World Triathlon Champs Australia Race Debrief with Coach Peter Ep 116

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. All right. Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am here with Coach Peter, who just returned from Worlds. So I was like, we have to talk about this because it was in Australia.

Yep.

Yeah, it's kind of a long trip.

You know, it's, uh, as I told everybody, the space-time continuum was not on my side when it came to Strava for that, that 2 days.

So, so wait, what happened?

So we left on Saturday.

Uh-huh.

We left on Saturday, October 11th. And you, you and I both know that I don't like to take days off during the week or during the year.

So like, and let, let's be more specific with days off, not days off of work, days off of training.

Training. Yes. So Strava is king. So we left on Saturday out of Raleigh at, I think it was like 3 o'clock or 3:30, and we get into Walling— well, we got into Sydney Monday the 15th. So Sunday the 14th just went—

just disintegrated.

There, there was no Sunday. Um, so like the only day off on my Strava right now is Sunday the 14th because I didn't have a Sunday. Yeah.

Peter is one of these people. Um, and we give him hell for it all the time in our coaches meeting. Um, mostly because we're jealous, or maybe I should say more specifically, um, Carly and myself. I'm, I'm dragging Carly under this bus right now. Uh, because we don't happen to have these beautiful recovery genetics, so we're permanently jealous.

In— until I get tested for those genetics, like I will just say that I'm okay.

Yeah, I, I think you probably have a, have a leg up there for sure. Um, all right, so mostly you are like a half and a full Ironman kind of guy. So let's be more specific. This was Worlds, first sprint, Olympic. Yeah.

Yes. So Thursday was the standard or the Olympic, which is on the border of, of what I'm comfortable with from a speed standpoint. And then Friday was anxiety-producing sprint draft legal, not just a sprint, but a draft legal sprint, which in talking with my son and a couple other people, it was just redline and see what happens. And, and that ended up being the most fun that I had the whole trip was just the draft legal portion of things.

So, so basically like ITU.

ITU.

Yeah. Um, okay. So let, let's, why not? Let's talk about that cuz that is draft typically, um, at least in the United States, uh, in non-ITU races, you cannot draft and they are generally pretty strict about it. Like you will get penalized for it. And this is like, this is like, let's go. We are drafting all the way. And you were on a different bike setup too.

So I, I, I was one of, well, we had, there was 400 of us, so there's about 400 US athletes there. And I think the nice thing that, that US SAT did was like they set up like age group captains. So like in the 40 to 49 age group, there was like 3 of us, me not being one of the captains, but like they set up a group chat. We did a meetup, I think Tuesday morning, and we're all talking about bikes and stuff like this. And one lady, her bike was still in Dallas come Tuesday morning. So I think she had to borrow somebody's bike to do the race. I ended up taking both my tri bike with a disc, and then I took my road bike for Friday. So I was one of the few that didn't rent or did not bring just a road bike with clip-ons for the standard distance. So like my Delta agent was super cool and only charged me $100 per bike as opposed to more, which is great. But a lot of people did only bring one.

Was this $100 both ways? $100 per way.

$100 per way per bike.

Okay. All right.

Um, so I, I think I was in the minority that took 2 bikes to accommodate both races, but like at the end of the day, I would rather travel with my bikes and not have to, to do anything, but it worked.

Yeah. Yeah. That does sound generally unusual. Although, um, traveling internationally is not like new to you.

It's getting, and I'm not saying it's getting easier, but it's getting It's getting more enjoyable, especially going from English to English as opposed to English to French or English to German, but we're making it work.

Cool. And so did you have to rent a car to like carry all said bikes?

Well, yes, we got a minivan.

I was going to say that's a lot of a car.

The two bikes barely fit in the back of my full— I don't have a full-size SUV, but it fit in the back of my Volkswagen Atlas with Tetris. But in the, in the minivan, it actually worked out. And it was actually, it was actually a cool minivan. It was a diesel. So down there, a lot of their cars are diesel. So we had a Kia Carnival diesel minivan, and I only turned the windshield wipers on less than a half dozen times thinking that was the turn signal. Because everything's on, everything's reversed.

Everything's switched.

So like we, they, I, I made, I got made fun of in New Zealand because every time I tried to make a, a left or right-hand turn, I would turn on the, the windshield wipers.

Mm-hmm.

So, um, it was less than 5, I think, that I got chastised for this time.

Yeah. Okay. Not bad. Although you were mentioning in our coaches meeting last week about how, um, if you were to rent a bike. There's a little snafu.

A little, just, just a tick.

Yeah.

So lo and behold, if you rent a bike in the Southern Hemisphere, the brakes are reversed. So I have to think about it. So the front brake—

right, right hand rear. That's, that's like imprinted in my head.

And now it's, it's left rear, right front, but the shifting's the same. So shifting's the same, but the brakes are reverse, which is a little different, wonky. But like, that's, that's the other reason, cuz I would probably forget. Yeah. And I would go over, I would go over the handlebars or—

Did you see, did you see any wrecks?

I'm trying to think. The, the Olympic one, there was a pretty bad one that I think they took somebody out on a spinal board.

Yeah.

But I, but it was a, it was a, it was a weird place to do it cuz we had cross traffic. So it was like we just went into like a little, community park, did a loop and came out and like either somebody dropped the bottle and they, they hit it and ran over it and, and fell. But like that was, that was the big one for Thursday. And then Friday we watched the end of the, the sprint and there was a few people that had gaping holes in their tri suits and nice little road rashes on their shoulders and, and arms. So the only good thing about going in the age group that I did, we were the first age group to go in the water. So there wasn't a lot of traffic on the bike to cause issues like that. So that was one good thing.

Yeah. Um, so qualification, how did you qualify?

So, uh, you have to, well, there's, it's a two-part process. So one, you have to do a sprint or Olympic distance during the course of the year, and I believe if you finish in the top 30% of your age group at those races, say White Lake Sprint, White Lake Olympic, or any of the, those that are sanctioned, you'll get an email from USA Triathlon saying you qualified, which I would say the vast majority of people do get that email. And then the next one, and that is qualifying for nationals. That's qualifying for nationals.

Yeah.

And then you go to nationals, which, um, I qualified back in when they had it in Atlantic City last year, two years, last year, and qualified in Atlantic City. And I think you have to be, for automatic qualification, you have to finish, it's top in the Olympic, it's the top, I think it's 18, and the sprint is the top 11 in your age group. And then that's guaranteed that you'll get your spot for, for Worlds. And then If people ahead of you don't take it, it'll roll down to, I think for the Olympic, it'll roll down to maybe 30th place. And for the sprint, it'll roll down to 18th. So maybe it's 22 and 11 or something are guaranteed for the two races. And then you have to finish high enough in your age group. And then if you want it, you'll get another email that says, here's your email. You qualify for Worlds. We want your $100 for your spot fee. So the spot fee you have to pay, I think it's $100 per race that you do. And then 90 days later you'll get a coupon, like a registration fee, registration code, and then you have to pay the world championship entry fee. So it's, it's not— it's holding your spot for USAT, but then it's also paying the regular registration, which it's—

I'd say it's a normal registration I think it was, well, you, you have Ironman brain. Like you think that normal registration is like multi-hundreds of dollars.

It is definitely not, hey, we're Ironman to go to France. It's $900, 30 seconds after you take it. It was, it was more realistic. I think it was like maybe $200 per race or just a little bit under. So it wasn't outrageous.

Um, but I, more expensive than a traditional Olympic or sprint, but not as expensive as a half Ironman.

Yes.

Ironman event. Yep. Yeah. Okay. So worth it from that perspective. You just made it up in the, in flying bikes over and back.

It's a wash. It's a wash right there. So yeah, we're good.

And your lovely wife comes with you, which is amazing. She's like your, like, permanent Sherpa.

Well, we're traveling the world on my legs is how we describe it.

And— Okay.

And that's why—

It's a Petercation.

It's a Peter Racecation. Yeah. And we're both educators, so it's like, we both had to take a week off of work. Her flex— her schedule is a little less flexible than mine. So we're teaching in the college setting is like, here's some, here's some online assignments, please make sure you do them. And then I've got a great staff from the cross-country side. So they, they did that. And the kids, my athletes enjoy the fact that I'm still racing and still training at whatever age I am. So it makes me feel young. And, and so it, they, they enjoy it. They like watching and, and tracking me.

That's so cool. So speaking of training, how different was your training for your typical events versus for this? Was the, was this like a bit of a channel change or, cuz I know you, you generally have a pretty heavy training volume. So talk about that too.

It's, it's been lighter than I thought cuz I, I didn't do an Ironman this year, so I, mm-hmm. I scaled back when I, when I deferred out of Maryland. So I did Augusta 3 weeks before, so I was in half, half mode all the way through Augusta. And then basically the last, I think the 2 weeks or 3 weeks leading up to, to Worlds, I just did a couple weeks of Olympic stuff. So just faster tempos, nothing really changed on that. Maybe some different bike stuff, but like, I'm not gonna get any direct benefit of, of major changes. And now I'm going to do Haines City, so now I'm ramping back up.

Back to 70.3.

For 70.3 and, and next year this year is going to be a pretty big year. Nothing, nothing different. Just I'm to that point of the season to where I'm feeling really fit. I'm, I'm feeling good. Um, I do tempos with my assistant coach on Thursday mornings, so we've gone and I don't look at the watch. He goes, Coach, you realize what that mile was? I was like, no. He's like, you just did like 3 6:30 miles in a row. I was like, okay. So it's— I'm getting to that point of the season where it's like I'm ready to roll a good one. Um, but we're also in that point of the cross-country season where it's championship season to where—

so physically you're feeling good, but like mentally you have a different like game to play with your athletes.

It, it's going back and forth. So like, I'm like, I know I need to be in the pool, but I can't do it cuz I've got athletes in the office, or I know I need to be on the bike a little bit longer, but we're traveling. So like it's, I've got enough fitness in the bank that a week or two or a workout here or there is not, not gonna be detrimental. And Haines City, I've already qualified for Nice. Haines City is really just my son's racing, so we figured it'd be a cool time to, to race against each other and see where he's at. And then I go, I literally do the race and I fly out to our annual coaches convention like that day out in Texas. Dang.

So.

It'll, it'll be a, a busy little day, but I, it'll be fun to race with my son.

So, so who gets to take the bike? Who, who are you sending that back with?

We're doing a one-way car. And so my wife is gonna drop me off at the airport and I think we're gonna fly her home. So she might fly home with the bike or I might take it to Texas and I'll just fly with a bike back and forth.

Wow. You guys are like old pros with this, uh, Traveling with bike now.

If, if I can get this new Bike Vault thing, it's gonna make my life so much easier cuz I just have to take off the pedals and the wheels.

Yeah.

And I don't have to do anything with the cockpit or anything with the seat. So it's just like throw in the box, strap it in and, and good to go. So like I'm eagerly anticipating a delivery hopefully in the next, you know, month.

Yes. So stay tuned. We might have a new bike container partner. So what are you using right now?

I've got a Saikon hard case or whatever that is. And then Bike Vault was really cool. They go, hey, we're a, I'm an old Bike Box Allen dealer. I will send you one of our Bike Box Allens to take the world. So like I took a Bike Box Allen, which they are, they are not cheap. And I'm actually—

But if you do it enough, you know, I mean— Like anything else, right?

It's, it's, it's bombproof. Like it's, it's great. It's, um, I took off the pedals, the wheels, and just pulled in my extensions on my aero bars and that was all I had to do. So like, that's nice. Super, super cool. Super convenient. It's just a, just a wonky size. It's, it's not flat. It's got the flares for your aero bars and your cockpit.

Yeah.

And everything else. But like you can put, you can put up to 3 wheels in it and you can put a disc wheel in it and stuff like that. So I'm, it's, it's nice. It's a lot easier. Yeah. It's a lot easier than the Saigon case where I have to take off the whole cockpit, take off the seat, take off this, wrap everything. So yeah, if, if anybody has the means to, for a bike box, Allen, I, I'm a believer so far.

Yeah. That's really cool. Okay. So we gotta get back to the race. First of all, was it wetsuit legal?

It was, but both races were wetsuit legal.

Yeah. And did you go wetsuit both races?

Oh, I did.

Oh yeah.

For sure.

Always. Okay.

For sure. Always.

Yes. Of the 3 sports, which one, like what's your descending order of strongest to needs improvement?

Uh, we'll just go reverse order. So best is, I think the run bike is, is, is good, but not the run. And then swim is always gonna be a work in progress.

Swim is always a work in progress. Okay. So you went for the wetsuit cuz like what, what, how wetsuit legal was it?

It was, uh, they did everything in Celsius. So I think it was a degree or two. So like it was even the pros. So is it wetsuit legal for the pros and the, the T100? Yes. The T— so all races were, were wetsuit legal.

So maybe like low 70s in Fahrenheit, something like that-ish.

Yeah, I think theirs is like 74, 75, so maybe a degree, good degree cooler than Ironman. But there were a couple hardy souls that chose not to do it, but those were very few and far between.

Yeah. I mean, how cold was it to you? Like, did it feel chilly?

It was chilly, but like the pool here at school, they, they keep it pretty cool for the, the girls. So like swimming here at, at, at Pembroke and then getting in the water there was, was, it was not too different.

Not too.

So it's not the YMCA.

Um, but it, yeah, you're not going to the 80-plus-year-old, uh, AquaFit.

Yeah. But it was a little bit of a shock, but it, the bigger shock was, it was really cool because along the coast there's, The, the sea pools that are fed by the ocean.

Yeah.

And so we, we went and it was free, which is super cool too, cuz I like free stuff. And that was, I did not wear a wetsuit or a swim skin or my lava shorts, and it was just me, my little Speedo, and a drag suit. And, uh, after about 1,500 meters, cuz it was meter pool, I was I was a little Smurf. I was, I was blue. There was old people getting in and just doing their thing. And I was like, oh my gosh, but I'm a, I'm just a little guy. So didn't have quite the insulation that some of the other people there did. Um, but it was, it was, it was cool. Like, uh, the, the water was definitely colder, but I'm glad I did the wetsuit. And I, I have a sleeveless and a full, and I took the full just to be safe.

And did— is that what you raced in?

Yep.

Yeah. Okay. Nice. Okay. So full suit. How was visibility in the water? Like where did they have you guys?

So they did for the olymp— it was, it was based in a cove, like a little marina. Mm-hmm. So we started and finished in the COVID and for the Olympic we actually went out of the COVID and did a, like a, a, a little loop and came back. And then I think towards the end of the day it was getting choppy, so like The later races, the, the elite under-23s had some severe chop in the water. And then for Friday morning, we were the first age group. Um, they actually pulled everything into the COVID because it was too dangerous to go outside of the, the breakers. And we did like a, I would call it an M. So we went out, came back to the shore, and then went back out and then came back in. So very similar to like a Haines City, how they have their setup.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and they, they held the race up like on like a beach area. Little beach.

Yeah.

We didn't have to do the, we didn't have to do the Aussie exit, but they brought the buoys in close enough that we just kind of went, went around the buoys and then went straight back out. Um, and it was only 750, so it wasn't too bad. Um, but being the first age group, they were like, do you understand the course? Do you understand the course? We're like, yeah, I'm just following the dude in front of me. Like, I don't have to work out in it. So that was good. And I think World Triathlon was super cool in, in gaging things and adjusting things based on the surf and the chop from a safety perspective. Um, and I don't think I've ever seen that many, uh, water safety people in a, in a race before. So it was, it was pretty good.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's really cool. Um, and then transition, how, uh, different or similar was that to what you're used to?

Um, I'd say it's, it's, it's no different. Um, the only difference is based on their technical rules is it had to be a more clean transition than what we would normally be used to at like, say, Wilmington. Um, so like you couldn't even put a towel down. So if you had a towel down on the ground, they would rip it up and throw it in a pile and you lost a towel. And I was like, man, you go through the pile of towels, like as you're going through transition and walking through the day, it's like, That's a world championship towel. That's a world championship towel. Oh, I have that towel. I'm glad I didn't bring it out. But we're getting 3 different answers. Like, USAT said yes. Nobody said anything. You can have it. And then the morning of, we're asking technical people or the referees like, hey, can we have it? Can we not have it? She's like, yeah, you can have it. And then over the loudspeakers, like, no, you can't have it. So we're like, so confusing. Confusing. So like, it's It was a long enough transition. They had carpet down, you run on the grass. So it wasn't, having a towel wasn't, wasn't necessary, but it would've been nice to at least get the, the sand and the, the grass off your feet before putting your socks and your shoes on. But not a, it's a normal transition.

Cool. So are you a flying mount, dismount with shoes on or off? Um, that was two questions actually.

If, if I tried to do that on a tri bike, cuz I got a rear cage, uh, I probably would, would eat it every time. So, okay. I may, I may shoes on stopping after, after the mount line for the tri, for the, when I'm using the tri bike. Mm-hmm. And just doing that. And then for the, for the sprint race, I may shoes on flying mount and, and dismount guy.

Okay. So shoes on the bike. Flying mount or shoes on?

Shoes on my feet.

Uh-huh. And then flying mount.

And then flying mount. And then I will take my feet out of the shoes and put them on and then flying dismount, um, on the sprint. Or if I don't have a rear cage attached.

How, what pedals do you have?

I'm not cool enough to do the rubber band trick.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I mean, that's kind of where I'm going with that, right?

My son can do that. I don't practice that enough and my transitions are okay.

When you dismount, have you ever lost a shoe?

I think once. I think I, I think I lost it at like Three Little Pigs one year.

Yeah. What pedals do you have?

Speedplays.

Really?

I'm impressed. I'm a, I'm a Speedplay ride and die guy.

Yeah. Oh, I also am Speedplay, but maybe my feet are big And maybe this is when I had longer cranks. I have definitely lost some shoes cuz they get, you know, they come out so easily. Mm-hmm. And then I'm like, well, what was the point of that? Cuz I just, you know, yard sailed it.

I've, I've scuffed 'em more because they, they'll, they'll turn and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'll run over 'em. But like, yeah, I think Atlantic City I did the flying mount, flying dismount. And then I was like, well, what the hell? When in, when in Wollongong, you gotta do the, the thing.

So like, totally. Yeah. So what was the, what was the competition like? And we'll get to the bike and the run. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, speaking of like international athletes, like did you, were you able to talk to anybody? Like what, you know, I am, I'm an introvert by nature.

So like we rode the course twice. So like I think, uh, Tuesday and Wednesday we did course preview and met up with a guy from like England or, or New Zealand and we just talked as we're going through the course. And I don't know, like, it's— there was 1,600 or 1,800 Australian athletes. So it was like a 4 to 1. It was 4 Australians to every 1 American.

Yeah.

So when you're, when you're in the race, you're like, well, where's everybody else? Like, yeah, anybody else here?

Yeah.

But like, from a competition standpoint, I think it's, it's cool to, to judge yourself or view yourself against what we would consider the best in the world. And obviously you choose to go, like, you can— there was probably some people better than me that, that chose not to go. But I think from a competitive standpoint, it was like, it's super cool to say, okay, well, I'm, I'm better than these 10 Australians, or I'm whatever my age group, or whatever in the division, and whatever overall. And I think it's, I think it's just cool because I was never, I was never a great high school or collegiate athlete, but I'm enjoying this age group rebirth, so to speak, as I have time. And I think just the longer I stay with it, I think the more fun. When I'm not having fun and I don't feel myself driven to maybe qualify for a world team, I'll stop. It's still there. It's cool. Like I told my wife, it's like, she's like, would you do it again? I was like, Yeah. Like I've already qualified for Spain for next year.

Mm-hmm.

But I'm not, we're not going to Spain. We're gonna go to Nice cuz I want redemption at Nice. Okay. And then Nice will be a half in—

No, Nice will be a half. Okay. And then— And then Spain is 70.3. Yeah.

Spain.

Um, or is that also Olympic?

Spain would be this, like the world sprint. Yes. Okay. Olympic sprint.

Okay.

I got the email that I think in 2020, 2027, it's in Hamburg, Germany. Oh, cool. So as soon as I said the word Germany to the wife, she's like, oh, we will go and you will qualify because we're going back.

I freaking love her. She is, she is like, she does not let up on you. It's not like, oh honey, I'm so sorry you had a bad day. And then she's like, I was like, suck it up.

Oh darn, I have to register for 3 more halves and we have to go back to Wisconsin to race nationals again.

Oh, And you have like a timeframe you have to finish things in, otherwise she's gonna get bored and, and hungry, right?

Well, she, she thoroughly enjoyed both races because she's like, I'll see you in 2 hours and 15, 20 minutes. And then she's like, we got the rest of the day to do whatever I want. I was like, okay. And then Friday was even better cuz like, you'll be done in 65 minutes. I was like, yes, I will.

Uh-huh.

And, and then we did whatever on Friday. So, like, she definitely enjoys the fact that I'm not out there for 11, 12, 13 hours on certain days and that we can actually enjoy the locale that we're in.

Yeah. And I am assuming that this is not you, but you're, you know, if she's like, hey, let's go hike this thing or go, you know, if there's any sort of physical exertion in your sightseeing, it sounds like you just are going to have to suck it up whether you could do it or not.

She, it was, it's funny because we stayed like 200 meters from the finish line and like 300 meters from the transition. So it's the closest I think we've ever stayed to, to a place. And the place was like super retro, super cool. We were getting probably, she was averaging 12,000 to 15,000 steps for that whole week. And so while I was getting, I got more obviously cuz the, the events, but like, she's like, she's, she's walking a, whatever the 10,000 steps equates to. So like, she doesn't have to do any other physical activity outside of just us walking back and forth and back and forth.

It is a lot. I don't think some people expect that, uh, supporting a racer takes, uh, it takes a bit. It takes a bit. Like you're, you're walking all this stuff all over the place.

And it's, it's no muscle man. 'Cause I think we had to walk a mile and a half from the parking lot to transition, like back and forth, back and forth. So I think that those couple days we were walking like 3 to 4 miles just to, to drop off stuff, which is, we're like, yeah, well let's not do that again.

Yeah. No, I know that's where you're gonna have to bring 2 bikes. One as like a cruiser for her and the other one—

we'll just get one of those little, little e-bike, little scooter things and just put everything in.

Totally. You get her a bell and everything. Tracy is a lovely woman. I hope I'm not making her sound terrible.

No.

She's your like partner in crime in all of this. That's so cool. It's amazing. Okay, so we're gonna rewind and get back to the bike. What was the bike course like?

Um, Olympic was 3 laps.

Okay. Do they all use the same course?

All use the same course.

Okay.

Um, and then I think the, the sprint was 2 laps, just slightly shorter, totally closed off, no traffic.

Oh, nice.

We rode on the left-hand side of the road for obvious reasons, which means for those out there in TV land, you actually have to pass on the right.

Yeah.

So you're riding on the left, passing on the right, which I got in trouble too when I did Roth because I passed on the wrong side.

Whoops.

But I enjoyed—

You got a penalty in Roth?

No.

Or did you? Oh, okay.

Official yelled at me cuz some guy was coming off the shoulder and I passed him on the wrong side. He, they yelled at me. I was like, ah, okay. Speak, I don't know.

Um, but no, getting yelled at in German is like, mm.

Yeah.

That's a little different.

A little, a little different. So totally closed off course for, for the bike. I haven't even looked to see what the elevation gain was, but I overheard some of the guys on the bike, um, on Friday morning setting up our transition that it was like 1,000 feet of elevation, but it was like super flat and then some punchy stuff, which I, I enjoy the punchy stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, okay. It kind of, it's like, oh, I am fit. I am good.

Yeah.

So the, the Olympic was, was, was good. The sprint draft, I think it was super cool because like, yes, we were the first wave, so there wasn't a lot of people to draft off of. But when you, when you make that one 180 at the end of the bike course and you look back and you're like, oh, there's a group of 20 Australians coming to get you. And then they get you and you go, well, you just tuck in. And that was the coolest part. It was just like, and told, I told my wife and my son, I was like, you don't know how fit you are until you get in a group like that. And you, they, we start rotating out and then like you look up and you're at the front of the, the field and. There's a group of 4 or 5 guys right in front of you. So you go, well, I'm a, I'm an American, so I'm gonna do it. And I just bridge the gap and, and bring everybody with me.

Nice.

So that felt really cool to be strong enough to kind of bridge to the next group or the next group.

Yeah.

I look down and it's the 60-year-old group. So I was like, oh crap.

We won't judge.

I bridge up to a slightly slower group and then like I tuck in behind them thinking they were going fast and then everybody else just goes, straight by me, I was like, well, and so then you, you stick your elbow out or whatever and you just slide in and keep doing what you're doing.

Yeah. So seeing that this was a world championship race, do you feel like, I mean, granted this was your first draft legal race, but do you feel like the bike handling end of things, like people were better at bike handling than perhaps they otherwise would've been?

There was people that that were in the same boat as me is like they had never done a draft legal.

Mm-hmm.

Or they, they, and I, I train 99% by myself. So like for me to get out there and do a group ride like this, like it doesn't happen different.

Yeah.

So like a lot of people were a little wary of, of handling and stuff like that. And the nice thing is when you were, we were going into the corners with a group, at least the couple groups I was with, they're like, just hold your line. So you had people like basically telling you what to do, telling you just hold the line, hold the line, hold the line. So like, and that was kind of cool. That was— I talked to a couple people before the race or during the week and they're like, well, this is what you probably should do and, and, and that. So like I was taking cues and then just when you get in there, you're like, you gotta trust yourself and just put yourself in a position to where you're not, not gonna put yourself in a position of getting in a crash. Cuz my son has a coach who also coaches an under-23 elite female that did the under-23 race. So I was, I was picking his brain and, and her brain about like, hey, what should I expect? How do I attack this? And everything else. So like, that was, that was kind of cool to get a little bit of insight from, from them.

Yeah.

Which, fun fact, if I sent you the picture of my son's coach, you probably couldn't tell me or him because we both were freaking doppelgangers.

That's amazing.

It's, it's super crazy. Like, The scruffy beard, the earrings, the no hair, we're about the same height. I was like, oh my gosh, Anne, why? I was like, I know you like me and all, but like to, to, to—

I know, to, to duplicate my, my hair. Come on.

So yeah, it was, it was super cool. But like, we looked at him and my wife looked at each other and we're like, oh my gosh, that is my doppelganger.

That is so crazy. So cool. All right. So bike sounds like it was fun and different.

Mm-hmm.

And kind of a crazy experience. Did you, do you have power numbers from all that or are you able to like look and see like how, what your power was when you were pulling, what your power was when you were drafting?

I honestly haven't, I haven't looked at either data file from either race.

That sounds like a fun one for us to do tonight is what I'm hearing you say.

I don't, I, it, it was, I think I had the bike computer on. I've got a preferred one that has like time, speed. Lap power.

Uh-huh.

And then I think distance. So I was looking more at that and I could tell that when I was by myself, obviously the power's up a little higher, but then like you, you get in a group, you're like, oh damn, my, my watts are only like 180 watts when, when I was first on the bike, it was like FTP plus.

Yeah.

So, um, but yeah, if you wanna look at that tonight, we can, we can pull that up.

Yeah. Um, all right. So we got through bike and then run. How was the run? Like, what was that all like?

Run was congested for a little bit of the Olympic because we went from the main road to like a bike path and they just split it.

Oh, right. So you go, cause how, how many total athletes do you know? The total athletes for each race that you did?

I, I wanna say it was like, I wanna say for the Olympic was, is maybe like 2,000 or 3,000. But it was, it was all, it was all age group wise and I was like right in the middle. So like it was that, and I think there's maybe, I think they said the sprint was a little bit bigger or about the same size, but I think they said there were like 6,000 athletes total.

Cool.

Between the two. But like the run was, I got done with the 10K and I was like, okay, well where's the other half? So that's, that's the, that's the 70.3 in me going, okay, I'm, I'm warmed up.

Yeah.

Like I'm ready to go.

Yeah.

Like I, I went like 40, 42 minutes, which was, was good.

Nice. Yeah.

Um, and just worked through the field. And then I think for the, the sprint, sprint was 3 laps, so it was about a mile a lap. And they put us by age group in the transition. And so like the one guy that was to the left of me, he's like, oh man, you passed me on the, the, the run yesterday. It's like you were flying. I was like, Yeah, I was just waiting for the other 6 miles. Like, I don't, it was fine. It was, you know, whatever. And then the guy to the right of me had got me by a couple minutes on Thursday. So like we come outta transition and I'm, I'm, I'm second off, I'm first, first or second back in transition on the bike, but I couldn't put my shoes on in transition, so I lost a little bit extra. So the guy that I'd beaten on Thursday got me by like I don't know, 30, 40 seconds in transition. So I'm just, I'm chasing and having fun. And I get him and then I work up to the next guy and I get him. So I got the two Americans that were ahead of me. And the one guy goes, oh man, I think you were like probably second American in the age group. I look at the results and like, he was the first American. So I got him. So I was the top American in the 40 to 49 in the sprint race. And then I think I was the 4th American in the age group for the Olympic distance.

Wow.

So super cool. And there was like, I think 12 or 13 of us per race.

Yeah.

And I think I had the, the 2nd fastest runtime in the age group of the, of the Americans.

Yeah. Cool.

So I'll, I'll take that.

Yeah, I know. When was the last time you did a 5K?

3 Little Pigs in June.

Okay. All right. So it was also attached to a sprint.

It was not just I am, I'm very apprehensive of doing a 5K by itself only because like, I'll be like, well, where's the bike and where's the swim?

Like I, yeah, I need to, I know it's weird. Yeah. And then you're like, I, where's my stuff?

Where's, where's my stuff?

Where's my stuff at? All I have is a pair of shoes. What the heck? Um, how was the finish line like, and that whole, like, I don't, did they have like an expo? What, what was like the overall race experience once you were like done?

Finish line was cool. So like what you see in the T100 races is what we, what we came down. So the only difference between like the elite, the elite under 20s and 23s and the T100s and the whatever else they did was we didn't get the blue carpet for transition. So we got the regular transition based on the size, but we got to finish on the blue carpet and the semi stadium. So they brought in some portable bleachers and stuff like that. So it was super cool. So when they finished, so Tim Yaut, who's the chief development officer or I think for the Worlds and stuff like that through USAT. It was him and somebody else as you came into the finish line. So they're like, are you finishing? I was like, yeah, we're finishing. And they give you like a little American flag to finish down the chute with. And that was super cool. He's like, they're like, they sent you an email the night before the first race. Like, if you're in a dead finish or sprint with whoever else in front of you, do not worry about picking up the flag. Now, if you're, if you're by yourself and you're just cruising along, definitely pick up the flag, but do not pick up the little American flag if you're in a sprint finish.

Yeah.

For placing. So, no, that, that was the cool part is like you saw it during the expo and everything else. So that was, that was cool. It's like, I think outside of Ironman, it's probably one of the cooler finish lines. Nationals does a good job. Yeah. Because they'll have the blue, the blue carpet as well. Expo was, was normal. I, nothing, nothing fancy. Just a couple different like nutritional people that you, we don't see in the States. I picked up a collapsible foam roller.

Ooh.

From Brazier.

Interesting.

So that was super cool cuz it just, it folds flat like that.

Yeah.

And super portable. So like the guy was like, yeah, the people are just throwing their bike cases cuz it's flat and, and everything else. So I've been—

Yeah, cuz a foam roller is very inconvenient to travel with.

So, but yeah, like other than that, it was your typical, your, your corporate sponsors. And then the, the Parade of Nations was, was pretty cool too.

Aw, that's so neat.

So they, they lined you, we got a big picture of Team USA. So like all 400 athletes, we got a picture in front of the lighthouse there. And then they line you up by country. And obviously Australia being the host, they were the last. But it was cool. It was, that was the cool thing because you're walking in and the, the street is lined with, with supporters and everything else, and it's just like in the Olympics. Just you walk in and part of the expo, they had a stage and they did a little welcome ceremony. And then they, the cool part was they had an Aboriginal guy do like a traditional smoke dance or smoke ceremony to like give credence or give back to the water, the wind, the earth and everything. So that was kind of cool.

Yeah, that's really cool. You'll have to, whatever pictures you have, We'll have to do like a, put 'em all on the blog for this. If you've got any good pictures.

I, I did the one photo dump from the races themselves and then I need to do another one from like just the extra stuff from either Parade of Nations or, you know, just our little sightseeing to Sydney and, and stuff like that.

Yeah. Cuz after the race was done, you and your wife like did some cool stuff. Yeah.

We, Well, I don't know if break— breaking down two bikes is, is fun.

Oh yeah. I know. Okay. So do say briefly, like how long does that take you? And granted this is two, but for, um, and hopefully this new case will be easier for you to break down.

I think the new case will be super easy. So like the road bike, not that I have to take off a lot. Road bike is probably like 20, 30 minutes. And the tri bike, probably like 10 to 15.

Hmm.

The hardest part is is really just taking off the pedals and without a work stand, it's a little hard to take off the tires and, and put the little, whatever, the chainstay keeper thingy.

Mm-hmm.

On that. But I've, I've gotten pretty good with as much travel as we do. So like, I think with the new case and the bike back, cause Alan, oh, I can probably have both done in less than an hour. Now my, my tri bike is still sitting in the work stand at home cuz I've not put, put everything back together. But the road bike is, yeah. Road bike is together and actually in my office cuz I rode it. I rode it Monday and I'll ride it Friday.

So nice. Nice. Very cool. Um, yeah. So where'd you guys play afterwards?

Saturday was our day to go up to Sydney. The race went right by the hotel. So like I had to go out to the, the traffic control people. I was like, hey, um, I'm staying right here. Can I get out? He's like, yeah, as long as you get out before the first race starts. We're like, say no more. I was like, well, how about getting back? He's like, well, We got the T100 and we got, they do, we're doing a 5K rock and run. So he's like, well, if you come back by after 8, you're probably going to be good. So we got back at 7 and we had to park offsite and then, then pay for, we didn't pay for parking and then to bring it back to the hotel. So we went to a wildlife park 30 minutes north of, of where we were staying. And we got to see the traditional, we got to see the koalas, the kangaroos, they had a red panda, the dingoes were sleeping. So the dingo did not eat my baby, but you know.

I was waiting for it.

Yeah. Um, but no, like you could go straight up to the kangaroos and you could feed them because you could buy like little kangaroo feed. And I got a couple pictures of a kangaroo with its joey and they were, they were eating. So like they were both on the ground and they were both eating. So super cool. So that was for my wife. So you have to, that was okay.

Yeah.

Um, cause her kids wanted pictures of all the cool animals.

Oh, her like school kids. Yeah.

Her third graders go take pictures of all the animals, Mrs. Orange.

Cause I was gonna say your kids are older. They can care less.

And then come to find out, like they got some pretty venomous snakes there. I think number one most venomous snake in the world is like in, not where we are, but like, like mid mid, midland, mid-outback. Yeah, yeah, we're like, you can just keep that there. And they had a freaking American alligator in the reptile thing. I was like, why do you have an American alligator when you guys have crocs?

Yeah, but crazy.

So we did that, we did that for a couple hours, and that was fun. And then we drove into Sydney, and traffic in Sydney was Raleigh on steroids, I would say. But it was a Saturday, so that was part of the problem. But we got there, we parked right, right at the Opera House. And we parked at the Opera House, got some good pictures of the Opera House, the harbor, and walked around. And they did a really cool, like, live or outdoor fair or whatever you call it.

Market.

Open air market. And that was cool. And my, my wife was wearing a Care Bears t-shirt. And so at one vendor she goes, is that a Care Bear shirt? And my wife goes, yes. She's like, oh, I love the Care Bears. Come to find out, like we're all of the same age and we're all like going through like all the, the classic cartoons. So like she was stopped by two other vendors about her shirt.

Who has her Care Bear shirt? That is hilarious.

So instead of blending in. Like we're just that traditional American couple just walking around with, yeah.

Were you wearing like an Ironman shirt or something like that? I was wearing one of my Zoot Hawaiian shirts, so I was gonna say, I'm sure you were wearing something.

Definitely not, not blending in. Definitely sticking out.

Yeah. Oh my God.

They had, they had some huge yachts there in the harbor and I guess there was a couple weddings, so you saw like wedding stuff and everything else. So it was, it was super cool. And you had one of the Disney cruise ships. Docked there. It was just super cool because like you go to the other side of the harbor and then you look at the, the Opera House from the other side. It's just, it's just cool.

Very neat. Yeah.

You see it and you're like, man, that is, that is pretty cool.

So did— is by you doing Worlds in Australia, is that an automatic berth to Spain or do you have to requalify?

You have to— I think you have to requalify because— so I did. So Worlds this year was based on Atlantic City and 24.

Uh-huh.

I raced age group nationals in Wisconsin in August, which got me to Pontevedra, Spain for 26. So I'll have to do back to Wisconsin in 26 to qualify for Hamburg in 27.

But, and this year Wisconsin was a bit of a mess.

It was a bit of a mess, but kudos to USAT because they did refund I think all in— I've got, don't put it out there, but I got, I got 2 refunds. So they re— every— they refunded everybody.

Oh wow. They refunded everybody for the sprint.

And then I got a second one, I think for the Olympic. So like it was—

wow.

I was only expecting the one and somehow it—

that paid for your bikes to get to Australia. So cool. Right?

Cool. And then based on world championship team status, Then it, you get like extra emails for extra events. Like I'm technically, I just put a spot fee in for the Doha Cutter Race in December, but I thought it was $2,600 and it's $2,500 and I've already, and I've gonna do Heen City. So like I just, I just blew $100 on that.

Yeah.

I didn't read the email close enough, but then like I got an email yesterday or a couple days ago that they're pushing for the Abu Dhabi race, I think for '26. So once you get in the cycle of qualifying for different worlds teams, like then it opens it up for different world championships, whether it's T100, which is the Qatar race for December, or whether it's, I think the World Multisport in Abu Dhabi. And so like, it's cool. And there's people that have done 40 world championships.

Wow.

And I'm just like, oh my gosh. And they're also like 60+ years old. But like, that's a big thing, I guess, in USAT is like you get recognition or pinned, quote unquote, for each, each world championship after I think 4 or 5 that you do. So like, for some people it is a huge deal. Yeah.

I mean, it's kind of like collecting medals, right?

Or, or whatever it is that, whatever it is you do and, and And, and so like, it's not something I want to do every year, but depending on where the world championship is, I can see myself. Obviously Germany would be a cool place because Hamburg, Germany is where they do, I think, an Ironman. And I think that's where the European championship was this year. And when we're in Augusta, a young lady next to us was waiting for the roll down. And my wife went up to say, hey, how was, how was Hamburg? And she's like, it was the most exciting time. And the city gets behind it and it's just, it's just, it's just awesome. And I think Hamburg is like their, their financial capital of the country. So like super ritzy. So like, I'm, I'm just a neat experience. Just a neat experience. And my wife, they were, her, her dad was stationed in, in Germany for 3 years growing up. So like anytime. To go back is, is kind of cool to do that.

Yeah. So cool. Might inspire me to get a road bike. Hmm. I don't know.

There was—

going to Germany might be really cool.

There was people doing it on, on fat tire bikes and dang, seriously. There's a couple like, wow. It was like a gravel bike, but like super like wide. I was like, man, okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Whatever floats your boat. So cool. Uh, all right. So any last words of wisdom you would have for either maybe somebody who's wanting to, to qualify for Worlds or just traveling in general to do a race or triathlon for that matter?

I, I think ask around and, and just figure out things. But I think if you have the chance to go, go ahead and do it because you never know what, what tomorrow's gonna do. So like, I, I think I'm taking full advantage of doing this and it's just money.

Mm-hmm.

I, I think is the big thing is like, it is, it is what it is at this point. Like, I'd rather travel now and enjoy it than, than have the money later on and, and not fully enjoy it or not be able to fully immerse ourselves in, in the experience. So like, I think we've got a timeline of maybe 55 is when I'll kind of like start to scale back things. But I think for the next— I'm aging up next year, so 50 to 55 might— or 50 to 54 might be that last, like, full, full gas type thing. And then we'll have to do stuff my wife wants.

I think she's probably getting a good deal here.

She's getting a great deal. It's just, yeah, it's, it's finding things that are outside of the academic window so that we both can enjoy them. So, like, like we've said all along, is like my, my main racing window is, is May to August.

Yeah.

And it just so happens once a year I've gotta travel in September or October.

Yeah. Crazy.

But Nice, Nice, Nice won't be a full week. So Nice will be like 3 or 4 days.

It won't be— wow.

It won't be—

yeah. That's a, that's a quick turnaround for Europe.

But it's also a, a, a what, 8-hour flight as opposed to 24 hours?

Yes, that is kind of a big deal. Wow. Crazy. Well, thank you so much, Peter, for sharing your experience and hopefully, uh, some folks got some good info out of that and inspiring them to do something neat.

And if, and if they have questions, just my, my phone number's right here.

Um, yeah. And anybody who wants to like race at the next sort of like competitive level, I mean, very similar to you, we're, you know, Coach Marty's starting that racing team. So, you know, wear the Endurance Edge all over, uh, the Endurance Edge jersey all over the world. Cuz why not?

Why not?

How cool is that? Sweet. All right, Peter, thanks. And I'm sure we'll have you on next time you go to Nice and Hamburg and all that other kind of places. So sharing your race stories, you rock. And of course I'll see you tonight and everybody else out there will, uh, thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. Thanks, Peter.

Yep.

Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at the Endurance Edge. Thanks again, and we'll catch you next time.