That Triathlon Life Podcast - Triathlon training with a national team, mobile bike tools, and more!

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

The squad is back together—though Eric is battling some post-Patagonia food poisoning. We hear all about his epic experience filming with the Firefly Cycling Club and the wild journey that came with it. After some Rapid Fire, we dive into your questions! This week, we discuss:Dramatic speed changes with or without a pull buoyWildlife safety when training in the wildernessHow often we wash our pool gearTraining solo vs. with a national teamEssential tools to bring on the bike for training and racingTiming your pre-race carb loadIs triathlon losing its adventurous spirit?A 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

Hello, everyone. Welcome to that trail-ath on life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Walkerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are back to regularly scheduled programming with Eric back in the house. Oh, thank God. As of last night. Unfortunately, he has a horrible bout of food poisoning, which is not all that surprising, considering he was traveling in South America. But we're all back together. Eric and I are both professional triathletes, although we don't feel like it today. We are. And Nick is a professional. musician, amateur triathlete, and the mastermind behind this podcast. So welcome. Today we're going to get through as many questions as we can that are sent in by the listeners, but also with a little bit of banter beforehand and a couple games maybe thrown in. I don't know what Nick has up his sleeve. A little pizzazz. Sure, yeah. I would just like to clarify. The reason that Paula has said we don't feel like professional triathletes today is because we took a rest day.

That's a full on rest day as professional. As prescribed by the coach. as is not out of the blue. This is okay. This is fine. We're fine. Eric, did we leave part of your soul in South America? Yeah, I mean, I found part of my soul left a little bit there. It was like a little bit of one of those little free libraries, take a book, leave a book.

Right. But yeah, unfortunately, one of the things I did pick up is some sort of a crazy stomach thing. On the very last day, the very last evening, I just started feeling pretty weird and funny. had to leave dinner early and then yeah my travel back my 27 hour travel back has been pretty uncomfortable

with say the least and I'm just getting by right now he's really sucking it up for this podcast I won't lie I am so he might not speak that much but that was okay me and Nick proved last week

that we can carry this without if we need to okay so Eric we wanted to tease a little bit of what it was Paula and I last week but we want you to tell First of all, what is this ride? What is the point of it?

Why were you there? Well, the point of the ride is to raise money for children's cancer hospitals in Chile. Specifically, I don't know exactly the location of the hospital. I was asked to come in sort of last minute by Ian Boswell. It's a charity that he's very passionate about. It's called Fireflies. There are actually multiple rides around the world, but the one that we did was Fireflies, Patagonia.

and the money from that, like I said, goes to raise money for children's hospital, for a little bit of cancer research. We also would go to several schools throughout the course of the ride and drop off helmets from Specialize some laptops so that kids can access the internet. They set up Star Links just for better education and overall. A lot of kids benefit positively in their lives from this charity. So it's a fantastic cause, one I'm happy to be a part of. and Ian just invited me to come and document the process, I mean document his experience,

and I'm kind of going to be doing it a little bit through my own style of storytelling, his narration and talking in our experience, and then also Allison Tetrick, another specialized sponsored athletes. So that's what I was doing there. But I went in pretty blind, the premise of the ride. I don't know if every single one's like this, but the Patagonia one is like this. you don't know in you being the people who are on the ride what the ride is going to be each day.

You don't get GPS files, you don't have any idea, you just show up knowing that it's going to be some pretty long, hard days. And the point of that is to kind of put you in this vulnerable state and help you understand how hard it is to be a child living with cancer, not knowing what each day will bring. Oh, wow. So that's the promise of the ride,

a pretty powerful experience for all involved. I can safely say that. And I had the pleasure of caring a camera while also completing the ride under my own steam. So a pretty unique experience for me as a storyteller. Well, I didn't realize that the genesis behind the blindly going into each day was to give you somewhat of an insight of what it's like. That's a, that's really interesting. That's intriguing. Did you feel that people actually, did that, did they succeed?

and giving people that feeling, do you think? For sure, because from my perspective, the updates I was getting from Eric, it was crazy hard every day. The people that were doing it could barely finish and probably should have opted out of some of the days, like probably should have gotten in the car sometimes, but didn't. So the toughing it out, the getting to the finish line, I think that was a big part of it.

And every single participant from what it sounded like was in that mindset of I'm going to finish it. For sure. There are plenty of people that I've encountered in my life that I don't think would have made it through this. So I think they did a very good job of assembling, a very open-minded, passionate about the foundation group of people that were able to pull this off. Because me, Allison, Ian, and another woman, her name is Claire Brown. She's an impaired athlete, but world-class level. We were having a hard time with it. And we knew the route, and it was still freaking challenging and long, long days on the saddle. So they didn't know the route, even when they woke up that morning, they were never at any point during the day given the route?

No. Basically, each night or each morning before we left, they would say, okay, today is going to be 150 kilometers. There's going to be aid stations at 30 kilometers, 75 kilometers, and 120 kilometers. We're going to cross the border into Argentina at 101 kilometers. They would give the details like that. But as you're going along, all you can see is how far you have to go, basically. And you don't know if this climb is going to last two hours or two minutes or if around the next corner is going to be gravel or you're pretty unknowing. And you certainly don't know what's coming tomorrow.

Okay. So can you give us kind of an idea of what the days were like? How much riding was it? How much climbing was it? What was the terrain like? What was the weather like? And what were the views like? Well, the weather was epically good.

Apparently last year it rained for pretty much the entirety of the ride. And this year we had sunshine the entirety of the ride. So that was an incredible blessing because a good chunk of day two. I was like straight through the rainforest on this reserve that had just recently been kind of converted from a private logging area into a reserve. And we were literally the first cyclists to have been on it. Wow. And there was a pretty funny comment from Alice in Tetrick at one point of like,

well, I know why no cyclists have ever been on this before. It's absolutely awful. There were, it was really, really pushing the definition of, you know, what I would call gravel. Right. You think a mountain bike would have been more appropriate? There was a ton of stuff

where a mountain bike would have been more appropriate. But yeah, I'll read off a couple of stats here. So day two, which was what I was talking about with a whole bunch of muddiness, you know,

but could have been worse with more rain, 150 kilometers and 3,700 meters of elevation gain. Nine hours. Okay, so that's 93 miles. and what was the other, what was the meters there? 3,700 meters.

And that's 12,140 feet. Monster Day. Monster Day. Oh my gosh, okay. The next day was super chill, just 100K and 500 meters of elevation gain. Okay, so that's 62 miles and 1,640 feet. Yeah, that was asphalt, so that was primarily asphalt. So that one actually was like considered to be the rest day.

next day 1-10, 1-800 meters, 6 hours on the bike, next day, 70K, 4-and-half hours on the bike, 2,000 meters. Oh, my gosh. And I think the biggest day that I had was 7 hours, 36 minutes riding time, but about 11.5 hours door-to-door because we crossed the border, dropped off helmets to kids, had like multiple food stops. And that was 170K and 1,700 meters of elevation game. Oh my gosh. That was my longest duration bike ride ever and longest distance bike ride ever.

Wow. When does this film film that you're making about it? The film, I'm trying to put it together as quickly as I can, but we have a couple other things that I need to get through editing first and launching our actual film in Oceanside, Nick and my film. So I had told Specialized that it would be mid-April or so. And that's what I'm shooting for. It is pretty much the most daunting thing that I've ever taken on

in terms of the complexity of the event. Seven days where every single day could have easily been a traditional TTR vlog in terms of how beautiful it was and the variety of the terrain and the highs and the lows, and I'm trying to condense this entire trip and make something that makes people want to be involved or at least give them something to think about this seven days and a thousand kilometers into 15 minutes or 25 minutes.

Right. It hurts my head to think about. There's so many stories. I'll do a great job. It's not going to be a quick edit that I'm just going to finish up tomorrow. Yeah, for sure. I thought I was going to knock out a good chunk of it on the airplane ride back, but I was so tired and feeling sick.

That was the other thing. We were getting into the hotel each night around 8, 8.30 p.m. And then dinner wouldn't be ready until 10.30. And then I'm used to go to bed at 9.45. And so I'm getting like five hours of sleep before we wake up at 6 the next morning to get a 7.30 rollout to make sure that we get to dinner, you know, get to the next hotel by 8 p.m. each night. crazy.

Yeah. It was... Not like... You're not acting like professional athletes, but exercising like professional athletes. Yeah. It was the vibe I got. Yeah.

I mean, the food stops were incredible and really delicious food and candy and stuff, but... Eric's like, not a sport nutrition product in sight. Yeah. There's no morton. There was no precision. Not a single sports drink. Final aid station, we were like drinking a beer and...

Yeah, not... not optimized in terms of that, but certainly optimized in terms of visual experiences. Amazing country. And you had to make sure your cameras were charged and everything was also like. Oh my gosh, too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my cameras took an absolute beating.

If anyone from Sony or DJI or Polar Pro was listening to this, it was turned out to be putting cameras into bags on bikes that are going. to get splashed with water and filled with dust on gravel roads and riding 150 kilometers per day. That's not what, I don't think that's what the camera manufacturers had intended for their babies. Yeah, you needed to take a GoPro only, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, I mean, this is going to cost you as much as you made to replace all your gear. It's definitely not going to cost me that much, but it's not zero. Yeah. I was actually like really thinking I should get a new camera for this because I was a little bit concerned about my current camera breaking. Like the screen's a little floppy and like the camera mount is acting a little weird.

And I'm so glad I did not do that. I should have, you know, like I'm very glad that I rolled into this with heavily used equipment because if any of my cameras did break, which there was a very, very high likelihood of them breaking, it would have been, you know, not as devastating as a breaking camera. Right. Well, Eric, I wouldn't have been able to tell that you have feedback about that. So good job. Oh, thanks.

Can't wait for the... I can go in spurts. I can, like, you know, do the dishes and then lay down for 20 minutes. And I can think really hard for like three minutes and then... Okay, well, you don't have to talk for the rest of this. All right. I'm ready for recovery. Okay.

Nick, what else we got on tap today? Well, I'm happy you ask, because both of you right now are wearing maybe my favorite TTR apparel thing that has ever been made, which is the new trail collection stuff. It looks... I mean, I can't wait to wear it. The hats are awesome. I mean, I cannot wait for people to get it. We look good. You look good.

I don't know which color I prefer. I think I like Paula's color better. I don't know. That's a women's color, so you can't have it. I can do whatever I want, first of all. You're going to be showing some belly button. Ooh. They're a little bit cropped, but not too cropped.

It's not even classified as a crop top of what Paula has, but it's just, I think it's like the perfect. It's like a women's cut, so it's a little bit shorter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not a relaxed. The cool thing about this collection is we had at printing. did it a local printer and bend. And we just, Eric and I visited today our new warehouse situation where we're going to ship stuff from.

Thank you to everyone who participated in buying stuff from our warehouse sale from our old warehouse. We sold through a lot of stuff, which is great. Anyway, in this transition period, we're really excited about this new trail stuff. I don't even run trail. Well, I do in training, but. And you're on the crew. Just I think, so I wouldn't even call this a collection.

This is just... It's a way of life. It's a line. It's like we have TTR, the classic stuff, and then TTL Trail is the thing that just, it feels right. It feels right to me, for sure. And we'll be, I think there could be like five trail releases each year. Like we could put this on a mug. We can do the different colors.

We could put it on different apparel. Yeah. It's much more than just like the Ventura collection. This is TTL Trail. It's just kind of like a new side. You know, Nike has a trail collection for you. trail line, for example. It's our new side hustle because we were really bored.

Because we don't do enough here at TTL. No, I think, you know, just certainly based on the teasers that I've done of it and stuff, I think that there are a lot of people who love TTL, who maybe don't even identify as a triathlet necessarily, who are very trail curious, doing mountain biking or gravel or trail running. And I think this speaks to a slightly different spiritual place that people could be in. So I'm freaking psyched about it. It was designed by Danny Gardner, who designed Shred Till Bed.

Yeah. That's why it's so cool. Yeah, that's why it's so cool. Also, Katie Scheid, the best ultra runner on planet Earth, wants one. Well, she's going to get one. Really. Of course. Yeah.

She's like a TTL fan, so to have something trail. Anything she wants, yeah. Yeah. We are sending her. What are we going to do? Yeah. But yeah, we got two different hats. We got a women's crew neck, a men's crew neck, women's shirt,

men's shirt. I went back to like pretty limited quantities of this. So I would expect that it will sell out. So if you really want it, go for it. But also fear not. If you don't, we're planning on doing trail launches into the future. And follow along if you're already subscribed to TTL newsletter. You will get something about it there.

And also on Instagram, it'll be on there as well. But look for it on Sunday. Yeah. Okay, we're going to do some rapid fire here. And we're going to be really rapid, okay? Eric, I know you're not your most sprightly self right now, but see how quickly you can answer this. I'm actually doing okay right now, like in the semi-reclined position.

If I find just the right. Okay, don't touch them. Don't move them. Don't move them. Don't change the air conditioning. He's in a very delicate moment right now. Yeah. Okay.

This is, by the way, these are submitted by Caleb, who is 14 years old. Wow. Okay. Okay. Rapid Fire. What is your favorite race? from Alcatraz. 70.3, St. George.

What is your favorite type of donut? Colorful sprinkles with white frosting. I think the best donut of all time is called the Memphis Mafia from food or donuts in Portland. What is your favorite state, Oregon? Canada. Ooh, that's a bad joke. That's a bad joke.

That's a bad joke. That's a bad joke. I don't like any states. I only like Canada, which is a country. No political humor on TTL podcast, please. I honestly didn't even mean it that way. I just meant to what I meant was. Your favorite place.

My favorite place is Canada and I am Canadian. Right up until like two months ago, that would have been a hilarious joke. My favorite state is Greenland. Well, the next one is what's your favorite country? Canada. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Canada. Can we just, can Oregon just...

This is like the new idea is like Canada, Washington, Oregon and California just like, Canada, Washington, Oregon and California. just like do their own thing. Yeah. Actually, like how many states want to go be part of Canada? Yeah. Okay. And then your favorite animal. And Flynn, you can't say Flynn. Wow.

You know, I love dogs. I just have to say dogs. I should be a veterinarian because of how much I love dogs. I feel very passionate about dogs. It's insane. Like I would say next to, no, Eric's going through a pain. Yep. You okay?

Yep. What's your favorite animal, babe? I don't know. I feel way to put it on the spot. And this is the part of my brain that is not functioning. Yeah. So we're awesome right now. The creative part. He's like an animal that doesn't have food poisoning. That's my favorite animal. Nick, let's think of an animal that we think Eric would pick. I think his top of mind is pumas. Because like everywhere in Chile, it was like caution, Puma Crossing.

Really? Yeah, ZonaDipa. And they're really cool. Wow. That's just my top of mind animal right now. Who cats. What's your favorite animal, Nick? I think a whale I love whales

They're so epic And they're kind of smart And they're beautiful And they're graceful Yeah but you never get to see them I've seen whales They're humps Like for a millisecond

Yeah They're lovely lady lumps Okay well you know what you gotta do Then you gotta come to the coast of us During whale watching season next year Whales I would love that I've seen them off the coast in Hawaii

I've seen them here too Yeah I love whales Humpback whales specifically. Okay, well, Paul, I have a question

there, though, for you, why do you think you love dogs so much? Um. Can you put your finger on why,

or is it like a soul kind of thing? I think I really like their, naive, innocent, simple pleasure beings. This makes me happy. I am happy. Yeah.

I have no stress. I don't know what happened yesterday. I love, love routine. I love my owners. I love eating. Like such simple beings and so dumb too. Like they need they're humans, but also so smart in some ways. Do you feel like there are aspects of the way that they live that you envy? For sure. I think everyone does. There's no one who has a dog who doesn't think sometimes, oh my God, I wish I was you. But it's funny though. It's funny because part of me totally agrees with you. But then I noticed

that in myself, in all three of us, we are constantly chasing more understanding and deeper truths, which is the opposite of that. Like the more you do that, I think you often are met with difficulty or like, you know, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. And dogs live in ignorance, like you said, most of the time. And they're so happy for the more and they're so happy. It's like interesting philosophical debate. They also sleep so much. That does sound nice. This is the epitome of be here now. Yeah, they live in a moment. Yeah, it is cool sometimes to spiral into why do we think this and it's awesome to have that higher thought. But a lot of the times it's it's a burden and a, you know, it disallows you from

enjoying simple things like Paul was talking about. Of course. Also, I think that their ability to sleep instantly, wherever they are whenever, is because they're not stressed or thinking about things. Yeah, they don't need that wind down time. I can't nap because I'm like thinking. But Flynn, he's not being entertained for the next five minutes. He's out. He's having a deep, he's in REM sleep. Like, it's crazy. So there's something about the, just not having. his only stress in the day is like, when's my next fetch? Don't get me wrong. I don't wish I was a dog.

I just love dogs. Of course, of course, of course. I think it's interesting that in triathlon, often when we are doing really hard workouts or racing, we are forced into the present. It's really difficult to think about anything other than the present. True. You know, it's like a semi-meditative state. That's why I think training is like a coping mechanism for me when I am having

a hard time. Eric, we talked about this the other day. It's like you're going through a hard thing. You've got to make tough decisions. And my coping medicine mechanism is like, I'm just going to f*** train all day. So, yeah, for better or for worse. It is a way to escape other stresses. Yeah.

Cool. Awesome. Okay, well, let's move on to questions here. You can submit your questions for the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, where you can also become a podcast supporter. and we even send a little behind the scenes podcast stuff out every once in a while just to let you know what it's like here in TTL studios. Eric, what are you dangling there?

Is that, that looks like the end of a headphone jack. Can you hear us? I used up all the battery in my AirPods on the airplane, and this is the end of them. They're sitting over there charging. Well, I'm actually using airplane issue headphones. Oh, gosh. To listen to this podcast right now.

High quality. Not ideal, but we're just getting her done. Okay, first question here is from Sarah. Dear Paula Eric, Nick and Flynn, thank you for the wonderful podcast. When swimming, okay, I can't believe this is true, but I'm going to read Sarah's words, word for word. When swimming, I am one minute faster per hundred meters with a pull buoy. What on earth do good swimmers do with their legs? My instinct is to not bother kicking because it really slows me down.

Thank you, Sarah. do we think this is a typo or do we think it is actually possible that someone at the same effort can be one minute faster per 100 meters with the pului? It's a typo 100% for sure. I mean, I would have to think that we're talking

about three minutes to two minutes because obviously it's not two minutes to one minute. Right. I even think three minutes to two minutes might be too fast. I think it might be even slower than that. Okay. But okay, well, we'll just roll with

ridiculously faster. Yeah, ridiculously faster. This reminds me of a friend of mine who when he kicks, he goes backwards. He has like no ankle flexibility. Yeah. And it'll actually drag him backwards. Yeah. What do you guys think?

Like, what could be happening here? Maybe that. Ankle flexibility. Lack of understanding of what it takes to like effectively plank in the water to like hold good core rigidity. When you guys are swimming in the pool, and then we'll move on to open water, but when you're swimming in the pool, how much are you thinking about your legs and do you do a two-beat kick? What kind of kick are you doing?

Mine's kind of like a garbage two-beat kick. There's a couple of not-two-beats. I'm like kind of similar to Katie Ledecky how she does she'll go between two-beat kick and then like a hybrid six-beat two-beer where like on one leg it's a six-beat on one it's a two-bees so it's like one-two-three kick one-two-three kick. Yeah, I've noticed that also in myself I am not symmetrical with my kicks.

I definitely kick differently on my like breathing side. Yeah. Yeah. That's totally, I don't think that's that big of a deal as long as your leg isn't, you're not going super scissor. Yeah, of course. I think a reason that people are much quicker with a pull boy is just that it completely lowers your heart right.

Like you're taking away two of your biggest muscles that's holding your full body up. Although most of the people that Eric and I swim with here in bend, they're way slower with a pole boy. So it could go either way. It really depends on, yeah, your body position and how much you actually are kicking when you swim, how coordinated your upper body is.

I don't know, there's so many different things, but I would say that if you're in a triathlon, wearing a wetsuit, it's so much similar. It's so much like a pull boy that you don't have to stress that much about being a wheat kicker. If you're a better puller, that's actually maybe better because wearing a wetsuit is like wearing a giant pull boy on your entire body. You could not kick and your legs would just float behind you. I would still say it wouldn't hurt to do some kicking in each warm up that you do and focus on having your legs on top of the water.

Eric, I did a swim sets with Paula last week. You for sure didn't listen to the podcast, but my set had like a 200 easy kick between each hard block. And people were losing it about like, oh my God, a 200 kick, that's like the hardest thing I would ever do. Well, there you go.

So you need to work on it. That's what I said. Perfect. We are aligned. No, I didn't listen to that. I didn't have self-service. Although I think you would be impressed if you listened to how we cared ourselves

and pushed us. No, I don't know if I would be impressed. I think it's very obvious to me that if one of us had to leave this podcast and not do it ever again, I would be the least missed. Oh my God, that's not true. I would obviously be the...

Eric, you would be very missed. You would be very missed. I don't know. Well, we did come to the conclusion that it doesn't really work without any one of us missing. Yes, let's say that. This is the tripod.

That's nice. Yeah. Okay, next. Annalise asks, Hi, all. I've been a listener since day one. Ooh, Annalise Day Wonder. Thank you.

Appreciate it. And look forward to the pod. every week. This is a question for all three of you. Paula, fellow Canadian here, who grew up near Toronto, Ontario. I visited Alberta for the first time in a couple years and was taken aback by the vast amount of beautiful trails to run and explore. However, as someone who didn't grow up in bear country and is particularly nervous about encountering one, I couldn't help but wonder how avid trail runners in these areas deal with this. Wondering if any of you have any notable wildlife encounters to share. And if you ever feel any nervousness around this, I know that Eric mentioned on the

pod a while back one of his mountain bike races being shortened due to a bear sighting, and it made me very curious how much thought you all put into your routes and safety when training in areas you may encounter dangerous wildlife. Thanks for all you do, Annalise. Yeah, that's a good question. Living in Oregon, I actually feel extremely lucky that there's very little worry. Yeah, you guys have nothing. You don't have like rattlesnakes. No, maybe like out at Smith Rock or something. I might be rattlesnakes, Eric. Lowered a shoes. Like theoretically

they're here and I've talked to me where I've seen them but neither of us have ever seen one. Like for example yesterday I took Flynn. It was like snowing nonstop yesterday. And I drove Flynn over to our mountain bike trailhead Phil's which is in the summer like a hopping place and there was no cars there. So it was like me and Flynn in the woods for an hour by ourselves doing a walk. And I wasn't scared a single time.

And I did have this thought of if I was in Canada, I would be on alert. I would have bear spray. I would even in Tucson, sometimes walking in the wash, like there's snakes, there's those pigs. What do you call them? Havillinas, bobcats. There's a huge bobcat was outside Heather's house. There's wildlife scares all over the country and in Canada as well. But in Oregon, we really don't have that.

But to answer the question, yes, when we're in Canada, bear spray all the time, bear bell all the time. Yeah, that's actually why I bought my first ultra running pack is because I was trying to carry a water bottle, Flynn's leash, bear spray, a cell phone, a camera. I think this is completely out of control. Yeah, so in Canada, we'll even do tempo runs holding bear spray in one hand. Yeah. Because it is something you really have to be careful about. if you startle a bear like bad things

could happen. We've seen bears even in our backyard in Canmore. Yeah, right out the back porch. But you got to keep your distance. They're such amazing animals. I was there. Yeah. We saw a bear. Yeah. It's crazy.

They're so close in there. A lot of them are so not domesticated, but. They know the humans leave food laying around. But yeah, I've had a scary encounter with a grizzly

while mountain biking there. It's the worst. It's the grislies. The back bars are probably going to be fine. Yeah. Wait, Eric, can you tell us about, you can't just say that? Can you tell us about your crazy? Like, that's, I did not know that.

I didn't know you ever had an encounter with on like that. Oh, yeah. I was on like a five-hour mountain bike ride and I was on my way back, probably an hour from the house. And my fear with it on mountain biking is that you're on switchbacks and you don't, can't really see that far. and just like literally slamming into a grizzly bear, in which case, you didn't have time to freaking pull out the bear spray,

or you just better hope that when it's tearing you to shreds, that it hits the bear spray, and it explodes on you both. But anyway, I was luckily in like an open glen, and I was going pretty fast, but I saw about 50 meters up, a grizzly just start walking across the dual track road that I was on. And I slammed on the brakes, and it was... was terrified that me slamming on the brace was going to scare it and everything. But it honestly didn't give a shit.

Yeah, for the most part, they're pretty nonchalant, I would say. I didn't, luckily, like I said, I would think the closest that I was was maybe 35 meters away. But he walked across the trail, and I still decided not to continue on that trail. I backtracked about a mile and rode my mountain bike home on the freeway. Yeah. I was just too much. The other thing that's scary about it up there in Canmore is there's a huge percentage of it that is out of cell service. Yeah.

And that is a big consideration. I've done one ride where I was out of cell service for about three and a half hours in known grizzly territory. And it really took 80% of the fun out of it. And if I'm ever going to do that again, and I think before we go back to Canmore for an extended period of time next time, I'm just going to get an in-reach. because I don't want to be in that position and not have Paula just being worried for three and a half, four hours at a time that my dot's not moving.

Don't worry, babe, I have tons of experience the last two weeks of being scared about you for two weeks. And your dot not moving for two weeks. And my catered extremely difficult gravel ride. I do all my dirt runs and rides with an in-reach on me. Just for mountain lions, right?

Well, no, even if you trip and fall and break your leg, you want to be able to. If I hurt myself and it's like later and I just have to stay overnight with a broken leg, you know, whatever, something stupid like that. The thing about, I'll just say a quick thing about bear spray is tourists go. And Eric, one time we forgot bear spray. Remember we were trying to run in Canaanaskis. Yeah. And we didn't have bear spray so we just didn't even do the run. Yeah.

It's not the kind of thing where you're like, oh, we'll risk it. Absolutely not. So we went to that gas station and bought a $50 can of bear spray. Yeah, it's outrageous. In the middle of nowhere. But tourists are buying this stuff. And I don't think that anyone actually knows how to use it because it's not a straightforward process. Like it's very secured shut so that you can't accidentally set it off, which would be horrible.

So if you ever go to a place that requires bear spray and buy a can or rent a can, you can rent these cans of bear spray, take a second to just. look at how it works. Yeah, watch a YouTube video or something. It's not good enough to just have it with you. And I think that that's a step a lot of people miss. How do I actually use this if I need it? It's not good enough just to carry it, obviously. And also make sure that where you are, you are allowed to carry bear spray,

because in some places it is illegal to carry bear spray. What the fuck? Yeah. I think like in California, like in Yosemite or parks like that, you're not allowed to carry bear spray. but also there's no brown bears in California. Even though they're on the state flag, there's no brown bears anymore in California.

There's only black bears and black bears are far, far less dangerous. We're not saying everybody go buy bear spray. We're saying if you're in a place that is obviously needs bear spray, like Canada. You'll probably know as you're like Googling what to do in Canmore. It'll be like buy bear spray. Actually, you know what the best business plan ever is at that bike rental place you can rent bear spray for $10, but it's like $30.

to buy. You know how much money they're making on bear spray? Of course, because they're just the same can as coming. It's like its own industry. Like we have bear spray that's been expired since 2015. And we're just like using it every year. It's like people who bring their apple and their lunch back to work and then just bring it back every day and put it back in the fridge. It's the same with the bear spray. It's my comfort spray.

Okay, wonderful. Well, Annalise, there you go. It does matter. We do think about it. It's a definitely consideration. Next question here is from Chaz. Hey Squad grabbed my ticket for the film in Ocean. side. Thank you, Chas. Can't wait to see you

there. And cannot wait to soak it in. I was curious how often, if ever, oh, I love this question. You wash your pool items including swim caps, goggles, and toys. Thanks, Chaz. I wash them every time I go swimming in the pool. Yeah, same.

Done. Yeah, this is a weird question, but I would say I wash, I make sure I wash my swimming towel at least once a week, and Eric's too. Oh my God, I have never washed my swimming trouble. No, I maybe once every few months I'll wash it, yeah. Oh my God, that's

disgusting, Nick. Yeah, sorry. Like, skin on it. Okay, maybe I... Your skin gets rubbed off onto it. Okay, yikes. Okay, maybe I should wash it every once in a while. Like, how much would you wash it if I wasn't washing it? Okay, that's a mean question. The swimming towel should be, especially because it's

sitting in your bag wet for... No, I have it open in the back of my car. So it dries. So it never leaves the Tesla and it gets washed every two months. Yeah. Ideal. That's correct. That is correct.

Yeah. Okay. Next question here is from Monty, from the United Kingdom. Hi, all. A question about getting the most out of yourself within a squad system versus training by yourself. Can Paula and Eric talk to their experiences of training as a part of a national system versus by themselves? And what personally allows you to get the best? best end performance out of yourselves. I came from a rowing background. I eventually quit and

moved to triathlon as I felt I'd reached my limit of potential there. On reflection, I think it was in part due to being in a squad system in which you're consistently trying to prove yourself for a spot in the boat. You could train all season and not even get to race. Only eight or four people get to be in the top boat. This meant there was constant pressure to do every training session and I always felt like a competition or a test. It seems to encourage ignoring fatigue and always pushing through. Now in training for triathlon, I feel like I can respond to science for my body and back off when I need to. I know I'm going to be racing.

That is what I'm peaking for. However, this potentially comes at the expense of getting that final 1% out of yourself during hard sessions. Thanks, Monty. Really interesting. What do you guys feel? Do you see yourself in this question? Yeah, of course. We've both spent a lot of time in squads, either for our country or, you know, in a private group funded partially by the country. And I think it a little bit depends on the type of racing. So I'd say 100% essential if you're doing short course racing, which is draft legal, which is you're literally racing head to head and your interaction with other athletes is a huge part of whether or not you are successful.

So being able to ride in a group and run in a group and swim with other people, I think, is huge and helps you get that last little bit of speed. I would say, you know, 70.3 racing against the clock, less of a thing. But what I personally, I think Paul and I are like slightly different on this maybe. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I like to train with other people on easier sessions, like for four-hour bike rides. I love the company. It makes it go by super fast and it's enjoyable. but I don't feel like I need that extra push in hard sessions

for like the speed required for 70.3 and for trail running. Versus, you know, like this one might be the one exception. I like trading people for hard stuff, but my experience, I think rowing is so different because like this person said, they are competing for a spot in the boat for racing. And in triathlon, it's such an individual venture

that you can get a lot out. of training with the squad and the one downside of kind of being funded or given all these resources by your national federation as you are a little bit at the mercy of their own of their decisions, whether you're put on national teams or whether you're selected for an Olympic team even, like a huge, huge decision like that. So you lose a little bit of control of your own destiny and you can work as hard as you can. You can do everything they say and then still maybe not get put on a team or have things go the way that you want. So I think part of the reason Eric and I are still in the sport, even after going through an entire career of racing, chasing the Olympic dream,

is because 70.3 and Iron Man Racing almost allows this other phase of your career where you do have complete control. You don't have the funding that comes along with being under a national governing body, but you do have this freedom to pick your own race schedule, be your own entrepreneurs, get your own sponsors in order to fund your racing and make bonuses. And you just have to like really treat it more like a job. And I think when I was in the Traathlon Canada system, I never once thought of Traathlon is my job. I just wanted to go to the Olympics and win an Olympic gold medal. Whereas now it is our job. And we do make a living at it. And back then I was also making a living at it, but it was like, you know, just a thing I was doing that I was good at to accomplish

this really big goal I had, not to, you know, pay a mortgage or save money or whatever. But it's a completely different mindset. And I think both ways definitely have their advantage. And I suppose the advantage now is that we can be a little bit more flexible with our training. But we still have coaches that give us a program and we want to follow it. and there is some dialogue, but it's no different in that you want to complete all of the training that you're prescribed, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I guess where we're at with answering your specific question is a little bit of both and being okay with that. And you ultimately have to have confidence in the plan and your program and know yourself a bit.

Like, what are days that I need someone to be with me to get that little extra bit at? And what are days where I need to not overreach and overstepped? And now since you're not fighting for a spot on the boat, you have the luxury of making those decisions and trusting yourself because you just need to be ready to go on race day and everybody gets to go to the race. Last thing about this is often when you're in that situation of being underneath a governing body, you're younger. You're like a teenager.

Yeah. And you don't really even have these like skills that you develop as you get older to make these decisions. You're just, at least for me, I was so driven to just win everything. that I would do whatever I was told and sometimes more in order to achieve that, whereas now I just have a little bit more of a level head and more experience behind me to allow me to make smarter decisions and ultimately make this a longer career than a lot of people that just end when they're 18 or 19 or 20 because they're so burnt out and they can't do it any longer.

I love that. Love that insight. Thank you guys. And thanks for the question, Monty. Next question is from Kyle from Thousand Oaks, which is just around the corner here. Hi, all, what do you guys ride with in terms of bike tools for rides and races on your TT bike, which may be two different answers, so let's address both. I'm working through a saddle change and trying to decide if I can get away with carrying less bike tools. For me, it's less of a weight savings consideration and more of a space consideration, as my old saddle had nice tool storage, and I have a little storage in my frame. But hey, weight savings isn't bad either. In three years of riding tubeless, I haven't needed to use a tube or tire levers. Is it reasonable to assume that a tubeless setup lets you get away with just CO2 and tire plugs?

Most of my rides are in Santa Monica Mountains. Totally. Yeah, this is my, I mean, I plan on when my road bike is tubeless to ride without a tube, for sure. I haven't ridden with a tube since like 2010. Wow. Just kidding. Yeah. That's what it feels like anyway.

For the first, I think, year and a half of tubeless, I still can. carried a tube just in case, but not anymore, not for long time. Just plugs. And I actually just do a hand pump. I don't do CO2. Do CO2 for races. Is there a reason why you do hand pump instead? Just because you'll never run out of hand pump? I'll never run out of hand pumps. And generally, I still have yet to get a flat on my tubeless road that went out so fast that it like unseated the, you know, the tire on the bead. And in that situation, if it goes, if it flats that fast, you're probably not going to be able to plug it anyway.

Typically, you just get like a, there's sealant spraying everywhere and you can get off and hold your finger over it until you get the plug in. And then, yeah, a hand pump. You could hand pump 10 times on the way home. If it's just continuing to slow leak instead of a CO2, you're just shit out of luck. Yeah.

Paula, what about you? No comment. Yeah, because you don't bring anything. Is that why? I have a hand pump for the team. Yeah. I mean, honestly, when I ride alone, I don't take anything. That is so insane.

I don't think it's that insane. Has it been a problem? Like, you ride around there. If you really need to, you get the emergency Uber, which in your situation is emergency Eric. No, but even Eric's been gone for two weeks and I did some of it. Anyway, I should be more prepared. But if I were to take stuff out, it would just be a hand pump and a plug, like Eric said. Yeah.

Just being organized, you know? Yeah. Okay. next question here's from Chris. Hey, TTL, very new to triathlon, only done two sprints to get my feet wet, pun intended. Very nice. And now that I've loved the intro to triathlon, I've been doing my first big race at Oceanside 70.3. Very nice, Chris. We will also be there. Hope to see you there. My question to you guys goes off last week's podcast about nutrition. When do you think is the right time to start carb loading for a race? And how do you add some good and useful carbs into your diet?

What do you recommend for carb loading and examples? For me, it's difficult to eat fully clean being a pilot on the road for seven to eight days at a time. But I try my best to eat well on the road, even though at home I'm better. Let me know your insights into this and maybe some do's and don'ts about it. I look forward to seeing you guys, hopefully in Oceanside. Don't let me catch you. Okay, Chris, yeah, I hope not. Well, first of all, the secret to carb loading is carbload 365 days a year, baby.

That's what I do. But what do you guys normally do for a race? How much do you even change your diet before a race? Barely. Yeah, very little. My rule of thumb is like the last two days of the race, never let myself realize that I'm hungry. Just eating enough.

A little bit of extra snacking. It's very easy on the couple days before the race to, oh, I'm just going to pick up my packet, and then you get caught at the expo, and you were buying a new pair of goggles, and you realize you're starving, and it's 3 p.m. and you didn't eat lunch. Like, don't let that happen.

Right. Don't need to go crazy. Just don't have to be hungry. Yeah, I think that the carboloading is, it could get a little out of hand if people are, like, eating this huge thing of pasta like five times bigger than they normally would eat, and then you feel weighed down. And I don't really like that terrain of thought.

I would rather just eat really clean before a race and nothing different than what I normally eat. Maybe ease off the veggies, ease off the protein and fat the day before and then go a little heavier on the rice in the pasta or whatever, but don't go, like the word loading has this visual of just like tons of pasta. Yeah, yeah, right. But I think that most people eat enough, I said this to you before we started recording,

Nick, eat enough carbohydrate in a day that they can just keep doing the same thing and they're going to be completely topped up for a triathlon. Plus taper, less activity. Plus, if you're, if you're, you know, if you've done two sprints and this is your first 70.3, I'm guessing the chances are is you're not going to be redlining it all the way through the 70.3. And you can rely pretty well on eating during the race to keep yourself fueled well, especially if you're eating beforehand. Yeah. Probably not the biggest deal.

But I did, I did want to share what the kind of consensus is if you want to do something like this. It's two to three days before the race. you kind of gradually move up to 7 to 10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight, making sure you're also drinking a lot of fluids to help actually store those carbs. And then, like Paula said, day before the race, you are easing up on fiber and keeping things nice and light so that you're ready to go. But I like your guy's approach of like eat really well for all of your training and then maybe a slight modification before.

Don't go crazy. Something I do when Paula isn't, you know, on deck with the snacks and all the things, I'll just get like one of those, not like a full family size, but like a half-sized bag of pretzels and just kind of like work my way through that the day before the race or the two days before the race. Like you get some salt, you get like just a steady drip of carbs. And that's not science, but it just makes me feel good about it. The one time that I did do carbonegalode was this past year when I did the Canadian TT championships on a Thursday and raced Montchon Blanc 70.3 on a Saturday. The Friday I did like a lot of carbohydrates, like a recovery type of refueling, like so much that it was hard to do.

That's awesome. But that kind of felt like a fun project, you know. It worked out great. It was like I was so dedicated to this little mini block of back to back to back stuff. So I just really went out on all disciplines, including eating. Speaking of fun projects and carboloading and Canada, we are trying to figure out a way. Can we talk about this? Is this too soon to talk about this?

Okay, I had this idea earlier in the day that I texted the group chat here that we could have a TTL cheer station. at T100 Vancouver where we had timbits that people could grab and eat in the middle of the race if someone has the hookup at, what's it called again? Tim Hortons.

If someone has a hookup at Tim Hortons, we want to partner with Tim Hortons for the TTL. Holy shit, cheer station. The TTL, Tim Hortons. The TTL Tim Hortons. No, I just think that like, we're not getting a hookup at Tim Hortons.

Yes, we, hey, hey, not. with that out of two or not. I think we could pay out of the TTL podcast fund. Of course we could. Of course we could. Not if people are trying to do the 100 timbits challenge though. This is just like a few timbits be reasonable. How much are timbits? If you could do the 100 timbits mid-T-100 Vancouver? That's next level. Oh, you mean for people

racing. For people racing. Yeah. I thought this is for Pete bits for people watching. No, no. No. This is for the athletes racing. No, you can't give out timbits in the middle of the race. That's external assistance. Well, we'd have to get that, I mean, the T-100. Oh, you're right. You're right, though.

We're not giving out timbits to the racers. What if, like, Eric accidentally just, like, threw one to me, you know, and I caught it in my mouth. Like, would that be allowed? Like, I was just yawning and the timbitt fell into my mouth. I didn't grab it. That would just come down to whether or not anyone around you thought, you know, wanted to rat on you.

You guys, this is the cheapest feat ever. A 10 pack of timbits is 149. And that's Canadian dollars, so that's like 30 cents. Can't do that. Enough with the jokes about Canada. Well, it's about to be my... It's about to be my motherland, so... A 40-pack is $7.99.

Okay, so we can definitely buy timbits for all the spectators and maybe throw them at... So if we buy... If you buy 400 timbits, it's only $80? That seems bonkers, but... Okay. I'm moving to...

Canada and I'm starting my timbit diet. Okay, so we're buying 800 timbits. Let's not forget that Paul, you said you could do. What was it? 749. Yeah. No, I think I said. It sounds like 763. I forget whatever. Okay. Yeah, we'll have a timbiz no matter what though. Okay, that's awesome. Can't wait for that. Okay, moving on to the final question here from Owen. Hi, TTL team. I often hear ex-professionals look back with fondness how they camped out before a race. Like Eric's speaking nostalgically about the vibe at grassroots triathlon events that got him into the sport. I would love to get Eric's perspective on how he feels triathlon as a professional sport is changing, not in terms of technological advancement, but more the vibe of the sport in general.

What are the things that we are losing as the sport becomes more professional? That athletes getting into the sport may not get to experience as much anymore. Do you think as the sport becomes more professional, it is losing aspects that are the reason you got into the sport? sport in the first place. Is this why you're drawn to Xtera and trail running? Lots of questions, sorry. To clarify, I think it's great to see more money in the sport for professional athletes, but just wonder if with the sport becoming more mainstream, is it losing some aspects you guys love about it? Thank you for all that you do, Owen. Spirit of triathons dead. It's a good question. Yeah, I think. It's also a well-written question. We've had some questions

come in that are, Nick has to decipher them because they have so many grammatical errors. Yeah, I think if you listen to any gravel-related podcast, I'm sure you've come across this sentiment in the gravel scene. And I think triathons, whatever, 10 or 15 years ahead of where gravel is in this transformation. But it is inevitable. The more professional a sport becomes, the harder it is to be at the tippy top of it. And, you know, I think we've actually seen a massive jump forward we're kind of, say largely, thanks to the Norwegians, or at least that generation, where now people are coming into 70.3 in their early to mid-20s

at the absolute peak of their physicality instead of staying as long in ITU and World Triathlon Racing. And now that doing altitude camps is just what everybody does and the high carb and wind tunnel time and the minutiae on the bike. So yeah, it's like a natural evolution of it becoming more. serious. But that being said, I think that is a bit of a thing with the professional side, and I think on the amateur side of things, it's really up to you. If you want to qualify for Kona, if you want to win your age group, yes, that is similar to professional racing. It's

going to be harder to do, and you're going to have to get kind of crazy and pull all the plugs. but if you just want to be a participant and experience the cheering at the Oceanside 70.3 run course and be a part of the vibe and everything, I think that's still alive and well. Yeah. Part of a big part of the film that Nick, actually, I mean, I would say like the core part of the film that Nick and I are working on is sort of posing this question of, you know, what should be the major focus of multi-sport? And any sport for that matter, should the first and only question be, oh, have you been to Kona or what's your Ironman PR? Or should it be what's your favorite race? Like the question that we had earlier on this podcast.

And experiential versus speed-based. And the professionals, we don't really quite have the luxury of that choice as much. But I think in the amateur field, you still do. That was a great answer, Eric. I could have answered it better to myself. Exactly. I do find myself getting frustrated more and more, not frustrated, but just a little bit just like, I don't know, when you see that like every single person now in the pro field has custom arrow bars

and they're all going and doing track wind tunnel arrow testing and everybody's doing altitude camps. It's so different than even five years ago in the middle distance. face anyway. Yeah. But I mean, to answer the second half of that question, yeah. Like, I think we do miss it a little bit. Like a little bit, a part of what attracted us to 70.3 was, hey, everybody, make your way down to the start line. We're going to, you know, start soon versus World Triathlon being like,

okay, cue the heartbeat drums. Everybody stand in your little box. Like, we're going to count you down. It's stressful. That's what T-100's like now. Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's so funny because I don't know if we should put this in the podcast, but if I took myself as an athlete right now who's, yeah, I go to the wind tunnel and I care about the extras, but I'm not obsessive about the little tiny things that could make me 1% better.

If I take myself back eight years in 70.3 racing, I feel like I could win any race I went to for the most part. and now I don't think I can win it's so much harder to win that's just that's the evolution of the pro field is like so many more people are taking it as seriously as the absolute best took it 10 years ago I think the era of

putting on your profile like 20 times 70.3 winner is over it's gone I just don't think you can do that anymore it's too competitive very serious very dedicated people unless you're someone like Taylor nib maybe, but every single 70.3 in North America, even the smaller ones, are

really hard to win now. Yeah. Didn't necessarily used to be like that. Double-edged sword, yeah, for sure. This is the first day off I've had in seven years. Let's just put it that way. It's great, Paula. We support your day off, and you're going to be even faster

tomorrow now. I think a day off is going to make me faster. 100%. First day of the rest of my life is a day off. That's insane. It's great. It's great. I had a nap today and then I ran really well.

I had a brick, a nap to run brick. And it was really successful. Nice. Yeah, rest is underrated. Well, Eric, thank you. We are so close to not doing this because Eric is so ill. But I thought you're, I would not be able to tell that you were sick if I was just listening to your. He's a little more somber than usual.

But I thought the content was a plus content. Great answers. Yeah. Yes. Really good, really good answers. I surprised myself. I really could not imagine doing it five minutes before we started. Thanks for bearing with me. We appreciate you, Eric. Thank you. I just can't get over how good I look in this freaking trail stuff. It's awesome. It's so awesome. Just keep looking at it on the freaking face-time. And the hat, too, Eric. I love the hat. That's such a cool color. Do you think I could wear that for actual running or is that more of a...

The same hat you have on? Okay, great, great. That you wear for running all the time. Yeah, yeah, awesome. Love it. The surfer hat. Yeah, yeah. My favorite. favorite. Awesome. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in this week. We'll be back next week with more awesome triathlon stuff and getting

closer and closer to Ocean Side. Can't wait to see you all there. I can. Yeah, of course. We got a little editing left to do and then we're going to be freaking ready and a little bit of training. Bye. Bye, everyone.