crank out coffee shop quality. But typically what we do when we fly and what we have in the van is an aeropress, which makes, like, pretty strong-ish. cup of coffee that you would typically like water down just a little bit and very good flavor. But we also do love like when we go to a city experiencing the coffee shops there. So we kind of do 50-50.

I like this, the look of this nanopresso. I'm just looking it up online. It's a little bit like an espresso machine. So you have a capsule that you'll put in. And it probably spits out a pretty good tasting a shot of espresso. Well, you would think, but you guys aren't huge fan of the espresso. I mean, it works, but it's definitely not an espresso from a coffee shop. It's its own type of coffee.

The convenience is really what is appealing here. And I think what I don't like about an espresso is the garbage, like the pod that you create versus just having a bag of coffee. So this does fit under that category of having the pot inside. But I don't think it's maybe you can do it with regular coffee. Does it plug in? No, you probably charge it. It looks like about the size of a water bottle. Yeah.

And are you like Ricardo where you need coffee every day? even when you're traveling, even if it's race morning, you're having coffee. I wouldn't say it's a need, but we love it so much, and why not have that? Yeah, we like to bring an arrow press, like Eric just said. But also, as you probably know in the vlogs and everything, we really love going to coffee shops. Like, it's not just for the coffee, but for the whole, like, sit down, visit, chat. We just came from there. Yeah.

So that, any excuse to go for coffee is a good excuse. But if you are on somewhere where they don't have good coffee shops, then yeah, anything like this is good. We don't have experience with this particular one, but I think it looks good. Not bad for $69. Wow. Oh, wow, that is great. It's worth a shot. Yeah, literally worth a shot.

Next question from Dan. Hello, Paul, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. Former college linemen here. So this is American football we're talking about. And linemen are usually stronger, bigger kind of athletes. I started cycling a few years back after my wife and I got a Peloton. Completed my first sprint distance this year and was hooked. Stumbled upon the pod while mowing, I love it,

mowing and have gone back to every episode. Also watch the YouTube weekly. Can I just stop? Like, it is blowing my mind right now that someone who we would have watched playing college football on TV is listening to our podcast. Like, those are like other worldly humans in my brain. I know. It's like no overlap, right?

No. Yeah. But I will say this is something I love about triathlon, is that when you see it at the non-professional level, and sometimes even at the professional level, you really see people who, you can tell their athletic background is extremely diverse. There's people who maybe grew up running a lot.

There's people who maybe grew up swimming. And then there's people who would never have done any kind of athletic thing in their whole life. Grew up chain smoking. Exactly. And now at 35, they were like, you know what, this seems like a challenge. I'm going to try this.

and they get into it, and they fall in love with it, and it becomes part of their identity. Yeah, it's so cool. That's really cool. So a couple of bike questions. First, I'm tended to get a kicker and a Zwift account for indoor training. But I really love my Peloton bike. What are your thoughts on the Peloton versus Swift and a trainer?

Oh. Well, I haven't ever used a Peloton. It seems pretty cool. We use Swift and a trainer because we can ride the same bike that we ride outside on the road, indoors. And I don't know how Peloton works, but Zwift has kind of got this video game, a little bit social activity.

You know, we'll see people that we know on there. When you log in, I can say, oh, yeah, I want to ride with my friend Matt, who's riding in Boston, and we can, like, have a little text conversation while we ride together. I think that's, like, super cool about Zwift. Well, the Peloton has the same appeal in that you can, like, do spin classes, basically. And they're happening live, aren't they for the – or maybe not. Yeah, you can do the live, or you can do pre-recorded ones. Okay, okay.

So, yeah, I think that the Peloton, it's a little bit more like a gym-style bike fit. It's not going to fit you like a racing bike would necessarily. But if your goal is exercise getting a workout in and it's easy and it's simple and it means you're actually going to do it, the Peloton is great for that. I had friends who were a musician friends of mine who I kind of convinced to do their first try and they did all their training on a let's call it a Peloton bike. And then they rented bikes the week before the race, rode them a bunch of the week before and had a fun time for racing. Obviously there's a big advantage to training on the exact specifications that you're going to be racing on and the bike fit that you're used to. so your muscles are very comfortable with firing in that exact way. But if it's that or nothing, the Peloton is probably really good.

And definitely a good workout. Definitely for like you could get through an Olympic distance. No problem. I think that the market for the Peloton versus the Zwift bike is so different. It's like the Venn diagram. There's not a lot of overlap. So I don't think this is an interesting question. We don't hear this very often of people asking what we think of the Peloton.

And personally, we've never tried one. So I'm just going based on what I've heard from other people and that it's a very fun way to get a 45-minute spin-class-style workout done, which is ultimately going to make you fitter and able to do a triathlon. But you still need a bike to ride outside if you're doing a race. So that's why most people lean towards the kicker, Zwift set up, if they're going to focus on triathlons more specifically. More than do just one.

Yeah. Pelotans are expensive. They're expensive, yeah. But so is a racing bike. Totally, yeah, but that's why people don't have both usually. Yeah, exactly. Right, yeah. Yeah.

second question as I move further into my obsession with triathlon and wanting to compete within my age group any tips for someone who has a large individual to 265 pounds and 280 at the heaviest as they work specifically on swim and run the bike is my strength should I invest in a t-tie bike or would it be beneficial to put aerobars on my specialized L.A. A wife and two kids at home so I can't break the bank got it. So just so everyone knows a specialized L.A. is like a it's a great race bike. It's made of aluminum, not carbon fiber, but it's very similar to the tarmac in many ways. ways. Thanks for everything you guys do. You've also convinced me a van would be amazing, even though I have no realistic need or use for it. Maybe in the future, Dan. Yeah, same, Dan. I'm 100%

there with you. Every time I see this van, I'm like, I need one. I know. I feel like that about when I think about this, about the van that we're getting, I'm like, are people jealous of this? Or they just like, that is, I would never use that. That's insane. Like to us, we're like, wow, this is the coolest thing on earth. We're going to use this so much. But for someone that doesn't have that same kind of desire. It's whatever. It's just a vehicle. Yeah.

Anyway, back to his question. I mean, we're big proponents of putting clipons on a good road bike to save money. And it gets you very much most of the way there to the advantages of a TT bike, especially for shorter distance races where you don't need to put a bunch of nutrition and hydration on your bike. But what do you think about the tips for swimming and running at that weight? I mean, I think we've talked about this a little bit before, and it's a good question. It just like it comes down to with the run, like being patient and building gradually. So you don't, oh, I'm super into running.

I'm going to go run 10 miles today. Yeah. Like build up slowly, a little, you know, a couple extra miles each week over the course of 10 weeks or something. Yeah, and I think for sure as you're, if you're new to running, a walk run program is totally fine and actually a really good way to get miles in and to build up slowly and carefully. Like, I don't know, run two minutes, walk two minutes. It's run three minutes, walk two minutes. And slowly over time, you decrease the walk, increase the run to where you're doing a 30-minute run continuously or something like that. But it's really just the risk of injury that we're concerned about swimming.

No cap. Swim as much as you want. Especially if you're that strong, like you probably have a good, like you have a lot of strength. So that's good. I guess a good tip there is if you can find someone who has a little bit of experience coaching or teaching adults to learn to swim, getting some technique-based coaching once a week or once every couple weeks could go a long way.

That's true, because you're already really strong and you're already really powerful. Put it to good use. Put it to good use with good technique, and you'll be really fast. The thing I always worry about with people who are athletes from other sports who start running

is that they feel like they can just fight their way through it, and they very often get injured really quickly. So like Eric said about the little by little, that's not just some frivolous, thing he's saying it's like really, really important to build the volume very slowly and methodically. It even happens to to pro athletes who come from a swimming background and

jump into track or running or trath on. It doesn't feel aerobically hard to run so they'll do it probably too much at first and then that can lead to just stress injuries on your joints and on your muscles that aren't used to weight-bearing activity. Yeah, it's like you put a V8 into a Volkswagen. VW bug. Yeah. And the transmission just as soon as you hit the gas, Rips it apart. Although he's a former college lineman, so he's obviously used to having impact in running. That's true. Running is so repetitive.

The exact same little range of motion, right? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Well, thanks, Dan. Good luck in your journey. We'd love to hear some follow-ups once you keep training. Very intrigued. Next question. Tiffany from Kansas. Hello, T-TL. Big fan, love the pod. Got my new sport camper. I'm pretty sure my husband took the hint

for a travel mug for Christmas. I hope he's listening. What a guy. He nailed it. Yeah. Question primarily for Paul. but would love to hear from Eric as well. I just listened to the How They Train Pod with Paula talking about 70.3 World's Prep. There have been a lot of mentions of, if I ever do a full Iron Man. Is that possibly on the horizon? Would love to hear more. Cheers.

Calm down. I don't know. It's hard to be a professional triathlete in this day and age and have that off the table, never doing an Iron Man, never doing Kona. Like, I just came on the podium at 70.3 World. I can't just be like, this is my thing. And I'm never going to branch out to something. new. So I don't have the desire necessarily to do one this year, maybe 2024, never say never,

but with the opportunities that the PTO is created with these 100 kilometer distances and me being actually pretty good at that distance, there's not like a financial need necessarily to jump up in distance. Whereas before, before the PTO existed, you kind of had to go to Kona just because that's what sponsored cared about. Those results, having a good race there could totally transform your career, whereas now we're making a pretty good living, doing well at the PTO races. Yeah, just to clarify, PTO is not paid time off. That's a professional triathleth organization. Right. Yeah. Yeah, the races are, I mean, I was second in Emmington, $70,000. Is that what winning is? That's the opposite of paid time off. That's working really hard. Real good paid time.

Yes, that's right. Yeah. So potentially, but not urgently, I guess, I would say. And Eric feels the same. I'll say this from the outside. When Kona was happening, Paula was frothing at the idea of being at Kona. That's the problem is that when you watch Kona, you get this like FOMO. You want to be there. But then two weeks removed from it, I'm like, okay. That sounds like a lot of work. Yeah, I don't like long bike rides. I don't like the heat. Why would I want to go to Kona? That's how I feel 365 days a year. Like, yeah, it's amazing if you go and win Kona. But if you go to Kona and come 12th or something, it's like, that was a waste of money.

Yeah, it depends who you are because I mean, for some people, 12, if there's a dream, you're right, that was a little rude. No, no, no, I don't, I mean, it's, we're all different. Like, for me. Hugo de Kona did not do as well as you would hope. Yeah, yeah, right. Exactly. Right.

Okay, well, next question is from Ryan. Hey, I was wondering if there are any professional triathletes that also compete in biathlons. Do you think the skills would be transferable? Eric, how are your, your sharpshooting skills? Absolutely terrible. I don't know. Right. Do we think that Ryan meant do athlop.

I don't know, but I've read this email and chuckled because a biathlon is a ski, cross-country ski and shoot. It's skate ski, right? I think it could be either. Really? I think it could be either. Skate skiing is completely its own sport massively technical. Shooting is its own sport massively technical, and we already do three sports.

No overlap, except for aerobic capacity. Aerobic capacity is the only overlap. But I think if you took like the entire professional lineup at World Change. championships and threw them into biathlon, it would be a comical. It would be comedy. It would be comedy. I would love to see that. I would say 80% wouldn't even be able to ski to where you shoot.

Yeah. Well, have you guys seen like the CrossFit games? Have you heard of those? Yeah. A couple years ago at a first event on the first day, because they don't know what the events are going to be. They made them do a crit. A bike crit.

What? Yes. People were crashing out. You have these like super jacked people on these tiny little carbon bikes pedaling in sneakers on flat pedals and it's just like wild. Yeah, it's different. But duathlons, I think a lot of triathletes don't prefer a duathlon. You kind of roll your eyes when the swims canceled and you have to do a duathlon. But there are like a duathlon world championships. And for people that can't swim, it's a good option because swimming sucks sometimes. Most times. Most times. Yeah. Yeah, we're kind of in a

funny position because we do not like going to the pool and taking time to swim, but we absolutely need it in the traffic. Yeah, we're actually good at it. Yeah, you guys are quite good at it. Like Eric, We've said this over. Eric was fourth out of the water in World Championships, and he really just, I hear a lot of complaining about swimming from Eric, and I love hearing about it, because I also love complaining about swimming, so it works out nicely. But I think that the main thing about a triathlon being turned into a duathlon is it loses its credibility. If you're at the World Championships and the swim is canceled, you're like, this doesn't, it's not real anymore. But if you're going to a race that specifically a duathlon,

that's a totally different thing. But he never said duathlon, he said biathlon. But now he knows that a biathlon is a winter sport, and now, know, doathlons are... You've got two questions, two answers for the price of one. That's right. Price of one, which was free to you, Ryan. You're very welcome. Next question from Brent.

Hey, everyone. This question is a follow-up to Paula's fueling in races. Oh boy, here we go. Previous podcast, she talked about the lack of fuel that she has taken, Edmonton, for example. By the way, Paula, do you want to just remind us what you ate for your race at Edmonton? Didn't you have... Yeah, I think I had like one gel for the whole race.

Yeah, one gel, folks. that she was trying to improve upon that for St. George. When she said she had her first good 70.3 run at 70.3 worlds, I wondered if that corresponded with increased fueling on the run. By the time you've answered this, it will be post-Indian wells. No, it will not. So possibly another data point to go on. I have upped my run fuel in 70.3 runs to 4 to 5 Martin gels every second aid station

with Gatorade or Coke on the off ones. And I've had my best runs in a long time in the last three races. increased fueling has certainly evened out the energy to the finish. Anyways, we'd love to know more, even though it could be an incredibly short answer to along questions. You three are all rock stars. Flynn is a dog. Rockstar dog, but I like the humans on the pod more. Ha ha. Thank you.

Thank you, Brent. Appreciate that. I feel like Flynn gets a lot of love, and he's never even really contributed that much to the pod. No. So should we all give our own little feelings? I know, Paula, you have thoughts on this. I have thoughts on this. Eric, I don't know how much you have thoughts on this, but.

Well, I think it's very obvious that eating more makes you be able to go faster. And longer. If it's so obvious, how come you just started doing it recently? Well, it's hard to do it. It's hard to actually force yourself to take a gel every 20 minutes. Like, they don't taste that good. You're biking really hard. You're not hungry.

It's not really like a hunger feedback. It's more like, I need this for later. But I do think that's important because I think a lot of people, me included earlier on, make the mistake of thinking, I'm not hungry, so I must not need food. Well, yeah. That's not accurate. No. I put a lot of emphasis on it because I have burned into my brain, like times that I've bonged and specifically felt terrible at the end of races.

And it's like a self-preservation. I don't ever want to experience that again. So I'm going to, yeah, it's like, of course a gel doesn't sound delicious and appetizing when you're going hard. But whatever, you have to put fuel in your car. You have to sound an option. That's what's so funny to me. People are like, oh, I got to get the flavor that works. I'm like, you're telling me you trained for six months, 15 hours a week.

And now you're not going to have a gel because it has a job. doesn't taste good. It's like, it's like, it's really hard to race. It's maybe if it's a little hard to put this thing down, you just do it for the performance. Well, it's easy to say that, but the thought of putting some flavors of gels in your mouth while you're going 250 watts is like appalling. Like, you can't even imagine it. So find one that you like the taste of. I see. Just so, just to give you that extra little desire to take it. Yeah. Anything, whatever it takes. It doesn't even come into my mind. I'm just like, whatever's going to be best for me, I'm going to eat. I don't care how bad it tastes.

Yeah, well. Bonus if you get something tasty. Yeah. Yeah. And more, I don't know. We've tried tons of different gels. Morton's what's on course and they're expensive. So yeah, take five gels every station.

Stash him. When I heard, that's a $20 aid station. That's what I heard when you were doing this. It was just like four to five morton gels every second aid station. My brain is like, chink, ching, ching. Yeah, yeah. There's your race money coming right back into your pocket. Yeah.

I think we make this joke every podcast. We do. We do. Mortons are expensive. They are expensive. They are tasty. But I remember when I, the first time I ever properly fueled was at Edmonton when I did the race. And it was by far my best ever run at that distance.

So that kind of was an eye-opening moment to me too. Yeah, totally. Next question from Rob. Hey, Eric, Colinick, found the pod a few months ago and I've since gone back and listened to lots, and I'm still working through all of them. Great job. I love listening and have abandoned the other pods I listened to for now. Oh, you don't have to do that.

I'm a 70.3 mid-pack age grouper and a top 10 looking for a podium in in the Olympic distance. I'm looking for a bike computer and was hoping you could help. I currently use a Garmin 4-Runner 945 watch for tracking metrics, and I'm looking for something to navigate with that's more user-friendly. I don't use power meters, so the question is, is there a bike computer that you could recommend that is user-friendly for navigating and can guide me through structured workouts and track heart rate metrics? Or should I just go all in and buy a power meter? Personally, I do not think I need this in my amateur role. Thanks and keep up the great potting, Rob. So it's kind of a few questions here. Does you need a power meter?

Does what kind of bike computer should he use? Dude, 100% you need a Wahoo. They're exactly what you're looking for. Magically easy to use. Yeah, if you're looking for user-friendliness, and we're not just saying this because we're sponsored by Wahoo. They're truly way more user-friendly than Garmin's. I am not sponsored by Wahoo, and I have had both Garmin head units and Wahoo head units, and the Wahoo head units are much more user-friendly. Yeah, it's like you, you can actually like on the fly, what the screens are, the setup. It's like they give you a QR code on the unit. You scan it.

It's linked. You're good to go. It's so simple. I've never had an issue. And I would very, very, very recommend that. If you want the best one for navigation and stuff, get the Wahoo Element Rome. It's kind of made a little bit more for gravel and is a bigger screen, full color, beautiful turn-by-turn capabilities.

And it does actually, it can guide you through structured workouts if you link it to your training peaks account. and obviously picks up your heart rate data. I would say if you get that and then you decide later you want a power meter, it will connect to the power meter, but you don't need to get it in conjunction with a power meter. If you don't want to spend all that money at first, we're very big advocates for power meters.

We all three use one. We think they're amazing. We've talked about this on the pot a lot, but certainly not a necessity if you don't have the budget for it because they are expensive. Yeah. The thing is, I think if you're top 10 looking for podium at something, you're deep into that category of someone that would benefit from a power meter. That's my feeling.

That's true. That's true. Like you're not kind of just trying to finish the race. You're trying to really perform at your best. Yeah. So maybe that would be a good next investment. I do think so. Next question.

Hey team, love the pod and everything else you all do. Question for Paula and Eric. Do you find yourselves doing the same's with frouettes? What are your favorites? For example, I rotate between two and three in Watopia. Oh, they're numbered even within Watopia. Between two and three different ones. Oh, sorry.

Got it. I rotate between two and three in Watopia and most of Makuri. Something about going through the arcade in Macquarie is strangely mesmerizing to me. Happy training, Tori from El Paso. I agree. I think Macquarie Islands is my favorite. But I pick a different route every time because I think you get bonus points if you complete new routes. Yeah.

So I try to go through and select one that I haven't done. And there's not many left that I haven't done. But it is fun to switch it up that way. right here? Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I get on Zwift and I never do erg mode. I always have it. It changes the power based on the hills and stuff.

And I really try to look at the screen and try to feel like I'm doing an actual bike ride. Okay, so this is kind of funny. I wonder if you guys have this feeling. I was just talking about this with Eric yesterday. Mandeville Canyon here, I only ever use it for FTP tests and interval work. If I'm not doing those things, I try to avoid it at all costs because I'm trying not to develop a negative association with that road. because some roads like if you're like work really hard or run really hard always on one segment like I feel like when you go there you get like PTSD a little bit like your brain is used to suffering on that

and it kind of ruins that place a little bit yeah do you have the same thing with the swift routes or if the fact that it's virtual it kind of doesn't feel like that anymore I don't memorize them that well yeah I don't either and when you're doing a swift workout or a workout on swift I often will have it not on erg mode but I'll pick like 90 minute free ride so it stays flat and then I can adjust the tension on it and stuff, but I'm not looking at the root the whole time. If I'm in a hard work and I'm like suffering. So yeah, that's the difference is you can kind of like not pay attention, whereas when you're running and writing, there's part of your consciousness that's always focused on not crashing into something.

Yeah, exactly. No, that's just a negative association with just being on the trainer. In general. Right, right, of course. Yeah, you're never going there for a nice scenic ride. I could be in Japan and I could be in Europe, doesn't matter. Right. Nice.

Okay. Next question. Hi, TTR gang. I'm a newbie, and you guys have been super helpful in learning all about triathlon, so thank you. A couple of clothing questions for you. What is the point of cycling bibs? I always see pictures of people wearing them when on the trainer, but I always wonder why bibs over the shorts. Lastly, you guys talked about getting good quality clothing to help with chafing out on an earlier pod. Any suggestions on brands for cycle shorts or bibs to try? There are so many options, and it's overwhelming. Thanks and good luck in Indian well. So first of all, what is the point of cycling bibs?

And I'm a little confused about this, about wearing them over shorts. As opposed to shorts. Oh, I see. Got it. I missed that at first as well. Yeah, got it. Well, the point of them is to change your cycling experience for the better forever. Like night and day for the better.

Basically, functionally, though, it is to keep the pad where it should be, keep the shorts where they should be. Nothing's moving. And typically, if your clothing is moving around on you while you're doing an activity, that's a recipe for chafing. Yeah. Sometimes I do have a pair of Castelli shorts with padding that I'll wear on the trainer sometimes, just because I have them. But bibs are generally more comfortable. And they stay in one place, like Eric said. The downside for women is that it's really hard to pull off on the side of the road if you're somewhere remote and go to the bathroom because you've got to like fully take off everything.

But that's a minor downside. I mean, most people are wearing bibs. But I think there's some triathletes like I think Holly might prepare shorts. Really? It is a bit of a personal preference. bibs isn't like 100% better. It's for sure like them out. See if you like them.

You're probably going to like them better. You also definitely avoid ever having the triathlet tramp stamp where you have this tan line, this is this little sliver between where your jersey came and where your shorts were. It for sure looks more pro. It must have been the first pair of shorts I got because when I first got into cycling, I was like, I'm not going to wear those silly looking bibs. I'm going to buy shorts, right? It's the same thing.

I bought those shorts and I was like, oh, these are perfectly fine until I got my first pair of bibs. And then I was like, oh, I get it. I feel like the main point is it does. It like sucks up and keeps in place the shami. That's what really feels amazing. And when it's not moving around, you just feel like there's no chafing. There's no friction. It's going to hopefully decrease the amount of saddle stories you get because of that.

And it looks cool. It does look cool. I now prefer the look over the shorts. When I was first getting into the triathlon, I think I was like 16. So I wasn't that young. I know where you're going with this and it hurts. But I was in a training camp in Maui, with like Simon Whitfield, Christian Sweetland.

I just want, like I'd, I've been winning every junior race that I entered, even though I was very new to the sport, I was kind of targeted as like the up-and-comer. And I, at the time, I was still wearing underwear under my bike shirts. Oh, no! Yeah. So I like, did no one tell you, or did you just like, I'm just

going to do whatever I want to do? Well, my thought was like, I only have a couple of pairs of shorts, and I don't want to wash them every time I ride. That's insane. And I have 10 pairs of underwear. They're just pants. So I'm going to wear underwear on them, wash the underwear, wear the bib shorts again and again.

Wow. So just PSA, no underwear under the bibs or shorts, and wash them every time. Just so everyone out there, in case you needed to hear that. It's a ridiculous idea, but now we just know, we're used to it now, but we're like, wait, I'm going to wash these and then wear them to more. Like, you have to do so much laundry, it's insane.

So that's why that was my thought between behind the underwear underneath. But nobody told me, I figured it out. I was like, you can see my underwear lines. This is so embarrassing. It's great. brands, I mean, we're definitely going to recommend Kesteli over anything else. We have such a good relationship with them. But, I mean, you've had Rafa Bibs that you...

I absolutely love the Rafa Bibs. I also have tried some other brands. It seems to me that an old Italian saying, I'm just going to say in English, but like you spend a little, you get a little. I feel like that's going to be the case with Bips. Totally, totally. It would definitely be worth buying the $170 bib over the $80 bib. And that's another reason that shorts are often uncomfortable.

Typically a short is offered at the lowest possible. It's the budget option. The very budget option. So it's just, yeah, anyway. Nice. Thanks for that question, Shiree. I think it's Shari, right? That's Sheree.

Not Cherry? Yeah, Sheree. Okay, next here, we're going to do something a little bit different here. We do things a little bit differently here at a TTL. So we're going to actually end with a spelling bee. T.T.L. Spelling Bee. Wow. Is this a spelling bee for you, Nick?

No, it's a spelling bee for you. Oh, you don't want to see me spell. You think Paula's not a good spelling? See you, Spell. Can I read out the question? Yeah, one second. So I'll just give it to you so Eric can't see it, or Eric, you're just not going to look? Spell.

He cannot look. See Nick Spell. Okay. Hi, guys. As a fellow Canadian, shout out to Paula. I loved hearing about your recent hockey obsession, although I should point out that you're definitely cheering for the wrong team. Go, Leaves Go. Wrong.

Yeah. It made me think maybe we can stump Eric with some tough hockey spelling bee worlds. Challenge accepted, Eric? Okay. Okay. Okay. Here we go. Number one is Zamboni.

Z-A-M-B-O-N-I? That is correct. Yes, ding, ding, ding. The Crackin, which is the newest hockey team out of Seattle. K-R-A-K-E-N. That is correct. The next one is Leon Dry-Sidal. Oilers Star Forward.

This is terrible because we watch him play, but... It's ridiculous. It's like D-R-E-I-J-S... It's Leon Dry-S-S-S-E-E-N. It's Leon Drysidal, D-R-A-I-S-A-I-T-L. So not too far off what it sounds like, actually. Yeah, but it's a T-L-T-L. I would have done D's.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, next one is Bauer, the top hockey equipment manufacturer. B-A-U-R? B-A-U-R. Oh. Okay, I got some extra good ones for you. And I feel like the part I like about this, since we're doing hockey theme, is I also want you to define these things.

I found an article of 35 slang, hockey terms. Oh, dude, I just jumped on the bandwagon like a month ago. Well, sounds like you're about to get off it if you don't get these right. Yeah. So, first thing, how about a hoser? This is a really cool term, and I was amazed. I brought this up to Paul like a year ago, and you've never

heard this term, right? A hoser. It's like an insulting term to call someone a hosers. It's a Canadian term. I've heard it before. I used to live with a Canadian. Okay, so, hoser, how do you spell it? H-O-S-I-E-R? H-O-S-E-R. It is. Straight up to tell us...

Yep. And can you think of what it might be? You could, if you stretch it, you could figure it out on your own just by the term. It is a, and people don't necessarily know it's a hockey term that use it, but it is a hockey term. I have no idea. Before the Zamboni was invented, after the game, you would kind of like hose down the rink to get rid of all that stuff. And so the losers had to hose it down. So they were the hosers.

Oh, that's cool. So you're calling someone a loser. They're a hoser. That's actually very funny. Yeah. Well, I mean, some of these things just don't really follow their names or they just don't follow spelling rules because they're slang. A lot of the English languages like this. Where and where?

Do you just want to fight? Yeah. I'm trying to get into a. Let's see if I can find this here. The gloves are coming off. J-O-V-E-S. Oh, that's great. Okay, I have the last one for Eric, and then we're going to go eat lunch.

Interference. I-N-T-E-R-F-E-R-E-N-C-E. That is correct, and also demonstrated Eric's unique ability to just rattle off. Yeah. It's not that hard, but just the ability to do it without... I have to, like, write it down. You need to. Or, like, at least stop three times during the words.

Yeah, yeah. Write it on your hand. Yeah, he's just like, click, click, click, click, click, click. That's how you spell. I'm a computer. I have a friend who has this, like, amazing ability to, you tell her a sentence, and she can say it backwards. Whoa. That's amazing.

It's just like, she doesn't have to try. It's just something in her head. Different brain. Yep, different brain. Really cool. Well, thank you for sending those in Hayden. Super appreciate it. And also whoever did our first Pop Poison, Paula. I really appreciated that as well. And just everybody who sent in questions in general. You can send in your questions and also support the podcast at ThattriathlonLife.com slash podcast.

We are very excited. Very soon we're going to share some really cool thing for subscribers. We're going to give you a little bit of warning when that happens. So stick around for that. And we'll see you next week. because last time we talked, Paula will have raced, Eric may have raced. I think it's just fun to keep the suspense going. Yeah, especially for Paula.

She thinks it's really fun. Yeah, this is so fun to ride this wave of Eric racing and not racing. I don't understand how it affects anything at all. Well, she likes to plan things out. She's a planner. Yeah.

I mean, it definitely affects race day logistics since we have a dog. So if anyone is going to be an Indian Wells and wants to watch Flynn while we're racing, we can do that. Rout row. Yeah, but Nick,

you're not going to get there till later. Yeah, I mean, like maybe two hours into the race. Okay, okay. Well, still, it still stands. Offer still stands. You're 100% chill in the groove lounge the entire time of the race. That's true.

Okay, well, if it would bring someone joy to watch Flynn, okay. Thank you for listening, guys, and we will catch up with you with a race recap next week and kicking off our off season. We are hanging by a thread, but we are almost done. We are. We are almost done this freaking season. And we're really excited about it. So thanks for listening.

Thanks, guys. Later.