That Triathlon Life Podcast - TTL Mad Libs, alcohol before Kona, cooling tips for extreme heat, and more!

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

We're recording at 7:15pm and going to bed at 7:30, which means we are bending time and space to record this. First up: TTL Mad Libs, a new segment submitted by Mike the Botox guy, in which we fill in a Kona race guide and somehow end up with Pierce Brosnan at the finish line. Then we get through a full question bag before someone's bedtime.This week we discussed:Kona apparel update: almost everything sold out; what's still available at the Castelli booth on race day and why you can't say "Kona" inside the expoYour proudest Strava CR or QOM — Eric's COVID-era Portland climb rampage, Paula's Bend segments, and Nick's Santa Monica Pier sprint UpLosing 30-45 seconds per mile in the second half of a 70.3 run: fitness limiter, pacing problem, or both?How pro personal needs bottles work at 70.3 Worlds — the sticker system, race number order, and why Paula's never actually used oneThe best triathlon commentatorsShould athlete vitals be shown on the broadcast? Alcohol before a key race — how Paula and Eric have approached it differently this year, and the NA whiskey price problemWaterproof shoes for a 240-mile trail race: Gore-Tex uppers, the bathtub water retention test, and the dry pair rotation strategyCooling techniques for extreme heat: ice bandanas, hands, neck, and where not to put ice cubesAero helmets, bucket hats, and the Omius — where the line is between functional and ridiculousTorn wetsuit: repair it, cut the sleeves off, or buy new? A big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive. To submit a question — or a Mad Libs — head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Findlay. I'm Nick Goldstone. And Nick Goldston is currently grinning from ear to ear, giggling like little girl because he cannot wait to share the game that he's prepared for us today. So this is therefore a very special episode. If you're new here, Paul and Iber are both professional triathletes, Nick's professional musician, amateur triathlete. We'd love to talk about sport. Talk a little bit about what's going on for us in the sport, sport in general, and thanks to people who write into the podcast,

we have questions to answer. So if that's you, thank you so much. If it's not you yet, get on that. Is saying giggling like a little girl going to get us canceled? I mean, that brings to mind

like a cute thing to me, not a negative, weak thing. Oh, Lammy's here with us. That's sweet. I don't think I've seen it on camera yet. That's really nice.

Under my shirt where it belongs. We might get canceled for that. I can't keep your track. The reason I'm giggling is because we had a game, a segment submitted by a listener that is easily the best ever submission. And I think potentially the best segment that we could have on this podcast. Oh, it's Madlives. It's Madlives.

And I think we're going to be doing it a lot more. So if you guys like this as listeners, you need to submit your own MadLivs. I'm just looking at it. And this was done so well. And I think there's room for improvement too, but it's really done so well. But we will get to it. We're building suspense here because we're storytellers. But let's talk about, let's give some context here.

It's 7.18 p.m., which makes it 4.18 a.m. for me, Europe time. I got back in last night. You guys are fully adapted back to Oregon time? Not exactly. I feel like we'll have one day of good sleep and then one day we'll wake up at 2 a.m. And then one day of good sleep and then we'll wake up at like 3.30 a.m.

So it's, we're getting there, but we both don't feel normal quite yet. Are there any things that you guys do that you wouldn't normally be able to do because you're waking up so early now? Like, is there a silver lining here? The silver lining is we're going to bed at 7.30, which is in 11 minutes. So we better rip through this podcast.

That has not really helped the time zone acclamation. Well, it's enjoyable, though, because we finished dinner and we're like, well, there's nothing left to do. And I'm tired. I'm going to sleep. Yeah. Nice. So I've enjoyed it. I've been pretty productive with the 5 a.m. wake-ups, which is pretty nice.

Is there any Kona updates of like apparel and stuff? I am out of the little bit of stuff. In terms of the stuff that we put up, there might be like an extra, extra large here and there. But that does not mean if you are going to Kona that you're completely out of luck. Kestelli has prepared for your apparel enjoyment, a bunch of really cool things with one of the designs of the T-shirts that we put out. And they're going to have it on running shirts, cycling kits, and those really cool

gravel adventure hoodies. There will also be like a technical hat, just a little bit of cool shit to get in the actual Expo and yeah, we're hard at work planning the Kona edition of the donut run. Did you guys, is it public knowledge that you can't sell anything that says Kona in the expo? No, because I didn't freaking know. Anything that says Kona, you can't sell it in the expo. Yeah, that's a crazy rule.

They can make whatever rules they want in their own expo. The thing is, is it because they want people to buy the Iron Man merch that says Kona on it? Yeah, exactly. They don't want, they're treating it like it's, quote, the Super Bowl and it's not. but since it's their expo, they can control whatever goes on inside of it. Exactly. They can do that. But obviously, you could stand on the other side of the street from the expo and do whatever you want.

Yeah. Yeah. Funny. Funny rule. Yeah. We did warn everyone that things would sell out, so I don't feel as bad. Eric, I thought you said last week you were going to buy another cable, which is also the thing you said the week before that. He can't hear you.

I can't hear anything. Out of nowhere. Okay. Well, we're having technical difficulties. I guess you just need to buy Apple headphones. That's the solution. It's just this stupid-ass cable. That came with the headphones.

Yes. He's at a loss. Hello? Hello? This is really great radio. It's like, I guess you could go get the H2O audio Zwift headphones.

Have we really come this far? They do actually have cable like this. Where are those? I think we gave them to Adele. I swear I saw. Yeah. I swear I saw. They're in the garage.

They're in the garage. They're in the garage. we do like the Zwift H2O audio ones, but we had some other non-ZWIF-branded ones that I think... They're just, you know, they're built to sweat on. They're not built for maximum comfort.

How's that, Eric? Oh, my God. That's so much better. Why is that so hard? Like, why do you just got to make them freaking cute and square? Like, we just freaking make them work. Okay, well, we are back here.

And we're going to start with this segment, which I hope will be a reoccurring segment. called TTL Madl MadLbs. You're making a jingle? I'm making a jingle tonight somehow. By the way, the podcast comes out tomorrow to everyone listening, so we're making it work here. We don't feel that bad for Nick, though.

Yeah, no one ever feels that bad for Nick. We literally would have done it on any other night. Okay, so this is from Mike in Philadelphia. Also, he wanted to update us that the Botox wore off and he can move his forehead again. Do you guys remember this guy? Yes. Remember the forehead arrow?

He couldn't see in his T-T position because of the Botox. That was so great. So this is the Botox guy made up the Madlips game. Correct. Correct. He's a funny guy. Yes, he is. So obviously the Botox didn't get to his brain?

Also, didn't he send us a picture of him and his wife? And they're like super attractive? Oh, yes. That's correct. It all. I remember that too. Yeah. I'm like, okay, whatever you're doing, it's working.

Yeah. I'm like, mm, okay. Okay, okay. So we're going to, we need to obviously build this up. So, um, I'm going to take some creative liberties here. Eric, can you come up with a fun nickname for Paula? Just a fun nickname? That I would like say in public in front of other people. Okay, well, we're on the podcast right now. So, so, G. G0.X is not going to pass the censors. So, so Eric, let's get another one here. It doesn't have to be anything too crazy. It can be like P-Dog, Heather. accent style or something like that.

Are you texting while we're playing MadLips? I don't, this is... Okay. Okay, I'm going to come up with it. It's going to be a PP fire, okay? PP fire. I need a mode of transportation from Paula. Scooter.

Okay. Now I need an animal from Eric. Any animal. A narwhal. Oh, perfect. Paula, a website? The feed.com. Okay, the feed.

The feed brought by Zrift. in the wild. Okay, now, Eric, I need a plural noun. Dogs? Dogs. That's maybe the most boring answer you could have given, but we will accept it. Okay, airplanes. Airplanes is better.

Okay, great. Article of Clothing, Paula. Thong. Oh, perfect. And now, depending if you're Australian or not, that can mean different things. Body part, Eric. Not who's good to have a little girl Earlobe

Earlobe is good, yes Okay, verb, Paula We're almost there Just a few more Uh kiteboarding Great Is that a verb?

It's a activity It's perfect, it's perfect, it's perfect, it's perfect A liquid, Eric Um, Morton Morton Morton, perfect actually. Okay.

Morton is a gel. Yes, liquid, right? Fruit or vegetable, Paula? A cumquot. Camquot is so good. I don't know. I don't think Mike from Philadelphia works for Madlibs.

And then a celebrity, Eric. This is the last one. Pierce Brosnan. Who, by the way, has a house here in Malibu. Okay. Here in Malibu.

Well, I don't live in Malibu. But I know which one it is. He's my neighbor. Exactly. Zip codes over. Okay, you guys ready for this? So ready. Oh, no.

I missed the first one. Sorry. Give me one more adjective. Shit. Anybody who's here for the first time is gone. You do it, Eric. Slippery. Okay.

You guys, is it bad that I'm rusty on what an adjective? I need to go back to elementary school, I think, instead of Tacona. That sounds like what I need to do. Okay, here we go. Here we go. With Pee-P-Fire going to Iron Man World Champs in Kona, here's some tips for you to have a slippery trip and race. Before you leave, check your scooter twice.

You don't want to miss the trip. Line up someone to watch your narwhal. You can easily find help on the feed.com. Make sure to pack plenty of airplanes as that's all they accept in Hawaii. Don't skip the underpants run. It's the only time all year you can wear a thong in public. Oh my God. Neal it.

Perfect. On race day, lube up your ear. earlobe, you don't want to chafe, and don't be shy about it. Remember your goggles. You'll be kiteboarding next to about 2,000 people. Okay, that worked great. I'm into it. Pack an extra bottle of Morton for your bike. It gets hot out there and bring sunscreen. Wow, liquid and you chose Morton, Eric. That is just like, perfect. And bring sunscreen. By mile 18, you'll be the color of a cumquot. In no time, you'll hear Pierce Brosnan say the famous words, Pee, Pee, Pee, Fire, you are an Iron Man. Thank you.

Wow. applause. I mean, that was beautiful. And surprisingly, some of those just fit perfectly right in there. Well, it seems there. It's almost like we got Kona on our brains. Wow, you're right. It is on our minds here.

What's the outside temp's there, by the way? Just so everyone knows what you guys are dealing with. In Oregon? Yeah, they're pleasant, right? It's as pleasant as it can possibly be. It's like kind of crispy in the chili in the morning. It's kind of the opposite of training for Kona. middle of the day is like beautiful fall 70 degrees.

Yeah. It's hot in the garage though. I bet it is. I bet it is. Things are heating up in the garage. Okay, let's get going on the questions. But thanks for that game. Yeah, that's amazing.

And if anyone wants to submit games to the podcast, questions kind of once we don't use them, it's very unlikely that we'll use them in the future. And so if you really thought you had a great question, you could submit it again, maybe try to reword it slightly. maybe make it a little tighter potentially, just a little shorter.

Tighten would work, probably. I think there's some good questions that we don't put in just because there's a lack of time. Yes, that's right. We have enough questions to do three podcasts a week and we would never dream of that. Oh, of course. One of us would never dream of that for sure.

But, okay, so you can submit your questions to the podcast at that triathlon life.com slash podcast and if you submit a game those I put into a separate file that can be used in the future. So those are evergreen so if you want to come up with the Mad Lips, do it now and it will be

very likely used in the future if it's good. Unless it's terrible. Yeah. Be creative. It doesn't have to be so triathlon themed, although it should be triathlon adjacent. Podcast supporters,

you are the reason this podcast keeps going. We don't do ads as of right now. We've never done a single ad on this podcast, and the podcast supporters are the only thing that actually supports this podcast. So we really appreciate that. You can become a podcast supporter at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast, which is the same place. You can do question submissions and game submissions. And also we have a podcast winner this week, a podcast supporter winner, and you're going to get apparently your initials are KR. That's a little, what's it called?

A foreshadowing. And you're going to get to pick since you're not only a podcast supporter, but you're also a coffee, TTL coffee subscriber. We are going to let you choose if you want some of the instant thump coffee, TTL thumb coffee, or there's also, you can get a cool little wallet that we have. We have a few of these wallets from Topo designs. You can choose either one of those. So if you are drum roll, Christine Runninger, that's right, KR, thank you for listening to the podcast.

And I'm so sorry if your initials are KR and you're not Christine Runinger. Just let us know which one you'd prefer and make sure you confirm your address or if it's the right one on file, that's fine too. And we'll send you whichever you choose. Thank you for being a podcast supporter, Christine. And thank you to all the other podcast supporters as well. I read each one of your names and dream about each one of you every night before I go to sleep. First question here is from Zeb. Hello.

What Strava Crown slash CR? So that means biking or running. Are each of you most proud of all time or recent? Probably one that happened outside of your race. Otherwise, this is just was your proudest race effort, Zeb. Yeah. I guess Paula, for you, I mean, it can be inside of a race if that's what it feels like for you. But, I mean, how many do you guys have?

Because I could count fine. I don't think you guys could count. out yours. Yeah, I could count mine from my ride today. Could you even? On two hands. No, just kidding. I don't know.

During COVID, I went on a bit of a rampage of trying to get all the QOMs in Portland that go up to Skyline Road. And they're all like 15 to 20 minute climbs. And I got like my all time best power in all that year from doing those climbs on a road bike. They're pretty steep. And I think I successfully got them all. And then I also got them. them out lemon K-O-M that year. That was a big deal, yeah. Which has since been taken by Lauren D. Chrysendos. Right, yeah. Someone like that. Yeah. So, and then I actually tried to go

after it again and missed it by 69 seconds. Nice. Yeah. So those are the two, I guess. But I, it was really like a COVID thing. I was like so excited about it during COVID because it was no races. So I thought it was really fun to like pick something and go after it. And now I kind of get them during workouts if I'm going really hard, but without really, you know, going after them. I don't think that's fair to say. You don't kind of get them during workouts. You get them during workouts without knowing or trying. You get them all the time. If no one, if you don't follow Paula on Strava, you're missing out. You should definitely follow Paula and Strava to see what it's like. No, a lot of these segments are like, there's not a lot of female cyclists here that do with them or I'm on my

TT bike and so yeah I do get fairly often get them here but if I lived in LA I wouldn't well

maybe just fewer but you did the Mandiville one and you basically you would have gotten it if it was a less

crazy windy day you were second I believe and that's one of the most competitive ones Eric do you have an answer

for this Eric um yeah I've got a I got a couple answers it's not really a course it's not really a CR but I got the

course record at the Smith Rock 50K a couple years ago. And that was actually very exciting because some serious bend trail runner hitters have done that. And that was my first 50K. I used to have the course record for the up and down Mount

Bachelor. Like pretty scrambly. I guess I just shouldn't say scrambling, but pretty technical run route. I think I'm second on that now. Wait, Eric, for the for the Smith Rock one, didn't you actually take it from the national champion?

Yeah, he's a little bit older now, but yeah, Mario Mendoza, he's super legit and does UTMB each year. And he, yeah, is like four-time trail-run national champion or something. This is like a question is just an opportunity for us to brag. Yeah, why not? Well, I mean, we could have a really interesting answer, you know? Well, my answer is the Santa Monica Pier has a segment called Pier Sprint Up, and that is my favorite one. I feel like that's like a cultural one. Yeah, that's cool.

The other one that pops into my mind is I went really hard around this loop in Tucson called the Tortolita Preserve during COVID. And it's like a very windy trail run. And I was not like being a trail runner yet. And Sam Long went after it a year later and he didn't get it. Oh. That made me pretty happy and I think I still have to.

No, no, no. It is Sandy. quite twisty. Yeah, it's not ideal for a big tall guy. How do you know that Sam was going after it though? Because I saw him like I followed him on Strava at the time and I saw. And he said, go and after this. And I think somebody sent it to me and he had like gone and reconned it and then like went for it or something.

Just to be clear, we do like Sam Long on this podcast. Oh, yeah. Just to be clear we like Sam Long. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, I said no, no, no. No questions. That's fine.

Okay, enough bragging, I guess. Next question is from Ed. Do I need to learn to suffer? I have the grit to keep going when I get cramps, pain, and the I don't wantas, but when heart rate legs, nutrition, and lungs are all good, why can't I keep my pace? On second halfs of 70.3 runs, I often lose 30 to 45 seconds per mile. I tell my legs to go faster. They stubbornly won't respond. Am I just not willing to suffer? 30 to 45 seconds per mile is a humongous dip in pace for the second half of a run.

So what do you guys think here? Is it problem mental or is there something else going on? Yeah, he thinks his nutrition is good. His legs are fine and everything is good except he still slows down. I would argue that maybe your nutrition is not optimized. Sounds like everything is not fine. That's a great argument, I'd say. Yeah, because I would say that if you're doing the sport

and you obviously know how to suffer and you can always get a little bit more out of yourself, but 45 seconds per mile is more than just the willingness or not to suffer, I think. there's likely a fitness problem, not a fitness problem, a fitness limiter or a fitness cap. I may think you need to do an Iron Man. Then you go back to the 70.3s and you're like, this is way shorter and then you can go harder. Good idea. All roads lead to do an Iron Man? But do you think that there's a pacing issue here too of... Maybe.

You're starting a little too hot. You're ready to suffer. but the first half of a 70.3 run, in my experience, when I do them right for me as an age trooper, I am not in that much pain. And the second half is where it gets really difficult, especially towards the end. So if you're already feeling like you're at the limit

in the first few miles of your 70.3 run, I wonder if you're just the issue here might, in addition to fitness, be pacing. I would say so. And we've talked about this, like, we don't know what this person's time is, but plenty of 70.3 age group times are, you know, like closer to a professional Ironman time than they are to like a professional 70.3 time. And this is certainly the case with anybody doing an Ironman. You go out the first three quarters of the marathon. You're like, this is great. This is easy. This is easy until you just all of a sudden can't hardly move anymore. So I'm guessing it's a bit of that. Yeah, that's a great point, Eric. It reminds you of something that Paula said in her placid recap when she was like, I kind of thought, that maybe we were going out too fast

at the beginning of that run, her and Marta. But she was also like, okay, but at the end we're both going to be tired. So I might as well run fast now because I'm going to be going slow later either way so I could at least get some fast miles in now. So I wonder if that's Ed's thought process there, if it's like an Ironman equivalent time.

Yeah. And I'm just going to guess as an age group athlete, the chances that you're able to put in enough training to have like the muscular endurance to get through an entire 70.3, like feeling kind of on the limit the whole time is just like, that's what professionals do of you feel like you could blow up at any moment for four hours. Like that's an extreme level of fitness. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, but he obviously has the self-awareness. So I don't think it's a problem with willingness to suffer. No. Yeah, agreed. I don't know. But also suffering sucks. Like, of course,

your brain's going to tell you not to. Do you guys think there's ever a point you get to where you want to push and you physically could, but there's something that is between those two that won't let you? Like a part of your brain, the subconscious part of your brain, it's like, no, we're not doing this because we don't want to suffer. Yes, that happens a lot to me. No. Not to Eric?

I think the only thing that I could relate to with that is, like after I had a heat stroke for many years, just my body would just like, nope, we're not doing that. Even though like, I didn't feel like I was going that hard and it would just really quickly, just everything would shut down.

Right. But I feel like more often my problem is just, you know, like I paste it like shit. And I, my heart rate is obviously too high. Yeah. Yeah. Great question, Ed. Good luck.

Next question is from Lucas. Hey, team. I'll try to keep this one short. When spectating the 70.3 worlds, I noticed a line of six numbered tables at an aid station, which I assume is for the pro's special needs. That's what they call it, right? Yeah, very nice. Personal needs.

Yes, personal needs. There's still a lot of confusion around this. Yes. That got me really curious as to how that works. Do you give your stuff to the organizers and they put it there? Do your own people put your stuff there? How does the athlete find their bottle on a table full of bottles of other athlete's stuff? Thanks a ton for your work.

The croissant run was amazing. and binging through probably two dozen episodes while bikepacking back home after the championships was great entertainment. Lucas, that is awesome. Heck yeah. You bike packed home. Well, I mean, that's great that you listened to the podcast,

but the fact that you bike packed home is sick. Love it. Yeah. Also, if you guys are ever bored on the trainer, you guys, as in the listeners, I went back and watched one of our really old vlogs, and now YouTube just feeds me all of our old vlog. and suggest them to me.

And they're really good. And there's probably 300 plus TTL videos. You could go back and watch. So if you're new to the podcast or you just listen to the podcast and you want to go watch some old vlogs that we did, they used to be so good. I mean, they're still good, but they're different now. I feel like now they're a little bit more artistic and we're a little bit jaded. And there's different vibes.

Yeah, we, Nick. And Nick is not in a lot of the old ones. I'm not in them at all. I didn't even exist yet. I wasn't even born yet. You weren't even born yet. You weren't even born yet. You weren't even born to us.

Anyway, that's adjacent suggestion. If you're... The podcast is kind of our stream of consciousness, but the vlogs, Eric put in a ton of creative effort into those vlogs. And the fact that they're all still out there. A ton is not even an appropriate word to use.

Yeah. I mean, he would just like... The whole week was based, yeah, was based around it. But speaking of which actually, Eric and I put out a, this hasn't happened. We forgot to mention it. Eric and I put out a video a few days ago on Sunday of us doing some descending in Nice on the bike course, the 70.3 bike course. The day before Paula race.

Thanks, Paula. So check that out if you haven't. It's us kind of going. We said, I think it's called full gas, or full speed. It was not full speed. About three-quarter gas. But we thought full speed would get some clicks. Well, you would never.

even done the dissent and I hadn't done it in like six years or something. So that's it. It was respectable. And Nick did the music. Okay, back to the personal needs question. Yes. In our race packs, they give us stickers that we can put on two different bottles and you drop them off on race morning. And then they put them on this table in order of race number. So one through 60. So if you're number 10, you just look for number 10. Obviously it takes a little bit of navigating to find your bottle. But your first bottle's out on the first lap.

And then if you take that bottle, they'll put your second bottle out for the second lap. If you don't take your bottle on the first lap, they won't put out your second bottle. And you're allowed to attach up to two gels to it, I think, if you want. If they're well as secured, you're not supposed to freeze them. Then the stickers fall off. There's some rules. Do you get penalized if you knock someone else's over? I don't know. I've actually never picked up a personal needs bottle and normally don't even put one in because I like the on-course nutrition. But it is a nice option for people

that are really particular about what drinks they take during the rice. Yeah. Smart. That's how works. In Kona, I think it's more, I'll use it in Kona. Because you can, you'll take everything you could possibly get. You need everything you can get. Yeah. Definitely. Okay. Next question here. Who are your top commentators? So we have a couple of questions about the broadcast here, actually. your top commentators, do you have a take on athlete vitals being reported on air? Should the camera hold on athletes

in the penalty tent? Should the broadcast have a score? Okay, so let's hit these one by one. Who are your top commentators? God, it's so hard not to play favorites here. Well, we know most of them. I think Will McCloy is really good and brings a lot of

upbeat energy. Yeah, he is the hype man. He came from Supertry, and I think it's really cool. now that he's doing World Triathlon and Iron Man commentating. He's Australian. He's got a good voice for it. He knows the sport at this point. And he kind of feeds off of people like Rini or Danielle,

who have a little bit more deep knowledge of the athletes in the sport and experience themselves. And he brings like the color commentator kind of, I don't know. Excitement. Excitement level. Yeah. I do think the best commentator of all time is Barry Sheppley. which may be an unpop his opinion.

Barry was so good and he called like all the races I want in WTCS. So like when I envisioned myself winning those races, I hear Barry's voice. And I think he was so good in the way he got excited about it. And he knew every nitty-gritty detail about everything and everyone. And I do think that's an important part of it is to like know the sport and know the athletes. And it's hard to commentate a long race like at Iron Man or even a 70.3. So having some knowledge is super important. I think Vicki Holland's really good.

Yeah, she's doing a great job. Because she knows the sport super well is a world champion herself. I think Daniela and Rini have gotten a lot better and they're really good now. Maybe at first they were a little bit too shy, but now they're like really good at it. It's so hard. I don't think I could do it. I think that every time I hear them speak, I'm like, this is, it feels impossible to do it. And you can't make any mistakes.

Like there's no editing. There's no re-recording. Oh, Belinda's great. Yeah. We don't hear her as much because she's like much more coming on the challenge stuff. Yeah, and the real trath. She does real trath on a bit too. Oh, yeah.

I don't know. We basically just said everybody. But it's, uh... I do, I do think that... There's some people I think are really bad and I'm not going to say who they are. And Crowie. Crowie's good, too. I don't know.

Do you have a take on athletes vitals being reported on air? Like their heart rate and stuff? I just don't think that's accurate. I mean, they ask us for our max heart rate at the beginning of the year, the T-100, and proof of it. Right. And I just don't even really know what my max-hurt is, like, go on training beats. I'm not going to, I might never hit my max heart rate during the year. Well, I don't know if you've done a VO2 max test or whatever it is.

Yeah, right. But not everyone does that. That's kind of silly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They just want to accurately represent your percentage of max heart rate that you're working at, but I never look at those things on the screen and think, oh, that's for sure accurate. I think I'd much rather see who is currently breaking the rules via Race Ranger than what their power is. Yeah, nice. Okay, next question is from Chelsea.

Hey there, Tripod. I know you are also wine lovers. My coach doesn't drink at all. I find I have implemented a self-imposed no alcohol the month leading up for big races, including Kona. I know sleep and recovery are affected, but I can't imagine a weekly glass on my night out has a big impact. I'm curious how you treat alcohol ahead of a key race. Worth skipping altogether, or do you still enjoy a few drinks?

Thanks, Pumpurcona, Donut Run, Chelsea. Interesting. Paula has kind of changed this year. Wait, what's the question? I was texting Sam. Your alcohol strategy leading into big races or races in general. Oh, my alcohol strategy. Because we have not hidden the fact that we enjoy wine and a cocktail and the experience of that.

Yeah, in fact, we've gotten wine sponsorships on the podcast. We've received a couple free bottles. I kind of just just, I don't, like I like I like alcohol and like the feeling of having alcohol a little bit. But I don't miss it if I don't have it. And I don't like the feeling of the next morning when I feel like I have a headache or I feel like I've, compromised a night of sleep for it. So I just made the decision before Placid, like for a month. And then basically since, like, Placid, I haven't really had anything to drink either. Well, we split a bottle of wine with the Wadis when we got back from Nice.

Yeah, I don't have a hard rule of, like, I'm not drinking. But, you know, if it's in a social occasion where we're out for dinner with friends, but at home and going out for cocktails with you, like, yeah, I haven't had anything to drink. And it's more just a, I feel better thing. Eric, what about you? Have you changed, I mean, would you alter your alcohol intake if you're leading up to a race? Now probably, yeah. I go in phases. It's kind of interesting. I've just been like self-aware lately. I've gone for like three weeks straight without like missing it or wanting it at all and just like it actually doesn't even sound good. And I like to have old fashions. I like whiskey. And it's I really enjoy the routine of like making. drink in the evening and sitting down and it's yeah I obviously like the feeling of it too but like if I just run out of a bottle and I just don't go to the grocery store for a week it's not a big deal how much would it take away from the experience for you if I was able to get you a whiskey that

tasted identical so nothing in the taste change your routine would say the same but it had no alcohol I have gotten a couple of non-alcoholic drinks lately and I do enjoy that I think but it does away from it. A little bit. I think it's just not worth the price. Yeah. It's like an N-A cocktail is still $12 or $13. I know. I'm like, guys, what kind of racket is this? For a glass of sugar, I'm like, I will just drink scrap. I'll have an apple juice, please.

Thank you. That much tastes better, actually. Yeah, I've been really close to buying like a whatever, a non-alcoholic whiskey at the grocery store or the liquor store a couple times. And it's like $45. It's like actually the price of a halfway decent actual bottle of whiskey. But do they make it the same way and then just de-alcoholize it? Like maybe it actually does cost some similar amounts. I'm sure it might, but I would totally agree with you.

I don't know. But it's funny that we perceive the value as getting a little buzzed. Right. True. I had a non-al spritz in Spain at a restaurant a few nights ago. and it tastes very different than an alcoholic apparel spritz. Oh, you had an N.A. apparel spritz?

Yeah, yeah. And I don't, I basically never drink. And so I don't have a great, like, palate understanding of what alcohol should taste like. Like, I don't know what a good apparel spirits taste like versus a bad apparel spreads. I've had one before. I don't think that's a pretty basic drink. But if you go for, like, an old fashion, there is a pretty distinct difference, I think, between a good and a bad one. Yeah, right.

It's not that. similar from coffee where if you've never had one a cocktail before you can be like, whoa, that's bitter, why would you drink that? But then, you know, or wine, you like start to kind of understand a little bit of the different flavors and, you know, whatever. Yeah. But if there was

no alcohol involved at all, I think pretty much all bars would go out of business, yeah. Okay. Next question here is from B, from TTL, by the way. Moab 240 was a soaking one last year and it's looking gloomy weather wise for this year, according to the almanac, though anything could change.

She's racing Moab 240 just as a precursor. Running. 240 miles with her feet. Correct. With her feet. Yeah. Psycho. Amazing.

I'm pretty set on my shoes and what works for me and planning on bringing a few pairs to change into. None though are fully waterproof. Cue sad jingle Nick. Yeah. They are from my experience, which includes some wetware to blister-proof. for me, which I feel like, a side note, for a 240-mile running race,

feels like a humongously important thing. We know that blisters can end races, so. Would you trust changing socks often, knowing you're getting soaked either way, or make a last effort to grab a waterproof trail shoe to stay a bit more dry? And any waterproof ones you'd recommend, haven't found any that don't feel like heavy bricks on my feet. I'll be sending all the vibes to Kona while I'm in the desert, missing Harper's Zumis, don't tell Flynn be.

So first of all, do either of you have experience with waterproof shoes? Yeah, I think that a lot of shoe companies, well, at least on, I don't really know a lot about other shoe companies, but they'll make the same shoe just with a Gortex upper. So theoretically, the soul and the feel and the fit of the shoe should be the same. it's just that it's waterproof. So I've had shoes before that I wear in the winter that are more of a vortex upper.

It's a little bit thicker, less breathable, obviously, but don't fit any differently. So maybe could check if one of the shoes you're already like anyway comes in a waterproof version. Yeah, the downside that I've heard people say is like they will still get wet inside. And once they are wet inside, they're never drying out. That is the problem.

Yeah, that's the problem. Because you think they won't get water inside. But even with all the things you do, if it's really wet out, the likelihood of the water not getting in is so low. Yeah, unless it's like a 15-minute shower, in which case you probably didn't want a waterproof shoe for the other 55 hours of your race. Damn.

I don't know. I would just, if it was me, I would just kind of try to have a shoe in your arsenal that just does not absorb hardly any water. I noticed this when running with, when we were in Ventura, we had to do this run that had a bunch of stream crossings.

And like one day I didn't have anything but the cloud monster, which is a road running shoe, to be fair. And it was insane how much more water that retained relative to like the trail running version of the shoot. Just the fact that it was for trail running versus road running,

it did shed water much better. Yeah, the on trail shoot does, it's so permeable that my toes get so dusty if I'm running in bend because dust goes through it goes through my socks, but I'm assuming it acts the same way with water in the way that it could dry out. So if it's raining for an hour, then it's dry for an hour, you're actually getting the effect of the socks drying out. What I did for a swim run is I actually jumped in the water because you have to do that in swim run, right? And like I weighed my shoes before and after like three different pairs that I

wanted to potentially run in to see which one retains the most water. The least water. The least water. You'll least water. Yeah. So you could do that. Like just take your trail shoe and like fully submerge it in the bathtub and like, you know, I don't know, run around the block and see which one retained more water. What do you think about this idea? What if she bought, if it's her favorite shoe anyway and she knows that it works for her, what if she bought like three or four new pairs and try to see like if there are sections of the race that maybe aren't going to be raining for a while, you could put on a dry pair of shoes. And then if like,

Yeah, but worst case in a scenario, then you have three or four pairs of the shoes that you were going to buy anyway at some point and you're going to run through them anyway. Yeah, I guess it kind of depends on how often you have an aid station, how often you have a crewable aid station, and can your crew get a little bit of a read on what the future weather is going to be like? And then you make the gamble of like,

I'm going to continue wearing this wet pair of shoes for the next two hours because it should keep raining. But then at that next aid station after that, it looks like it might clear up. I'll save a pair of dry ones. That's a good idea. This is like one of my hesitations in Kona of dousing yourself in water is that your race shoes are getting soaking wet and your socks as well.

And it feels heavier and it could lead to more blisters. So I don't know what I'm getting. This won't really work in Kona because you do have to really douse yourself with water. But like for example, in Nice, I was really making a conscious effort not to get my entire body wet because I didn't want my shoes to get one. So it's not just a thing in trail running. It's also a thing in triathlon,

and it doesn't feel good to run with wet socks. I don't know if I'd necessarily change socks if I knew those were going to get wet again. Like, I don't know. So I'm imagining like these little plastic, like, teaky umbrellas that, you know, are like a Hayden Wilde's like visor with a hole in it. But those go around your ankles right above your shoe. So like the water just, you know, you got a little umbrella.

around each ankle. Keep your shoes. Yeah, I won't be doing that. It's very chic. I think, yeah, I can think of a couple of triathom brands that would. Oh, for sure. I feel like most of them, style is not a consideration.

Yeah. Anyway, we kind of exhausted that, but good question. It's fun to exhaust things from now, from time to time. By the way, I know Paula, you can't do this because you'll be running, but if you want to pour water on your head and you're worried that it's going to get in your feet, you just do the power V stand. and lean over a bit and the water gets nowhere near your feet.

It might be worth it. I think for me to run with wet feet, it's worth any amount of time not to have that. But professional athletes, you guys live in a different world. If you're dousing yourself so often, though, that it is then just on your body, you have to stay in that power of you for a while. That's the trade-off.

That's kind of epic. It's kind of rock star of you, I would say. A lot of the time, like triathlon races, too, don't have that much grip. So if they do get wet, you suddenly start to feel like you're kind of, slipping. Slippery.

My word for MADLibs. I always had this feeling if it was raining in the race like your feet would just, you wouldn't get as much

grip on the ground, obviously. But, well, haven't we seen people wipe out in WTSS races? Totally. Alistair Brownley

wiped out. It's his move. Yeah, because they've got so many hairpin turns and they're just freaking wiping out on the street. Those Adidas literally

had no grip on them. Just, those things were crazy. Slick on the bottom. What is the purpose? Just making them lighter? They're lighter if they have no grip? I don't know. I mean, I think it is like a pretty soft,

uh, rubbery compound. But yeah, if it's hydroplane, there you go. Be good luck in this long race. Yeah, B, oh my God. We will be following. Next question here is from Kara. Hey, TCL crew, interested to hear what Paula has tried for cooling during heat training or any of you. Have you found anything that helps or doesn't at all and isn't worth trying? I'm running a 24 hour trail relay in Texas. So there's no escaping the heat.

with summer training and the early fall race help. Oh my gosh. Yeah. The problem with heat training is that you're not, you're trying to not cool yourself. Like in the type of fabricated heat training I'm doing at home here in the garage. I'm like intentionally putting clothes on and having a heater and being in a greenhouse without cooling myself.

So I'm not practicing cooling techniques. I'm physiologically trying to adapt my body to tolerate heat. But when I was in Kona, I ran with a ice bandana, which I think really helped. I think any time that you can have ice on your body, whether it's in this bandana or down your kid or down your sports bra, even down your shorts, it's a good thing. So if there's access to ice, and I think in Kona, obviously, there's aid stations every mile. I'm not sure about the trail run, but that is the number one ticket is just keeping your body cool with ice and cold water. The ice bandana for me was by far the best thing. And something that did not work for me when we were in Cabo is I was so hot.

I was putting, I put ice down my kit and in the back of my kit and then eventually it made its way down into my crotch. And that did not feel good. I felt like I was like chafing and it was like, it was not, I don't think anyone, even though it's a great area to cool your body when you're overheating, I think while you're running and overheating, it's actually not great. Like holding the ice in my hands. on your balls.

It's like, it's, we don't need to get super graphic, but it's like, it's just like, you're, there's a lot of friction there and you don't want ice cubes in there. And even the water, it's just, it's going to make you chafe. It's not the same as your own sweat. Do you think it'd be same for women? Yeah, I think it would be the same for women. Okay. Yeah.

I don't think, I don't think it's, I think if you can like keep it around your hips or something, maybe that's fine. But I think that the ice bandana, I've used that for like backpacking as well. It's very, it's super. effective. Your neck is a great place for that too. There's a lot of blood flow there. Yeah, in Cabo, I felt like running with ice cubes in

my hands made a big difference. I tried to keep ice in both hands as long as possible and grab more to each aid station. And that was like the one time I feel like I've actually performed, you know, I haven't extremely blown up in hot weather.

And as much as we shit on bucket hats last week, if you're going to be in the middle of the day, for running for 24 hours? It did not. Well, people, we got a little bit of hate mail for the bucket hat stuff. Okay, you know what? Just because we didn't give them glowing reviews and say that the coolest thing ever,

a bunch of people who wear bucket hats get offended. Like, you know you're wearing a goofy looking thing. Okay. It's true. Yeah, I totally stand with Eric. And you got to be okay with people being like, that's a little goofy. Oh my God. Is that bad?

Can I not say that? No, you can say that. The police boss, Paula? I don't think it's not, it's a bad thing, but it's, it's an unusual piece of apparel, let's be honest. And then the last thing is the, what's it called like the Mobius? I forget what it's called the hat. Well, the omnius. Omnius.

Omnius. But didn't, didn't you guys try it and found it to be not super effective? I've never really given it a fair shot, to be honest. I have one, yeah. Maybe I should try it. I'll bring it to Kona. Maybe I'll try it. Yeah, might as well.

I mean, so many people wear them. Even when it's not that hot, people are wearing these goofy things. To the point where they don't even look goofy anymore, they're like arrow helmets. She's like, yeah, you got this weird square thing on your head and you don't even notice because everyone's doing it. It is funny that people outside of the sport think the arrow helmets look insane. And I am just 100% used to it at this point. I don't even think about it. The ones that do actually do look insane still are the Pock, the new Pock era helmets.

If you guys watch the T.T. World Championships. Or the Gero, the Gero one is crazy, too. The Gero is crazy. But the Oatley one, or the ones the EF wears, they're so ridiculous. But they, if you have them in the right position, like Cedrine, this French rider. Because they're faring. She looks like a little rocket. Like it fits her so perfectly.

But then she puts her head up at the end of the race. And it looks so goofy. Put your head back down. Well, Eric sent us that reel of, who was it? Who was the athlete, Eric, the cyclist? Some of South America, I think. I'm not positive. But it was showing the difference between like a fast triathlete set up and then a pro

cyclist TT setup. And then the pro cyclist, you'd see the helmet is just flush with his upper back. It's just, there's a horror fixed. And they're not looking up the road, of course. Well, it was the same person. And for whatever reason, this guy had just posted two different pictures. and one was where he was fully locked in and couldn't see where he was going.

And one was where he could, you know, see where he was going and see Race Ranger if he was doing that. Yeah. And that's just like the difference when you see a pro cyclist with this insane position. It's because someone's in their ear being like, okay, and three, two, one,

you need to look up, grab brakes and turn left. Right, right. I'm surprised there hasn't been, and I'm glad there hasn't been, but something like, like, you know, with climbers when they're belaying, sometimes a belayer has these like mirror glasses so they can see up without craning their neck.

I'm surprised we haven't seen that, at least in a widespread way, in triathlon. We were actually talking to Chris Lieto when we were in Conan or recon, and he tested a thing like this. But I think what he said was he'd like sweat on it so much. Oh, that it became ineffective almost immediately. I see. Ah, yes. Hazards of the trade. Okay, final question here from Mark.

I recently did Iron Man 70.3, Wisconsin. Let's go! while putting on my wetsuit, I tore it a little bit in the arm. I've been thinking about getting a sleeveless sweatsuit. Should I repair this wetsuit or could I cut the sleeves off of this sweatsuit and get another sleeved wetsuit? Mark, I love your utilitarian approach to this. What do the pros think? No, obviously you can't just cut the sleeves off.

I don't know. I think it'll look crazy because the sleeveless ones, they're not the just the circumference of your arm. They're a little bit wider to offer comfort. like a seam that ideally prevents a little bit of seepage. The only way that it could theoretically work is if you want to cut off like the legs of your wetsuit, you'll notice the seams on the inside are like taped and sealed, etc. So if you cut them, they're not going to fray. And if your sleeve seams, if you had similar seams like that in there,

theoretically maybe you could do it without it tearing way worse. But I think your bigger problem is going to be it's not designed. to be ultra-skin-tight right at this new edge or seam that you've not created. And I think that thing's just going to fill up with water like a balloon. You're going to be dragging a balloon through the water is whatever. I guess if you're going to throw it away anyway, like go for it and report back, please. No, you don't need to throw it away. We have torn so many wetsuits and repaired them with like aquasile or any of these

wetsuit repair specific goose. And it works perfectly amazing. It doesn't look great, but it absolutely works. Well, it's black. I mean, it doesn't matter. What suits are ugly anyway. It doesn't matter what it looks like. But you can buy it at REI.

You can order it on Amazon. And it's just basically this paste that fills in the gap. And this is mostly if you have like a fingernail hole. Yeah. But those can get bigger. Those can expand. Oh, totally. Yeah.

I'm just thinking if he actually has a big rip, like a hole rip. Yeah. Like the size of a baseball. This won't work. Yeah. Yeah. I have a wetsuit repair kit that's more intended for surfing, but it has like a patch that goes on the jersey on the inside,

and you can actually sew it and glue it. So it's like it can be possible to repair a bigger patch. Yeah, and at the price of a wetsuit, it's worth repairing it. For sure. Versus buying a new $600 wet suit. Definitely just repair it. The only thing you don't want is water coming in the hole. So as long as you've prevented that from happening, it's totally wearable.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, definitely worth, unless wetsuits can be thrown in the garbage when you've worn them through in like the arms in the armpits when the material has become really thin and then, you know, you can't really repair that. That's just the material is gone. They do have a lifespan. But if a fingernail a hole or something like that, that's definitely worth repairing. And then just buy yourself a sleeveless suit. You can buy a sleeve of suit too. I think that's why wetsuit often come with those gloves, right? to prevent you from getting your feet in a lot of them about this. Wetseys come with gloves to like put it on and white Mickey Mouse gloves.

Oh my God, I've never noticed that. Have you ever bought a new wetsuit? Yeah, I've bought three. Oh. Yeah, most of the, I think the orca ones do. Remember when we didn't have wetsuits sponsors? So we just got a bunch of wetsuits. Yeah.

Most of them came with the white gloves. I remember when we did the video. Yeah. That was fun. good video. If you want to go watch an old TTL video, Eric testing out different wetsuits and see how fast they are. As he painstakingly got in and out of wetsuits, anyone knows how horrible of an experience

that is on the pool deck when you're already wet? Nightmare. Yeah. He's really fast to taking him off, though. He is. Kicks him off. I'll give you lessons for a hundred bucks. Well, I know how. It just feels like I'm going to break my hip if I do it. Listeners. Oh, listeners. Yeah, I think

most listeners are. be in this boat too. We're not acrobatic enough to whip off our wetsuits. It's all in the kick. It's in the like, it's in the freaking, it's all in the ankles. That's the pod this week. We are various levels of energy, but we made it through. Well, you know, it's 45 minutes past my bedtime.

We're always going to be various levels of energy. We're athletes. Somebody's always going to be a little tired from a little thing. I just started training for Kona today, so I'm actually a bit tired. if you don't mind actually I'm serious I'm a little tired from being around the Kona training aura I bet

hey if it were easy we wouldn't try it well Paula it's gonna you're almost there and whatever you do now I'm sure it will be helpful but it's also 25 years of training That is the worst thing to say to me right now

Which what? Which part? Like the work has been done Anything you do from here on it? on in is. No, I literally just started today training for college. What I mean more is that it's not. Nick's right. It's like 25 years of your life that you can rely on for that. Oh, you're right. It's not just, you know, the last six months or whatever it's been. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I've been training for it all my life. Yeah. It's going to be a fun trip no matter what. And then whatever happens on race day, we're going to love you no matter what. And it's a hard day. It's also a hard day. It's also a hard

no matter what. So it doesn't matter how hard you train. Like, this is my pep talk in two weeks, not today. I'll do another pep talk in two weeks. Something tells me there's going to be a lot of pep talks between this one and the one in two weeks. This is what the boys I was saying to me before, we're going to love you no matter what. This is what my husband's tell me. Even if you're dead last. She doesn't want to hear anything. So we just keep saying that. Yeah. Okay. Well, we still got another pod before we leave. So we'll talk to you guys next week. Yeah. Bye.