That Triathlon Life Podcast - TTL x Pro Tri News in New Zealand

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

This week we are all in Taupō, New Zealand! We thought it would be fun to switch things up a bit and do a collaborative episode with Kyle Glass from Pro Tri News. We chatted about travel, racing, the T100, Ironman Pro Series, and more! 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. We're here in New Zealand, ready to race 70.3 world championships. And we are doing this episode a little bit differently. We're doing it with Kyle from ProTri News. He puts on a podcast as well in the triathlon space you've probably heard of it. Hope you enjoy it. And if you're racing this weekend, good luck. Hello and welcome to a very special 200th episode of ProTri News. I am joined by the gang, the coolest kids, the best podcast in Tri News. I am joined by the gang, the coolest kids, the best podcast in Tri-Ri News. This is going to be a co-labbed podcast with that triathlon life with Eric Paula and Nick. So thanks guys. It's a special. Usually we introduce ourselves on our podcast. So are we like, I'm Paula Finley? I'm Eric Loggerstrom.

I'm Nick Goldston. And I'm Kyle Glass. Hey, there we go. Now we can make our fans happy too. Just keeping some consistency. Yeah, there's going to be riots if there's not so familiar. There's like this Pavlovian response to the regular podcast intro that you're out of here.

Basically, we're going to post this podcast on TTF. and on ProTri News. So if you're a fan of both podcasts, you just have to pick which one you like better. Who to listen to? And let us know. The drama. Have you guys been seeing everyone's Spotify raps?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He sent me his. He actually posts on Spotify. No, I mean, like the general public, like people that are Tri fans, a lot of them who have ProTRI News on their top five podcast list also have TTR.

Right. I think that Trathlon fans love Triathlon and I think all podcasts are good. Like, we're all friends, right? Yeah. More the better. The more the better, the more for the sport that there's coverage. And I think obviously pro-Chinese leans a little bit more into the pro side of things, the coverage, the what's going on in triathlon from that perspective. And then obviously here at TTL, we answer questions every week from our listeners.

So a lot of the time, those are a little bit more not beginner questions, but people that are just generally in the sport. might have. So different format than you guys, but today we're going to be just more like banter between all four of us, hey? Yeah. Yeah, it'll be fun. Speaking of format, we're not even using our mics. Kyle brought an entire recording setup. He brought in a suitcase, which looks like would have enough clothing to last a month. Instead, it's only recording equipment. Is that right now? Only podcast gear, yeah. A production studio in a box. Yeah, amazing. So it's going to sound good, and it's not because of me. Well, I'm going to do some editing magic later. But yeah, you're going to have to do that. A true, a true collaboration.

Yes, that's right. It's like the one podcast that I've never had to edit before. First time in history. Yep. Sounds great. Yeah, I'm going to be, I'm going to be able to actually eat dinner and like have a beer tonight and stuff rather than just sit here and just... Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, exactly. Well, we're all obviously here in Topaw, New Zealand for the Iron Man 70.3 World Championship. I think it would be cool to explore our travel. to get here. Nick, you had the most treacherous journey. Adversity filled. Yeah, it was fine, actually. And luckily, there's a direct flight from L.A. to

Auckland. But we got a, we were so excited because the flight was at 10. We're just going to be able to sleep on the flight the whole night. Then we got a text from Delta said, your flight is delayed until 1 a.m. We were just like, okay, that's fine. But at least we get to sleep all night. And then at like 10.30 p.m., we got a text, your flight is delayed until 10 a.m. No. So then we, you know, for us, it wasn't that bad because we just stayed in my apartment. But for people who were connecting through other cities to fly out of L.A., they all really pulled a short straw there.

But then we got on the flight. We were delayed another 40 minutes when we were on the plane. Flew down, the flight was fine. Then when we got there, my bags didn't come. No. And they bring the last bikes out. And they're like, that's all the bikes we have. And I'm like, well, my bike's not there.

That's not good. And then they also said, and there's no more bags coming. my parents nor myself at our bags. And we're like, okay, here we go. You know, and we've already lost 12 hours here, which was going to turn into 24 hours because we got in at night. We weren't going to drive all the way down to Topal here, which is another three-hour drive.

Sure. So we went over to the bag clean people and they're like, well, we don't know what to do, but we'll bring your bags to you and Topon, as they were saying that, more bags came out. So finally, me and two other dudes. Liars. Friking out.

Liars, yes. I mean, I can't imagine how overwhelmed that airport is with bikes. There's so many. 10,000, I don't know how many people, but thousands and thousands of bikes coming into Auckland Airport. And I haven't heard of anyone's bike getting lost so far. I'm sure there have been some, but it's definitely not the airport's fault. They're getting those out really quick in general. You had a bad experience, but ours came out really fast. They were hundreds of bikes there. It was just craziness. Do you think we should start taking bets on how they fare relative to Lottie and the export?

Lottie did a bad job of getting them out. Yeah, we just lost them for. like months. But my air tag was like, oh, it's sitting in Lottie, so it's fine. Yeah. Look, it'll get here someday. Was Lottie the race with what's it called tri-bike transport? Yeah. It was Lottie, right? Yeah.

RIP. Gone now. And there's no real good alternative. Is there other than bike flights? But I saw what bike flights was going to be for here and it was outrageous. Yeah, no. You just got to fly with it? Of dollars, yeah. And with Delta's free, actually. Eric and I probably had the most luxurious travel.

And easiest. And easiest, yeah. We drove to Portland, which is three hours to drop off Flynn with Eric's parents, and then Portland to Vancouver, BC, and then Vancouver, BC to, to Auckland. And then a drive here. So long, but we got upgraded, which was amazing. First class. This was not a completely free upgrade.

This came at a cost. No, it didn't come as a cost. But I don't know if we should say this story. What did? You had an issue when you went to Tram Blon, your bike got lost by Air Canada, and someone at Air Canada generously reached out and wanted to make it right. That's just good customer service. This was fantastic.

Upgraded our flight. And he was keeping track of our bags the whole way. Can you tell that story? Yeah. So Eric and I are getting on the flight. We now have a contact at our Canada who's amazing. And he's raised Kona, so he knows Traflon. And he reached out after Tram Blan when my bike got lost and apologized and all this.

So when you knew we were flying our Canada to Auckland, he was like helping us out the whole way. And I said to the baggage person in Portland as we were getting on our tiny little flight that was like seated 20 people. Like, can you please make sure bikes get on this plane? Because if they don't make it to Vancouver, it's a big problem. Like we're racing a world championship in five days. And the baggage person said, don't worry, we all got a text this morning to say, don't leave bikes behind. That's great. So I'm assuming our guy made sure that they got on. A PSA Air Canada announcement. Yeah. This is the best part because this is a really cool part about collaborating with you guys is we dunk on Air Canada, like almost at every opportunity.

And then you're like phrasing it. So it's cool of the different experiences. Air Canada maybe gets a bad reputation from like bags lost. I don't know. What is it? It's baggage. bags lost for what was it? Was it the T-100 race?

That's funny. Was it one that was something in Montreal? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was the Montreal race. Okay. So one experience. But like I've flown in Canada since I was little because it's like the biggest airline in Canada, the most prominent. And I just like the vibe of it. I like their branding. I like the people. I like the airplanes. Like I have no problem with it. And then for them to be so athlete friendly, like when I was racing on the Olympic team, we would always get 50K status. Like they'd upgrade us to gold automatically for being athletes. Like they're very supportive of athletes. And that's really cool to me. So I don't know. I have no problem. And this experience just reinful.

forced that cemented. The one time I flew it to go to do the T-100, Canada, though, one years ago, they lost my bike in quotes and then 15 minutes later found it, just like this experience, and then they reimbursed me for my lost bag later. Yeah, see, amazing.

It was great. We could have easily flown like United through San Francisco, but we went up to Canada, so. Yeah, okay. Kyle's ruffling around with cords. What is going on? I was just making sure that I have my laptop charger just in case we do need it later on, but We have it.

We have it. We have it. We can just pause for a second. This is going to be lengthy. Yeah. We do ramble. We're on travel story number two. Okay.

Kyle, let's hear your travel story. So... Did you bring a bike first of all? I did not. Oh, okay. But I did bring, obviously, a bag for my podcast and then a bag of, like, clothes.

So two bags. I also flew Delta. I was on the flight on... What day was that? Sunday? 10 p.m. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And it was fine. The biggest issue is, Oklahoma City is not like a, I would say, travel-friendly airport. Like, if you're trying to get somewhere, like to the coast, it's pretty impossible. They're like announcing some international flights, but I think it's only going to go to like Mexico and the Caribbean and that's within the next three plus years. But all the stuff in Oklahoma City is all domestic only.

And each airline kind of like hordes the flights. So like if I wanted to go Oklahoma City to L.A., the only air, the only airline, you know, line I could do that on is American. If I wanted to go like Oklahoma City to Denver, it's like either United or Southwest. If I wanted to go to say to East Coast, American is pretty much the only option. And so I flew Delta and there's one Delta flight from Oklahoma City to Salt Lake. And it was early in the morning. I was like, it's already giving me a long travel. I'm not doing that. So I took the afternoon flight to Atlanta. So I flew Delta, Oklahoma City to Atlanta. So to the East Coast. And then all the way Atlanta to L.A. West Coast.

And I almost missed, so the flight got delayed the one that I was going to be on from Atlanta to L.A. And I was like, I'm not playing this game. And so I went up to the counter. And I was like, hey, I really need to make this connection in for going L.A. to Ocklett. So can I get on this earlier flight right now? And she was like, you're going to get separated from your bags. Are you okay with that? And I was like, I have enough stuff that I can record stuff if things get crazy, but I was like, yeah, that's fine. And so I just nodded my head. And she was like, no, I need you to verbally say, yes, I'm okay with being separated from my bags. And I'm like, yes. The conversation is being recorded for quality assurance. I am okay with being

separated. Purple contract is legally binding in the state of Oklahoma. All of my bags, all of my bags made it. It was just fine. And it was a very long flight. It was really fun because I sat next to a triathlete from Boulder and she's racing the age group race. She's, she goes pretty well. She's a bomb of four kids, and she's still chasing kind of her pro license. Wow. Nice. Amazing. Yeah.

So it was really awesome. I slept for, so the flight from L.A. to Auckland is 13 hours, and I slept 10 of those 13 hours. They slept 10 hours, too. I'm the only idiot who napped for an hour and was up the rest of the time. Yeah, I like woke up and Annette, the lady next to me, she was like, do you have a superpower? And I was like, I don't think so. And she's like, I think you have a superpower and it's being able to sleep on planes. I got a sleeping pill.

I did take the OLLI Melatonin. Not a plug at all. She was wondering if you had any more of your superpower. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. She was trying to. She was trying to.

She was trying to. Yeah, exactly. Okay, well, good. So we all made it. Yep. And no one's bags got lost. And we haven't heard of anyone's bags getting lost. No.

Great. Okay, well, then we're going to talk about triathlon here for a second. But before we do, Kyle, we're going to surprise you here with something. Uh-oh. We do segments on our show for the ProTri News listeners. We take our show extremely seriously. Everything is to the letter. And one of the segments we do is called Rapid Fire.

Oh, boy, we're going this right now. We always start our pod with the segment to lighten it up, you know? Oh, really? This is what you start with. To get the juices flowing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so we have 10 rapid fires for you. And we are very bad about making them rapid fire because we tend to ramble,

but you, this is your job here is to do it very quickly. Okay. So there's 10. Okay. If Oklahoma hosted a triathlon, what would the three legs be? It would be grilling, wakeboarding, and running. It's a pretty good running community. Dang, I'm ready to move. Let's go. Grilling? Wakeboarding, running? I'm in. Love those things. In that order. Yeah. Two, what's the most ridiculous thing you've ever said on ProTri-News?

Oh, I don't know that I've actually said anything ridiculous. Your tame? Huh? Yeah, I mean, I let everyone else be like a little bit more controversial. I think it was probably whenever we started dunking pretty hard on Svignatose, the triathlet, and she had some questionable stuff that went on, and we actually got threatened with legal stuff, so... Ooh. Fun. Dang, we have not been legally threatened or anything yet. We don't say anything controversial. We can aspire to that. We can aspire to that. Kyle did, and he's still

here to tell the tale, so that's right. It's green line. Yeah. Okay, number three, if you could pick one triathlete to narrate your life story, who would it be? Oh, I think it's, that's hard. Josh Hamburger would be really good. Just because his, like, post-race captions and stuff are so good. He's a good rider. I think, I think Josh, I'm going to go with that. He's like a poet.

That makes me think of John C. Riley narrating John John Florence as film. Oh, yes. It's not just as a surf guy. Anyway, yeah. His videos are amazing. His YouTube videos are like. They're amazing. The sailing stuff too.

So cool. Yeah. Four, would you rather race in cowboy boots or a full suit of armor? Caldb does race, by the way, folks. Did you ever talk about your, like, triathloning? No, like, I pretty much took, like, a massive break because I got hit by a car in 2018, and so I took, like, a massive break,

and then Talbot signed us up for Ironman Cosmell, like two weeks before the race, and so we did Ironman Cosmell together. It is, like, a miserable time, and so now next year, I think I'm looking to start my triathlon, restart my triathlon journey, so. Well, I'm doing Iron Man, Wisconsin, if you're trying to... Ooh, that could be something.

But would you rather race a triathlon in cowboy boots or a full suit of armor? Cowboy boots. For sure. Especially if they're some comfortable cowboy boots. Is there such a thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Coming to Oklahoma, we'll get you some comfortable cowboys. They're not comfortable.

What's your go-to meal before a race? Be honest, is it something fried? The best race I've ever had, I'm not going to talk about triathlon, but the best race I ever had was a half marathon and the night before I had a chimichanga. So deep-bri-bri-rified. Wow. Whoa. That's heavy, dude. Cast iron stomach.

Yeah. That's amazing. And you felt fine. And I felt fine. They ran NPR. Nice. That's good. Yeah. Okay. If triathlons had a fourth leg, what weird activity would you add? And let's say, to benefit you personally. To benefit me personally. Oh, you got to close a deal. I close a deal from New Zealand for my real job. Not my podcast job for my real job.

So you have to like be able to close. Yeah, close a deal. Yeah. I see. Sell something. ABC always be closing. Yeah. Exactly. Got, I got it.

Very nice. Okay. Which state is secretly better at triathlons than Oklahoma, or is there none? Every state is better than Oklahoma at triathlon. I mean, it's just, it's so miserable doing right. Like, I was on the triathlon board in Oklahoma for many years. I think I was on board for three years. I was the youngest person ever on the board.

And the races there are pretty brutal. There's an independent race that was pretty amazing. and they hosted ITU Long Course World Championship back in 2015. But the races themselves is just, it's so miserable just because every day is 25 mile an hour winds. Oh. That's like constant. It's always windy in Oklahoma. It's always a tornado or something.

Yeah, yeah. So it's always windy. The water is not exactly great because it gets so hot in the summertime. And so usually whenever you're swimming, it's like, yeah, it's so hot. Is there not a health concern ever with that water? Oklahoma? Does rapid fire. Rapid fire.

Next one, if you had to pick a triathlon team mascot, what would it be? Triathlon team mascot. Pro-Chinese mascot. How about that? Oh. I like polar bear is my favorite animal, so I'd do a polar bear. Wow. Yeah.

Interesting. Oklahoma boy. You're stranded mid-ride with a flat. Would you rather hitch a ride on the tractor or walk barefoot to the next town? Hitch a ride on a tractor. There's too much glass in Oklahoma on the roads. That's not what I thought you were going to say. And last one here.

who's the bigger triathlon gossip pro trineuse or that triathlon life podcast. Oh, probably us because you guys don't. Yeah, you guys don't do anything controversial. Oh yeah, we gossip when the mics are off real hard. Yeah. But in this complex, we're staying and we got like athletes all around us and our windows are open so we got to be quiet. My favorite thing is a couple, like last week you were riding on Zwift and then we started

texting while I was riding. Yeah. And I was like texting you things and you were like, yeah, I already know. Yeah, I already know. And it's like, triathlon gossip stuff. And I'm like, you know all this stuff. And then you don't talk about it. Well, because I hear it from the source.

Yeah, yeah. You're talking about like people's sponsors dropping them. And I'm like, yeah, that person told me that. So I know it's true. So you just confirmed it for me. Yeah, that would just not be on brand. We'd have to open up like a second, like that travel life after hours. Also, like, it doesn't sound about.

That's a good drink in for you guys. TCL after hours. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you could do it with the dark logo. It's going to be like $100. dollars to listen to an episode. Well, that's the thing is we say that all the time when the three of us are talking,

we're like, God, the listeners would really love this conversation right now, but it's just not appropriate, you know? It's going to let your imagination run wild. Come on. Who's going to sign a T-100 contract next year? That's the real question. That's what we've been gossiped about, if you can call it gossip. I'll say it.

Apparently, there's going to be people that won't sign the contract for next year. Just do from the simple fact that the contracted money amount is significantly less. And the races are more. Yep. More obligations, more commitments for less money. So imagine working at a job and then them saying, we're going to actually cut your pay by 30, 40%, but increase your workload. But your performance bonuses are potentially higher.

Potentially, yeah. If you race well at all six or seven or eight or whatever. So what do you guys think? What does this mean? Why is it happening? Is it good for the athletes? Is it good for the PTO? I think it's good for the PTO just from a standpoint of it could.

extend the longevity of the series, being able to hold the purse strings, I guess, a little bit tighter and also incentivize people? I don't think that they're paying out less money in the end because the year-end T-100 payout is significantly more than it was this year. So the reason they're making the base payments less is so that people aren't just signing

to get that money guaranteed. They want people signing the contract and then actually doing the series. Prioritizing the races. And then the reward at the end for fulfilling your contract and actually doing six or six races or however many they're counting

is that your year end payout will be potentially double what it was this year. Sure. So at the end of the day, they're actually paying out the same amount but they're rewarding people who commit to the series.

Don't just sign the contract for, you know, the sake of getting the money up front. Yeah. And they're taking the races seriously. So it's not a terrible idea and I think

it's the only way really to guarantee that people will come and take their races. Seriously. I just, I think it's going to have the impact that a lot of names that are like established that you've really heard of in the sport might say, nah, I'd rather do something else than put all my eggs in the basket of like having a good

year end result across six or eight races across the world. And this could have its own completely like different breed of or new set names. The thing that's tough that I talked about last time of the T100 is like you're a little bit forced to race when you don't feel ready or you don't want to. Right. And that's what I struggled with the most last year is you have to race eight of these races that are all over the world. And sometimes you don't feel prepared to race. And if it's a 70.3 or an Iron Man, you have the freedom or flexibility to just not do it.

But when you're contracted to do them, it adds this extra layer of feeling the need to. Yeah. So I was talking last night at the bar with a guy that's pretty successful in the sport. And this topic actually came up. And do you think, this is what we're discussing, do you think that this now makes the T-100 now essentially a third division of short course? So you have World Triathlon, T-100, and Supertri of all these athletes,

and then you still have Iron Man. So now we're still back to Iron Man being middle long course. Being the long course. Yeah. I think a lot of short-course athletes, it's going to turn into that. Like the Julie Duran, the Flora Duffy, the super good short-course athletes. athlete, stepping up to a distance that's not that different in a format that's not that

different because of the lap nature and the super fast 18K run, not that different from a 10K, the training. And then the people that are more Ironman focused or like the format of a 70.3 will do more of that. So yeah, it's really tricky. But not bad for the sport to have these options, you know? Yeah. We're in a good place. I think that the thing that both brands need to do to kind of help bridge the gap is T-100 does a really good job about talking about Iron Man races. Iron Man does not do a great job of talking about T-100. It was almost like taboo in a way that you're like talking about another race series.

But it's so weird how they're like okay with talking about Olympics. But they refuse to talk about any T-100 stuff. Iron Man does? Correct. Like on their race broadcasts? Well, just like whenever you're introducing people up on the stage for like the pro-briefing today. It would have been cool and nice if Paul Kay was like

oh, Julie Duran winner of XYZ T-100 race. Ash Gentle winner of X, Y, Z, T-100 race. I a little bit agree with you, but I also feel like kind of strongly that the general triathlon public cares about T-100 results and knows what that means about

10% relative to an Iron Man race. Like if you tell someone, oh yeah, Julie Duran won 70.3 whatever, St. George versus like she won 7,000, T100 races, there's a huge percentage of people that are kind of be like, I don't really quite understand exactly what that means

but like, oh, 170.3 St. George, that's a big deal. I know what that is. And Olympics is like, is so high. Everyone knows. Yeah, yeah. Okay, guys, I think we need to move to a new topic. That was good, though. The thing also that I'm struggling with T100

is I say that we need to move to a new topic. Classic policy. The top 10 contracted athletes that have got an automatic qualification need to sign before December 15th, which is on Sunday. and I'm racing 70.3 World Championships on the 14th. Some guys are still going to be racing. It's stressful.

Setting a contract at mile eight of the run. Like, I need three seconds to think about it in an offseason mentality, you know, and not like, well, I'm prepping for this big race. So it's a bit, I'm not a fan of that, but is what it does say. Well, it's plus a day, right? Do they have it based on the timeline, though? So you actually have one more day. Is it the 15th in the U.S.?

Professor in Topal. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Okay. That's good. What's next, boys? That was our rapid fire slash complete segue. Into T-100. So what are we racing this weekend?

Well, Kyle, would you ever want to race age group 70.3 world champs? I almost, yeah. So I was really trying to qualify in, I would say, 2017, and my race was absolutely decimated because I really wanted to qualify. I didn't race at, I think it was Sunshine Coast at the time, was World Championship that year? 2017. I have no idea. 2017 or 2016. I can't remember. So I really wanted to do the race then. That would be an aspiration within the next three years, is trying to qualify for a 70.3

World Championship. So maybe if I race well in St. George, 70.3 in a couple months' time. Which is the last one, by the way? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I've heard through the grapevine that that is due to the city of St. George saying that we've grown too big for the race? They were such supporters of the race. This is what I've heard to the grapevine. So it could be true, could not be true. Weren't we talking to

the St. George guy a couple years ago? And he was just like... A couple years ago. We love the Iron Man. That place is crazy relative to the way that it was even a couple years ago. I mean, we were saying that just as we were riding bikes around here, like, man, the roads here have been quite busy.

but I mean imagine what it was like even five years ago I'm sure just like triathlon's getting more and more challenging to put on in any city just due to like the number of people that are in the world now yeah but I believe I also heard that Iron Man is going to have a 70.3 in Utah so where that's going to be at I see no idea but it's like city maybe potentially so much further in so much further for me for me

oh to drive but it's good drive to George pretty easily bigger airport though and a little bit more convenient for me. There's a direct flight from Oklahoma City. Oh, very nice. There's actually a direct flight from Bend as well. Redmond, Salt Lake? Yeah. Oh, that's nice.

There you go. Not Air Canada, though. Damn it. I'm not driving 11 or 13 hours. I would probably fly. Yeah. So, yeah, I do want to qualify for 70.3 World Championship. But you guys have qualified, Eric?

Not this year. In my life, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Eric got a very good result at St. George a few years ago. Yeah. He was 7th, 6th. I don't remember if it was 6th. Actually, I'm really.

But you guys, you two are racing. Yes. Nick and Paula are racing. Yep. How are you guys feeling going into the race? Nick? That question was for you. I'm relieved that I flew 13 hours and only have a three hour time change.

That is such a nice gift to have. Yeah. And I feel good. I feel apparently the water is amazingly beautiful and very clear, Paula. It's so nice. So that'll be really sweet. And do you know, do we go into deep water? Do we stay shallow enough the whole time that,

we can see the bottom? We go deeper than I've been swimming. Okay. But it's so clear. I don't think about to see the bottom, but it's, you can see like your hand and the person beside you, like, the clarity is really crazy. That's nice. And it's not too cold either, right?

No, it's warmed up a lot over the last month or so. Like, there were lots of rumors about it being freezing and it's, I think, 19 Celsius right now. Okay, so, like 65. Quite nice. Yeah, I did about 25 minutes swimming without my wetsuit with Paula the other day. I was cold after, but it was doable. And it's speedo. and yeah. Wow.

He's a tough boy. He's a tough boy. He's a tough boy. He's a half a degree below, one degree below the pro wetsuit cutoff. Oh, it's that close. Yeah, 20 degrees is our wetsuit cut off. Wow. Okay. Great. And then the bike course is not a lot of climbing. There actually is.

Really? It's quite hilly. Oh, I thought the, when I looked at the elevation gain on the course map, it seemed like not much. Honestly, I felt like we were driving the ocean side course a bit. Eric and I drove the course last night because it's a bit, it's very scary to drive, to ride it on a bicycle. Yeah, there's a lot of large trucks and they're like, they're kind of country roads with large semi trucks driving on them.

And it's two lane road. No shoulder or two lane road. So the trucks can't even really move over if they wanted to because there's like oncoming cars. Yeah. It's terrifying, honestly. But it's closed course for the race. Close course for the race. Yeah.

It's going to be amazing on race day. Yeah. And then the run seems flat. A couple hills, but yeah, mostly fly along the, along the lake. Yeah. Yeah. There's like a pretty long, I'd say long. it's a pretty good climb.

When you come back the other side, yes. I wonder how different it's going to be for me who's used to racing A troop races with all different levels. It's only self-selected. And so on the bike, you're going by some people, like, eight miles an hour faster than they are and other people are going by you two miles, three miles an hour faster than you are. And it's kind of hard to find someone to ride with sometimes if there are no packs. And here, everyone's going to be pretty fast.

So that'll be interesting kind of like this. elite level across the board. What's your goal? How's your lead in Ben, Nick? It's been good other than I've been, I got yelled up by Eric and Paul a little bit because I maybe was got a little excited with my running and was running a little too fast all the time. And in fact, I picked up a little like niggle, but I think

it's okay now. So I'm feeling good. Bike Fitness is best ever been. Run fitness is the best ever been. Swim Fitness is shit. But that's, you know. That's how it goes, man. Can't have all those things. Get a whole three. Yeah. So I'm excited. The goal would be I would love to PR my run off the bike

and still bike really well. What would that be? I ran with 129 and Morrow Bay. So I'd love to be like 128, 127 or something. He's like an upper middle class age grouper. We like to call him. Yeah. There you go.

Feels good. Yeah. Nice. Paula? Yeah. How's your lead in Ben? Really good. Best shape I've ever been in across the board.

Let's freaking go. She's making fun of me. Although you do seem like you've been good the past couple weeks. Yeah. I've had a good lead up. I have been excited to come. I haven't been dreading the trip at all. And then since we've been here, it's been really smooth.

We're right on the lake. We don't have to drive anywhere two blocks from transition. And I know that sounds trivial, but like to me, when you arrive at a race and the logistics are simple, it puts me in such a better mood and way calmer and less stressed than if it's in a place where you're like rushing around and trying to drop off things here and here. We've got to like pack up the bike and the run stuff and then make sure that we have. some food to get between the end. Yeah, it makes it a lot more of a puzzle. For someone like me is very calculated and likes to be

organized to a second every day. This is very relaxing. And then just being literally across the street from this lake where you can put your wet side on in the hotel room and then walk across and dive in within 30 seconds. It's just amazing. Pretty dreamy. Yeah. But in terms of

how I'm feeling, good, because the jet leg is not bad coming from the west coast of the U.S. It's like three hours ahead here, so it's kind of ideal. And I haven't felt tired. We had a great trip. And then I've been doing sessions for the last couple weeks that have not been like unachievable or mentally crippling or like, you know, the kind of stuff that at the end of the year can be really tough to get through.

They've been kind of sharpening and kind of staying fit and staying motivated and having success at the end of session so that I feel like, okay, that was good. I'm in good shape. and I'm looking forward to racing. So that's the mindset I'm being like coming into this not overcooked or anything. Yeah. Which is good for December. You recently celebrated obviously your post on Instagram. I'll reference that of being able to celebrate being a year entry free.

Yeah. I mean, it's not, I haven't been like counting the days or anything, but I haven't had any like interrupted days of running this year where I've had to take even one day off because of a niggle or something, which sounds like, it seems like a lot of. athletes now are able to stay healthier. And I'm not sure if that's like better nutrition or just

the carbon cushy shoes that prevent stress fractures. I'm not sure what it is. But for me, if you know my history at all and followed my career in ITU, I was an injured disaster for like eight years in a row after the 2012 Olympics and somehow managed to still stay in the sport. But running injury after running injury, stress fracture, stress fracture. And so to be able to do the kind of running I'm doing now and consistent mileage and good workouts, And I'd say I'm running better now than I have in the last 10 or 15 years, but not necessarily showing it in races, but just like the training I'm able to put together is really great for me. So, yeah, it's been a healthy season. And your coach has been able to obviously game plan for this being the finale of the season?

I think it was always a little bit up in the air whether I'd race this or not. Yeah. And my coach is very receptive to what I've. want to do. Like if I want to do a race and I'm motivated to do it, then, yeah, let's do it. So that was after Dubai, I never really had any thoughts that I didn't want to do this race, even though my race in Dubai was quite disappointing and challenging for me. So, yeah, we just kept training and here we are. There you know. Yeah. What do you think? You're kind of on the outside looking in. You as an Eric. Yeah. Eric. Sorry. Yeah. Kyle just. This is first time doing a podcast.

I forget that no one else is in here in this room. Because we're just chatting. So comfortable. No, I was initially when Paul, I got back from Dubai and said she wanted to do this race, I was just like, F me. I do not want to go through another race. But she's legitimately been in a pretty good mood about it. I can tell that this is something, you know,

going back to what she was saying about the T-100 and feeling like she has to race, this is some, she does not have to race at all, but she truly wants to. And like kind of the mental difference that I just see on a daily basis has given me a lot of peace of mind. And I do think that like the vibe is right for just living up to whatever she's done in training

and not having this like sense of dread. And I think it's going to be good. There's been success at the 70.3 world championship for ball. Yeah, for sure. It's it is truly a different thing than the T-100. Like the course being the way that it is where I said it feels kind of like Oceanside and there are corners and you can get out of side and out of mind,

and there's like some long climbing things followed by not a descent, but just grind. I think that Paula does really well in that situation, and I think she's going to go the same speed at this that she does at the T-100, you know, potentially even better, just feeling good and excited about it. And like the vibes of people being on course is undeniable at these events. Like age group athletes, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of other people around.

You know, T-100 is trying to bring in an age group complete, opponent, but it's separate from the pro race and feeling like you're racing amongst a bunch of other people and all these other people truly love the sport. That's a bit contagious. And I think, you know, like takes off a little bit of the edge of stress. Yeah, like even if I have a bad race on Saturday, being here at a 70.3 event, especially a world championship and the number of people that come up to Eric, me, Nick, they want a selfie. Like, you can't walk five steps without someone saying hi and like, we listen to the podcast. and we love what you guys do, that means a lot to us.

And like the in real life connections that we've made with people. So that is worthwhile regardless of how we race, right, Nick? Absolutely. I mean, for me, it's the main point. Like, obviously there's financial implications, et cetera, of me racing well. But I don't feel, I'm not thinking about that. It's more just try to have the best race that I possibly can. And then there's so much more to it as well.

Well, not to make it about financial stuff. but something I haven't thought of in months is your standings in the Ironman Pro series. Oh, God, I haven't even... No idea. No idea. I do think I'm in the top 50, though, which you get 5K. You get money? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. That is not no money. Yeah, it's not no money. I won St. George and I won Montrembla, 70.3, which were both pro-series races. So, yeah, I have 5,000 points or something.

Yeah. It's not bad. And then you just win a few Iron Man's between now and December. No, I thought about that. Like in the, in the magical situation that I won this, I still wouldn't be in the top 10. Yeah, you need to do an Iron Man. Yeah, you need to do an Iron Man.

Yeah. But that's fine. That's fine. Do you have any hopes and aspirations? This is a great segue question. Yeah, next year I'm doing three Iron Man's. Here we go. Perfect.

Kyle. Kyle, pick your jaw off off the ground. Kyle's eyes just popped down at his face. He just in the cartoon thing or the eyes. No, but when do you think? you'll do one. 2025. Really?

Yeah. One. I don't know. I have to do one and then see how I'd do. No, wait and just doing one. Are you eyeing one? I keep forgetting we're on the P. Prochized and just...

We can't just edit it out. Yeah. Yeah. You can't just hide behind it. Kyle like pushes publish as soon as we're done. No, it's... This one's going to go to Nick and then it's going to get actual like granny. How about we say, you know, if you were going to do what would be one that excites you?

So I, my adieu. the T100 series. First of all, I have not decided. And in that case, I probably would not do an Iron Man. It's completely different training. But if I go the Iron Man direction, Lake Placid is a race that I've always wanted to do. Yeah. That's in the pro series. I think Iron Man Hamburg looks really cool. Yeah. Kona does not excite me that much, but I think I could get into it. It excites you from the outside, but you're saying as an athlete, you don't. It just doesn't look like it's something that would suit me necessarily in terms of the conditions. But once you prep for a race like that and acclimatize,

anything is possible. But just to be clear, like you love that race. Yeah, like the hype and the stage is. Yeah, I watch it. I'm like, oh, I'm doing this. Yeah. Every year, you do, you're like, next year, whatever it takes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just FYI, I just look, you are ranked 29th in the Iron Man series. That's nice. So you're pretty much guaranteed that you're going to get at least five grand. So I'm doing the Iron Prime per series this year. Where does it switch from five grand to like the next level? It's 11th. Yeah, yeah.

So 11 through 50th, they all make five grand. Cool. That's cool. Yeah, so even if I came 11th, you know, I do think there should be more of a drop off. Yeah. That's crazy. Because someone who came 11th is really going for it. Yeah.

And I'm not even going for it. And then 50th is the same amount. So it's like. That's insane. Yeah, they should tier that a little bit. I think they should tear it. Like 11 through 20th, 20th through 30th. Like.

Yeah, I should be getting. like one grand. Maybe I'll donate the rest of my five to the 11th place person. You're gonna make a drop off progressively. That's a pretty nice little offer there. Who's that gonna be? Who's 1130?

That reminds me of the, what was it with the real Starkey back in the day? And it was like number seventh. Yeah, they put together a purse. Yeah, it was Raymond Betelow. They got it. It was like, because Iron Man only paid,

I think at the time, Iron Man only paid through sixth place and at Iron Man Lake Placid he came through with a giant check that said Iron Man's seventh place and then it had dollar amount and it had like the real Starkey like fake check thing like it was wow

he paid for him. Well when you're at like a bike race and they like collect you know dollars and stuff for primes it was kind of like that and it was hilarious because like the seventh place person ended up getting a check that was equivalent to like second place. So he went around and collected the money and did it? Wow, what a guy.

Yeah. So. Those were the days. Some good draft on media days. Yeah. talk about controversial. They were controversial. Oh my God. Like way more any like people say pro try news is controversial. Like this is nothing compared to what the real start he used to do. It's absolutely nuts. What about your shirt, Kyle? Do you want to talk about that? Yeah. So I this is the best part about triathlon or the fans. Um, so I got a message quickly after

I decided yeah, I'm going to come here and bicycle's going to help get pro tri news to um, here to Topol for the 70.3 World Championship. Shortly after, I just get a random message from a guy named Vince from Germany. And he's like, hey, I don't know if you have a place to stay yet in New Zealand, but me and my dad are staying here. We have like more than enough space. So you're more than welcome to join us. And I was like, oh, that's so sweet.

Yeah. I mean, because I'd heard horror stories of how hard it is to get accommodations here. Yeah. Nick staying three hours away. Can you confirm. Yeah, I'm saying on the literal other side of the lake. So anyways, Vince. he's from Germany. He's also trying to convince me to do

Challenge Roth next year, so thinking about doing that. He has a German shirt that I recorded with Rico Bogan earlier today, and he was like, you should wear this. And I was like, okay. And it's like in German. And it's a swim, bike and run shirt. Presumably looks like it says swim bike run to someone who doesn't read German. Yeah. And it's, uh, do you want to have a threesome? Which apparently, Eric said, you've seen that shirt like,

in the olden days of triathlon, right? It was like kind of a joke. Yeah, back like in this real starky days. Right, right. That's good sure. And the German 70.3 athletes here probably doing a double take every time they see it.

Yeah, exactly. So I'm only wearing it today and then I'll be back in a comfortable little lemon shirts that I wear. Nice. Nice. Yeah.

We're an on family over here. I do love On stuff. I have my ons on right now. Yeah, you do. You're right. These are some of my OG, the OG Rogers. I have the new strikes. Paula got them for me.

Ooh. You love them. Yeah, I mean, I've never, like the fanciest pillow shoes I've ever had were the Sokneys, endorphin pro threes. Yep. These are way more pillowy, way more. They just feel more purpose-driven performance race day only kind of shoe. So you've been like, you bubble wrapped them and stuff and they're just like.

Yeah, you're not wearing it for training. No, I'm not wearing it for training. Yeah. Just for racing. Paul is like, you're not allowed, Nick. Well, I have a habit of doing it. that with old shoes, but I don't think I've done it. I don't think I've abused it as much as Paula thinks of it.

I don't think I know who coaches you. Is it Paula and Eric? Paula sometimes does my swim sets. No, I, I intervene occasionally. Training peaks, yeah, I just have a plan out from training peaks. Oh, okay. I need to start, like, collecting money for it because the amount of people that message me and ask me what it is, and I just send them the link over and over it.

It's ridiculous. What is it? I don't want to say it. No, it's called my pro coach. Okay. I really, it's ridiculous how many times I put them on this podcast. I can't believe you don't have some sort of an ambassador. Every time they email me too, and they're like, thank you so much for whatever you want for free from us.

Oh, so they know. Oh, they know. Okay, so they're giving you a free plan or what? The owner and his wife have messaged me personally. I mean, like, thank you so much for mentioning us on the podcast. They're the most popular plans on trainee pigs already, so I don't see what I'm really adding to it. It's the name. Yeah.

But I get like at least a couple of months of people asking me what I use. Yeah. It's basic stuff. It's just swim bike run. Every day of the week. The only other thing that I don't know if you guys want to talk about, but do you guys want to do picks for the men's race, women's race, etc.? I don't do picks for races that I'm in.

That's insane. So do you want to do picks for men's race? Yeah, yeah. I need to look up to start list, though. Yeah. I have not thought about it. You guys haven't even thought about it. No, here at TTL, here at TTR, we're not here.

We're all vibes, no thoughts. We're like Flynn. All lives, no thoughts. Here to just hang out. Okay. No, we're here to race well, but we're not like... I usually am a little more into like what's going on with the pro stuff. Yeah.

But for whatever reason, I'm just not... So you got defending champion, Rico Bogan. You got Hayden Wild, you got Alexie, Hayden Wild, too much short course stuff. Alexe, Leo Berser, you got Kyle Smith, local. Braden Curry, who sometimes he races well

70.3s and like, you never know what's going to happen with him. Not a win. You think Rico could win? Again, that would be pretty wild. Yeah, I think if the weather permits, like, I think that he actually could.

Yeah, I agree. You think he rides away from Hayden and company? Yes, he has the power to do that. But the problem is, is he's not going to be seen from the swim. Like, he's first out of the water in most of the T-100 races this year. But you don't think Hayden's going to swim with him.

I... I think Hayden's going to have a similar situation as when he races short course that he's going to get dropped in the beginning. He's set pretty vocal. He's been very... Doesn't he sometimes swim? Yeah, like, he's definitely like more endurance and like back half swimmer. So we'll see what happens. So it's really just whether or not he gets out of the water with Rico or not.

Yeah. Because if he's not out of the water, like in front of Rico, out of transition in front of Rico, it's probably game over. Yeah, I don't think that he's swimming. with Rico. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, I think Rico, Leo Berser, Josh Hamburger. Yeah, Berger. Why can I not find a start list? Henry Schumann. Like, those guys are going to drill the swim so hard that it's, it's going to plaster some people. The only hope that Hayden probably has is to find some bodies and like kind of maneuver. Yeah. It's like, can, how long can Berger hang on and then bring that back on the run? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. My picks for the podium?

Yep. I think that Kyle Smith is going to for the win. Oh, hell yeah, Kyle. Damn. I love that. I'm picking Jason West for second. Woo!

Damn. I just saw him today. He was looking smiley and happy. And Leo Berger for a third. Nice. Those are good picks, too. Do you want a dark horse? Do you want a bonus pick?

I always get so much shit for saying, can we do a dark horse? Why? Because it's like... Because you're insulting the person a little bit. Is that why? You're like... You're like the person that you...

I'm not a dark horse. I'm a legitimate. I'm a contender. Yeah, exactly. That's why I just started calling a bonus pick, because it's like, if you call it Dark Horse, like, yeah, sure, anyone could be considered a Dark Horse. Is Niche-like here? Yeah.

Okay, who's my Dark Horse? Oh, nice. That's a fair pick. Yeah. Those are all possible. I'm going to say Berger, Bogan, and then Hayden. Nice. You want a bonus pick?

For the win? Just a bonus pick. Just like a guy you think can go top five or something. Ne. Nick Goldston. Yeah, I think, I wonder if Hayden could win. If he can run as well as he thinks. No.

And then maybe Rico. Oh. Gregory Barnaby, my Italian. Oh, my Italian. I had the best dinner at their house. I saw that. I saw that. Holy cow.

I saw that. Gregory Barney. He could actually do really well. He did. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he won his first 70.3 like a couple weeks ago. I saw that. I saw that. He's got all to play for this weekend. Yeah, he actually used to train with Eric and I. In San Diego.

In San Diego with Paul. Yeah. We've also had dinner at their house. Eric used to live with him. Yeah, we were roommates. You and Matt Mack and Greg. That's an epic house. Man. And this is when Paul and I started dating.

This is when Eric and I first started dating. So I was like coming over to have sleepovers at this house. Adult sleepovers. Sleepovers. Wow. Tuttle after Dark starts. And Eric just had like a Madras on the floor.

Of course. Nice bachelor. They were living like like, you know, call out kids. I wasn't like trying to be cool with it. That's what it's what I needed. But yeah, Greg has always been such a nice guy. Super nice.

So shy. Quiet, shy. Just like doing his thing, working hard. Yeah. But he's just like past two or three years since I think you guys introduced me to him. He's just been getting faster and faster. Well, he was in ITU, and then, yeah, he really suits him to be the longer stuff. So he's obviously done some Iron Man's if he's winning the Pro Series.

Sixth at Conan? Yep. You got six or seventh in Kona? Wow. Yeah. Third at Iron Man Hamburg or Frankfurt, I guess. Very cool. Dude, if he won, Italy would just make him a statue in the center of the square in Milan.

He might not even be that dark of a horse. A pasta statue? Yeah, a dried pasta statue. Man. Like spaghetti for arms? Yeah, why not? What else? You guys got anything else?

How long have we been going? We're at 48 minutes and 40 seconds. Wow, the longest PTN podcast interview yet. Yeah. And as short as TTL podcast ever. Yeah, that's right. So for our 100th episode, which actually happened last January, we're almost at 150. Nice.

So you guys outdo us in terms of your quantity. You pump out more than us, I think. They've been going for several years longer. Yeah, we started in 2021. Oh, you're a little longer. The pod started, yeah, March of 21, just coming right out of the pandemic. Oh, gotcha. Okay.

Well, for our 100th episode, we had like a Long John and two circle donuts, like 100. Yeah. We love donuts. Yeah. So if we were going to have a treat for this 200th episode of Pro Chinese, what would it be? Can you guys think of something? 200. I don't know if any two-shaped donuts.

Treats. Because we have to get this for after the race. Oh, yeah, we do. Well, you could make it with Long John and a regular donut, kind of. Not that pretty. And you just take a bite out of the of the donut. It would be true. I offer myself as tribute.

I can take the bite. Or just like what the gas stations do when they run out of the two, they just take the five and they turn it upside down. What if we do it in Roman numerals? Oh, yes, we could do that. Two long johns? No, it's a... What's it?

What's it? What's it? Is X 100? No, X is 10. Oh, right. I don't know. No? L is a thousand.

L is 50, right? L is 50. Right. Man, I don't, is it C? C is 100? I don't know. Century? Maybe. That would be interesting. I think it's two C's. Yeah, that. Would it be two Cs? Or would it be C2? The Roman numeral for 2000 is M.M. That's 2000. We're so dumb. We're 100. We're actually dumb. We're all dumb. Get C C C C C. Very nice. That's like two donuts, but with a bite out of each.

Yeah. I can do that. E. TNCC. Yeah. So, I love that. Congrats, man. That's exciting. Thanks for listening to the 100th episode. It's super fun because people still to this day are like shocked because they think that I do this like full time. It's like my real job. That's not. No. None of us do the pod for a real job.

I closed one of the biggest deals ever whenever I was here yesterday. So you're paying for donuts. That's what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm still waiting on the purchase order, but it was like verbal. This is legit. We're moving forward.

And then I'll finish the year our company with $2.1 million in sales. Oh, baby. to you. Correct. Fantastic, man. So, whoa. Pumped. Putting money on the pockets of the man. That's how much I'm making in Triathlon too. Yeah. There you go. Two millionaire. That would be great.

Just kidding. That would be great. Okay, well, thanks for listening. If you're a pro-Tri-News fan and you want another Triathlon podcast listen to, head on over to TTL, where we also do trathom podcasts and videos, and we have merchandise. In an app, we didn't even talk about your guys' app. Apps crushing it. Yeah, we have a TTL app where they're

There's like just a discussion forum where people can post questions and interact. I need to use that actually because I need some lucky, very generous person around here to hold on to my bike for like four days after the race because we don't want to drive around with it. So I'm going to post on the discussions forum for that. Yeah, we really open it up to be a discussion sort of platform. So it's not just for TTR fans only. It's just it's like a slow Twitch or a let's run. That's what we're going for, but a pretty positive fun community. All right.

Well, thanks for letting us plug our podcast. No worries. And if you're on TTL and you want to listen to a detailed discussion filled with controversy and drama. Yeah, you want like real content, not the three of us just saying what we think about things. They get in trouble. Cease and assist letters. I have, we've gotten at least five with them now. So got that going for us.

Okay, bye guys.