That Triathlon Life Podcast - TT position adjustments for triathlon racing, Strava vs joy, and more!

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

This week the crew is 1/3rd Cajun as Nick is recording from New Orleans. We started with some Bike Tech With Eric, chatted about Paris-Roubaix, and then moved onto listener submitted questions.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

Hey everyone, welcome to that trial on life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldston. What did just happen with your face, Nick? I'm down in New Orleans for a few days, and I'm different now. You looked like someone just set up a grenade right next to your eardrum. No, I was considering doing a Cajun accent, but then I realized I'd be instantly canceled if I did that. So I thought twice about it. Well, you weren't going to nail it, that's for sure.

I don't think I've ever even tried it. But I thought it was, oh, this would be a good time in front of all the podcast listeners. Let's test out a Cajun accent. Of course, of course. If you're new here, Paul and I are both professional athletes. Nick is a professional musician. He's down in New Orleans right now, just living the dream. Going to some shows and stuff.

Most recent thing we did, we just came off the back of 70.3 Oceanside. We were booking Airbnbs. That's what Paula was doing yesterday. Instead of going on her ride, she was procrastinating by doing another painful activity. which is booking travel and accommodations. Yeah, well, I wouldn't really call that procrastinating. When you have a hard swim and you have to start your four-hour bike ride, you don't have to start it by noon.

Although I told Nick I would be done by 3.30. All right. This is not our unusual recording time. It's 7 a.m. 7 in the morning, as we had a little bit of a scheduling snafu yesterday afternoon. But, you know, there's a first time for everything. I don't think we've ever woken up, had a coffee, and hit the record button. I think we've done it once before.

I remember it might have been even earlier than this. It might have been at like 6 o'clock, your time. Were we like taking advantage of some jet lag coming off of, you know, somebody comes back from China? It was something like that. But I remember you guys being both like barely conscious when we started. The things we do to keep the content, to keep the conversation flowing. Well, one thing that Eric did was made a vlog about Oceanside. I think that's coming out today.

Yep. So by the time the pod comes out, you can go watch that vlog. Yeah, Eric, do you want to tell us about it? Get people stoked on it, so they go watch it, a little teaser. Yeah, it's just a nonstop vibe fest, in my opinion. We did a lot of things at Oceanside. I drove down, picked up Paula. We picked up her bike.

We had a TTL donut run with Castelli at the Expo. Nick raced, Paula raced, Zach from the development team raced. And I think I did a pretty good job of blending in a little bit of all of those things. and I think you'll get a true feeling of what it would have been like to be there. Yeah, that's true. So I think next year our T-shirt, our special edition, Oceanside T-shirt is going to be something like, come for California, stay for the race. And donuts.

And donuts. Yeah. No, I think it's going to be fun. I had fun making it. We had fun being there. So check that out. Okay, so I have to say, being a triathlete in New Orleans would be a serious challenge. But I'm realizing that probably in many parts of the world,

this is the case. There's, you know, there's no climbing here. The roads are in rough shape. You're probably doing a bunch of trainer rides. It's incredibly hot and human for a big portion of the year. I mean, you've got to really love it. Yeah, you're getting a taste of what it's like in most places. Yeah, I'm going to say that's the rule rather than the exception generally. And I think that's why so many people train indoors. There's so much more to, it seems to me, so much more to endure when you are training indoors the whole time. You're just really isolated with your demons. Yeah, which I mean, I think that's a big part of why we created TTL in the first place.

It's like not everybody has this like big booming triathlon community right there. And like maybe they've got two people, but connecting with a couple of people via the internet and then at races when you get there, it makes it feel like you're not the only crazy person. Yeah. But the place is really cool down here. And boy, there are a lot of, how do I put this? There's a lot of food options that you have to turn down. Like, there's so many things that are not great for you to eat that taste so good here at every single corner.

Also, you're saying you have to practice self-control. Restraint. Yes, yes, yes. And depending on your goals. If your goals are to experience everything there is to offer, then this sounds like heaven. For five days, that's okay. But if you lived here, I think it would be a real issue.

So, like, how does this work? If you want to become an actor, you go to L.A. If you want to, like, maybe be a music producer, I don't know, do you go to L.A.? That's where you are. But then if you want to be a country singer, you go to Nashville. And if you want to be a blues singer, you go to... And blues are a few different places, but jazz players, yes,

there is a lot of it here because this is, New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz. It was the center of a kind of a combination of a lot of different cultures. And I learned while I was here that it does combine like European and African and South American music. And that's how jazz was born. I actually went to Congo Square where jazz is said to be actually born. And so there's a lot of players who come here still to play. And a lot of people who grew up here who get really into it. And it's like an excellent, excellent, excellent level of musicianship.

And there's so many of them here. It's really, it's crazy. Like you walk around the city, you just hear it on every corner. Really? That's cool. Wow. Yeah. Is there still 70.3 there anymore?

There used to be like a 70.3 New Orleans, I think. I haven't heard of that. I did see someone with a 70.3 shirt, though. Yeah. I can't remember if it's still going on. That'll be a cool destination. So the only news that really that I can think of this week was Perry Rubet. and just as we last week said,

it's boring to watch Taday. Taday did not win. He did not win. He did not win. He was in the sprint finish. It was freaking exciting. Both men's and women's races were super exciting, came down to the Vellodrome sprint.

I posted on my story the in, like, booth of the, of the Belgian commentators losing. Their absolute minds. And then, like, we saw some bars, you know, the same thing. People just, people want Wout to, win. And like, I don't, I'm not sure if anybody dislikes Today, but you're like, let's,

something interesting, please, would be great. Oh, for sure. For sure. Somebody did say that he got like four flats, Todai. I only saw one of them on camera. I didn't know it was that many. Yeah. I mean, the race is so brutal.

This is like a Todai fluffer, just giving him some. I mean, it might have been. I didn't, I kind of just saw the highlights, but I just cannot imagine how that race feels like on your legs. just awful punishing and and i know today specifically rode like 35 c tires i think why it was running like 30s like little tiny 30s and yeah anyway it looked it looked kind of crazy um well gear choice for that race is so important yeah obviously and just in just that he still got some flats is crazy i mean if you see any of those like close up shots of the cobblestones they're just like

edges of a counter that you're slamming into yes right right yeah that video i sent you of the slow motion one of like how much the tire is deforming around the cobbles. Yeah, it's crazy. Again, and the women's race was also like massively exciting. Two women from, uh, from the same team, from Vizma,

came in together, Marianna Voss, Pauline Framfavaux, Pauline won it last year. Mariana Voss is like considered to be one of the greatest one day cyclists ever. And with one girl from, one woman from FDJ, Franchiska Cook. And it looked like it was pretty much over.

Like there's no way to, versus one, this is going to not go to Marina Voss and this lady, she got it. Pauline looked like she kind of tried to set up a little bit of a lead-out sort of a thing and it just didn't go that well. And FDJ, lady got it. Right at the line. Bike race technique for a second here. Just a little side note.

If you're two members of a team with a third person with you and you're around the velodrome, what are your tactics here to make sure that one of you wins and not the third person. I mean, ideally, it's not coming down to the velodrome. Like, ideally in the last 10K, like, in my opinion, and just like basics would be like one person attacks and the, you know, the odd man out has to chase that down. Meanwhile, you, person number two, sit on their wheel as they drag you back to the teammate and then you attack them. So they're having to cover every move and you're just taking turns sitting on their wheel and you wear them down. But this came all the way to the velodrome. So at that point,

well the whole problem in my mind when I was watching it is that Pauline got dropped and then she was trying to help Marianne Voss win it appeared Pauline wasn't trying to win for herself she was trying to help her teammate win so when Pauline then bridged back up to this duo with the FDJ girl and the viz and Marianne from jumbo Francisco was sitting on the front and burning her matches and Marianne Voss is just tucked in behind ready for the sprint finish. Pauline caught both of them and went to the front which in my mind appeared to give the FDJ girl Francisco a little bit of a rest so that she could have a sprint finish in the velodrome. So in a way I mean it's really hard to judge

or anything from afar obviously but it looked like Pauline came up, let them both rest and then it came down to a finish between the other two, versus kind of just letting the FDJ girl burn out her legs and wait for the sprint at the velodrome when Marianne's been sitting behind. So team tactics are really hard, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't,

but both finishes for men and women were super exciting, obviously. It's one of the best races of the year. How often do you think these racers are just responding tactically to what they're being told on the first? radio versus taking matters into their own hands? I think they're all really smart and they're almost like, I mean, they're giving feedback to their car, right? You can see them all talking into their radio, but maybe a little bit of both.

I don't know how much fatigue sets in at that point where you are kind of just instinctively doing things or listening to the radio, but we don't have radios in triathlon. So it's hard to know what that's like to be on the edge of tiredness, but also trying to like be tactical. I was trying to guess what may have happened and my initial guess was that Pauline was told like as soon as you catch them attack and she went to do it looked like she tried to make a little attack but it was just

she was already really cooked and then she just kind of like sat on the front for a bit versus just fully chilling and waiting to do another attack so like that could have been a situation where the team car is like you should attack once you get there and she kind of if it was just her maybe she wouldn't have

because she knew she was more tired than that or anyway this is not a cycling podcast so We can move on. I mean, it's a whatever we want it to be podcast. Not an interesting thing happened in triathlon. Well, we were talking last night about it being maybe a relationship podcast with Nick's pursuance of women. So we could do. If you have any questions about relationships or Nick's love life or tips.

Yeah. Nick's love life is a sad affair. But I think we, if you want to send in your relationship problems, we want to take a crack at it. Or just your life problems in general. We're turning into relationship experts here. So watch out. I mean, we're not experts by any means. No, Paul and I are just married so we need entertainment.

Right. You're going to live vicariously through someone else's relationship blossoming. Exactly. Okay, so we're going to start out with a bike tech with Eric here. Right into it. This is from Aaron. A few weeks ago on the podcast, y'all were discussing a single chain ring system. I do not have that guy's watts per kilo.

I don't know if you guys remember that guy had some serious power. While I shouldn't keep questioning myself this much because it's over and I didn't let this ruin the trip or race, I did question myself a lot and y'all brought it up. I was in Marbea. I rented a bike. It was pretty, but it was a single ring set up, 50-tooth.

I asked the rental company if I'd be able to climb on it and they assured me I would. It's a specialized system. The aim of this system is to offer a simpler bike without a front derailer while maintaining the same wide range of speeds. This means you can still use the same gear ratios as a standard bike with a standard drive train. But alas, I couldn't climb at all. First time in almost 15 years, I prayed to make the bike cut off.

Maybe it was me, who knows, but I do want to understand more completely the single chain ring system and why people would use it. Would you ride a single chain reen in the front for something like Marbea? I haven't walked up a hill since I started triathlon almost 15 years ago, but I did in Marbea. Thanks for always being so real, Aaron. It's funny how many people we've heard that had this problem in Marbea,

not specifically with a single chain ring system, but with barely making the cutoff, especially for a world's race. Well, it's a super slow course because it was so hilly, but the problem with Marbea is you needed a really small chain ring to climb, and then you needed a really big chain ring for the fast descent part,

where you could still pedal. So I think that was a mistake to give you a one-by. And one-byes for sure have their advantages, but for a hilly course like that, I'd pick a two-by. There is a one-by with a small enough front ring that would have worked, but 50 is not small enough.

Oh, she had a 50. Yeah, 50. Yeah, that's crazy. Is it a girl? Yeah, Aaron. Yeah, and if you then had a mountain bike cassette in the back that also had a 50, maybe you would have been okay.

But again, like Paula said, then this is just a major detriment on the downhill for a course that... You would just spin out. with the steeps and also like fast-sustained gradual downhills. So to answer, or at least attempt to answer Aaron's question, what makes a one-by system valuable or attractive at all? And is it as simple as taking your setup with a two-by,

keeping the same rear cassette and switching it to a one-by, if that's even possible on your bike? No, no, you need a wider-range cassette unless you're riding in a very flat, or you know area if you're just riding it through kansas then you could get away with a single speed um you know if there's no headwind and stuff but um the reason that we use one buys is because um as professional athletes you know this applies to just like anybody who's quite strong you have the ability to climb at a high enough power to use like kind of that bigger gear and then you just like completely eliminate any risk of dropping the chain um it's slightly more aerodynamic uh you do theoretically

at your fastest gears, if you set it upright, have a pretty good straight chain line, which is efficient in terms of drag on the chain. You don't need a front derailer, which takes weight off. It looks cooler. It looks cool. You seem more legit. Yeah, and I mean, at the end of the day, you're pushing up and down on the buttons to go faster versus occasionally having to do this switch between, you know, the front ring and the small ring and then shift up or down to compensate a little bit in the back a couple of times.

So I don't know. If you're strong enough and the course suits it, it's great. Most triathlon courses, it's not very flexible. Most triathlon courses, it's completely fine. I like to train on a two-by and race on a one-by on pretty much everything except a course like Marbea. But we're lucky to have every option. So if you don't want to switch between things, I'd say having a two-by for like everything is the way to go. Also, since we're in a bike tech with Eric question, Eric, I forgot to tell you, a friend of mine who raised 70.3 Oceanside, who lives in Venice, California, she had to come over and fix her bike because the chain had fallen between the front two chain rings and the frame.

And it was wedged in so hard, we could not get it out. And I had to take the crank set off to get the chain out there. Yeah, can you imagine that happening in the middle of a race? Oh. It's heartbreaking. Yeah, you're ganking on that thing as hard as you can. Well, that's the other thing with the one buy. You don't have to worry about the chain dropping.

Right. That's what's so nice about that. I feel like to me that's actually maybe the main plus is the chain not coming off. Yeah. Yep, no stress. That seems so nice. So there you go, Allison. Hopefully that answers your question.

You do have to change the rear cassette into something. You know, like Eric kind of alluded to it too with the mountain bike gearing setup. I mean, that's extreme. But for a course like Marbeira, where you need to climb a lot, you need everything you can get. Yeah, I'm a little bit bummed at the shop, sent you out the door with this, but if you were going to do this again in the future, I would maybe rock up with, like,

the actual course profile to show the shop and be like, no, look, we're going on the dumbest road that you have in this entire county. It's straight up the highway. Are you sure this will work? Yeah, yeah, right. There you go, Aaron. Good luck next time, I hope.

We're going to move on to questions here. These are listeners submitted questions. You can submit questions for the podcast at that triathlon, life.com slash podcast. And this week we're picking a podcast supporter who supports the podcast for $5 a month. The cost of, by the way, the cost of living here seems to be much more human. In New Orleans, you can almost buy two coffees for $5 a month, which is so nice. And I have been taking full advantage. I'm pretty sure we could create some sort of a graph of like places

that are optimal for tarathlon training and like cost of living. and it's probably equally ridiculous. Yes, yes, they're opposite sides. Unfortunately. Strong correlation. Yeah. But this week, Alison Price, thank you so much for being a podcast supporter. You're going to get a TTLX orca swim cap.

They're super nice, super high quality. I use them at the pool all the time. They're great. I'm going to send it out to you. So if you can send me a message on Instagram with your address, I'll send it out to you as soon as I get back from Nalans, as I'm not supposed to say, New Orleans. First question here, running an event on an open urban road course. This weekend, I am running a marathon in Boston, not the one that I haven't qualified for yet,

but another event on the same weekend that a local run club has put together. Although they have cheer zones and aid stations set up for the course, it's not closed and is two loops. The first half of each loop runs through parks, but the second half is almost entirely on roads that are not closed, and there are dozens of street crossings that will require stops to wait for walk signals. I'm not concerned with the finishing time, but I am not familiar with stops and starts over this distance. I was hoping for some advice on what to do when stopped at a street crossing. Is it better to keep moving or use it for rest? Thank you for any advice, and I'm looking forward to representing Team TTR next month. at my first try of the season in Galway, Ireland.

Well, that's awesome. Okay, so have you guys ever done anything like this where you have to, I mean, I forget where it happened, but in one of the classics races, they had to stop for the train crossing. This happens in like the highest level of cycling, too, which is so funny. But have you guys ever done a race like this where you have to, where stopping is like part of it? No, I think this is so specific to this person. But why I put it in the question list is that we all go. for runs in cities or whatever where we have to stop at a light.

And when you're driving and you see someone jogging on the corner, the jogging in place. Running in place so that they're not stopping completely, it looks kind of silly. But it makes you think, like, is stopping cold turkey going to make you feel worse once you start going again? I think the way to tell if it's a professional runner,

is they're just saying they're looking pissed? Yeah. They're like, ugh. Why did that choose this route? a muscle. I would say like running in place is maybe kind of useless, but naturally when you stop, your heart rate's going to come down. So maybe use that as actually rest and kind of think of it like when you get a penalty

in a T-100 race and you have to stop for two minutes. It sucks, but use that time to actually get your heart right down, take a gel, be productive with that two minutes so that when you start again, you're feeling a little bit refreshed and better than when you ran into the stop sign. while you're stopped is perfect because it's so annoying to have a gel while you're running. It's like, so if you have stops built in, that seems perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unless you're trying to feel the way that you race, you know?

And I would say like, stand there and shake your legs out, but don't, you don't need to, like, jog. But stay loose and like keep moving. Don't be a statue. I like doing some like, you know, knee grabs and like maybe a little quad, you know, heel to butt sort of a thing. Oh, a little activations. Like a little activation core, you know, form stuff. depending on how many times you have to stop. Yeah. Also, a PSA for those who care, which I'm sure there's people out there who care.

If you're uploading this to Strava later, this is the way that the Strava behind-the-scenes mechanics work. If you're doing this race and you stop at all of these stop signs and these stoplights, if you stay still, Strava will automatically take those stop time out of your average pace and your moving time, right? And so if you ran, let's say, nine-minute miles for the marathon, but then every time you stop, it slow down, you know, maybe it goes down to 9-15. But if you never pause your watch manually, and this is very important,

if you never pause your watch manually a single time, it will take those pauses out. But the second you stop the watch, even a single time, Strava then thinks, oh, this person wants to be in control of their stop time, so we're not going to take the stops out later. Yeah, definitely stop. Stop it on your own.

Who cares about Strava? You want to see real time what's going on. That's the problem, is if your watch does not have moving time only right, then you would not know what you're moving pace is, which is an issue. I feel like if you ever ran prior to GPS, you're in the habit of stopping your watch when you stop moving. Right. I no longer do it.

I just let my watch run the whole time. For runs where I'm not caring about the pace, right? Just like I'm doing it. Yeah, the exact opposite of when you go to the pool and you stop your watch at every 50 meters. Correct. Like an idiot. Yes. Next question here is from Allison, from Maryland.

Wait a second. Could this be Allison Price from Kensington, Maryland? That would be. Who won our TCL subscriber thing? I don't know. I can look it up. You read the question, I'll look it up. Okay, great.

that would be a great coincidence. Because we just pick our winners randomly. Yeah, it's totally random. Hey, TTR crew, do you name your workout for Strava in your head partway through a workout slash race? How often does the title change from the first half of the workout to the second? You know, this is Allison. It's funny because for me, I often think I'm going to name the workout almost every time I'm like, I'm going to name the workout something about how hard this was.

and then by the end I'm like I shouldn't make every workout about how hard it was and so they rarely end up being that but do you is something you guys think about during your workouts I wouldn't say I'm like running along trying to think of a good thing but if you know I'm running with Flynn and I he chased you know when inspiration strikes yeah like log it in the right right right right and then potentially start like word smithing it a little bit definitely when I was doing Flynn Strava that was like what took up a significant amount of my brain power while we were running together.

Yeah. It's always funny because, you know, how many times a week do you run? Do you bike? Do you swim? And to come up with unique Strava Title for each one of them, you think you're going to run out.

But you just got to be creative and find something. There's always something out there. You know what's interesting about this? How many people have had this, like, kind of that same dialogue popping into their head during a race, especially if you're having, like,

not a good race. and you're like starting to think about how I guess it just wasn't the day I was hoping for you know, like, and I wonder, especially pros, like do you start like building that narrative in your head

when you feel like it's going downhill and how does that impact you? Like the, not the excuse, but like the justification or whatever. Yeah. Like, well,

I guess just wasn't going well, but you know, maybe it was my coach, I don't know the thing, versus just like shutting that off. Yeah. Just don't want you to do. This is one of the thing I was thinking about

when I'm training and I often think of the two of you and when I'm having a hard session, I think, God, I'm so glad this is not my career. This would be so much more stressful and emotionally impactful in addition to feeling physically bad. The extra next level of this for me is if I'm trying to make a vlog while like Paul is training or I'm training or we're training together. And I'm like trying to simultaneously witness the story unfolding and like script it just a little bit and think about like the bits that I need to get to tell the story because I can't just go back and type it in later like you can with Strava you're ideally capturing some of it unfolding so that's like the ultimate brain gridlock version of this question

while still like you know while still supporting Paula and making sure you're in the right place at the right time and making it to the finish yeah I think that's the interesting thing with this Strava and titles and you know like before during after whatever of like how does your interpretation of what's going on in your plan of how you're going to share it impact what eventually happens the back half. Yeah. Deep philosophical dive. Okay, next question here is from Carlos in Vancouver.

Hey, gang, I'm about 10 years into a career as a production manager in film and animation, and honestly, I think I'm burnt out. The job is stable, but it's very corporate and screen-heavy, and I'm realizing I get way more energy and fulfillment from being outside, cycling, and running, and I guess swimming. I've been thinking a lot about switching paths, but I don't even know what jobs are out there that would actually align with that lifestyle. In your years of being professional athletes, have you observed any jobs that combine operations

and project management with endurance sport or outdoor work? If you had to pick a career in triathlon or endurance sport, what would you pursue? This is obviously outside of being an actual athlete. Yours truly, Carlos. Become a race director. We could get Sheila Finley on the pod to give a firsthand account of what it's like to be a race director.

Like as someone who comes from a creative background and we have dabbled just a little bit doing, you know, TTL base camp and we've had a conversation about, you know, like a big brainstorm idea about what a race would look like and that's a thing I'd be psyched to do. I think that's like a really interesting potential thing for you. It's project management. It's like a huge creative outlet of like how are you going to script and build someone's experience. And you're definitely going to be outside like going and scouting courses and figuring that out and talking a lot of different people and putting these pieces together. I don't know if it's profitable though. I mean, I think it's Providable depending on how successful it is. It's not a guarantee like you clock in, clock out, catch the money, but if you've been in a little bit of a creative space before, like that

might not be that scary to you. But like I would just go check out ARA Vipa running. Jamil Curry is a guy who runs that and he's built that empire up. He also has Mountain Outpost is his digital creation agency that he created just to do live streams.

for his races and now they're hired to do other races. So that's the absolute, you know, like top example, you know, of where it could end up. But generally just putting on one race by yourself is, I mean, that's going to be a couple of years to get it profitable if it becomes profitable. But I just think it's cool. That's one option. How crazy, I was thinking about this other day, how crazy do you think it would be for me to put on as someone who's never done this? and it's not a organization is not my forte to put on like a very local grassroots triathlon in Santa Monica. I don't think you could do it.

Yeah. Permits. What would stop me? What many things would stop me do you think? Yeah, organization and just knowing like Paula said, the permits. So I think you would be better off to partner with somebody who has some race direction experience or is at least a like a hyper organized person. maybe has some experience with like local governments, just so that you know how those processes work.

And you could be, you know, you guys could go in 50-50 on it and you make sure that everybody's hyped about the event and that it's got the vibes. And this person's making sure that cones are at the intersections and nobody dies. Right. Like both equally important and like two different jobs.

Yeah. It does seem scary to have people's safety on the line for sure. Yeah, exactly. I mean, as people who have experienced racist, we just immediately go to like, oh, beer truck, food cart, music, Oz, you know, like, let's go up the coolest road there is. But then you start talking to someone like Paula's mom who's done it forever or Jordan. You're like, oh, wow, I'm actually petrified of somebody crashing now. Right. To completely change the plan. So back to Carlos's questions for a second here, more specifically. How do you guys feel about making your passion, your income? Well, if he worked in video and production, that probably is his passion. But I think what he's burnt out on is sitting in front of a computer screen. I wonder if it's not just, yeah, maybe you're right.

Maybe you're right. I was just thinking like, this is kind of what happens. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I spend all day outside swim bike running, which he would kill to do, it sounds like. And I'm burnt out of it. So some days I just want to sit in front of a computer screen and not have to. to like rely on my body and have everything click and eat properly and go to bed at this time. And so the grass is always greener. And of course, it's nice to think about what if my job was

just like swim biking and running all day or just getting away from this desk. But it's not all sunshine and daisies on the other side. There's some stability to what you do. There's flexibility to be able to go do swim bike run for fun and enjoyment on the weekends after work. So maybe just finding a little bit more balance than that. Are you the type of person that does extra at work and is like staying late at the computer? And I don't, it's hard, it's easy for me to say this because I've never had this type of job, but maybe pulling back slightly while still doing a good job and leaving room for mental health and self-care and doing things you enjoy.

My head goes to taking a demotion. Can you go down a couple rungs in the ladder, like offload some of the organizational stuff and maybe get a camera in your hand more often? Ask yourself, like, what's the minimum or just a lower amount of money that I would be willing to pay to not have that extra brain load, go home at five instead of seven,

and ride my bike more. Or take a sabbatical. And people take like two weeks or whatever off work. Some companies do that. And just try to refresh your brain a little bit? I mean, everybody gets burnout on something. Like there's nobody who, you know, doesn't ever wish that they, you know, could take a little break or whatever. So, but, yeah, I don't know.

Like, I think there's two different ways to go here. Like my cousin Luke, who was in our film, was like one interesting example of he became a dentist so that he could work like two days. a week. And then like that's the absolute minimum amount of money he can live off of and he takes a trip to go climbing and he just like has like this absolute piece of shit RV that he gets around in, but it just barely works. And his like Instagram is doctor dirtbagger. So like maybe you do that. Maybe you just like find a way to work, contract work very small or you do like something that pays a lower hourly wage. You go become a barista. But like that pays the bills for a little while while you get to like be outside more. Yeah. You know, in, in, in,

Italy, this is a little bit more the thing in the U.S. Your career is so intertwined with your identity, it seems. Like it's about how far up you can get in the corporate ladder and it represents who you are socially as well. In Italy, it's people don't change jobs that much. They kind of find their living wage and then find purpose outside of their work. And I don't know if maybe that's a healthier way to be. I'm not sure.

I do feel like that's a major thing. of our time or our generation of like we got really romantic about the, you know, find, do what you want, what you love for work and you'll never work a day in your life or whatever. But like I've also read this book. I think it's called the entrepreneurial myth. And it's like one of the opening statements is like, if you love baking, do not become a baker. Do not open a bakery. Because the last thing that you're going to be doing is baking. You're going to be like ordering flour and making, taking care of customers that are upset and like putting out fires and like all this stuff. If you love,

baking, just bake at home when you want to, how you want to. Yeah, that's interesting. Good tip. That's an interesting, interesting point there. Yeah. Okay, well, there's a quick one. I like this one. This is from Julie.

Hey, team, I've been super curious about how pros and fast age ropers, for that matter, carry 60 to 90 plus grams of carbs on the run. They can't possibly be... That's the great question of our time. They can't possibly be relying on grabbing gels from aid stations to get that. that much carb. I know liquid fuel seems to be the norm, but I don't see many handheld bottles and the sip you get out of those little cups won't be nearly enough. Where do they hide the carbs? Julie. I feel a little confused about this question. That's why I thought it was interesting.

What's your answer to this question? Well, $6.89 to grab some carbs on a run is only like two, maybe three gels. Yeah. So you put two gels in your back pocket and then you grab gels at aid stations. It's, It's pretty easy to get that. It's like a need station every mile. Yeah, there's no way you could possibly need more than you're getting is my thought. And there's always nice Morton gels at the Iron Man events too.

The harder part about Iron Man event or any triathlon is getting enough fluid, I think, on the run. Because if you do just get those cups that barely have any water in them, half of it spills when you're picking it up, you get a single sip. And often that's not even enough water to balance out this. 30-gram gel that you just took. So the harder part, I think, is the fluid. And I think that's why an Iron Man now you see people, they are running with like a belt that has a flask or a bottle in it and kind of taking their own hydration. I think there was a clip of Trevor Foley and the Iron Man New Zealand running with a water bottle. And our friend Andy actually said this too. I saw him running on his brick the other day, Andy Krueger, and he was carrying like a huge one-liter

precision bottle running at race pace. So maybe that is a direction people are going. I tried to talk them into going like one in each hand for balance. To five hundreds, but then you don't have a hand to rip gels open and stuff. Morton makes these, and I'm sure it's not just Morton, but they're they have, they're like a skinny bottle. I think they might not even be 500 mil. It's not just a running vest bottle?

No, it's the type of bottles that like elite marries. marathoners have at their aid stations. Like a Red Bull Can shape. A super easy nipple to get it out. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be good to run with. I would take that. And then if you get personal aid as a pro at Iron Man events or even some 70.3s, like World Championships, you can put those bottles out and grab one every lap.

So there are ways around it, but the carbs is not a problem. Yeah, it's funny. I do think that you're right. The fluid is the harder thing to get right. And so what do you guys do? Like, Paula, what do you do with fluid in a 70.3? Do you take fluid every single mile? If so, do you alternate between different types?

Usually in a 70.3, I'll just take water along with my gels. And just, yeah, I'll grab a cup every aid station and get it in as much as I can. But it's barely anything. Is there a reason you don't do the electrolytes or Coke or anything like that? I just feel like I'm getting that through my gels. You're like, I made it this far in the race. water is going to be fine. Jackie really likes Coke.

I've never tried doing Coke. Maybe I need to. Flat warm Coke. Yeah. Next question and potentially our last one here is from Lewis. In a recent sprint, I went down a data rabbit hole comparing my speed and power to some other athletes and was noticing quite a discrepancy like 1.7 miles per hour slower at identical watts. I was in my TT bars almost the whole race

and felt like I was really tightly compact and peering over my hands. But then I looked at race picks. I can't help but think my TT position looks so slow and that it's a classic age grouper position with an open chest and head miles above my hands.

How can I look less age grouper and more like a Remco or Paula? Lewis. Yeah, good luck, first of all. Yeah, this is not an age grouper only phenomenon. We also feel this way, like, I look so good, especially with swimming. And then you look at a video. You think you feel good.

God damn, that is not what I am. That's not me, baby. Yeah, I do this a lot too. If someone's not hidden their power, I'll go see different segments within the bike ride or the race and see what was my power versus their power and then what was our speed or time over that segment. And usually for me personally, my power is a lot lower for a similar time over that segment. And I don't know if that means I'm more arrow or my bike is lighter

or I think a lot of it also comes down to how efficient your pedal stroke is. My philosophy is I don't think Taylor Nib is pushing 50 watts more than all of us. I think she just is so efficient in her pedal stroke in the way that she rides that whatever power she's putting in is completely translating to speed. So why I like this question is because it is so obvious. how little power has to do with anything. There's so much more. And when you're racing, the only thing that matters is speed. So comparing watts to watts with other people is completely irrelevant because, yeah, even having your head a little bit higher or having your cranks a little bit too short or having your, you know, there's a lot of factors that go in to how quick you go pushing a certain

amount of watts. And so, I don't know, it's kind of an interesting tool, but also it can like make you feel like you suck if you look if you dive too deep into the Strava dads Lewis look at the pros they are a lot of them recently are sitting much more upright you might be surprised to see that I think there's a difference though between sitting upright

and like having your head to go upright yeah yeah because yeah a lot of people their front ends are coming up but they're still able to tuck their heads more yeah the basis of a lot of like the last couple of times we've been to the wind tunnel with Paula is like, okay, where is the spot that your arms and your hands and your shoulders can be that allows you to actually effectively tuck your head and be comfortable in that position

and see where you're going? Because I think it's very easy like, oh, I can get myself into this like super crunched over position but my head's sticking way up, but it's probably a net positive if your arms are further up and that allows you to like relax your shoulders and drop your head more. Yeah. So I would play with that a little bit. You could probably do that in your garage, just like try to find the position. by looking in the mirror or having a GoPro setup or something

that you can give a little bit of feedback that feels comfy and gets you a little bit more your hands in front of your face and allows you to drop your head in front of your body a little bit more. That's true. I think getting a bike fit would be the gold standard, but if you can even just set up a video of yourself and make changes visually,

because like you said, what you feel like is not what you look like. So if you're able to get a little bit of visual feedback after a minute of riding and then you make a change and you do a minute of riding again and then actually training that position. So if you're like, oh, this looks really good and you know what that feels like,

maybe have a cue like my chin is one inch from my bottle, something like that, so that you have a cue when you're out on the road of how to ride where your head should be to look how you want to look. Definitely do this little process with your arrow helmet on. Oh yeah, that's true. Because that's the other thing.

Like what arrow helmet you're wearing could massively impact the visual of how good it looks. Yeah, a lot of the time, if I'm riding my TT bike with my road helmet, the prevail especially, it kind of sticks up a lot, so it doesn't look as super sleek as it does when I'm wearing an arrow helmet, obviously. But it does make a big difference visually. But I think Strava is the enemy of joy. That's what Paulo texted me last week.

Don't dig too deep into the stats. I was comparing my run cadence to like someone else who was doing a similar workout. And Paulo said, you know the old Chinese proverb, Strava is the enemy of joy. Yeah. Yes, of course. God, they were so wise back then. If you use Strava as a comparison tool, yes, sometimes it's kind of helpful. But also it can be a joy sucking.

Yeah. I love, I love the old Chinese proverb. That's good, Paula. Let's do one quick little last question because I thought this one was fun, and I'm curious what you guys have to say about this. Hey, everyone, I love listening to the podcast, and a question is about body glide.

Do you put body glide or some type of anti-friction product on your skin before or after you put on sunscreen? I read both ways and wanted your opinion. Thanks, Mark. This seems so obvious to me, but maybe I'm missing something. What would you do? Body glide and sunscreen? I mean, I would put the sunscreen on first

because you want that to absorb into your skin and the body glide you want to literally stay on the surface of the skin so that it... Guys, I put body glide where the sun does not shine. That's what I was thinking. I'm not putting body gliding on the skin that's exposed to the sun. That's not rubbing anything.

I guess you're right. I guess you're right. But I'm thinking like on your neck. Like, you know, I put bodyline like on my neck. Yeah. You make a great point, though. The neck is the one exception, in which case, yeah, I'd put sunscreen on first, then body glide. Okay.

And then anywhere else, it means nothing? Anywhere else, it's like legs, arms, just sunscreen. One or the other. Right. And then underneath the kit areas is body glide. Yeah, it's not like the body light makes you more aerodynamic in the wind. It's only on areas that are rubbing against clothing. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know scientifically. if that's the right way though. Like maybe the Vaseline cancels out the sunscreen. I don't know. Oh, I see. I say. No, I think I would like apply the sunscreen,

let it dry as much as possible, and then cake on the body glide. I think the bodyglide will just sit over the top. It's not only like soaking into your skin so much. If you think about it the opposite way, like putting sunscreen on after body glide, that's just not getting into your skin. That makes no sense.

It makes no sense. So you have to put sunscreen first, even if it is, you know, not working this. same after the slide. Nick, we have to do that question. Okay, that was a huge tangent that we're not putting in the podcast, but we didn't even wrap up the podcast. We didn't wrap up the pod, yeah. But we are going to save that audio. We're going to save that audio and maybe if you're lucky Sunday, we'll release it. TTL after dark.

That's a good idea. That's a real TTL after dark. I think that's just like a great basis for like a little bit of a breakdown, like a podcast where we focus on it a little bit. Yeah, that could be interesting to get a little behind the scenes. Yeah, an actual thematic podcast. The promise of what we were just talking about was Instagram, Strava, the podcast, the vlog, the apparel, our joy of all those things, how much they are impacted by validation from others, stuff like that.

It's an interesting topic. But some of the stuff we said, I think, would surprise people and not be great for our brand. Well, maybe, yeah. But there were so many more good questions, but this is what we had time for today. I have a rental car. I'm going to drive into the bayou and do a swamp tour today. So it'll be interesting and exciting in a very new way for me.

Are you going to see alligators? Yeah. You better see alligators. Yeah. But you're just in your own car, unguided. No, no. I'm driving down and then I'm in like a little pontoon, like 20 person thing. and I'm getting two-hour guided tour with other strangers.

Oh, so you're on a boat. Yeah, on a boat. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Is it one of the ones with the fans? Hopefully this isn't the last time you see me. Oh, is it the one with the fans? It might be.

It might be. No, I think those might be for like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It could be. I want to ride. I want to ride to those someday. Those are cool. Post some picks on your story.

Okay. Yeah, exactly. I think, I think our next TTO, I want to see it. Business vehicle. Marketing vehicle needs to be a hovercraft. I built a hovercraft for a science fair project in middle school. And the title was, can a Hoover hover?

Because it was using a vacuum cleaner to do it. I think this is the perfect triathlon support vehicle. You can support it on the water. You just drive right up onto the land, you know. Right, of course. What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, world trathlon. This is what you should be using for broadcasts.

Smart. Drones out. Hovercraft's in. We'll be back next week with more super important things to talk about. Thanks for listening, everybody. Bye. See ya.