Another Triathlon Podcast Episode 14:

Transcript:

Welcome back, Triathlon enthusiasts to another episode of another Triathlon podcast brought to you by Mona insurance I’m your host Jenna Sarah and as always thrilled to be joined by my co-host Fede and Josh Strap in because we have definitely got another jam-packed episode for you today We are absolutely buzzing over the recent 70.3 iron man world championships. It was an interesting show From unexpected winners to german domination and yes, even some surprising under performances from the favorites We will dive into bit. But that’s not all. We’ll also have the lowdown on the Super League race in London, including some noticeable absences. Some of the big names we were expecting to see there were not there and it definitely shifted how the teams races played out. But as always, we’ll bring you our what the f moment of the week, the social media post and we’ll do some question and answers. So let’s jump in. Let’s get after it. How are you guys doing? Betty, what’s up with you?

Fede:
Hey guys, hey Jenna, hey Josh, good to see you guys. Yeah, I was just talking with you Jenna off the air that I was battling a nasty cold. And I was, you know, off my feet last week, so happy to be back training, slowly getting into the, you know, the regime of training every day. So and now in a bit of a panic mode because I have a race in three weeks, so it’s going to be a bit of a… panic training going on next few weeks so that I can make sure that I’m there mentally and physically to perform in a couple of weeks. But yeah, what about you guys?

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, go ahead, Josh. How are things going with you?

Josh Vernon:
So I’ve been doing a lot of traveling. So naturally, like Fede also got some type of a bug, sore throat, whatever, was able to thankfully feel okay enough to continue with whatever workouts I was able to do on vacation. And we had a good gym, actually had two gyms at the hotel we were staying at. So I got some good workouts in on the elliptical and started running again. All of a sudden my legs started feeling

Jenna-Caer:
It was good.

Josh Vernon:
better. So I got a seven mile run in and a 12 mile run in this week. Um, and just before we got on the podcast, I got another five miles in and 30 minutes on the rower. So, and then a lot of swimming, um, while in Cabo, obviously naturally. Um, so it was actually a really good week and, uh, is less than 13 days out so we’re at it again and it’s feeling good so I’m actually gonna be tapering which is kind of cool to think about at this point too.

Jenna-Caer:
You know, the body’s an incredible thing. A couple of weeks ago, you didn’t think you’re going to be doing the marathon at all. And now all of a sudden you’re ready to go. Things are feeling good. No pain or issues afterwards. Just back into the training.

Josh Vernon:
It’s unbelievable. Yeah, it’s, I brought the red light therapy with me and I iced and those two things combined with, with making sure I was being smart with the elliptical work and, and all of that, I think, uh, jumping some of that Mexican salt water too, probably helped

Jenna-Caer:

Finding those healing ways. No, it sounds like you really got after that recovery. And now Fede, with having it, like being sick, it sounds like you took a lot of downtime in there, was that as an endurance athlete, was that easy or hard to take those days off?

Fede:
You know what? I’m usually very good at taking days off whenever coach prescribes days off or whenever I don’t feel quite right. However, when I have a race coming up, there’s always the training in the back of my head that I need to be doing something. But I keep repeating to myself that, you know, it’s for the best and I’m only gonna do more harm if I train while being sick. I keep telling myself this is for the best, this is for the best, you’re gonna bounce back and as long as you keep taking care of yourself you’re gonna be training back again. And I know the fitness is gonna be there, it’s just mentally the part that us endurance athletes are a bit hard on ourselves whenever we feel a bit sick or have to take some time off. But yeah, I was just being a bit dramatic maybe for a couple of days.

Jenna-Caer:
No, it’s so important to take that down time. And I kind of mentioned before, I remember when I was in the weight loss days where it seemed like no matter what, I could keep the, could not keep the weight off or get myself to workout or exercise because just how I looked was not enough motivation to keep at it. I would take any excuse to take a rest day and not go to the gym. But.

Jenna-Caer:
When that motivation changes and it becomes something intrinsic, something you care about and seeing what your body is capable of, it’s a whole different ballgame. You’re like, wait, I have to take a day off. I don’t want to take a day off. What a whole week off training. Cause I’m sick. What, what got to be crazy.

Fede:
Okay.

Jenna-Caer:
But it’s so good that you’re listening to your body so that you can come back, come back stronger and get the, get the workouts in now.

Fede:
Yeah, 100%. And I’m ready to train. Like I’m actually happy that I listened to myself because I now

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
I’m very excited to train again and not looking at that something I need to do but something I want to do. So that’s a very good mindset to be in for me right now.

Jenna-Caer:
Oh yeah, there’s something about that mental freshness. Like when you’re craving the sessions, like you can do a session or you can really get after it if you’re feeling mentally engaged and really going for it. And there’s such a massive difference between the two.

Fede:
Oh yeah, mindset is everything.

Josh Vernon:
And I think the other piece about this that Fed mentioned too, is the fact of his communication with his coach and getting feedback there and making adjustments and I did that on the opposite end, coming out of not feeling good, we had made adjustments to my schedule going forth and maybe added some more elliptical or cross-training options to get me to the line knowing that I was feeling better, but not yet the run volume as we’re getting into taper time anyways, but I messaged my coach this morning. and said, look, I’ve been feeling real good the last couple of days. And I didn’t have a run on my schedule until like Wednesday this week. And I was like, look, do you mind if I go do a run today and I’m not gonna make it to the pool so I can do a row and a run. And he’s like, yeah, go ahead. And let’s do 45 easy, but get out and run. Got outside and ran. And that was a quick adjustment. And now based off how I feel coming out of this, he might tweak some other stuff. So we’ll see. I think that’s another huge factor that we talk about a lot. with some of the questions we get and things. But that communication and the extra benefit of a coach came in handy today.

Jenna-Caer:
Oh, that’s huge. You have a coach, you have someone in your corner, you have that outside perspective, take advantage of it because that’s exactly what they’re there for. They want you to succeed and they

Fede:
Mm.

Jenna-Caer:
have the skill set and knowledge to adjust the program for you. I definitely run into a couple of situations where an athlete has like a catastrophic injury where they have to stop training for a while and it’s like, well, did this just come on suddenly? It’s like, oh, like the last month my foot has hurt, but I just didn’t say anything. It’s like, what? We could have avoided this. That’s exactly what I’m here for.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
It’s definitely good to have that communication and that back and forth. Cause we, you know, we need that outside perspective. Sometimes I know we’re all driven and motivated and have big goals, but sometimes you need someone else to tell you, okay, chill, let’s adjust and go from there. Yeah,

Fede:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jenna-Caer:
it’s funny. I’m gonna say on the opposite side this weekend, I had a weekend of workouts that kind of scared me and I’m kind of looking at my coach like, are you serious? Like really? Like, you admit, yeah? And as I was reminded constantly on the Iron Man 70.3 broadcast, Kona’s seven weeks away, I’m pretty sure they said that about a hundred times during the broadcast and I was like, oh, yep, I guess it is.

Fede:
Hehehe

Jenna-Caer:
No, ended up having a big weekend of training and training has been a little. up and down the last couple of weeks with some other stuff with some acting jobs and all that. But I definitely like you Feday I went in so mentally and physically fresh that I just had a killer weekend of training. It

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
was just like, the paces seemed a little crazy. The bike workout seemed a little crazy got in there. But the head the body were all feeling good. And it was definitely a confidence boosting weekend

Fede:
Mmm.

Jenna-Caer:
to see. Okay, fresh legs things feel So yeah, good little confidence boost as we’re seven weeks away from Kona, which I didn’t

Fede:
Hehehe

Jenna-Caer:
know before this weekend.

Fede:
That’s so good to hear that you’re fresh and in a good mental space too. Because I mean the next couple of weeks are going to be quite tough for you so that’s good that you’re in the right mental space and physically able to deliver the workouts.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, definitely in the thick of it now. It’s funny, it’s one of those things where I can’t look at my training peaks kind of fitness score right now. It’s definitely a

Fede:
Mm.

Jenna-Caer:
lot lower than it’s ever been kind of leading into a race. But then, you know what, you have workouts like that where it’s like, okay, may not have the fatigue in the legs, but there’s still some fitness there. So we’ll go, go hard for the next few weeks and see what I can do in Kona. So I’m looking forward to it now after that weekend.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Awesome. Well, let’s jump into things here. Let’s start off with some questions from our audience. Let me pull them up here. Okay, here’s one that I actually get quite a bit from athletes. Is the age old question, one piece or two piece tri suit? Which

Fede:
Mm-hmm.

Jenna-Caer:
way do you go? So let’s obviously we’re presented by Mono Endurance, which also has a wicked line of tri suits, which we all wear and race in. So we I’m definitely a fan of the one piece tri suits just because I am obsessively worried about the arrow gains and the benefits there. But two pieces are always a good option. Let’s hear your guys’s thoughts on which one you think a Looks like they’re a newer to triathlon doing their first Ironman. Should they go for the one piece or the two piece on race day? What do you think, Betty?

Fede:
Great question. Like you said, I’m a bit too much into aerodynamics and marginal gains and optimizing everything really. So whenever I can squeeze a bit more watts here and there, I’m going to take it. However, if it’s your first race or you’re just getting into triathlon or maybe it’s your first full distance race, I would encourage you to test a bunch on your long rides and long runs. see which feel more comfortable to you. Maybe even rehearse, this is going to sound a bit weird, but maybe even rehearse your porta potty stops and seeing how

Jenna-Caer:
Thanks for watching.

Fede:
quick you can unzip everything and get everything down to do your thing and then just choose that. I think for your first long distance event you might be able to, I mean it’s good to sacrifice a bit of aerodynamics over comfort. That would be my take on that.

Jenna-Caer:
Man, we saw an absolute master class in the porta potty stop by Taylor Nip at the 70.3 world champs, which we’ll talk

Fede:
Hmm.

Jenna-Caer:
about a little bit later there. But she had that doubt. It was like 25 seconds in, out, done, still in the lead. So that I have never considered that, but that’s not a bad idea seeing that.

Fede:
Yeah

Jenna-Caer:
Especially once you get like sweaty and wet and stuff,

Fede:
Ugh. Hahaha.

Jenna-Caer:
it gets a whole lot more complicated.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
How about you, Josh? Do you have any thoughts on this?

Josh Vernon:
I mean, it is a great question. I’ve been lucky to have some pretty decent one piece tri-suits that I’ve raced in. So I have ridden in two piece, but for me, I think it’s a one piece all the way. And if a bathroom stop happens to happen, I mean, you deal with it and you struggle to get it off as much as possible. I’ve had it happen pre-race and coming out of T2, to do it and it’s manageable. So it’s especially the nice aerodynamic one piece tri suits they’re on pretty tight. So

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
like Jenna said they’re not easy to get off but I think for what you get out of a longer ride a 56 mile or 112 mile bike ride it’s well worth that extra time it might take to take a bathroom break.

Jenna-Caer:
Absolutely, and it might be a case of you don’t need to undo it at all. You know, I find for myself, I used to race in two pieces and my biggest problem was they would start riding up in the back and I’m a pasty redhead. So I would get this like burn tattoo

Fede:
Hehehehehe

Jenna-Caer:
across my back for like weeks afterwards. So just

Fede:
Oh no.

Jenna-Caer:
right, you don’t notice it. And then obviously not a lot of sunscreen there. So I think at the end of the day. it’s whatever’s most comfortable, what makes you feel confident, what, and it may sound funny, but what you think looks good on you and feel looks good on you too, because there is something to be said for something that makes you feel strong and confident when you put it on. So it’s not always a case of performance, but if you are looking for performance gains, then I think we all agree the one piece will go a lot faster, which is why I’m surprised to see a lot of the pro female athletes still racing in the bathing suit style.

Josh Vernon:
Yeah.

Fede:
Hmm.

Jenna-Caer:
trisuits because skin is a lot slower than a lot of these materials that are on the trisuits these days. But I think like, unless you’re doing short course for 70.3 and longer, it just, my mind makes more sense to have more of the two piece with the full coverage just for those aero benefits because we’re talking percentage points that could matter at the end of the day. Like the female racing is getting so competitive that it makes a difference.

Josh Vernon:
Especially in Paris, I mean, they definitely, I mean, but shorter Olympic distance. So that you can kind of understand

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
with the swimsuits, but yeah, to see it in the 70.3 and up, that’s, it’s strange because there is a big arrow advantage to the sleeves and everything you want to add on there.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, absolutely. But I guess whatever makes you comfortable at the end of the day, and especially if it’s going to be super crazy hot conditions, then you gotta go what works for you. But we definitely recommend you check out the Mon and Jern’s try suits because they are absolutely wicked. Okay, we’ve got our next question here. Why am I hitting a plateau? My run times don’t seem to change whatsoever. I keep being around four hours and 15 minutes regardless of how Hard at bike, it’s always right around 415. I’ve been training consistently, but haven’t seen any improvements. So what can I do to break through this from John? So run in an Ironman is almost an art form to get right. There’s a lot of things that have to go right for you to have a solid run time. But the biggest things that I see with athletes trying to improve their run is they’re lacking a couple of things. Is one, bike strength. That’s the number one in there. You have to be strong on the bike to be able to run well afterwards. You could be, you know, you could put the best marathon runner in the world on an Ironman race course and put them on a bike for the first time. They’re going to be hobbling to the finish line in the marathon. So the bike strength and pacing are the two biggest things to actually work on fitness wise to make sure that you can run well afterwards. The other thing that I see a lot of times is to help improve those run times is adding a little bit more run frequency. So again, you’re just teaching your body to move better and that translates on race day, even when you’re broken down. A lot of athletes are doing maybe two runs a week in there, which can work if you are focusing on that bike strength, but if you really want to start to improve your run. through an Ironman, I find a little bit more run frequency helps a lot of athletes. And it doesn’t have to be anything crazy, like even 15, 20 minute brick runs that are easy off the bike will again, just kind of ingrain that feeling of running on fatigue legs. And I find that’s helped a lot of athletes improve those runtimes over time with that consistency. And then the biggest thing is just, if you’re looking to be competitive on the run in an Ironman is the distance has to be almost a non-factor. So if you’re struggling to get an 18 mile run in or struggling to get to 20 miles, you’re not going to be racing on the run in an Ironman. You have to have a really effective Ironman run and feel like be able to push those paces a lot more. Ideally you get to the point where 18 or 20 miles is just mentally, physically not a big deal in zone two. Like once you can kind of get to that place where the distance is just not scary, feels fine, you can recover from it. that’s when you can really start to push the speed and see how fast you can go in there. But Fede, do you have some thoughts on how to improve that run in an Ironman and break away from that plateau?

Fede:
Yeah, I mean you touched on very solid points and all of those are very, very true. I often see with athletes, the mistake they tend to do is they get their confidence from like track workouts. Let’s say like one K repeats, one mile repeats. And while doing that type of speed work is all good and well, that’s not very specific for long distance racing. So what I tend to do with my athletes is. go from the general part of training to the more specific part when racing is coming up. So a lot of running off the bike, a lot of race pace intensity, like you said, making sure they are strong on the bike because running off the bike is a completely different sport and muscles act differently when we run off the bike. So I often load my athletes with quite a bit of bike race pace intensity. have them run a long run the next day with a few efforts at the end of the run to stimulate those you know muscle adaptations and fatigue, fatigue adaptations because that’s the name of the game in long distance racing. I mean it’s not who’s the quickest, it’s about who slows down the least. So making sure they are able to hold the pace while they’re tired and like you said, yes respecting the distance but making sure it’s not a limiting factor. when it comes to performing of the bike. That doesn’t mean they need to run a marathon each week, but it just means that we need to load the body gradually until they’re comfortable, making sure that they can run a half marathon on Tuesday and they’re perfectly fine to do a two hour long run on a Friday if they need to. So just making sure the progression is right and that the intensities and the loading and everything is also in the right place.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, perfectly said. That’s some really, really great advice in there. How about you, Josh? Any thoughts?

Josh Vernon:
I mean, I think one thing that I’ve learned over time too, is it, I think both of you have hit it spot on with the adjustments that you need to make and getting to a certain confidence level and how you want to approach the run itself. And it sounds like we’ve got somebody who’s trying to get under four hours. And, and a lot of that advancement and that plateauing can be broken with speed work and, and I’ve done a lot of track work more so than I had done early on in my triathlon life and my run has come the furthest and I probably had the most room for improvement. But I think once I started incorporating speed work at the track as opposed to just distance and miles and minutes, along with the run strength training and a lot of one-legged deadlifts and things like that are really going to help improve balance and ankles and hamstrings and everything you use in your run. That you’re going to need 26 miles and 12 hours into your day. So those things come in huge in the end. I think they’re a big benefit. So if you haven’t been on with those pieces of your workouts, make sure you keep them involved as well.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, that strength training is so important. Like Feday said, this is not, it’s not about who goes the fastest in there, it’s who slows down the least. And a lot of that strength training can help just strengthen a lot of those auxiliary muscles that are helping propel you forward when your form gets incredibly sloppy, as it will at some point from the fatigue. So being able to hold it together makes a big difference. And actually one session I forgot to mention that has been a game changer. for me is doing a long run with a fast finish. I just had a, yeah, Instagram memory from when I won the Long Distance World Championships and it was crazy hot day out there and I was in like fourth place with 10K to go. And as a matter of fact, like just speed up a little bit, I could get that win in the last, you know, you’ve been out there for hours at this point, you’re like, okay, come on.

Fede:
Hehehe

Jenna-Caer:
But. I had done so many fast finish long runs, like my coach had it dialed into my head to like, to this day, my long runs all end nearly with a tempo effort because it’s just so hardwired. But it’s not only the physical benefits that you get from it, it’s just so many times you’d give me paces at the end of a long run where I’m like, there’s no way. Like I feel like I’m breaking down, I can barely run at this point, you want me to do 5K at a tempo effort. It’s like there’s… not going to happen, but then you try it and you kind of get out of that slump of just feeling broken down and tired and complacent and you realize, okay, I do have more in the tank. I can go a little bit faster. And sometimes I think a lot of that is just a mental block because you’re carb depleted, you’re tired, you’re dehydrated. But if you prove that to yourself over and over again in training that, okay, you do have a little bit more. It may not be a matter of fitness at all. It may just be a mental block that you’re kind of going through where it’s like, okay, let’s empty it all at this point and see what’s left. So those are good sessions to one, get the learn how to run on that kind of fatigue, but to just mentally have it in the bank knowing that, okay, I can pick it up here. I’m not just gonna slog it into the finish line. But yeah, anyways, let’s jump on. We’ve got a couple of interesting. I had a hard time picking the what the f moment of the week here,

Fede:
Oh god.

Jenna-Caer:
but there was, there was a few of them, but, uh, we will dive into the results in a bit here, but I have to say the what the f moment of the week this week is the Lionel Sanders disqualification at 70.3 worlds. Now, if you haven’t heard Lionel Sanders, he had an incredible swim for him. He was right in the mix two minutes down. and was making up time or like getting on the bike and getting it done. But then he got a disqualification for allegedly passing the center line. Now that is a rule that we all know, you can’t pass the center line, can’t cross the painted line. But in this case, he was told by the official, the center line was imaginary. And there was no actual painted center line. On a road that looks like it could be just like a one way small. European road, which is everywhere there. So to be disqualified based on an imaginary line that doesn’t exist on closed roads during a world championship, when just a few minutes earlier there’s video of Christian Blumenfeld crossing an actual center line for a couple minutes

Fede:
Yep.

Jenna-Caer:
with no repercussions is absolutely insane.

Fede:
Yep.

Jenna-Caer:
Apparently he was going down the finish line yelling at Andrew Messick. I’m never doing that. Iron Man again.

Fede:
Hehehe

Jenna-Caer:
I can’t say I blame him after this, but what do you guys think? Do you think Iron Man made the right call?

Josh Vernon:
I don’t know what it was with that course because I mean, even in the women’s race, it was like

Jenna-Caer:
Oh, it’s crazy.

Josh Vernon:
that first penalty tent, the camera crew goes by and it’s like, whoa, I’ve never seen so many people in a penalty tent before. And you’re

Fede:
Hahaha

Josh Vernon:
talking, this is the professional race. It’s not an age group. And it was just, man, I fell for Lionel and it was kind of interesting because I watched the whole race on the plane flying from San Fran to Boston the other night. And he got to the end, because he kept going. He was like, screw this, I’m still running. I’m going to finish the race. And he gets to the end, and he and Jackson are just like high-fiving everyone. And neither one of them had the race they wanted to do. But I was like, but neither one of them is trying to win? And I was like, what’s going on here? Why isn’t he trying to pass him? And each spot there probably is worth a couple hundred dollars at that point. But

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
now we know why. Lionel was already knew he had been DQ’d. but he was still went out and raced and yeah, and then to see the Christian footage, but they were so bunched together and you had packs of five or six, what seven at the front for

Jenna-Caer:
Oh yeah.

Josh Vernon:
the until canoe dropped. And then that chase pack was like 20 something. So if you were going to pass somebody, you had to pass 20 people.

Fede:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
And unless there was a little bit of a gap, sometimes there was enough of a gap they could slot in. But I mean, that is some match burning and match burning. And like you’re burning, I think somebody said, you’re burning a whole box to make

Fede:
Yeah,

Josh Vernon:
some

Jenna-Caer:
Oh yeah.

Fede:
100%.

Josh Vernon:
of these passes. So to not be able to cross an imaginary line while passing 10 people, I mean, come on.

Jenna-Caer:
It’s absolutely crazy.

Josh Vernon:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
And I think that’s a role that needs to be revisited too. It’s, um, there’s some, so the Ironman head ref, Jimmy Ricotello there, he has some different ideas about the dynamics of drafting and some of the Ironman rules there. He believes there’s no draft advantage at 12 meters, which science

Fede:
I’m in. Yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
there

Fede:
come

Jenna-Caer:
is.

Fede:
on.

Jenna-Caer:
So they won’t change the drafting distance, which 12 meters is way too close in the professional. like Peloton, well not Peloton, but it looks like Peloton with the speeds they’re going in there. But that no slotting in rule, I think is not a good thing for the sport because even if you kind of do the rule as they have it now, as soon as your front tire is ahead of the person that you’re passing, it’s their job to drop back. That still works if you have that slotting in, right? So you can just go close enough, they drop back and go in there because that is, it changes up the race dynamics in a significant. way not being able to kind of slot in through some of those packs. Like you said, 20 people, you’re probably holding 400 watts.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Ridiculous amount of time, you’re going to screw your race, just trying to pass a few people, but being stuck behind slower athletes. That doesn’t benefit anyone. You’re not getting, it just, I think it’s crazy. I think some of the roles really need to be revisited by fresh eyes

Fede:
Mm-hmm.

Jenna-Caer:
because there are some different thoughts there. But how about you, Betty? What are your thoughts on this?

Fede:
Oh god,

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
I have quite multiple thoughts actually, but first off, like you said, some rules need to be revisited. For example, the 12 meter draft zone, I think it needs

Jenna-Caer:
Pretty

Fede:
to be

Jenna-Caer:
cool.

Fede:
at least 20 because it keeps proving race after race after race. A 12 meter is not enough space for professional racing. Maybe for age group racing? Maybe. And that’s with a big question mark because the age groups who are at the top of the other spew in age group racing, 12 meters is also a very small gap and nothing happens in 12 meters. Like Josh said, if you want to make a pass, you better be able that you can hold 600 plus watts for like five minutes and then

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
settle back into your Ironman pace, which, you know, good luck. I think only Magnus is going to be able to do that or like Joe Skipper. But, you know, it just very weird and it seemed to me as a very, I don’t know, bullish type of behavior from Ironman. I saw a couple of posts from professional athletes. I mean, we don’t see Jan getting into this type of chats, but he posted something about the rule. He said, and I think you have the post here. He wrote. What a joke imagine a pro cyclist getting a penalty for using all of the road It’s so infuriating to see if for one because it’s randomly applied as for you know For for athletes and Ironman refuses to recognize that professionals are more than capable of using the entire road unlikely many of their motos so Shots were fired and I think a lot of athletes were angry about this And yeah, I think Lionel screaming at Andrew Messick, it’s just, you know, frustration and anger and just, you know, because putting myself in Lionel’s shoes, I think he felt like he was being targeted or see as if they were, you know, wanting to prove a point as no one is bigger than us or something. But yeah, I think. Well, one with their broadcast and their commentating in the live stream that needs to change as well, because it’s super boring to

Jenna-Caer:
Yes.

Fede:
hear about people’s running form and how Christian Blumenfeld doesn’t look as your average pro triathlete and how

Jenna-Caer:
I had

Fede:
the bike.

Jenna-Caer:
every second.

Fede:
Oh, God. And how the bike position on somebody’s bike is and the Morton moves and all of this. And, oh, man. I think Iron Man needs to change or else they’re digging their own grave.

Jenna-Caer:
Well, they just, they keep showing time and time again. They don’t care about the professionals, which, you know, personally, the professionals inspired me a lot. I heard, like I found out what Iron Man was and wanted to do Kona because they’re at Chris McCormick’s book and stuff.

Fede:
Mm.

Jenna-Caer:
And seeing those professionals being able to compare yourself to them is something that’s pretty cool that we get the chance to be on the same race course as them. And I think they add a ton. to the sport, ask any sponsor. They pay these people a lot of money to wear their stuff, show off their kit. And it just, it’s unfortunate that it seems almost adversarial between Ironman and the athletes and Ironman and every other race organization out there. It doesn’t benefit anyone, right? If they’re just going to be the big bully in there in a way, which is really, really unfortunate because they are still the big. name within the sport. They are what people think of when they think of the pinnacle. But like I said, it’s going to start to change. Like PTO is coming in doing some big moves here. Well, I don’t love the PTO distance with the longer swim.

Fede:
Hahaha

Jenna-Caer:
I’m sure Lionel feels the same. It’s just, I think Iron Man’s either going to have to step it up or start to become more and more irrelevant because like, yeah, the broadcast is brutal. I was just watching the Volta and it’s Like you can watch a five hour bike race and be riveted the whole time.

Fede:
And be entertained,

Jenna-Caer:
And

Fede:
yes.

Jenna-Caer:
there’s really not, but you have professional commentators who know how to keep that energy up, who have the information to keep it interesting. Where unfortunately with Ironman, they take a lot of ex pro athletes who don’t have that media background to maybe don’t know how to keep the energy up in there or. really commentate these races in a way that is very exciting or entertaining.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
People are experts at commentating because it’s a skill they practice for their career. You can’t just drop someone new and then it’ll be fine. It’s just not the same level of energy or expertise there.

Fede:
No, absolutely. And also I think it’s part of the commentating team that they are You know, I saw quite a bit of comments in social media posts about the male winner You know the 22 year old German and who is this guy? Where is he coming from on this and that and also the commentating was like well He’s coming out of nowhere like acting surprised and do you even follow triathlon guy like?

Jenna-Caer:
Right?

Fede:
Do your research, like he’s a specimen of an athlete. So just because he is not Jan or Lionel or one of the big names in triathlon doesn’t mean he’s not a great athlete. So I think that’s a big, big mistake in the commentating and media team that they don’t know who’s actually racing because it was a great, great race. I mean, taking away the very weird. rule enforcement that happened. It was a world championship and the performances were amazing. I mean we saw Fred Funk having the fastest bike split like under two hours. It was an amazing race and I think it’s also a big mistake that the commentators were not able to deliver because they were just talking about Martin moves and how Christian is racing with a not your average triathlete’s body so I think that needs to change as well.

Jenna-Caer:
God. It really does. And I think they’re very, they’re very well versed on the athletes who are at the top of their game during their era in sport. And they could definitely take something like one of my favorite commentators is Will McCloy on the Super League races. He wasn’t a triathlete at all. But he you see this guy roll up to commentary. He’s got like a book of details on every single athlete in there. He’s out there. talking to all of them race week so he gets all the behind the scenes information, he knows their life stories, and that makes a big difference when you know every single athlete in there. And it’s not like it was a crazy, massive, like insanely big field in there either. So it’s, yeah, it’s unfortunate. The commentators should know what’s going on past the big names and the Americans. So like,

Fede:
Hehehe

Jenna-Caer:
there’s very much a big focus on that.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Anyways, how about we actually jump in and chat about some of the race results? I know we’ve been dancing around the 70.3 world champs here. Let’s get into it and tell the audience what happens if they weren’t watching, which I hope they were. It was definitely an interesting weekend.

Fede:
Yeah,

Josh Vernon:
Yeah,

Fede:
it definitely was.

Josh Vernon:
and I can I can kick it off because my I had a hard time picking the social media post of the week to

Jenna-Caer:
Yes, sorry.

Josh Vernon:
know that it’s a perfect lead in because it was kind of between a few and there were so many good ones. But I wanted to narrow it down to some buddies of the podcast with either Dubrick

Jenna-Caer:
Mmm.

Josh Vernon:
or Freddie Funk. And I went with Freddie. We talk about your Strava times, or you put up a time in your 0.1 mile shorter, or five seconds short of a full three hours, or four hours, whatever it may be. Well, I looked, Fred’s most recent post was his finish line screenshot. And it’s 3.3325. I’m like, Fred, you had a nice lead. Why not wait another eight seconds and get that ultimate 3.3325?

Fede:
Yeah

Jenna-Caer:
Oh my goodness.

Josh Vernon:
It gives some homage to Larry Bird and anyone else with the threes.

Fede:
Yeah, yeah.

Josh Vernon:
And Dubrik’s shot was more of a, I think it was a story from the, and they missed it. Because I think that the video coverage went to the interviews as Dubrik was coming down for a sprint finish for eighth and ninth. And it was like

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah,

Josh Vernon:
the

Jenna-Caer:
another

Josh Vernon:
one good

Jenna-Caer:
day.

Josh Vernon:
run down though shoot all

Jenna-Caer:
Right?

Josh Vernon:
day. We don’t even get it on video. But what an effort for him as an American book. We’ll get into that. But yeah, check out Freddie Funk’s page. What an awesome effort by a friend all day

Jenna-Caer:
Mm-hmm.

Josh Vernon:
and the Germans overall, but just a cool, cool performance by him and a cool shot. He was excited to finish eight seconds too early.

Jenna-Caer:
Love to see it. If you guys haven’t already, go check out some of our back episodes. We interviewed Frederick Funk and Mark Dubrik on the podcast here. So here’s some of their thoughts before their days they had this weekend.

Josh Vernon:
We’ve picked the right guys to have on, that’s for sure.

Jenna-Caer:
Right? It was perfect. We got our crystal ball over here. Ha ha

Fede:
We know stuff.

Jenna-Caer:
ha.

Fede:
We definitely know stuff.

Jenna-Caer:
Mm-hmm.

Josh Vernon:
All right,

Jenna-Caer:
Baby.

Josh Vernon:
Fetty, there’s your lead in. Why don’t you tell us what happened this weekend? Because I think we all are waiting here.

Fede:
Right, so let’s start with the women’s race. First, we had, you know, in the past few years, we’ve had men and women racing separate days. This time the women kicked it off. And it was a very fast swim for both men and women. And it was a very, I mean, I don’t know if you guys saw on the pre-race interviews. Taylor Neve was talking about, they were interviewing quite a bunch of girls and she said, I don’t know who the favorite is, but I want the winner of this race to be someone that takes a race from the horns and that attacks from the get-go and that breaks away and makes sure that it’s a worthy world champion. And I think she was sort of talking about herself a little bit because that’s exactly what she did on the day. She delivered quite a phenomenal race and right now I don’t think there’s any other athlete other than maybe Ashley Gentle that’s on her level but when both of those girls are on fire I think Taylor is gonna take it nine times out of ten because her swim is just way faster than Ashley and her biking as well maybe Ash has the edge on the run but the way Taylor is biking nowadays you know she signed a pro contract with a cycling team so that just talks about her pro list is on the bike. So yeah, Taylor took the win.

Jenna-Caer:
It’s crazy that she’s pro cycling team, got her Olympics spot, won the 70.3 world champs. Like there is something to say, to be said for that like youthful belief that you can do just anything. And she’s proving that you can, when you’re

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
at her level. It’s absolutely crazy, but

Fede:
I think,

Jenna-Caer:
so cool.

Fede:
I truly believe she has the potential of being like the camp. Well, I mean, I don’t want to sell Taylor short and no disrespect to her because there’s no one else to compare her to, but I think she has the potential of being the camp worth of female triathlon and cycling and, and maybe take it to another level of actually winning everything. Uh, so

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, she’s already doing

Fede:
yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
it. Yeah, Kim has definitely done some incredible things, but man, a few 70.3 world championships in the Olympics that she’s got a real shot to when she might be going for the goat in a few years.

Fede:
Yeah, and what if she all of a sudden says, well, I want to go to the Olympics as well in the individual time trial.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
I mean, the sky’s the limit for her.

Josh Vernon:
And don’t forget the PTO in Milwaukee either. She won

Jenna-Caer:
Absolutely.

Josh Vernon:
that

Jenna-Caer:
Oh,

Josh Vernon:
one.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
yeah. She like, what can’t this woman do it is, it’s

Fede:
Ah.

Jenna-Caer:
so inspiring to see she is. Yeah, that bike strength is incredible.

Fede:
Oh yeah, and she’s such a lovely character, like she’s always smiling and giving the wave and a bit dorky, you know, because she’s super young,

Jenna-Caer:
Okay.

Fede:
but she’s just like very cute to see interacting with other pros. And whenever, you know, Talbot was doing his Ray series videos, she will always say, we’ll see, we’ll see, never answering actually anything, but she is a killer. Well, whenever the gun goes off, she just turns into a great white shark and eats everything and everyone in her way.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, it’s like she’s just having fun with it all. But my question, okay, sorry, I know I’m derailing this a little bit from the results here, but anyone else thinking she might go to Kona?

Fede:
Hahaha

Jenna-Caer:
She has the invitation. She could go to Kona if she wants to. She keeps saying we’ll see. The commentators were alluding to the possibility of a big announcement that they won’t put out there yet. I think it might be that she’s thinking about going to Kona and giving a crap because why not? Like that seems to be your attitude. Why not? Let’s see what happens. Ha

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
ha ha.

Josh Vernon:
Well, she knows she can compete with Daniela Ryf now. And I mean,

Jenna-Caer:
What?

Fede:
I’m sorry.

Josh Vernon:
I know it was a warmup, but I mean, she made some long distance athletes

Jenna-Caer:
Mm-hmm.

Josh Vernon:
concerned. If she shows up in Kona,

Jenna-Caer:
Destroyed

Josh Vernon:
then

Jenna-Caer:
them.

Josh Vernon:
she gets her race at this point. I mean, she would be the favorite.

Jenna-Caer:
I mean, the back half of the marathon would be completely unknown. Um, and there is something to be said for knowing how to pace and fuel for an Ironman, but I would just love to see it. Like, why not? You got nothing to lose. Like jumping into Kona last minute, you have a terrible day. Great. You’ve experienced Kona. You have a great day. Who knows what the possibilities are. It would just, uh, and I think she’d really mess with the heads of long distance athletes because you just. have no idea what to expect. I think it would just make it so much fun to watch, to see her jump in there and

Josh Vernon:
What would

Jenna-Caer:
destroy

Josh Vernon:
her lead

Jenna-Caer:
the bank.

Josh Vernon:
be

Jenna-Caer:
It’s

Josh Vernon:
coming

Jenna-Caer:
gonna happen,

Josh Vernon:
off the bike?

Jenna-Caer:
right? Oh my God, could you imagine?

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
But who knows what she’s even put in past like two and a half hours on a TT bike.

Fede:
Probably not, but we’ll see, like she says.

Jenna-Caer:
see. Sorry, go ahead, I know a little tailor nip tangent here, but yeah, so

Fede:
No,

Jenna-Caer:
crazy.

Fede:
well deserved. So yeah, she took the win in 353.02. Then we had Great Britain’s Kat Matthews in second place in 357.05. And then a stellar performance from Imogen Simons from Switzerland coming in at 357.56, which she took the race also by the horns. And she

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
got out of the water with with her until Taylor was like, okay, I’m gonna get rid of everyone. But she was holding the lead, she was holding the gap, sorry, between her and the second chase back. So very, very courageous race from Imogen. And she looked super happy because like, like we’ve talked in past episodes, she’s had quite a few setbacks. And yeah, she, she did her homework because her I don’t want to sound like the Ironman commentating team but her bike position was amazing and Her aero setup was also very good her helmet everything was dialed in She looked like she put in a lot of work for this race. So Kudos on her and Emma Palant Brown had a Super fast run as she always does. I think she ran a 117 or something And I wanted to touch on what we talked earlier in the pod about her bathing suit, this type of tri suit ish because she has a hybrid model on the bike. She has sleeves. Uh,

Jenna-Caer:
Yes, so it

Fede:
and

Jenna-Caer:
will

Fede:
she,

Jenna-Caer:
cover up.

Fede:
yeah. And she wore the calf arrow, arrow guards, which are super fast, which, uh, stay tuned because, uh, we have something in the pipeline with the Mona apparel for that. But apparently she doesn’t wear the full legged trisuits because apparently, and I think this is just pure marketing, but I do not know this. Apparently Kadex, her bike sponsor, is so aero that there’s no penalty for her without the legs covered. So, I don’t know. I

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
am… Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
I mean, if there’s no penalty, that doesn’t mean they’re still not an advantage.

Fede:
There you go. Ha ha.

Jenna-Caer:
Okay, maybe it doesn’t make you like, yeah, okay. Yeah, that’s an interesting one there. And then we had Yeah, obviously, Daniela reef did not have the day that she was hoping for out

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
there. Now, she was in a big training block for Kono or just but not feeling great out there. We always, we all have those days, but it’ll be interesting. I know a lot of people, people have such short memories in triathlon. Now half the people are gonna be writing Daniela off and Kona entirely. So I got a shade of crap dance, you’re my girls. Hi. And every time you do that, Daniela

Fede:
Mmm.

Jenna-Caer:
does, an angry bird does, and she just destroys everyone.

Fede:
Yeah, yeah, I mean she posted about this that she didn’t have the best of days that she was feeling flat and not feeling herself so uh, yeah, it was very obvious that we weren’t getting the Daniela that we usually get in this world championship races, but I think she’s still the favorite for Kona. I mean there’s 70.3 Daniela and then there’s October Kona Daniela, which is another level

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, it’s like Rinny. She was like nowhere during the summer every year. You wouldn’t hear anything from her in the car fray and then she’d come win Kona.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
But she did. But I’m really, that Matthew’s performance really excites me though because she is so mentally and physically strong. We saw what she did at sub seven, sub eight there. And then to come back from that horrible crash that she had. to come in and put in an effort like that at 70.3 Worlds was seriously impressive. She’s definitely top of mind for one of the favorites in Kona for me.

Fede:
Absolutely. She’s an unbelievable athlete and the work she’s put in is just unbelievable. And she’s one of the best runners out there for sure.

Jenna-Caer:
Oh yeah, and that’s another thing where people write her off as not a pure runner, not a true runner and stuff, because she doesn’t have that crazy lean body type that people associate with a pure runner, but she came from a running background and she shows time and time again. She

Fede:
See

Jenna-Caer:
is

Fede:
it?

Jenna-Caer:
a pure runner. And it just, yeah, it’s kind of like that Bluenfeldt effect where people make assumptions based on body type when one of my favorite things about Iron Man and Trathlon is that you don’t have to be that crazy, skinny, lean, sacrificing your health to win these races. So as a female, it’s really nice to see women who are strong and like can still can do incredible things and health comes first and strength and endurance come first, not

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
weight dropping, especially just being at Latef Canada a little while here was That was one of the questions that Yann spoke was asking me about when I’m going to start the weight dropping program in there. Like how much weight do you have to lose before race day? And I’m like, I don’t.

Fede:
there

Jenna-Caer:
Ironman’s

Fede:
you

Jenna-Caer:
not like super crazy lean like cycling and just like pushing your health to the limit. There was another pro cyclist who I talked to who had to go into rehab afterwards because he would train all day, take a sleeping pill and then…

Fede:
go oh

Jenna-Caer:
go to bed and it was like it was mind blowing to hear some of these things. Even Mac has told stories like it just it’s crazy what some of these athletes do to drop weight and our sport is good and that I think keeps a little bit more well rounded and that is not as beneficial. It’s more about having that endurance and having that strength to be able to stay strong to the finish though. Anyways, a little bit of a little bit of rant when they start talking about don’t look like a real

Fede:
No,

Jenna-Caer:
runner.

Fede:
no, it’s all good because strong equals fast and strong equals speed and Kat, she had the fastest run of the day. She outran Emma Pallant Brown, which I mean, I don’t want to get too caught up in this, but commentators would say like the Ironman commentators live stream would say well Emma Pellan does look like a runner and Cat Matthews

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
doesn’t but I mean look at the

Jenna-Caer:
Such.

Fede:
numbers

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
Cat was way faster well not way faster but she outran Emma which on her eyes would never happen because she doesn’t look like a quote unquote pure runner but we are not pure anything we are triathletes and whatever makes you go fast you do you.

Jenna-Caer:
Absolutely. No, I think and that’s, that’s crazy that we’re the ones saying that when these commentators are supposed to be the in the know about this sport and have been in this sport. That’s the crazy part. They’re all ex pro athletes.

Josh Vernon:
It was definitely disappointing the broadness of who they recognized.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah!

Josh Vernon:
Unless they got their number off of their bike, they didn’t know who a lot of them were. That

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
was disappointing. But the other thing to me that was disappointing, and we talked about the run finishes, I think it was really cool to see some of these pros compete all the way to the finish line. So like

Jenna-Caer:
Yes.

Josh Vernon:
Eli Saltes, two five-minute penalties.

Jenna-Caer:
Yes.

Fede:
Ugh.

Josh Vernon:
Tamra Jewitt, five minute penalty, and take away Ellie’s 10 minutes, I think puts her in the top five. I mean, it’s something crazy. I mean, so she finished so strong on the run. Tamra, I think, actually ended up with the fastest run

Fede:
Mmm.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah

Josh Vernon:
of the day. So, I mean, that’s so disappointing because we know that, did they actually, because there were what, seven girls in the tent at that one point. I mean,

Fede:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
they were.

Jenna-Caer:
You know, and you think Ironman should start like, if you want to have a professional organization support the pros, which they have not shown that they do, but they should have Ironman race officials that are paid by the race, that are professionals, that know the rules in and out. And whether you have a pool of 10 of them and they come to different events around the world, when they’ll be, it doesn’t have to be every race, but these championship

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
level races, the regional champs, the world champs. They should have Um, yeah, draft marshals, marshals out there who are paid by Ironman, not just volunteers from the federate, whatever local federation that know the rules in and out that, um, know exactly what’s going on because these are this people’s livelihoods. They are out there racing for a living. They’re not out just out for a fun day. So yeah, they should have more professional and dialed into the Ironman rules. Um, marshals.

Josh Vernon:
and Race Ranger.

Jenna-Caer:
Totally. Yeah.

Fede:
Yeah. Yes.

Jenna-Caer:
Apparently they’re interested in that either because

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
that would mean your draft zone and Jamie Ricatello doesn’t think that anything has 12 meters matters.

Fede:
Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Race Ranger, like you said, Genan, yeah, totally agree with you, Josh. It needs to be enforced and Race Ranger needs to be in every major race within the sport. But I saw some conversations between Race Ranger and Ironman. And

Jenna-Caer:
Yes.

Fede:
while they believe in the technology and while they suggested that it might impact the race for the better. they’re just not interested in doubling with that. So just very sad to see that type of behavior for Iron Man.

Josh Vernon:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, that’s unfortunate. Well, let’s jump in the other side of it. We had the men’s race on a separate day here. How’d it go out there?

Fede:
Yeah, so the men’s race was also dramatic as a women’s racing with the penalties and the DQs and everything, which we already talked about those. But we had a German one, two, three. I mean, the Germans are just dominating the sport. Whenever we think the Germans are done, they just come and show us that they’re going to be here a while. And we had the youngster, 22 year old. uh… the couple organ coming in three thirty two twenty two then uh… friend of the show frederick funk coming in and like josh was saying three thirty three twenty six and then young struck one coming in at three thirty four eleven uh… and then we had up-and-coming french uh… triathlete matisse margier who’s also being on the spotlight because he is a very fast cyclist and Well, overall triathlete. But the big, well, we just touched on Lionel’s drama and Christian and everything. But it was a very impressive race from Rico. He came out of the water with the main pack. He was holding on Frederick on the bike. And he came in, he was a bit slower than him, but not too much. And then he was just a. very fast and very consistent on the run so just a very strong performance worthy of a world champion from Riko so the future looks very bright from him and he is also on a cool bike who one of our monocoaches Josh is also sponsored by them so I think Josh was going to be very excited that he’s you know his body from Ku was getting some TV time

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, absolutely. And that was, you know what, you can only race who shows up in there, but it was really interesting with this race. Unfortunately, it’s two weeks before the Ironman World Championships for the men, which is really close. And I think a lot of people decided to skip this one to get ready for the Ironman World Championships. I keep wanting to say Kona, but it’s not Kona, it’s a niece.

Fede:
Hahaha

Jenna-Caer:
which definitely diluted the field a lot. And then the other thing where I was trying to decide what the F moment of the week would be was everyone in Singapore got sick, it seems like. Like there was thoughts it might’ve been the water. Now I’m hearing some rumors about COVID because a lot, some of the media and other staff got sick the same time too. So that was just really unfortunate to hear. Like obviously Blumenfeld wasn’t on his game. He was sick all week. And there were a number of athletes who where Jason West pulled out entirely. It just, yeah, it’s unfortunate when something like that affects the racing out there. And we didn’t quite have some of the battles we were looking forward to, but that doesn’t take away from these incredible Germans taking that podium. First time ever to have a one nation sweep, but the Germans had done it before at the Ironman World Championships. Definitely not the first time for some German domination. It’s very cool to see.

Josh Vernon:
And they had five of the top six for most of the bike rides. I mean,

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
I’m a little…

Josh Vernon:
and then it was Matisse and Josh Lewis, I think.

Fede:
Yep, yep.

Josh Vernon:
And that was the top seven for most of the bike leg. And the crazy part is that the peloton of 25 guys wasn’t making up room. They were actually losing room to that six, seven up front and they were pushing and it was Freddy and Matisse pretty much one, two for the most part of that leg and the two of them back and forth. And then onto the run, you could see it got Matisse a little bit and it

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
got Freddy a little bit. And it was like they were just getting settled in and. and Bogan came flying by him and it was lights out. I mean, he just took off and never stopped.

Jenna-Caer:
Well, and I think that no slotting in rule has a big effect on the second pack, not being able to catch up on them because you typically have

Fede:
Yes.

Jenna-Caer:
not it is, but you have a lot of the faster bikers aren’t great swimmers. Like you have like Lionel and Sam and a bunch of people who are back out of the swim. They can’t get past a group of 25 guys without completely exploding their race. So instead of being able to kind of move up through the pack as you get stronger and feel good in there, you’re just kind of stuck. So whoever’s on the first three in the front. are deciding the pace for everyone because at that point it’s just

Fede:
Yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
too hard to move.

Fede:
exactly.

Josh Vernon:
That’s a great point because you could see Christian didn’t have a great day. He wasn’t feeling well, but he was one of those who tried to gap. Six, seven bikes at one pass. And then all of a sudden it was a few minutes later that he started dropping. So, I mean,

Jenna-Caer:
Oh yeah, totally.

Josh Vernon:
he was probably pushing, like Fede said, five, 600 watts for a couple of minutes while he’s making those passes. But you’re right, yeah, Sam and Lionel couldn’t get to the front like they normally would and Jackson and like those if those guys are up front, that’s a different story than maybe are they are pulling the gap.

Jenna-Caer:
Mm hmm. Yeah, it was just it was hate to see when a race is affected by so many outside factors and even inside factors with the ridiculous DQs and stuff. It just you want to see the best racing on their best day and really battling it out under fair conditions. And it just didn’t quite feel like that was the case here. Unfortunately.

Josh Vernon:
And it was a cool venue, it was fun to watch.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Everyone said the course was a lot harder than expected, which you could see it. That little bridge was just mean.

Fede:
Hell

Jenna-Caer:
Oh man.

Fede:
yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah.

Fede:
Yeah.

Josh Vernon:
the run out of the stadium.

Fede:
Oh, I mean…

Josh Vernon:
And then they were saying, like, so then I noticed too, I think this came up in our monogruppe chat, 26 age groupers under four hours.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah,

Fede:
Haha.

Jenna-Caer:
that’s

Josh Vernon:
So

Jenna-Caer:
insane.

Josh Vernon:
it might have been a tough course, but

Fede:
Ugh.

Josh Vernon:
it was.

Jenna-Caer:
I mean, that’s where that 12 meters comes into effect

Fede:
Yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
too. And

Fede:
exactly.

Jenna-Caer:
so many, there’s too many athletes. And this, I think this is the big motivation why they don’t change it from 12 meters is they’re trying to cram as many athletes on the course as possible. There’s

Fede:
Mm-hmm.

Jenna-Caer:
just too many athletes on the course for it to be fair, unfortunately. And that’s where I like, I’ve passed up on 70.3 worlds a number of times now because that just doesn’t excite me. Like it just, if you’re in a pack of people feeling like, you’re cheating or you’re off the back and seeing them right off. Like neither situation is good. I don’t

Fede:
Yeah, yep.

Jenna-Caer:
know, it drives me crazy, but I think that’s a lot of the motivation behind that 12 meter draft roll. And you see these high level age group races and that’s all it is because they there’s physically nowhere to go, like, which

Josh Vernon:
Yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
is unfortunate.

Josh Vernon:
especially for people in the later start times, because this was all based on age group. It wasn’t based on what you think your swim is going to be and rolling start. It was, so you’ve got some fast people in later start times that have to roll through that whole entire bike field.

Jenna-Caer:
Oh yeah, that’s

Fede:
Exactly.

Jenna-Caer:
not pretty.

Fede:
Yeah, no, it’s not very convenient. And like you said, just we saw people like from the 40, 44 age group or the 50, 54 age group, they’re not going to be able to if you’re a fast age group or of that, you know, age group, you are not going to be willing to push 700 plus watts to get over a line of 250 athletes. So

Josh Vernon:
Yeah.

Fede:
you’re just gonna stick there maybe in the verge of 12 and 10 meters and you’re gonna be pulled along and you’re gonna have a super fast bike split because of the dynamics of the race and how the course is set up, which is no one’s fault. But that just like Jenna

Jenna-Caer:
It sucks.

Fede:
said, how it is.

Josh Vernon:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, it sucks. Anyways, let’s jump into something completely on the opposite end from 70.3s to super, super short course racing with a 300 meter swim. The Super League series is back. So things changed up over the last couple years before it used to be two days of racing in different locations and all in individual pursuit. but now they brought in a cool teams aspect. So you have teams racing together. And then you also have one, the athletes trying for the individual win, but then there are also massive bonuses for the team that wins as well. So it definitely mixes up the dynamics. And this week’s race was the Enduro, which is swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run with no rest in between. And I think it’s, oh goodness, I think the distances were like 300 meters. 4K and 1.5K, something like that. So

Josh Vernon:
What

Jenna-Caer:
super,

Josh Vernon:
are you

Jenna-Caer:
super

Josh Vernon:
writing?

Jenna-Caer:
short race.

Josh Vernon:
1.6k

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, 1.6K,

Josh Vernon:
to finish.

Jenna-Caer:
yeah. Back to back to back, which is definitely, like I mentioned before, jumping in from a run to a swim is the most horrific feeling in the world when your heart rate’s already at 180. But it’s fun racing in there, and then they have the short shoots as well, where team members can win a short shoot for their team. It was the first to cross the line after the swim, first to cross the mountain line after the bike, and then the winner in the first round there got short shoots for their teams. And the teams could not get two short shoots. So you could only get one, and then it went to the next team down the line. So that always mixes up the dynamics in there as well. So I enjoy these races because they’re just short, fast, crazy, all out.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
You never quite know what is gonna happen. That’s a bit of the explainer, but Fede, do you have the results of what happened on the weekend?

Fede:
I do, yeah. And I mean, like we touched on last week’s episode. Thank God racing is not set in stone because what we thought was going to be a world domination by the scorpions, it proved us all completely wrong. Because on the women’s side, we had a massive upset with Gina Hare from Great Britain taking the win. I mean, talk about upset, you know, she outran Taylor’s Pivy, Sophie Caldwell, Beth Potter.

Jenna-Caer:
Mm-hmm.

Fede:
Ah, this just short and fast racing. I mean, it shows us that you need to be on top of your game and take every corner surgically and making sure your transitions are super fast because not an inch is gonna be given away and it’s gonna be probably be defined by inches because it was one, two, three within seconds. And she’s part of the Eagles, which I don’t think any of us picked last week. Uh,

Jenna-Caer:
No.

Fede:
yeah, the, the Santara Eagles from team done on the men’s side, Alexi took the win. Also not a scorpion, a shark, which I think I picked. So, uh,

Jenna-Caer:
I’m ready

Fede:
yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
to start.

Fede:
you’re welcome. Um, uh, yeah, he’s part of a, of like an old boy British team with Johnny Brownlee and a couple others, but we missed the likes of Christian Blumenfeld and of course Vincent Louis who is not 100% himself lately. So yeah, it’s going to be exciting the next Super League races for sure now that everybody is going to be together and probably not sick from Singapore and all of the races that happened.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, it was definitely a case of the Scorpions were missing half their team there and had a couple of sub-ins. But it’s interesting that they’ve changed it up. So as long as you make it to three of the four races, you still have a shot for the title before you have to make it to all of them. So unfortunately, my prediction for the women’s Cassandra Bogan didn’t start. Same with Jason West. I got all the DNSes this

Fede:
Yeah

Jenna-Caer:
week. But yeah, it’s just such fun. racing to watch like who would have thought that Potter would get outrun by a few people on race course there just mixes it up entirely and it makes it so fun. And MG is such a character he’s the team manager for the scorpions and you can tell you it’s not happy out there. He’s used to having the strong team kind of crushing it so that was some interesting commentary from MG.

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah,

Fede:
It’ll be.

Jenna-Caer:
too bad Cicela, Hayden Wilde, not out there too.

Fede:
Yeah,

Josh Vernon:
Thanks.

Fede:
he’s bouncing back from what happened to him at the test event. So yeah, also not Hayden, but hopefully he’ll bounce back and be in a couple of races because I think he’s going to be aiming to be fit and ready for next year. So probably he is not going to prioritize Super League because maybe he’s not willing to risk another injury for next year’s Olympic Games.

Jenna-Caer:
See, knowing Hayden, I think he would absolutely go for the Super League title and wants it. He’s one of those athletes who just loves to

Fede:
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
race. I would not be surprised to see him, as long as he can run, kind of go guns blazing and get after it here. It definitely makes more fun, but it’s so good to see Johnny Brownlee back at the top and racing at the front. He’s been kind of up and down the last little while here and had a shocker at the test event.

Josh Vernon:
He was so close to Yi too. I mean, he almost got him

Jenna-Caer:
No.

Josh Vernon:
too. It was weird too. I, there was that footage of, I mean, years ago now where he picked up his brother at the, at the finish line too, which just happened to come into one of my feeds this weekend, which is kind of interesting. Um, but yeah, that, that whole scene, if you haven’t seen that check, Google that one.

Jenna-Caer:
I swear, yeah, Alistair pulls

Fede:
Mm.

Jenna-Caer:
Johnny across the finish

Josh Vernon:
Yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
line.

Josh Vernon:
I don’t

Jenna-Caer:
That

Josh Vernon:
suppose

Jenna-Caer:
is

Josh Vernon:
Johnny, yeah.

Jenna-Caer:
one of the most iconic moments

Josh Vernon:
You

Jenna-Caer:
in

Josh Vernon:
go

Jenna-Caer:
Trap-On.

Josh Vernon:
from first and second to second and third.

Jenna-Caer:
Mm-hmm.

Josh Vernon:
But yeah, no, that was an amazing finish. And then what a difference that race style is too. And then the three back to back to back and having the women’s race still come down to what? Three seconds between first and third.

Jenna-Caer:
Oh, it’s absolutely unreal. It’s just so, I like it because they keep it so dynamic and fast and like, there’s always something going on. And it was kind of interesting with the team’s aspect now where, um, people win the short shoots for their team members. It doesn’t specifically have to be the person who got it. It’s always interesting to see who the team managers actually pick for those short shoots. Now it’s not always quite who you would expect.

Josh Vernon:
Yeah, well I think we’ll hopefully get a bigger field now that 70.3 Worlds is over and some people are healing up after Paris. I think that’ll change how the Super League goes going forward.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, absolutely. And we got some more racing coming up here. I think it’s next weekend. Let’s see. And Toulouse. So they’re going to be going back at it again. And this time, let me pull it up here. Yeah, we got Toulouse happening on September 3rd. So they’re going to be back at it. And hopefully we’ll have a few more of the names we usually see out there kind of coming back into the racing and having some fun with it. But Yeah, curious to see how this season goes. It’s kind of funny timing. I know they wanted to get a lot more races going, but with such a short timeline between Olympics with only three years instead of the four, it definitely makes it a little bit more challenging because they work with WTCS to make sure they’re not competing with each other too much. So that means the athletes are focusing a lot more on that Paris qualification right now.

Fede:
Yeah, yeah, 100%. Well, it’s gonna be definitely well, it we always see this year after year that the weeks leading up into major championship like it was Latti, you know, this weekend and Nice coming up next and the Paris test event, we tend

Jenna-Caer:
There’s

Fede:
to see

Jenna-Caer:
still.

Fede:
like a down with some races. But I think it’s just part of everybody getting ready to perform at the big stage races. So I think this Toulouse race is not going to be super exciting to follow, but nonetheless, it’s a race we are going to be talking about next week and hopefully discussing what happened.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, so next week it’s going to be the triple mix, which keeps it interesting. So it’ll be three races. But this time they do get a break in between the two. And so we got the first one is swim, bike, run, and then they’ll get a two minute break and then they’ll go into run, bike, swim, get a four minute break. And then they’ll go into bike, swim, run. Now, the reason I think it’s still we’re going to have some big names show up and it’s still going to be competitive. Is there some money on the line? They do not skimp. on the prize money for 40 minutes of racing, you can win like 50 grand. So I think we’re still gonna see some of those big names kind of show up in here and then the team bonus is on top of it. And then Super League is good because they cover all the athletes’ travel and accommodations and everything there. So should see a few more of the big names next weekend. And it is definitely fast and furious with four weeks in a row of racing. We’ll see how athletes cope with that. That’s always the interesting part. See if they can keep backing it up. I’m predicting we will see a lot of changes at the top there. Alexi, he could stay pretty close to the top, but I think we’re going to see some mix-ups next week if we get a few more of the names out there, but should be fun regardless. Awesome. Well, if is there anything else guys that you wanted to chat about this week?

Fede:
Mmm.

Josh Vernon:
I think Latte took us down.

Fede:
Yeah,

Jenna-Caer:
You

Fede:
I think we’re covered for this week.

Jenna-Caer:
know? Right? Yeah, the countdown is on for the world championships in two weeks. Like, we are in the thick of it between test events and PTO and 70.3 World of the Ironman Rollets and Conan seven weeks. It’s

Fede:
Hahaha

Jenna-Caer:
like reverberating in my head now.

Josh Vernon:
No countdown there.

Jenna-Caer:
No, just booked my flights yesterday. So it’s

Fede:
Oh,

Jenna-Caer:
going.

Fede:
there you go.

Jenna-Caer:
Yeah, no tons going on here. But we will be back next week. As always, go give us a follow on social media at another Trap on podcast. You can also submit your questions there. If you can leave a review and a rating for the podcast that just helps us reach more people. But definitely go back and check out our interviews with breadfunk and Mark Dubrik. It’s kind of interesting to hear what they were thinking before 70.3 worlds. and knowing the results now. But thank you so much guys, pleasure as always, and we’ll see you next week.