That Triathlon Life Podcast - VO2 Max estimation, triathlon bottle positions, bike bags, Iron levels, and more!

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Thanks to everybody who left a review last week, helps the podcast a lot! This week we talked about how sports watches calculate your performance metrics, making sure you keep your iron levels in a healthy place, adjusting power targets for indoor workouts, and more! To become a podcast supporter, as well as submit your own question for the podcast, head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Eric Loggersome. I'm Nick Goldston. We come to you every week. We are all triathletes. Eric and I have professionals. Nick is an amateur. And we love answering your questions, updating us on our lives, the current happenings in triathlon. And a little bit earlier in the evening than we normally record. So we got lots of energy. And we're excited. Mic'd up, hyped up, ready to go. What, mic'd up hyped up. Eric, where did that come from? Am to me. That's pretty good. Eric's really good at coming.

up with like random funny things in the, like out of nowhere. I have not been home for the past like five weekends in a row and I'm going to continue it this weekend by going to New York and try to train as much as I can in New York. Let me ask you guys something. My parents have a pool. Is there any reason I should try to actually swim in that pool? It's like a normal sized residential pool. I'd probably get like four strokes in before flipping around.

That's giving me some COVID flashbacks. We would like tether ourselves to the post of our Airbnb. and B backyard pool and do some swimming, but it was... Is that worth it? Ultimately, no, that was like week two of COVID. Week three, it was over. When you were like, yeah, this is going to last two weeks. We got this.

Like, do they sell tethers on Amazon? How much are there? I don't care how much there. Give me all the tethers. But it's like you get no feel for the water, right, when you do that? No, not really. You do get some feel for the water. I actually think that's all you get.

Just a strange feel. You don't get fitness. You're slipping. You're slipping through it. which I feel like is a lot of age groupers, like what we need to work on is being efficient slipping through the water. Yeah, I do think that tethered swimming

does have a little bit of a... I mean, you do the motion of swimming, which ultimately is better than not doing that. So it's better than nothing. But I'd say for you, just take the weekend off of swimming. Yeah, no, that's... Which, you only need to tell me that once

for me to follow that direction. That's not going to be a problem. Actually, I swim today with my friend Eva, and at the end of the swim, she said, you know, swimming feels really good. And I had never really thought about it, but compared to biking, like biking an ATT position or running in general that can be pretty hard on you. Like swimming, it never like, I mean, ideally it never hurts. It's just hard, but it's just an effort-based thing.

It's not like this. You're not just, I feel like every time I go out running, I'm thinking, okay, don't get injured this time. Like make sure your things, I'm not heel striking or whatever it is to try to keep myself healthy and stretch and activity, all this stuff. Less injury prone, for sure. And that's why you see a lot of people that are a little bit older at the pool

because it's an activity you can do throughout your life. And I think ultimately is good for just movement. And it can be really, really hard, as we all know. But it's not that terrible. You just go easy. It's pretty nice. Yeah. Okay, so last week we tried something new

and we decided that anyone that left an iTunes podcast review in the span of the seven days after the podcast came out would be automatically entered into our raffle to get free bottles. So we went through and the winner from that is Runner 802. So if you are Runner 802, congratulations. And thank you for the five-star review, by the way. And also cannot believe the amount of reviews that you all left.

So thank you very much. It helps the podcast a lot. We really appreciate it. But if you are a runner 802, just email in at that triathlon life brand at gmail.com, and we will get you your prize. Congratulations. Thank you to everyone who left one. And I don't know, this feels like a bit of a spammy way to get people to review us, but I think they are all positive. Yes.

No, I've heard people, you know, say this on podcast before and just like YouTube videos. And it's just like, oh, man, yeah, like, I do really like this YouTube video. I just like spaced on actually clicking the thumbs up button. And it's not that I don't feel spammed. I'm just like, oh yeah, I just like forgot because I was cooking dinner. Right. It does help us to have good reviews. People are more inclined to listen to it, right?

Yeah. It helps the algorithm. It helps recommend the podcast more readily to other people. I mean, that's the thing is other than becoming a podcast supporter, the best thing a listener can do if they like the podcast is sent it to your triathlete friends. That's the best thing you can do and leave a review. And so thank you for doing that. I guess unless you want it to remain a secret and just be your podcast, then don't tell anybody

don't like it, don't leave a comment. That's true. Okay. And we're going to say something else now, too. Last week, we said that once a month we were going to pick a podcast supporter to get free bottles. Well, after some internal deliberation here, we're going to do it once a week and for one bottle.

I think we're going to throw a decal, like a vinyl transfer in there as well. It won't just be one lonely bottle. Right. Okay, great. And Eric, do you want to say who the person that we picked this week was? Totally at random. Olena Melnick, India, California. Olena Melnick, India, California.

You were getting in a free bottle this week. Congratulations. And maybe just confirm that triathlon life brand at gmail.com what your actual address is and we'll send that bottle right out to you. This is fun. We just did a random number generator to pick out a podcast subscriber to win a bottle if you're wondering what we're doing. And if you want to support the... the podcast. You can go to that trathelonlife.com slash podcast and sign up for five or ten

dollars a month. It just helps keep the podcast ad free. And now we have this fun park of potentially winning a bottle. And we also like to do other fun things that include emails or things that we think of randomly. BTS content. For example, I am screen recording this right now. I'm trying to do that for every podcast now just in case anything funny happens. And I think we should include that entire name selection process in there. because I thought that was pretty entertaining. Yeah, especially you can bleep out the fuchs. Definitely.

Definitely. Get the AI on the bleeping. Oh, we need AI bleeping. Why is this subscription platform so terrible? Yes. That's right. But I did say the things like, are they in the U.S.? Well, sorry.

It is kind of funny. Yeah, that's funny. Okay, awesome. So that's that. And then I wanted to, before we talked about anything else, Eric, you're racing Alcatraz this weekend, which is a race that you did last year and you won last year. Was that your first win of the year last year? It was your first one in a while. Yeah.

Yeah. So how are you feeling about it? I'm feeling pretty good. I don't really seem to get super nervous for races that I've done as many times as I've done Alcatraz. I think I've done it like eight times now or something. I won it in 2015 and then I guess it would be like seven years later, won it last year. So I feel like I have the course pretty dialed and figured out. And the competition this year looks pretty good.

Ben Canute is unfortunately not going. He's like kind of, he's the reigning king of Alcatraz now that Andy Potts is a little bit retired from racing that distance. But he's getting, Ben is getting ready for challenge Roth. So he won't be there. So it'll be kind of a showdown between me and Jason West. and Mark Dubrick will be there. So my goal is to try to hang with Mark Dubrick on the swim and then just go crazy on the bike and we'll see what happens.

Hopefully it's raining and windy. Yeah, hopefully it's raining like last year. We were all freezing cold watching you. Yeah, Eric does well on that. Not good for spectators, but good for me. But Jason West will definitely be the one to beat. He is on fire early season this year. And I'm just kind of hoping that the hills

and all the things that make this race challenging will take something out of his legs for the rest. run and you won't run like, like, 25 minute 10K. It's a very broken up course. Like you have upstairs, downstairs, up the sand, or on the sand. So it kind of is like an adventurous course and not necessarily someone who's like, yeah, I can run 29 minutes on the track. Like Jason's obviously an amazing runner.

But I think that if there's one course that could sway to your advantage a bit, it might be this one. Yeah, possibly. It actually fits the profile of the course, both on the run and the bike, fit really well into the Xtera, a little bit of Xtera specific training that I've done like. lately with some punchier hill climbing and stuff. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm just excited.

It'll be really cool. It's always a fun time to go to San Francisco, and it's just a beautiful, beautiful race course. There's no way for people to follow along, right? There's no video feed, and I'm not sure about the tracking. I highly doubt it. The tracking is sometimes okay. I mean, you'll be able to tell that he won if he wins.

Yeah, I'm not totally sure because it does seem like there's a slightly different crew that's putting on the race this year. Still the same organization, but different set of people. So some things could be a little bit. different and yeah I don't really know what the viewable things will be on the internet right okay cool good luck Eric we're very excited to watch and we'll some version of a recap next week to see how it went because that's I know that's one of your favorite races maybe your favorite road triathlon right or maybe your favorite triathlon in general yeah I mean it's it probably is my favorite triathlon it's

I've got just very good memories that was kind of like my biggest like uh winning that race back in was sort of like my coming out and the world a little bit had an idea of who I was instead of just being nobody training in nowhere, California. Right, of course. Cool. Okay, so we're going to move on to a little segment we call This or That.

And this is going to be the Track and Field edition because I've been getting a little bit more into watching Track and Field. So you guys are going to have to stretch your minds out to figure out what you want here. Fortunately, Paul has been doing some track and field viewing lately, so. Oh, wow. Yeah, because we might have to lean heavily on her.

Oh, well, each one of you have to give your own answer for this, but it was inspired by the 1500 world record just dropped last week. The women's 1500 world record just came down by a lot, actually. So for each one of these, there's going to be three questions, and for each one of these, you have to say which one you would want to do and which one you'd rather watch. Okay. So your favorite sprint distance event, which one would you rather do and which one would you rather watch?

So like 100 or a 200, even a 400, or even like the hurdles, even like 100 hurdles or 110 hurdles. I would rather watch the 400 hurdles for women. And I would rather do the 400 hurdles. Oh yeah, you like the 400 hurdles. I don't know. I just feel like that might be the most suited to what I'm, it's the longest of them. as some strength component getting over the barrier. So, yeah, and it's really fun to watch.

Like, the two top women in the world right now are like always kind of head to head back and forth. And I really like that field. So I just watched her break the world record in Tokyo, too. Sydney McLaughlin breaking the 400 hurdles world record at the last Olympics. Okay, so Eric, what about you? 400. No.

What about what about you? What would you want to do and what would you want to see? I don't know, I've never even thought about this. Maybe I just might say the 100. For both? Yeah, because watching the 100, it's just, it's so intense. Like the build up and all these guys, like, standing around, like, trying to be macho

and just, like, the amount of pressure that goes into getting everything out of yourself in, like, eight seconds is just, like, so foreign to what we do, where it's like, oh, I had kind of a crappy swim start, but I've got four hours to, like, it out and bring it back. So I have a lot of respect for that like mental headspace to get there. And just the concept as far as like doing it of if you did it and you're good at it, of being the fastest human on the planet is that crazy. That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool.

Yeah. Okay. Next one, talk about macho. These are the not as macho events. What about your favorite long distance track and field event to watch and to do if you had to? 1,500 for both. Paula, consistent. Eric, what about you? It's a bit of a middle distance. That's kind of mid-distance. Yeah, but I think I would still classify it in this category.

Yeah. Yeah. It's like between the 800 and the 1,500 for me. Oh, 800's rough. 800's for sure middle distance, not long distance. Right. Well, that's, I mean, if we're counting the 1,500. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Everything over sprints. It's fun to watch the 1,500 because it's very tactical and it often comes down to the last lap. but watching that world record was just bonkers. It just got broken for women. It was just like the gap between her and the rest of the field was just nuts. Yeah. And then to me, racing for that kind of like four to five minute range of time

is appealing more than a 10K, which is funny since we race for a long time as trackers. Well, that's probably why. I'd love to do a five-minute event. 10K on the track is the last event that I want to do. Having done it before, being for personal experience, that just drags on.

I was at the track this week because my friend was trying to set a kind of like a mark for his 10K at the beginning of the season and you FaceTime and you're like, wait, your friend is running a time trial 10K on the track for no reason?

By themselves. Sounds like the worst thing ever. The worst. Absolutely worst idea. That hurts. That hurts. I cannot think of a possible reason to justify that.

For pacing. And it's flat and it's consistent. Yeah, but you got to hate yourself a little bit to deal. with that. I'd happily deal with a slightly inaccurate time on my watch running anywhere but the track. Right.

Okay, and then last one, your favorite field event to do and to watch. So like shot put it, discus, pull vault, yeah. Poe vault, pole vault. Double pole vault for me. I like watching it and I want to be able to do it. You want to be flying through the sky.

Yeah. Falling down. Nice. Eric? Ball vault's really high up there for me as well, but I might just say triple jump to mix it up. Oh, fun, yeah, cool. That's just the wildest motion.

It's freaking crazy. Bo boom, boom, boboo. Yeah. And if you've ever tried to do a triple jump, even one time, like you will almost break every bone in your body. Right. It's such an abrupt, awkward movement.

Yeah. People who make it look good. Amazing. Cool, cool. Okay, well, that was fun. That was nice. Well done. I wish I had a little more variety between watching and doing from you too, but I guess you like what you like. Yeah, you want to do what you like. That's right. So before we get into questions, there was a follow-up from last week. The question from last week that it's regarding is a question about how much to inflate your tires in an airplane to make sure they don't explode. How much to deflate them from regular? To deflate, yes. What PSI is safe. Exactly. So Jack says, it's important to know that atmospheric air

pressure is 14.7 PSI, so even if the plane became an absolute vacuum, the max your tire could overinflate is an additional 14 PSI, 1-4. In reality, planes are typically pressurized to 11 to 12 PSI-ish, equivalent to 6,000 to 8,000 feet elevation. So if your tire was at 60, it'll be 63. Difference is enough to make your water bottle hiss, but it won't blow a tire. Eric is also entirely correct that gauge pressure is all relative, so as long as you pump it up at the same element. elevation you race at, then you don't need to adjust anything. Thanks for all you do, Jack. So there you go, Eric. You were completely correct. Oh, it feels good. I'm surprised how little of a difference it makes, even if the,

even if the bike wasn't in a pressurized container. Yeah. Yeah. Not that big of a deal. Okay, well, I was going to tell everyone where they can submit questions for the podcast, but Paul, you already told them. Thattriathlonlife.com slash podcast. So we're just going to move right on. Okay. This is from Eva. This is for Paula. Wondering how you keep your iron levels high enough to fuel all your training and racing. How often do you test your iron levels?

As a female Ironman participant, I find it so hard to keep levels up year over year. So curious to hear how you do it since you train many more hours a week than I do. Thanks and hope you guys come visit Santa Monica again soon, Eva. Okay, so I take an iron supplement daily. Are we allowed to know what that is? Is it just pure iron? The brand that I use are like the Whatever I use is called hemiplex

And you can just get it on Amazon Okay It's pretty simple I don't know I've heard from other athletes that they use it as well So I think it's pretty safe And it actually has kind of a lot of iron in it I'm just trying to find that information right now

85 milligrams So when I was at altitude I was taking two a day Which is kind of a lot But now I just take one a day kind of for maintenance. And I get my blood tested. I try to do it like three or four times a year to make sure that it's not drastically

dropping throughout the season. But yeah, it's something I've struggled with in the past. Like post-Olympics in 2012, I had an iron test and my iron was like dangerously low. So I had to take a big time off of training. It's something that if you don't keep check on it, it can drop. And that can be really harmful to your performance and just how you feel energy levels, everything. So I do take a supplement. I think most athletes do. So I'd recommend that. Do you know of anything else that you can do other than taking a supplement to try to keep your iron levels at a healthy place?

Like a diet or anything else? I think diet for sure impacts it. Like if you eat red meat or even spinach and stuff has some iron in it. So eating healthy. But I don't eat an enormous amount of red meat or anything like that. I get most of the iron from the supplement. I don't know. This is a tough one. Well, it's funny because I think most people think of iron deficiencies. They think about women.

But last time I got my blood drawn through Inside Tracker, it showed I had very low iron and ferritin levels. Yeah. I've had it before as well. Yeah, there you go. So a friend of mine who is a dietitian recommended an iron supplement for me too. Mine's called Blood Builder. It has some other stuff in there as well.

But same concept. Yeah, Blood Builder has a really low dose, I think. Oh, okay. Compared to hemoplex. Like, I don't know, a lot of them have 18 milligrams. Some of them only have like six or five, so not very much. Oh, so mine here, Blood Builder, is 26 milligrams per, yes, per pill, per tablet. Per tablet.

Okay, that's pretty good, I guess. But you said yours is 75? 85. 85. Okay. Yeah, that's a lot more. but I think maybe it's too high. I don't know.

This question's so hard because I'm not an expert at this. Right. And when you look at blood results, there's like your ferritin level, your iron level, your hemoglobin, all these things that are like quite confusing to interpret. And they work together, right? And they work together. So I think my advice would be to talk to a nutritionist or dietitian or a doctor even to know which levels need to be improved and what you can do to improve them and how many milligrams you should be taking per day, knowing that you're an athlete versus

yeah versus listening to the pod yeah it's possible like you'd be taking a lot of iron but you're not absorbing it and what's the reason for that yeah yeah it's the whole thing

everybody's a little different on how well they absorb yeah I remember learning about that you can't just take it and it fixes it people's bodies absorb it so differently yeah okay next question here is from Lucy

hello huge fan of the pod and day oneer my question is around my sports watch training status and VO2 Max estimate. How much attention, if any, should we be paying attention to this? Mine has steadily been declining for a month now.

Is this a warning sign, or should these algorithms be completely ignored if I otherwise feel fine in training? Lucy. I already know what you two are going to say, but go right ahead. No. Well, Eric, you can go.

I just got a little light-headed for dinner time. Talking about the iron, maybe. It's the, like, her vision. the Garmin is telling her V-O-2 Max is going lower? Yeah, so Garmin will tell you your training status. So like it'll say, you know, maintaining or productive or peaking or strained or detraining. Yeah.

Or unproductive, you know. Yeah, she actually wrote Garmin in this, but I switched it to SportsWatch. Okay, got it. But I guess we could keep it at Garmin because I think that this is a completely stupid thing that it does. And Wahoos don't do it. Wahoos don't do it. Obviously, there's some like scientific data background. It's allowing it to do this, but I think we've talked about this on the podcast before when, like, a professional athlete is doing a session and it tells you after that you're unproductive.

It's like, compared to what? I don't know. I think sometimes it doesn't really have a frame of reference of what your goals are, anything really about you besides what your heart rate is. So it's, and your activity load, obviously. Yeah, it's not your coach. It doesn't know that this is intentionally a rest week or intentionally a big bike week. Yeah. Right.

But it's like, I don't know. It's the thing that's like entertaining. It's like, oh, look, I got a course record on Strava and my training is unproductive. That's fun. Moving on. I think it's, personally, I like to use it in tandem with how I'm feeling as a somewhat of a guide. And if I'm feeling worse and worse and I see that my VF2 max number is consistently dropping, then I'm like, oh, okay, interesting.

But if I'm feeling fine and training well, it's like you said, it doesn't know everything. thing and sometimes there's functional overreaching, that's good. And you don't want to necessarily let off the gas just because your watch is telling you this or that. I mean, anecdotally also, I was just at altitude and my V-O-2 max running went from like 63 to 57, according

to Garmin. How's it deciding what your V-O-2 max is in real-time anyway? It uses data. It tries to it draws conclusions without actually ever testing your. Your ventilatory exchange? Yeah. Exactly.

So it just, it goes by how fast you're going, how much you weigh. And then it tries to compare that to your heart rate and tries to draw conclusions. And it's somewhat accurate, but you can't compare it to like other people. Okay. Yeah. And I still think it should be a general thing. You know, don't sit there staring at after every workout, wondering why it's not going up. Right, right.

Yeah. And do you wear it for all three sessions? I guess that would be the other thing. Yeah. You're using it to swim, bike, and run, so it's accounting for all that. Yeah, Garmin does not calculate your swim VOTOMX, but it does calculate your bike and your run VOTOMX separately and gives you two separate scores for it. Gotcha. Yeah.

Yeah, I would say don't get attached to it in any way. Use it as a fun tool. Use it as a fun tool. Can you turn it off? Can you say like, I don't know this? Yeah, you can. You can. I would want to turn it off.

Your training doesn't contribute to those scores. Okay. Yeah. But I like it. It's fun. And mine is always telling me I'm doing terribly. So I like to prove it wrong. You're a very positive person, though.

Like you can handle this watch telling you you're getting slow. I just laugh. I laugh at it. Okay, next question here. Hi, guys. Disclaimer, I'm not a triathlete or endurance athlete, but my wife is, and she loves your podcast and listens to it while making dinner. So by proxy, I'm also a huge fan.

Now for my question, she's making the switch from running marathons to triathlons. Gotten pretty good at spectating and supporting her at Roneavit. but what do I need to know about being support spouse for triathlons? Seems like the logistics are more complicated. Any tips? Thanks, JD. That's a fun question.

Yeah, I like this one. It's kind of from the other side. Yeah. I got to say, I love being support. Yeah, it's pretty fun. I think it's more a little bit more logistically challenging, but also the opportunity for spectator, like seeing the athlete come by is usually higher because naturally they're doing two transitions.

You see them start the swim, finish the swim, start the bike, finish the bike, versus in a running race they could just go off on a looped course and you never see them until the end. Or you're trying to chase them down. So depending on the distance of the race, I think there's a lot of opportunity, even just to plant yourself in one spot and see them several times, which I think is really fun. And depending on their goals, I think the biggest thing you can do as a support person is just encouragement. But sometimes people like splits. some people of time. You just have to like talk to her and see what kind of information she wants,

if anything, or if it's just cheering because that's the most helpful thing I think. Yeah, it's possible that you could like have the Ironman like tracker app pull up on your phone and know that she's running a little faster than someone who's in front of her and give her that information. You know, that can that can be helpful. Yeah. The other thing is you're not really supposed to, well, I know you're not supposed to do this is give outside aid. So in terms of like handing extra nutrition, handing extra bottles, riding beside them even is not allowed. So just be careful with that. Especially like in the pro race, we have to be careful of this.

If Eric's out filming me in a race, he can't really ride beside me for any significant amount of time because that can be considered pacing me or outside assistance. That's not allowed. This just happened to friends of a friend. These two triathletes I'm friends with here, their friend was racing Victoria. And I think she was going to get second overall. But her boyfriend was racing and he pulled out of the bike or something and then ran one last lap with her on the run. Well, he was, well, he had DNFed.

And so she got de-kewed for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people don't really know that rule. I mean, the guy that came to help film me in Chattanooga was riding beside me filming for a bit. And I had to tell him to stop because I'm like, I know you're not assisting me, but you can't do that. So please drop back. But he didn't know.

So it's just a thing people aren't really aware of. Well, I just wanted to say one more thing about that because I feel like there's a lot of beginner triathletes that listen to this. You can't accept any help from anyone on the course. No one can run any part of it with you. You can't run with your baby across the finish line. Like, you know, you can't grab the baby from your wife at the end

and run across the finish line. Like, Iron Man has historically been very, very strict about that stuff. So we don't want anyone to achieve. their life goal just to be decued at the end. It might be more lax in like a local race or a non-iron man brand race but that's that is the rule of Ironman.

Yeah. As far as like the morning thing, Paula was going there, if you can be with your person in the morning and just like be there in case they need to hand you like their jacket just before they walk into the water or you can have a towel for them if they want to do a swim warm up

or just like stuff goes wrong. So if you can be around transition with like a multi-tool and a pump and a tube or just like a water bottle. Any of these things that can, if they come up to you and like, oh, do you need a drink of water? Like, oh, yeah, actually I couldn't find any. There's a lot more gear than in a marathon.

Yeah. So you're just going to have like bags and stuff to throw and stuff to like dispose of before the start and just organizing your transition area. So the number of things to remember are quite a lot higher. The things that come to mind from me, if I were to give advice to someone who hasn't done this yet, is that as a supporter,

you can't go into the transition area where all the bikes are unless you're an athlete on race morning. So you can't get in there and set up their spot. They have to do it themselves. Also, a lot of the times,

I'm trying to think of things like Indian Wells where if you're parked in there in the morning, you can't get out of there until like two and a half hours after the swim starts, right? Because of like weird traffic congestion. I feel like in a marathon it's kind of more simple.

It's like start point, end point. So like pay attention to road closing Yeah, especially with a double transition. Yeah, exactly. But otherwise, it's really fun and it's, I mean. But otherwise, have a blast. Traathlon's fun when you're a spectator. It's fun to watch.

I think compared to a marathon, it is more fun to watch because you get to see kind of three different sports. And a lot of courses will have points where you can stand and see like someone on the bike two or even four times or see someone on a run like maybe like six times. Like there were parts in Moro Bay where you could stand and see the same athlete six times.

I do think it's sweet if you can have like an e-bike or just any sort of bike to get around easy. To be able to get to different parts on the run course to just be seen as many parts as possible because there's oftentimes parts on run courses where nobody goes to because they're kind of remote and seeing somebody there is a huge boost. Yeah. Okay. Next question here is from Rich. Hey guys, I have a quick question regarding water bottle storage when on the bike. Uh-oh. I can feel this one's going to go into crazy territory.

When in the arrow position, is there any aeropan, is there any aeroplank? to running a water bottle in the rear jersey pocket, or is it more arrow to shove it down the front of the trisuit? Thanks for your input. Don't show anything down your trisuit. It should be illegal in all countries. I've gone down like a huge rabbit hole this the last couple of weeks of what's the benefit. Because you see all these athletes now putting things down the front of their jersey,

not to store the bottle for use necessarily, but because when you fill that gap, it's theoretically, aerodynamically faster. And it's proven, actually. So what you're saying is, my donut and cookie consumption may be making me more aerodynamic. Yeah, if you have a...

Well, I don't know if it's like your gut or like the upper area, like your chest. The air doesn't know the difference. If I start, my torso gets bigger and bigger, I'm getting more and more aerodynamic. I think it's important, you know, that to me right there,

that is the important thing, is you need to test it for yourself just because it's faster for Joe Skipper. doesn't mean it's faster for you. And he has tested how far down it is, or is it right touching his chin, or what size bottle is it? Is that, you know, a whole bunch of different things?

I didn't realize that it was more aerodynamic. I thought it was just, it's the place that you can put it that's the least affecting your aerodynamics. But you're saying it's actually faster than not having it there. Oh, Nick. That's the latest thing. A lot of between the bars bottles

have had that effect as well, because it's filling in space that air can't swirl. Yeah. So if this person's specifically asking, I have an extra bottle, do I put it in the back or the front? I guess put it in the front because everyone's doing it. Well, putting it in the back jersey pocket is for sure a huge aerodynamic penalty.

Yeah. I would imagine. Like the thing sticking out of your back, kind of like catching the wind. Yeah. Yeah, shove it down your jersey or just put another bottle cage behind your saddle. if you want to be the coolest. Yeah.

Eric, what would you do here? Yeah, one between your forearms and one behind the saddle. And nothing on the down tube? No. Okay, here's a question for Eric. Allegedly, according to when we were at the specialized, the wind tunnel, they said that an arrow, like an arrow bottle on the down tube had no impact. It wasn't a penalty.

It wasn't faster. Right. So that seems like a great idea. They don't hold much water. They don't hold much water and a lot of people struggle to get them in and out. So I think the best thing you can do is have one between your arrow bars and one behind your saddle, unless you're cool with this sloshy mess in your chest. I was going to say, do not put a round bottle on your down tube. That is slower.

Right. 100%. That's definitely slower. Okay, cool. Next question here is from Daphne. Hello, TTR from Canada. Proud supporter. I'm relatively new to triathlon three years.

just recently traveled to Victoria 70.3 from Calgary and managed to damage my bike rotors due to my inexperience in packing. Okay, this is kind of a long one, but I do think it's a great question. This is the first time I've traveled to an event and I borrowed the Tully Sport clamshell hard case from a friend. I think that the case may have also been too small for my bike, widthwise. I have a Quintanarru tri-bike with disc brakes that has a decent flare at the rear of the bike. I felt like I was pushing down onto the frame as I was clinching the case together. I know you have mentioned you've used many cases and some you're not quite fond of. Can you recommend a case that truly protects our tri bikes and any tips for an excellent packing

job? When I look at a soft shell case, I just don't see how they protect the bike when airlines are stacking the bikes flat. Am I missing something? I assume that the hard shell cases are the way to go, correct? Always look forward to the weekly YouTube and podcast. Good luck with your season. Everyone regards Daphne. So there's a lot of things here. Eric, are you tired of answering bike bag questions? I was like eight questions and one. Let's do it. Yeah.

So let's start with this. Are the hard shell case is the way to go? And if so, why or why not? Um, I wouldn't say as a rule of thumb that they are, no. The hard shell cases, I think, the only one you would consider is bike box, Alan, in terms of packing it easily. Yeah. The thing with like the Tully that you use, like the round trip or whatever they call that, is like you have to dismantle your bike so far. Yeah.

And then TSA is going to open that thing up, pull all the padding out, pull your shoes out, look for bombs. And then they're just going to throw it back in there. And then like someone's going to sit on it to get it to close as they strap it back together. I have witnessed it with my own eyes. So the upside of the soft bags, like the Saigon is there's plenty of room in there. It's very easy to see inside. And it's almost impossible for them to like put it back together wrong. Yeah.

So yes, maybe it's. It's going to get piled up, but I like to think that they put the softer stuff closer to the top. And if you got a hard case, they're putting everything on top of that hard case. That's the big thing I've heard you guys talk about a lot, is that... With your bike and they're incorrectly. Right. Is that, of course, the hard shell case is safer if the amount of pressure and damage is the same as a soft shell case. But they usually treat them very different.

That's the issue. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, any tips for actually packing the bike? I know, for example, you guys do like a cardboard cut out that's like the shape of the wheel that you put on either sides of the wheel to give it a little extra padding. But is there anything else that you do that you think is a good rule of thumb? Like should you take the derailer off? I personally, taking the derailer off for sure, taking the rotors off the wheels is an easy thing to do that will prevent them from potentially getting bent, which ruins them. Yeah.

I like to wrap the bike in bubble wrap or in foam tubing. Eric doesn't think that helps, but I just, even if it's mental and peace of mind, I think it's got to help a little bit. Eric's like, if someone's sitting on it, bubble wrap's not going to help. Okay, maybe, but if it gets like knocked or scratched by something inside, I don't know.

I think it can make a difference, and it doesn't take much extra time to do that. So the let, in the bikes boxes we use are the Saikon, the Evok Pro, and the Tully soft case round trip. Yeah, it's like semi-soft. And they're all great, but they all have cons as well. The Evoc Pro is enormous. That's its con and it's really cumbersome to deal with.

And it weighs a lot. The sidecon is probably the least protective of them all, but it's, I'd say, the easiest to pack. Yeah. And then yours requires more disassembly than the other two. Yeah. The two-lea requires a bit more dissembly. I have not used it for a tri-bike yet

because you have to take the handlebars off, like the actual base bar, but for the mountain bike, it's fantastic. and I freaking love it so much. It's very, very protective, I think. Yeah. A lot of the, all these bike bags are putting the wheels on the outside, and that kind of does have a protective effect for the bike. So if it does get impact, it's not directly onto the frame.

It's often onto like the wheels and the hub absorbs it a little bit. So I don't know. It's always a gamble, but we don't have a choice. So I think you just have to send it down to the plane and forget about it almost. And I've had a frame crack. Eric's had a frame crack. It's kind of part of it. You cross your fingers and you do the best you can,

but you don't really know how they're going to treat it. Maybe one pro tip would be to put an air tag in there, though. As with any other, Eric's also anti-air tag. I'm anti-that. Really, why is that, Eric? You just like, it's just extra stress and it doesn't make any difference.

Yeah, from the second that we drop our bags off to this, like, 15 hours later when we actually arrive at our destination, Paul was like hitting refresh, hitting refresh, hitting refresh, hitting refresh, like, they haven't moved, they haven't moved. Right until three minutes before we're supposed to take off, boom, they're magically in the plane every single time,

and she's dressed for nothing. Or just make yourself a rule that you're not going to look at it until you're standing, waiting to pick it up at baggage collection. Yeah, I don't think they're a bad thing to have in there unless you're obsessively looking at it, but it is miraculous that sometimes, like, I have one in our suitcases and in our bike cases, and sometimes the suitcases will be like right underneath us on the airplane, and the bikes are like two kilometers away in the other terminal. And then literally right before we take off, they're just magically there.

And it's not because the thing hasn't refreshed. It's like they actually move that quickly. That's the timeline they're operating on. It's that tight. It's actually like what Air Takes have shown me is the impressiveness of the efficiency of baggage maneuvering in airports. Guys, just be understanding when your bags get lost because it is a freaking miracle every time they don't get lost. So amazing. You know how many bags they have?

They all look exactly the same. It is mind-blowing. think about that organization. Oh, bad. Crazy. Okay, cool. So, yeah, so the short answer is that there is no one bag that is the best of all. That's what you're saying, right?

Yeah, and I wish there was because I get asked this question, like, all the time. What bike bag should I get? I don't know. They all suck, but you just have to pick the one that sucks the least, I guess. Yeah, I really like mine, the Evok Road Bike Bag Bag Pro, but it is humongous, like you said. It's so big. It is the biggest pain in the ass. It's really, really big.

In so many ways. I hate that thing. Sorry. Okay, next question is from Ryan. Hey guys, today I read up on athlete psychology because I've been feeling really shitty after my 70.3 for no real explicable reason. I read out that there's something called

post-race depression, PRD, where basically it's almost an unavoidable depression for some due to the extreme amount of focus and energy put into training for a big race. Then when it's over, you feel left in a void of what now? I also read that battling on and training through it only adds to it. And so I took the decision to put triathlon down for a little while until the cloud passes. I'm deeply saddened to make the decision, but I'm curious as to whether any of you guys get the same feeling.

How do pros go from race to race and not experience the same struggles? Thanks for everything, guys. I'll continue to listen to the pod as I love it. Ryan. This is post-race blues. And do you feel like you guys racing often actually helps this? It's like, well, we race like 10 times a year. we don't have time like to build up all this emotion.

We don't have time for the blues. We just kind of freaking put a smile on our faces. No, that is not true. That's crazy that we got a word for this now. But yeah, 100% yes, this is a real thing. I think it's more intense, the bigger the race and the better the result. Like for us anyway, like there's this big hype period and the fighting chance videos by Iron Man and everything's like so crazy.

And then afterwards you're having to like answer all the thumbs up, the comments and respond to people and people are texting you. about your great result and then like three days later all of a sudden it's just like boom you're exhausted and the floor falls out and it takes like five days for you to want to do anything and you're just tired yeah and just tired yeah what eric was saying is the bigger the race the more this in fact can kind of take place and i think for a lot of amateur athletes you're not racing that frequently in the year so you have this big goal it's everything that you're dedicated to for months and months leading in. It happens and then it's over and now what? So definitely having another race somewhere on the

horizon can help with that just to refocus and reset and go through the build process of training again. But I personally, I do get this feeling, but I like taking a week of just like total chill, don't have to do anything if I don't want to in terms of training. I kind of look forward to that post race. 100%. So reframing it that way. And not being sad and missing it. Because personally, I put so much pressure on myself. The lead up to race is extremely stressful to me. So to have it be over is almost more of a relief than a sad feeling.

The one time where this really, really affected me was post-Olympics, because really your whole life for like four years is dedicated to this one race. And the race happens in two hours and it's over. And then the Olympics is over and no one cares anymore. So it impacted me a lot back then. and took me maybe two years to even get out of that hole. And meanwhile, I was still racing and trying to train through it, but it was really difficult.

My results weren't good. I was not healthy. So on the big scale like that, I think it's pretty common for athletes to experience that. And I don't know. I feel like I'm just talking and talking. You're crushing it. I don't know necessarily how to get out of it besides switching your focus

and finding a new passion or hobby or something else to focus your time on, whether that's spending more time with your family or just choosing one of the three sports to do for exercise. Like running is very convenient. Maybe just do that three times a week to feel like you're still out and moving and not just stopping cold turkey after the race is over. Yeah. I kind of wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the opposite of this. I've never had this, the post-race blues or post-race depression, but I have had major struggles with Paula what you were just talking about, which is before the race, the week. leading up to the race.

And I, you know, I hope, I would hope that if I raced more or if I was as good as you guys were at the sport, that I would have found a way around this. But it sounds like it just follows you wherever you go, right? Like, doesn't matter how good you are, doesn't matter how much you're used to the pressure. You still struggle with this, right? And have you found things that help you with it? I'm just thinking back to Moro Bay. You know, those days before the race were miserable and made the,

the race almost not worth it for me how hard I was. And I'm not even sure where it comes from. I don't know if it's pressure I put on myself, but it's just this looming, like, dread. It's just a fact of doing something that you really care about. Like, if you worked in an office and you had to give a presentation to the entire company, you would get nervous about that. Or if you had to present at a conference or, you know, name your thing in whatever, Glenn is breathing hot air on my neck and whatever space that you're that you're working in.

I think you just need to kind of remember that that like, hey, I'm nervous and it's okay because I care. And for me personally, I try to shift my brain into this space of like, you know what? I don't know what's going to happen. There's nothing that says that I should do this or I should perform at this level

because I've been doing this long enough and I've had great training blocks and then terrible races and I've had training blocks that were unexciting and then great races and you just got to, hopefully maybe me saying that will help some people to realize

just get out of the space of like I need to do this because my training indicates this and rather go out and just like find out what you have that day. Like try to open yourself up to like anything could happen. I'm going to go out.

I'm going to do my best and I'm going to see what I come away with. That helps you. Eric to like quiet that feeling a little bit. Totally. I just, I legitimately see every race is like an opportunity to go out and learn something about myself.

And the thing, I could learn that I'm way faster than I was last time I did this race or whatever. Or that like I have something special inside of me that allowed me to elevate above what I thought was possible. Or I could find out that I was too tired. And then I'll go back and I'll fix it for the next race. And that's like kind of what's beautiful about the sport is that we're all just trying to get better each day, each race, and improve and you're on this journey of like self-improvement

and a bad race isn't like a failure of what you're doing rather than like one part of the process. I think I'm realizing for me that it might have to do with the duration of the race because like for short races, I don't get nervous. I'm just excited. But for 70.3 or longer, it might just be I'm just dreading the amount of pain that the race is going to be. He's got to take it piece by piece. Yeah, not think about the whole thing. Don't think about the run before you've started. Yeah. But I'm thinking back towards this person's question specifically because after race blues is totally different than pre-race anxiety.

And I can imagine being in this funk post race where you just like the last thing you want to do is get out the door. But I do think that just getting out the door and doing some kind of swim bike run activity might actually help you get over it. Because I always feel better if I go for an easy bike ride or an easy swim or an easy swim or easy run. And even in our post-race week where we don't have to train at all, we still end up training because it makes us feel good. We have mental clarity. We can do other things in the day that are more productive when we're, we've exercised. So your body becomes so used to that exercising, maybe excessive exercise when you're training for a race. But after the race is over, as much as you maybe mentally don't want to do it, for this person who says they're just going

to move on from triathlon completely, which is totally okay, you still have to incorporate some activity into your day-to-day life. And I think that will help with the blues in general. So I was just thinking about that as you guys were talking about pre-race anxiety. It's like, what would I do? Oh, I'd probably go train, which is so backwards. But I think it's really what we're all wired to do if you're listening to this podcast. So it is something that will help.

I think my favorite thing to do in the week after the race is go to the pool and swim as little as I want. It feels so nice and indulgent. Like I'm going to the pool for an hour. I might swim for 10 minutes. I'm going to swim somewhere between 1K and 2K. And I'm going to sit on the deck and look at the water for a while and I'll play with my paddles. And I'm just going to like float around. And that just feels so good.

But then the next day I kind of want to go do a real swim. It's like the executive workout. I cannot believe you just use the word indulgent and pool in the same sentence, Eric. No, I mean, I've said this before. It's the same thing with when we're on off season. We don't have to swim. Just going and like feeling the water a little bit. Doing only 50s, nothing over a 50.

Doing one paddle, the other paddle. Put on my flippers for the first time in six months. Yeah. Right. It just feels kind of fun. Okay, great. Next question here is it's not a bike tech with Eric question, but it could be. This is from Garrett.

Hey, TTL gang. I have a do it all bike with a two-by-Sram A axis group set and two wheel sets. One for gravel. other for road. The gravel wheel set has a 1036 cassette and the road wheel set has a 1028 cassette. If I size my chain to fit the 1036 cassette, am I okay to ride the same chain on a 1028 cassette? Is there any situation where I would need to swap chains when I swap wheels? So first of all, just for people who aren't the specific person, Garrett, I would imagine it matters very much which direction you're going. If your chain is set up for a 1028 on a road bike and then you put a

1036 cassette. That's different than having the bike come with a 1036 cassette and then trying to put a 1028 on there. But do you think there would be too much slack, Eric? Yeah, I guess that would work. I think it would work. It's probably not going to shift the best just because of how far that top pulley is away from the cassette at the high end.

Yeah. Yeah. But there's an adjustment that you can make. to accommodate for that. And yeah, the only, I think it would be more of an issue with the chain being too sloppy if you were in the small ring in the front

and the small ring in the back, towards the end, you'd have a floppy chain. But if it's 10, 36 or 1028. That has more to do with the 10 or the 11, not the big one. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I would say it's, Yeah, I'm just curious if the derailer is meant to do that.

If you can really handle that big of a range. I think the explorer can handle that. But I would look at what you need to adjust to optimize the shifting with that cassette size. That went right over, that went right over my head. I honestly don't even know what they were asking. I bet you for a lot of people it also did. Well, hopefully for Garrett, we helped Garrett. Hopefully, we did.

Eric's clapping. Okay, next question here is from Emma. Hey guys, long time listener here, and I love the pot about the race recaps. Please do these more. I have a question about power on Zwift compared to out on the road. I find my power on Zwift is quite a lot lower,

30 to 40 watts than when I ride outside. I connect my bikes power meter to Zwift as I find my Wahoo kicker, chorus, trainer power to be even more inaccurate and lower. Just wondering if this is something you or anyone you know has struggled with, or if you have any idea why this may be. Thanks, Emma.

Yeah, for sure. But I'll let you guys go ahead and talk about this because I have a complicated relationship with the trainer as it is. Zwift power compared to your power meter power being different. The watts are going to be the same since it's your power meter, but I'm definitely in the team. It feels way harder indoors for me to do race power. Perceived exertion.

And it does outside, even though the watts don't lie. What is that? What is that? Are we that weak that just like nature flying by dulls the pain? No, it's not just the visual. It's like the feeling of the bike, especially for Eric. He's very dynamic. He likes to get out of the saddle and ride the rollers and push on the downhills and you don't get that feeling on Zwift when you're stationary. Whereas I am more of an athlete that's pretty immobile on my bike outside. So riding Zwift or riding on the kicker doesn't really change my watts that much. Yeah, Paula's like a statue. It's hard to tell when she's racing. Like if she's trying hard or if she's not trying to, hard or what. No, no, no, no. I'm like, it's amazing. I'm impressed. I'm not, it's not bad thing. It is amazing. But it's a good, because you're just so rock solid on the bike. It's a good question, though. Like, if you take your, if you say you can't do your

workout outside, so you take it inside to the trainer and you're pushing 30 watts less, because mentally or physiologically you can't get to that place where you can get to outside, are you getting less good of a workout? I would say you are getting less good of a workout. Of course you are. Yeah. You're pushing 30 watts less. so you're not getting the same benefits, even if mentally you had to go just as deep. So what do you do, though? Do you decrease the workout by 30 to 40 watts and still do the workout as prescribed?

Do you shorten the workout? 30 to 40 watts is excessive. That's a lot. That is a huge difference. I would say 10 watts maybe Eric has a difference. Yeah. So I just think you just need to do it more and you get used to it.

and you kind of learn the tricks or whatever, get better music, get a fan, anything you can do to make the environment more comfortable. But 30 to 40 watts is insane. I'm curious, is the kicker core? I don't actually know. Is it a tire on tire one? Or is it a direct drive?

Okay. Because I was going to say that typically the ones that drag against your tire are harder. Are even more terrible feeling. So that's good anyway. Yeah, direct drive trainers make it more road-feely. and you can shift. That'd be another thing

is maybe try not riding in an erg mode. Ride it so that on Zwift, it's naturally riding the ups and downs and does have a little bit of road feel so you can actually shift and be a bit more dynamic as if you're riding outside. You can go five watts over

and then five watts under and you can float around a little bit. I cannot, absolutely cannot do my workouts on the erg mode. It just crushes you mentally. Yeah, I just like look at the hills and I like think about riding up a hill and I shift to change the intensity level

and that helps me a lot. Did this person say they're on Zwift specifically? Yeah. Yes. Oh, they are. Okay. Well, that's good. I think that there's so many different ways to use Zwift,

and everyone has a different preference of how they want to use it. If they want to jump into a, actually, a good advice for this person would be to jump into some of like the group workouts that they have on Zwift programmed or a race. Because I think that you can get more out of yourself if you're with other people on Zwift. It feels like you're kind of part of a community or group. Same things with going to master swimming. It just adds this extra element if I'm not just sitting here in my garage doing this solo.

Yeah. You're looking at something besides, oh, am I at 360 watts or 361 or 361? And you'll work harder than you would on your own by nature of being in kind of a virtual race, which is really cool. Yeah. The last thing I'll say is that if I'm trying to do like five by 10

or like whatever, something by 10, and I just cannot, I'll try to do it broken. and I'll do like five minutes, give myself one minute to like reset. Or reset. Maybe not fully, but if I'm trying to do 300, I'll do like 250 for one minute and then I'll try to like last four minutes, bring it back. And so like you break it up just a little bit, just don't get to like the total time and watts, but however you can break it up to make it possible.

It is amazing how much breaking it up in general helps mentally. Like even when you're swimming, like taking a 10 second break can just make the interval feel so much better. It's not ultimately the same workout, but I think it's better than just doing 10 minutes at 40 watts less. Yeah, I agree. And to wrap it up, I would say that imagine if you got good at this, how strong you'll be outside. That's the hope. Yeah, that's the hope. It really, really makes it strong. Or you die. It really makes it strong. It kills you or you get stronger. Okay. Last question here is from Jared. I'm an age group triathlet who loves 70.3 and full distance races, but training has gotten to me and I want to get out and just have some more fun.

That's relevant to our last question too. Many of my friends are mountain biking and I'm wanting to join them. Curious what type of mountain bike you'd recommend and what to look for. I'd like something that would work for Extera races as I might want to give them a try. I've got about 2 to 4K budget, overwhelmed with the options and would love to hear what you guys think, Jared. For Extera, you can get a pure cross-country bike. I would go with a full suspension just because it allows you to pass.

over bumpy stuff. It's not necessarily about descending, but just continuing to put out power while going over roots and stuff. But you definitely don't need something that's like 150 millimeters, 160 millimeters of travel. Like 100 to 120,

totally sufficient and will be faster for an Xera if you're interested in racing. The cool thing about that too is that I think I was under the wrong impression that if you wanted to do any kind of like real jumps, you needed like at least a trail bike and then up onto an enduro bike or a downhill bike, but then riding with you and Curtis, who are, like, Curtis was a professional

athlete as well, an exter athlete, and you are obviously an exter athlete as well. I saw you do some jumps, and I even saw you in, like, in what photo, do like a big drop on your cross-country bike. So you can still have a lot of fun and do some pretty gnarly stuff, even though it's a cross-country bike. So I feel like for anyone who's getting into it for the first time, there's really no reason to go above that, at least for now, right? Yeah, the only reason would be if you truly want to do downhill things. And you live in a place where it's really rocky and really steep. But I'm not getting the vibe out of this.

You can certainly, I mean, dirt jumpers have like a little tiny front fork. Otherwise they're like a bigish BMX bike. And those guys are going 15, 20 feet in the air. So it's certainly not a jump issue, but like a bigger bike with more suspension will like allow you to make more mistakes and still do the same. thing, but, you know, like, Ken Block driving a Honda Civic will be faster than somebody driving a Ferrari, right. I mean, not, yeah, just because of like some skills. So just like, I would say, like, look at the epic series from Specialized.

That's what I have good experience with, incredible bikes, and they have this thing called the brain, which will actually unlock or lock itself. So you don't even have to worry about, like, is your fork locked out or not? That's a very cool feature. and if you look at just the regular epic, the full suspension, that's like a very good cross-country race bike, and then they have the epic Evo, which is a slightly more, has slightly more suspension,

and a lot of people end up liking that just because it's a little squishier, you can go over more stuff, but it still pedals really well. And what other things in a mountain bike, someone who's never bought a mountain bike, like what matters? I'm thinking things like a dropper post, or do they need carbon wheels?

Does the frame need to be carbon? And how much does that stuff matter compared to road cycling? If you're racing and you're at the front end of the race, everything matters. And having really light wheels, they're going to roll faster. Yeah, for sure. But I think probably like the biggest bang for your buck performance things that you can do for mountain biking is really having your tires dialed to the conditions and the tire pressure and your shock pressure. Having that all dialed in really well. And then you could be on the world's crappiest aluminum bike.

but if you have the right tires for the job at the right pressure that you're going to outride somebody on a much, much nicer bike if they don't have that set up. So I think that's going to take some practice and some research and everything. So I wouldn't, yeah, if you're just getting into it, I wouldn't worry about having a carbon bike personally or electronic shifting. The thing that I think about is you are a very good technical rider and very good technical riders can,

and your bike doesn't have a dropper post, right? Your race bike. No, I wish it did, but. It doesn't. But you can still get away with it. Like for me, that is the one biggest thing that makes a difference in my mountain bike. Having it or not having it, it allows me to go down so much more technical terrain when I can drop that post down compared to you might be able to do it anyway. But I need it.

And I feel like for someone who's getting into it, it seems like a big expense. But man, it just makes riding the bike way easier. Yeah. That's good insight. I just have never had one. So I just kind of grew up without it. It's life changing. You feel like you're on a dirt bike when that's.

thing goes down. Oh, you just get so low. Oh, okay. I haven't owned one. Okay, got,

I got it. Okay, well, those are all the questions we have for this week. Eric's racing Alcatraz this weekend. Paula,

soon will be racing Canadian TT champs. But we'll, we'll get into that when it happens. Oh, we can't make it through this podcast

without mentioning that we have friends in town. Oh, right. Famous friends. Famous friends. Yes. Because you kind of go

follow everybody on the Instagram and watch the YouTube's because it's going to be tons of fun. Yeah, Ellie Salt Host is here with her boyfriend Zach and their training in Ben for the next two months. So, yeah, maybe we'll have her as a guest on the pod. We should definitely have another...

We have different schedules, different coaches, but we're going to try to sync up as much as we can. And obviously, the motivation of going out and starting a ride together even is better than doing it solo. So I'm excited to have her here. We go way back. We train together with Siri Linley in like 2015-16 kind of era, which was crazy because we were both racing ITU.

And since then, we've switched to long course and we're much different people than we were back then. It's like really funny to look at pictures of us back in the day. We were just little and we didn't know what we were doing. But, yeah, it's really fun. For Eric, too, Zach is awesome and bring some lightheartedness to the group. Yeah, we love Zach. Yeah. Cool.

Well, thanks, guys. Thank you, Nick, for burning this 90-minute. podcast with us. Before you go for a bike ride, truly insane. Go get a ride. Go get a ride. Okay, cool.

I'll leave you to it. Thanks for listening to everybody. Ciao. That with you next week. Bye.