Unknown: 0:00

Music.

Narrator: 0:10

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

Tom Regal: 0:28

Hey, Kenny, how you doing?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:29

I'm doing fantastic. Tom, how

Tom Regal: 0:31

are you I'm fantastic as well. We we're finally catching back up with Leo. The last time we we checked in with Leo was back in June, of all things, seems like a lifetime ago. This summer has been so jam packed, so much going on, and Leo had recovered from injury, and he was out training, he was racing. So Leo, what's going on? What's happening? Where you at?

Leo Silva: 1:00

Oh, not much. Yeah, no, I'm excited. I'm racing on Sunday. Thanks for having me here again. Super excited about it. Ready to go. I was actually doing some packing before this call. I assume it's gonna need to get on the bike for about 40 minutes. Now, after the call, I got another another bike tonight, one in the morning, and then a quick run tomorrow as well, and then traveling on Friday, not doing anything. I'll probably, depending on the time we get there, I'll probably just go for quick little jog and then, and then it's go time. I am beyond excited.

Tom Regal: 1:42

Cool. So this is your 70.3 Augusta. Is this your first 70.3 cool. So take us through a couple of things in June and July. When we last left you, what races did you do as your prep as we were going through we've got a lot of time to cover here. We're going to jump through it, and we'll get into Augusta, but tell us about what, what you had coming up in July, because I know you raced. You raced Nashville, Music City, right? Yep,

Leo Silva: 2:12

Music City was a lot of fun as always. Great race. And then I, I guess, attempted to raise Old Hickory in Hendersonville. And I got a flat mile one as soon as you, like, get up, as soon as you get on, I guess the highway there, I don't know, not the highway, but the road that you ride

Tom Regal: 2:40

on, yeah, yeah, the main, the main highways,

Leo Silva: 2:42

I mean, yeah, I am going up the hill, and I'm like, something is wrong. I am looking at the power meter, and I'm looking at, like, 300 watts, and I'm not moving. And I'm like, okay, something is off. Something is off. And I kept going, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Like, I stopped a couple times to loosen up my brakes, my brakes calipers. I thought that that's what was rubbing. I knew something was rubbing. And I, you know, mess with the front one that's in the back one. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. And then all of a sudden, I heard a

Tom Regal: 3:22

Oh, that's not good.

Leo Silva: 3:24

Definitely off now, yeah. So basically, my back wheel, and I think that this is because of me moving it from the trainer, you know, on and off the trainer, the little screws have in the back,

Tom Regal: 3:40

yeah, little set screws.

Leo Silva: 3:42

Yeah, one was in a little bit more than the other, so my wheel was tilted and, oh, yeah, rubbing again, rubbing. It's great. It was a tire. I basically had to get new tires. And I'm not like you Tom I could not run another mile.

Unknown: 4:07

You're not committed to the cause Leo. You're just not committed. So,

Leo Silva: 4:15

yeah. So, you know, the mechanic came over with the van and like, Hey, how can I help? And I was like, you know, once I saw that I had a friend. I'm like, I can do this. I got this great practice. Let's go. And then I realized that I didn't have the valve extender.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:32

Oh yeah, is

Leo Silva: 4:33

the 99 in the meter? And the bike mechanic there didn't have it either. So I was like, you know, just take me back. At the time. It was kind of a good thing, because even if I had replaced the flat, would have happened again. Because, you know, maybe he would have caught it and he would have, you know, adjusted. And but, you know, the positive thing is, now I know if that happens again, I know how to fix it. Yeah, I know how it should be. It's kind of like, what lesson can we learn here?

Tom Regal: 5:12

So that's key to setting up your bike before the race, right? So now you're going to check that before the race. So for everyone that doesn't know what this is that your your wheel goes in, yeah, unless you're using a through axle, which changes all of that, right? But if you're doing a quick release, the older style wheels, a quick release goes through, and there's a little section that's cut out that that's where that axle goes. That quick release axle goes into that inside there are two small little screws that you can pull out or push in, and that sets the wheel in to get it stable right, so one side's in, Sun size out, then the wheel at the back will actually turn or whatever. So key to setting it up, especially popping it off the trainer and bringing it in, is making sure that that wheel spins freely and doesn't wobble, doesn't on an angle, that type of thing. So, yeah, so that's something to check. I mean, that's, I mean, most people don't know those little set screws are in there, I know. I think, Well, I

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:12

think Tommy, it's also important to, you know, because there's a lot of people that train on trainers, right? Yeah. And that, you know, especially, like, if you have an older trainer, where you the trainer smacked up against that tire, yeah? Like it's going to square that tire off. So, yeah. Key lesson is, you know, a couple days before you or a few days before you go for your race, make sure you, you know, check that, you know, check it, check it twice, that kind of thing. And the other thing is, like, extender, yeah, yeah, yeah. So

Leo Silva: 6:37

the wheel was spinning correctly, not tilted Right,

Tom Regal: 6:41

yeah, visually inspect your your bike and spin through. And if there's any question about it, right? That's, that's the time before the race, before, before you get down there. That's, you know, these are things. These are things you learn as you do more races and you do more stuff. So, yeah, just check that off. Now, the valve extender. Did you have one on the tube? The previous tube that popped and you couldn't pull it from that one over I did curious. I'm

Leo Silva: 7:08

just yeah, no at the time I I didn't even know what to do, right? Like, I didn't have a spare extender. So yes, I could have removed the one that was there. But, you know, I'm looking at it now I'm glad that I didn't, because I don't know it would have probably happened again if I had,

Tom Regal: 7:29

yeah, yeah, you would have had, yeah. I

Leo Silva: 7:30

think I waited 30 or 40 minutes for the mechanic, like, basically, you know, I remember Joel and Janet passing me. And I think well past me everyone 30 minutes. And, yeah, yeah. So anyways, I remember people passing me an acting like, are you okay? And I'm like, I don't know. My mic is on my moving. You know, I remember them coming back and asking Leo, you know, it was funny, because at first the police car stopped behind me. So, like, after the race, you're like, Hey, what happened to try the police car like I was going over the speed limit. Like, yes, couldn't finish the race. He

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:29

was going so fast he was popular drugs thought he was doping.

Tom Regal: 8:35

So you got through that one, learn a couple valuable lessons. So what? What was next after that?

Leo Silva: 8:41

So then I did one in Bowling Green. It was a PBR race triathlon. And the really cool thing about that one, it's something that we're going to do every year. They had a kids triathlon right after, like, following this adult fringe it was, it was like a family or that's awesome. The parents would race, and then the kids would race, and he was awesome. There were not a mission. There were not a lot of people in my age groups. But I came in first. It was really cool. I had a I had a good race. It was, you know, I did something that I had never done before thanks to Jeff and Babs Kidwell, which, you know, they Jeff was racing as well. His daughters are doing our kids program, and he's like, Hey, we're going to drive around to do a four, three car. And I had never done that, right? Because I'm new to the sport. Lesson learned. Yeah, it was one hill. It was one hill that I feel like a car struggle to go up, and I'm like, it was, I think it was a 14%

Tom Regal: 9:59

Oh, my God. Right, that's solid. Yeah, yeah,

Leo Silva: 10:03

solid. And I was happy that I made it all the way up on my bike, but I remember going up the hill and the speedometer, like the speed is showing on my GPS, is like four and a half miles per hour. I could have basically gone off and gotten off my bike and ran quicker than that, but it was a really cool race. You know? It was totally worth it. It was a pool swim, really pretty bike course, and the run was in a park. And I really liked the races where people can see you multiple times right where it's kind of like you're doing a loop, because when the family is watching, they see you here, they see you in the next one to see you coming back. It was really, really cool. Orson Lucas had a really solid race as well. He won his age group, and that's awesome. It was just, it was just a really fun, weekend. And you know, Bowling Green is like an hour and a half from here, so it was really, really cool to race with the family watching and then watching the rest of the family. So we'll definitely be there back next year.

Tom Regal: 11:16

Nice, cool. So then what happened Ned? And then it was just nose to the grindstone training and grinding it out, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. Yeah,

Leo Silva: 11:31

I am, I feel, I feel very confident coming into the race. I feel like I had a very good three, four week training block after Bowling Green. And, you know, I came into Bowling Green as kind of part of my training. I was tired when I watched, when I started the race. I think I was actually starting to get sick. I actually had a week that I didn't train at all because I caught something, probably covid, but I was like, you know, I'm going to take it easy. I'm going to recover and I'm going to get back to it. One week of missed training is not going to hopefully mess me up, you know, but if I kept pushing so, training has been great. I did hire a swim instructor to work with, and that has made a huge difference.

Tom Regal: 12:27

You found somebody that teaches coaches swimming in Nashville, that's that was decent. Yes, amazing. The

Leo Silva: 12:36

guy is amazing. I know the guy's amazing. I feel very confident, a lot more confident on my swimming now than I did before. I feel like every race that I did that had open water swimming 200 meters in, it doesn't matter how much I prepared 200 meters in. I was I would pull the brat stroke, you know, Brad stroke it is, we're gonna go, we're gonna do 20 breaststrokes, and then we're gonna switch it to 20 freestyle, 20 breath, and that's how you know I would get through. And we just did the swim around raccoon Island this past Sunday, and when I got into water, I was like, Oh, here we go again. In three minutes, I'm going to be breast stroking, and I was able to swim the entire time freestyle at a very good pace for for my level of swimming. So coming into Augusta, you know, that was the thing that I would kind of worry the most. Now I'm like, let's go. I'm ready.

Tom Regal: 13:45

Yeah, yeah, you're solid out there. So,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:49

so what do you what are you telling yourself when you're going into Augusta? What are the things that you're reminding yourself of when you when you go in, is it, you know, solid swim, like, what? How are you? How are you sort of approaching this race? What are those? What are those mantras you have?

Leo Silva: 14:07

Yeah, it's my first one, right? So I want to have fun. I'm not going to. I just had a chat with Jeff counselor today. He stops by to give me a little pat talk. And that's the one thing that is amazing about, you know, being part of a tri club and and having that community, because he has done it multiple times. So many people in our in our tri club have, they have done this race, so I'm asking impressions, yeah, just get in the water. Don't worry too much about, you know, just setting up my own pace. I know that it can get a little crazy in the beginning. I don't want to get out with in the face. I don't want to get kicked in the face. So I'm just going to. Kind of give it 10 seconds and just do my own thing, and then just just have fun the rest of it. I have expectations. I I want to be within my my time range. I would like to be between five and a half hours and 545 I think that that's realistic at this point. I don't feel mid bike, yeah, but I, I trained for it, I put in the work. So now I want to go and have fun. Yeah, yeah.

Tom Regal: 15:42

And you've got, you've got the joy of not knowing what the weather's going to be like, because we've got hurricane heading heading up here, which is going to like, I it's going to dump a bunch of rain Thursday, Friday. We're doing this call right now. What is it? It's Wednesday night. It's Wednesday night before the race. This, this is, this is going to come out when everyone's listening to this. You're going to listen to this after the race. So next Tuesday, a week from now, this is going to be right. So, so just to put everybody in context, we're, we're just before this. We've got hurricane Helene coming through. We'll be able to look back and know exactly what happened, but that'd be, there's going to be a dump of rain, Thursday, Friday, maybe Saturday, we don't know about Sunday, right? Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:28

it could be a fast river because of that. So it's definitely going to be a fast River, right? Yeah.

Tom Regal: 16:35

So what's legal? What's like if you have a lab, it might be, it might be really scary going down that fast, but wetsuit legal, not wetsuit legal.

Leo Silva: 16:48

Yeah, I am excited about having a lazy river type of thing where, you know, just go on my back and go down, but again, you know, I feel like I prepared myself, you know, there were days that I wanted to buy crowd and started raining and I didn't turn around. I was like, you know, what, if you plan to race, I want to be able to know how to you know, obviously you have to slow down, but I want to have that confidence. You know, there was one time that I went on a ride last year, and started raining, and I and I had a crash, nothing serious, but my tire slid, and my entire ride side, yeah, and I had not done any rides in the rain after that, and I was Like, you know, I got to get over it. Like, I want to be in the ride, because you don't know what's going to happen during the race. I feel like you have to be prepared. And the same thing, like, you know, there, there were days that I went for a run and I knew it was going to rain, but you know what, let's just go. It felt great. I would take a rainy run over a steamy, hot run any day,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:06

yeah, yeah. Just silly things like I you know, if you wait later in the morning to go do your open water swim, and you show up to these events and the sun's coming up, it's just weird because you're not prepared to the fact that you're standing in line in the dark, yeah, right. And that's, I mean, if you don't, if you don't train for what your race is, that that's when anxiety hits, right? That's when things like, Well, I haven't trained in the rain. Am I going to be okay? Right? Where now you know you're okay. It's just a matter of executing on, on what you know, versus trying to fight what, what you don't. Yeah. So very exciting. Of the three disciplines. Where do you feel the most

Leo Silva: 18:45

comfortable? You know, not swimming. I would love to say that I feel like lately I feel very good with my running, like I feel like I can tell that my running has gotten better, you know, and different ways, right? You can become a heart rate now, when I'm doing a, you know, faster interval, faster to me interval, and how we want six months ago and but, I mean, I the bison is just awesome. I normally have a tendency of getting nervous during the races, my heart rate will go to like 170 as soon as I get out of the swim. So I need to settle down. Let it Yeah, but I'm excited. You know? I think that nowadays so many people ride indoor, right? Which is, which is great. Sometimes, you know, you must do that because of timing. I've been going to the trace on weekends, and I've been loving it. I'm excited to be riding in a different place. And, yeah, yeah, be able to see other. Things. I think that really cool. I know that, you know, the trace is pretty hilly. Augusta is not that hilly of a course. So I was watching a video, someone calls it a video of the whole bike course. And I was like, thank you. I forgot the name of the guy, but that's great. He drove for an hour and a half with his cell phone, turn by turn. And he's like, Okay, this, I think, is like a 3% grade. And I'm like, That's awesome. I'm on like, you know, you go to the trace, and that's so I'm excited to see how I do on the bike, but I want to be able to have a solid run. So it's just like there's a lot of, I guess, emotions right now, like I was thinking this week, you know, I've been waiting for business. Last year I signed up for Chattanooga in a race because of the accent here, and I feel like I did my part with the training. I think my wife is almost as excited as I am, which is great, like she, you know, she put it in a checklist of like, Hey, this is something that we're going to bring. Where's the nutrition? Where's this, where's that?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:16

That's fantastic.

Leo Silva: 21:18

Yeah, my in laws are coming to watch. My brother in law is coming, no pressure. So, yeah, and, I mean, you know, we had, we had, you know, booked two hotels near the venue, and we canceled that and rented a big house so we can all stay together. It would be really cool. It would be really cool. I cannot wait. And I'm already thinking, you know, on the car ride back, what's my next race? Like, I'm gonna go ahead and book it. And you know, you're talking about the training. Danny, like, you know you have to train the same time that you raise. I mean, yeah, yeah. When was it this morning? I think I was up at five, and I was at lifetime at 525, in the pool, dark, and you just like, I think it's now part of me. Like I I enjoy that. I enjoy the process. I enjoy seeing the progress, it's just been pretty great. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:25

it was fun too. Is like, when you have whole families that show up, it's just the energy is fantastic, right? When you've got, you know, fathers and mothers and wives and kids, you know that everybody's cheering for you and you they got banners out. I mean, that's what makes that the races fun, right? It's what makes it electric for those people, that that brings that, you know, when you're tired and you're on Mile six, and you know, you got half of a marathon to go still and you're like, Okay, you know, you know half of a half of a marathon, I guess. But So Leo, do you have, like, this is big on my list. But do you have, like, a food or drink or something that, like, after the race you just can't wait to sink your teeth into?

Leo Silva: 23:09

No, I, you know, I was thinking about it. I know I'm going to be hungry meal you want when you're done, but I, man, I'm not that pinky, no, that our goal is going to be to get on the road, because the kids have school on Monday. The challenge with the Sunday race, some really awesome people at work. They are like, my whole office is going to be tracking me. And they're super excited because they, you know, they went through, they asked them to, right, I was off work for, you know, a month, and they are all kind of cheering me on, and they're all excited about my race. And I want to be back. I want to be back on Monday in the office. So I think that we're going to finish the race, we're going to get on the road. I actually sent a message to the guy that we are renting the house from one thing, hey, and I always probably, I don't know what time is the checkout, and I stop by and take a shower. Yeah, that's what I want. That's what you probably just have, you know, protein shake waiting for me. And then probably stop on the way

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:22

get a Chipotle and call it a day, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, you

Leo Silva: 24:26

know, Chipotle would be nice. I would, I would love that. This is

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:30

brought to you by Chipotle.

Leo Silva: 24:35

But something quick, yeah, I'm a big burger fan, so you know, if there's a fine guy on the way, five guys would be awesome. I could probably eat a whole, like, single fries and large one.

Tom Regal: 24:49

You'll probably eat two of those. Yeah, yeah, you'll want, yeah, you'll be so hungry. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:54

The thing for me, though, is, like, the last, the last three or four miles, all I'm thinking about is the food I get eat when I get done. So. You know, I'm, I guess I'm stomach for it when it comes to that, like, I get to have chicken, I don't know why it's fried chicken. For me. I don't know what it is the grease and the, you know, and the protein and the fat, I guess. But so it's surprising when people don't have it, like, Well, what do you want? Like, I don't know. Like, really, I've already thought about it, like, weeks in advance, and

Tom Regal: 25:21

he's planning out next year, planning out next year, next year, exactly.

Leo Silva: 25:29

Yeah, I think, you know, the cool thing is, you have plenty of time to think about it right when you're

Tom Regal: 25:35

gonna be out there for a couple hours. So, yeah,

Leo Silva: 25:39

you know when I was when I was swimming this past weekend. It's cool because, you know, I did the last thing I did lesson with Tom, thanks Tom. But I was like, I would be swimming. And I was like, Alright, do the big C that Tom talks about, and patient can and like, I would be, like, thinking about those things. And I'm as I'm going, so i i I always do math when I'm like, do numbers. I'm a numbers guy, so I'm like, Okay, I've run three miles. That's a 5k I got to run that three more times, and then I'm going to have a little bit, you know, like, I'm always doing some calculations in my head, yeah. And I'm like, Okay, I'm done, like, I don't know. It's kind of like, you know, when you're, I guess, trying to figure it out, spend money on triathlon, how you just provide that? That's kind of what I do. In my mind, yeah, he's

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:30

calculated the cost per mile. Yeah,

Tom Regal: 26:32

don't do that. Scary. Just figure out, make improvements, and then you can justify your spend,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:41

because you'll find out a drug habit is actually cheaper than the triathlon and keeps you still, you know, still fit and trim. Yeah,

Tom Regal: 26:49

it's cheaper to be on meth,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:53

really is. It's kind of scary on that thought. So, yeah,

Tom Regal: 26:58

so cool. So this is

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:00

brought you by meth.

Tom Regal: 27:04

Do drugs. Kids do drugs. No, don't. Don't do drugs. Do triathlon instead, there you go. Do triathlon. Yeah, so you're set, you're you've got, yeah, okay, so our next check in with you is going to be after the race. We'll probably catch you in a couple weeks. Let it all sink in, figure out what when you signed up for next because you're going to do that on Monday, right after when you get into the office, on Monday after the race. So you're going to wear your metal absolutely you're going to leave your wristband on. You're going to leave your wristband on

Leo Silva: 27:41

for six months. I normally wear a dress shirt, long sleeve, but that day it's going to be sleeveless. Nice.

Tom Regal: 27:48

There you go. Number ripped, ripped sleeves, ripped sleeves with a tie and the numbers and the Yeah, yeah, and the metal. Nice. There you go. Perfect. Love that. Yeah, yeah. Well,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:59

Leo, I think we're super excited for you. I mean, it's, it's, you know, your journey has been crazy, right? You're a hospital in France. Now you're getting ready to to tackle your first half. And it sounds like what's fun is, you know, you understood that swim was a deficit, you you you took a target to go fix that, and now, you know, it sounds like you're approaching it with fun and zest and the families involved, and that's really what's fun about these events, even though it's a solo event. You know, your wife is helping you prep, which is fantastic. You know, that's that's going to be a lot of fun. So I think with the support you have and the the lessons you learned from, you know, from the last couple of months, it sounds like you're gonna be set up for

Leo Silva: 28:42

success. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am. I am super excited anything like the way you said. You know, I I'm a competitive guy. I want to, I want to do my best, right? So I realized that for me to do that, I needed to fix my swimming. And I know there's a lot, a lot to do there. And I knew that I would, I would kind of get through, but I knew that my legs would be really tired, yeah, because every time I I'm doing breaststroke, right, I'm getting my legs exhausted. So like, you know, I need to do this. Like, and it was kind of out of my comfort zone, a little bit, like, I don't know, I feel like, sometimes people don't want to get help, right? When, when? Different things in life, like, but I'm like, You know what? I feel like, the bike and the running, it's something that you can, you can put time, and you're going to get better. But the swimming, it's, it's, it's all about technique, right? Like, if you, if you're doing it wrong, it's not going to get

Kenny Bailey<br>: 29:41

better. Yeah, you can't brute your way through a swim. And, you know, that's the thing, right? You think you're like, well, I could just hammer it harder. Well, when you're fighting it against the water, you know water's going to win every

Tom Regal: 29:51

time, right? Especially sprint Olympic you can maybe kind of muscle your way through once you start going a half Iron distance and bigger, it's, it's our most. Technical sport, right? It's the most technical sport. The only way to improve is body position and getting the technical parts in there, which you put the time in. You did it. You made huge strides. You made really good you put the effort in so and you're going to get the reward for it now. So that's the best part. Tom

Leo Silva: 30:17

said. Tom said that if the Olympics were a little bit later in the year, I totally I would have had a shot at the trial, I think so

Tom Regal: 30:26

absolutely no one thing is that you've already speaking your breaststroke was worse than your freestyle. So, I mean, that's where we had to save the fact that you were defaulting to your breaststroke, which you're like, what's my breaststock? Like, let's just work on your freestyle. Let's

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:43

just work on freestyle. Yeah, let's stick to one story. We're gonna put a pin in that one. We're just gonna go ahead. We'll come

Tom Regal: 30:50

back to that. We need a little more times. Let's circle back.

Leo Silva: 30:54

But I know. Like, you know I wanna, I wanna get better running, right? So both race I know that I'm going to be focusing on my running quite a bit, because I next year, when I do a race next year, I want to crush the run. That's my goal. I'm hoping that I can run, you know, 845, nine minute mile. I want that to go much lower next year, so we'll see. Yeah, yeah, I think it's having those goals is great, and I look forward. I'm already looking forward to it.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:31

Nice, fun, good,

Tom Regal: 31:33

good deal. So thank you for sharing your journey with us. We're going to check in with you one more time after this, but we're super excited for you. We'll be tracking you. Really excited for that, and for everybody, don't forget to subscribe. The button will be here someplace. We'll have that down in the notes as well. Yeah, hit the like button. Let everybody know. Five stars, thumbs up. All that great stuff. The algorithm, yeah, gets us out to more and more people. And follow along. Don't miss an episode as we check back in with Leo and the rest of our triathletes journey crew, as we're following and catching up with everybody a little bit late, but we're catching up with everybody still, and we appreciate all the comments and all that fun stuff. Share, share, share, share everything you can get more people listening to the podcast, we really appreciate it. So Leo, thank you so much Kenny as well, and thanks Everybody, we'll we'll catch you on the next show.

Unknown: 32:42

You