Athletes in Motion Podcast - EP 031 2022 Year End Wrap Up

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the athletes in motion podcast from race to recovery with your hosts Tom regal and Kenny Bailey

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:30

Hey Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:31

I'm great. Kenny, how are you today?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:33

I am doing fantastic. We are in the lair, at TriTomR..

Tom Regal: 0:38

we made it to the shop we're here at the fit studio fit Studio

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:41

you can get like fit so you can get all sorts of stuff going on some 3D stuff. A lot of crazy stuff. I've had my bike here before so. So we've had a heck of a year the this is our kind of our year in review program just to kind of talk about you know, the podcasts that we've done, people we've talked to and kind of our race recap for the

Tom Regal: 1:02

we haven't talked much about ourselves, which is probably a good thing. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:05

I mean, we're business people. We're podcast hosts. But guess what, we also do races ourselves. So and I think you mentioned you know, we've we've hinted more than a couple of times in these podcasts that we need help.

Tom Regal: 1:14

So as we've gotten our advice as we we pick our we pick our guests that will help us.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:20

So we've had a lot of guests this year. Any ones that stick out for you and themes. It's recovering really

Tom Regal: 1:25

good. We learned a lot. Yeah, we learned we learned about what can we say the Coxswain? I didn't know what that was. Exactly. That was pretty neat to get into the boating world and get into the rowing world of things. That was fantastic. That was really cool to learn that. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:42

And I think it's for us. So just so you folks know, we were trying to make sure these podcasts hopefully to inspire you, you get to talk about really cool people, really cool topics, get educated on certain areas, but for us to be able to learn things and see people like Coxon, like what is that world like what we have no idea in and to see the kind of, you know, you would see something sort of casually as you walk by Oh, there's a there's a rowers out there, and there's a person on the end of the boat, you know, that person's got a pretty important job. And it's a lot of pressure and, and to be able to dive into that sort of understanding of that and get some sensitivity around that I think is, like you said, it's a fun thing to do.

Tom Regal: 2:20

Yeah, it's kind of neat. So we're trying to educate ourselves as long as and get good content for everybody else as well. So hopefully everyone's enjoying that as well. What what did you pick up this year?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:30

Yeah, I think same thing we had JP on, which was serendipitously just happened to run into the guy and then find out oh, um, you know, a cat, one road cyclist, you know, happen to be a, you know, a RAF. And the idea is, again, we see reps all the time, but to be able to have a conversation about how you get into that, what's the complexities around that? What do you need to do to be prepared for that? That's always fun. I think the second one is, you know, we had a couple of returning guests. So that was kind of fun. Yeah. You know, having team magic come in. Yeah. You know, you point in time, the last time we talked to him, it was right after COVID. How do you how do you get a triathlon program together? And how do you get people to show up? And what are those complexities and then be able to fast forward and say, Okay, what are you doing? Now? You know, it's been a year later, now that things have settled in how how's it going? And I'm happy to report after we, after we did our episode, I think they announced about a month ago, they're doing a women's only triathlon. Yes,

Tom Regal: 3:27

they were able to get a sponsor and put that all together. So next May, and I believe that at the end of May of 2023, they will have the all women's triathlon here,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:37

and I feel partially responsible for that. Yes. It wasn't for our, our podcasts, they probably

Tom Regal: 3:44

take a little credit. They're a little credit. What else? Wow, it was just it was a good, busy year. And one of the things as we mentioned, we haven't talked much about what we've been doing training wise. So let's start with you, Kenny. Okay. What do you got? What did we do? We had an exciting year. Well, you had an end. We know the end of the year. Yeah. Last year's Ironman, California didn't go Yeah, so just didn't

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:08

go. Yeah. So for those anybody. So my big deal is I want to do Ironman. So Ironman is sort of the the Golden One for me. I've had a really rough couple of years trying to get back into Ironman, so we could talk about that a minute. But so last year's goal was to do Ironman, California. It was the inaugural race was in Sacramento. I lived in Sacramento for 20 years. I was like great like it ain't rode rode those trails I've, I've run that run. I know it. It's gonna be fantastic. And then what they call bomb cyclone hits are basically the equivalent of a cat three hurricane in California first time in 100 years. You happens to land on the Sunday that stupid race. And sure enough, you know, wipes you know, 3000 people don't get to race that day. Yeah. And of course, it's beautiful. The next day, it's like 75 and sunny like breeze. It's like, of course, so we had to postpone it to this year. So These this year's goal too big a race was to get back to California and race it. And in order to be prepped for that my my be raised by other big race was the Half Ironman in Oregon. So those are the two that were on the list. Everything else was just sort of race or fun or race just to kind of go on if I did many races at all, except for those two.

Tom Regal: 5:19

No, we were looking at a couple of different races for you to do. And the 70.3 seemed to be the one that would fit best. Yeah, timing wise, it was it was out there was it was one that I think worked really well for you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:32

Yeah. And the course itself too. It was it was similar course to what it was in California. It was in Oregon. I grew up in Oregon, then moved to California spent 20 years there. So for me it was again coming back to a familiar haunt. So that was fun. So those are the two I had on hand now. I think if anybody is a fan of the program and watch as a podcast I a lot I asked a lot of behavioral questions. Simply because I was at a point where when I moved to Tennessee I didn't have a lot of coaching going on. And my swimming evolved to the point where I was struggling on the swim to the point where I would I would get pulled out a race it so I did a half Ironman in Wisconsin, three years ago had a DNF because I gassed out I just didn't I my shoulders hurt every time I train so I wouldn't train as much. So hired this guy and started working on swimming and swimming was sort of the priority not just wasn't the idea to swim fast. The idea was to swim efficiently. Hi.

Tom Regal: 6:34

Sorry, Rosie. Rosie is the shop Dog. Thank you very much.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:36

I was feeling kind of need that the love Rosie frizzy over your

Tom Regal: 6:39

baby. Rosie likes laps. So if you if you come for a bike fit, you will meet Rosie and Rosie will

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:46

and she saw the sensitivity. My voice is a pain and she thought she'd come soon. So yeah, it was it was a real real struggle. I mean, I was I was debating if I should be doing triathlons. Maybe I should stick to do athletes. I mean, I'm just not a swimmer. And you know this, this doesn't feel good. So we you know, we worked on it.

Tom Regal: 7:01

We worked on that a lot last year. Yeah, we did a lot of mental training, open water swimming a lot of things that got you in the ballpark. I think the one of the bigger challenges was once it got postponed. Yeah. How do you keep that momentum up? I think yes. I think that was a huge challenge. And I think that was interesting. And we talked to Dr. Tim White, the sports psychologist that we got, you know, there was a lot of interesting things why we were finding our guests going through that.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:26

Yeah, yeah. So I ended up signing up for the half it was in July in Oregon. I needed a win I needed and what I mean by win is I needed a successful solid race. Yeah. Hey, folks, when you when you do races, don't try new equipment for weeks before a race. So I decided to get I wear hookahs, I decided to get another pair of shoes, which completely destroyed my calf. So I went into the Half Ironman with basically a tendinosis or tendinitis in my calf. I knew it, I knew it was gonna be a problem. But the important part is was a swim in the bike. So show up to Oregon 70.3 In July, it's in the Willamette River, the river is so fast, you can't stand up in it. So like it was it was like the only way you can get faster if you went through a waterfall. Like that was the only way this this thing was going to be. So the start of the race? Yep. You had a little bit of a panic attack, just because everything was kind of going fast and going crazy. And and I missed the buoy and you know, the rivers moving, I kind of calmed myself down and I had a tremendously good swim it was that I needed that. That was the thing I needed. So to your point, we're talking to all these sports psychologists, we're talking sort of to people about how do you push through those things, those fears? How do you push through those? And this is the one where if it didn't work, this was going to be a problem. The good news is it worked. I came out of the water happy. Yes, the bike was great. The Run was not good, because my calf was not good. But I was in my mindset, but I knew that Yes. So and it's 82 degrees. It's beautiful. You're in Oregon. I mean, I'm in a I'm in a just a park with Yeah, it's my gosh, like you know,

Tom Regal: 9:10

it's fantastic. Yeah, I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:11

saw three deer. It's ridiculous, right? So it's like okay, it's hard to be mad when you're you know, you're staring at beautiful fields and you know, deer frolicking through, so that half Ironman was was probably the single best confidence booster for me to be able to say that I can do this swim. What I would say before any race is once I once I get past the swim, I should be fine. Well, if I get done with the swim, then I'll get I'll be fine. That was my mantra. When I got done with the Oregon it was it was no longer that I didn't need that as a mantra. Yeah, it was like okay, well, you know, we're gonna do this and swim in the bike and then what do we worry about? It's no longer like, am I going to be able to finish? No, I'm gonna finish Yeah. So fast forward to October and I'm in Ironman California. Right here.

Tom Regal: 9:55

And and the timing for that race being the be race in July. Alright, he came back really focused, I'm really pumped and got into the next level of training that that took him to the next the next

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:07

level. Yeah, lesson number two is you know when you do these B races you especially when you have a big on there's something when you're in a race that's just you're inside with a bunch of people. It's you know, you're racing right and you can practice all you want but the things start coming to reality when you do those big races. So it's like okay, this is what I got to work on. Oh, I see this didn't work out the way it did this workout fantastic. My fuel on the bike, my nutrition on the bike, I did a great job on that. So don't mess with that. Yeah, this one went really well. Okay, don't mess with that. Yeah, right. So what are the things we got to work on? And that does two things right? It gives you confidence that you know you can do these things and the second thing it does is it allows you to focus on those things and that's what we did yeah. So go into October no bomb cyclone, thank God but there was a HIGH WIND ADVISORY so which California is designed to kill me Yeah, I think is what it is.

Tom Regal: 11:03

So has winds we knew it was going to be winds if you pick flat course know that there's probably going to be winds. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:10

And here's what's funny. So like I said, I spent 20 years in California I did a double century in Davis. It's a 200 mile bike ride in one day. That was supposed to be in I think may end of May ended up being over 100 degrees in May. We're like this is ridiculous of 75 degrees that weekend before 75 degrees the weekend after 107 that day. And so we did it in the next year going surely is not going to be the same. It was 108 I go to do the California International Marathon which is one of the biggest ones and then in on the west. Beautiful weather what happens 40 mile an hour sustained winds just storm coming through. It was a 1000s of people like penguins, like cuddled together before the start of the thing. It's like I don't know what it is with these races in California but I keep picking the stupid weather issues. And sure enough, beautiful on Saturday beautiful on Monday Sunday for race day. 20 mile an hour sustained winds 35 mile an hour gusts. I was gonna get a PR on the bike and that just went away quickly so yeah, good news is got into the water the water was the best part again. It went from I don't even know if I'm gonna get out of the water to the water was my fastest one I recorded a PR even getting a cramp and had to had to get on to a kayak for a second. But got out of the water. Got on the bike was doing fantastic on the bike turned around and just didn't hit the wall of wind, just a wall of wind. I was targeting a sub six hour bike ride ended up getting seven hours because of the wind. And it just it destroys you.

Tom Regal: 12:44

You watched everybody's time on the turnaround all of a sudden just fade off all their speeds just dropped off. We're following a bunch of athletes and watching everybody you just knew what everybody was going through.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:54

Yeah, it was yeah, it was like 21 miles on the way up 12 miles on the way back, and I'm passing people at 12 miles an hour. Yeah, like I'm dropping people at 12

Tom Regal: 13:02

I'm sure there's some great stories of people suffering through that. Yeah. And

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:05

you see the photographers they're like taking pictures of you and they're just like okay, get out of the frame All right, we got you I can't do it. I can't go any faster. I'm just I'm trying to get out of the frame and yeah, so I have 48 shots at me on the bike because they just go in 12 miles an hour it's easy grab a shot. So got to the run ended up learning the biggest lesson which is you kept telling me you know work on your hamstrings and your glutes because you got to engage those those did not get engaged. I spent a majority of my time on my quads and my calves so early into the into the run it turned into a walk again there's got to be a mindset so the mindset change that was really big for me this year is

Tom Regal: 13:45

so we knew was questionable that we knew the correct we knew the calf was questionable. We knew the run was going to be whatever Yeah, at that point.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:52

Yeah, the calf has been a problem so I'd never had an opportunity really to get the runs in the furthest run I think I got was 12 miles and then I had to take a two week break because of calf issues so I never really got the run and my vo two was off the charts I have no issue with that. So the irony of the whole thing is a calf was perfectly fine. It was my quads that gave out and my quads gave out because I just spent most of my time being quad dominant. So that's something I got to work on for next year is be able to start engaging different muscle sets so you learn from each one of these yeah, there's two things that I learned I think if you know to wrap it up so you know the half this year the full was you know it's accessible I got the metal gathered swag. There's never enough swag you can get two lessons I learned one of them was just you have to accept what the day is going to give you right and and it's you can't control what you can't control and I know that sounds easy and obvious but look, I can't make that wind go any any slower. I have no capability what my only capability I have is what I how I react to it. Yes. So the first thing I needed to do is get the mindset like, Hey, I'm gonna get a metal, I'm gonna finish this thing. Yeah, that's not the issue, the issue is okay, I can turn myself inside out for maybe a time that's going to be 10 minutes faster over a really long raise, or just accept what I have kind of hunker in and start doing the work. And you parse the workout. I don't have a 56 mile bike ride, I have to 28 mile bike rides, and then I gotta turn around and do it again. Yeah, so the 112 mile bike ride was a section of for 28 mile sections. Yeah. And so that's how I had to do it. The first 28 is gonna be fantastic. The second 28 socked third 28 You know, redemption get my food back. The last 28 was, by the way, peak wind for the day was the last 28 miles and you just like this is it, it sucks, but you hunker down, get through it, you know, it's gonna be two hours of crap. So let's just get through it. So one of the things is just to accept that thing, right? Except, you know, my calf wasn't ready to go. So know that, okay, if I'm gonna walk then, again, I'm in California, I'm walking the American River Trail next to her, or, you know, beautiful, you know, trail run. So yeah, I gotta walk it but guess what I'm going to join, walk it, I'm going to say thank you to the volunteers. I'm going to, you know, just enjoy the moment I can't do anything else.

Tom Regal: 16:15

Goal number one is to finish whatever race you're doing an A, B, or C race. It's always to finish the race. That should be your number one goal. Exactly. You can set some other personal timing and goals for the swim bike and run the overall race. But know that when push comes to shove, you want to finish it? Yes. Like it's not gonna go the right way. That's why I like I always say triathlon, it mimics real life, like the most of all the sports because you can plan. You can plan all you want. And yet, it's never it never goes the way you want. Yeah. And I think we have something that's shifting, it could be a person, it could be a mechanical, could be the weather. Who knows?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:53

Yeah, and I'm competitive. I had, I had a number in my head. Like, if everything were to go, Well, I was looking for like a 12 hour, Ironman pace, which is within my capability to do so. The swim went fantastic. The bike would have been fantastic if it wasn't for the rain, or the wind. So everything kind of it just happened to do it is I think the the second lesson I'll talk about is is the idea that what makes triathlons kind of interesting. And I know you're going to talk about your races which are, you know, minor, cute and adorable compared to what he did this year. But you're talking about people that are running marathons, and there's no knock on marathons. marathons are very tough. But you know, you're dealing with a run, right? You know, you look back on these Iron Man's and what makes them so fun and entertaining and intriguing. And, and crazy is you get up you have to worry about whether you have to worry about the water conditions, if the water is flowing or not flowing, do I do a wetsuit or I don't do a wetsuit. You know, what's, where's the where are the, you know, where are the buoys? How are the other people going to be? Where do I line up? You get done with that, then you got to figure out a bike like is it wind or no wind? Or what are you going to wear with? You know, because it's sunny out. And so it's just the compound effect of multiple sports shoved into one. Yeah, well, there's so many variables that can go wrong. The fact that you do get it done is a miracle, the fact that people are getting done and PRS is a miracle. It's that's what makes that sport to me kind of fun. I've done marathons before and you know, again, it's it's hard to do marathons because you're trying to figure out if you want to do a negative split or where the hills but this thing you're dealing, I think we had a guest on to talk about we deal with all three elements, water, earth and air, right? It's just kind of that that you have to think of all of that and you should see the crap, I had to I had wetsuits I had to bring with my helmets. I had to bring my pedals here.

Tom Regal: 18:41

The reason we do it is for the gear Yeah, I just that alone got to the

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:45

airport, you know, barely getting under the 50 pound rule for my bag and it was just all my crap and then then I got hit by the food when I get there. So So yeah, I'm really happy with with the season. I'm not you know, I'm not satisfied. With my time. I never will be. But I'm super happy that I got to experience those two races, those races were fantastic. Arugula, I'm just, you know, now I get to spend the winter, you know, lifting weights and figuring out how to get those hamstrings and glutes to be able to, to be better to be able to remove those barriers for for next year. And that's, that's what I'll do. And that's

Tom Regal: 19:19

what the offseason is about the offseason is about some unstructured training. Just a few weeks of just being active, do different things, climb, hike, do anything different. And then just then basically start figuring out what your limiters are. What what are the weaknesses that you have work on the weaknesses, spend your spend your winter starting to work on those. And that'll just improve year over year.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:41

Yeah, I'm going to try to figure out pickleball because I haven't, because before, right

Tom Regal: 19:46

lateral movement, yeah, it

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:47

was the weirdest thing to me reaction time. Yeah. It's

Tom Regal: 19:50

a lateral movement. Yeah. And I don't

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:51

know what to do with myself, right. You know, I spent 11 months and six days a week sort of in training and then all of a sudden, I'm telling my wife, I'm like, you want to go to brunch? She's like, What I'm like, Yeah, Sunday, I'm not gonna do a four hour bike ride. Do you want to go to brunch? He's like, really? Like, yeah, I don't I can't believe I'm saying that either. So that'll last for about a month and I'll get back to work. Yeah. So, so yeah, so Ironman was mine, you decided to take a different route, decided, like, you know, Iron Man's are cute and adorable. You know, any idiot can do that. So what were your two,

Tom Regal: 20:22

I had a big limiter that I needed to work on was, was running my running, I've always loved running, it was kind of more natural for me wasn't that I was good at it, it was just something that seemed to come a little bit more naturally, and not as powerful on the bike. Really got to a point where I was enjoying a swim. But the last race I did in 2019, I destroyed both feet. And both legs, I ran on an injury which or shouldn't do, and ended. Yeah, and I know better. But it was a big race. It was Ultraman World Championships. I went back in the day three is a double marathon. I had a broken heel, I had a fractured calcaneus and a high ankle sprain. And I ran through that which almost ruptured my Achilles on the the opposite foot. So not do this at home, this was something I kind of knew, like I was either going to finish my career, you know, an end everything or you know, whatever. So regardless of the pandemic happening, I had to take a year off. I didn't I couldn't even walk the dogs for about six, eight months, I needed like boots on both feet type of thing. So it was this was really it was a pretty poor decision. But it i Yeah, there's other there's other reasons for for why I did it. But anyway, so my my thinking while I'm sitting on a couch nursing some injuries and trying to figure out how to like I couldn't even swim because I couldn't kick my feet was to I really wanted to focus on my run. And the reason my run has kind of failed is because I'd had little injuries here and there that I kept kind of working around or not letting him heal properly, I would get 80% to 90%. And then I would go race and continue racing. So that that's one of those things where once in a while, you need to do a reset, right? You don't want to that's hard to do. You don't want to take the two weeks off now. But so I ended up taking two years off. So you just accumulate two weeks. But think about that when we when we sit there and when coaches sit there and talk to you about no don't don't do anything for two days or three days. And you really want to keep training. No, don't do that. Because that just grows into something bigger. Yeah, down the road. So that's that's the, you know, like I did it for you. You don't have to go through that again. So I take one for the totally complete experiment on myself. So so the focus was a run so I got back to strength training, I went back and really hit the weights hard to build up a balanced a balanced body a balanced stature and set. So I chose I chose to throw 100 mile trail race on there because I figured that that would that would be like I would have to focus on the run. There's no There's no way around that. I've never done that distance before. I love trail running. I was looking for something kind of epic. And and it just so happened to pop across my wife sent me a video she said oh, we should go hiking in this area. But it was a video of 100 mile race. No business 100 not too far away from here Nashville only a couple about almost three hours away. And that was what I signed up in January for a October race. So that was it. Yeah. So that was it.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:35

Yeah. Question number one on this one is why 100? Like, would 50, 50 Didn't feel satisfied. I mean, I've always

Tom Regal: 23:44

done the double marathons at the ultra man. So I've done I've done a couple of those. I know I can run 54 miles on a road. So 100 was 100 was just I mean, I've never gotten a belt buckle before. Yeah, like you get a belt buckle. We were Yeah, it was it was kind of it was neat. It was different. And once again, it was trail running. So I'm

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:06

sorry, 36 hours of sheer pain. It's like if you get a bill. Why don't you say that? I mean, of course I

Tom Regal: 24:11

was I was in for the belt buckle. It was like I said, I didn't know if I could run this distance. I honestly didn't know if I could actually run the distance. And I figured this would be a great a great setup to it. So I did I did a sprint tri and worked out was working on speed through the spring. I did one sprint tri here that went well picked up my age group which was which is fine. And then I and then I realized that I had to just focus on running, which was fine. That's what I wanted to do. I didn't get out on the bike. I was really kind of disappointed. I didn't do much else besides run because I was running five days a week the training. The training for these things is pretty epic, went up to do a couple of trays of training runs on the course itself, which was good because it was highly technical 14,000 feet of climbing and then figured out I needed some longer distance races in between meaning that I just found one down in Anniston, Alabama in the heat of the night. 100k. So here's a race at 62 Miles great. It fits into my training plan it was in August. So it was kind of a nice setup and a nice nice spot for it. Plus, it accomplished a couple of things. It had 8000 feet of climbing. Well, so that got me the elevation that I needed to get. It was a 25k loop. So we've got to do it four times, which made it easier to crew. Yeah. I just had one substation and,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:31

and this is a practice for you. So being able to have that every 25 and say, okay, that works. Yeah, so

Tom Regal: 25:35

I can test things I can try different. I tried different socks. I tried different, you know, different nutrition. And went through that plus it was overnight. And I'd never written are driven or drug ridden, ridden, run whatever the sport was that I'm supposed to do. I've crewed overnight for ultra races, but I've never actually been the guy doing the running. Yeah. So that was the other. The other trick that we were trying to figure out so and it went well, great. It went great. I had no issues. We worked on things. I figured out one pair of socks that does not work for trail running. I know that they're great road socks, but they are not the trail socks. I figured out my trail socks, figured out my trail shoes. I had everything set. It went really well. I think I ended up there was a lot of DNF. So it was hot. Yeah. As you're gonna imagine August's you know, at night, even at night, I was one of the few people that didn't jump over any copperheads which was cool.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:28

So when you when you do these, you know, marathons are a little bit different. It usually is around nutrition or especially road marathons, right? It's like you're trying to do nutrition is turnover. What are those things that you have to be a lot more cognizant with, with a trail run and be a trail run at that distance? Or what are the nutrition is the nutrition,

Tom Regal: 26:48

all nutrition? It's nutrition at that point and pacing, you need to have a completely different mindset for the pace. And when you start to sit and think about it. In my head. It was like 62 Miles 100k. That's, that's a lot. Right. That's that's, that's hard to wrap your head around. But the way the race was laid out as a lollipop, so you went out two and a half miles to a water station. And then it was another two to two and a half to three miles to a main aid station, which was then five miles to the next aid station, which was in like three miles back to the water station and then back to there. So I can run to three miles, right, I can run five miles. So I just want an aid station to aid station and just practice doing that. You power hike up the hills. And then you run the flats on the downhills and just kind of pace yourself out and get into a nice groove. But the key, the key is eating eating early and eating often. And then finding the foods that work for you that don't shut your stomach down. So I go to natural foods I go to potatoes, I go to case studies are great. Becky, Becky puts on a fantastic race down there. They did a really good job the eight stations to two big aid stations plus the main one were fantastic. The people were great all night, at three o'clock in the morning. They're dancing and singing, and I'm doing everything to keep you alive. I mean, it's a really it's a really great scene going through that. So that was that was the big key. I was on pacing and nutrition. Yeah. And that was my main focus for that.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 28:13

And then so explain to folks sort of the outline of the know business 100. So what makes it unique and different? What was the elevation? What was what was the

Tom Regal: 28:21

one big one big loop through four different parts, three state parks, and one national park recreation area. So big Southfork we start in Pickett State Park and Tennessee in the Central Time Zone, and then we cross into the eastern time zone as we get a credible message. Yeah, yeah, you really had to watch such a such a watch. It's not to move ahead and then get get into well, yeah, there's a bunch of different things with this. This no business name came about because there's a section in I think it might be in Kentucky or eastern Tennessee that's that was referred to and called no business because the miners that were working through this area, felt they had no business being there. And then of course that will tell you how rugged it was. It was extremely technical. There were staircases and ladders over rock. There's bouldering there were water crossings. It just has everything. Brian the race director created this race it's this is the sixth year I think they've had it. It is a western states qualifier because it is that badass. Just to showcase the area. Yeah, the big Southfork National Park and Recreation Area is fantastic. It's it's gorgeous. And we were there right at the height of fall. Right so trees, all beautiful colors, everything. It was absolutely stunning. It was gorgeous. So here is another different thing is about 15 eight stations. You have crew can only get to about six of them. And one of them is loop you actually hit the eight station you loop out 6.7 miles and then you're back to that same aid station before you head off into the darkness again at two o'clock in the morning, or three o'clock in the morning. And so that was fascinating. And that was another one where it was chunk it down, right? Yeah, there was no run that was longer than 10 Miles 9.7 I think was the longest rough distance between a stations and it was back to making sure you eat early, often, and in pacing and get to the aid stations.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:25

So it's if you recall, it was 14,000 feet of climbing

Tom Regal: 30:28

14,000 feet. Yeah, around running.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:31

Right. I've done that on a bike and I hated every second of it. And then you had like seven rivers, you had

Tom Regal: 30:37

that was clean, if you're doing there was there was to fjord close to 15 water crossings, I would say the first bunch. In the beginning we were the water levels were low enough that we could skip across on rocks. But as we got to the last half of the race, yeah, now you were knee deep. Climbing through some of this stuff. There was no way around. In fact, one of the second to last aid station. It was on the other side of the river. And you just had to wade across the river you had to check in you get whatever and then wade back across again and then start running again. So worried about feet. So feet care, nutrition and foot care. Yeah, is the is the biggest thing that people that I talked to that didn't finish this race multiple times. All have foot issues. Yeah. And had issues where blisters, you know, wet feet, dealing with all of that. So that was a whole experiment for me through the summer. was experimenting with what works on my feet. What's going to keep it from blistering what's gonna go through there. I know. Mostly good. I went I went didn't have any issues.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:35

So you How many hours did you have to finish 33 hour cut

Tom Regal: 31:39

off because of the elevation. So you get a 33 hour cut off. My goal was to try to stay within was to get closer to 30 hours. And that would require me to be somewhere, you know, around an 18 minute mile average pace overall for the whole thing. I ran into a few issues with my feet only in the fact that when I switched shoes at one point, and I stayed within the Hoka family, yeah, but I had to buy hookah. I had older I had older shoes that I started in and ended up finishing it and I went to a newer set of my speedgoat fives and they because of the elevation and the angles that we were on going up switchbacks and things. It just beat the outside of my ankles. They were as big as soft balls and that hurt like hell. So on the technical dissents and things I had to go really slow, which dropped me a little bit but I was able to make up make up some time at certain points and ended up coming in with 31 hours and 51 minutes. So I was I was I was comfortably in front of the cut off. Yeah. And I was managing that basically it was to finish. Yeah, I didn't care if I came in at you know, 30 to 5959. It didn't matter to me at that point. And my my crew my buddy Jerry flew in from from from Massachusetts to crew me. He was the one that when we got to when the sun came out the next morning, and I got to see him he was like, Okay, we are we're 45 minutes ahead of the cut off. Okay, great, quick, quick change cranes, change his socks, get some nutrition, get everything going change out of the nighttime stuff and get get moving. And then I made up 15 minutes. So the next one, I was an hour in front of the coat off. And the next one, I was an hour and 15 minutes. And so he's able to push through to about an hour and a half in front. Yeah. And then we had really, really technical that last 4.7 miles, probably two and a half of that was super technical water crossings. A little slipping and sliding. It was climbing up and banquets and things and so I just I just brought it home. Yeah, basically,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 33:37

I think you know, one of the things that the theme between sort of, you know, when you have distances over, you know, multiple hours like Ironman or your 100 mile or your 100k runs, is your mind will get overwhelmed with the bigness of it. Yes. And quickly. And I think newer folks that want to get into endurance stuff, just need to remember, it's not 140.6 Or it's not 100 mile run, it is a five mile run to the aid station. And you have to think of it that way. Yes. Like I said, on the bike, it was 28 Miles is I'm not doing 112 I'm going 28 And then I'm gonna turn around and do another 20 You're gonna go the aid station. And then I'm gonna go the next aid station. And then before you know it, you look back and you start stacking those up and that and it's mindsets really, really important because because the bigness of this stuff. I mean, I was in I was in walking mode where I didn't know if I, you know, my quads were gone. And I'm like, Oh my God, I've got 13 more miles to do this. I have to walk with no, I don't. What I have to do is I have to walk a mile 18 Yeah. And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna mock another four, and that's gonna take me an hour and I'm gonna walk to 22 and that's gonna take an hour, and then from 22 to 26 I'll be done and that's gonna be another hour. So you just start, you have to start playing mind games.

Tom Regal: 34:54

And always say that I coach people on that, like in the swim, get to the buoy. Don't get to the finish of the swim, get to the buoy because if you don't make that buoy, then the rest of it doesn't matter. So why waste your time worrying about the stuff that's down the road when it's right in front of you? Right? Yeah, I had concentrating on a trail run. You're looking at your, your feet, right? Where are you putting your foot? If you're looking way up the road, you're going to trip and fall again. Your race is over. Yeah. Right. It's small things like that, that you really just need to just chunk it down. Yeah, sitting there trying to think about running 100 Miles nonstop was like, I just I couldn't wrap my head around it. Yeah. But it was you know, and it's all about business. Right? You don't you also don't You don't think wow, I got this big hill coming up. You don't put any negative thoughts in your head any limiters in there is? Oh, my God, it's so windy. Oh my god. It's so you know, it's this. It's that it is what it is? Yep. Be in the moment. And just do what needs to be done. Yep. Like you need to hit you need to push a little bit more. You're gonna go slower because of the wind. Boom. But that's all you can do. You can't wish for something else to happen. It's not going to happen.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:01

Yeah, I mean, trust me. I tried.

Tom Regal: 36:04

We were all trying. Or wishing. Wishing does

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:07

this one go? Yeah. But yeah, because when I turned around, I mean, it was shocking. Like, when I turned around a bike, it was like 12 miles an hour. I never do 12 miles an hour. Yeah. But you keep the same pace. I know. Like, on the second time, I knew this. What was coming. Yeah. So now he's prepared. Yeah. And I knew in five miles, I had a one mile reprieve because it's going to turn right. Yeah. So I'm like, I don't want to do 28. I just need to do five. Yeah. Right. And so the other thing I think. And so for people that are watching this, or listening to this and think we're crazy people because we do these endurance things. Yeah. I mean, you you kind of do these things, because you, you want to test your limits, right. And so a couple of things. First one is, you know, you just chunk it out and get into manageable chunks. You do that with life. You do that with anything else, right. I think the second thing is how do you manage? With for lack of a better term? How do you manage pain? How do you manage? Like my ankles getting beat up? How do you manage sort of, okay, this is starting to hurt. I mean, obviously got to deal with it, but how does it not become? And when I say pain, I don't mean an acute pain where you should be doing stupid things? Like I don't know,

Tom Regal: 37:11

there are two Yeah, there shouldn't be really clear, sharp, sharp pain is no go.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 37:15

But I mean, just like that soreness that you know that I'm getting a blister or I've got, you know, muscle soreness, how do you how do you try to work through that

Tom Regal: 37:25

the best way to handle that is kind of with a with a stoicism mentality, or a Taoist mentality on the philosophical side of things, is that you have to actually address it, you have to mentally go, Oh, my ankle hurts. Yeah, my ankle hurts, you need to focus on it for a minute so that you, you kind of admit that it's there. And that allows you, you can even give it a name, right? And then that allows you to push it back in your mind and not dwell on it. But if you try not to think about it, it's going to kind of come back on you it's going to be there like running, running on a broken foot. Right every every step was like a shotgun blast to my, to my my heel. And that was that was one that I almost couldn't put away. Yep. Because it was get bordering on sharp pain that you shouldn't be doing anything, right. But the normal, the normal pains and aches and things that you have, you just go okay, this really hurts. Yep, this is sore. I understand what it is what's going on. I realized where I'm at with that. Now I'm just not going to focus on it. Yep. And then set it apart. It takes practice. This is not something that just happens every day. But as an endurance athlete, it's something that you can work on it right. How do you like aside from putting on a Netflix movie while you're on the trainer? When you're out in the race? How do you deal with that? Exactly? What do you do? What techniques do you use to kind of get through that?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 38:49

So one of the one of the most fascinating things I've watched, if anybody has watched the Netflix documentary on the Barclay marathons, right? Yeah, it's go watch it if you haven't watched it yet. Check it saying it's it's probably one of the most insane races ever. Right and the Barkley marathons and what I found it just there was an epiphany that hit me. Yeah, it was a runner came in, I think it was after his third loop. Third, Luke meaning his third marathon distance in the nastiest conditions you can think of. And his toe had a really bad sort of blister on it. And his again, he had his wife and his crew that were helping him. But he was looking down at his toes like, hey, that toe hurts. Not I heard that. That toe hurts and he put his toe in the third person. Yeah. And it fascinated me it's like as an endurance athlete or people trying to get to endurance athlete, you have to sort of isolate that is that part of my body that's hurting. My body's not hurting that toe is her fatness. Yeah. And so, I've been to your point been practicing that. So when my quads gave out it's like, well, my quads are gone. Okay, but you know, the rest of me. My hamstrings are fine. I'm, I can walk. I can't I can't run. If I try running. It'll just completely destroyed but I No, I can walk. Yeah. And I know if I just keep a good pace. I mean, I walk fast I rock the 1430 pace, which is like, I looked like Sasquatch.

Tom Regal: 40:07

I can't, I can't walk that fast. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 40:11

I wasn't like farting around while I was walking. Yeah, but, but you just sort of say, hey, it's the quads, everything else I'm checking the rest of my body, my hands are fine. My head spine mine, you know, and that's it. You know, my calves are remarkably fine. I don't know why they're gone for three months, and now suddenly come back. But you just sort of go okay, it's over here, the pains over here. Okay, what's the rest of me? And how can I. And sometimes in the middle of a race, you may not have the best form that you want. But you may have the form that you need to kind of relieve the duty of those muscle sets. It's not what you want to do. And you'll you'll address it when you're done. But so to me, how I deal with it is I just watched that video. I'm like, How do I make it turn into that thing over there? Not my whole being hurts. My whole being doesn't hurt. It's my clients, it's focused, then it becomes a familiar friend when you get really perverse, right? Because then you're just like, yeah, all right. Well, friend, we're This hurts. It's a level four and pain is not a sharp pain. Yeah, I'm not doing any damage. Permanent damage. Yeah. You know, if I was doing permanent damage, we'd shut it down. Right. If it was like, an ACL, yeah, we're not.

Tom Regal: 41:12

We're not We're not making any money at this. Yeah. I mean, you know, yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:15

I knew you popped an ACL or something. Or if I crashed, and it was at a point where things were bad, you know, I dislocated something. Obviously, I'm gonna stop. But unless it goes to that, yeah, nothing's gonna stop me. Right. And that's, that's the other other mindset. It's

Tom Regal: 41:28

use that as fuel. Yeah, you address that issue, your dress that my toe hurts or whatever, and then use that as fuel to turn that negative energy into a positive energy and kind of go well, the faster I get done with this thing, yeah, the better it'll feel. Yeah. And

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:43

I think one of the things do I tell me if this is, I don't know why it's been bothering me lately. But there's these you know, everyone wants to you know, they What's your why? Yeah, you know, I'm doing this to you know, I'm doing this because I, What's your why? It's like, Yeah, it sounds noble. Like for this one, you know, everyone's like, because when you go there, let me back up. The reason why people say, What's your why is because when you're doing these training, and the training is so long, when it's 90 degrees out, and you're sweating like crazy, and you got another hour and a half a running to do, and it sucks you if you don't have something to glom on to, you're not going to do it. So they always say, Well, what's your why? And I feel like there's this pressure to have this big noble answer on the why. Yeah. Right. Like, I'm, you know, I'm in my 50s. And I want to, you know, no, it's like, I wanted this race, and I wanted to finish this race. That was my why. That's it. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna finish this race. Yeah, that's it. If I have to crawl across the the finish line, it's gonna get done. Like, that's it. That's the line. Yeah. And so it doesn't have to be and that's

Tom Regal: 42:44

perfectly Yeah, it does. I think we're sort of doing it for charity or

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:48

Yeah. Or this greater to have that as a child. works for you. Great. Great. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 42:54

Doesn't.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:55

Sometimes your wife can just be I want the damn thing. I want to I want to get this damn thing. Yeah. Like, yeah, I want a medal.

Tom Regal: 43:00

I wanted to know that I could go 100 miles on foot, that's your wife. That's it. That was my why, during the race, I kind of if there were any moments, if there's any moments where you start doubting yourself or doubting your wire doubting or you're going through that, then then I tend to gravitate towards? Well, you know, my wife has put up with a lot from weeks training and stuff like that, and my other friends that have been supportive and all that stuff. So I kind of do it for them at that point. It's like, why don't want to let them down because they really believe in me, and they do that. But that's just that's a side thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:35

Yeah. And I mean, I was, I think the lowest point of my race career. I was a race my participation career. Yeah, is when I was in a wetsuit at the beginning of Arizona Ironman in line, and I looked around, I'm like, I can't do this. Yeah. Like I was in the wetsuit in line. I was supposed to be the water and 20 minutes. Yeah, and same thing, though. And I was there because I'm like, I spent all this money all this time. You know, my family has been sacrificing, you know, you know, my weekends, because I'm doing this, and I should be doing this. And then at the end of the day, I'm like, I'm not ready for this. I'm not mentally ready, because I didn't. I didn't care if I finished. Yeah, I'm like, that's a red flag there. And all my training was kind of lousy. And I would do like, instead of doing a 2000 year old swim, I do 1500 Go Well, I can do the other five. I mean, I'm pretty sure to do that. And I just kept doing that. So by the time I got there, it was like I can't do this. And so I pulled myself out. Yeah, at the last possible moment. Thank God I did because I don't I think it would have been a horrific Yeah,

Tom Regal: 44:33

soul crushing then even worse experience. Right? Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 44:37

And people like well, it's better to have DNF do not finish that it is a DNS. Not really because my DNS would have been more painful than just not starting probably admitting to myself mentally damaging correct and admitting to myself that I shouldn't be there to begin with. Yeah, and but that takes us to

Tom Regal: 44:53

what your your what your morning. Pre race routine. Could be is well Looking back at the training, a lot of people keep a training log. It's great to have that or look at your training peaks or look at your today's plan, and kind of go through that and look at it and go, Look, I did all the work. I deserve to be here. Yeah, when deserve isn't the right word like that. But you can say like, you know, I earned my right to be here. I'm going to do well, because I have all of this training. Now, if you get to that point, you look back and you go, wow, I really didn't do the training that I'm supposed to then it then mentally you're gonna go Wow. I'm not gonna I'm not going to do well.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 45:31

No. And that's and I have to, you know, you said it's a bad word. But that's a my personal level. I have to feel like I earned my way into that start line. And when I showed up to that race, I did not I half assed my training. I was out of shape. I was overweight. I was I wasn't ready mentally. I showed up because I was supposed to write and because I said Yeah, and so booked the hotel. Yeah. So when I showed up to California, I was ready because we we did the work last time we did the work. He was ready. I was ready for the first time. So let's do it again. So I felt I felt comfortable going into it and I think that was part of it. You need that confidence to know and that trust to know, like to your point you you you did the fit, you know the 100k you trust the fact that okay, I know this work. I know my nutrition is dialed in. I know I can do this distance now. It's just a matter of execution. Yeah. So and that's any any wacky things you saw?

Tom Regal: 46:33

Yeah, yeah, I had I had a fun morning when the sun came back up of. And these I was thinking back on it because this seemed to happen. Mostly when I was running by myself. I saw some really cool stuff. Cool. I saw boats on the river, I saw dogs and different animals, and none of them were there. The good part is none of them talked back to me. Let's go. Right as you kind of go through. I think it's in the in the in the forest. Yep. With leaves falling. It's beautiful fall. So there's lots of colors. There's lots of shapes, lots of shapes and things that take on different shapes as your mind gets tired. And you know, once you're in the 24 hour mark, of nonstop no rest, no naps, no nothing. It was it was interesting. It was really, it was it was kind of cool. Well, it's good when you accept it. I mean, once I saw the first thing that I saw that didn't look right, I was just kind of like I just shook my head. And that was kind of weird. I felt like a space type object that was ended up being bear scat of all things right. Which can get creepy and then I and then I saw more of it right afterwards. And I'm like, That's bear scat and I went, Oh, wait a minute. Wait a second. I think what I saw back Oh, this is interesting. So then I started keeping an eye on it right once again. It's it's I addressed it and I accepted it. I didn't let it freak me out. It was that I started looking for things I would go. Oh, cool. Look at the dog howling. Nope. Not a dog. But yeah, I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 48:02

mean, like you said the sun's coming out. There's shadows. There's I love the fact you said there's bears cat and you're okay with it. I'd be like there's bear scat.

Tom Regal: 48:09

This was very country this was and we didn't see any on the I didn't hear any reports and see any but when we were up there for the training runs. We were stopping on the road when we were driving because the bears were crossing the road. Like it's it's black bear country. A good thing is coming from the west coast where there's brown bears, which are slightly more assertive. Yeah. The black bears tend to want to just get the hell out. So the worst part would be if you ran up and surprise the hell out of both of us. Yeah. Or came up on curbs or something like you don't want to run into them. I it's just not. It's not a good thing. But the beauty of trail runs is that you run into wildlife. I mean, like and most of the time it's copperheads out here. Some rattlesnakes more rattlesnakes on the West Coast. And then the bears were were pretty prevalent so that was that was relatively fresh bears cat so that was kind of kind of like it was just like I knew it was gonna be the shadow I guess. Yeah, totally. Totally like the totally like the boat that was on the river. Yeah, in the middle of the woods.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:12

Any any strange like when you looked at other runners like Well, that's an odd kind of no never

Tom Regal: 49:17

did and one of the things we had to we had as markers is there's ribbons in the trees. Yeah. And then these little these little flags that were stuck in the ground and these were every two tenths to a half mile. So that was what kept you on the course. So what I started doing and I started doing this in the nighttime before any hallucination started or anything, because I got off course on a couple a couple points. Literally, I would touch them to make sure they were real Yeah, I wanted to make sure that we were going in the right direction. Yeah, like we didn't want to get lost they had a little reflectors on and that your light would pick up so you'd see something flickering off in a distance and you go okay, I think we're heading in the right direction. But yeah, it was I would touch those things to know that they were physically there and I wasn't kind of

Kenny Bailey<br>: 49:57

wasn't any like other runners taking like Jack Dan You older anything that you know, that's really weird? No,

Tom Regal: 50:02

no, there was none of that there was none of that. The food was fabulous. Okay, let me just say the homemade chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, homemade potato soup. There was some bacon, there was a lot of case studies, a lot of bake a lot of boiled potatoes, all of the natural foods and I just, I just ate like I ate a lot of food and if your stomach can do it, I mean that's it went fine. And I kept it like I would have a bag of potatoes. I had some stuff of my own that I would take my picky bars of course, I'm a picky bars ambassador. So I have my picky bars, picky oatmeal, all of that stuff that just you just kept eating, like I just kept eating.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 50:39

And that's really important with endurance stuff is if you will is especially the

Tom Regal: 50:43

longer the distance race you're gonna go you need basically you're fueling now for later, right for an Ironman you're you're fueling on, you can't really feel in the swim, but you get on the bike, and if fueling for the run, it's all about the runner and an Ironman Triathlon. It's all about the run. Everything that you do leading up to that point. Yep, is about to run. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 51:01

you're either going to make or break it before you even hit the run. Yeah. So looking at 2023 Anything on the list,

Tom Regal: 51:09

there's like a lot of great options on the list. I want to get back to swimming and biking. So there will be some triathlons back in there. Again. I'm trying to figure out exactly what I'm trying to figure out. Also toying about the idea of going back to do the no business 100 Because they do it and opposite directions. And not only do you get a belt buckle if you do both directions, you get an extra belt, but

Kenny Bailey<br>: 51:39

no way you're doing the top it so top it to belt buckles. Yeah, this nose

Tom Regal: 51:43

and I only have one waist on Yeah. So how many belts I don't want to just kind of funny anyway. And there's a couple of really Becky dirty soul races and Alabama puts on some really cool races. So going back and doing some of the I'm trying to figure out how I can mix and match I might do last year was more training and less racing. Yeah, I think this year might be more racing, as training. Oh, that's fun. What you find interesting, just to kind of mix it up a little bit, go home and just make it fun and excitement for you. What do you got? What are you aiming for?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 52:17

So it's at the time of this recording? I think it's been what, but two and a half weeks, since Ironman, so it's sort of like, you know, do you want to go do another one? I think if I don't think an iron a full Ironman next year. And the only reason why is I spent all of 2021 getting prepared for one, it takes about 10 to 11 months, and then it didn't happen. And then you flip around and do it again. And it's just the weekends, the 15 to 20 plus hours a week it takes to do that. I don't know if I want to commit myself to a full. So right now I'm looking at definitely going back to the half Ironman in Oregon. The reason why is it's a beautiful venue. I had a great time. I just wasn't physically at my best. And it's a course where I know I can lean in and have a good time. Yeah, I was I was fast on the bike. The swim was ridiculous. And the run would would be really ridiculous if I wasn't injured, so I won't be able to go back to that when it's just a fun venue. And we have friends that write a little bit and I'm thinking about doing a half Ironman in Florida. I think it's called the Gulf. Gulf Coast. Sure. Gulf Shores dash wars. Yeah. Because I've never done an ocean. Right? Yeah, yeah. So I'm thinking about that. But I think to your point, I'd rather I think next year, I may, you know, I may go do a Tough Mudder I may go, you know, I may do some kind of crazier stuff, rather than just purely swim bike run. Like I said, I mean, I'm kind of joking about the pickleball. But, you know, I think I wanna play pickleball this this winter, just to see what the what everyone's freaking out. I'm over here my neighbors go. Yeah. And the joke is, you know, I go forward, right, I swim forward, I bike forward, I run forward. I haven't gotten lateral in like, you know, five years. I think I'm gonna blow an ACL but like, yeah, I try to take a sidestep but I don't take side steps. I take forward steps. So you know, that's why trial runs are kind of fun. I may do I think you and I are thinking about doing at the end of the year they're doing the bell ringer 25k Just for sheer fun just to know time finish the year off right how to stay healthy kind of stuff. So yeah, maybe just do do more fun stuff. I have Iron Man's are fun in the fact that when you're done, you're done at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. And so you know when you do a full it's, you know, your your all day, all night, right? I got back at night, I think,

Tom Regal: 54:38

which is the joy of doing sprints because you're done before brunch. Yeah, exactly. So I do a half so it's nice to mix those things up. Yeah, I got a little bit of that.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 54:46

Yeah, I got a hazy IPA ready to go and pizza you know, for dinner and you're set and and those are kind of fun day events, right. And you get done early afternoon and you still feel like you accomplished something. And it's it's non trivial. I mean, it was a non trivial to finish either. So yeah. I think that's 2023 of Cisco have fun rather than just heads down maybe yeah. So

Tom Regal: 55:04

so that'll be cool. So thanks everybody, I hope I hope you got something out of our little update here and go through, keep up the comments and give us five stars. Thumbs up all that good stuff that that as I say it's my little tagline right it helps the it helps the algorithms helps more people find this. Yeah, we appreciate all your all your support, and we will catch on the next one.