That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon training recovery tools, increasing swimming stamina, and more!

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

This week we kick things off with updates on Eric’s hip labrum surgery, then put him through a hip anatomy themed TTL Spelling Bee before diving into your listener-submitted questions. This week we discussed:Building swimming stamina from sprint to Olympic distance racingOur favorite strength and recovery toolsTraveling internationally for a race: bike box or rental?Taking a leap of faithWhat shoes to race in on a golf course runRacing socksUsing a run background to make you a stronger cyclistA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast—————————On Cloudboom Max

Hi everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. Paul and I are finally back home recording this on our normal nice microphones. I apologize if the audio quality has been anything other than stellar the last few weeks as we've been on the road recording in guest rooms and the van, etc. But we're psyched to be home. It's comfy. I'm a couple days post-surgery now. I'm bored out of my mind. So I'm so psyched. they were doing this is the most interesting thing I have done all day, slash potentially all week. It's like to be here. Eric, how are you? Like I said, I'm bored. That's the main takeaway.

I've realized that I'm like pretty addicted to being productive, and I'm going to have to wean myself off of that because 99% of the things that I want to do require some sort of movement. But I'm getting so caught up on laptop things. I'm going to be dropping a vlog before this comes out for sure, maybe even two. But for people who don't know who don't follow you on social media, how did the surgery go?

Where are you at? Like, how are you physically doing right now? Yeah. So if you didn't listen last week and you haven't been aware of my personal journey for the last, you know, as long as we've been doing the podcast, I got hip, labrum surgery. So like they basically yank your hip out of the socket, just enough to stick a camera and a knife in there and cut it up.

and put it back into place and sew it and I'm on a six to nine month journey now of coming back to biking and running. But basically, I'd say it's pretty impressive. It's achy and I'm on some drugs for the pain, but it's honestly not that bad for a seemingly kind of major surgery. Yeah, that's great. And we're actually going to come back to your surgery

in a bit here in a game. Oh, great. It's kind of crazy because it's like major, in terms of recovery time. But in terms of symptoms afterwards and basically no scarring or anything because it's like an arthroscope thing, it's a day surgery, you're in and out in the same day.

In a lot of ways, it's not a major surgery. But it's just crazy that the recovery timeline is so long because that area gets such low blood flow. Like a C-section cuts open your whole abdomen, but then moms are able to walk around and do normal things several weeks later. this is like this tiny little thing and we're talking six to nine months. Yeah.

Yeah. And to be fair, like if a grizzly bear chased me right now, like I could probably run away from it. Really? Yeah. Like if I needed to, but it would ruin it. It would probably ruin it. And like I can walk like 50% body weight. So I'm for the most part crutching, but I'm like putting a little bit of body weight on the foot that is, you know, affected each time that I take a step just to like, it is good to move it through the range of motion and stuff.

but as far as running an impact to be back and fully sound, that's a bit of a longer process. If you're new here, if that happens to be the case, if you happen to be new here, I'm a professional athlete, Paul is a professional athlete. We're married. Nick is our third wheel. He's a professional musician, amateur athlete,

and the main focus of this podcast is triathlon, swim bike run. That's what we like to talk about. So welcome to the show. Do we still consider an athlete, a triathlete, if they train and race swim, bike run, but not necessarily all three together. Oh. Well, I mean, that would kind of come down to how you identify.

Do you do a little swim and biking and run in? And have you done a triathlon? Or do you claim when it's walking into a room? I'm a triathlete. Right. I could just see someone being like, yeah, I train swim bike run. But then I race ultras. I race gravel races.

And I do these like Portland River swims. But I've never put them all three together in a sport. it. But yeah, I'm a triathlet, of course. No, I don't think you'd call yourself a triathlet. I mean, most people that even have done a triathlon barely call themselves a triathlete. That's right. If I meet someone who recognizes us, I usually say, are you a triathlete? Is that how you know us?

And they say, ah, like I've done one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or I've done five. I mean, they could be, you know, just not claiming that to us, so we don't know. Like, Nick would have potentially a better sample. I think there's very few athletes in the world who swim. or fun and don't race triathons. The swimming really is the piece, isn't it?

If you're going to race a triathlon, you've got to swim. But if you're not racing triathons, not many people are swimming. I don't know if those master's. These master's groups are full. Yeah. There's nobody swimming by themselves. I think there's very few people who are swimming, biking, and running and not doing a triathlon where there are many people who bike and run who don't necessarily do a triathons.

Yeah, for sure. I think off-road duathlon's the future. I'm just going to say it. I think there's a lot of people who are doing a little gravel and a little bit of trail running. And as soon as somebody figures out the course that puts those together in a way that you're not just running on gravel roads,

it's going to go off. I even think there could be something that's like stage race, duathlon kind of thing. Well, I mean, they have that at the big sugar. Yeah, there's a few gravel races now that have incorporated a run portion. But it is still just like running. on gravel roads versus trail running.

So I think there's still some potential. Yeah. Oh, I like it. I like it because we are seeing. Are we going to do it? I don't know. Somebody should do it, though. Don't tempt me. There was another question here that someone called themselves.

Actually, it's the first question we're going to read to. Before we get to some other fun things, but called themselves an adult onset triathlete. And I think that's not a, that term does not exist. I think that's everyone is all of us, basically. Paula maybe is an exception to this. And there are some people who have been racing triathlon before they were adults. but for the most part, none of us were doing triathlon training in middle school and high school, the way that people swim and run.

I feel like if you are currently doing triathlon and you started around the age of 10, you are a pro. Yeah, right. That is the only way. That is like an event diagram that is 100% crossed over. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, that does make sense. That doesn't make sense. Okay, Eric, so you seem to be all in a good mood.

So let's ruin that by doing a little bit of a spelling bee. I was actually standing into the Trader Joe's checkout line being completely useless since I can't pick things up and hold my crutches and wondering when the next spelling bee was going to be. It was Paula who recommended it by the way. Dream come true. Here we go. And also Eric, for those who don't know, Eric has been blinging out his crutches.

You now have bar tape around the handle and a Wahoo sticker on the shaft of the. of the crutches. They're not even his. They're not mine. Otherwise, I would have spray painted him to deal already. I see. I see.

But I think the stickers fair. Or are they are an acquaintance? No, there's actually a guy who is here in Bend who had some of these saw me crutching around on like, quote, the American style and let me borrow these. So much thanks to him. He's got some sweet stickers on here too.

So I figured it'd be okay if I added one. Right. Wait. So what's the difference between American crutches and these crutches? Like the American style, I'm just calling it that for now, has a thing that goes all the way up into your armpit versus this style is like,

it sort of has like a support ring around your, like the bulk of your forearm, like the meat of your forearm. And it's like a cantilever sort of feel. People are calling them Eurocrutches. Yeah. At least people on Instagram to us. Eric,

you've now used the word canoliver twice in the last 20 minutes, once off the air and once on the air. Is this a new word that you just learned? No. I come across candle lever all the time. What even is it? I mean, like, I don't know. I've got across

the cantilever all the time. I've gone across it in 20 years. I watch a ton of YouTube videos about like restoring old cars. And then two days ago I was watching the video about PCH and the building of that and all the bridges on it. So yeah. Candleaver is a daily term for me. It kind of sounds like an exotic fruit to me. I'd love a bite of canoliver right now.

God, some juicy canolaever. Are you kidding me? I'd kill for that. Okay. So back to the focus here. Eric, this spelling bee is going to be anatomy focused, specifically on hip labrum surgery. So let's see how closely you were paying attention when the surgeon was walking you through what was going to happen. Okay? We're only going to do four words this time. I feel like five sometimes drags on. I forgot to look up how to pronounce these. I was going to do that. So good luck with that too. The first one is the bony protrusion on the femur is the trocanter. How do you? How do you? you spell trocanter T-R-O-C-H-A-N-T-E-R. That's correct. Very nice.

Nicely done, Eric. Okay. Trescentha. I'm going to pronounce this one wrong for sure, so give me mercy, people. The cup-shaped socket of the hip joint, well, let's see if you know this, do you? The cup-shaped socket of the hip joint.

Yes. No. The acetabulum. Is that possible? Cetabellum. Cetabellum, yeah. How do you spell acetabellum? A-C-E-B-B-E-B-E-B-E-L-L-U-M.

I don't, I don't, I'm still on a little bit of drugs, just for everyone's not. A-C-E-T-E-B-E-L-U-M. A-C-T-A-B-L-U-M. That is weird. B-U-L-U-M. Very strange. Acetabolam. Acetabolam, yes.

Yeah. I don't know. Next one here is the body's sense of joint position is pro pro pro preoception. How do you spell pro preoception? B-R-O-P-R-I-O-O-C-E-T-I-O-N. That's correct. Very nice. Good recovery from however you pronounce a C-de-Bolm.

And then final one here is the major hip flexor muscle is the, you do know this word because even I know this word. Do you know what it is, though? You may not know that it is. There's a part before that. Oh, the Ilios-O-A-S-A-S. That's correct. Very nice.

Dude, I don't know. Is that double-Ls or a single-L? It is a single-L. I-L-I-O-A-S. But the SO-As is the hard part. The PS, the P-S-O-S. P-S. Yeah, Vernos.

Well done, Eric. See, even through the drugs, you're a pretty amazing speller. Honestly, this exact brain usage is what is most gone for me right now. Is remembering where I'm at in the word. When normally I can just visualize it and just stream it straight out of my freaking brain into my mouth. And right now it's like hard for me to remember where I am. Sounds to me like you're getting a little taste of what it's like for the rest of us to spell normally. Because that's what happens to us.

We're like, wait, what? This isn't my just regular thoughts too. Oh, I see. Yeah, I see. Day to day. Well done. And we're not going to get to listener submitted questions. And we can feel free to get down as many rabbit holes as we want this week because we're back to our traditional selves here.

But the first thing we're going to do before we do that is thank one of our podcast supporters. You can become a podcast supporter at Thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast where you can also submit questions. to this podcast. And we would love to, I think next week would be fun if we did kind of like a rapid fire style question thing. Because this week we're going to go a little more deep into these. And so I think next week it could be fun if we do a little more rapid fire. So please submit your questions to the podcast if you haven't already, or even if you have, if you don't do a little follow up. You know, you haven't done it a while, Nick, that I miss is you relate how much the podcast subscription per month it costs you, you know, to like a bag of Doritos or

An oat milk cappuccino. Well, yeah, it depends on where you're getting that oak milk cappuccino. Yeah, okay, so for the cost of a one month subscription to the podcast, you can buy, it's half of an inner tube, or less than half of an inner tube. Not that any of you should be using inner tubes anymore. Yeah, so now that we've convinced you to go tubeless, you've got like a tube a month. There we go. Come on, guys.

We're still saving you money, net. Saving you money. Saving you money. And who's going to help you when you're on the side of the road? A motivational podcast like us, I think is more valuable than an intertube. You've got to pop that tube off there. Just call an Uber and listen to the podcast. That's what I would do.

We stop for everyone, especially Gordon Ramsey. Oh, my God, Gordon Ramsey. Never forget. Okay. And this week, by the way, we did pick a random podcast winner that's going to win a swim cap. And of all the podcast supporters we have, we picked. by coincidence. It's not coincidence. Random number generator.

Jordan Blanco. Jordan! If you're in the know of the insider insider triathlon, you may know Jordan Blanc. I don't even know if you have to be that insider. Jordan has been around since we've been doing it and is at the epicenter. She's in the community. She's deep. She's great. Currently, the bento box on my TT bike was donated to me by Jordan Blanco. Jordan Blanco is like the mother of triathlon, it feels like, to me.

So Jordan, luckily, I can just message you and ask you where you want me to send you this swim cap, even though I've been inside your house. Thank you for being a podcast supporter, Jordan. It's really cool when our friends are podcast supporters. That feels extra special. So we could have picked someone else, but we wanted to thank you personally on the air. So appreciate that. First question here. This is a good one.

It's from Toby. Hi TTL gang from Bristol, UK, yes, not London. Oh, there's more cities than just London. Good to know. My name is Toby, and I'm an adult onset triathlete, which we are removing from the lexicon. There's no adult onset triathlete, Toby, I'm sorry. You're just a triathlete.

So I hope that's a good news and not bad news situation. After my best mate, Gareth got me into triathlon during university over two years ago, my question is about stepping up from sprint distance to standard distance in the swim. Standard, we'll call standard Olympic from now on. I have entered the Gerardmer triathlon in France for September 26th, and I would like to know what you guys would suggest is a good way to increase swimming stamina from sprint distance, which Toby is calling a 400-meter pool swim, which is traditionally a 750 meter swim in a more official sprint, to a 1500-meter open water lake swim. I have swum open water before, so I'm happy with the differences between indoor, outdoor swimming,

but I don't think I have ever swum further than 400 meters in one go. Grateful for all that you do for the community, I'm a big coffee snob, and so I'm looking forward to trying your latest beans, all the best, and love to Flynn. Wow, that hurts Toby. First of all, the coffee beans. Yeah, can we take a little aside there and talk about the coffee? Where are we at with it? We literally were just sitting at Thump, and they were roasting a new batch for,

us and we took it and put it in the car and I'm going to take it to start shipping it out tomorrow. So sold completely out of our first batch. We're sold like a third of the way out of this next batch and we've got a few people who've signed up to be on the subscription plan. So I feel like it's awesome. It's going great. Everybody who's tried it, especially the instant because that's like the most differentiating thing we got going, raid reviews. So if you haven't tried it out yet, give it a shot, guarantee you won't be disappointed. Love it. Okay, so back to this question here that Toby had,

400 meter pool swim to 1,500 open water lake swim. What thoughts come up when you hear that? Doing some longer reps. You know, if you haven't ever swim over 400, maybe do a set of 200s, you know, for a total of 800s, total of 800 total distance, you know, and start working it up that way. I don't think you need to go straight to like,

swim in 800 straight or anything in the pool. No, I just think your overall volume of the whole swim set has to be more. I don't think you have to do longer reps necessarily. Because like we've said before, if you do longer reps, your form starts to break down. Like you can start even with doing, you know, 30-50s. That's 1,500 meters. So there's ways to make your overall volume in the week higher without going and doing repeat 800s. Yeah, what do we think?

If they can be hitting 3K in a swim, 3,500, that's like, totally great. For an Olympic, I think that's fantastic. Yeah. The most that we swim, you know, is we'll do 5K often, 4K often, but we're not doing like 7K swims to do, you know, even 70.3s or Iron Man distance stuff. I think a good rule of thumb with swimming is that you should be in the pool longer than the drive time to and from the pool. of both together.

You add the two and from time together. Right. Like just be in the pool for more than 45 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Except don't do what I do, which is just talk to the people. Speaking of which,

the guy next to me in the pool today was an old guy and he wasn't stopping and we had to start circle swimming because there were enough people at the pool. And finally I jumped in and whatever. We did end up talking. He was swimming very, how do I put this? Steadily but surely.

but he was there swimming 6K. And this was like an older dude. He's like, I used to love running, but I can't love running anymore. So I come in here and I swim 6K. Wow. That's a long time at the pool. He must have a real long commute. Yeah.

He's commuting from Nevada. So he's got to make it worth it. I feel like I'm just brainstorming here, but I feel like I would almost be tempted to just keep doing like the same length of hard reps you've been doing. So if you've been doing like 10 by 25s or something, I would almost keep that. but then just like bump up the total length of like time that you're spending swimming each week. That's what I said. Well yeah, just versus, you know, like, oh, now I got to do hundreds hard. You know, like try to keep that like speed side of it, but then just like increase the more relaxed zone, whatever, one.

Yeah. Yeah. It does kind of, it does kind of ease the brain a little bit. It's like I don't have to work that much harder. I just have to be there for longer doing more things. That might be a good stepping stone. mentally for it. The other thing I'm thinking about, because you were like,

oh, we're going to call standard Olympic from now on. But like the Olympic thing is so much, it used to just be that like the format of the Olympics was the Olympic standard distance and that was it, full stop. But now there's so many qualification races that are sprint distance and then we have the super sprint relay. So I don't know if standard, we might have to like bring that back a little bit. I think it's also, it's always been confusing to talk to people who aren't in the know about triathlon about Olympic distance.

It's like, you're going to the Olympics? Like, no, no, I'm not going. It's just what it's called. And I mean, I'm sure everyone who listens to this podcast relates to when people want to talk to you about triathlon, they call it either Iron Man or they call it Marathon. Yeah, okay. You know what, man, I'm walking this back now. Saying that I do standard distance triathlons sounds really lame. So, when telling other people, you do an Olympic distance. Right. I've been seeing this stuff on Reddit recently that has been people, running is becoming so

popular right now all of a sudden. I'd love to know what is causing this, but people are like, just finished a 5K marathon and they put their stats on screen. Honey. It doesn't matter. They're stoked. I think running is getting popular because of social media. Fitness influencers, yep. And once you start to try it and start to improve and have goals, it feels kind of good. It's been addictive, isn't it? And running outfits and running shoes are getting cooler. So you go shopping for running shoes and it's not like, you know, ugly-ass old running shoes. It's, they're cool now. Yeah.

And just to be clear, I have nothing against a 5K. I love a 5K. I prefer a 5K over a marathon. It's just the nomenclature. It's just they're not the same. I just think if you're going to come do the thing, which is great and we love all new runners, just like the terminology maybe just get, I don't know, is it elitist to say get familiar with the terminology so you can talk about it in a proper way? I think it's going to happen, you know.

I don't think we need to do a PSA. I think their buddy is going to help them out. Right, right. Like I just did a sprint distance Iron Man. Yeah, well, I had a guy yesterday told me he did an Iron Man and it was a 70.3. I didn't say anything. It was an Iron Man branded event, you know? Yes, that's right.

Okay, moving swiftly long before we get hands, a lot out. He just smirked at him. Well, when he said 70.3, when he said where he raced, I just went, ah. And that was it. So I said, judgmental. I'm now half as impressed. Yes, exactly. Okay, next question here is from Craig, from Seattle.

Hey team, mid-40s try harder here. Always trying to stay mostly uninjured. I spotted a modo board. Isn't it mogo? No, it's modo. Mobo. Mobo. Okay, so Craig, we're both wrong.

It's mobo. I spotted a mobo board in one of your posts, and now I'm curious, what's actually in your recovery and strength toolbox? foam roller, massage gun, sauna. That's a small sauna if it's inside a toolbox. Weird gadgets we don't know about yet. What tools have you truly earned a permanent...

What tools have truly earned a permanent spot in your arsenal? Craig. Oxycodone. Drugs. That's been my recovery strategy for the last three days, which I'm happy to be almost done with. Yeah, you're almost out, right? Yeah, we dig the mobile board.

It was actually invented by a physical therapist here in Bend, who Paula still sees on occasion. Jada Chari, he's like legendary. People would fly in from all over to see him, and he created this to, you know, more proactive, preventative measure for ankle and whole leg chain stability. But foam rollers, um... I'm looking at our little...

Foam rollers is kind of like the crux of my situation. Yeah, we got a mobile board. We have a lot of bands. I think that, like I said before, the more accessible things are, the more likely you are to do it. So going to a gym is better because they have all the dumbbells, all the squat racks. If you want to do like a real lifting session. But if you're just at home, I think that there bands can go a long way, like stretchy bands of different resistance levels. A good kettlebell set, like from five to 40 pounds maybe kind of thing.

So you could do squats. You can do smaller motions. Sorry, are we talking about recovery? Are we talking about strength? Did we ask about gym stuff? Recovery and strength. Okay. Toolbox, yeah.

And a ball, like a bowsoo ball. Those are like the ones that, not the heavy ones, they're the ones you can like sit on, right? Big inflatable exercise ball. I've been kind of missing one of those because actually one of the things that I use that I really like, have been recently liking as I rehab my hamstring is this thing that you use for doing Nordic curls at home, which is a, Nordic curls

are like the eccentric hamstring curls. So you do it as you're falling forward, you're trying to stop yourself from extending the worm almost. Yeah, you're doing the worm. But it's supposed to be done with one of the Bosu balls because you can kind of

roll it out as you are falling forward. And there's a lot of other good reasons for that. You can get them like Walmart. I know, they're just huge. Yeah, they do take a lot of space. But they also scream like, I am an athlete. You can put it beside your guitar. It's true, right. Yeah, you can't figure me out. Am I an artist or am I an athlete? Yeah, yeah. Or I'm just into kinky shit. Right. For the foam rollers, do you guys have,

I'm curious if you guys have different foam rollers for different purposes, like softer, harder, longer, narrower, or do you pretty much make one work? We kind of just have one. Yeah, we use that, like, the foam roller, the trigger point, grid or whatever. And we literally have one like upstairs in like our TV room and then downstairs in the living room. So if you're bored, you foam roll. Yeah. Nice. I do think it's good to have a softer one too though because some of these hard ones can really like destroy your legs too much. It's supposed to be a bit painful but you're not supposed to not be able to walk after. So the softer ones actually are better for some areas of your body. If you can have like different like levels of

hardness. Yeah, great. Good to know, because I do have a very long, squishy one that I never use for that reason. Also, one thing, last thing, I think a good tool is just having a yoga mat. Because I think that the biggest obstacle to doing any kind of gym core strength stuff is having like a dedicated space for it. So even if I'm in a hotel room, like, yeah, I could put a towel on the ground and do it. But if I bring a yoga mat with me and I put that down, it's like tells my brain that this is a place to do activities on. And I leave one out upstairs in our loft all the time, just so it's like a spot to do it.

I think that that can go a long way psychologically. Agreed. And giving yourself an area to even do 10 minutes of core and stretching. Yeah, which goes a long way. 10 minutes. Okay, next question here is from Jesse. I gain greetings from Vancouver, BC. so much I could say, you're all so awesome on multiple levels, and I'll leave it at that.

Thanks, Jesse. My question is, what advice do you have about traveling for a race and doing a bike rental? For context, I've flown with my bike for multiple races in North America, and I'm quite comfortable with packing and building it. But in September, I'll be doing Iron Man Italy, and I have some concerns about travel logistics in Europe. Assuming larger car rentals to accommodate multiple bikes and bags are harder to come by, but maybe not, We also plan to stick around and do traveling after. So I'm not sure we want to be carting bikes around. I've heard from some people that they've had great experiences renting through Ironman, and I'm starting to lean that way.

Any tips you can share either about logistics of transporting bikes in Europe or what to ask for and communicate beyond the basics when renting a bike? If I do decide to rent, I plan to bring my own seat and pedals, but otherwise I'm not sure where to start. It's greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jesse. Well, first of all, good idea to bring your own saddle and pedals. That's a nice start. But what do you guys think?

You have traveled in Europe a ton with bikes. When I read this, I thought it's absolutely not worth doing the rental, in my opinion. If you have a bike bag, a lot of the airlines in the U.S. don't even charge you for the bike extra. It's just treated as a piece of luggage. They're not that complicated to pack. And in terms of, like, getting them in cars, in Europe, we'll usually rent, like, yes, the cars in general are smaller, but if you rent an

SUV, even if it's a smaller SUV, we can always get me and Eric's bike and luggage both in the car. So you're not going to be able to rent American-style minivan or pickup truck, but they're, you know, Volvo XC60s or something. You can definitely fit bike bags in the back. Yeah, I don't know. I just think, like, the confidence and familiarity of having your own equipment goes a long way. And although the bike rentals are probably okay, it's so much nicer to have your own bike. And it's not as complicated as it sounds once you get to the other end. The only thing a lot of your P and airlines do mandate is that you reserve your bike. So when you book your ticket, you have to say, I have a bike in advance. And you do that online.

It's really easy. But like Lufthansa and stuff makes you do that. So that's the only tip I've got? My brain way the exact opposite direction. I was like, you know what? If I don't care about like trying to get every last minute out of my performance and I'm going to Europe and I'm going to be there for like a couple weeks after, you know, and this is part of my vacation, heck, yeah, I would love so much not to have to cart around two big ass bike bags.

That's true. Cram them into cars. It's like the unpacking and the packing of the bike is like, like Paul said, not that big of a deal, but cramming it into cars and taking it through the airport and checking, that really gets old. Yeah, I guess if you're traveling afterwards, that's true. I'm trying to put myself in the mindset of my income does not depend on this result. And in that situation, I'm like, man, yeah, run a freaking sweet Pinarello or like some

like Colnago European thing while you're over there. If they're renting a road bike, then it's better. T-T bikes are so specific. I think they don't rent TT bikes. I think they only rent road bikes. Okay. So, yeah, maybe it's okay. Some of the people at the TTL camp rented bikes for it.

And they were really nice. Wait, some of the people that were the TTL camps rented bikes for the camp? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, and their bikes at home were like way less nice than what they rented. Yeah. So my thought, as I'm hearing both you say this, I'm like, your guys are both giving very good advice for just two different athletes.

Because I have friends who flew to Switzerland and race there, and I have two new friends now who are racing. Ironman Switzerland. They're renting bikes, but their bikes that they have here aren't that great. They're runners. They're like doing a triathlon, but they just want to go and have a great time and have a, and they will for sure have a nicer bike there than they have here. Yeah, I guess if that's the case. Especially if it's a road bike, because you get a 56 in one brand, a 56, it kind of fits the same. It's probably going to feel amazing. But I'm going to bring my, like me, Nick Goldston as obsessed with triathlon, I'm 100%

bringing my own bike. There's no way I'm renting a bike. when I go over there because I do, it's not my job, but I care about it enough. You know what? Here's a third scenario, third option that you could do is if you pack your bike inside of a cardboard box or something that's shipable, like the day after the race, pack that sucker up and mail it back to your house. Right. And then go about your European vacation.

That's going to be annoying as well, though. Just an option. With like customs and all the shipping shit. But it's possible. Yeah, it's possible. I do agree though, like, going around Europe dealing with a bike bag is sucks afterwards. On trains and stuff? Yeah, yeah.

You don't want to do that. Yeah. Pay a friend to bring it back to the U.S. for you. That's the best option number four. It's a good friend. Yeah, we didn't really give any answers. We sort of like gave you a whole bunch of options that you can choose from depending on how you roll. How is that?

Hard. We just took a little intermission there. Eric had to plug his laptop in. And now he's breathing like he just ran up a flight of stairs. I had to go six feet across the room to change shirts and put to plug my laptop in. We're good. You had to change shirts because you were sweating so much from the effort? Pretty much, yeah.

Okay, moving right along. The next question is from Francesco, I think is a legit Italian. Hey, T.TL, thank you for the content you put out every week. You are great. first of all, wishing Eric a good recovery from his surgery. Since there have been some philosophical questions lately, I'll add mine. Will you share with us a moment in your life when you decided to take a big jump? What were the feelings that brought you there? How did you deal with it? And how did it turn out? I'm a 27-year-old Italian engineer and I just moved myself to Finland. After eight years

studying and working in Milan, close to home, I felt I needed something different to continue developing myself. I'm stimulated by this change, but I also feel some nostalgia for friends, family, and how familiar and easy everything was. P.S. If there is any other TTL fan living in Helsinki, please contact me. Francesco, Anstraves, by the way, his name is Francesco Barberis. Oh, actually, he said Eric should try to spell it for fun. All right, how do you spell Francesco Barberis? I don't do other languages. Okay, we're, uh, we've forfeited. We had to, I had to try to spell a bunch of hockey players names at one time. Remember that?

That was completely not fair. Yeah. The thing about Italian is that it's a phonetically spelled language. So it is easier to spell than French or Russian. Anyway, that's why I asked Francesco. So if you're in Helsinki, hit Francesco up. Thank you and keep up the great work. So have you guys taking a big jump?

I mean, they're both professional athletes. So that's a pretty huge jump to take. Did it feel like a jump? because it seems like both of you, like, Paula, you weren't ever, you never thought you were going to be a professional athlete, you thought you were going to go to med school, but then it kind of just happened. Or did it ever feel like a jump? No. It's kind of just my way of life. Paula, I feel like moving here, moving to bend, it feels like maybe a jump.

Yeah, I would say if it was going to be one thing that was the biggest jump, it would probably be when I moved to Boulder to train. with Siri Lindley back in like 2013. I was moving. I wasn't moving there permanently, but I was going there for like three months a year to have a change of scenery and train a little bit more all in versus going to school part year. So that could be it.

But yeah, for the most part, I'd say every time that I do a race, I'm making a big jump. It's like a scary thing that, you know, always want to do and it's there's a lot of risk and there's a lot on the line but in terms of life moments i don't know it seems like everything's flowed quite naturally and i haven't had to make any big scary changes at least not that i can remember so i'm fortunate for that but what about you eric um yeah what me dropping out of college pursuing professional triathlon, but first I had to go work at a bike shop, and then it was saving up money

at the bike shop to move to San Diego to train full-time. That was a huge job. And my parents were relatively supportive of it, but also called me frequently asking if I had plans to go back to college. So, you know, like, we love you, but, you know, reminding me this was very risky. I would say making the, like, leaving Olympic distance, like fully letting go of that. And and casting off into the world of long-course racing where you have to be your own agent and talk to sponsors and try to promote yourself and book your own flights and travel. That was another big kind of scary jump.

And then obviously what I'm doing right now, getting this surgery. That's potentially, you know, that's right up there top one or two scariest unknown things I've done. And all of those things worked out so well for you guys. Yeah, absolutely no regrets. I think I've said it before. My only regret with a couple of these things

are that I wish I'd take an action a little sooner. I'm pretty slow to make big decisions, but in some cases, and in some cases I make huge big rash decisions right away, but often, like I wish maybe I'd done something a little sooner. Yeah. Sanchezco, it's awesome that you left that behind and are chasing something new.

and if there was something inside of you that felt like you needed that, I feel like that's worth exploring. And even though it is scary, I think it'll bring you to a greater understanding of the world and hopefully of yourself. Also, the other thing about making a big change like that is you can always go back. There's nothing permanent in life. So if you're really unhappy and you really miss what you had before, it's never too late to go back to it.

And I think you will have learned from whatever situation you put yourself in. and then you can take that when you return to whatever sort of normalcy you had before. That is one of the nice things about living in the time we live in is you don't have to take a horse and carriage three months across a continent to move somewhere. You know. Get on flight. You can go back. There are a lot of things in life that are permanent, but moving to Finland is not one of them. Yes.

Yeah. That's true. Lucky for you, Frances. Go for it. Yeah. That's awesome. Really cool. Good luck.

Next question here is from Matt. Hi, Tripod. Got a shoe question for you. I'm doing a 70.3 where most of the run is on golf course grass. Are carbon-plated shoes worth the investment? Or should I stick with my normal training shoes? Thanks, Matt. Yeah, we've all raced on those golf course grasses.

And those carbon shoes have pretty thick midsoles and it can get a little squirrelly. So what do you think? Trail race shoes, baby. Oh. Your problem is solved. You're living in a golden age of trail carbon super shoes. Like On has a pair, Hokka has a pair, like,

every single brand has like a super type shoe that's designed around generally Western states, which is not as ultra-technical, ultra-run, very fast running. I think that's the move. Nice. Yeah, the thing with trail shoes, though, is that if there's any percentage on pavement, they're not very comfortable for that. But it depends what the percentage is here. Like for St. George, that 70.3 course,

there was a golf course section, but you were only on grass for maybe two kilometers total out of the half marathon. Yeah. So for that, I would always say, yes, a super shoe get a carbon-plated fast shoe. But if you're racing cross-country style on mostly golf course,

then yeah, maybe like the Cloud, Ultra, Pro, something like that. Eric, can you do? describe to someone who has only raced in carbon-plated road racing shoes, what the carbon-plated trail shoes feel like, how they differ? Yeah, they don't feel quite as super

and springy, but definitely very noticeable relative to a standard non-super shoe, but then they're also more stable. Whatever they've done, they've mixed in some magic sauce to make it so you don't feel like you're going to roll your ankle just running down a straight road. And they got some tread.

And they got tread. Yeah. Most of the super shoes out there are just, you know, they're like roly-poly marshmallows and like the bottom is completely slick. Maybe it's not even rubber, you know, it's like foam. So I think the trail super shoes is a way to go. And if there's any chance you have any, you know, trail that you run normally, like, or if you do your tempo runs on gravel, like Paula wears trail running race shoes

to do like gravel. runs and stuff. So they're not just a one-trick pony. Okay. And now if this person had to decide between the road super shoes and just a training shoe that does not have as much of a stack height, what would you choose then for a golf course, grass run course? Super shoe. There's actually one of my new favorite on shoes that I just started using a couple of weeks ago. It's called the Cloud Boom Max. And it's theoretically it's for like marathon training. But it is a fast shoe that has a wider heel base, so it does feel more stable. But at the same time, has a little bit of, like, the foam and responsiveness that a super shoe has.

It's not priced as high as a super shoe either. So it might be worth trying that as well. Sponsorship disclosure, since we haven't done one of those in a little while. Paula is sponsored by On. So that's kind of what we have the most extensive understanding of. I've gotten a bunch of shoes from Solomon and Brooks and Hokka. So I have a little bit more, like, trail-specific stuff. Paula Smasterbyon, that said, all three of us love those shoes.

We don't talk about stuff we don't like. There you go. The Cloud Boombacks has a glass fiber-infused speedboard. So I don't know if that means it's not carbon fiber, but it does have some kind of a plate in it. It's plated. It's plated. And even the nylon-plated stuff, if you ever run in those, you notice. They feel good.

They're so good. If you'd never worn a carbon one, you'd have no idea. Correct. There was anything above the nylon. Correct. In terms of feels. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Paula, by the way, does run a ton on dirt, a ton.

Mostly, I would say, Paul, would you say you mostly run on dirt? Yeah, Malikalurgic to pavement. I'm scared that I'm going to get a stress fracture. But preferably not technical dirt. Just like perfectly smooth gravel or dirt. That's a pretty similar to, I feel, like, what this person is running on, right? Yeah, maybe. Relatively speaking.

So Paula does have a lot of experience with this as well. We like to think of Eric as our day. dirt friend. We'll try the cloud boom max. But use the affiliate link to buy it. Oh yeah. You know what? We'll throw that in the podcast notes.

So yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, next question here is from Sherry. Hello, TTL crew. I have a question regarding faster transitions. In particular, socks. Have you found a brand of socks that are a little faster to put on than other brands? I would love to find a pair that are nice and stretchy and easy to put on, preferably a quarter sock.

I'm a competition age grouper from Southern California and I've been doing triathlons for 16 years. This year I have Oceanside, Boise, and then 70.3 Worlds in Nice. Thanks so much. Sherry from Orange County, California, or actually just from Orange, California. Okay, well, first of all,

I'd like to say that the TTL socks that I got are so good for this. They are stretchy and they do feel great. My biggest tip for socks in a race is that new socks are always more flexible, like brand new, straight out of the package. I think as soon as you wash socks, they shrink a little bit and they lose a little bit of the flexibility that they have when they're fresh, fresh. So I always like, maybe this is kind of a superstitious thing, but I always take new socks

to a race. And it's like a $20 investment or whatever. but yeah, I use an on sock that is brand new fresh and it's super easy to get on. And what height? Yeah, they're ankle socks. So they don't go up to your calf? They're like the mid height. I would assume that's what they were talking about, like crew corridor.

Yeah. Like this like. Like not cycling socks, but yeah. Three inches above your ankle bone. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I'm biased again because I've only used on socks. But I do find that a fresh pair goes on pretty easy.

Yeah. I unfortunately don't have too much to add here 100% of my product research lately has been in the trail sock scene and those do not in my the ones that I like do not go on fast because they're like very compressive and tight because you don't want any movement in there I will throw our hat in there

like everybody who ordered the team TTL socks that we did with bamboo works that has been raving about how much they love those and we do have some just like TTR branded versions of those on the way that should be ready soon. So if you're still looking for a sock in a couple weeks when those are ready,

check back on those. Because, yeah, crazy great reviews from all of the team TTL members. Could be kind of cool to make a triathlon race-specific sock. How would it be different, though? Yeah, how would it be? The length would be lower, right?

It would be like that quarter length. And then we would make sure that they are stretchy and easy to throw on. I think you're really going to like these ones that we just got. Because I have a prototype kind of version of them right now and they're a quarter length

and they have like kind of like a fat section like in the front like on your shin and then on your calf where like I think you got more space to pull on and they're very soft

and it slide on pretty well. So yeah anyway, you can take that out but I think you should try those out. Yeah, I'd love to. That sounds great. So yeah and then

what do you guys think about not wearing socks? Like what does, What distance do you draw the line? It's like sprint if you know you don't get blisters or super sprint. Even Olympic distance is getting risky. Even classic distance. I used to never wear socks for Olympa.

If you're racing an Olympic distance as an age group athlete where 10 seconds is not going to make her break a difference, putting on socks is always going to be a better experience because you just reduce the risk of having debilitating blisters that we're going to prevent you from running afterwards. for weeks potentially. But if you're in an ITU World Triathlon Series race where every millisecond matters, that's where you get into no socks and you're taping your feet in the hot spots where you blister normally

and using like leukote tape. And I basically had every spot on my foot covered that rubs when I would race World Triathlon because you just don't have time to put socks on. But unless you have some kind of magic feet and magic shoes that just go together so well, it really is always worth it to put them on, I think.

Mm-hmm. Agree. Agreed. Especially if they're easy to get on, and it's a nice little extra bonus rest. Right. You're not losing the full 15 seconds it takes to put them on. You're losing like 13 seconds because you get those two back with the recovery that you got. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And your shoe slides on much easier. Yeah, that's true. That's right. Especially when you're, if you're a little sweaty, a little wet, dude, those shoes do not want to go on. Especially the race shoes sometimes, the tongues, the uppers are like of very, very thin and light, but kind of odd material, and so they just like... Super grippy. Yeah, very grippy.

Okay, final question here is from Ted. I'm a runner by trade, pretty competitive collegiate career, and I'm now transitioning to half Iron Man distance. I'm struggling with the balance of going hard on the bike and being alive for the run.

Definitely want to be alive for the run. The run is my strong suit being a fresh sub-75 half-marathon runner. Wow, that's fast. very fast, but I know the bike is where the biggest time can be gained in overall finisher time. How have you dealt with these tradeoffs? And where should I focus my time? New to the sport and the pod and really enjoy the content from you all, Ted. So let's break this up into two different answers. First of all, let's talk about the training first. As someone who can run an hour and 15

half marathon open, what do you recommend their training look like if someone is already so developed as a runner and they are trying to be competitive in 70.3? Yeah, I don't think you're going to have to do a lot of run volume. That's for sure. I'm just thinking of what I have experienced or witnessed personally and I've seen, I trained with Matt McElroy

when he was under the same coach as me, Paulo. And that guy was running like 25 miles a week. and just putting in like double swims and as much bike volume as he could handle and then just sprinkling in a couple of runs here and there. So I think the biggest equation that I've noticed of runners coming into triathlon is exactly what you're experiencing, like not being destroyed after the bike. So stronger you can be on the bike, I think you're just going to run faster as a result. Yeah, and it's not really that risky to ride a lot. I think you see a lot of people coming in a triathlon, and the risk is the increase in run mileage. But if you're coming in as a runner that has that foundation, you could start riding 13, 14 hours a week, and you're not going to get injured necessarily.

As long as you've got a good bike fit, asterisk there. Yeah, of course, you can get injured and there's things that can happen, but it's a lot less risky than running. So you can put on a lot of time on the bike and get a really good base, not really lose any fitness, but still keep the running specific sharpness with some shorter sessions and less emphasis on the run. Because yes, the bike makes you tired for the run, but the run also makes you tired for the bike and training. So there is some give and take at all times. And if you're so new to cycling that you want to make the biggest gains in that sport, you can obviously afford. to be running a little bit less. And riding hard is a skill.

Like we know a lot of people who are really fast at running and they get on a bike and they just don't understand how hard it is to push power consistently and suffer on the bike like you can on the run because there's at running you hit this biomechanical ceiling where your body just can't run any faster because that's just how fast you can go mechanically. On the bike, there's less of that and your fitness is more of your limiter. So I find it easier to go harder on the bike than on the run in terms of like effort, RPE exertion. You can like sustain a high effort. You can really bury yourself on the bike. For longer. Like you can be like severely uncomfortable for longer.

Yeah. It's brutal. It hurts. There's a learning curve to that coming from a running background. Something that I was thinking about just with regards to pacing. I think I definitely had struggles early on. in my career with blowing up massively on the run and over biking. And just for me, like, visualizing occasionally on the bike, having a good run and reminding

myself that this is a whole triathlon, don't get so caught up in right here, right now and flexing or staying with this group, like, check in with yourself and like imagine yourself having a good run. And I think your body kind of like checks itself and knows what's coming and paces appropriately. At least that's been my experience. Most of the time when I'm doing a triathlon on the bike, I can't even imagine running a half marathon after. And that's why I don't like racing that much because it seems impossible. Like I'm going so hard right now, how the hell am I going to run a half marathon?

This is impossible. But then you just do it. Yeah, well, some people just do it. Other people explode spectacularly and then walk. But another big thing that's not as big of a thing in running is fueling. And if you can eat enough on the bike, you're going to feel the effects of the effort. less when you get to the run. So I would say that's something you also have to practice in training is like

fueling your way through bike rides. Try to get 80 grams of carbs an hour, whatever people are doing now. And that will definitely have an impact on your ability to maximize your run potential, even if you've put in a hard effort on the bike. Yeah, that was my thought is probably not having to work as hard as you think in a race on the bike and instead focus on eating a lot so that when you're, you get to the run, you are not shelled. You still have energy, energy to go. And I think this is an advantage like Eric's talking about he's overbiked before. Well, it's a little different because

Eric is, he sees all his competitors around him in a way that as age groupers, we do not. We see our competitors, yes, but they're not really who we're racing against. There could be 45 minutes between when one swimmer starts and one another. So when Eric says he's blowing up, it's not like he's being irresponsible all the time. He's kind of like, well, there's the race right in front of me. If I let them go, I'm never catching them again. So he kind of has to. As age groupers, we can have much more control over the effort that we put out on the bike.

Yeah. You're much more within yourself in some ways. I hope so. I'm learning that my best 70.3s have come when I held back on the bike more and then was able to run way better. My overall time benefited from that. And it's more fun to race that way, too. It is more fun because then you don't have the feeling that Paula has during the bike, which is like, how could I possibly race a half marathon right now?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's nice. The other small things, not to hammer this too much, but last thing is the aerodynamic part. You ideally want to go as fast as you can without trying as hard. Right. So if you can optimize little things, your head position, your bars, all those things, your bottled placements. This person's obviously very fast. They can run a really fast.

70.3 are half marathon. So those little minor things will make a big difference, I think. Yeah, yeah. That's exciting, though. Ted, I'd really love to see how your racing goes, knowing that you can run that fast of a half marathon. That's kind of fun. Some people run better off the bike than they do in an open run.

Yeah. What do you think that is? Because I sometimes feel like that. When I get off the bike, I think, whoa, I feel better than I ever do right now. You're just, like, so primed and warmed up. Yeah. Is it like a combination of warmed up and carbs and race day magic? I think so.

Yeah. I do a lot of my runs off the bike and training just because I feel better doing it. Have you ever done just like an open half though, Nick? No. You should. I've done trail races. I've done two trail open halves, but that's just not the same. Yeah.

So I mean, I think you're feeling better in races because you're tapered. Right. And going all out, you know, like really going forward. Yeah. Race day magic, baby. We're on race shoes. Yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of which, I am going to do an interval session right now on the run with race shoes, because I'm starting to get my feet and body used to racing in those shoes again,

because we're doing Oceanside in a few weeks. What shoes? The ons. Yeah, the strikes. They're so great. I thought they were giving you blisters. They were in the back, and I think I found a sock combo that works for it. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Another reason to wear socks? A lot of sock talk. today. Yeah, a lot of socks. Are they toe socks, though? You know, I, last week, I did two runs that were over 13 miles with intensity without toe socks, and I shredded my toes up because of it because I was trying to not look

like a freaking loser. So wait, I do. Are you pulling on toe socks in races? No. It's okay. I've noticed it works for one run just fine. It's when I run consistently in regular socks that I start getting problems. Oh, I see.

You got to get some. calluses on your toes. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Those little things up. Yeah. So, no.

Not in races. No toe socks and races. Even me. I was going to say, throw out all of our recent discussion then if you're pulling on toe socks. Yeah, that'll take a long time to put those on. It's like the baby toe and the little toe going in the same hole. Oh, no.

You've got to take them out and put them back in. Oh, that's good. That's good. Well, thank you guys. Thanks for listening. Thanks for doing the pod. light out. Amazing. How fun. Yeah, we did an early pod today, pre-dinner. Yeah. I loved midday pod. Me too, so much. I prefer it. If we can make it work, let's do it. I think it's so

fun. Yeah, when we start doing pods after dinner, I can't sleep after. You know what, guys, for the next month, I can pod at 8 a.m., 9m., 10 a.m., 11. 11. 11.m. 11 p.m. 11 p.m. 11 p.m. It's true. I got so much time. By the way, anyone else wants to do this with me? For the month of March, I'm doing no doom scrolling on Instagram. So as soon as I notice myself scrolling like the Reels tab, I close the app and I don't do it. And in addition, I'm still doing this thing where Instagram is blocked for me from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. And I've been following that.

And that's pretty sweet too. Dying. I highly recommend both of those. Proud of you, man. Thank you. That's huge. Thank you. Thank you.

I have noticed a significant drop-off in the number of reels I've been getting from you. I know, because I have been on Instagram much less. Yeah, much less. But then when I initially blocked those hours, 5 p.m. would come and I'd spend 40 minutes straight on Instagram. Oh, I'm going to breathe again. Oh, my God. But anyway, it's been good. I've just been in general wanting to spend less time on my phone.

So that's part of it. Good for you, man. Yeah. Proud of you. Yeah. Thanks. All right. Well, we'll see everyone next week.

Later. Bye. Bye. one.