ZenTri 544 - Interview with English Channel Butterflier Sylvain Estadeau and the Austin 70.3

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The greatest thing about being an endurance athlete is you frequently meet people that blow your mind. On today's show, I talk with Sylvain Estadeau, who swam BUTTERFLY across the English Channel in less than 17 hours.

We chat about how he trained for it, dealt with the cold, what he ate, and much more.  I really enjoyed talking to him because I also like swimming butterfly.  He is very inspiring!

In the Training Log segment, we skip over to Decker Lake to do Emily's first half Ironman; the Austin 70.3.  Along with some great audio from the race, I snapped some pictures below...

Athletes have to ride a bus from T2 to T1 before the race, so we got to start our day with a trippy ride on the groove train.

It rained a lot while we waited for "go-time", but Emily braved the conditions and hermetically sealed herself into a wetsuit given to us by TriBoomer.  She was happy and ready to rock!

The rain caused a lot of mud around the bike start.  There is also a problem with "goat head" thorns causing flat tires, so common practice is to carry your bike from T1 a hundred feet or so to the pavement.  Emily's laughing because I just yelled, "You didn't train for THIS part of the triathlon, did you?!"

She went on to cruise through the bike and then run the entire 13.1 miles without walking (except at aid stations).  I was very impressed.  I only got about 100 yards into the run of my first 70.3 before I had to start the death march.  This is a good sign!

The finish is inside a big rodeo arena, which is cool.  Makes for a nice place to hang out away from the Sun while you try to recover from the race.   

And finally, I found something that I'll never forget.  As you probably know, Texans love Texas.  They put the Texas flag on everything.  If it's in, around, near, or about Texas, it usually says so.  For example, my belt buckle from the RR100 has the Star of Texas on top of the Texas state outline, and the word Texas on it, too.  But never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd see a hat that says "Texas" on it three times, all in different fonts.

Oddly enough, it comes from New York.  (Probably made in China)

Alright, that's a wrap!  Hope you enjoy the show. There's lots more fun stuff inside.  Dig in!