Ep. 11: Navigating the Depths of Triathlon: Insights from Oceanside 70.3, T100 Singapore and a look ahead to IMTX
This podcast episode delves into the recent triathlon events, specifically the Oceanside 70.3 and the T100, highlighting the exhilarating performances and significant outcomes of both races. We analyze the intense competition witnessed, particularly focusing on the women's race, where Paula Findlay emerged victorious, albeit closely pursued by Jackie Herring, demonstrating the unpredictable nature of triathlon. The discussion transitions to the men's race, where an unexpected flat tire altered the trajectory for frontrunner Christian Blumenfeld, leading to dramatic shifts in the race dynamics. Additionally, we explore the implications of a recent study on evening exercise and its effects on sleep, emphasizing the delicate balance athletes must maintain between training intensity and recovery. As we anticipate the upcoming Ironman Texas, we reflect on the implications of these races for the athletes' competitive trajectories and the potential for emerging talents to disrupt established hierarchies.
Transcript
Welcome to Tempo Talks, a show that brings you analysis of the biggest stories in triathlon training, tips to make you a better athlete and breakdowns of the latest science and performance.
Speaker A:I'm Matthew Sharp, an Olympian in triathlon 70.3 Champion & Co founder of the Tempo News.
Speaker B:And I'm Jeff Sankoff, the tridoc medical contributor for Triathlete magazine, age group winner and coach at Life Sport Coaching.
Speaker B:Our goal, inform and entertain two perspectives.
Speaker B:One sport, all things triathlon.
Speaker B:Now let's get into it.
Speaker A:All right, everyone, we are back with another episode of Tempo Talks.
Speaker A:Jeff, I really missed you when you were gone.
Speaker A:Super happy to be back here with you.
Speaker A:This is awesome.
Speaker A:I'm just really happy.
Speaker A:It's going to be good fun.
Speaker B:It is going to be good fun.
Speaker B:And I will admit to missing you as well.
Speaker B:And I had the best intentions.
Speaker B:I flew off to, I flew off to Indonesia thinking, okay, the time zones, it's going to be hard.
Speaker B:But you know what, we are going to record an episode.
Speaker B:We are going to talk about all the excitement that happened at those races.
Speaker B:And as soon as I got to Bali, that was like out the window.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:There was big talk and I was like, okay, maybe if this was like a business trip or something, you could probably carve out some time.
Speaker A:But this was your anniversary, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, it was our 25th anniversary and I found myself sitting by the infinity pool looking out over the ocean and realized it's probably not going to happen.
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:And that's good.
Speaker A:I, I feel like I wasn't pressing.
Speaker A:I was like, we need to have a good time for sure.
Speaker A:What, maybe give the audience.
Speaker A:And I want to know what was probably the coolest thing you saw because you were doing a lot of diving.
Speaker A:What was the coolest thing you saw underwater?
Speaker B:We went to.
Speaker B:So we were in the Banda Sea, which if you look on a map is the far eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago.
Speaker B:It is a vast open area of ocean dotted by very tiny islands, one of which was called Snake island for good reason.
Speaker B:It has a huge population of sea snakes, the banded sea krait, which is a blue and black banded sea snake.
Speaker B:It's beautiful and it's one of the most, one of the most venomous snakes in the world.
Speaker B:It has fortunately very small teeth, so can't penetrate a wetsuit and very docile does.
Speaker B:It's not particularly threatening.
Speaker B:And then the other one is a olive sea snake, a very beefy snake.
Speaker B:Anyways, we were diving amongst just hundreds of these snakes.
Speaker B:They would come swimming and they are very seductive.
Speaker B:The way they slither through the ocean, just the way they swim is beautiful.
Speaker B:My wife Sandra, does not love snakes.
Speaker B:And yet she found herself enjoying these dives immensely because these snakes were just so beautiful to watch.
Speaker B:And they would just come and they were very curious.
Speaker B:They actually would swim up alongside of you and just come and look at you and then move on their way.
Speaker B:It was very cool.
Speaker A:That sounds good experience.
Speaker B:It was pretty awesome.
Speaker B:I'll have to put a couple of pictures in the Tempo talks Facebook group just so that people could see what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:They're great photos.
Speaker B:Pretty awesome.
Speaker A:You also are very good at that underwater photography.
Speaker A:So they are definitely.
Speaker B:It is definitely a passion.
Speaker B:It is definitely a passion.
Speaker B:And I will say, I don't want to make this about the dive trip, but I will say that I got into diving because when I was very young, I would watch those Jacques Cousteau underwater specials and my whole adult life I was in pursuit of these beautiful, pristine reefs, which I have never really found until this trip.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker B:Very remote eastern area of Indonesia.
Speaker B:The reefs are spectacular, just alive with coral as far as you could see.
Speaker B:Zillions of fish of all kinds, shapes, colors.
Speaker B:It was really amazing and a trip of a lifetime.
Speaker B:And I'm going back in a couple of years, so.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And not a lot of triathlon, which is good, I think.
Speaker A:Good to break it up, I have to say.
Speaker B:You know what?
Speaker B:I am super motivated.
Speaker B:Since I came back, I have embraced.
Speaker B:I've loved my training.
Speaker B:I have Boulder as my first event and I'm actually pretty excited about it.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm really excited and I don't know.
Speaker B:Did you see this new race that's on the schedule for Ironman, the one in New Mexico?
Speaker A:Yes, I think it's called Ruidoso.
Speaker A:I probably butchering that.
Speaker B:I can't say it right either.
Speaker B:So it's next July.
Speaker B:When it first came out, I looked at the course maps and I thought, this can't be right.
Speaker B:Have you looked at it?
Speaker A:I know it's like pretty high altitude.
Speaker A:It's higher than us.
Speaker B:Okay, so it's higher than us.
Speaker B:Boulder is 54, 80.
Speaker B:50.
Speaker B:No, 54, 35,280.
Speaker A:I thought that was kind of.
Speaker B:We're.
Speaker B: We're: Speaker B: This New Mexico race is: Speaker B:And for context, St.
Speaker B: George is: Speaker B:So I looked at the bike course the bike course is an out and back course.
Speaker B:The first 28 miles, you lose 2,500ft of elevation.
Speaker B: ound and you have to gain all: Speaker B:And again, I don't know if these maps are correct because you know how it is.
Speaker B:Like the early maps come out and then they change.
Speaker A:They gotta put out the early.
Speaker B: The run course has: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which at that altitude will absolutely sting.
Speaker B:That is a suffer fest.
Speaker A:That place is funny because they're doing this race there.
Speaker A:They've announced it, but then also recently announced the Xterra World Championships are going to be there.
Speaker A:So all of a sudden it's like a triathlon hotbed.
Speaker B:It's a huge multisport hotbed.
Speaker B:And not just the 70.3, but a whole triathlon festival which Tempo readers are all about, based on your latest poll.
Speaker B:I think that.
Speaker B:So that I think is fantastic.
Speaker A:Yes, interesting.
Speaker B: course will not actually have: Speaker B:So I'm going to keep an eye on those course maps.
Speaker B:We'll update you if they change.
Speaker B:How about you, Matt?
Speaker A:Good, good.
Speaker A:Family road trip, I'd say from here, for sure.
Speaker B:Oh, for sure.
Speaker B:How about you, Matt?
Speaker B:How has it been over the last couple of weeks?
Speaker B:The training going well?
Speaker B:You've got St.
Speaker B:George coming up.
Speaker A:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker A:Training's been picking up panic training for St.
Speaker A:George, but I do feel like it's productive panic training.
Speaker A:The hole isn't too big yet and maybe I don't have enough time to dig too deep of a hole because I went away there for a bit.
Speaker A:I was in Florida with my wife Kirsten.
Speaker A:We were doing a local race there.
Speaker A:One of the triathlon boosters in West Palm beach invited us to come out and we had a great time meeting the community there and just enjoying that local race experience.
Speaker A:Bit of travel after that too.
Speaker A:So I definitely trying to put as much effort in as I can the next little bit.
Speaker A:I think it's two weeks till I leave for the race, really in crunch time here.
Speaker B:Well, good.
Speaker B:We're looking forward to seeing how that goes for you.
Speaker B:And I do want to take a moment to thank everybody who has left a rating and a review for the program, has shared the program with friends, has joined the Tempo Talks Facebook group.
Speaker B:We've had quite a few members joining there and having a good conversation.
Speaker B:People commenting on things they've heard, asking us questions.
Speaker B:So please do look for that on Facebook.
Speaker B:Join the group and get in on the conversation.
Speaker B:We'd love to have you there.
Speaker B:And don't forget, that's a good place to let us know about any reason we should be visiting the penalty tent before we get into the program.
Speaker B:Fortunately, I don't.
Speaker B:I'm not aware of any penalties for this particular episode, which is good news.
Speaker A:So, yeah, we're a little rusty though, so there could be something after this one for sure.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:So what are we talking about today, Matt?
Speaker A:Today we're going to rewind to that.
Speaker A:Oceanside 70.3 Singapore T100 weekend, the Masters weekend of triathlon.
Speaker A:There was a lot that went down, so we definitely need to revisit that.
Speaker A:Then we're going to get into a kind of interesting sleep study.
Speaker A:Sleeping, sleep and training that I think a lot of our listeners will really be keen to know about.
Speaker A:The impact of exercising and sleep.
Speaker A:Really interesting stuff.
Speaker A:And then we'll be talking about this weekend's Ironman Texas.
Speaker A:Big one.
Speaker A:Big one in Texas.
Speaker B:Lots of pro news to discuss and of course, that sleep study as well.
Speaker B:Let's begin with the 70.3 and T100 events that took place almost three weeks ago now.
Speaker B:But we both felt that it was still worth talking about because they were both really exciting races with a lot really interesting results.
Speaker B:And I know that when I touched down in Singapore, I was able to catch up on what had happened in the 70.3.
Speaker B:But hilariously, I was sitting there and the.
Speaker B:The race in Singapore hadn't yet begun.
Speaker B:So let's, I guess begin with 70.3 Oceanside.
Speaker B:And it was a big day.
Speaker A:It was a big day.
Speaker A:We can start with the women's race.
Speaker A:Cause it was actually quite interesting.
Speaker A:Like I really enjoyed it.
Speaker A:And honestly, Paula Finley took the win, but she was really pushed the whole time by Jackie Herring.
Speaker A:I think, like through the run, Paula was behind and then she eventually caught up.
Speaker A:But it really wasn't much of a huge margin of victory or anything.
Speaker A:It was quite small.
Speaker A:So I was actually really impressed with Jackie's performance there.
Speaker A:It was awesome.
Speaker B:And we mentioned Jackie before when we talked in our preview show and we mentioned that Jackie was a potential outside threat, but she's usually an Ironman type of athlete.
Speaker B:Unusual for her to press someone like Paula.
Speaker B:Do you think Paula had a bit of an off day or do you think Jackie was just really on?
Speaker A:I think it maybe a combo of both because now we know Paula actually recently changed coaches.
Speaker A:So maybe there's just a bit of an onboarding period with the training.
Speaker A:And Jackie, she was super consistent last year.
Speaker A:She was what, second in the Ironman pro series.
Speaker A:So maybe just continuing that great momentum from last year.
Speaker A:She definitely showed that she can compete on both these distances.
Speaker A:She's not just an Ironman athlete.
Speaker A:It was pretty impressive to see her push Paula essentially all the way to the finish.
Speaker B:And Paula has had success in Oceanside before, but I think she's won the event previously, I think twice.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Not too surprising to see her do well on a difficult bike course and then be able to hold it together on the run.
Speaker B:But I think I was expecting a little bit more from Tamara.
Speaker B:She definitely had a very solid run.
Speaker B:Unsurprisingly, no surprise, but she really put herself in a hole coming out of the swim.
Speaker B:It's really unfortunate.
Speaker B:She had such a good year a couple years ago on the swim and she seems to have foundered a little bit.
Speaker B:I'm hoping that she'll refind her form when she gets to the Ironman coming up this weekend.
Speaker A:Yeah, she's definitely making a push for the pro series.
Speaker A:So I'm almost curious if maybe she's just gone all in on this Iron man distance of really backing off.
Speaker A:Swim intensity, that front.
Speaker A:Front end swimming.
Speaker A:Maybe she's just fully dialing in Ironman.
Speaker A:So it'll be really interesting to see because she has racing Texas this weekend as well.
Speaker B:She's the kind of person who can give up some on the swim because she'll hold on the bike.
Speaker B:She's not going to give up a ton on the bike.
Speaker B:And then with her run, I mean, she's lights out on the run.
Speaker B:She made up quite a bit of that gap on the run at Oceanside.
Speaker B:With double the distance, she's got a chance to make up quite a big gap on that run.
Speaker A:So, yeah, that'll be fun to watch her there.
Speaker A:I do want to give a shout out to Lisa Vicarious.
Speaker A:I think I talked about her in the last podcast before you took off, but she really made a statement on that bike.
Speaker A:She really pushed from being a little bit further back in the swim.
Speaker A:She went back all the way to the front.
Speaker A:She caught Paula.
Speaker A:Who?
Speaker A:Paula Finley.
Speaker A:She's a Canadian national time trial champion.
Speaker A:She's no slouch on the bike.
Speaker A:Lisa rolled back on that front group, so I was super impressed with her performance.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:It brought another dynamic to the race, really, which was super engaging.
Speaker B:Now, the women's race was intriguing, but it really only involved a handful of people, really a small Number of names.
Speaker B:Whereas on the men's side it was really exciting, pretty much from the gun and there was all kinds of drama, especially once it got to the run.
Speaker B:So what's a recap and what was your take?
Speaker A:I would say the most notable things on that.
Speaker A:During that Oceanside race there was a bit of a front group and it coalesced.
Speaker A:Blumenfeld put himself to the front right away but then had a flat tire.
Speaker A:I was watching that, that bit there and he was just on the side of the road and there was no support for him.
Speaker A:I don't think he had any flat changing stuff which a lot of the pros don't really have.
Speaker A:So that was an interesting dynamic because he was certainly pushing the pace.
Speaker A:There was a bit of a front group off, I would say six or so with a certain character, Justin Riely.
Speaker A:He was really at the front a lot, smashing the bike and I think he actually may have been close to the bike course record when all was said and done.
Speaker B:So can we talk about Christian for just a second?
Speaker B:Because I don't think it's a surprise for people like me to hear that a lot of pros don't carry flat changing stuff.
Speaker B:I don't know that I totally understand that.
Speaker A:Maybe in an Ironman he would.
Speaker B:But Even in a 70.3 look, he ran his way back.
Speaker B:He could have.
Speaker B:If he had been able to change his flat quickly enough, he legitimately could have been top five maybe, maybe four, maybe podium maybe.
Speaker B:I don't understand it.
Speaker B:It's not a significant amount of weight.
Speaker B:It could.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:You're a pro.
Speaker B:Do you not carry a flat kid in any race?
Speaker A:So I did when I first started and honestly in these races for me I feel like if I get a flat, it's over.
Speaker A:Like I will try and continue on if I get support or whatever.
Speaker A:But few flat, it's.
Speaker A:That's tough.
Speaker A:It's tough for sure.
Speaker A:But maybe I will now.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker A:Seems to be an interesting lesson for many of us who were not.
Speaker B:But that's the thing, right?
Speaker B:If you're going to continue on anyways and if you get support.
Speaker B:So let's say you get the flat and support rolls up on you very quickly, then you'll continue on.
Speaker B:If you're carrying your stuff, you don't need the support and you could just.
Speaker B:Yeah, I just, I guess I'm just.
Speaker B:I just feel like there's money being paid all the way down and there's points on the line for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah, I Think harkens back to our conversation from a couple episodes ago where that age group guy pulled over to help the pro athlete in Ironman South Africa.
Speaker A:But none of those other athletes, who knows, maybe they also didn't have flat changing stuff.
Speaker A:Another pros were going to the side of the road for old Blumenfeld.
Speaker B:I don't know, it's.
Speaker B:It anyways.
Speaker B:I just find it interesting.
Speaker B:Look, it's the same deal for us.
Speaker B:Obviously we're not in it for the same reasons.
Speaker B:But I'm competing and I am at the pointy end of my age group and I certainly, if I get a flat, I'm going to change it and try and continue to try and compete.
Speaker B:There's no question it makes a big difference and I probably won't, I probably won't win.
Speaker B:I probably, I may not even get in the top three if I flat but I'm still gonna change it and still gonna do my best to try and get there again.
Speaker B:100% not the same.
Speaker B:Not comparing myself and not saying it's the same thing, but I think it's interesting that had Christian had his own flak kit, it might have been a very different story.
Speaker A:True.
Speaker B:And like I remember back I mentioned on a previous episode I talked about Chrissy Wellington having.
Speaker B:She had her own flak kit but she blew the CO2 cartridges.
Speaker B:But it's not that long ago that pros definitely carried their own stuff.
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:And listen, the bikes today have so much storage space, so I don't know.
Speaker A:They do.
Speaker A:There's probably not an excuse there for the lack of space.
Speaker A:But Christian was not there starting the run.
Speaker A:But there were a few good notable athletes.
Speaker A:Justin Rielly had a lead, I think he had a minute lead over the next group which contained Gustav.
Speaker A:Ben Knut, I believe, Sam Appleton, Rudy von Berg and then I think Lionel was another two minutes back of the Gustav group.
Speaker B:It was insane.
Speaker B:He was like he was four or five minutes back by the time he got off and he had a sensational bike.
Speaker B:He.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:Yes, he had.
Speaker B:So he came out of the water like 23rd or something and he was back.
Speaker A:He was four minutes back, four minutes back.
Speaker A:Which a lot more than last year when he was like 90 seconds back of me.
Speaker B:And then he gets off the bike after having a really strong bike.
Speaker B:And that bike group was full of.
Speaker B:The guys who got off the bike first were full of really strong runners.
Speaker B:And I was like, oh, he could probably catch a couple of them.
Speaker B:But no, caught all of them.
Speaker B:He Caught all of them and wow, like really stamped his foot down with authority because that was a who's who were in front of him.
Speaker A:And there was just a lot of intrigue in that race.
Speaker A:You had Justin Rielly who really pushed the pace on the bike.
Speaker A:And you're kind of like, man, is this guy, like, what's he gonna run here?
Speaker A:Is he gonna run away with this?
Speaker A:He did not.
Speaker A:Spoiler alert.
Speaker A:But certainly a valiant effort.
Speaker A:I think he just over biked a little bit.
Speaker A:So I'd like to see him maybe dial it back a little bit next time.
Speaker A:But yeah, then you had Gustav, you had Rudy Vomberg, you had Seth Ryder, Olympic medalist from Paris in there as well.
Speaker A:You just don't know what these guys are gonna do, who's feeling good.
Speaker A:And then Lionel was just on a man on.
Speaker A:He was like Terminator out there.
Speaker A:You could not stop him.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And familiarity with the course obviously had help.
Speaker B:And just his.
Speaker A:That's like a home.
Speaker A:That's got to be like a home race for him in some of the crowds and everything.
Speaker B:Just an amazing, amazing thing to see.
Speaker B:And so nice to see Gustav Iden on a podium again.
Speaker B:Feels like he's probably good solidly back.
Speaker B:I'm glad to see that.
Speaker B:So that, that was great and nice for us as Canadians to see a Canadian sweep at the top.
Speaker A:So we, I think we predicted that.
Speaker A:We just.
Speaker A:I think it's Tamara might took take the win.
Speaker A:So you won that round.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:There we go.
Speaker A:All right, Good act.
Speaker B:Let's talk about the T100.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And you were there.
Speaker A:You were boots on the ground.
Speaker B:I was boots on the ground, but I didn't get to actually witness it live.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's funny because it was hot, though.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:I'm sure.
Speaker A:I don't even know what time they started.
Speaker A:I think they raced in the.
Speaker A:It seemed like the afternoon.
Speaker A:I could be wrong.
Speaker A:It could be a penalty tent here.
Speaker A:It's going to be hot any time of the day there for sure.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:It was funny because I feel like I wrote about how people might overdo it in the swim and the bike and just absolutely implode.
Speaker A:And in both races there was plenty, plenty of that.
Speaker A:So there was just absolute carnage.
Speaker A:I think in the women's race, start off with this.
Speaker A:The women's Kate Wolf, if you're.
Speaker A:If you follow short course racing, obviously, like I do.
Speaker A:I know who she is.
Speaker A:She's a great athlete.
Speaker A:She's an Olympian in Paris, but untested, I would say in the middle distance long course racing.
Speaker A:And I don't know, she came out with this performance and maybe she's saying, hey, I'm the person this year.
Speaker B:So she really dominated.
Speaker B:She ran by Lucy, she ran by Ashley.
Speaker B:Wasn't having a great day.
Speaker B:No, but still, yeah, I mean, she ran by some major league names and definitely not going to be underestimated anymore.
Speaker B:And people are gonna identify.
Speaker A:That was a statement.
Speaker A:That was a statement race.
Speaker A:And she raised.
Speaker A:Quite mature for someone who hasn't really done a lot of these races.
Speaker A:I think she was nicely tucked into the front pack, not breaking the wind or breaking the water, so to speak.
Speaker A:And then she rode with Jessica Learmouth, another British athlete.
Speaker A:I don't even know if she was spending too much time on the front there, just.
Speaker A:And then came off on the run and just ran like textbook, like it was a clinic in.
Speaker A:In racing.
Speaker A:And bloody impressive.
Speaker B:And bloody impressive.
Speaker B:Tip of the hat to the British, of course.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:Managing the heat too.
Speaker B:Better than anybody else, clearly.
Speaker B:And you wonder, is that in her DNA?
Speaker B:Like, literally, is that her genetics?
Speaker B:Is that something she just prepared better for than anybody else?
Speaker B:Difficult to know or difficult to say for sure.
Speaker B:But she just clearly was very well set up for the condition, so.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:And it was funny watching them.
Speaker A:Did you see them, like, put on their helmets in transition?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:So were they filled with ice?
Speaker A:They were filled with ice.
Speaker A:So every time an athlete would put it on, it was just like this ice.
Speaker A:The ice bucket challenges, like the ice bucket challenge, which would probably feel amazing coming out of that water.
Speaker B:Yeah, I bet.
Speaker A:But there was also the surprise with second, right, Lisa Perder from Austria, who was a wild card, I think she got added, I want to say, eight days before.
Speaker A:Like, they were just desperate to have someone else on the start.
Speaker B:That's the kind of race, though, in those kinds of conditions.
Speaker B:That's the kind of race where it's going to be somebody who you're not.
Speaker A:Expecting, again, is someone who I've known, I've actually trained with her for a bit, is someone who absolutely thrives in hot conditions.
Speaker A:So when I saw her on the Starline, I was like, okay, she could really have a good race.
Speaker A:And she totally delivered.
Speaker A:It's funny, she's the kind of athlete I remember, like a race, a World cup race in Hotelco, Mexico.
Speaker A:So, like South Mexico.
Speaker A:This is hot.
Speaker A:This is like tropical.
Speaker A:And after the swim warmup, she's got a puffy jacket, you know, those buffs.
Speaker A:I don't know if there's any bigger Flex in the heat than something like that.
Speaker A:But she's always raced well in Cozumel and stuff too.
Speaker A:So definitely someone who use her strength to your advantage in that race obviously very much.
Speaker B:That's fantastic.
Speaker B:And then on the men's side a very interesting and entertaining event as well.
Speaker A:Yeah a lot of I think maybe even more.
Speaker A:I think more blow ups in the men's race.
Speaker A:Just the boys wanted a hammer really A Singapore.
Speaker B:Paying the price.
Speaker A:Paying the price for sure.
Speaker A:Hayden Wilde took the win and he again raced very mature like he hasn't done I think a lot of these half iron races really but I think he's just very strong anyways.
Speaker A:But he didn't swim too hard.
Speaker A:I think he was sitting in the group he was in and then just worked his way up on the bike to the front of the race.
Speaker A:He had some funky little gloves going on.
Speaker A:I don't know if that's.
Speaker A:Those had any cooling effects but we'll have to do a deep dive into that one.
Speaker A:But yeah, he just came off the bike I think just behind one of the.
Speaker A:One of the athletes, Rico Bogan to go into T2.
Speaker A:So he was in the driver's seat unless he really blew up but he did not.
Speaker B:There is some science about cooling the palms of the hand that can actually help with total body cooling and I wonder if that's what he was wearing.
Speaker B:And it's interesting about Hayden.
Speaker B:He was leading the 70.3 World Championships until very late in the race when he was overtaken.
Speaker B:He was leading the Olympic.
Speaker B:Olympic race until he was overtaken very late in the race.
Speaker B:This one he hung on for.
Speaker B:You Wonder if the T100 is like his sweet spot distance.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:I really just think he.
Speaker A:I mean he was funny out there.
Speaker A:I don't know if you saw the clips he had his hands up at.
Speaker A:Look at the ref.
Speaker A:At some point I don't know if somebody slotted in in front of him or something so he was a little heated out there but I think he in a lot of ways kept his cool mentally like he's just a great athlete so he's always going to get to the front but it seemed like he just on the run he was running within himself and knew what he needed to do to cross the line first.
Speaker A:He didn't do any crazy attacks or anything.
Speaker B:It was just smart, just mechanical, methodical.
Speaker B:Just did a great job.
Speaker A:Yeah you saw the guy who beat him at 70.3 worlds who ran him down yellow gains like he.
Speaker A:I think he made a Few attacks on the bike, a few pushes and just on the run like he blew to pieces.
Speaker B:But there were three guys that ran exceptionally well.
Speaker B:Hayden Wilde was one.
Speaker B:It wasn't Yella, it was one other guy.
Speaker B:Somebody else ran very close to Hayden's time.
Speaker B:And then Sam Longman did a stellar run.
Speaker B:Sam, the other Arizona based athlete that we've talked about over the winter as his training videos.
Speaker B:Sam just put himself in too much of a hole yet again in this one.
Speaker A:What was he, seven or eight minutes down off the bike?
Speaker B:He can't.
Speaker B:But this is it, right?
Speaker B:This is what we're seeing now with all of these short course guys coming in.
Speaker B:They're pushing the pace really hard on the swim.
Speaker B:They're not giving up that much on the bike and run.
Speaker B:And a guy like Sam, if he doesn't do something about his swim, it's, he's not gonna, it's not gonna be there.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:And honestly, the way he is, I love reading into this stuff.
Speaker A:Maybe I'm reading into too much, but the way he's posting about things on social media, he seems like he's embracing Iron Man a little bit more like he's racing, gonna be racing in St.
Speaker A:George.
Speaker A:Kind of hyping up that rate.
Speaker A:I feel like he's really with the T100 like a lot of athletes last year, especially cashing that check.
Speaker A:But maybe not focusing completely on the distance.
Speaker A:Maybe.
Speaker A:Yeah, nice in mind.
Speaker B:That makes sense.
Speaker A:But the rest of the podium too.
Speaker A:Leo Bridgere, he's one of those guys who's always going to be podium adjacent.
Speaker A:Just very, yeah.
Speaker A:Talented athlete.
Speaker A:And then the guy who I was like, there's no way he's gonna perform.
Speaker A:Performed.
Speaker A:Martin Van Real, the Iron man, South Africa 200 double insane.
Speaker B:And in that kind of heat, it's just unreal.
Speaker A:I'm gonna be honest, this is like one of the most impressive triathlon back to back performances I've ever seen.
Speaker A:I don't know, it just blows my mind.
Speaker A:Competing hard in an Iron man.
Speaker A:Like he went hard in that South Africa race, let's not get it twisted.
Speaker A:And then flew to Singapore and then got on the podium in those conditions against that, those level of athletes, like, it just, it's insane.
Speaker A:It's insane.
Speaker B:It's like these ultra guys, right, who go hard two days in a row now, obviously they're not going at the same intensity and they're not going in the same kind of conditions and they certainly aren't flying in between the two days.
Speaker B:But if you look at Tour De France cyclists, they're doing similar kind of things.
Speaker B:It's the difference, of course, is the run.
Speaker B:He ran a marathon and then he had a week in between and then he ran a half marathon.
Speaker B:Legitimately fast.
Speaker A:I wonder if the heat maybe in that situation almost helped him a little bit because it would have slowed down the run pace, I think maybe.
Speaker B:I don't know that it did.
Speaker B:My gosh.
Speaker B:Sam ran 106 or something.
Speaker B:They were fast, the three of them.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker B:Oh, no.
Speaker B:101.
Speaker B:101.
Speaker B:Because it was an 18 kilometer.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was an 18 kilometer run.
Speaker B:He ran 101 anyways.
Speaker B:Insane.
Speaker A:So talking about all that, those two race weekends, who do you think won that weekend?
Speaker A:Singapore, T100 or Ironman Oceanside?
Speaker A:Who won?
Speaker B:I didn't watch the.
Speaker B:I didn't watch the broadcast and I've seen a lot of the comments in the Tempo talks group about how the T100 clearly won the quality of the broadcast.
Speaker B:But I feel like the quality of the race was won by Oceanside.
Speaker B:That was my feeling.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think that's shared amongst many.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I think honestly, if Lionel did not win and maybe if Christian didn't win either, I think Singapore maybe takes the weekend in terms of people talking about it and what happened.
Speaker A:But when Lionel does something like that, like the guy like I've talked about before, he just transcends the sport.
Speaker A:Like people, he's like, by him winning, like he's bringing people into the sport.
Speaker A:And no offense to Hayden Wilde character, but he does not have the influence.
Speaker A:He does not have the, I don't know, gravita or whatever that Lionel does.
Speaker A:And so, yeah, yeah, honestly, like, I gotta say, anecdotally, it was actually really funny.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:When we were in Florida, we went down and met with a couple of curse and sponsors just independently of each other.
Speaker A:And both entities had the T100 race like on in the background.
Speaker A:And I'm like, man, like these guys are choosing to watch these races.
Speaker A:That's a good thing for T100.
Speaker A:Maybe they're optimizing for YouTube views afterwards or something.
Speaker A:That's interesting.
Speaker A:But so that I thought that was super interesting.
Speaker A:In terms of the actual broadcast, I think Singapore was better.
Speaker B:Not surprising.
Speaker B:I think we've acknowledged that previously and we'll continue to do.
Speaker B:And if anybody from the outside group is listening, I think I know where you could find a couple of people who'd be interested in providing some feedback.
Speaker A:And for sure, I don't like to.
Speaker A:I mean, I Hate it when people.
Speaker A:People are like these commentators, blah, blah, they suck.
Speaker A:It's okay.
Speaker A:You try talking about triathlon for four hours, like, good luck, right?
Speaker A:Because it's not easy.
Speaker A:I think it's not easy.
Speaker A:They could probably do some things to make it more interesting, bring other folks on while it's happening.
Speaker A:I do hate when people are just like the court Monday morning quarterback or whatever.
Speaker B:It's not a matter of just saying that they're not good at what they do.
Speaker B:It's a matter of saying here it could be done differently and there are a few different ways without changing the people doing it, that it could be significantly improved.
Speaker A:It was just a super interesting weekend with those two big races going head to head.
Speaker A:And I hope we have another one this year.
Speaker A:I don't know if we do, but I love it.
Speaker B:That Oceanside weekend is always just such a great start to the season.
Speaker B:All right, we're going to get back to pro racing in a short bit, but first we're going to take a little bit of an interlude and talk about a study that Matt sent to me while I was on my way back home.
Speaker B:So I had lots of time on very lengthy flights and layovers to actually take some time to peruse this study.
Speaker B:And it was a study that came out in Nature Communication, so the younger sibling of Nature, which is a very important scientific magazine journal.
Speaker B:And this article was called Dose Response Relationship between Evening Exercise and Sleep.
Speaker B:Not going to bore you with all the nitty gritty, but basically this article is a study that was done because the author's note, early on they say, hey, there's long been this understanding that if you exercise in the evening, it has a negative impact on sleep, which is really too bad because we know that getting higher quality sleep is really important to being able to do exercise at a high quality.
Speaker B:So in this study, they said they we have this anecdotal knowledge that exercising late at night is bad for sleep, but nobody's actually ever really done a good job of studying this.
Speaker B:So we want to study it.
Speaker B:And what they did is they looked at 15,000 people who were using.
Speaker B:I think you're right, Matt.
Speaker B:We were talking before we started the whoop.
Speaker B:They were looking at the data from 15,000 people, so 4 million person nights of sleep and exercise.
Speaker B:And they looked at the dosing and the intensity of exercise and how close it was to people going to sleep.
Speaker B:And then they were able to measure how well those people slept.
Speaker B:And what they found was, indeed, it is true, if you exercise at a High intensity, closer to going to sleep, you are going to interrupt your sleep and sleep less well.
Speaker B:And they have a number of reasons for this that they came up with.
Speaker B:Not nobody knows for sure why this is, but the theory is that, number one, when you exercise at high intensity, you activate your sympathetic nervous system and that turns down your parasympathetic nervous system, which is needed for sleep.
Speaker B:And so when you finish exercise, your sympathetic nervous system is ramped up, your parasympathetic is turned off, and it takes a little while for those two things to switch and for your parasympathetic to come back on and therefore allow you to sleep well.
Speaker B:Another thing they talked about was that there are hormone changes that come about when you exercise at high intensity.
Speaker B:When you exercise at high intensity, you influence your cortisol levels and that can influence your ability to fall asleep.
Speaker B:There are also various other hormones, such as dopamine, serotonin, that also will change.
Speaker B:And those are both important for falling asleep and for getting good quality sleep.
Speaker B:And then the last thing they mention is this idea that a lot of people exercise in brightly lit areas for obvious reasons.
Speaker B:And when you expose yourself to bright light, that has an impact on your pineal gland, which is a gland very deep within the brain and is felt to regulate sleep and wakefulness and doing that can have an impact on keeping you awake.
Speaker B:They have some recommendations.
Speaker B:They found that people who exercise at low intensity for any, for shorter bouts and stopping about four hours before bedtime, they actually don't seem to have a major impact on their sleep.
Speaker B:So they're not saying you shouldn't exercise in the evening, but you may want to make sure that when you exercise in the evening, you do so at lower intensity.
Speaker B:So keep your zone two type of workouts.
Speaker B:For evening workouts, don't be hitting the weights and going really hard.
Speaker B:Don't be doing any of your anaerobic threshold or your FTP type stuff in the evening.
Speaker B:And make sure that any exercise you do is more than four hours or so before you go to sleep in order to maximize the potential of minimal impact.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, that's like the time cutoff is four hours.
Speaker A:Yeah, basically that's four hours, both high intensity and low intensity as best possible.
Speaker B:They said if you're going to do low intensity exercise, two hours is fine, but four hours is optimal.
Speaker B:Optimal as much as you can.
Speaker B:You want to try and keep sleep and exercise separate.
Speaker B:It's interesting though, people who are more fit will sleep better in the long run.
Speaker B:So the more you Exercise, the more high quality sleep you will get as long as you're not overtrained.
Speaker B:We know that being overtrained can impact sleep cycles.
Speaker B:Being fit, exercising regularly can improve sleep and improved sleep improves exercise.
Speaker B:But you do want to keep exercise separate from when you go to bed because it negatively impacts your ability to fall asleep and your ability to stay asleep.
Speaker A:Yeah, like of those three, I guess influences, you're talking about the sympathetic nervous system, the bright lights, what was the other one, the middle one?
Speaker B:Hormonal influences.
Speaker B:Hormonal changes, yeah.
Speaker A:Is there one, do you think that is more impactful than the others?
Speaker B:Nobody knows.
Speaker B:It's kind of guesswork.
Speaker B:It's probably an interplay amongst the three things.
Speaker B:Nobody really knows.
Speaker B:The whole bright light thing is interesting because you use, you can use bright lights to offset jet lag.
Speaker B:So when I travel like I just did now, traveling, offsetting your clock by 15 hours the way I did, it's really.
Speaker B:Bright lights are only going to do so much.
Speaker B:But you can use bright lights to try and reset your pineal gland and reset your day, night sort of internal clock.
Speaker B:But it's thought to influence hormonal levels.
Speaker B:It's thought to change when your melatonin cycles and things like that.
Speaker B:And the parasympathetic sympathetic is also felt to have some kind of influence on hormones.
Speaker B:So it probably is all interrelated and it's hard to say if one is more important than another.
Speaker A:They should do another study where they just have people like in a dimly lit room, no Zwift, no bright screen or anything and do their workout and see if there's a difference.
Speaker A:That would be.
Speaker B:They might just fall asleep from boredom.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker A:Do you like with your athletes, do you talk about this kind of stuff?
Speaker A:Do you have guidelines around this at all?
Speaker B:The problem is for us age groupers is we're time pressed, right.
Speaker B:We're time poor.
Speaker B:So we often find ourselves exercising at night because we don't have any options.
Speaker B:I remember when my kids were younger I would have to wait until the kids went to sleep before I actually had the time to go down to the basement and do my workout.
Speaker B:And that's you take what you can get and.
Speaker B:But I will speak to my athletes and make sure that they're sleeping okay.
Speaker B:And if I find out they're not sleeping okay, the conversation will eventually turn to when are you doing your exercise?
Speaker B:And often what I will say is, look, if there's any way to shift so that you go to sleep earlier.
Speaker B:So you wake up earlier so you can do your exercise in the morning.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's preferred.
Speaker B:And as much as people.
Speaker B:As much as people dread that the shifting of sleep to sleep, Going to sleep early and waking up early actually is not that hard.
Speaker B:It sounds worse than it is.
Speaker B:I actually just changed jobs not that long ago, and I'm now getting up at 5 every morning and going to bed at 10.
Speaker B:And I have actually found it to be not so bad.
Speaker B:It's actually turned out to be.
Speaker A:Are you doing the hard efforts in the morning, then?
Speaker A:Is that the.
Speaker B:No, I finish work at three because I can't.
Speaker B:I get up at five.
Speaker B:I work at six.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, that's tight.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:No time to work out in the morning.
Speaker B:But I do.
Speaker B:As soon as I finish work, I get my workouts done.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:That could be good for the cutoff.
Speaker A:You might still be within the cutoff there.
Speaker B:I think I'm okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Generally okay.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker B:All right, let's turn to our last subject for today's show, and that's going to be the upcoming race coming up this weekend.
Speaker B:It's another big one.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, we won't get to see Patrick Lange, who we were hoping to see race in Texas.
Speaker B:What happened with Patrick?
Speaker A:Yeah, Patrick, he's.
Speaker A:I don't know if he was alluding to some injury stuff before Oceanside, but he pulled up to Oceanside and again, didn't really have a great race.
Speaker A:Even worse than last year when he and I made the wrong turn, unfortunately.
Speaker A:So something was up.
Speaker A:And then I think a few days ago, he came out saying he had some, I think an adductor tear or some kind of tear.
Speaker A:It maybe wasn't that bad because he's on the bike, so it could not.
Speaker A:Maybe it's not like a full tear, but some issue with his adductor that doing a full distance Ironman is just not in the cards.
Speaker A:So last year's champion, he came second, but after the doping case, he became the champion.
Speaker A:He was the champion.
Speaker A:Unfortunate not to have him on the start line because he is an Ironman slinger, and he would bring a whole different dynamic to the race, for sure, but still plenty of names.
Speaker B:And another guy who we all would have really liked to have seen, just going back to what we talked about with Oceanside, is Lionel.
Speaker B:I didn't even know Lionel was planning on Texas.
Speaker A:Me neither.
Speaker A:No one knows what he's doing.
Speaker A:That's like a hidden secret of the industry.
Speaker A:Everybody wants to know what he's Doing.
Speaker B:It was unfortunate to find out he was planning on doing Oceanside when he announced that he was no longer.
Speaker B:Sorry, Texas when he announced that he was no longer doing Texas because he got sick.
Speaker A:After Oceanside, it's again, still some great names on the start list.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:It will be interesting too because it's a full distance race.
Speaker A:It's the second one in the pro series.
Speaker A:You have, I feel like a few maybe definitely unexpected folks who could be at the top of the leaderboard, which is cool.
Speaker A:Having kind of new names at the top.
Speaker A:That the whole thing with the pro series is.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Having these people consistently race well.
Speaker A:And I think I've identified.
Speaker A:So Chloe Lane from Australia who had that viral flat.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Flat tire.
Speaker A:So she actually, she did have a great race in South Africa.
Speaker A:She ended up in fourth and she's in the driver's seat where if she has another solid day, she'll probably land in the top seat of the pro series, which is awesome.
Speaker A:And another guy who I honestly had never heard of before.
Speaker A:Sorry, dude.
Speaker A:His name's Dominic Sawia Nan.
Speaker A:Butchering these names from Germany.
Speaker A:He is again, another athlete who's raised quite a bit early on and if he can have a.
Speaker A:I think even like a top 12 or something and maybe a few other athletes don't perform, maybe as well.
Speaker A:Like he could be the pro series leader, which it's very early, but I don't know.
Speaker B:That would be hilarious.
Speaker A:I put that on my resume for sure.
Speaker B:That would be a guy nobody.
Speaker B:A guy nobody's who.
Speaker B:A guy who almost nobody has heard of is good.
Speaker B:And of course we're saying this and there's probably a whole bunch of people.
Speaker A:There's probably like a huge.
Speaker B:Who he is.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You guys, you can't even say his name right.
Speaker A:He's my boy.
Speaker A:Boy.
Speaker A:We're just butchering him.
Speaker A:We're talking about him.
Speaker A:And that's the whole point.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Of this series is to reward consistency.
Speaker A:And these guys have been consistently racing.
Speaker A:So they're in the conversation and all Right.
Speaker B:But who's the contenders now?
Speaker B:That's serious.
Speaker A:I don't know if they're.
Speaker A:Both of them probably not contending for the win.
Speaker A:Definitely not.
Speaker A:Let's be real here.
Speaker A:In the women's race, probably.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:It's going to be an incredible head to head matchup.
Speaker B:Oh, come on.
Speaker B:Taylor Nib and Cat Matthews are both going to be there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then Tamara Druid also, my goodness.
Speaker B:Like the three of them.
Speaker A:And then there's more there's more.
Speaker A:So let's tee up the Taylor Cat head to head here.
Speaker B:These are two titans and they have never raced.
Speaker A:I think they've only really raced middle.
Speaker B:Distance, like two, but they've never raced an iron Man.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly.
Speaker A:Which is why it's very intriguing because obviously both, both athletes are incredible, but there is this intrigue, there's this unknown about how they are going to compete, perform in this race against each other.
Speaker A:And it's the first race of the year, so we don't really know where people are at.
Speaker A:I've seen Taylor training, so I think she's probably pretty, pretty fit.
Speaker A:I've seen her around here in Boulder.
Speaker A:But Kat, she came off winning the pro series last year, so she's got momentum, she's got a pep in her step and she, I'm sure she thinks, hey, I can go out there and take down Taylor for sure.
Speaker B:Kat Matthews.
Speaker B:Never met her in my life, but I've never met any of these people.
Speaker B:But she just has this Persona of somebody who's.
Speaker B:I'm going, going after Taylor Nib.
Speaker B:Not like in a mean way, but just like I.
Speaker B:She's on a pedestal and therefore I want to be up there.
Speaker B:I'm going after her and I.
Speaker B:And like she's going to get that bit between her teeth and she's just going to go so hard after her.
Speaker B:I just have this feeling like that now.
Speaker B:That doesn't mean she can beat her.
Speaker A:Well, it's interesting dynamic with the race because both of them have, I'd say, slightly different styles.
Speaker A:Nib a better swimmer for sure.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So she'll be leading the race and you'll have Cat being able to mark her because that race in the Woodlands in Texas, it's a back and forth so you can see each other consistently.
Speaker A:And so I just think in the end, if Kat doesn't bleed too much time on that swimming bike, then she could definitely have a chance of coming back on nib because I think she ran faster than her at 70.3 worlds, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker A:If she's within striking, who ran faster.
Speaker B:Than both of them?
Speaker A:Who?
Speaker B:Tamara?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And she came off way too far behind at 70.3 worlds.
Speaker B:So that was about a short race.
Speaker B:She's in a hole, a long race.
Speaker B:She could.
Speaker B:She's a dark horse here for sure, but it's her first ever Ironman.
Speaker B:It's going to be interesting to see how she manages the nutrition if it's hot.
Speaker B:All the regular things that you say for an Ironman.
Speaker B:But I will be very fascinated to see what happens on the back half of the run.
Speaker B:If she's in striking distance.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:But there is someone who we haven't even even mentioned yet.
Speaker B:Oh, the wait.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Who?
Speaker A:Chelsea Sadaro.
Speaker B:Oh, that's right.
Speaker B:Chelsea's there.
Speaker B:Yeah, she is there.
Speaker B:Isn't that funny?
Speaker B:Isn't that funny how she just like slips through the cracks and then all of a sudden shows up at the race and wins?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:She.
Speaker A:I feel like last year there was a lot of volatility with her coaching, like bike sponsor issues, but this, she.
Speaker B:Didn'T really perform all that great.
Speaker B:She had a couple of good races, but then at the end at the world championship, she did amazing.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So I think she's carrying that momentum.
Speaker A:I think she's carrying that form into now.
Speaker A:Like, I've just seen her around town and she seems like she's in a great place.
Speaker A:Seems to be training.
Speaker A:Got that bike sponsor dialed in.
Speaker A:We got.
Speaker A:She's on the new one.
Speaker A:So I think if kind of Taylor and Kat are caught up watching each other or wondering where each other are, they might forget that former Ironman world champion is breathing down their necks.
Speaker B:Well, and she's a strong runner, too, so she's.
Speaker B:If she's gonna do anything, it's gonna be on the run.
Speaker B:And she'll be coming from behind, too.
Speaker B:Could be a fascinating women's race, I think.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:It's going to be a good one.
Speaker B:And then the men is just super stacked.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:I've talked about this too.
Speaker A:Like, these races are world championship light fields.
Speaker A:There's just so many good athletes who are very fit, all coming together because of this pro series.
Speaker A:Really.
Speaker A:And obviously, I think the top names.
Speaker A:Christian, Gustav, Rudy Von Berg, who had a great race in Oceanside.
Speaker A:Those are probably the.
Speaker A:I didn't say the top three.
Speaker A:What do you think?
Speaker B:On paper, I'm still.
Speaker B:I'm gonna throw my hat into the.
Speaker B:Matthew Marquardt.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:Your boy.
Speaker B:Because he's my boy now.
Speaker B:After I talked to him, I was so impressed.
Speaker B:I think he's just amazing.
Speaker A:He's definitely the busiest person on that start line.
Speaker A:There is no doubt about that.
Speaker B:He's like the busiest person on the planet.
Speaker A:I feel bad, exhausted reading his updates.
Speaker B:I know it's crazy.
Speaker B:And he has time to do these, like, these reels where.
Speaker B:Okay, here's how I pack my bike.
Speaker B:I'm like, dude, just pack your bike.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And go to bed.
Speaker A:You don't know.
Speaker B:Videotape it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But he is amazing and I think the world of him and so I'd love to see him do well.
Speaker A:He'll be a central character in the race, I believe, because he's had some great results there too.
Speaker A:He's been on the podium in Texas before, I think, so he's a front pack guy.
Speaker A:So he'll be pushing the pace at the front with the Ben Knute type character who will be there as well.
Speaker A:There's Daniel Bacagaard.
Speaker A:Just some real firepower at the front of the race, along with Christian and Gustav and Rudy, who I feel like they will coalesce at the front.
Speaker A:And then you have some great athletes behind, I would say, like a Matt Hansen, Trevor Foley.
Speaker A:There's other guys who I'm missing.
Speaker B:Trevor, speaking of runners.
Speaker B:Geez.
Speaker A:So there's like a front pack versus the rest dynamic that I'm very curious to see if they have a great.
Speaker A:A nice good gap coming off the bike if they work together.
Speaker A:Or maybe they're looking at each other and a Trevor Foley type guy can roll up on them because there's.
Speaker A:Trevor doesn't usually swim that well, but he can just absolutely destroy on the bike and catch people and ride through the field.
Speaker B:So I think that's what he did at Placid last year.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think to me, once they get on the run, Christian really showed his cards in that run last week.
Speaker A:So it's hard for me not to think he will win.
Speaker A:What do you think?
Speaker B:Ironman is so hard to just put your chips down, but given his track record, it's hard to bet against him.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I would love to see Gustav have a good race.
Speaker B:I feel like he hasn't had a good Ironman in so long and I'd love to see him perform well just like he did in Oceanside.
Speaker B:And listen, I'd love to see Matthew do well.
Speaker B:I don't know if he can beat these guys.
Speaker B:He probably can't, but I'd love to see him do anyways.
Speaker B:Top five, I think would be wonderful.
Speaker A:And maybe certainly in the cards.
Speaker A:I feel like the guys who did well in Oceanside, I talked.
Speaker A:I was talking to another athlete, Justin Metzler, about this and he was saying this too.
Speaker A:The guys who did well in Oceanside, like, they're fit, they're ready to go.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Nothing's really changed between now and then, so they'll probably be the ones who are also at the front at the end of the day in Texas.
Speaker B:But the people who weren't at Oceanside, they're the ones who we don't know.
Speaker A:Exactly, which is great.
Speaker A:That's just great.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker A:Intrigue.
Speaker A:That's what we want.
Speaker B:We're gonna have a lot to talk about next week.
Speaker B:Gonna be another breathless episode.
Speaker B:All right, we've come to the end of this one, and we've got one more.
Speaker A:One more thing.
Speaker A:Quick one.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:The Alex Yi.
Speaker A:So the Olympic gold medalist is taking on the London marathon this weekend.
Speaker A:It's quite the crossover.
Speaker A:I love these endurance crossovers.
Speaker B:That is.
Speaker B:That's a big jump.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:But he's an incredible runner.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:For 10k.
Speaker B:But I don't doubt his ability to run the marathon.
Speaker B:Super, like, significantly faster than I would ever dream of doing it.
Speaker B:But that's a big jump.
Speaker B:To be training for the marathon, too, when you're also training for the short course stuff is just amazing.
Speaker A:I honestly don't know if he's changed his training too much to do this marathon.
Speaker A:I think he's probably doing longer runs, more volume, all that kind of stuff, but generally he's not.
Speaker A:He just gave up swimming and biking for this build.
Speaker A:He's been doing everything.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I love it.
Speaker A:I love this kind of situations because, again, it's intrigue.
Speaker A:You don't know how he's gonna do.
Speaker A:A lot of people are throwing out that he's gonna run a 207, which is literally.
Speaker A:Guys ran in Boston this weekend.
Speaker A:I know it's a different course, but that's bloody.
Speaker A:That's fast.
Speaker B:Like, that's super fast.
Speaker A:You can run a 207.
Speaker B:That would be.
Speaker B:We will recap next week.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Do you want to drop a time?
Speaker A:I'll drop a time.
Speaker A:I think he's gonna run 2 9.
Speaker B:But hang on.
Speaker B:Is he running it to compete, or is he running it as he is?
Speaker B:He's come out and said, I'm doing this to compete.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think after the Olympics, he was just looking for something different and the hometown race for him, essentially.
Speaker A:So I think there's a lot of investment, emotional investment, all that kind of stuff, and it's a nice side project, for sure.
Speaker B:He's never run a marathon before.
Speaker B:I really don't know what his training is.
Speaker B:I'm going to undersell him and say 215.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Closest without going over is that the.
Speaker B:Price is right over.
Speaker B:Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker B:All right, great.
Speaker B:We went extra long, but I think we needed to because we've been away for a couple weeks.
Speaker B:So it's great to be back.
Speaker B:Great to be back with you.
Speaker B:Matt Great to be back with you, our listeners and we will be back next week.
Speaker B:If you have anything you want to hear about, please do join the Temple Talks Facebook group and let us know.
Speaker B:We would love to hear it.
Speaker B:Also, our emails and our Instagrams are in the show notes.
Speaker B:Have a follow and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker B:Matt Talk to you next week.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Thanks for coming out.
Speaker A:Jeff Good times.
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