Tom & Kenny Sprint Episode - What to Spend Your Money On! Athletes in Motion Podcast Ep 049

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>: 0:29

Hey, Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:30

I'm fantastic. Kenny, how are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:31

I am fantastic. This I'm kind of excited about this episode because you and I've been talking about it. And I think half of the triathlon world always talks about people getting into triathlon, that it's an expensive endeavor. And that it's hard to do, because you can you have to pay for so much because there's so many things to do. I don't think we were here to talk about whether or not is expensive or not expensive. You had to spend some bit of money to do traveling. Yes. So yes. I think what we want to talk about instead, instead of just sort of railing on how expensive you know, tickets are, and all that sort of stuff is if you are going to spend money, what would be the appropriate thing to spend on in other words, if you are in a budget, and you're trying to figure out okay, I want to get into triathlon, and I, you know, I do need to spend a little bit what would be the biggest bang for the buck?

Tom Regal: 1:22

Yeah, yeah. And and what are the things that you don't need to spend any money on at all? Yeah, that you may not have to know anything. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:30

So and then I went one step further, because I'm a non retentive, and I'm weird this way. And I like lists, and I like to put things in threes is, okay, so let's do it this way. If you're a beginner triathlete, if there's something you'd like, I think I want to do triathlon, I'm pretty excited about it. I want to get into it. What would be the, you're going to spend a couple 100 bucks, like what would you do on that one? Yeah, that would be our first category. Okay. Our second category is okay, I've done a few triathlons. Now. I'm ready to get into it a little bit. Yeah. So you're gonna spend a little bit more money? Again, we're not talking about you're going to spend zero we know zero is not the number. But if you're going to do the bang for the buck, what would that be? Yeah. And then the last category is, that's it. I want to I want to, you know, I want to go nuts.

Tom Regal: 2:10

I need those extra meals. Exactly. What's my Kona qualifier?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:14

What's my Kona qualifier? Where

Tom Regal: 2:15

am I? How am I gonna get there?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:16

Okay, so before we get into that, let's make sure you guys like and subscribe. We, we always love it. When you guys do that. It allows us to be able to provide these for you guys. We're pretty excited about having you guys watch this. So make sure you can subscribe so you can continue to watch

Tom Regal: 2:29

it. Yes. And lots of feedback. Keep the comments and questions coming. If there's things you want us to talk about, hey, send us a little note. You can get us you can get me try tomorrow@gmail.com You can hit us up on Facebook. You can have a YouTube channel for athletes in motion podcast. So yeah, keep keep hitting us up.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:47

And Tom's gonna set with threads account. Yeah, sure.

Tom Regal: 2:49

Okay. No problem. That's

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:52

the new thing. One more social media. Yeah, hey,

Tom Regal: 2:55

we'll have to talk to her social media.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:58

So, okay, so let's get into the meat of this thing. So you have somebody that's coming up to they're like, Tom, do you do triathlons and you know, once in a while, if you're going and by the way, I just want also preface you and I haven't talked about this at all? No, this is

Tom Regal: 3:12

in fact, I hadn't even thought about it exactly like this brought up this idea. We bantered about it a couple of weeks ago. And then we said hey, we should just record something and then I've been too busy to actually think about it. So so this is what

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:23

I like about it. So this isn't we didn't predetermine this, this isn't something that he and I agreed with. He's probably going to be wrong on half of it. So maybe projecting Alright, so yeah, new athlete, you want to start getting into triathlon? If you're going to spend a dime, where would you spend that time?

Tom Regal: 3:41

Well, I think you need let's let's break down what you actually need to do a triathlon. Right, the bare minimum is you need a bike. Some running shoes? And yes, swim goggles. Yeah, and that's a bathing suit, right. If you wanted to do bare bones, you're doing a sprinter and Olympic distance as your first one. Basically, you need something to swim in. They're gonna give you a cap, a race cap. You need some goggles, maybe you need earplugs, maybe you need you know, a nose nose. Something that's, you know, that's, that's$1. Yeah. So you need a bike to ride on? What type of bike Danny, you just need a road bike? Yeah, you can even do it on a beach cruiser. Any of that can be done. You don't need the clipless pedals. You don't need any of that fancy stuff. You can do it with flat pedals and your sneakers. And that makes you have a really fast T to transition because you just hop off the bike and run. And then yeah, you just need that. That's that's your bare minimum. Yep. So getting into the sport shouldn't be I need to buy an expensive bike. I need a tri bike. I need an aero helmet. I mean, none of that stuff matters. You need a bike and it doesn't even need to be yours. You can borrow it sure, like don't steal them. Rent one or borrow one from a friend. I've seen people do them on mountain bikes, any of that type stuff. So it's it that's bare bones to get in.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:02

Yeah. So. So for example, if if somebody came to me and said, Okay, bare bones to get in is that I would say, Okay, if you're going to spend like, so let's use that. So you have that you have that start, it's like, I would personally go, Okay, I would invest in a pair of running shoes. Yeah. Right. And the reason why is because running shoes, will you a person that's usually doing triathlon is probably also going to either walk or run. So I would go to a store like fleet feet or another store that a local running store that that can put you into a good pair of shoes. And I said, if you're going to spend money, yep, yes, spend money on the shoes. Yes, because you can train in those shoes. When you're done with triathlon, you can still run if you're saying, hey, this isn't my sport, I don't like it. Yeah, I just want to do walk, you're gonna get in a good pair of shoes, because if those are ill fitting, again, it's contact point, right. So if those are ill fitting, you're not going to have a good training program, you're going to your knees are going to hurt your you hotspots, blisters, all that sort of stuff, and you're not going to enjoy the training. As much as you will

Tom Regal: 6:08

totally, it'll get you you might even get injured. So So and when we're talking about that, so don't get the bargain basement shoe, don't just buy the $40 pair of sneakers that's out there, the 20s or whatever that's on sale, because it's you know, it's a blowout deal or whatever, actually have your feet looked at. We know the fleet feet, folks, we know that they actually do that there's other, there's other running stores that do that as well. And they will actually look at your foot base. And then they'll guide you towards a, a more of a performance shooter, you're looking at around 120 to 160 bucks ish, somewhere in that, you know, and then look for sales, right?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:49

Yeah. And I think most most running stores, if you're going in and saying, Look, I want to quality parachutes. You can put a cap on sort of like, I don't want to spend any more than this. Yes. If you walk in and say I don't want to spend any more than $40, that's going to be a little bit of a problem. But if you're like, Look, I just, I don't want to spend any more than $100, they should be able to find you a quality pair of running shoes. Yeah, for bucks.

Tom Regal: 7:09

The key is to find the one that fits your exact what best and your running style best. And that's what they'll test you on. Right, they'll put you in some shoes, you can run a little bit, you kind of get a feel for what it is what they do not just take any shoe like don't start in a zero drop if you've never used to zero drop shoe before, like these little bits and pieces that the running stores will guide you through that. Yes, but that's the point of just get a proper shoe. And then once you know the shoe that you like, you can find the deals like last year's models blowouts. Yes, they're, you know, 50% off there. 80% or whatever, yeah, then you can find those, then you can actually save some money on that. And the other thing would be, they're going to wear out, right? So replace the insoles after three or four months, if you're running a lot on them. Take the time to spend the money on the shoes because if you're running on a pair of shoes a year later, and you start to have shin splints and some other feed issues, that's because the shoes are gone. Right their toes they just wear out that's what happens. So spend the money on the shoes. I agree totally on getting a good quality pair of shoes.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:10

Yeah, I think it's so if you if you say okay, I got another 100 bucks left. Let's say $200 is gonna be your limit. But $100 pair of shoes okay, you another 100 bucks to spend. That's the most you're going to spend on this whole thing. I mean, outside the entry fees and all that Yeah, speaking of entry fees, find a local race. You don't need to do Ironman branded stuff. That's$100 you know? Personally, I think contact points so if I was gonna go past that the other thing I would probably consider that at that point would be a pair of cycling shorts with a decent Shammi

Tom Regal: 8:43

Yeah, cycling shorts or a try kit. Mm hmm. That's the question because you can't you can race in the in the cycling shorts but you're going to have to change from the swim to the to the bullet try shorts.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:56

Maybe let me let me make that like there's there's so for triathlons. You can have a one piece sort of all thing or you can have just a pair of try shorts below because last example when

Tom Regal: 9:04

a two piece or one piece suit, yeah, so we're saying two piece suit. I think for a beginner a two piece suit is the way to go. Yes, for sure.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:11

And I mean, because I personally raised in just a pair of dry shorts and then I wear a cycling jersey because of the distance I'm doing and I need to be able to hold food foods and then I switch over to like a tank top shirt when I run because I'm doing longer distance but for Sprint Yeah, a two pieces and

Tom Regal: 9:25

I was very I would agree with that does a good pair of tri shorts and I'll call it a try kit. Yeah, but just the shorts because you can get the top as well which is I mean, if you can find the package, it's great. I would stay away from the one piece suits because their bathroom issues. Let's just you know, let's just go there. Like if you're in a if you're in a bit of bother and you have to run to a porta potty you basically have to take the whole damn thing off. And if you're hot and sweaty like well, getting it back on is not pleasant. It's not fun. So the least amount of time you can spend in that hot plastic box would be better.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:59

So And so the things that that, you know, goggles are 20 to $30. So like, you can get a decent pair of goggles for 15 to 30 bucks. So I think you should be okay on that. But I think for the beginner so I think to me again, it's it's around the contact points, but it's going to be on a seat for 50% of the races on a bike. Yep. Right. And if you get a decent pair of try shorts, or you know, to pee striped shorts to be comfortable, nice pair of shoes. And again, those can be used afterwards. So if you continue to want to be able to just ride your bike or run and you can

Tom Regal: 10:27

swim, you can use them to swim and on a regular basis. They can be a pair of jammers or, you know, swim swim trunks for you. They dry out really well. They're easy to run in so you can just run it up. I know people run races, regular regular just running races in there. Try shorts.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:42

Yeah. Because their compression and that compression can help. Yeah, it helps with your legs when you're racing. So, alright, so we found the new beginner. They're great. You've done a few of these before you're ready to step up. You're right. Okay, triathlon is my thing. I'm gonna put the sticker on my car. Yeah, I'm going to be that obnoxious person at the party that's like, Oh, do you didn't know, I'm a triathlete. But you're gonna be those, you're gonna be that. You know, you're gonna,

Tom Regal: 11:05

you're gonna know you're talking to a triathlete. They tell you. So.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:09

So now Now you're gonna step up and kind of make an investment. So we said a couple 100 bucks, this is going to be a couple 1000 now. So you're ready to

Tom Regal: 11:17

Yeah, you're spending more money more money at this point? What do you do, right? You're doing? Is there a particular distance at this level? Or you're probably Olympics, doing maybe a sprint to the Olympics, but just doing more than one or maybe want to do a half? Or maybe two and a half? Yeah. So you're starting to spend some time you can still get away with a road bike and your quality road bike would be fine. For all of that.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:39

Would you look at clamp ons for that? Are you a clamp on fan?

Tom Regal: 11:42

The clamps? Yeah, the clip? Oh, the arrow? The arrow bars? That's a That's a loaded question. So Wow. Yeah. Okay. Okay, well, sorry about that. Ice. Yeah, so if you get a proper bike fit, and you should have a proper bike fit anyway, for a road bike, yeah. But if you're going to put aero bars clip on bars on your road bike, then you should absolutely go in and get a professional bike fit. Yeah, because we take and put you either in a really optimum road position, or really optimum arrow position. And what we have to do is kind of find that balance between the two. So you don't want to just wing that you just can't be in a good road position and slap some clip on bars and then wonder why your back is killing you when you can't get into arrow. And if you're putting your aero bars on, and you're not actually using them very much. You're just adding weight and wind resistance to the bike. So you're just like you're negating anything that you think you're getting. And it doesn't look that cool. Okay. So, yeah, that's my goal. And so I'm like, I'm always talking to people about it and saying, like, you should, maybe really consider not getting them. Okay. Right now I've had clients come in, and we've, they've had them on there, and I got them in a really good position. And we yanked those bars off and said, You were better in the drops? Actually, yes, this mean, you can rest as efficient or more efficient in the drops. And then we don't need this extra weight and crap on them. Yeah. And if

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:16

you have any questions about that, watch the Tour de France and tell me anybody that slow on a tour to France sitting in drops, right? A road bike can be Yeah, you know, it's not optimal for triathlon position, because you're running off of a bike, but these guys are doing pretty good time on a road bike. Yeah. So let me ask you this question in a different way. At what point would you have somebody buy a tri bike?

Tom Regal: 13:37

I think buying a try bike would be if you're doing longer distances, and you're going to do more than one get, if you're going to do a one and done either half Ironman or Ironman distance race, like really? Is it worth spending that kind of money, I mean, maybe you find a used bike on the on marketplace, or you find something there that's not that expensive, and you can spend the money and do that. But it's really, if you really got to spend a lot of time in it. Okay, you need to be set up properly in it and then you need to spend a lot of time on it. And it's not a bike to take out on on group rides. Like it's dangerous to be on and a lot of the grandfathers and things won't let you in with even with arrow bars on your on your road bike, they won't let you in or won't let you do certainly not in a tri bike because it's dangerous, right? You're in your you're in your drops, you're so far away femur breaks. And if something is to happen, you there's no way you have the reflexes to get back to your brakes to stop in time. Yeah, even if you were on your brakes, you couldn't stop in time. So there's no way you're gonna be able to sit up and grab your brakes. It's just not happening. So it's just a dangerous situation. So yeah, if you're going to I would say if you're going to do three or four longer distance races that to me was a number that said I'm going to do at least three of these and I'm going to make the investment in a proper try bike that I'm going to use for racist.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:57

And I agree I think you know, if you do in a couple of halves and an Olympic for that and that's your race season then yeah, I think stepping up to try bike and again to Tom's point it doesn't have to be you know a brand new you know, Canyon you know yeah Speedmax would be awesome but you know it doesn't have to be it can be a used bike there's there's plenty of people that have high quality use bikes all you just make sure that the frame is it's from a reputable space you know the frames not cracked. Yeah. To me. Frames I know I'm gonna say some heresy here and we're probably get some feedback, I hope so. Frames are now at a point where I mean carbon is carbon is carbon at some point, it's the componentry in my opinion, that tends to be the thing that separates it right because I've written like a 105 Shimano gearing and I have Dura Ace and you can tell the difference between those two it's it's a much sweeter shifting. I also have electronic shifting now. Oh, God,

Tom Regal: 15:49

I love you got disc brakes. Yeah, you've got that whole thing.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:53

So we won't get into that. But that's a try bike. Maybe when you step up to that. The other thing probably at this point would be a good quality wetsuit.

Tom Regal: 16:03

Yes, yeah. Yeah. Now, because let's talk about a wetsuit for the beginner,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:08

because you can rent a wetsuit, or some of these beginner ones, you know, their pool, I'm thinking

Tom Regal: 16:12

because right now we're in Middle Tennessee, and it's too damn hot to be in a wetsuit really for more than five minutes. So our water temperatures are in the 80s, the low 80s At this point, so it's not really wetsuit weather, so I wasn't thinking about that for our for that you can get some$100 wetsuits and things but I think if you're going to step up, and you're gonna do a little bit longer, I think stepping up a little bit and getting a higher quality wetsuit for sure, would be good money. Yeah, and good money spent. Yeah, and the

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:41

differences between the two generally are the type of neoprene that you're getting and the thickness or thickness level of that neoprene, so the high end wetsuits, you know, probably half of its marketing, but the whole point of the high end wetsuits is they have really thin, you know, subtle ways to allow your arm movement to go. So when you look at a wetsuit, if you get a stiff wetsuit, it's gonna be difficult to swim, and when you get a higher end wetsuit, they tend to put like a four to five millimeter around the hips to kind of keep you more buoyant, because most people that do triathlons aren't really good swimmers. So they try to keep people that way. So you've got to range from like 200 bucks to 1200 bucks on wet. So

Tom Regal: 17:19

yeah, and you're you're looking at like the$100 $200 suits are going to be the thicker neoprene all over. Yeah, right, top to bottom. So thick shoulders, the same thickness and the shoulder as the chest as the hips, whatever. They're very buoyant, everything's great. But what you lack is water feel, especially in your arms and mobility movement with your arms on your shoulders. So as you get to the more expensive or the higher end suits and more expensive they are, they're just the higher end because then they take the technology and they make more panels. So now they have thinner panels. Now they've got four mil, three mil to mil panels that are all welded together, that takes a little bit of time and effort to make it through and then the inner lining makes a difference. So the higher the quality of the suit more expensive, the better the lining is so chafes less. Does little things like that. So then, yeah, but they also wear out faster, right? Thinner neoprene to mill, you can put your fingernails through on the first,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:19

you gotta be really funny when you watch some people during triathlon. In the morning when they get ready. They'll put baggies on their feet and baggies on their hands because your nails were literally rip these neoprene if you're not careful, right? Yeah.

Tom Regal: 18:31

You have to pry open, there's a whole way to shoot on properly. And basically, as I watched watch your videos, both on the inside, never grabbed the neoprene on the outside and yank up on him and he's terrible. You come off with handfuls I would have just go.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:44

Right so at this point, also, are you looking at like an arrow helmet? Would you? Or would you say just a standard helmet with

Tom Regal: 18:51

the standard helmets have all become pretty narrow these days? I don't think you need to be like back in back in the day. I'll say you know, in the good old days where we had the long you had the longer tail you know aerodynamic helmets that you use specially got just for those races. Now. Most of the road helmets are very aerodynamic. I think finding one that's quality that fits your head. Yep. Maybe it has MIPS which is the protection system. Yeah, I would I would spend the money right from the get go on a really good helmet. It's your brain. Well, they go it's your brain it's you don't get a second chance on that. And speaking from experience where I landed pretty hard on my head and smashed my relatively moderately priced helmet. I spend a lot of money on the helmets these days. Yeah, that's just that's just worth it all the way around.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:46

Yeah, when you see a crackhead because I crashed as well and you see a cracked him and you're like, okay, yeah, well, it's not

Tom Regal: 19:50

it's It's no joke. It's no joke to how fast you eat and you have to go fast on the bike to crack your head and hit it the wrong way. Exactly. And yeah, do some serious damage.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:00

So what we haven't talked about is electronics. Right? So we're at, we're at this space, right? You're talking by computers, Garmin watches, those kinds of things. At what point? Would you recommend people start introducing themselves? I mean, again, you can go from, you know, 100 bucks to several$1,000 with, you know, watt meters, you know, your your cranks are our, you know, producing watts, you know, you all sorts of stuff you can do so, I mean, there's quite the range. I think you start kind of Yeah, again to a couple of half's and a thing I mean,

Tom Regal: 20:34

if you're getting into it, you want to watch that will capture multi sport or at least swim bike and run individually. Right. Most of the watches are the I think I think you graduate up from what is fitness tracker? Yes to more of a sports watch. And Garmin Choros Apple, any of those will do at that point. I think most of the even the low model ones will cover most of the sport. They'll even do a kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, and all that other stuff. So the idea is to be able to track your training. Yeah. How detailed you need to get I think still at this point, you don't need a power meter on your bike. You don't need a lot of that stuff. Unless you're, you know, you're a data horror like yeah, if you're a geek, and you really absolutely didn't know that I gained two watts over the last six weeks of training, like Yeah, then get spent. But that's a couple of grand to get, you know, power meter on your bikes and our we're blowing the budget.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:30

Yeah. And the other reason why you get a watch like this is because when you show up to dinners in nice clothes, and you still wear it again, it lets everybody know you're a triathlete. Yeah. So. So when you show up to a business meeting, and you watch, it's like, why are you wearing a garment? Well, thank you for asking. Thanks

Tom Regal: 21:44

for asking.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:47

You know, I've got some I got a run after dinner, you know, that kind of? So yeah, so there's a wide variety of things. I think what what we're trying to say I think for this mid pack is sort of take a look at sort of what if you're going to start doing this three to four times a year? Yeah, you know, maybe maybe getting go ahead and getting the tri bike maybe stepping up to a good wetsuit. I think you're

Tom Regal: 22:06

in a colder climate. Yeah, I would get the wetsuit for sure. I think getting a watch that, that that covers all your training, that's somewhat accurate. I mean, they're accurate plus or minus having having to watch a good wetsuit at this level. Yeah, I think that's, that's where we're starting to jump up a bit.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:23

Yeah, exactly. And what's nice is, you know, your bikes gonna last you for quite a while. So what I what I generally do when I start to purchase things is, you know, you get kind of the big basics done first. But if you're going to do it for multiple years, it's like, okay, this year, I'm gonna get a good bike computer, that's gonna be the thing I get, right. You don't need to buy it all at once next year, maybe they'll step up to, you know, a quality, you know, higher end, maybe, you know, Garmin watch, or Apple Watch or whatever which one you want, right? You don't have to get it all at once. So, for example, I had a helmet that was getting older. I said, Okay, I think this year, I'm gonna step up. And that was my purchase for the year. Yeah. Because, you know, everything else. Like I've had wetsuit that's been there for three years, four years now. So and it's still good. Yeah. So I don't need that. So you don't have to accumulate these things in a month. You can, you can do it over time. Yeah. Okay, let's go to the fun one. This is a fun one, because that's where I'm at. So you're there. Yeah, I think I want to qualify for Kona

Tom Regal: 23:18

crushing all of the all of these goals and dreams and doing multiple triathlons. A year or a month. For some

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:27

Yeah. Yeah, a couple of Iron Man's you got on the deck. Right. So you're gonna you're trying to qualify for Kona. So now you're going to spend money? Yeah.

Tom Regal: 23:36

Give him a coach. Get a coach.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:39

I was looking at a great first thing he says get a coach,

Tom Regal: 23:41

get a coach. Get a coach. Because at that point, I think you're if you're that serious. I think getting a coach and finding the right coach for you. I mean, that's that's interview a couple of coaches don't just sign up with one just because their coach, just talk with them. Sit down, have a couple of meetings, talk with a bunch of different coaches figure out what you're gonna get what you're going to pay. All of that stuff comes into play, but I think yeah, if you're if you're trying to bust out those last six watts and and and push things into the qualifying zone, gotta get a coach. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:13

that's funny, because I was like, well, we're gonna wheels but you know, Coach, yeah, no, no, it's, I'm glad. This is why we haven't talked about Yeah, that's a fantastic idea, right? If you're gonna spend money, right, because you can try to buy Watts but if you're if your training program isn't, isn't going, what does it matter? Right? It's sort of like if

Tom Regal: 24:33

you're, I've seen people in our second category, that we're just kind of getting into it and they spend all the money on the bike. They get all the bling, they get the great suit the whole thing and they're out there just rumbling and everyone is blown by him on these bikes and whatever and you just go Yeah, even at that point, you're in your second tier, right? You're kind of getting in there might be thinking about getting some coaching, even if it's just short terms or coaching to work on your swim or work on certain things to kind of, you have to build the engine? Sure. You have to build the engine first and then the coach can then help you realize those dreams and, and a little more power and find some more things out of it. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:12

that's actually yeah, it's a fantastic point. I think, you know, coaching aside to learn when it comes to equipment, it's sort of like I think there's a big debate on Okay, now, like Arrow wheels are, are, you know, we're talking 16 To 1600 to

Tom Regal: 25:26

$23,000 3000, at least 3500

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:29

Arrow helmet is they say, if you get an arrow helmet, it's almost as good as just getting

Tom Regal: 25:33

error. Well, now they're just sticking water bottles down. They're gaining a couple of whites on that. I know, arrows, Arrow sports is doing some testing was doing some testing on that. So I mean, I think I think once you get to that level, then you need a quality by then you're going to be spending lots of money. Yeah, actually, that then your bank, right? There's a huge step where he's like, now you need a quality bike that fits you. That's a triathlon specific bike, because you're trying to try to wring out all the advantages of aerodynamics and power. Yep, to push you forward and get you set for that. And I think that's huge. Now you need a good bike. Do you need to spend $20,000 on the bike? No, you can still find a used bike. Preferably one that fits you. So don't just willy nilly, you know, buy things off the internet and go, I think it's the right size. I get too many conversations that way too many people come in, go on, I thought it was the right size. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes you're lucky.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:29

Yeah, I think and I think for example, if you bought a good quality wetsuit, trying to step up to like the highest end wetsuit may not,

Tom Regal: 26:38

may not what you need doesn't gain you that much. It doesn't get you Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:42

I think that the thing for me, I think, is because you spent 50% of your time on your bike. Yeah, it's sort of like now Watts make a difference. Right now, watts are your king, right? You are training by watts. And now you have to get sort of some way to measure those watts, because your whole training program is basically based off of heart rate, monitor and watt monitor. Yeah, that that's not cheap. You can get like a single, you can get a watt meter that a power meter that can go on, like one arm of your crank, that's, you know, less than $1,000. But you're going to be spending, you know, 1000s are the money you're going to be spending now. Right? Yeah, you're you're, yeah, no, I have to know, I have to say I had a I had a road bike that I was that I had just the stock wheels that were on it ended up having something wrong, right before a big century, rather, we're going to do ended up borrowing a buddy's Mavic wheels. And oh, my god, the difference between the two was incredible. Just because that spinning resistance, right, because you're rotating that weight, I mean, just a lighter weight. It doesn't again, it doesn't have to be you know, you can get the the envies or the zips that are you know, $3,000 But you know, a lighter weight wheel will make a difference. Yeah, big time. Yeah. Just you know, there's there's ranges you can do your head does a great job on on. Huge

Tom Regal: 28:02

fan ahead. We also those kinds of things. Yeah, you don't need a super deep dish, you need maybe a 40 millimeter deep. And that's probably it and you will get an advantage even climbing. Yeah, there is an advantage to be had. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 28:15

So I think I think what we're trying to say is, you know, there's Yes, you know, triathlon is gonna cost somebody money, but it doesn't have to break the bank. It depends on where you're at, too. I mean, you wouldn't focus on your bank. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 28:27

Thank you. Yeah. But you don't yeah, you absolutely don't need to spend the money on certain things. I mean, you can you and I like your, your, when you're talking about doing it year by year, and that's how I always did it. So I've been doing this for 20 years. So, you know, one year was wheels. The next year was I upgraded the frame. So I started with it with a triathlon bike. And then wanted to upgrade the frame A Few Years Later bumped up just the frame, took all the components and just move them over to the new frame and built the bike up that way. Got a new crank arms, one year, right got went on like basically had a yearly budget of what I was going to spend to upgrade little bits and pieces. Wheels is always a good you can keep the same bike, the same road bike you have and an upgrade to a good pair of wheels would get you a really big bump in performance before you have to spend a lot more money on the whole bike. Exactly. With the wheels.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 29:24

Yeah, and the thing is, is to try to future proof it right. So you know because a lot of these things are the we're in this transition in the world from kind of rim brakes to disc brakes and that kind of thing. So giant debate, but I think I think you can I think you can do that. I think you can you can get into the sport you can to your point, you can start stacking it, you know, start a little bit and if that's a bug that you like, this is something I want to do. You can then kind of incrementally grow you don't have to do this whole thing where you can start out you know, you'd have to drop five G's just to just to go get your first

Tom Regal: 29:55

sprint distance triathlon and you run out and buy an expensive tri bike just Do that. Are you crazy? Yeah, you're crazy because your bike handling skills aren't up to the up to snuff really to be on that bike safely. Yeah. And you're not going to gain anything out of it. Because most of you're going to be sitting up right on it anyway.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:12

Yeah. And the free stuff is like you know, you for minimal amount of dollars is join a tri club, right? Join total. Join groups that are like minded people that can help you sort of get better skill sets. To your point, once you think you're there, hire a coach so you can start working. I mean, the biggest, that's how you and I met is to swim even though I finished an Ironman, my swim was degrading every year. And it was like let's, you know, even pros still have coaches, they have multiples, right? They have nutritionists and all that sort of stuff, because they know they need to continually get better. And that's probably the one thing to do.

Tom Regal: 30:42

So go to a training camp. Some of coaches have training camps, but you can find there's a bunch of them out there that specialize in different parts of it as well. So you can do that. You can do one on one coaching. You don't have to do like a monthly for a year type of thing. You can get individual coaching type stuff. always recommend that. Yeah. So it's little bits and pieces you can do.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:03

Yeah, so if you've guys got any other if you think we're crazy, we're going to hear but would we miss? Yes. What do we

Tom Regal: 31:10

miss? Let us know. And then maybe we'll respond to you. If our

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:16

Yeah, if you guys scream loud enough, we'll like

Tom Regal: 31:17

alright, fine. Right. We'll get on and talk about it a little bit more. Yeah, absolutely. It's been fun. Yeah. Thank you, everyone. For your support and your questions and things. Keep listening. Subscribe. Once again, the subscribe button will be here someplace on our YouTube channel. Make sure you don't miss anything and we've got a lot of fun content coming up. So let us know what you want to hear and we'll catch on the next