That Triathlon Life Podcast - TT helmets, Running in sand, Canadian TT Nationals, and more!

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

This week we answer you triathlon questions. Questions about running on new surfaces to help prevent injury, riding in heavy winds, debunking a myth about coca-cola, and more! To help support he podcast, as well as submit your own question, head to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hello everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Findler. I'm Eric Lagerstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. We are all triathletes and this is a podcast about triathlon. We answer your questions every week, kind of update you on what's going on with us. Eric and I are both professional triathletes. Nick is a professional musician, amateur triathlet and we're all kind of deep into training for our next race. So happy to be here and we got some really good questions this week, hey, Nick? You know what just dawn on me is that I think some people don't necessarily know that you two are romantic. Intically involved. Maybe people who just listen to the podcast are like, yeah, they're two pros and the age group and they're all friends. You guys are a little bit more than friends. Paula and I are both professional trathletes.

We are romantically involved. And Nick is an amateur trathlet and we are also romantically involved. No, you're not. Stop it. Don't get jealous, Paula, don't get jealous. Stop it. I mean, I don't know. Maybe you are.

So, Eric, you were just talking to me about a video you saw on Instagram of, was it a professional or an age that was spending about 90 seconds trying to fit a hydration bladder down the front of their kit in a race? It was a professional. And Bollett told me after the fact that this person had the fastest bike split,

which I can only attribute to them being 90 seconds behind the lead group and then catching up after getting their little arrow-faring water situation, I'll dial in. Yeah, it's really awkward to shove a bladder water down your kit, turns out. It was brutal to watch.

because he's like trying to support the bladder of water while trying to zip up his kit. But then you got to like support the bladder, but then also like pinch the bottom of your zipper. So it doesn't like slide up. And then he would get a part way up and then the bladder would slide down. We'd have to start over it. And I was just like, oh my God. This had better be 60 watts faster to have this. It's all in that arrow interest.

The one thing I could see for Iron Man is it's physically carrying water. So it's like a water source. But yeah. Yeah, messing around with that and transitions got. to cancel out the gains you'd think. I don't know. I mean, it's certainly be a breaking mental momentum. Yeah, it'd be frustrating.

That's true. Anyway, if you're going to do that, practice your transitions while you're putting in your little water pregnancy kangaroo bench. As with anything in the sport, practice it before you do it in a pro field race. I actually practice my 180s today because in the TT champs that are coming up on Friday, there's two 180s. It's an otherwise very non-technical course, but come flying into a 180-degree turn requires a little bit of practice and some skills for like shifting properly, accelerating well out of the saddle, all that. So Eric and I went out and did about 180, 180s.

Wow. It was awesome, actually. There was like she would, she crossed over a crosswalk just before she did 180, which was planned. And I was timing her from the crosswalk through the 180 back to the cross. crosswalk without her knowing at first and she was doing 10.5 seconds and then by the end she was doing like 8.9 seconds. We just got like five to six seconds over the course of that time trial. So are you fully aware of the course now and do you know how much climbing there is? Yeah, there's about 200 meters of climbing over 30K. So it's a lot of climbing. Oh, that's actually

quite a bit. Yeah, but it's like a straight road. So it must be just super rolling. Do you know if you can pedal all those downhills or not? I don't know, but Eric puts them super tight gearing on my weird cassette thing. Okay. Yeah, she's going with a 52-tooth front. We're still doing the one-by, and then a 10-28 instead of the 10-33. For those who don't know, Paula, is traveling to Canada to race in the Canadian time trial championships, which are just the bike, because last year she raced N-1 and was Canadian champion. Yeah, so I got to win again.

It'll be hard, though. Yeah. But I feel more prepared this year. But anyway, I don't want this to turn into a pot about that. So let's move on. We're definitely going to debrief it at some point when you race it. Oh, yeah, yeah, we can debrief it. We can debrief it after.

We'll start this week by saying that our bottle winner this week. And first of all, before we mentioned our winner, what bottle are they getting? Is they getting a special bottle this week? Well, we're running low on our TTL bottles. So we might actually be sending now bottles that are like the custom-made bottles that specialized did for Eric and I that mimic our kids. design. I thought I was the only one that got those, but now I guess I'm not that special anymore. These are 100% not for sale available anywhere, but we're just feeling generous because

specialized, the minimum order of bottles is 100. And Paula and I cannot go through 100 bottles each season. So that just might be happening. We're going to transition over those as soon as our TTL summer edition bottles have sold out. Cool. Well, the way we pick this is we go through all of the pod supporters who helps us keep the podcast ad-free. And we randomly pick one. And this week we had Kyeong Kim from Perlin, Texas. Also, we all agreed that we love your name

Kyeong Kim. It kind of sounds like a rapper name, the alliteration. There's something about alliteration that always works. When is your debut album dropping? Can't we? We want to hear it. I wrote today with my friend Sierra Skagen and I was like, oh man, alliteration in names is just like, I feel like you're an actor or a painter

or something. We're going to name our kids with an L. It starts with an L. Logan Luggestrom. My parents wanted to name me. Rebecca. Actually, Pierce. I was going to say Lance. It was Pierce, but Lance would be cool.

Lance Lagerstrom. Lance would have been good. And somehow we are talking about our future children's name. So, Kyeong, just email that triathlon life brand at gmail.com with your updated address, and we will send you out a bottle. For everybody else, you can submit questions to this podcast, and you can also become a supporter yourself at that triathlon life. dot com slash podcast.

Eric, are we sending out that kind of funny little video that we made of us doing the first bottle selection? Yeah, you just need to tell me why I should do it and I will send it out. Okay, great. By the time this podcast will be out, we'll have sent that to the supporters. We hope you find it funny. We were having a lot of fun with it, as you can tell from the video. It's ridiculous.

So we're going to do some rapid fire right now. And this one's going to be your favorites. So you're going to pick as fast as you can without thinking, too much, your favorites for each of these. Okay? I'll start easy with few options. Your favorite Zwift location. Tempus Fuggett.

Oh my gosh. I have not ridden Zwift in a long time. It might be Tempest Fugget. I don't know. Wattopia. Wattopia is my favorite land. Even I've heard of Wattopia. It's the mainland.

It's the mainland. Okay, great. Next one. What about your favorite outdoor ride location? It can be like a city or even like a specific road or a mountain. Skyliner Road and Bend. Oh, God. Are we going with roads?

It can be anything. My first thought was roads, and I'll just say around where I grew up, just outside of Troutdale, like Columbia River Gorge, Historic Highway. I'm stealing that answer as well. Is that really that great, Paula? Yeah. Even you find it to be... It's so good.

The road biking is... I mean, what you know what comes to mind for me is that lake that we biked to in Banff last year after the Canadian Open. Yeah, but that's all bike path. Yeah, it's beautiful, but in terms of ride quality. Yeah. That's a very novel single ride. Yeah.

Versus like a whole area that's just limitless. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, next. Favorite pool in the world? I kind of like the pool in Tucson, honestly. The Aqua Bear's pool? In terms of views.

No, not Aqua Bear. Like the Oro Valley Aquatic Center. It's got a really cool mountain view. Barton Springs. Barton Springs in Texas. What makes it special? Oh, that's kind of like an outdoor pool. It's like an outdoor, a river that they turned into a pool.

It's super cool. There's like vegetation. It's 800 meters long. What? Oh my gosh. That's hardly a pool at all. No, but you can open water something. They got some real cool pools in Austin.

That in Deep Eddie. Next, your favorite track in the world? There's this track, actually. It's Point Loma University. In San Diego? You're like looking over the bluffs. It's like hanging off of the cliff. I'm going to be there a week from today, racing.

Like the track is me, but the view is crazy. Point Loma is amazing. Paula, what about you? Favorite track in the world? Yeah. I would probably just say the one in every. mention that I grew up running on, just because of the memories. Yeah.

Hey, that counts. Those count. And last one, your favorite run spot in the world. Man, right by you, like swimming, running by the river up there is pretty freaking amazing. Yeah, shuttle and park, I'd say. Yeah. Which is like half a mile from our house. I might say something in Canmore, some of those crazy climbs and...

We're spoiled. We get to train in a lot of good spots. Before we get on to questions, we have a follow up from last week. And I love when this happens when we have a question that's a little bit of out of our expertise and we try to do our best to answer it, but then we have a podcast listener who is an expert in that field. And that's exactly what we have this week from Lindsay. Hi, TCL, I've been noticing that y'all are getting a lot of laundry questions recently. I work in a laundry ingredient industry and want to chime in. The company I work for makes enzymes,

which are the main stain removal ingredient in a lot of detergents, especially green detergents. We have a product that specifically targets body grime. This is dead skin cells and other junk that's left behind after you wear your clothes, use a towel, etc. This body grime nonsense is also what makes workout clothes and other things stink so much. There are currently two products available on the market that have this, and both are really eco-friendly and cold-wash-friendly. Great job, Nick, on that synopsis. You nailed it. Thank you. The first is a full detergent, and it's the Sport Wash by Whole Foods 365 brand.

And the second is a laundry booster made by Dirty Labs. highly recommend giving one or both a try. They work super well, Lindsay. Thank you, Lindsay. That's great. And good for us to know, too. Some killer intel. I actually, as soon as I read this, I went online and bought the Dirty Labs laundry detergent and the enzymes, 50 bucks, like the most expensive laundry detergent I've ever bought.

Wow. But it's coming. It'll be here on Thursday. It's the most expensive I've ever bought. You know, it's funny not to harp on laundry too much longer, but I have two different laundry baskets, one for my sports clothes and one for my regular clothes. And like in my stupid mind, I'm like, oh, I'll make the regular clothes basket the bigger one, because of course I'm going to go through the bigger one. There's like never anything in there. I only wear my sports clothing.

Like I wake up, put on like my TTR shorts, and then wear those all day until I have to work out. And then I put workout clothes on. And then I get back, I shower and I put the shorts back on. I never wear normal clothes. Yeah, we all really only need one pair of shorts and one t-shirt plus athletic wear. Yeah, except the athletic wear is never ending. That's the problem. But I do really think this is useful info because for the longest time I've used like scent-free, super sensitive skin, you know, the most mild detergent you can get.

And I noticed our jerseys weren't really getting the full smell out of them after wearing them in like really sweaty weather. So this is good information to like maybe put the enzyme powder that that dirty lab cells is like separate from the detergent. Yeah. I bought the detergent too just because I'm a sucker for cool packaging. Of course. Of course.

But I think that the actual enzyme powder stuff could be cool for like athletic wear wash. But I will get back to you on it. Yeah. A long term in review here. Obviously the Whole Foods is much easier to find. So if you know, you could try that too. But yeah, I'll get back to you on the dirty labs. I'm excited.

It's funny how it seems like, oh, it's like so boring except all of us experience this problem with our clothes. Yes. Real life problem. Yeah. And when you're online shopping, you're like, oh, it's only $39.99. Cool. Add it to cart. Oh, speaking. Speaking of expenses, um, my front derailer has to be replaced too now. So my bike, I've needed to replace chain, chain rings, both cassette, bearings in both wheels, rear derailer and now are also front derailer. There's just done with a full string. I know. It's a, dude, they just came out with

rival. Get that. Well, it's too late because I bought everything. Why does your front derailer need to be replaced? He said that I shifted at the wrong time once and bent the actual metal cage because I set the high limit and

the low limit screws properly and I was trying and well actually I couldn't set them properly. They were like maxed out and he's like yeah it's because this like you've bent the cage or whatever. So I'm going to try to like bend it back myself but he says that usually once it bends it'll just go back to that bad shape after a while.

Sounds like he wants to sell you a derail. Yeah, I don't like this guy. No, this guy did the adjustment for free and told me to go find it on eBay. So I don't think so. This is the new guy. This is a different guy. Yeah. I think he is probably right.

That's just crazy. Your luck. I know. It's so unlucky. Well, I have a question for the pod. What is the lifespan of a bike? At what point are you like, okay, I'm just buying a new bike? Because I ride my bike five times a week.

It's an important part of my life. and a new bike will cost me maybe $8,000. At what point do you do that instead of fixing everything? The thing that's difficult is that a new bike built up fully costs so much less than buying those individual components, obviously. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But rarely, unlike me right now,

rarely is your wheel set dying, is your front derailer and rear derailer needing replacement, is your chains and chain rings and cassette needing replacement all at the same time. So it's easy to tell yourself, oh, $100 here, $100.000. there, that's way less than a $5,000 bike. But you're right. At what point do you just say, okay, enough is enough? Yeah.

That's the same way with cars. I mean, like, typically, I mean, over the last, like, five years, just whenever they come out with a new, you can get 10, you start with 10 speed, and then you get 11 speed, and I can get 12 speed. Like, pretty quickly, there's not going to be 10 speed anymore. And then they're not going to make a, they're not going to support 11 speed anymore. So once you're a few years into that,

I'd say like three or four years. My bike is from 2017, so it's been six years. Dude, you're so overdue for any of a bike. The thing is, like, what's wrong with this bike? It's like, it's a venge-vious, like, nice arrow frame that's, and the carbon will, like, last, it's just so hard to rationalize replacing that bike when it works. I'm pretty sure, like, just go take an afternoon and test ride a new tarmac.

Honestly, I would love a new tarmac. Just do that, and that'll probably, you'll probably come back and this will be like this was a dumb conversation. Should I just got the tarmac? Okay, well the first question this week is from Allison. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. I was going to write you a long-winded email

about how great the pot is, but I decided to leave it in a review instead. So I hope you go check it out because I do really appreciate all you guys do. That is amazing. Yeah, we love that. Thank you for that. My question is about running on the beach.

I live at the Jersey Shore and within running distance of my house, I don't have any trail options. I can run to the beach or the boardwalk, which consists of wood and some pavement. I get to the trails when I can, but sometimes don't have the time to drive. So my question is,

do you think it's okay to do some of my runs in the sand, not soft sand because I'm not that fit. Am I better off on the boardwalk than the pavement? Thank you so much for all you do for the sport and your fans, Allison. Nice. Interesting. The problem with sand and beaches is that they're often pretty cambered. Even if you don't see it visually.

As in sloped towards the water. Yeah. So if you're running one direction only, I mean, I guess you could flip and come back and balance it out. But still. Yeah. If you're running off camber, it can kind of lead to some injury and balance issues. Although in terms of the surface, it's actually pretty nice. Like kind of wet sand.

It's a lot softer, obviously, than concrete. So that can alleviate some of the pounding. But yeah, you just have to really be careful with the slope of the beach. But in terms of the boardwalk, I would say that wood slats are better than concrete. Yeah, I think certain woods softer than other wood, but it still seems like it would all be less impact than concrete. And some of the cool things about running on like maybe some uneven wood or uneven sand is it, it's really good for ankle strengthening and stability.

and especially if you're just doing easy runs in the spot, I think that's the key. That's the problem that I have with the wording of this question is, do you think it's okay to do some of my runs in the sand, as in take some of your scheduled runs and just do them in the sand? And basically, like you said, the advantage is also the disadvantage. The advantage is that you're using different muscles and stabilizers that you're not used to using.

So then if you're just going to jump in and do your hour interval run in the sand when you're not used to it. It's like you're going to overwork these little muscles that are, it's going to lead to a problem. So like you said, easy, easy, easy, easy stuff. And at first very short, I would probably say, and just see how your body kind of reacts to it. Just the easy stuff.

That's a good point, Nick, yeah. Yeah, just don't even look at your watch and you're going to slip a little more than on pavement so it'll be slower. But it's also pretty beautiful. It's like good meditation running, you know? Yeah, you don't even need to look at your watch. Look out of the waves. So, yeah, just as with anything else, when you're changing things up, do it gradually.

Yeah. Next question here is Sam from London in the UK. Hi, TTL squad. Just watched a clip of Paula's prep for the TT Nationals and saw the different helmet set up with a head sock. Is this something you tested in the wind tunnel or are you using based on advice from specialized team? Also, was wondering if this event would qualify you for the Olympics. Good luck for the race. Love following what you all do, Sam from London.

Yeah. That helmet is hilarious. I don't think it's ugly, personally. I think it's super cool. It looks like it's very business. You are ready to rock. Yeah. I think this thing got a bad rap because when it first came out,

everybody was wearing it with a clear face shield because it was kind of like a cloudy day in the tour or whatever. With the metallic, you know, like reflective face shield, I think it looks fine. Yeah, I think it's cool.

You think it looks fine? I would never say that helmet. Either it's like, it's like the cyber truck. I feel like either you're like, I love it or you're like, what is that thing on that person's head? Yeah, it's very polarizing.

No, Eric? You think it like looks like any other arrow helmet? No, it doesn't look like any other arrow helmet? I guess they all look a little funny. But like every time you see something, and you see it for the first time and everything is alarming. Right. You see it for like the 12th time.

You're like, man, I'm just... Right, it's less alarming. I'm not sure it's like any less or more or less goofy looking than the Gero arrow head. All arrow helmets are pretty ugly. When that Gero Airhead came out, I was like, I would not be caught dead wearing that. Yeah, now everyone wears that. Fast forward six years later, I have one.

Yeah. I think the pock is the most hilarious looking. And apparently it's very fast. But it's like it comes out like here. The one that looks like it's been squashed. Yeah. That one's hilarious. I can't.

I can't with that one. The right person, it's like a very specific person, that thing's super fast. Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. So speaking of speed, which is the main point of arrow helmets, It's the one of the biggest differences of the specialized helmet is that it has a sock inside. So it's kind of like panty hose material.

It's not super thick, but it actually covers like your ears and wraps around your face. So it smooths out all of the air that might run alongside like your ears and your hair. It kind of just cleans out that whole thing. So yeah, that adds to the funny look of it because everyone kind of just has this black sock around their face. But personally, from a comfort perspective, one of the most. comfortable air helmets I've ever worn. Really? And the visibility is crazy.

It's like your Tesla. It's like you can just see everything. I love that. So the Giro Arrowhead is also pretty good for visibility, but I've worn like the Oakley before and some other helmets where I just cannot see that well out of the lens. Where is this one? Never an issue. Even with my head pretty tucked, I can see up the road.

And I did test it in the wind tunnel. It tested the same for me as the Gero. but that was in a position that was slightly different than I'm in now because I didn't have the right mounts for these bars. So I think if I can get my head in the right position

and the fact that it's more comfortable and I think it looks intimidating and super badass. It does look intimidating. For sure. I'm probably going to wear that. I think this helmet is going to test fast. If we went back to the wind tunnel

and you tested it in a very looking down at the ground position versus looking way up the road, I think the arrowhead is like pretty forgiving with looking all around and looking way down the road and making sure you're not drafting versus this helmet is optimized around like a TT.

It's a TT you're looking down. You've got a car behind you that's telling you if there's a speed bump coming up and you are not looking up the road. Totally. Like I find that even when I've been practicing and you don't have to look up to make sure you don't draft. So I can tuck my head more and get into a better position.

And a TT is all about kind of holding an uncomfortable kind of position because it's such a short period of time. So like Eric said, the Gero is a bit more forgiving and looking up the road to see if you're within 20 meters or whatever is always going to happen. But I think I'm going to wear the specialized one. And when you say you can see better up the road,

is that all you're talking about with visibility or is it also side to side? Perif, yeah, great perif. Okay, great perif. I mean, the whole thing wraps around. All sish bowl. Yeah. But not in a distorting. kind of way. It's like, I mean, I finished my TT simulation on Friday and I still had like 30 or 40 minutes of

riding and I kept it on because I'm like, well, this is comfy. It wasn't like I was dying to get it off or anything, you know? This is my main issue with riding and TT is actually not being able to see up the road when I'm in a position that I feel fast in. Well, Nick, I've got the helmet for you. That's how I did. That's how it works, man. Soled. Okay. You just got to like peek out between your eyebrows like every 20 seconds. The tricky thing about this helmet talking about it on a triathlon podcast is the sock is not easy to put on. So for a triathlon, it's not really a great option because you'd have to put it on in transition. And also in a hot race, it would be hot.

I think we can just say it's not an option. It's not really an option for triathlon. It would take you a little bit less the time than stuffing a water bladder down your shirt, though, I think. That's true. That's true. If I was fully committed to it and it wasn't a hot race, I could do it. it's not that bad, but you know. It's like not even ventilated, right? It's not ventilated.

Yeah, it's not ventilated. Anyway, that's that. I could talk about it forever because it's fun. That's cool. I love it. I love it. That's very interesting. And the helmet is one of the things,

it's like best bang for your buck as far as making you faster in a triathlon compared to like your normal gear. Next question here is from Sam. Hey, Paula, Eric, Nick, and Flynn. I've just recently gotten into triathlon and I found your show. I spent a lot of time driving around as a domino's delivery driver listening to podcasts.

Sam, I think you... Epic. I love it. I think you might be my hero. Yeah. So I've decided to go back and listen to every episode of the TTL pod. My question is, what have you all learned since starting this podcast, or how did you feel this podcast has affected your lives?

Thanks for all the laughs and the knowledge, Sam. I'll start by saying that I heard a story once of this guy who was a Domino's delivery driver, and he took this girl out on a date at one point, had nothing to do with Domino's, and, like, someone pulled out in front of them, and he instinctively put his... his arm in front of her and she thought it was really romantic, but it was just because he was so used to having the pizzas stacked on next to him to stop them from going fly. So you never know what life experiences can bring you. That's amazing.

That's very funny. Just like this pod. So yeah, you guys go ahead. I mean, I guess your lives haven't changed that much because you already had the YouTube show. Yeah, my life has not changed except for that I need to schedule this into my week. So your life has gotten worse. That's the podcast?

Yeah. As we started the podcast. My life has not changed. Yeah. Has your life changed? Uh, no, not at all. My life changed when I started editing a video every week four years ago. Yeah.

Wow. It has been that long. It's not that it hasn't, yeah, my life day to day is not changed, but it is cool to see that people listen to it. And we go to races and people say they love the pod and like all that is really cool. That was an interesting switch when it went from. from everybody coming up to us saying, oh, I love your YouTube show,

to like every third person would say they love the podcast. Yeah. And that was an interesting. It was like a dagger to the heart for Eric. No, it's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. Every time for him. Yeah.

But it's so much more digestible to listen to a podcast than watch a video. So I think that maybe it spreads a little wider than someone who watches YouTube. It's a bit different. It's just different. And I think we kind of assume that there's, people that, a lot of people that do both, but I think there's a good amount of people that are only interested in one or the other. Yeah, I agree. I agree. But no, I think it's really cool. It's a, from Eric and I's perspective, it's very easy because we just source the questions

and show up here and chat with Nick for two hours. But Nick's the one that does the editing and all of the back end work to make it sound really good and to make it flow. And I don't think it would really work without any of us. If any of us weren't here, it wouldn't be the same. Yeah. What I really like about it, and it was kind of the reason that we wanted to start it in the first place, is there were a lot of topics that would come up or would come to mind that just didn't fit inside of the YouTube format. Like, there's not enough time to really get into it and talk about things in depth. And I just kind of felt like, I mean, there's a bunch of stuff I want to say, but it just doesn't fit. So this has been perfect for that. Yeah. I think that that's what highlights the difference is that the YouTube is not so much an intellectual expression. It's an artistic. an emotional expression. And the podcast is an intellectual expression. So we can feel free to take our time,

dive deep, not worry too much about the pacing or the context and just speak freely. Whereas the YouTube, it needs like a through line and an aesthetic that you kind of stick to. And I think that's also why people feel like there's just not as much pressure when you're listening to a podcast. The same reason why I don't like watch many movies or TV shows, because I know that when I sit down, I'm going to be forced into this groove of emotion that whatever the director or the right, are hoping that I'll go on to. Or it's like a podcast is so much more open and it's like you can pause it halfway. You can't pause like a theatrical movie halfway.

It's like it's going to rip your heart out. Yeah. There's no beginning, middle and end, really. You can just pick it up halfway through. Well said, yep, there's no story arc really. Yeah. No, but it's been, it's been fun. I don't know.

For me, it's been very, very fun. It's like life changing for me since from where we started it. I feel like my training and my racing feels like it means something more than it did before. I feel like I'm racing for all the listeners, you know? Like, it's like I'm out there, but I'm really, I'm racing for everyone that listens to the podcast, because I'm one of them. That's a super good point. That's exactly how I've felt about the YouTube. And that's probably what Sam was asking.

And you've experienced it with the podcast versus we kind of experienced it first with the YouTube or we show it to a race. And it's like pretty obvious that the result, it matters. but people are just really excited to see you there and it feels like, yeah, I don't know, we're doing something more than just trying to get across the finish line first. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was never trying to do that,

but now I definitely just feel like I'm just out there trying to do my best and be happy with it, let people know that they can do their best and not be the fastest person out there and still enjoy the sport. Yeah, man, you better not, you gotta have an epic DNF pretty soon here

because we need another bangor, Nick Failure podcast. I still, I know I send them to you guys every once in a while, but I still get messages from people who like are going back and listening to everything and they listen to that race recap and they're like, dude, that day was brutal. That was a hard one. That's the, that's the nest of the sport right there. Oh, yeah. Oh, for you sure. Okay, cool. Well, next question here is from a Swedish listener in, oh boy, Steen, S-T-I-J-N. Do you either of you know how to pronounce that? I don't know if that's Steen or Stein. Well, I hope it's one of those. Hi, Paula, Eric, Nick and Flynn. Outdoor season has started here on the west coast of Sweden, where it gets quite windy. Tailwind is great, obviously, but I'm having issues properly biking through headwind. Whenever I'm experiencing headwind, I get out of my arrow position, resulting in a drop in speed from both a headwind and a worse position. It feels easier for me to power through the headwind from an upright position than an arrow position. In addition, I'm a bit scared of wind pushing me sideways on a car row. which feels more likely with a headwind

and I feel more in control in an upright position. And he tells us about the bike, which is a speed max with DT. It's actually my bike. Well, there's your problem. Yeah. You got to get on us. Is that what you wanted?

Because that's what we'll tell you. You need a brand new bike. Anyway, do you guys have experience with this? Any tips for riding Arrow with headwind and still being able to push proper power? Paul, I feel like you're the perfect person to ask about this. I can't believe that you put this question. in bed.

No, actually, this is me. It's you. It's you, Dutchie. Me in disguise, yeah. No, every single thing that he wrote, I can relate to. So you guys take it away, you experts at Arrow and Wind. Oh, wow. I just thought it was very timely because we,

just like two days ago or yesterday, my brain's kind of scrambled. We did this three-hour ride with Ellie Salt House and her boyfriend, Zach, who are living with us right now, and it was wildly, uncharacteristically windy here. And we all just kind of, like, she was doing a TT workout,

and we were all hanging on her wheel and echeloning, and it was pretty entertaining, but very, very hectic. So, timely question. Personally, I, I don't know. Like, sometimes I feel like I'm actually less susceptible to being thrown around by the wind while riding arrow. Yeah.

Because my profile that the wind is hitting me, you know, is less. It feels more committed and more sketchy because you don't have as wide of a base on your handlebars to turn with, but I've watched Paula quite a few times and a crosswind comes and she freaks out and gets out of the bars.

And at that point, the crosswind's over. The gust has happened. She's already ridden it out in the bars, in the TT bars, and then she's on the base bar. So I know it feels super disconcerting, but I think actually a lot of the times having that tighter profile and riding arrow, you catch a little less wind

than if you're sitting upright, even if it feels weird. Oh, you definitely do. But it's the stability and control that you feel when you're in the base bar that forces you up there, especially on busy roads. Like if I'm riding a bachelor down bachelor and there's a huge headwind

and there's cars flying past me, I'm so terrified to go in arrow. Totally. And that's more of a fear of cars than a fear of wind, I would say. Because in a race, if it's really windy and the roads are more closed or blocked off, I'm more confident.

So for this person practicing, I would say finding quieter roads is for sure a first step to take away that element of fear. And then just being okay with your bike swaying. I think that's part of the fear for me is I want it to be like rigid, upright, have full control. But the wind is going to kind of push you a little bit back and forth. Very unlikely it's going to literally push you off your bike. It would have to be crazy for that. But bikes are kind of meant and designed to kind of sail with the wind. So if it's pushing you from the front or for the side and you're going to go drifting left or drifting right, you can kind of correct it with your arms.

But I mean, I'm telling you this advice and it's all very hard. I'm not good at it. But that's how people successfully ride in the aero bars while it's windy is just, you know, flowing with the wind on your bike, like a sail. You like water. Yeah. I feel like a lot of this is just about riding more in these conditions and just like your brain subconsciously getting used to. to that kind of fear, like Eric is saying, because when you're in the arrow bars, you're like, you're committed, right? And as it's gusting, like, you want to get out of there, but you're,

you know, you don't have, you can't break and you have less of less leverage. It is, it is, it is scary. But I've seen it in races where I see other people get out of arrow. And to myself, I think, okay, this is my chance to stay in arrow and make up some time on them. Yes. Totally. And also, also, often, the harder you're riding, the more pressure, you're putting on the pedals, the more stable you'll be in high winds. So if you freak out, stop pedaling, and go to the base bar, you're going to be much more, you know, pushed around by the wind versus if you're in arrow kind of pushing a big gear and staying on the lots, you'll be more stable, 100%. Yeah, yeah. Your whole core is activated and you're,

you're as rigid as you can be, like, as a system. Yeah. I will say that if you're going to get, put your hands on the base bar, there's a big difference between sitting all the way up and trying to stay low for that short period of time if you're in a race. Yeah. Totally. To try to mitigate that. Yeah, that's a good point. And kind of keep your body low.

And also reset as quick as you can. Like if you're, it's fine. You get scared. You go to the base bar, that's fine. But get back in the arrow bars as quickly as possible. That's what my coach says to me. He's like, yeah, it's fine. You sat up, but just get it back in.

Don't sit up and have a little pity party for yourself and be, sad about the wind and be scared, just keep riding and go back in them. Is the wind at all a concern for Canadian TT championships? Yeah, it's always a concern, but I do have race brain versus training brain. Okay, yeah. And I can pretty much conquer anything with race brain. Love it. Because last year it was quite windy for the TT champs, and it was raining.

Conditions I would freak out with in training. Right. But in racing, it's like a bit of a different mindset when there's something on the line. Yeah. Hard to explain. But that's where I'm saying that the speed and the power and everything can kind of sometimes make those elements less scary when you're more focused on going hard. Yeah, cool. Next question is from Amelia.

Greetings, Paula, Eric and Nick. In the rare occasion when I do two days of double workouts in a row, by the end of the fourth workout, I'm sick of showering and my laundry basket is full of stinky clothes. Here we go on the laundry again. Paul and Eric, I've heard you say that you often do three workouts a day. do you shower after every workout? Do the showers feel like work because you have to rush to get to the next workout? Or are you able to enjoy them? And then there's a couple more.

Paula, how does your hair dry? How many workout clothes must you possibly have? But yeah, do you guys, so, for example, for me, if I have a swim at 11 a.m. And then I'm going to run later, I don't, I just rinse off at the pool, but I don't do a full shower in between. Or even if I have like a bike and then a run two hours later, I'll just not. I will not shower between them, and maybe that's gross. But do you guys, what's the limit? No, I'm the same as you.

If I've swam, I don't shower after the pool. Paula does. But somehow like being, taking a shower at the pool, I think also feels different than taking a shower at your own house. Oh, for sure. It just feels like part of the activity. But I'd say, yeah, if I'm going to run within like an hour and a half, two hours after biking, I don't, I don't shower then.

If it's not super sweaty out. Yeah, assuming I'm not like, drenched and sweat. I'll do a quick rinse off if it's crazy because then you're just like running with, you're like running some chafing issues on the run. It's not good. Yeah, I think the key here is like Eric and I are really good at quick showers. So after a bike rider, after a run, if I have another workout in the day, I'll get in the shower, but it's just like soap down my body, not washing my hair, obviously, but I'll wash my hair after the pool because I just feel like the chemicals and the yuckiness of the pool stays in my hair. So every time I finish swimming, I'll

do shampoo and conditioner. Then every after every workout, I'll do a mini shower. So yeah, it's a lot of showers. But it's like two minutes of shower. You know, I'm not enjoying it, as this person said. It's purely... Utilitarian. It's purely to like get the sweat off.

And then I'll often like get out of the shower and put my run clothes on right away, even if I'm not running for an hour or two. And I'll say this. You do have a strikingly nice hair for someone who swims and works out as much as you do. And you do have a couple secrets. You've mentioned them on the pod before, but do you want to just give me the 30 second recap of the stuff that you do for your hair? I think I've mentioned them a lot of times.

But yeah, I use just like good quality shampoo and conditioner. So Evita or Bumble and Bumble, like it's a little more expensive, but I think it's good for your hair. And then I use the Bumble and Bumble finishers oil, which is like kind of an oil protects you from UV rays and heat and all of that. And I just like run that through my hair when it's wet. Oh, you mean you don't use the four in one? body wash, shampoo, conditioner, car oil that Eric and I use.

Four and one. Toothpaste. No, Eric uses the stuff. Actually, what we have in our shower right now is Julios, shampoo and conditioner and body wash. Which you can buy at the feed.com. And that is, we just have these huge pumps in there. I do love the huge pumps. Just like the sunscreen.

I think I might get the sunscreen one. It's like $100 or something, but having to just like, you know, buy the door, like you guys do it. Yeah. It never runs out. Fast forward to three months from now when it still is there, you're going to just be like so stoked. Yeah. You won't even remember that $100. Yeah.

I'm getting a lot of Sundays days. And you can also buy the sunscreen at the feed.com. Oh, my God. Okay. You can also buy it a lot of other places. I mean, it's a, I think they're based in Bend. They are. The Zealers is based in Bend.

Yeah. Maybe not anymore, but they definitely were. some bend guys. Yeah. It's really good stuff. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, that's really cool. How often do you do laundry?

Like every three or four days, I'd say. But we do have enough like bibs and jerseys to get us through a week if we had to. It's just the thought of the stuff sitting in there dirty is not nice to me. Yeah. I remember reading about this a little bit. Your laundry basket with your sports stuff should be really breathable. Like not an enclosed like metal can. or something like that.

Ours is not breathable. Good tip though. Well, no, it's not that bad. It's like a cloth side. I think it's fairly breathing. Maybe a little bit, yeah. I think ideally it would be like you'd be able to see the stuff

from the outside, like with these big holes. Okay, I'll go, they have a really cool one at restoration hardware. It's only like $400, but it's on wheels. It's only $400? That's what you just said? Yeah, it's only $400, but it's so cool. That's not more breathable than what we currently have.

It might be mesh. It better do the laundry, too, for $400. $400. Jeez. Oh, my gosh. When you start going into these stores that have like all the trendy cool stuff, like schoolhouse and money is, it just loses meaning. Right. Like, of course, that light is $800.

In my mind, I'm like, do you know how many lattes that go get them tiger that is? Like, that is a lot of lattes. I don't do that, math. That's how I think. That's how I think. Okay. Next question here. Does drinking soda keep stomach bugs away?

I'm targeting Ironman, Texas, and I've been reading people's posts about getting sick allegedly from the swim. Wow, that's never a good sign when you're already reading that. My first reaction was, dude, why are you drinking the nasty water? But then I see Holly Lawrence a 70.3 Boulder recap video where she mentions

taking a Coke before the swim to, quote, ward off any stomach bugs from the water, end quote. Thoughts on this? I would have thought there was nothing you can do, but don't drink the water and hope for the best. And apparently soda helps. Thanks and keep the content coming. P.S. Why is it always Coke?

Dr. Pepper is clearly superior, and the nutrition label is nearly identical, just saying. So that's pretty interesting. I did some research, but I'm curious what your thoughts on this are before I tell you what the research is. My first reaction with this is that it's a bit placebo. Not placebo. Is that it's total... It's a crock of bullshit. Yeah.

I don't think it's doing anything. But if you think it's doing everything, it's kind of a fun thing to be like. like this Coke is killing the bugs. Right. Right. So I don't blame her for doing it. But it's, I don't think it's effective. I hadn't even heard about this until Holly's video where she said it.

But apparently it is something that some people do believe is true. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard it before. Yeah. It just tastes so nuclear. It must be killing everything. Right.

Exactly. There's like the thing that like if you put a tooth in Coke, it'll like dissolve overnight or like some all kinds of stuff. It's like rotting the inside of your body, which I don't know. Maybe it's partially true. But Eric, you've heard this before too? Oh, yeah, for sure. And I've done it before as well. And you're kind of like, mm, it feels fake.

But whatever. Maybe it's not fake. Coke tastes good. If there's 0.1% chance this helps a little bit, then great because I don't want to be barfing for the next 24 hours. Exactly. Exactly. So the research is that in fact, there is no evidence at all that it works.

I think it's one of these mental things because I think Coke can help a little bit with stomach uneasiness and I think that's more to do with the carbonation than anything else but this is by Jamie Beach in 220 triathlon

the reality is that when you survey all the literature there's simply no scientific evidence whatsoever that drinking Coca-Cola or any similar drink after an open water swim will reduce the likelihood of getting an upset stomach drink cola after a swim if you enjoy it but don't expect it to protect you. Well, there we go.

One more fun thing ruined by science. Yeah. Well, you know what, people? If you need to have your soft drink after an open water swim, go for it. You can tell yourself whatever you want. Like, ideally you're not swimming in places where you're worried about getting sick, but Holly really got sick last year after Boulder 70.3. So she was just in a state of like, it's worth a try, right?

Because if she gets sick from that and it drags on. affects her training. It's kind of sucks. Also, I know that we have a lot of listeners that live in Southern California because I have the stats. And so maybe this is relevant for people who don't know it, who maybe don't live close to the water, but want to come and do open water swims before their races. You should not swim, at least in the waters in Los Angeles, you should not swim within three days of rain because the rain washes a lot of chemicals and crap into the ocean. And you can get very sick from that.

literal crap. Yeah, is literal crap. Eric, do you remember the same warning being given to you when you lived in San Diego? Or is that just an L.A. thing? 100%. Yeah. So I think in Southern California in general might be outside of California, it might be kind of like a universal thing.

Anywhere where you have drainage that empties out into the ocean, you're going to have a lot of literal bad crap in the water. And you need kind of three days for that to dissipate and float out, float away into the ocean. Good tip. Or you can just swim in it and then drink Coke after. Where's that? I need the rim shot. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, yeah, that's great. Okay, well, that was our last question. What do we have coming up? I'm racing this weekend in San Diego, a little sprint. Paula, you're racing this weekend in Canada? Friday, yep. Eric, you're not racing this weekend. But I'm driving all the way to Canada by myself.

That's like a race in itself. In our new van. Actually, not by myself with Flynn. Oh, boy's road trip. This is breaking my heart because I'm flying to Canada on Tuesday because I race on Friday. And way back in the day, we thought we'd have our new van like now so we could drive now and be there, like drive together. Now it was five days from when this comes out. But the van is not, the van is arriving like Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday, I don't know.

So Eric's just going to get it when I'm not here, which is heartbreaking. to me and pack it up himself, which is also heartbreaking because I won't be able to organize it. Sweet boy. And then he's going to throw Flynn in there and drive straight to Edmonton, which is also sad. Don't worry. I want to organize it. I'll just put everything on the floor and you can organize it when I get there. Don't worry. He does that for you. But I think Eric's going to have a really fun drive in it. So I don't feel too bad that he's doing it solo. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be beautiful. Flynn's going to have a beautiful seat to sit in. It's so fun. And we've actually already seen it in person.

Well, not the fully completed version. We've seen like the base of it, but then it went, so I guess it'll be announced at this point. So it's a storyteller and we saw it in this base configuration and then it went to Canyon Adventure Vans in California to get a slider

for the bikes to go on in the back and then like an extra upgraded super cushy mattress and like a bunch of these cool little upgrades that are just going to like put it over the I mean, we have to do a whole podcast on the van, but it's going to show up finished and amazing, and I'll see it when we're in Canada, and then we'll be staying up in Canada for a little while to train and be in the van.

Not exclusively, not living out of it, but it'll be super fun to finally have it. So we're excited. You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of the very first time I met you guys in person. And I had my car, which has like a million automatic features, right? like self-driving features. I still think about this every day. You guys, we met at Shevlin Park

and you guys, I was staying in Bend for a month, coincidentally. My girlfriend at the time wanted to stay in Bend for the month of January, so we went up. And I was like, oh, that's great. Eric and Paul are there. I haven't met them yet. I can't wait to meet them. So, like, the second day I'm there, I got a text from Eric, do you want to go for a run? So we meet at Shevlin Park. I pop out of my car,

you two pop out of the van. You know, I'm a little starstruck. And I'm like, I think one of the first things I said was it's like, what kind of like automatic features do you have on this thing? And Eric's like automatic headlights like like

cruise control the end. Does not drive itself. My question is, does this have anything other than cruise control or is it still kind of the same deal? Yeah, it's got all the things. Oh, wow. Well, it doesn't drive itself like a Tesla. No, but it's got adaptive cruise

control. It's got lane keeping. It's got crosswind assist. It's like it does all the things. It's the new 23 all-wheel drive. The adaptive cruise control is the game changer. The fact that you can just set it at a speed and it will kind of follow the car in front of you speed. So you don't have to have your foot on the pedal, like constantly monitoring. That's life-changing.

Yeah. Pretty dreamy. Yeah, for long road trips like we're doing it. It truly is life-changing. It's also like insanely quiet relative to an older van. That van was well-insulated. Yep. Anyway, we'll talk more about it on next week's.

podcast, I think, because there's a lot to say. Yeah. Yeah, sure. We'll be brief Paula's race. Yeah. And do you have, do we want to talk about the T-shirts or not yet? Yeah, last thing that's happening in the next couple weeks, we don't have an exact day, but we just got samples of our next round of T-shirts and shorts that are coming out.

T-shirts will be end of June. The shorts will be in July. Things are a little spread out, but that's just the way that clothing production goes. They're super fun. They're very colorful. They're very, like, summer vibes. And we love how they turned out. So stay tuned for some photos of those and then we'll do the job at the end of June.

Also, we just want to kind of apologize. Last week, we released the TTL and Foreign Rider hoodies. And they came out on Wednesday and the podcast came out on Thursday. And by the time the podcast came out at Wednesday or at midnight, they were already all gone. Some sizes were sold out within 90 minutes. Yeah, we were really surprised because they're a bit of a higher price point than what we normally do because they're just such high quality. so we were a little nervous to do a big run of them, but clearly we should have ordered like four times as many as we did.

But it kind of is cool. Like the whole thing with what we do is it creates the sense of urgency and got to get it now, otherwise it's gone. So I don't really regret that they sold out so quickly, and it kind of is how we've always done things here. That's totally. It's always been a small run of stuff, and that makes it special, and you've got to get in fast to get it.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just, if there's something that you really want, you've seen us talk about it, or you've heard us talk about it, or you've seen us tease it? Like, that's the thing you should go all in on. Yeah, I did get a email from a pod supporter who said,

it'd be nice if you gave the pod supporters like a little bit more of a heads up. I agree. Before we do these limited releases. So I think that's something we'll do in the future is an email the day before or the opportunity to order early if you support the podcast and are that committed to TTL that you've invested that. every month. So I don't know, something to consider for next time. It's something Eric and I talked about from the very beginning.

What you guys didn't hear is the fight we all just had that we're cutting out. Oh, that's right. We don't fight. We don't fight. We're back to being happy. We don't fight. We're just passionate. We're passionate about apparel. Good thing Nick edits this. Oh my gosh. Okay. But no, so this week you can follow Paul. on Instagram. You can follow that triathlon life on Instagram to see how her race goes. Unfollow Flynn on

Strava and follow me on Strava because that's the fight that I'm fighting every day. This is funny actually Nick, I checked today and you're up like 100 followers because we have not been good with Flynn Strava. Yeah, well, sucks to suck. He hasn't been running that much either. Yeah, we need to really get his Wahoo booted

back up. But follow us all. It's just fun. Yeah. We try to keep it entertaining on there. We do, yeah. Eric recorded a really cool video of me with my new wheels that I just got that'll release this week. So keep an eye out for that. It's super cool. Very artsy. Very controlled burn vibes. I saw the photos. I saw the stills and they look great. Oh, you did. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, thanks for listening everybody and send in your questions concisely. Keep it brave. You know how Paula feels about long-winded questions.

No, I appreciate all of them. We'll see you all next week. later. Bye. Bye.