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Paul Hunziker Marathon PR
7 Plays5 months ago
#490 Athlete Success Story Paul Hunziker
Welcome
Welcome to Episode #490 of the 303 Endurance Podcast. We're your hosts Coaches Rich Soares and April Spilde. Thanks for joining us for another week of interviews, coaching tips and discussion.
I am personally very excited about this episode. I have had the privilege of coaching Paul Hunziker since August of 2024. It’s not uncommon to have a new athlete and see their training history and see lower than planned training like missed workouts. Paul was the exact opposite. Paul is a workhorse and really needed a coach to reign him in rather than spur him on.
Paul recently blew his estimated marathon time by more than 10 minutes with an exceptionally executed pacing and nutrition plan finishing in 3:14:13. We are going to have that interview for your today plus much, much more!
Hi Rich! Man, I am so looking forward to talking with Paul and hearing about his marathon journey and all the growth in between! I am also stoked to watch IM 70.3 St George tomorrow morning AND race Fandango (not at the same time of course). Will you be tuning into St. George?
Show Sponsor: UCAN
UCAN created LIVSTEADY as an alternative to sugar based nutrition products. LIVSTEADY was purposefully designed to work with your body, delivering long-lasting energy you can feel. Whether UCAN Energy Powders, Bars or Gels, LIVSTEADY's unique time-release profile allows your body to access energy consistently throughout the day, unlocking your natural ability to finish stronger and recover more quickly!
In Today's Show
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Announcements and News
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Interview: Paul Hunziker
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Get Gritty: Just Get Started
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TriDot Workout of the Week: Functional Threshold Power 20-Minute
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Fun Segment: Triathlon Fandango!
Announcements and News:
Upcoming Programming - Our March focus will be on running.
May 13 - Webinar Boulder 70.3 Race Recon with Race Director Brian Bohrer
May 17 - Podcast Boulder 70.3 Race Recon
May 24 - Coach Bobby McGee on the upcoming Run Camp May 31
May 31 - Bike Camp Highlights and interviews
G2G Spring Training Camp
May 17-18 - Swim Focus in C.Springs and Chatfield
May 24-25 - Bike Focus - Chatfield/Chatfield
May 31-June 1 Run Focus - Boulder/Boulder
TriDot Pool School July 26-27
Learn more about it at https://grit2greatnessendurance.com/training-camp
Fun note: last Saturday we had Isabelle, Stephanie, Laura, Sean and Olivia take the 1st Saturday in May polar plunge at Chatfield. We took a temperature and it was 57 degrees. Laura took off like a champ and the rest of us got ice cream headaches. We then rode for about 2.5-3 hours in the park and then did our off-the-bike runs on the trails.
Talk about a truly epic weekend! Whilst you all were out there tackling the ice cold waters of the Chatfield Reservoir, I was out there taming the wilds of Stage 3 of the Pike’s Peak APEX! I had the hardest, most heart-pumping, adrenaline inducing ride of my life! I also had a bit of a spill. Here’s some of the stats: 14.19 mi, 2:29:53 moving time, 1995 feet of climbing and several PR
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
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that I've done everything I can to make this moment work and then kind of let go and let the outcome be what it's going to be.
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Welcome everybody to your 303 Endurance Podcast.
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Aloha everybody, get ready for your 303 Endurance Podcast.
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Woo!
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Welcome to episode 490 of the 303 Endurance Podcast.
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We're your hosts, coaches Rich Soares and April Spilde.
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Thanks for joining us for another week of endurance news, coaching tips and discussion, and yes, interviews.
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I am personally very excited about this episode.
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I have had the privilege of coaching Paul Hunziker, an athlete that I've been working with since August of 2024.
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It is not uncommon to have a new athlete and see their training history and see a lower than planned training like missed workouts.
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Paul is the exact opposite.
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It's a dream to work with.
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He's a workhorse.
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And if anything, I really need to rein this guy in more than I have to spend on.
Coaching Excitement and Event Plans
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I'm really excited to tell his story about his preparation in our interview success story with an athlete today.
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April, what is new in your world?
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Oh, we got a lot going on, Rich.
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I am also really looking forward to talking with Paul and hearing more about his marathon journey and all the growth in between.
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I am really looking forward to watching Ironman 70.3 St.
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George tomorrow morning and racing Fandango.
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Not at the same time, of course.
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But I want to ask you, will you be tuning into St.
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George?
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I will be.
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I've got my outside app all queued up and ready to roll.
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You betcha.
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Love that.
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Now, truly, I'm going to be out training in the morning.
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So it'll be kind of like, you know, in between, you know, this and that.
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But yeah, for sure.
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Let me tell you a little bit before we go into our show sponsor, but I do want to tell you about Fandango, which I'm super excited about.
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So I have my friend Melissa.
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She's coming over tomorrow.
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We're going to drive out there.
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We're going to leave the house around 830 and get out there because the start time is at this really weird like 1003.
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Yeah.
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They never start on the hour, but it's a two lap course.
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I know around Castle Rock.
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It's a really great, fun single track.
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I'm looking really looking forward to it.
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So we're going to go out there.
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She's going to be my hype man for tomorrow.
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And then, yeah, yeah, we'll see how it goes.
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Oh, that's awesome.
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I'm glad you're going to have somebody there with you.
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Sorry, I'm not going to be there.
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It's all good, my friend.
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You came in clutch the last race, so I just appreciated that.
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Well, we had a busy weekend last weekend with a bunch of athletes coming out to Chatfield ahead of our camp to do just some
Group Training and Race Preparation
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informal training together.
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And we've got a crew again meeting tomorrow morning, which is why I'm not going to be there with you because we're going to be back out at Chatfield doing a little
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bit of open water swimming and doing some, uh, basically our, you know, race rehearsal slash, you know, uh, just weekend workouts.
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Well, you have to say hi to everyone for me, cause I definitely can't wait to, to get on that crew.
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Oh yeah.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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And yeah, we had just, we had a lot of fun.
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It was just fun to, you know, all see each other again and be outside and putting on sunscreen again.
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And yeah, those little things, they matter.
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Exactly.
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All right.
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So, well, let's do this.
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Let's give a shout out to our show sponsor, Generation UCAN.
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UCAN created Live Steady as an alternative to sugar-based nutrition products.
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Live Steady was purposely designed to work with your body, delivering long-lasting energy that you can feel.
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Whether it's UCAN energy powders, bars, or gels, Live Steady's unique time release profile allows your body to access energy consistently throughout the day, unlocking your natural ability to finish stronger and recover more quickly.
Pikes Peak Apex Experience
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in today's show.
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What do we got in today's show, April?
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Yeah, we are just ready to jump the gun here.
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We have our announcements, lots of good things coming up.
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We're going to talk a little bit about current news, and then we're going to bring it right into our interview with Paul.
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Cannot wait to jump in.
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I have a special get gritty tip on let's just get started folks.
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And then, um, Rich is going to bring our tried out workout of the week talking about FTP.
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And then, uh, we'll have our lovely fun segment.
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And I decided to make this centered around my race tomorrow.
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It's called triathlon Fandango.
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Rich, are you ready for that?
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I just want to know what Fandango means.
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Oh, I will cover that.
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I will cover that.
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I promise.
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Yes.
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It is theme appropriate.
Webinars, Training Camps, and Sponsorship
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Fandango defined.
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That's fantabulous.
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All right.
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Announcements and news.
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Our programming coming up.
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We are excited next week.
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We have our webinar on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m.
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This is going to be our webinar with Ironman 70.3 Boulder Race Recon, and it is with the race director, Brian Borer.
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And then we are going to release that as a podcast later in the week.
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And then the following week, we've got coach Bobby McGee.
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to talk about the upcoming run camp that we have, the Grit to Greatness running camp that we have the weekend of May 31st.
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And then the weekend, the episode that comes out May 31st will be a recap of the bike camp highlights and interviews.
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And then we also have the Grit to Greatness Spring Training Camp, which again, May 17th through 18th, that first weekend, we've got a swim focus in Colorado Springs and Chatfield, respectively.
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Then the 24th and 25th, we're going to be at Chatfield doing a bike focus camp.
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And then May 31st through June 1st, we've got our run focus camp in Boulder both days.
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And April, I am really excited.
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One of the folks, teams that have come in clutch for us is Vespa.
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And look at this.
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We have some- Oh, beautiful running hats.
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Yes.
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Beautiful running hats to give away, actually.
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I'll put on the pink one.
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Yeah, it's like a baby pink, folks, if you can't see it.
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It's awesome.
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It's got like a honeycomb design too.
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Really cool.
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Yeah.
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Look at that.
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Um, what we got, not just one box of Vespa.
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We have two boxes of Vespa plus a whole nother box that's in trait.
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Wow.
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Um, yeah, the folks at Vespa, uh, are really going to take care of the athletes at the grit to greatness, uh, spring training camp.
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So, wow.
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We're really jazzed about that.
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If you want to learn more about it, you can go to our website at crit2greatnessendurance.com forward slash training camp.
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And we're pretty much, we're pretty full.
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So this is your last probably moment to do it this weekend.
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And I think that's it.
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Excellent.
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I, I,
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I went and paced out the race rehearsal bike loop on USafa.
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And it is gorgeous, folks.
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But there's some climbing.
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It'll be fun.
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It'll set you up for Boulder 70.3 beautifully.
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But another reason for you all to take advantage of that, because our first camp is the only camp that's going to be featuring some time at the Air Force Academy.
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So I want to give that little foot stomp as well.
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Foot stomp.
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Love that.
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And then speaking of the Air Force Academy, we have another opportunity to have and host TriDot Pool School, which is going to be happening.
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And we want you to put this on your calendars, folks, because this is going to come up fast.
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It's going to be hosted in July, July 26th through the 27th.
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We're going to be at the Air Force Academy Fitness Center where we're going to be doing a two-day workshop with TriDot on deck.
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making sure that we know how to swim fast.
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So put that on your calendars,
Paul's Endurance Journey
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folks.
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It's going to come quick.
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We want you to register, get in on this action because it's amazing.
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And thanks for mentioning that because we are starting to get some quick interest in this.
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So now is a great time to get signed up.
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I've got a couple of athletes that are already registering.
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Yeah.
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Fantastic.
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It is definitely one of the best venues we've had for pool school.
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I'll just, you know, give myself a little pat on the back.
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Yeah, right?
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Getting that lined up.
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Yeah.
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And speaking of that, we've got to get out an email to our campers that are coming out next weekend to make sure that they've got their entrance to the academy and all that, right?
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Yes.
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So we got the QR code, folks.
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You'll be seeing that here next week.
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Awesome.
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Awesome.
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All right.
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You didn't tell me about this lovely polar plunge in Chatfield.
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Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
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Oh yeah.
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That was, this is, this was our, you know, we got out there yesterday, we got out there on Saturday and it was 730 in the morning and went out and took a temperature of the water.
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I've got one of those, you know, thermometers you can throw out and get, uh, temperature is 57 degrees.
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So it's pretty, it was pretty brisk.
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Laura got in and so we had five folks with us.
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We had Isabel, Laura, Sean, Olivia, and Stephanie.
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Laura jumped in and just took off to the other shore.
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She didn't think twice about it.
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She was probably going to be cold.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Isabel and Stephanie really thought about it on shore there for a little bit.
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They were a little more timid.
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Sean and Olivia both felt like their faces were burning because it was so cold.
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It was pretty cold.
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It was pretty chilly.
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But we got some exposure to it.
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We got a little bit of practice, which was great.
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And then we went out and we did about a two and a half, three hour ride back and forth in the park.
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Tomorrow, what we'll be doing is we'll actually be doing a little bit in the park and they'll be going out and doing
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A little bit of hill climbing up Deer Creek Canyon is a little bit of a kind of dress rehearsal for the camp a couple of weeks later.
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And I will be making a Jimmy John's run right afterwards to make sure I know the logistical timing of how long it takes to get from Chatfield to the Jimmy John's.
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And that might need to do during our camp.
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Nice.
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Very good.
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I like it.
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Well, that sounded like a truly epic weekend.
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And while you all were out tackling these ice cold waters of Chatfield, I was on the side of Pikes Peak, taming the wilds of stage three of the Pikes Peak Apex.
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And Rich, I know we talked about this during our coach call, but I had one of the hardest, most heart pumping moments
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adrenaline inducing rides of my life.
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There was a moment, Rich, where I thought I was going to slide off the side of that mountain, but it was all necessary because I am doing stage three of Pikes Peak Apex in June after our camps.
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And I wanted to get a real deal feel of what this was going to be like.
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And I'm glad I did because there was moments where I
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Some of the best writing I've ever done, but also some of the scariest challenges.
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And I want to talk a little bit about it because, one, it was very helpful.
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I always recommend if you get a chance, folks, to recon your course because there's some things in there that I think probably would have potentially thrown me over my handlebars if I hadn't had some knowledge up front.
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And there was just a lot of fun.
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And I also went a little longer than I was anticipating just because the course was harder than I anticipated.
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So there was a moment I told you that like towards the end, I was getting really tired and I ended up making a mistake on one of the switchbacks where I would normally be just fine, but I was tired.
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And when you get tired on mountain biking, you run the risk of
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bad form.
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And I ended up taking a spill and really digging my elbow into some, some rocky gravel, but I'm okay, folks.
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I'm totally fine.
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I just have a couple of bruises and a little bit of a reminder that you got to be
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very on your game from start to finish mountain biking.
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Anyway, I wanted to share some of the stats.
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I ended up riding 14.19 miles.
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It was two hours and 29 minutes and 53 seconds of moving time and 1995 feet of climbing.
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And the best part of this, Rich, are these, according to Strava, of course,
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I had some PRs on some specific segments of this course.
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So I got to read them out to you because they're just priceless.
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I had a PR on a segment called existential crisis, which was a seven minute segment.
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And I felt like I was having an existential crisis, some of this.
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And then I had a PR on Canyon steep part redo a PR on 9.73 out of,
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Out of the Icebox was the name of the segment.
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And then finally, I had a PR of 12 minutes and 42 seconds on Fully Flaccid.
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These names are classic.
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Yeah.
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Amazing.
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You got to ride these routes.
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Existential crisis and fully flaccid.
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Who couldn't?
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Chef's kiss.
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Beautiful.
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So we had a lot going on, Rich.
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So between our, we're going to be doing some race watching, we're going to be racing.
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We had some frosty polar plunges.
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It's a, yeah, I would definitely say it's officially go time for the endurance season.
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Now that we're all amped up, let's bring it down a little bit.
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Just enough to celebrate an incredible athlete win.
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And we're going to be talking with Paul here next in our Ask a Coach section.
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And I just want to say, Paul is proof that when you combine smart coaching, aka Coach Rich, with next level consistency, breakthroughs can happen.
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And that's what we're going to be tapping into next.
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But before we lace up,
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and get into Paul's story, we're going to introduce our sponsor for our ask a coach section, and that is grit to greatness, endurance coaching.
00:14:51
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So we're going to cut to the chase here because we've got a lot to cover.
00:14:54
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If you want results, we've got the tools, grit to greatness, endurance coaching, plus try dot equals smarter workouts, better feedback and real progress.
00:15:05
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So you can click either minor coach, which is try dot link and get two weeks free and train with purpose from day one.
00:15:12
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After that, it's as low as $14.99 a month.
00:15:15
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So if you're ready to train like an athlete with a plan, we want you to hit this link in our show notes to get started today.
00:15:22
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That was awesome, April.
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I guess it's time to lace up, as you say.
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Yes.
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Right?
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Okay.
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Let's bring in Paul.
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Let's lace up and bring in Paul.
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Today, we are really excited to bring you a grit to greatness athlete success story.
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As I said at the start, Paul Hunziker, he's out of Tacoma, Washington, has an incredible work ethic.
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And when we first charted the strategy for this year, it's clear that he wanted to PR a marathon and finish another full distance Ironman.
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He recently checked off the former.
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He's now focused on the latter.
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Let's get into our interview with Paul Hunziker right now.
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We'll see you on the other side.
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All right.
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As we said in our lead up today, we are excited to bring you a grit to greatness athlete success story.
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We have Paul Hunziker from Tacoma, Washington joining us because I am so damn proud of his commitment to the process and the discipline he brings to his training and racing.
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And I really want to celebrate that with him today.
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And I'm really glad that April's here to do that with me.
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Paul just recently completed the Veronia Banks Marathon with a race X predicted time of 3.24.39.
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He blew that away with an exceptionally executed pacing and nutrition strategy, finishing in 3.14.13, better than 10 seconds, 10 minutes, excuse me, faster than predicted.
Marathon Reflections and Lessons
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Paul, we are grateful that you could be with us on the 303 Endurance Podcast and share your story.
00:16:47
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Welcome, my friend.
00:16:49
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Thank you.
00:16:50
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Thanks, Rich.
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Good to be here.
00:16:52
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It's good to have you with us.
00:16:54
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Hey, so we have a lot of questions for you.
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Maybe some questions that maybe sound routine for me.
00:17:02
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April's going to dive into a little bit of our process probably as we go through this.
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So we've got a lot to talk about, but before we get into all of that, we want to get to know you a little bit better.
00:17:12
Speaker
Let our audience and the rest of the athletes, the Grit to Greatness athletes, get to know you a little bit better.
00:17:18
Speaker
It's a game called Two Truths and a Lie.
00:17:20
Speaker
We're going to ask you for three statements about yourself, two of which you know to be lies, one that you know to be the truth.
00:17:27
Speaker
Sorry, two that you know to be true, one that you know to be a lie.
00:17:29
Speaker
Sorry, we'll try to pick the lie out of the bunch.
00:17:31
Speaker
I'm starting to fall asleep when I say that.
00:17:35
Speaker
And we will just have a little fun with it.
00:17:37
Speaker
So whenever you're ready, give us three statements.
00:17:39
Speaker
Sure.
00:17:40
Speaker
We have our notepads ready.
00:17:43
Speaker
So let me think for a second.
00:17:44
Speaker
So, okay.
00:17:47
Speaker
When I was about one, two years old, I had to be fed in a rain jacket outside on the porch so that my mom could hose me down after I ate.
00:18:00
Speaker
Two.
00:18:01
Speaker
I one time went to school or I was trying to go to school cause, but I had put an acne medication on this is when I was a teenager and, uh, my face was green and my mom, I came downstairs and my mom wouldn't let me go to school.
00:18:16
Speaker
Cause the, because she's like, your face is green.
00:18:19
Speaker
Um, and then a third I'll make this triathlon oriented.
00:18:23
Speaker
So try, I, uh, uh, in, uh, I believe it was a couple of years ago.
00:18:31
Speaker
It would have been 2023.
00:18:33
Speaker
I took a wrong turn on a triathlon course and did the completely wrong course.
00:18:39
Speaker
I took a wrong turn on a swim.
00:18:41
Speaker
So I ended up running.
00:18:42
Speaker
I ended up doing a sprint, which was a completely different course than the Olympic, which I was supposed to do.
00:18:48
Speaker
Those are also oddly specific.
00:18:54
Speaker
They are oddly specific.
00:18:55
Speaker
April, do you want to go first?
00:18:57
Speaker
Oh, I knew you were going to pull this one on me, Rich.
00:18:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:02
Speaker
Boy, I definitely can see the hosing down.
00:19:09
Speaker
That's so weird, but I love it.
00:19:14
Speaker
I think that your mom is a hero and she saved your day by keeping you home after the lovely acne reaction of skin cream.
00:19:23
Speaker
So I'm thinking I'm thinking I think I caught you in the lie when you talked about the course instead of the swim going the wrong way.
00:19:32
Speaker
I think you went the wrong way on the run.
00:19:37
Speaker
So that's how I'm going to go.
00:19:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:38
Speaker
Don't tell us yet, but I think that's the lie.
00:19:40
Speaker
He went the wrong way on the run.
00:19:43
Speaker
Okay, so race course mishaps you're saying is the lie, April.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yes, yes.
00:19:47
Speaker
All right, and the green face acne episode is a truth and the hose down is a truth.
00:19:53
Speaker
Okay, I'm going with the hose down is the truth.
00:19:57
Speaker
You did not turn into the Incredible Hulk because of the acne cream.
00:20:01
Speaker
So no green face, that is a lie and that you did go the wrong way on the swim course.
00:20:07
Speaker
There we go.
00:20:08
Speaker
We have a little bit of difference between the two of us.
00:20:10
Speaker
Maybe we're both wrong.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yep.
00:20:13
Speaker
It's actually the, yeah, my face was orange, not green.
00:20:16
Speaker
Oh, I knew it was a ton.
00:20:18
Speaker
It's either blue, it's a different color.
00:20:22
Speaker
No, I dumped it.
00:20:24
Speaker
Sorry, I'm going to take my glasses off here.
00:20:28
Speaker
But I had to match my skin tone, but I didn't quite get that.
00:20:32
Speaker
I put the entire tone thing into the medication and then put it all over my face when I was supposed to only put it on spots.
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:40
Speaker
So my entire face was orange.
00:20:42
Speaker
My mom's like, you're just, you're not going to school that way.
00:20:44
Speaker
Bravo mom.
00:20:45
Speaker
Way to look out for your son.
00:20:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:49
Speaker
So we, the hose down thing, I get that one to two years old.
00:20:52
Speaker
We had to hose our kids down too.
00:20:54
Speaker
That's pretty funny.
00:20:55
Speaker
But tell us the story about the going the wrong way on the swim course.
00:21:01
Speaker
So it's, this is a course that I've done maybe eight times.
00:21:07
Speaker
And that morning,
00:21:09
Speaker
there was a, there was a, it was a deep water start.
00:21:14
Speaker
And so we started and they had announced it, that we needed to swim to the orange buoys.
00:21:19
Speaker
There were a yellow buoys before the orange buoys.
00:21:22
Speaker
It was a bit foggy that morning.
00:21:25
Speaker
And I just didn't compute.
00:21:28
Speaker
And suddenly I turned at the yellow buoy and I'm like, this is really lonely.
00:21:35
Speaker
And so I, I,
00:21:37
Speaker
Got out of the water.
00:21:40
Speaker
I knew right away once I made another turn, I had messed up.
00:21:44
Speaker
And so I came out of the water, I'm running, and I knew the race director.
00:21:47
Speaker
I ran and I was like, Patty, I made a wrong turn.
00:21:49
Speaker
Can I do the sprint?
00:21:51
Speaker
And she said, yes.
00:21:52
Speaker
That's why I go for it.
00:21:55
Speaker
Whoa.
00:21:56
Speaker
So wait a minute.
00:21:57
Speaker
You changed races in T1.
00:22:00
Speaker
I did.
00:22:00
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:22:03
Speaker
I've never heard of that happening before.
00:22:06
Speaker
Yep.
00:22:07
Speaker
I got DQ'd because they realized they couldn't submit the, but it was interesting when I was running because the courses were different, but somewhat aligned.
00:22:17
Speaker
And so every time I came, when I came to the bike turn, I was like, I'm not Olympic, I'm sprint, I'm going straight.
00:22:24
Speaker
I had to yell at the volunteers not to herd me the wrong way.
00:22:29
Speaker
In the future that this story is the truth about you is I started an Olympic and finished a sprint.
00:22:37
Speaker
Yep.
00:22:38
Speaker
There you go.
00:22:39
Speaker
And it was all, it was all legit.
00:22:41
Speaker
Cause I changed my registration in T1.
00:22:43
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:22:44
Speaker
Yes.
00:22:44
Speaker
With the race director.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:22:47
Speaker
And my results were up on the board for a little bit.
00:22:49
Speaker
And I was like, Oh, cause it came through as me still doing the Olympic.
00:22:53
Speaker
But instead, I did the Olympic in like an hour, less than an hour and a half.
00:23:02
Speaker
That's one of the better stories we've had.
00:23:04
Speaker
That's pretty good.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:06
Speaker
We're going to kick us off here.
00:23:08
Speaker
That's fantastic.
00:23:11
Speaker
All right.
00:23:12
Speaker
Well, Hey, so, you know, I'll lead us off here with the first question.
00:23:16
Speaker
You know, this kind of, kind of gets into our very first meeting.
00:23:21
Speaker
I think we met in sort of August of last year is when we started, started working together.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yep.
00:23:26
Speaker
And for the, for our audience and for April, tell us a little bit about your athletic background prior to us getting connected.
00:23:33
Speaker
Sure.
00:23:33
Speaker
I mean, I've always been somewhat athletic.
00:23:36
Speaker
My dad would take me to play soccer when I was a kid.
00:23:40
Speaker
Uh, and then in high school, I played lacrosse and ice hockey.
00:23:43
Speaker
Um, so there's always fairly athletic and my parents had actually brought me for swim lessons when I was really young.
00:23:50
Speaker
So I got a chance to get in, into the water a little bit when I was really young, but I stopped swimming.
00:23:56
Speaker
I, when, after I was like five or six, uh, or at least through the lessons, then I got really into mountaineering and it, I needed to run to get ready for climbing.
00:24:10
Speaker
And so running and a little bit of biking kind of became my normal because I was just always doing it, getting ready for climbing trips.
00:24:18
Speaker
And then that grew eventually into me running in 2014.
00:24:23
Speaker
I ran my first half marathon down in Olympia.
00:24:27
Speaker
And not too long after that, I started getting interested in triathlon and I've been doing triathlon since 2015.
00:24:33
Speaker
So it's been 10 years this year.
00:24:37
Speaker
and been on and off.
00:24:38
Speaker
I had a little bit of a break, like from 2017 to 2020.
00:24:41
Speaker
And then I got back into it in 2020 after the pandemic, all the way up to when you and I have been working together.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:51
Speaker
Your, your experience really shows in our relationship.
00:24:55
Speaker
I really see, you know, you have a,
00:24:58
Speaker
You really drive your training.
Motivation and Starting Out
00:25:00
Speaker
I mean, you really, you know, you really know what you're doing.
00:25:03
Speaker
You've been doing it for a long time.
00:25:05
Speaker
You know, when you move workouts around, you know what to do, what not to do in terms of, you know, back to back, you know, things that could put you at risk of an injury and stuff.
00:25:14
Speaker
When you came to me, we were talking about actually overtraining.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:18
Speaker
You know, you had every swim, bike, and run volume all set to high.
00:25:26
Speaker
And we kind of did a little bit of a reset.
00:25:30
Speaker
We backed up and did an adjustment there.
00:25:32
Speaker
Maybe talk about that process.
00:25:33
Speaker
Like, what was it like transitioning from not being coached to being coached?
00:25:37
Speaker
And you can hurt my feelings.
00:25:39
Speaker
It's okay.
00:25:39
Speaker
All right.
00:25:43
Speaker
I've actually wanted coaching for a long time and it was finally kind of moving ahead with it and taking the leap to do it.
00:25:50
Speaker
And so in that regard, it was actually really nice.
00:25:53
Speaker
It was kind of a relief actually transitioning into it because I was overtraining.
00:26:00
Speaker
I remember actually before in 2023, I did a full Ironman and the TriDot app got
00:26:08
Speaker
a weird glitch.
00:26:09
Speaker
I think I put races too close together and it wasn't prepping me right for the Ironman.
00:26:14
Speaker
But then when, when I talked to tech, they're like, you've had everything set on high.
00:26:19
Speaker
You're probably going to be fine.
00:26:22
Speaker
Like your body is just, your, your body's used to that.
00:26:26
Speaker
So I knew I could take a pretty good load, but I had been doing it for so long.
00:26:30
Speaker
It was starting to wear me down.
00:26:32
Speaker
It was really impacting my relationship with my wife.
00:26:35
Speaker
And she was the one who was like,
00:26:37
Speaker
got to do something.
00:26:38
Speaker
And at first I was panicked because I was like, oh no, don't tell me I can't do try.
00:26:42
Speaker
But what she was really saying was get some support.
00:26:45
Speaker
And she was really supportive of getting the coaching to kind of figure out how to get the balance right.
00:26:51
Speaker
And so in that way, like I said, it was a relief.
00:26:54
Speaker
It was a pretty easy transition for the most part.
00:26:58
Speaker
I mean, where getting further in, I'll admit it was like it dropped a lot.
00:27:05
Speaker
And that was the part of getting used to.
00:27:08
Speaker
But I worked with that and we've worked together too to kind of adjust and get to kind of get the right flow as well.
00:27:15
Speaker
I remember you were getting ready for the 70.3 New York.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yep.
00:27:19
Speaker
Jones Beach.
00:27:20
Speaker
And that was just about the time that we were like pulling back the volume.
00:27:26
Speaker
And I remember you being a little bit nervous about, oh my gosh, is that okay to do?
00:27:31
Speaker
Am I going to be ready?
00:27:34
Speaker
What was it like, Paul, going out on a limb like that, trusting Rich's expertise to talking through how was that training in your mindset when you went through that process of scaling back and then the outcome after the fact, after New York?
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, I guess like what Rich is saying is there of, oh, wow, is that too far back?
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:01
Speaker
because it was even further back from what I was doing prior to TriDot.
00:28:06
Speaker
And so that was a bit challenging to kind of get used to.
00:28:12
Speaker
I knew he was right, though.
00:28:14
Speaker
It was one of those.
00:28:15
Speaker
It was like, yeah, all right, I need to let go of this.
00:28:19
Speaker
The way I'm doing it's not working.
00:28:22
Speaker
My results are starting to decline, if anything.
00:28:27
Speaker
And so I always had that in my mind.
00:28:32
Speaker
Did you feel like you needed some type of permission?
00:28:35
Speaker
And you can tell me if I'm off, but sometimes a coach can really help with holding up a mirror to say like, hey, this is a real look at how you're doing and this is objective.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:49
Speaker
sometimes it really takes that just, just the reality check of someone who has kind of like a third party neutral, you will, you know, what is it going to take for you to see, you know, the, the damage that's happening in the personal relationships and the, the recovery and the, you know, what really is the goal that you're trying to achieve?
00:29:09
Speaker
And thank you for sharing that.
00:29:11
Speaker
Cause I think that again, speaks to the power of a coaching relationship.
00:29:15
Speaker
Yeah, it was, uh,
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:29:18
Speaker
It was, it was helpful to have that mirror.
00:29:20
Speaker
And like you said, early on that permission to finally like let this go a bit and there was challenge to it.
00:29:27
Speaker
It was mixed.
00:29:28
Speaker
It was both relief, but also some anxiety about it as well.
00:29:32
Speaker
Cause I had been pushing so much for so long.
00:29:36
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
But before we start talking about your goals for this year and specifically the goal for your marathon, uh, PR the, uh, if we go back to Jones, uh, Jones beach here for just a bit, you know, that was the first race you did in kind of a modified volume approach.
00:29:54
Speaker
How did you, how did you feel like that went besides the weather, which was atrocious?
Cycling Performance Strategies
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
I, I mean, I rocked my swim and that swim was brutal.
00:30:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:08
Speaker
Cause it was, we had wave action going on and the wind was coming right into the bay directly.
00:30:14
Speaker
And I, I rock that swim and I knew I was rocking the swim as I was doing it, which was great.
00:30:19
Speaker
So super confident.
00:30:21
Speaker
The bike went okay.
00:30:24
Speaker
The challenge, well, I ended up having to bring an older bike with me cause I couldn't travel with the newer bike.
00:30:30
Speaker
Um, and that created a little bit of a hiccup, but the run also was probably where it really came together.
00:30:37
Speaker
that was just consistent, steady.
00:30:40
Speaker
And even in those conditions, I was able to perform well.
00:30:44
Speaker
So.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:46
Speaker
And remind me, was that before we, you hadn't tried Vespa yet.
00:30:52
Speaker
Nope.
00:30:52
Speaker
No Vespa on that one.
00:30:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
That's good.
00:30:54
Speaker
All right.
00:30:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:55
Speaker
I haven't done a triathlon with Vespa yet.
00:30:58
Speaker
Oh, that's right.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:59
Speaker
Only been the runs.
00:31:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:00
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:01
Speaker
Well, cool.
00:31:01
Speaker
Well, let's pivot.
00:31:03
Speaker
Sure.
00:31:04
Speaker
Let's talk about your goals for this year.
00:31:06
Speaker
And, you know, April, you jump in here if you've got any questions about this process or whatever.
00:31:11
Speaker
But, you know, Paul, let's talk about like when you were looking at the goals for this year, what was rising to the top for you and what was inspiring this season?
00:31:22
Speaker
Sure.
00:31:23
Speaker
So getting a Boston qualifier has been something that I've wanted
00:31:27
Speaker
for a long time.
00:31:29
Speaker
And so that definitely was something that went into planning.
00:31:34
Speaker
It went into planning the, the, the Veronia banks marathon, mainly for course, but also for time of year.
00:31:43
Speaker
And then I know, well, we have, I didn't even really think about I am worlds that all, I always kind of saw it as something that was out there, or maybe I'll get a slot randomly if I go to a ceremony, but
00:31:56
Speaker
It's starting to become more of a possibility.
00:31:59
Speaker
It hasn't really informed necessarily this year's plan, but it is something to think about going ahead.
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:05
Speaker
Or at least when I originally set the plan this year, it didn't influence it.
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:11
Speaker
I think your strength is one of your strengths is your ability to actually handle the volume Ironman volume.
00:32:22
Speaker
I mean, I've seen, I mean, yeah, you, you came to me a little over trained, but you know, you still can handle a lot of volume.
00:32:28
Speaker
And as you built up for the Veronia banks, you were still doing a lot of extra aerobic swims and bikes to supplement the aerobic training.
00:32:39
Speaker
And, um,
00:32:40
Speaker
So that just kind of, to me speaks to your strength for endurance training, long distance work.
00:32:48
Speaker
And I think your opportunity is that you're actually pretty fast.
00:32:51
Speaker
You're actually pretty fast, especially on the run.
00:32:54
Speaker
And, um, you know, it could make, I could put you in a very competitive situation for a world championship, uh, qualification.
00:33:02
Speaker
That'd be great.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:05
Speaker
I definitely, um,
00:33:07
Speaker
it comes and i it's interesting because we've looked at some of my stats and looking at some of the stats coming from tridot it looks like i actually have better scores for like for intervals like hard push stuff and not as my my numbers are still really good for endurance which really surprised me when i saw that because i love the aerobic stuff i
00:33:30
Speaker
we were even discussing on Facebook at one point, my like favorite workouts.
00:33:34
Speaker
And I love a good long Z to run.
00:33:39
Speaker
I love that.
00:33:39
Speaker
And Z to bike is great too.
00:33:42
Speaker
And so, cause I can, I find it very grounding.
00:33:45
Speaker
It's my meditative time.
00:33:46
Speaker
Um, it's where I can really get kind of in touch with my body and kind of figure out how I'm doing where I'm at.
00:33:53
Speaker
And so I've always done a lot of that.
00:33:57
Speaker
It's also interesting too, because in mountaineering, I was always kind of seen as the workhorse of who, like I could, I wouldn't, might not move the fastest, but I could always keep going.
00:34:08
Speaker
And so that kind of carries over.
00:34:10
Speaker
It was a pleasant surprise to hear that I could do interval and hard work stuff as well.
00:34:14
Speaker
Because you asked me that question, what was it?
00:34:17
Speaker
Would you rather run like six minutes, three minutes all out or like an hour at certain pace?
00:34:23
Speaker
I was like, oh, the three minutes, that's fine.
00:34:24
Speaker
I can do anything for three minutes.
00:34:28
Speaker
which kind of surprised me.
00:34:29
Speaker
Oh, wait, that is right.
00:34:30
Speaker
I can do those hard push as well.
00:34:32
Speaker
Oh yeah, you can.
00:34:33
Speaker
You can do some, what was that?
00:34:35
Speaker
Two by 20 in zone four, you know, followed by like nine by six.
00:34:42
Speaker
That was my Saturday.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's right.
00:34:45
Speaker
Anyway, Paul's workouts are amazing.
00:34:51
Speaker
Very often at level nine, April could appreciate this on the coaching side.
00:34:56
Speaker
We could adjust the level of the...
Humorous Triathlon Scenarios
00:35:00
Speaker
I'm truly impressed, Paul.
00:35:03
Speaker
When you talked in the beginning about your background at mountaineering, I was very piqued by that, all puns intended.
00:35:12
Speaker
But I think that's such a cool...
00:35:15
Speaker
carryover effect to be able to tap into efforts sustained over a period of time and also find this space of focus.
00:35:26
Speaker
I think that is such an underrated skill to have, to be able to tap into a flow state in a zone two effort and find a lot of mental strength there.
00:35:37
Speaker
So it's nice to hear that that complements the stamina, complements the intensity that you have.
00:35:46
Speaker
So it's a very well-blended athlete.
00:35:49
Speaker
Very cool to see.
00:35:51
Speaker
So I wanted to ask a kind of a follow-up to that.
00:35:53
Speaker
Because you have been working with Rich now for a while, and the relationship that you've built over time, I'm sure there's a foundation of trust there.
00:36:05
Speaker
So I would love to ask, what is one thing about your relationship with Rich that has helped you achieve this goal thus far?
00:36:13
Speaker
Oh, it's a number of things.
00:36:17
Speaker
Like we were mentioning earlier, our banter back and forth and we're able to joke and like, what did you say to me?
00:36:22
Speaker
I'm realizing if you try to put something in front of you, you're going to do it.
00:36:28
Speaker
Or more.
00:36:29
Speaker
And it was, I feel seen.
00:36:31
Speaker
To the highest level.
00:36:33
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:34
Speaker
And so kind of recognizing that of how I kind of operate.
00:36:38
Speaker
And so being able to banter back and forth a little bit.
00:36:42
Speaker
One of the things I've really appreciated, and you mentioned trust, going both ways too, that rich, like that piece of working with me, even as I'm adding things and kind of getting feedback and working with it and you being mostly okay with what I'm doing.
00:36:56
Speaker
I know there's definitely times when I make some mistakes, but kind of running with that, that's been a huge piece of it.
00:37:03
Speaker
Your knowledge.
00:37:05
Speaker
I mean, right away we dove into doing the sweat tests.
00:37:09
Speaker
and figured out that, yeah, I'm a heavy sweater and I'm also, and then getting eventually the, the, the sodium test, find out that, yeah, sure enough, I do lose quite a bit of sodium.
00:37:19
Speaker
And so getting that dialed in, it's been a ton.
00:37:23
Speaker
It's yeah.
00:37:24
Speaker
It's, I can't, it'd be impossible to cover all of it.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:28
Speaker
No, that's great.
00:37:29
Speaker
No, what a very nice compliment.
00:37:32
Speaker
And yeah, the trust to your point.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yeah, that is actually something that, yeah, you're right.
00:37:37
Speaker
It goes both ways, right?
00:37:38
Speaker
You're trusting that I'm not going to overload you and put you in a bad situation or leave you underprepared.
00:37:46
Speaker
And I'm trusting because of your experience, right?
00:37:49
Speaker
Trust is like earned.
00:37:51
Speaker
You and I,
00:37:53
Speaker
you and I have very intellectual conversations around your training and we go in, we dive into the why behind the what often most times.
00:38:06
Speaker
And, uh, we, we go long in our conversations because we're, we're enjoying it.
00:38:12
Speaker
And I think it's, it's that mutual respect, um,
00:38:16
Speaker
um, in our conversations and, and, and exploring it together, being, being curious together.
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:23
Speaker
Um, and being willing to admit, like, you know, I've, I've said to you a couple of times, you know, along the journey, I know, Oh, you know what?
00:38:30
Speaker
I would have done that differently again, if we were to do this again, or, you know what?
00:38:33
Speaker
Hey, I missed that.
00:38:35
Speaker
Just being honest.
00:38:36
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:39
Speaker
I definitely appreciated that.
00:38:41
Speaker
I got a question for you now.
00:38:43
Speaker
What has been, what would you say has been the most challenging part of your training since we've been working together even, right?
00:38:50
Speaker
Like what's, what's the thing that, you know, you, you feel like if, if, if we were looking at your, your SWAT quadrants, it would be in your weaknesses or threats, you know?
00:39:01
Speaker
Right.
00:39:01
Speaker
I mean, they always, the threat is I ride that knife edge of over-trained and trained enough.
00:39:08
Speaker
And we saw, I mean, was it a,
00:39:11
Speaker
week and a half, two weeks before Veronia, I started to fall apart.
00:39:16
Speaker
And we're both like, oh, no.
00:39:20
Speaker
Because we've seen it happen where I'll tip and I go too far.
00:39:23
Speaker
And luckily, it turned the corner and came around.
00:39:26
Speaker
But yeah, it's that piece of like, yeah, pushing...
00:39:31
Speaker
I think some things connected to that too, of course, of managing work life balance.
00:39:36
Speaker
And so my job can fluctuate in, in its, uh, in busyness and so that, and also travel at times.
00:39:44
Speaker
And so that can make things a bit tricky, I guess.
00:39:50
Speaker
And still always making sure my relationship and my, like I'm staying engaged in my house and doing everything that I need to do to take care of life.
00:40:00
Speaker
That's also another one, making sure that that's balanced.
00:40:03
Speaker
I was going to say your water supply, or was it your electric?
00:40:06
Speaker
It was your water supply to your house that threw you a bit of a curveball a couple of months ago too, just before this race.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, we had the whole house repiped, and then they went to turn the, they couldn't replace the main that day.
00:40:20
Speaker
And so when they went to connect it back to the main, water just everywhere, we had a week or
00:40:27
Speaker
We had a week where our water line was running through a foam covered pipe over our front yard.
00:40:33
Speaker
And it was, of course, and we live in Tacoma, Seattle, Western Washington doesn't usually get cold.
00:40:38
Speaker
Of course, that week it was below 20 the whole week.
00:40:41
Speaker
So I had to worry about it freezing.
00:40:42
Speaker
So yes, it was a bit of a curve ball.
00:40:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:45
Speaker
Wow.
00:40:46
Speaker
My point in mentioning this story is that you actually do a very good job of balancing a lot of training stress.
00:40:52
Speaker
Cause you, like you said, you do, this would be my observation too.
00:40:56
Speaker
This would be the thing that,
00:40:58
Speaker
Like if there's something that I am always paying attention to with Paul, it is how close are we to that edge?
00:41:04
Speaker
Because he's always doing more.
00:41:06
Speaker
I mean, talk about like, I joke with April about doing train execution competitions.
00:41:14
Speaker
I will not do that with you, my friend.
00:41:17
Speaker
This guy will smoke every workout in the week.
00:41:22
Speaker
I mean, swims, maybe he'll get a 95, you know.
00:41:27
Speaker
But then he's also doing three, four additional aerobic, you know, between swims, bikes, and runs on top of that.
00:41:35
Speaker
And strength, not missing a single strength workout, probably doing a little bit of extra of that too.
00:41:40
Speaker
And so we're all, you know, and what I'm paying attention to is any sign.
00:41:44
Speaker
When we're talking one-on-one, how does, how does, you know...
00:41:49
Speaker
How does Paul sound about the workout season?
00:41:51
Speaker
When I'm asking, how is it going?
00:41:52
Speaker
You know, is he getting short in his answers?
00:41:54
Speaker
Is he getting grumpy?
00:41:56
Speaker
Is he complaining about something?
00:41:57
Speaker
You know, you know, not that that's bad.
00:42:00
Speaker
It's just, you know, you can kind of tell the, you know, changes.
00:42:03
Speaker
We're grinding a little bit.
00:42:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:04
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:07
Speaker
And how's the sleep going and, you know, how's, you know, all that stuff anyway.
00:42:12
Speaker
Fabulous.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:13
Speaker
I think there's a good, a tee up for this question.
00:42:17
Speaker
I would love to hear Paul, because I, I'm sure there are athletes out there that ride the razor's edge just like you or the athletes that are trying to find the next level of performance, um,
00:42:32
Speaker
How do you, how are you able to self-regulate to ensure you're not overtraining?
00:42:36
Speaker
So what are some things that you're doing when you do like rich, you know, shared, you know, my, maybe there's a change in emotional state or there's a, some, some flags, but you are living in your own skin every day, right?
00:42:51
Speaker
You are the one that is feeling those feelings and going through those, those patches.
00:42:55
Speaker
So how are you checking in with yourself to, to maintain that?
00:43:00
Speaker
So I do as well as I can.
00:43:02
Speaker
I definitely am not perfect with it.
00:43:04
Speaker
I definitely, I mean, there's a couple of things of in the morning, if I'm just like really dragging, I'll sometimes just go back to sleep and then cut it short.
00:43:16
Speaker
And then, but I usually move the workout.
00:43:22
Speaker
I have a flexible enough schedule.
00:43:24
Speaker
I can usually make that happen, but I'll try to check to make sure that I get enough there.
00:43:30
Speaker
something, I mean, also of course paying attention to how I'm doing during the workouts themselves.
00:43:35
Speaker
And so I'm starting to, one of the things I'm learning is the signs of the overtraining, which is when I was falling apart like a week or so ago, I realized there's this point where I just, I'm running, but my legs don't feel like they're working right.
00:43:48
Speaker
And it's like, oh, okay, I got it.
00:43:50
Speaker
Nope.
00:43:50
Speaker
I got to bail on this.
00:43:53
Speaker
Oh, that's good.
00:43:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely.
00:43:55
Speaker
And then even a couple of bikes lately we've had where it's like,
00:43:59
Speaker
My legs are screaming and it's not normal.
00:44:03
Speaker
I can, I can normally hold onto, I mean, it's not, yeah, there's burn a little bit, but it's not, I know that's too much.
00:44:11
Speaker
And if I keep going, it's going to mess up the rest of the week.
00:44:14
Speaker
I'll probably tip over and start having a problem.
00:44:17
Speaker
I guess going all the way back to when I was really over training, it would be starting to spread out kind of feeling down or depressed kind of, or more irritable.
00:44:28
Speaker
Or if my wife says we're getting more of tired Paul, that would be a sign of it.
00:44:34
Speaker
Tired Paul.
00:44:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:37
Speaker
Those would be the things.
00:44:38
Speaker
So you've been talking a lot about your preparation for this race and some of the ups and downs and challenges and all of that.
00:44:46
Speaker
I'm going to pivot.
00:44:47
Speaker
This is where we kind of go off script a little bit.
00:44:49
Speaker
Tell us about the race.
00:44:50
Speaker
How did the race go, man?
00:44:53
Speaker
Just tell us the story.
00:44:54
Speaker
So it was a great race.
00:44:58
Speaker
I love it because it's this small little, I prefer small races for a number of reasons.
00:45:04
Speaker
And some of those were some kind of funny.
00:45:06
Speaker
We got there, got set up and it was a point to point.
00:45:10
Speaker
So we needed to take a bus up.
00:45:11
Speaker
And so we got bused up.
00:45:13
Speaker
It's really nice.
00:45:14
Speaker
It was like 33 or 34 degrees that morning.
00:45:17
Speaker
So it was pretty cold starting out, but we had, it was at this camp ground.
00:45:21
Speaker
So we had this nice heated building to start out.
00:45:24
Speaker
It's getting ready to start.
00:45:25
Speaker
And,
00:45:26
Speaker
I took my Vespa, which Vespa, you need to take it about 30 minutes before you start, uh, your, the extra or the, the, the, the workout.
00:45:36
Speaker
And so race starts at seven hour, I'm sorry, 8.00 AM.
00:45:40
Speaker
I took it at 730 at 735.
00:45:42
Speaker
They come over and say, the last bus broke down and that has all of our extra bibs and a bunch of the runners.
00:45:51
Speaker
So the race still start is delayed.
00:45:54
Speaker
Long story short, they come back in at like 7.50 and say, they start to make that announcement again.
00:46:03
Speaker
And a woman stands up and says, I was on that bus.
00:46:07
Speaker
Like, what?
00:46:07
Speaker
It's here?
00:46:07
Speaker
Let's go.
00:46:10
Speaker
That's how it started.
00:46:13
Speaker
And it was, yeah, it was also all of us kind of crammed into a driveway getting ready.
00:46:17
Speaker
And then the gun goes off and we start, which is, I like that small setup.
00:46:22
Speaker
So,
00:46:23
Speaker
Coming out of the gate, I picked the race because it's mostly downhill.
00:46:29
Speaker
It has one steep, short, steep uphill, and then it's either downhill or flat.
00:46:36
Speaker
And so race went smooth.
00:46:40
Speaker
It was pretty straightforward.
00:46:42
Speaker
I came out of the gate a bit hot.
00:46:44
Speaker
So I was aiming for what Richie and I talked about.
00:46:49
Speaker
Race X, we were actually planning a little bit for up the faster than race X. And we kind of did some calculations with it.
00:46:56
Speaker
And instead of 745 a minute average, we were aiming for like 725.
00:47:01
Speaker
I came out of the gate at like a 713.
00:47:05
Speaker
And so I needed to peel back right away.
00:47:08
Speaker
Then I was, I, I've settled in and was hitting around like 726, seven pretty consistently.
00:47:18
Speaker
And so, uh, that was great.
00:47:20
Speaker
Got in.
00:47:21
Speaker
Um, what was also nice is we were worried about my shoes cause my shoes had bothered me on previous races, but they didn't hear partly because of the terrain.
00:47:32
Speaker
I love the small races too.
00:47:33
Speaker
Cause it's not, you don't get boxed in by other runners that much.
00:47:37
Speaker
And so you're just able to move around and be free.
00:47:39
Speaker
And so that was really nice.
00:47:41
Speaker
It was also running through the woods.
00:47:43
Speaker
It was just a gorgeous course.
00:47:46
Speaker
and then ends at this track.
00:47:48
Speaker
You run like a three quarters of the track around in town at the high school and then you finished.
00:47:54
Speaker
Yeah, it was really nice setup the whole way through.
00:47:57
Speaker
When did you know, like, when did you know that I've got it?
00:48:01
Speaker
I like, I've got like, I'm not going to bonk at the last minute.
00:48:04
Speaker
You know, I'm going to have a PR.
00:48:06
Speaker
When did you know?
00:48:09
Speaker
I mean, I had an inkling that it was potentially going to happen
00:48:12
Speaker
I mean, starting even around like mile six, mile seven, it was like, okay, I'm, I'm holding this pace and it's hard, but it's like, it feels doable.
00:48:23
Speaker
And so it's like, as long as I don't bonk, that's the thing.
00:48:26
Speaker
It's like, I've had this where it's like, oh, it's going great.
00:48:28
Speaker
And then you hit mile 18 and done.
00:48:32
Speaker
So I, I held onto that.
00:48:34
Speaker
I mean, I knew definitely once I got past mile 18, mile 19,
00:48:39
Speaker
that's when it really hit.
00:48:40
Speaker
And then also when it leveled out and I didn't lose too much speed.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:48:46
Speaker
There's a lot of consistent hard work that went into making you that bulletproof and knowing when to pull back that made you that bulletproof.
00:48:56
Speaker
And I'm sure the Vespa didn't hurt.
00:48:57
Speaker
Yeah, it helps with the focus.
00:49:00
Speaker
And luckily we started 10 minutes late, so it wasn't too bad.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I got in, I was only 10 minutes off.
00:49:08
Speaker
And I was able to time it well.
00:49:10
Speaker
Oh, good.
00:49:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:11
Speaker
That's huge too.
00:49:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:14
Speaker
Was there any time during that run where you were kind of going through that mental war, if you will, of any doubts or any challenges there?
00:49:27
Speaker
Or were you just like on?
00:49:28
Speaker
Were you just like, nope?
00:49:30
Speaker
It's a great question.
00:49:31
Speaker
We can see whether we had it.
00:49:32
Speaker
So one of the things that happened in this race that's important to note is I
00:49:37
Speaker
the entire lead pack, including me took a wrong turn.
00:49:41
Speaker
And I knew that we made the wrong turn and I'm kicking myself cause I could have gone the right way, but I, I, it was a weird decision.
00:49:50
Speaker
And I knew I was a mile off for the race.
00:49:56
Speaker
And I knew at mile three.
00:49:58
Speaker
And so I knew first off that this wasn't going to be a BQ because I can't.
00:50:04
Speaker
And second, like,
00:50:06
Speaker
I could get disqualified for this.
00:50:09
Speaker
I made this, this result may mean nothing.
00:50:13
Speaker
And so it was one of the things I was wrestling with mentally.
00:50:18
Speaker
And it was like, I just had to sit with that.
00:50:21
Speaker
And it was interesting.
00:50:23
Speaker
Cause one of the other, I felt bad.
00:50:24
Speaker
Cause at mile eight, another runner was running next to me and we kept hitting the mile markers and she's like, are our watches off?
00:50:30
Speaker
And I'm like, Nope, we are.
00:50:33
Speaker
And I tell, I told her what was happening.
00:50:36
Speaker
And I was like, I wish I'd probably not.
00:50:38
Speaker
Maybe it was better to have that or just, but for me though, it was like, yeah, right at mile three.
00:50:44
Speaker
And it was a good couple of like three, four miles of this mental wrestling match of like, what do I do?
00:50:52
Speaker
Do I keep pushing this hard?
00:50:54
Speaker
Do I do the right thing?
00:50:55
Speaker
Are they going to even know?
00:50:57
Speaker
Like there's so many things that went through my head.
00:51:01
Speaker
And the, in a way it was helpful to have the pace to focus on.
00:51:04
Speaker
Cause it was like, okay, just keep focusing on form and pace, just form and pace.
00:51:08
Speaker
This is going to be what it's going to be.
00:51:11
Speaker
And luckily they got the results.
00:51:14
Speaker
And so, but yeah, it was, it was, it was a hard thing to go through.
00:51:17
Speaker
Wow.
00:51:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:20
Speaker
So, yeah, that's a mental headwind for sure.
00:51:23
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:51:25
Speaker
And the fact that you had the discipline to go to form and pace, form and pace, form and pace, just on two numbers or a number that you can focus on and, you know, focusing inward instead of all this stuff going on out here.
00:51:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:43
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:51:44
Speaker
Bravo, Paul.
00:51:45
Speaker
Thank you.
00:51:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:46
Speaker
Isn't that awesome?
00:51:48
Speaker
What, uh, how does, how did this experience inform kind of your preparation for Coeur d'Alene?
00:51:54
Speaker
So maybe tell the listeners or our fellow athletes, uh, what, uh, what your plans are the rest of the year.
00:52:01
Speaker
So right now I've got, uh, Coeur d'Alene coming up, um, a couple of weeks here.
00:52:05
Speaker
So yeah, it's June 22nd.
00:52:07
Speaker
Um, so we're going to be doing the 70.3 there, um, in Idaho.
00:52:12
Speaker
And then in October, I'm going to be doing Ironman California for my second time.
00:52:18
Speaker
So that'll be in Sacramento in October.
00:52:20
Speaker
So and as for kind of what's informed, kind of a couple of things from it.
00:52:27
Speaker
Well, first off, both this and there was a half marathon I did before this marathon, just showing that I'm able to maintain that pace, but like I can do it and kind of run with it.
00:52:41
Speaker
Another one too we came out of when we were analyzing it is just making absolutely sure, especially on my run, that I'm drinking enough water.
00:52:51
Speaker
Because that was one of the things that we realized, OK, I could have done better.
00:52:54
Speaker
I've got the Vespa.
00:52:57
Speaker
I've got the nutrition down.
00:52:59
Speaker
It's just making sure I'm hydrating enough.
00:53:02
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic.
00:53:06
Speaker
Anything else, April?
00:53:07
Speaker
Boy, I am.
00:53:09
Speaker
I'm just so impressed, Paul.
00:53:12
Speaker
Especially with, I keep going back to, you said you started in 2015 and then there was that gap with the COVID pandemic kind of throwing everything out the window.
00:53:25
Speaker
And I'm really big on the mental part of endurance sports and just what it means to be an endurance athlete that has some of the worst mental challenges.
00:53:40
Speaker
when we talk about, you know, staying at the top or staying consistent or even striving through setbacks.
00:53:48
Speaker
So thinking about your career and thinking about, you know, the Paul that I'm looking at right now, it took a long time to craft this version.
00:53:59
Speaker
So I would love to know what is one thing that you have learned in this journey that has kept you moving forward?
00:54:09
Speaker
one of, I guess, in being ready for race day, it's even the same thing that helped me through when I made that wrong turn on the race and knew that it was there of, this is just another race.
00:54:21
Speaker
There'll be more, do your best today and we'll see what that is.
00:54:27
Speaker
Whatever that, whatever that allows it to be today is what it is today.
00:54:31
Speaker
And the, like, even the time when I made the wrong turn on that triathlon, I,
00:54:38
Speaker
I was embarrassed when the stats were up.
00:54:40
Speaker
It was like, please take those down.
00:54:41
Speaker
Please take those down.
00:54:42
Speaker
But once they were gone, it was like, okay, I had a fun day.
00:54:45
Speaker
That's fine.
00:54:46
Speaker
I got to hang out with some friends.
00:54:48
Speaker
Being able to not kind of trust that I've done everything I can to make this moment work.
00:54:55
Speaker
And then kind of let go and let the outcome be what it's going to be.
00:54:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:58
Speaker
That is such a great skill.
00:55:00
Speaker
Yes.
00:55:01
Speaker
Oh, letting it roll.
00:55:02
Speaker
Let it be.
00:55:03
Speaker
And be where your feet are.
00:55:05
Speaker
I think I heard that in this too, is like, it's okay.
00:55:07
Speaker
It's not the end of the world.
00:55:10
Speaker
A single performance is not going to undo all of the consistency and work you've put into this.
00:55:15
Speaker
I love that.
00:55:16
Speaker
Yeah, there's going to be the lead quotas in there somewhere for you there, Paul.
00:55:20
Speaker
I got to tell you, we asked you to be on this particular style of podcast interview so we could tell a success story about your performance in this marathon and your discipline and consistency preparing for it.
00:55:34
Speaker
The story about how even people who can handle a high level of volume of training have their limits.
00:55:42
Speaker
There's some lessons that we learned in that.
00:55:45
Speaker
But I'll tell you, I think the better story here is not your preparation for the race and your race itself.
00:55:52
Speaker
Honestly, it's the process that you and I are doing.
00:55:57
Speaker
I think our process is a great story here.
00:56:01
Speaker
And I'm just looking forward to continue preparing for Ironman California.
00:56:06
Speaker
And of course, let's not look past Coeur d'Alene 70.3.
00:56:10
Speaker
Great.
00:56:11
Speaker
Me too.
00:56:11
Speaker
Thank you.
00:56:12
Speaker
Awesome.
00:56:12
Speaker
Great having you on the podcast, Paul.
00:56:14
Speaker
Thanks for being with us.
00:56:15
Speaker
Thanks, April.
00:56:18
Speaker
April, I am so proud of him.
00:56:19
Speaker
I'm more proud of him now than I was before we started the interview, I think.
00:56:23
Speaker
Yeah, he's just such a one, you know, getting to know him more and more.
00:56:28
Speaker
He's got this calmness to him, this level headed energy that just makes you feel it just makes you feel good.
00:56:36
Speaker
So to hear about how deep he goes and how hard he can work, it's just it's it's really, really interesting to see how just level just amazing.
00:56:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:50
Speaker
Well, and it's kind of fun.
00:56:50
Speaker
You know, you've probably got a sense of his personality too.
00:56:53
Speaker
He could be very serious, you know, and, you know, get very focused.
00:56:58
Speaker
And then he could also loosen up and just, you know, have a, have a good giggle.
00:57:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:01
Speaker
He's got a great giggle.
00:57:02
Speaker
He's probably going to giggle at that.
00:57:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:06
Speaker
That's great.
00:57:07
Speaker
I hope so.
00:57:08
Speaker
Anyway, Paul, that was a blast.
00:57:10
Speaker
Thanks for, uh, thanks for sharing your story and just, you know, thanks for what you bring to, uh, to your own experience and, uh, your own outcomes.
00:57:18
Speaker
So, um, you're, uh, you're the one who's making it happen, my friend.
00:57:22
Speaker
Bravo, Paul.
00:57:24
Speaker
And that kind of that actually leads us in perfectly to our get gritty tip for today.
00:57:29
Speaker
And I was thinking about this as we were prepping for the podcast, and I had a couple of different really powerful conversations.
00:57:37
Speaker
One was with a personal training athlete of mine, and he's also now on Run Dot.
00:57:41
Speaker
His name is Daniel.
00:57:43
Speaker
And he and I have been working together for about a year and the amount of just progress he's made from, you know, first we started working on body composition goals and then we focused on what does it mean to be an athlete?
00:58:00
Speaker
You know, and it's just this cool transformation that I've seen in him from being just focused on, you know, quote unquote, getting healthier by, you know, body composition.
00:58:11
Speaker
And now he's, he is just kicking butt in his run, running his strength has skyrocketed.
00:58:19
Speaker
And he's, I see an athlete now when I talk to him and it's just such a cool thing.
00:58:24
Speaker
So why I bring up this gritty tip in his story is that, you know, he took a leap of faith by just getting started by reaching out to me to be his coach.
00:58:35
Speaker
And I, I know there was a lot of,
00:58:38
Speaker
hesitancy there because it's, it's one thing to say you want to make a change.
00:58:43
Speaker
It's a whole nother thing to actually take the first step and recognize like it's, it's going to suck at first.
00:58:49
Speaker
Like you're, you're, you're going to be going through those stages of being a beginner of not knowing what it means to do a, B and C and put that all together.
00:59:00
Speaker
And you're, you're going to trip and fall.
00:59:03
Speaker
And one of the things that we talked about the other day in our coaching call is like,
00:59:07
Speaker
Failure is a part of success.
00:59:10
Speaker
Every single person who has succeeded at the very highest levels has failed along the way.
00:59:17
Speaker
It's a part of the story.
00:59:19
Speaker
And oftentimes people will hold themselves back because of a fear of failure and they won't start or they'll tell themselves, Hey, I'm
00:59:29
Speaker
Once I get to this weight, I will start.
00:59:31
Speaker
Once I look like this, or once I have this, once I've run this, then I will do it.
00:59:37
Speaker
Or once I've quit this.
00:59:39
Speaker
And it's such a, it's such a trap because so many people wait for that moment that never comes because they don't understand or realize that it's, that comes through the journey of starting.
00:59:53
Speaker
It's not something that, yeah, that,
00:59:56
Speaker
And we've all been there.
00:59:57
Speaker
We've all been there.
00:59:58
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:59:59
Speaker
I mean, you're describing me at certain points in my life for sure.
01:00:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:04
Speaker
And I just think about how many times have we missed out on a true life-changing moment or moments because we've waited for something to come together.
01:00:15
Speaker
So this get gritty tip is all about getting started.
01:00:18
Speaker
And the goal and theme is simple, but powerful.
01:00:23
Speaker
Don't wait.
01:00:24
Speaker
Don't give yourself that excuse.
01:00:27
Speaker
Most goals are
01:00:29
Speaker
Don't fail because of a lack of talent.
01:00:31
Speaker
They fail because we wait for the perfect time, the perfect plan, the perfect mindset.
01:00:36
Speaker
But honestly, perfection is a total myth and it's really boring, Rich.
01:00:41
Speaker
I don't want perfect.
01:00:43
Speaker
I look for the people that didn't have perfect.
01:00:46
Speaker
Those are the people that resonate with me when I think of a champion.
01:00:50
Speaker
And if you're waiting for the stars to align before you take action, you are going to be waiting forever.
01:00:57
Speaker
And getting started, like I said, is where that transformation begins.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, you kind of just have to take a first step on the faith that it'll bring you to the second and the third without really knowing what the second and the third are in a way, you know?
01:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, or even knowing what that's going to feel like.
01:01:12
Speaker
And that's the beauty of it is that curiosity, and it takes an act, it takes a leap of faith, if you will.
01:01:20
Speaker
Yeah, and find a friend to do this with, right?
01:01:23
Speaker
You know, that maybe can be that, you know, person to help give you the courage, right?
01:01:27
Speaker
Maybe you're going to do it together, you know?
01:01:29
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:29
Speaker
Love that accountability partner.
01:01:32
Speaker
And it doesn't have to be a full send.
01:01:35
Speaker
Like you don't have to full send off a cliff into something that's new.
01:01:39
Speaker
It can be as little as putting on running shoes and going for a walk.
01:01:43
Speaker
It can be opening up your training plan.
01:01:46
Speaker
It can be reaching out to a friend to ask, Hey, would you be willing to go for a run with me or a walk with me?
01:01:54
Speaker
One small step truly creates momentum and momentum is where that belief comes into play.
01:02:00
Speaker
So like I said, every big success story you admire, it started with one decision to move forward, often imperfectly.
01:02:09
Speaker
So the next time resistance whispers in your ear, not today, or you're not ready, I want you to respond with action.
01:02:17
Speaker
I want you to respond with, I'm going to do this.
01:02:21
Speaker
It could be as simple as putting on your shoes.
01:02:26
Speaker
Any action, because forward is forward.
01:02:29
Speaker
Forward is a pace, as I like to say.
01:02:31
Speaker
And once you're in motion, everything changes.
01:02:34
Speaker
The path, like Rich just alluded to, it reveals itself.
01:02:37
Speaker
You might not know what step two, three, ten looks like.
01:02:40
Speaker
That's okay.
01:02:42
Speaker
But as you continue to take those steps, your confidence builds.
01:02:45
Speaker
And before you know it, you're becoming the athlete, just like Daniel.
01:02:48
Speaker
You're becoming the athlete you imagine.
01:02:50
Speaker
So this week, I want you to drop those thoughts of I have to wait.
01:02:56
Speaker
I don't want you to overthink it.
01:02:58
Speaker
I just want you to get gritty and get started.
01:03:01
Speaker
Awesome.
01:03:02
Speaker
Good job, very cool.
01:03:03
Speaker
That's great.
01:03:05
Speaker
Thank you, partner.
01:03:06
Speaker
Love that get gritty tip.
01:03:08
Speaker
All right.
01:03:08
Speaker
Well, speaking of getting gritty, you know, this was a assessment week for me, which helped inspire this week's workout of the week, which in this case is going to be the 20 minute functional threshold power test.
01:03:22
Speaker
And I am using this one very specifically.
01:03:24
Speaker
I know that there are other kind of, you know, there's ramp tests, et cetera.
01:03:28
Speaker
But I'm going to choose this one because I have a particular strategy for executing it that I just want to share with folks.
01:03:35
Speaker
So a functional threshold, functional threshold power test is just what it sounds like.
01:03:39
Speaker
This is the bike test to determine what your fitness is and whether you're making progress.
01:03:45
Speaker
It also helps determine your training zones and your pacing strategy for a race.
01:03:51
Speaker
The, uh, the way that you
01:03:53
Speaker
The way that it is described to do this is to do a 10 minute warmup in zone two with three by 30 second efforts in spin ups, you know, just to get your RPMs going and get that neuromuscular system firing.
01:04:09
Speaker
And then three by one minute in zone four to start to get that lactate clearing system going and getting your anaerobic system warming up.
01:04:19
Speaker
And once you are done with that 10 minute warmup, you start a 20 minute all out maximum effort.
01:04:26
Speaker
The maximum you can sustain for the 20 minute period.
01:04:29
Speaker
Well, what does that mean?
01:04:30
Speaker
And how should you exactly do that?
01:04:33
Speaker
So that really is where I want to talk about my pacing strategy, which the way I do this is I look at my previous month's FTPs.
01:04:45
Speaker
And I take a look at for that previous month's FTP, what was my average for that effort for the 20 minutes?
01:04:53
Speaker
And I use that as my starting point in ERG mode on my trainer.
01:05:00
Speaker
I will start that 20 minute effort at that average of the last.
01:05:06
Speaker
And the goal here is not to hold that average for the entire, but to slowly increase it up.
01:05:13
Speaker
And when I'm thinking, when you're doing any of these, whether it's a 5K or a functional threshold power test or the swim CSS test, what you're really trying to do in each of these intervals is try to negative split them, not massively, but at least gradually, right?
01:05:30
Speaker
Maybe a 5% faster back half than the front half.
01:05:34
Speaker
So the way I'll do this is I will start at that average and I'll hold that average that, let's say in this case,
01:05:42
Speaker
I actually kept track of this on a whiteboard, April.
01:05:46
Speaker
No, bring out the whiteboard, Rich.
01:05:50
Speaker
I have it off to this.
01:05:51
Speaker
I actually have numbers that I can speak to.
01:05:54
Speaker
So my average for my last FTP was 309 watts.
01:06:01
Speaker
So the way that I did the three one-minute warm-up intervals was the first minute was 290, the second one 300, and the third 310, just a little bit higher than where I was going to start the 20-minute effort.
01:06:17
Speaker
Then I started at 3.09.
01:06:19
Speaker
I held 3.09 for five minutes just to make sure that I wasn't starting too hot, right?
01:06:24
Speaker
Because if all I was going to be able to do was repeat the last, then I just needed to hold that.
01:06:30
Speaker
But I felt okay.
01:06:31
Speaker
And I started to inch it up.
01:06:33
Speaker
And by the time I got to the 10-minute mark, I think I was at like 3.15.
01:06:38
Speaker
And I really just kept increasing that gently up until I think I got to the
01:06:44
Speaker
I think I finished at maybe, you know, 325, but the average was 314.
01:06:49
Speaker
Wow.
01:06:51
Speaker
And, but that, that pacing of starting, you know, at that last month's average is a great place to start, right?
01:07:00
Speaker
If you could hold that, you probably have a good chance of improving your FTP month over month.
01:07:06
Speaker
Cause it's just, it's just a little bit of a reach, you know?
01:07:09
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:10
Speaker
Wow.
01:07:11
Speaker
Fantastic.
01:07:12
Speaker
So anyway, that's the FTP execution tip of the week.
01:07:18
Speaker
Holy mackerel.
01:07:19
Speaker
If there's others out there that are pushing 350, hats off to you.
01:07:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:29
Speaker
Well, I was actually pretty proud of myself.
01:07:30
Speaker
I bumped a dot.
01:07:31
Speaker
I went from 91 to 92.
01:07:33
Speaker
Okay, Rich.
01:07:34
Speaker
That's incredible.
01:07:35
Speaker
Yes.
01:07:38
Speaker
My swim and my run are nowhere near that.
01:07:41
Speaker
Wow.
01:07:42
Speaker
You have some strong legs.
01:07:44
Speaker
That's incredible.
01:07:45
Speaker
I'm cycling.
01:07:46
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:46
Speaker
I think it's just my weird, like long leg, you know, lanky, you know, I think I'm just like- Yeah, you're a long-limbed gentleman.
01:07:54
Speaker
I'm more of a cyclist body than I am a running body, I think.
01:07:58
Speaker
I don't know.
01:07:59
Speaker
Way to go, Rich.
01:07:59
Speaker
That's fantastic.
01:08:00
Speaker
Bump the dot.
01:08:01
Speaker
That's fantastic.
01:08:03
Speaker
All right.
01:08:06
Speaker
I have in my notes here when I'm leading into this segment, I've got a little dancing woman because we're about to do the fandango here, Rich.
01:08:15
Speaker
And this is our fun segment.
01:08:17
Speaker
It's a wild mix of multi-sport mayhem where strategy meets spontaneity and nothing goes according to plan.
01:08:24
Speaker
That is a call out to you, Alice.
01:08:26
Speaker
We're about to get weird here.
01:08:29
Speaker
So, Rich, you did ask, what does fandango mean?
01:08:33
Speaker
Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary, a fandango is a lively Spanish dance for two people, typically accompanied by castanets or a tambourine.
01:08:45
Speaker
And it can also be defined as a foolish or useless act or thing.
01:08:51
Speaker
So with that context, are you ready for our triathlon fandango?
01:08:56
Speaker
I am, but I still, I'm just like stuck on the, the dancing metaphors here and the dancing and the reference to Alice because she is a competitive dancer.
01:09:09
Speaker
Get out of here.
01:09:11
Speaker
Amazing.
01:09:12
Speaker
The intersection here is just uncanny.
01:09:14
Speaker
So anyway, I'm patting myself on the back again for, uh, this is for Alice.
01:09:19
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:19
Speaker
This is for Alice.
01:09:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:23
Speaker
All right.
01:09:23
Speaker
So in this segment, we are going to throw a little controlled chaos into your training day.
01:09:29
Speaker
Just like a Fandango, which is usually a lively dance or an unpredictable situation.
01:09:35
Speaker
And let's be honest, that sounds a lot like your last transition, doesn't it?
01:09:39
Speaker
In this segment, we celebrate the unexpected moments, awkward moves, and the off-the-cuff brilliance.
01:09:46
Speaker
that only triathletes truly understand.
01:09:48
Speaker
So are you ready for this, Rich?
01:09:50
Speaker
I'm going to read out some scenarios for you, and you've got to off the cuff give me some of your thoughts here, okay?
01:09:58
Speaker
Okay, ready.
01:09:59
Speaker
All right, so I've got six scenarios, or five scenarios, excuse me, and the first one is called Blockbuster Buoyancy.
01:10:07
Speaker
So you have to swim in a costume from your favorite movie.
01:10:11
Speaker
What do you choose and how do you make it hydrodynamic?
01:10:15
Speaker
A costume of a character from my favorite movie.
01:10:19
Speaker
Or a TV show.
01:10:20
Speaker
We'll go TV show too.
01:10:21
Speaker
We'll expand it a little bit.
01:10:23
Speaker
Well, then that would be Flipper.
01:10:27
Speaker
What?
01:10:28
Speaker
No, that's cheating.
01:10:29
Speaker
That is not your favorite movie.
01:10:33
Speaker
Well, what is it going to be?
01:10:34
Speaker
Gladiator?
01:10:35
Speaker
Yeah, you got to make it hydrodynamic.
01:10:40
Speaker
Maximus Decimus, Meridius, how are you going to make that gladiator Roman armor hydrodynamic?
01:10:49
Speaker
See, that's why I went with Flipper.
01:10:53
Speaker
Oh, terrible.
01:10:54
Speaker
Okay.
01:10:55
Speaker
All right.
01:10:55
Speaker
All right.
01:10:55
Speaker
I'll let it go.
01:10:56
Speaker
All right.
01:10:57
Speaker
Flipper it is.
01:10:59
Speaker
I will let it go right now, but that's going to come back to haunt you.
01:11:02
Speaker
I promise.
01:11:04
Speaker
All right.
01:11:04
Speaker
Mine is, I'd have to say, I've been really getting into Star Trek recently, specifically Next Generation.
01:11:13
Speaker
And I'm going to go with Captain Picard, Jean-Luc Picard.
01:11:17
Speaker
His amazing wardrobe.
01:11:20
Speaker
And I think that would be okay in the water.
01:11:25
Speaker
Maybe not the best, but I think it'd be okay.
01:11:28
Speaker
The Star Trek uniform.
01:11:30
Speaker
Yes.
01:11:31
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:32
Speaker
All right.
01:11:34
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:34
Speaker
So number two here, snack station showdown.
01:11:39
Speaker
Your only bike nutrition can come from gas station snacks.
01:11:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:11:44
Speaker
You've got to build your fueling plan using three items and explain how they will power your ride.
01:11:51
Speaker
You can pick.
01:11:52
Speaker
Go ahead, Rich.
01:11:55
Speaker
Tell me.
01:11:56
Speaker
I've done this.
01:11:57
Speaker
This is me on a long weekend ride.
01:12:02
Speaker
This is hitting the gas station at Morrison and 470 and getting a bean burrito, a Gatorade, and a Red Bull.
01:12:13
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
01:12:15
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:12:16
Speaker
Okay.
01:12:17
Speaker
I did say in here, you can pick a taquito or tornado.
01:12:20
Speaker
Have you heard of tornado?
01:12:22
Speaker
A tornado?
01:12:24
Speaker
I've heard of a tornado.
01:12:25
Speaker
I'm not sure.
01:12:26
Speaker
No, it's tornado.
01:12:28
Speaker
This is a staple of any, I'm telling you, Rich, any security forces, infantry, military, they're going to go to the gas station.
01:12:39
Speaker
They're going to get a Red Bull and a tornado.
01:12:42
Speaker
That's how it's pronounced.
01:12:43
Speaker
I promise you.
01:12:44
Speaker
Yes.
01:12:46
Speaker
But good luck with that aftermath.
01:12:49
Speaker
For me, it's going to be...
01:12:51
Speaker
Definitely some peanut M&Ms, a thing of I'm good with Gatorade and a Clif Bar.
01:13:00
Speaker
Okay, nice.
01:13:01
Speaker
New cleaner.
01:13:02
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:03
Speaker
No, I love that.
01:13:04
Speaker
I love those M&Ms.
01:13:05
Speaker
I think that is my favorite candy, personally.
01:13:08
Speaker
Nice.
01:13:10
Speaker
Okay.
01:13:10
Speaker
Next up, discipline detour.
01:13:13
Speaker
You must swap one triathlon leg with a totally unrelated skill.
01:13:16
Speaker
Karate, chess, salsa, dancing, fandango.
01:13:20
Speaker
What do you pick and why would you give it and why would it give you a competitive edge?
01:13:24
Speaker
Ooh, competitive edge.
01:13:28
Speaker
Something that would give me a competitive edge.
01:13:32
Speaker
Definitely wouldn't be reading.
01:13:33
Speaker
I don't read that fast.
01:13:36
Speaker
Um...
01:13:37
Speaker
I mean, I naturally wanted to go to Nordic skiing, skate skiing in particular, because we did that, but I don't know if that's kind of cheating or if I'm- No, it's up to you.
01:13:48
Speaker
Does it work?
01:13:48
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:49
Speaker
That's it.
01:13:49
Speaker
That's my answer.
01:13:50
Speaker
We're going to go with skate skiing.
01:13:52
Speaker
Okay.
01:13:53
Speaker
I like that.
01:13:54
Speaker
I'm going to go with painting.
01:13:57
Speaker
There you go.
01:13:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:58
Speaker
I'm getting there.
01:13:59
Speaker
I'm getting dang good there.
01:14:00
Speaker
You really are.
01:14:01
Speaker
Thank you, Rich.
01:14:04
Speaker
I'm going to wait to see you bring to the camp.
01:14:05
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:14:06
Speaker
Yes.
01:14:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:07
Speaker
It's going to be good.
01:14:08
Speaker
All right.
01:14:09
Speaker
We got two more.
01:14:10
Speaker
Bag swap roulette.
01:14:12
Speaker
You have to trade your tri bag for a mystery duffel handed to you at check-in.
01:14:17
Speaker
What's the one item you're playing is inside and what would you, what would send you straight in a panic mode?
01:14:24
Speaker
Oh, can it be anything?
01:14:28
Speaker
It can be.
01:14:29
Speaker
You're praying one thing inside.
01:14:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:32
Speaker
It can be anything.
01:14:33
Speaker
But it's still got to like, you can't like, can't break the rules or anything.
01:14:37
Speaker
Right.
01:14:37
Speaker
Right.
01:14:37
Speaker
Yep.
01:14:38
Speaker
Yep.
01:14:38
Speaker
It's triathlon.
01:14:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:40
Speaker
Approved.
01:14:41
Speaker
I would say a, it's got to fit in a duffel bag.
01:14:46
Speaker
I'm just going to say a new arrow helmet.
01:14:49
Speaker
Oh, I like that.
01:14:50
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:51
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:53
Speaker
Um,
01:14:54
Speaker
What would send you straight into panic mode?
01:14:57
Speaker
Oh, a new saddle.
01:15:01
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:15:01
Speaker
Good one.
01:15:04
Speaker
Genius.
01:15:05
Speaker
Okay.
01:15:06
Speaker
If I had, I think a high-end wetsuit would be amazing.
01:15:12
Speaker
Would be amazing.
01:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, there you go.
01:15:15
Speaker
What would I pray that or what would send me straight into panic mode?
01:15:18
Speaker
A bottle of Tabasco sauce.
01:15:24
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:25
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:26
Speaker
That was my only fueling hydration.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:31
Speaker
Nope.
01:15:32
Speaker
All right.
01:15:33
Speaker
Last one.
01:15:35
Speaker
Celebrity play by play.
01:15:37
Speaker
Your entire race will be comment and commentated live by one celebrity.
01:15:42
Speaker
Who do you choose and what kind of outrageous commentary are they dropping mid-race?
01:15:49
Speaker
Mike Riley.
01:15:50
Speaker
And he's going to look at me coming across the finish line.
01:15:54
Speaker
If you've ever heard him say, we've got a leaner coming in here.
01:15:58
Speaker
It's those people that are shuffling and starting to lean over to one side.
01:16:02
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:03
Speaker
Oh, that's great.
01:16:05
Speaker
I am going to go with Phil Liggett, lovely voice of the Tour de France.
01:16:10
Speaker
He has just he just has one of those amazing voices.
01:16:13
Speaker
But Mike Riley came up for me, too.
01:16:14
Speaker
But since you already claimed him, I'm going Phil Liggett.
01:16:18
Speaker
Just so good.
01:16:19
Speaker
So good.
01:16:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:21
Speaker
All right.
01:16:21
Speaker
That's a wrap on this round of Triathlon Fandago.
01:16:25
Speaker
What do you think, Rich?
01:16:26
Speaker
That was a lot of fun.
01:16:28
Speaker
I like, I like bringing the Fandango.
01:16:30
Speaker
I love the, uh, the dance intersection here.
01:16:33
Speaker
I'm already looking forward to my conversation with
Fandango Fun and Listener Engagement
01:16:36
Speaker
Alice next week.
01:16:36
Speaker
I know this goes out to you, Alice.
01:16:38
Speaker
So that was a Fandango where the weird gets wilder.
01:16:41
Speaker
The hypothetical gets hilarious.
01:16:43
Speaker
And one thing, the only thing more unpredictable than your T1 socks is what, uh, we'll spin up next.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:52
Speaker
So if you've got a ridiculous scenario you want us to tackle, send it our way and keep this Fandango fun rolling.
01:17:00
Speaker
Until then, stay weird, race hard, never underestimate the power of a good snack and a wild imagination.
01:17:10
Speaker
More unpredictable than your T1 socks.
01:17:12
Speaker
I love it.
01:17:13
Speaker
Folks, thanks again for listening this week.
01:17:15
Speaker
Be sure to follow us at 303 Triathlon and at Grit to Greatness Endurance.
01:17:18
Speaker
And of course, please go to iTunes, give us a rating and a comment.
01:17:22
Speaker
We appreciate it.
01:17:23
Speaker
And you stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey.
01:17:28
Speaker
for your 303 endurance podcast it's your 303 endurance podcast it's your 303 endurance podcast it's your
01:18:06
Speaker
three.