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AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot
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Hey Slowtwitch! Paula here, first time posting, hope you won't be too hard on me (or my aero position :)

It's been a whirlwind since one of the biggest wins of my life but I wanted to see if anyone has any burning questions they'd like to ask. I'll drop back in throughout the day tomorrow so fire away and I'll do my best to answer! Thanks!
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations on your win!!!!
It was beautiful to see.... 100% control
Cheers
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats and thanks for answering questions. I heard you say you didn’t want to mess with the drafting rules so you tried to just get out front. But when you were riding behind Lisa was it easy to use the cones to judge your spacing or pretty difficult at that speed?
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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First off, congratulations for such an impressive and perfectly executed race! We loved seeing it unfold in person on Saturday and thought it was cool seeing all the TTL gear throughout the weekend. It's great to see the joy you have for the sport and your results.

Being able to achieve the result with ever-changing training this season, what are your takeaways on how you will approach training next season even if there are more races on the schedule?

Team Saunders on YouTube
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [IanH] [ In reply to ]
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We were told the cones were 20 meters apart but I honestly think they were more like 10. I stayed 2-3 cones apart from Lisa at all times to be on the safe side. Wasn't difficult to judge, even at 40+ km/hr.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats!

Really enjoyed watching your race. You looked like you races completely within yourself. Did you feel like you were taking chances or was it as controlled as it looked?

What if anything has been different about your run training this year? Volume? Intensity?

TIA
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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paulafindlay wrote:
We were told the cones were 20 meters apart but I honestly think they were more like 10. I stayed 2-3 cones apart from Lisa at all times to be on the safe side. Wasn't difficult to judge, even at 40+ km/hr.

Congrats on a killer race. You and Eric make the sport much more personable and it is appreciated. I think there are a lot of fans of you both out here.

My question is how safe you felt travelling to the Covid shit show that is the USA? Wonderful country, wonderful people, but that situation seems awful from what I can glean from the media. Do you have to quarantine upon return in Canada?
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats!

Thanks for the taking the time to answer questions.

What did you do differently this year that kept you healthy?

blog
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats on the win!



How difficult was it to stay in one position while riding in circles on a flat surface for so long? In general would you prefer something with hills? I was impressed with the discipline it would take to do so, both mentally and physically.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats on a fantastic race, as well as the success you and Eric have created with TTL. Really appreciate everything you guys contribute to the endurance sport community.

No technical questions, just curious of you have any race day superstitions or routines that you stick to.

Thanks for stopping by!
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations on a great race!

I really like your Youtube channel and look forward to watching the videos each week. Keep them coming, it's great!

With no racing this year, how did you stay mentally fresh while grinding out the training? Did you employ a build-build-build-recovery strategy throughout the year or did you train as you 'felt' like and just crushed training the last 4-6 weeks getting ready for Daytona?

Did anything change in your training plan that helped you stay injury free?
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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paulafindlay wrote:
We were told the cones were 20 meters apart but I honestly think they were more like 10. I stayed 2-3 cones apart from Lisa at all times to be on the safe side. Wasn't difficult to judge, even at 40+ km/hr.

Hope the folks that think V. Luis got robbed read this. If the cones actually were 10m apart that means Luis was drafting Ali around 9m the first 20 minutes of the men’s race.

Congratulations on a great race Paula - huge fan of you and Eric.

You and Eric did (by necessity) a ton of treadmill training in your build-up. You looked insanely good on the run - do you think the treadmill training (versus being outdoors more) helped, hurt, or no real impact? Appreciate that just having a solid year of running was probably the main factor
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulation on your super win. Also love your youtube channel with Eric.

You are certainly a force over the half distance. More big things to come.

History question.

You were winning pretty much every race you entered up until the end of 2011 and then it seems everything went a bit off for the next 8 years.

Just wondering what happened during that time?

Bad injuries? motivation? Eric making you video him on his CX bike (jokes)

Rhymenocerus wrote:
I think everyone should consult ST before they do anything.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Paula - awesome performance! Like others have said, you looked totally dialed in on the bike and run. Question - given that you and Eric have been up in the Canmore/Banff area (winter), can you talk about indoor training leading directly to racing performance? In the final 6 weeks of prep, what was your % indoor/outdoor for bike and run?

tinman
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats champ!

1. What difference has coach Paulo made for your training?
2. Did you run by feel, pace, Or HR or combination thereof? Just Curious how you stayed so dialled in for 18K after that bike. I believe you had next fastest run split after Haug.
3. As i am a Canadian, is there any interest to chase Tokyo if TriCan were to relieve themselves of their strict rules to whom gets to play in their sandbox and give you some start lines

@rhyspencer
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats! We were rooting for you and it was awesome to be able to watch the race and see you take the win!
No particular questions, but I am curious to read your responses to what has been asked so far, thanks for taking the time to check in here!
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Important questions - what makes a traditional espresso machine better than a super automatic? It seems all the aficionados prefer the former, but a super automatic just seems SO much easier.

___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [IKnowEverything] [ In reply to ]
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IKnowEverything wrote:
Important questions - what makes a traditional espresso machine better than a super automatic? It seems all the aficionados prefer the former, but a super automatic just seems SO much easier.

The traditional espresso machine (in Eric's words) "let's you have much more control over the espresso", so if making good coffee is something you want to take up as a hobby, this is the way to go. Eric probably spends 30 minutes each morning perfecting our cappuccinos. They also look way cooler. If you just want to get caffeine into your system quick and you don't care about that stuff, 100% automatic is the way to go. (The Breville we bought to use in Canmore is actually a good balance between the two).
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [tinman] [ In reply to ]
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tinman wrote:
Paula - awesome performance! Like others have said, you looked totally dialed in on the bike and run. Question - given that you and Eric have been up in the Canmore/Banff area (winter), can you talk about indoor training leading directly to racing performance? In the final 6 weeks of prep, what was your % indoor/outdoor for bike and run?

Thanks, it definitely wasn't optimal to be training in winter, but I wanted to be home to see my family and we weren't sure if Daytona was even going to happen, so we toughed it out in the garage. Final 6 weeks: 100% riding was on the trainer, and 90% running. We'd run outside for super easy runs if it wasn't too cold and the ground wasn't slippery, but it wasn't worth the risk of injury running in the cold, so I mostly did treadmill.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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paulafindlay wrote:
Hey Slowtwitch! Paula here, first time posting, hope you won't be too hard on me (or my aero position :)
It's been a whirlwind since one of the biggest wins of my life but I wanted to see if anyone has any burning questions they'd like to ask. I'll drop back in throughout the day tomorrow so fire away and I'll do my best to answer! Thanks!

Did you swim on a team growing up??? If so, what events??? What are your swim workouts like now, e.g., how many swims per week, meters per workout, do you do any kick sets or mostly pull and swim full stroke, do you swim all 4 strokes or mostly freestyle???


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [ericmulk] [ In reply to ]
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ericmulk wrote:
paulafindlay wrote:
Hey Slowtwitch! Paula here, first time posting, hope you won't be too hard on me (or my aero position :)
It's been a whirlwind since one of the biggest wins of my life but I wanted to see if anyone has any burning questions they'd like to ask. I'll drop back in throughout the day tomorrow so fire away and I'll do my best to answer! Thanks!


Did you swim on a team growing up??? If so, what events??? What are your swim workouts like now, e.g., how many swims per week, meters per workout, do you do any kick sets or mostly pull and swim full stroke, do you swim all 4 strokes or mostly freestyle???

Yes, I swam competitively (~8x/week) until my 2nd year of University. 400 IM and 800 FR were my best events.
This year was different due to closed pools, but normally we'll swim 5k (yards) or 4k (meters), 5 times per week. We're coached by Paulo Sousa and he basically gives us the same swim program as his ITU athletes. Sometimes I feel like it's too much swimming for 70.3 athletes but we do it anyway. Lots of boring, long, monotonous sets. No kick sets, full swim or pull+paddles. Only freestyle, haven't tried breaststroke for about 10 years :)
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [turdburgler] [ In reply to ]
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turdburgler wrote:
paulafindlay wrote:
We were told the cones were 20 meters apart but I honestly think they were more like 10. I stayed 2-3 cones apart from Lisa at all times to be on the safe side. Wasn't difficult to judge, even at 40+ km/hr.


Congrats on a killer race. You and Eric make the sport much more personable and it is appreciated. I think there are a lot of fans of you both out here.

My question is how safe you felt travelling to the Covid shit show that is the USA? Wonderful country, wonderful people, but that situation seems awful from what I can glean from the media. Do you have to quarantine upon return in Canada?

Thank you!
Good question, we were very nervous about traveling (Eric more than me). Cases were getting worse in Canada and it seemed crazy to be traveling to Florida. I was determined to go no matter what, Eric was more on the fence. However, the PTO did a VERY good job of making it safe and low risk as best as they could. We were all tested immediately on arrival, temp & health checks each time we entered the track, everyone wearing masks, and everyone kept to themselves.
Yes, we have to quarantine going back to Canada, but since we're flying into the Calgary airport we can do a 2 day quarantine if airport COVID test comes back negative.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats on the race. Your effort looked completely under control, unlike the men's race that had multiple lead changes and blowups. You looked very at peace with everything. I heard a rumor you were thinking of retiring last year before winning Challenge Daytona. Any thoughts about racing Kona? You look like you could give the top women a strong challenge. Would be nice to see a Canadian back on top on The Big Island. I hope we continue to see you racing at this level. Thanks for coming on Slowtwitch, and bringing the sport to a wider audience on Youtube.
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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paulafindlay wrote:
ericmulk wrote:
paulafindlay wrote:
Hey Slowtwitch! Paula here, first time posting, hope you won't be too hard on me (or my aero position :)
It's been a whirlwind since one of the biggest wins of my life but I wanted to see if anyone has any burning questions they'd like to ask. I'll drop back in throughout the day tomorrow so fire away and I'll do my best to answer! Thanks!


Did you swim on a team growing up??? If so, what events??? What are your swim workouts like now, e.g., how many swims per week, meters per workout, do you do any kick sets or mostly pull and swim full stroke, do you swim all 4 strokes or mostly freestyle???


Yes, I swam competitively (~8x/week) until my 2nd year of University. 400 IM and 800 FR were my best events.
This year was different due to closed pools, but normally we'll swim 5k (yards) or 4k (meters), 5 times per week. We're coached by Paulo Sousa and he basically gives us the same swim program as his ITU athletes. Sometimes I feel like it's too much swimming for 70.3 athletes but we do it anyway. Lots of boring, long, monotonous sets. No kick sets, full swim or pull+paddles. Only freestyle, haven't tried breaststroke for about 10 years :)

Ah yes, the Paulo approach, I've read about that here on ST. Kind of a shame though for a former 400 IM-er not to be allowed swim the other strokes. Personally, I would find it entirely too boring to just swim free, but sounds like you do too. You should sneak a 100 IM or 2 into your warm-ups and cooldowns. :)

In any event, it's great to see you come back from injury and do so well!!! I suspect this last win meant more to you than the ones in your youth, simply b/c you had to work so long and hard for it, vs the relatively quick success you had from 2007-11. :)


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: AMA with Daytona Winner Paula Findlay p/b Zoot [paulafindlay] [ In reply to ]
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Hi Mrs. Findlay .. congrats to your amazing speeds and thank you for the fun to ask you !! The old source for racing is hunting for some thing .. so what is your most favorite bite [today we say snack] after a race you won ?? Good and healthy seasons for you !!

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the s u r f b o a r d of the K u r p f a l z is the r o a d b i k e .. oSo >>
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