- This is the GTN show, and this week,
we're gonna be following on from our discussion,
is triathlon becoming too expensive?
And we are joined by pro triathlete, Nikki Bartlett.
- Thanks for having me on, guys, cheers.
- Oh, its great to have Nikki.
We're also gonna be tracking
Ben Hoffman and Sebastian Kienle in the Cape Epic.
And we're gonna be discussing
whether we as athletes have enough sleep.
(upbeat music)
- Right, to start things off, we're gonna talk about
is triathlon becoming too expensive?
We asked you this last week,
the results are pretty conclusive,
8% of you said no, and 92% of you said yes.
And a lot of you actually complaining
that the entry prices are rocketing.
- I mean, one of the prime examples is KONA.
The entry fee to compete as an age grouper
at the World Championships is $1000,
and that's before you even get to Hawaii,
one of the most expensive places.
And there was study three years ago
that was quite, well, interesting,
or slightly depressing, which ever way you look at it,
that found that the average household income,
per athlete competing in Kona,
was almost $250,000.
- [Mark] Wow, so, are we getting out-priced and out-classed
by these people-- - And isn't it
the best athletes, or is it
the ones with the biggest chequebooks?
- Yeah, but again, I guess you can find races
that don't cost $1000.
- Well, of course, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, I've done a couple races actually.
Aberfeldy Middle Distance in Scotland
is 85 pounds to enter and it's a beautiful race.
Probably one of the best locations I've raced in,
and Bilbao Half is a great one.
Really easy to get to both of those races.
- Yeah, I mean, I entered a half marathon on the weekend,
sadly it was cancelled due to snow,
but it was only, if you entered ahead of time,
it was eight pounds to enter a half marathon.
- Yeah, there are definitely cheaper races out there
if you wanted that. - Yeah, but then I guess
sometimes, are you paying for the services
and the level of the race?
So, having closed roads, for instance,
that sort of thing costs a lot to put on,
so, I can understand, to an extent,
why some of the prices are going up.
Some of these services are costing more.
I think, personally, I would rather race on closed roads,
if I had the option. - Yeah, no,
I would pay more for closed roads, definitely.
So far, you know you're getting
to your best standard, and not getting stopped
at the lights, - Yeah. Absolutely.
- And cars, and whatever.
- I guess it also depends on what level you're racing at,
and if it's your first one. - Yeah.
- And if you're going for a time,
or you're just going for an experience,
and whether you're doing it with your friends,
and it's like your first event,
then does that matter, if you've got to stop along the way?
You might actually quite like to, oh, sorry.
- [Mark] Too true, a little rest.
- [Heather] I got caught up in the traffic lines, you know.
- [Nikki] That's good too.
- But I guess this isn't just about events,
and the cost of events.
I mean, it's also the kit.
A lot of people get very carried away
with quite expensive kit,
and do we need to be spending that much?
- Well, my first bike was 150 pounds off eBay,
and I had it for about five years,
and I use that bike in races, like it's--
- You changed it now, though.
- Yeah, it's changed now,
and I've raced on it now, but yeah.
Even now, there's so many bargains online on eBay
and secondhand bikes,
that if you're just an entry athlete
then you just get online and get a bargain.
- Well actually, we had a lot of comments in like this,
people saying basically you don't need
to break your bank balance
to participate in a triathlon,
you can get cheaper kit.
- Yeah, I mean obviously, like Nikki said,
eBay is the obvious one,
but then you can still try and borrow stuff,
so maybe your local club,
if you ask around it'll be amazing how many things
people have spared that they're not using.
And quite often, races hire things,
so you can hire a wetsuit in quite a lot of races.
- Yeah, so whilst there is this
increasing rise on entry prices,
there are cheaper ones out there,
so triathlon is still accessible,
and if you're getting into triathlon
you can go and do a cheap race, you can do it cheaper.
So yeah, it's cool.
- Yeah.
Drop us a comment and see,
and let us know how cheaply you've done a triathlon before.
- Well, leading on, one way to save money on a triathlon
is to get someone else to pay your entry for you.
And last week, we saw a tweet from pro athlete Sarah True
who basically said she's a bit frustrated,
that she feels some people can't do triathlon
because they can't afford the entry fee.
And she said, if you give me a really good reason,
then I'll consider paying your entry for you.
- Pretty cool. - And it looks
as though she's followed through on that,
because she had a tweet saying to five different names,
check your DM.
- Awesome.
Well, moving on,
we do spend a lot of our time focusing on our training,
our nutrition, our equipment, conditioning and so on.
But one area, and quite a big area that we often neglect,
is our sleep.
- [Heather] Well our partners at Polar have just released
an interesting insight into the sleeping habits of athletes.
- Yeah, and it actually shows that quite a lot of athletes
aren't getting enough sleep per night.
So, actually do you structure your sleep
like you structure your daily routine?
Should you be getting more sleep,
and should you be putting more focus on it?
I think athletes tend to have this magic number
of how many hours they should train per week,
and actually, how much time do you have to train
is what you should be asking yourself,
and making sure you structure enough adequate sleep.
- Yeah, that's a really good point.
So Polar actually tapped into their Polar Sleep Plus data
from around the world,
and they've actually used six million nights' sleep.
- Yeah, well the average they found from that
was seven hours and 22 minutes.
And then they found that women, on average,
get an extra 22 minutes max.
- I'm quite tired today, actually.
- (laughs) Yeah, we're glowing,
as you can see. - Yeah, we're bright.
- I'm actually interested in, they had some facts,
of who were the earliest to wake,
and who went to sleep late.
- Oh yeah, South Africans go to bed, on average, earliest
at 10:45 and actually they're the earliest risers
at 6:06 a.m.
- [Mark] And the latest to sleep are Hong Kong,
at 12:52 a.m., and Spain at 12:45 a.m.
- Oh, I feel tired just thinking about
gonna bed that late.
But it's amazing how, Nikki,
you said that athletes can sometimes neglect it,
and how important sleep is.
Because it's that period when your body
gets to release growth hormone.
And from the research, they're showing
that if you're not having the recommended length of sleep,
that actually maybe you're not releasing enough
of this hormone, and that's what's needed
to repair and recover.
And we talk about training, but basically,
the way you get better is by recovery.
- [Mark] Yeah, I mean,
you're trying to absorb all that hard work,
so there's no point, kind of.
You're essentially burning the candle at both ends.
You're training really hard,
then not actually allowing yourself to sleep
and recover. - Yeah.
But it's one thing for us to say
this is how much sleep you should have,
and it's back to that balance, isn't it.
- [Mark] So how much do you think you get, Nikki?
- Probably around seven to eight hours.
I'm up most mornings at five swimming, so,
trying to get to bed at 9:00.
But I try and work around things
to get me organised, in preparation for the morning,
so I can have more sleep.
So, just get all your swimming kit ready,
get water bottles ready, really simple things
that actually you can just get up and roll out
as soon as possible, so you're maximising the sleep.
- That's a really good point, and I think
for a lot of our viewers going 9:00 p.m.?
I'm not sure I would like that.
- You wouldn't cope in Spain, would you.
- No, not when rushing something out.
- But then admittedly you are a professional athlete.
- Yeah, there we go, so yeah.
- It's your job.
- Yeah, it's my job. - Yeah.
So a lot of viewers are trying to juggle this around family,
and day to day life.
Which is hard going. - Yeah.
- Right, well, following on from that,
we thought we'd ask you,
what is the main limiting factor, for you,
when it comes to your sleep time, if there is one?
- Is it that you're simply cramming training in,
or that family, children, work life balance
is the limiting factor,
or you simply can't sleep at night?
Or if it's something completely different, comment below.
- Yeah, and, do you maybe actually sleep like a baby,
so there's no issue at all?
- Just let us know by clicking on the link
in the poll above my head.
- Right.
Now to check in on Sebastian Kiele
and Ben Hoffman, who are currently racing
the Cape Epic mountain bike race.
- Yeah, and they're doing pretty well with it.
Admittedly, they're in the amateur section.
But you know, it is mountain biking,
so I think we can let them off.
And when we last checked, they were third in that,
and 27th overall against the pros as well.
And it's not been a completely smooth easy road for them.
- They're both struggling with style points.
I think Ben particularly.
So, they have admitted they're not really
on their normal best form.
But, South Africa, where you're heading to
soon as well. - Yeah.
We are gonna South Africa, yeah.
- Yeah.
So you'll be joining Ben Hoffman,
he's gonna go straight from the Cape Epic
into Ironman South Africa.
- And how about that for preparation, Nikki?
- Yeah, pretty epic. (all laugh)
- Hey guys, how's it going?
Stage one down, down and dusted.
- Day two, of Diarrhoea Diaries.
- [Cameraman] Diarrhoea Diaries, that's pretty good.
- Yeah, we're getting started
with a little bit of a stomach bug,
but we're battling through,
and pretty happy with our performance overall.
We stayed upright for the most part.
Sebbie had a crash at the beginning, but we were able.
- And another crash in the middle.
- In the middle too, but we were able to work back
from both of those and stay relatively strong,
and I think we finished pretty high in our field,
so yeah, I mean we're not broken
and our bikes aren't too broken,
so we'll get up and go again tomorrow.
- Okay, next bit of news, the retirement of Brad Kahlefeldt,
also known as Sticksy.
One of the most consecutively consistent triathletes
from Australia over the last two decades,
and also known for his sprint finishes.
- Yeah, I hear his best result
was winning the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
on home soil in 2006.
- And he also made it
to the World Championship podium three times,
getting three Bronze medals.
He went to the two Olympics, both in London and Beijing,
and also won a handful of ITU World Cups.
- Yeah, really quite impressive.
Well, Brad, we wish you all the best
with your future endeavours.
Now for the PiCycle, and unfortunately GTN
have beaten us to this,
which I think is a bit unfair,
because this is far more apt for GTN
given the shape of the frame.
It is in the shape of a pi,
for a carbon fibre fixie.
- [Heather] By pi, Mark doesn't mean
a slice of apple pie.
It's actually the shape of the mathematical symbol of pi.
And there was a Malaysian illustrator
who just drew a picture of a pi symbol,
with two wheels on the bottom,
and then there was a challenge that was taken up
by Koomen and Maksimovas,
to see if they could make this 2D image
into a real life bicycle.
And there's been a lot of, a long process I think,
of lots of modelling, sanding, and trying it again,
and now it's actually a working bike.
- A fully fleshed bicycle.
I wonder whether the illustrator actually
ever intended for it to be made into a real bike.
How do you fancy riding it for Ironman South Africa?
- That would be interesting.
- You'd get some looks, I think.
- It certainly looks fast. - Yeah.
It's a quick run, yeah.
- Well, one thing we did beat GTN to with,
was the specialised power metre.
It was officially announced and launched last week.
We spotted it on Vicky Holland's pro bike,
the specialised Tarmac,
whereas it took GTN until the tour down under to spot it,
subtly hidden behind a massive specialised S.
- Well that was on the specialised
Dura-Ace Dual-Sided power metre.
But they've also got the S-Works cranked carbon version
that we saw on Vicky's bike,
as well as the specialised power crank.
- And going forward, specialised S-Works top model bikes
are all gonna come standard with this power metre.
And, this is another power metre to add
to the ever growing list of power metres,
and from a brand we possibly weren't expecting.
- Well now it's time for the GTN Pain Cave.
And we've got a few interesting ones this week.
Our first one, starting us off from George Sakkas.
And straightaway, both of us were like, wow.
This looks like a massive Pain Cave.
But if you look closely, he doesn't have two screens of GTN.
It's actually a mirror. - [Mark] Yeah.
Slightly disappointing, actually.
I thought, I mean yeah, very big fan.
But no, still a very good set-up.
He's got his Argon 18 on his turbo,
he's got a treadmill beside.
- [Heather] It's one of those treadmills
with the little, like it's a bit different, isn't it.
- [Nikki] Score from the kids.
- Oh yeah, get a good spot, yeah.
Two Go Daddy signs in front of the treadmill,
and his medals up on an Ironman,
sort of hook system, very cool.
Moving on, something a bit different here from Dawid Piktor,
and he said "may the watts be with you."
And he's got Star Wars on the screen.
And he's actually paused it at the point it says
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan,
"we meet again at last."
- [Heather] Sadly, we don't know what bike you're riding.
But it's cool.
- Oh yeah, I can imagine it's quite motivating, that.
Right, Clive Granger.
And this is, I spot this already,
this is a fellow British athlete,
see the G.B. suit down there?
- [Nikki] He's been to the World Champs,
I think there's a towel.
Isn't that? - Ah, yeah! Nice!
I think that is a Wattbike.
The new Atom that he's sat on there,
but I can't quite see.
And GTN on the TV again.
Nice. - We're liking it.
- And, moving on.
Well, this one's a bit different.
This one is actually sent in by Nikki herself,
and this is actually at her parents' home.
- [Nikki] My dad did this.
- [Mark] In your kitchen!
- [Nikki] Yeah, in our kitchen.
- [Mark] I think you need to talk us through this.
- [Nikki] Yeah, number one supporter is my dad,
and he's a paint and decorator,
so he decided to put the Ironman symbol on the wall.
And we have a separate section
for when I get my first First.
So, no pressure.
- So what do your friends think
when they come around and see this?
- It's an eye opener, and a bit of a,
everyone want's to have a look of what I've won.
Yeah, in a new school, that is a lot of thirds and seconds.
Everyone's asking when the firsts will go on the wall.
- There's Ironman tattoos,
and then there's Ironman wallpaper or walls.
- [Nikki] I know.
And I think it's staying there.
They've got a spot for the front room, as well,
for my first foot race. - That's awesome!
Wow, yeah, that's great.
Please do keep sending in your Pain Caves
using the hashtag GTNPAINCAVE.
Right, for the Race News, and starting things off,
we have Ironman 70.3 Campeshe.
And guess who's on the start line?
Turns out Bozzoni.
Again, after winning Ironman New Zealand,
and setting them a new course record,
and then winning Ironman 70.3 Bariloche,
he then went and won this one.
What do you think to that?
- Very impressive, especially with the travelling,
and time zone difference, it's incredible.
- Yeah.
I think it's kind of taken everyone by surprise.
Hats off to him, while in second place
it was Michael Weiss, who is the uber bike.
He's an X-pro cyclist, so he had a very fast bike split.
And in third, it was Rodolphe Von Berg.
- While on the women's side, it was an uber swim
from the uber swimmer, Lauren Brandon.
I mean, no surprises there.
But she managed to hold on to that lead
until towards the end of the bike,
and then it was Heather Wurtele,
who had an incredibly strong bike and run performance,
and she ended up winning overall by almost 10 minutes.
Lauren Brandon stayed for second,
and then Angela Naeth of Canada
made it two on the podium for Canada, coming third.
- Hi, I'm Heather Wurtele, and you're watching the GTN show.
- Results in from Ironman Taiwan 70.3,
and American star Andy Potts
came out of the lead in the swim,
and Cody Beals was soon to overtake him on the bike,
and come off the bike for an impressive five minute lead.
- Yeah, and then he carried on that performance
to a 1/13 half marathon run split to take the win overall,
in second it was Filipe Azevedo,
in third it was Tim Van Berkel.
And then the GTN favourite, Andy Potts, in fourth.
- Muffins!
- Well, over on the women's side,
coming out of the swim it was Laura Dennis
and Agnieszka Jerzyk who had the lead,
but then Agnieszka took it away on the bike,
opening up almost a four minute lead
by the time she got to tee two.
And then it was down to the run,
where she maintained the lead to take the win,
but it was Lesley Smith who had a strong round to move
up to Second, and Laura Dennis finished in Third.
- Now for XTERRA, Chile.
And it's sort of dominated on the men's side
by previous XTERRA world champion, Mauricio Mendez,
as he led from start to finish to take the overall win.
- There was a battle for second place
between Kieran McPherson and Branden Rakita,
and eventually Kieran went on to take second place
and Branden in third.
- Well over on the women's side,
it was a much closer race
between Allison Baca and Fabiola Corona,
who were battling at neck and neck
for the majority of the race, and it wasn't until the run
that Allison Baca went away with it to take the overall win.
Fabiola Corona, second, and then in third
it was Carolina Nieva.
- And now for the GTN caption competition.
- Yeah.
And last week we had a photo of Richard Murray
gonna kiss a seal.
And we had some great captions coming in,
this one from Jasmine Meysman said "well,
"now that all the podium girls are laid off,
"you will have to do!"
- [Heather] Well this one, from Joel Klingenberg, says,
"is this seally hooman kissing me on porpoise?"
- Nice.
Well, the winner, as chosen by Nikki,
is from Tom Albrecht.
- And he's put, "the GTN show
"gets my seal of approval.
"Hashtag, swim cap."
- Nice.
Nice and cheesy.
Wow, yeah, Tom, you get a GTN swim cap,
so please do get in touch over Facebook to claim it.
And for this week, we have this picture.
It's from the Mooloolaba World Cup,
with girls, well, struggling in the surf a little bit?
- [Heather] I mean, with those waves,
they're pretty impressive,
and it looks like there might be a few
who are about to be absorbed by that wave, I think!
- [Mark] I think this one at the front
is kind of wondering what's going on there.
- [Heather] Or she's relieved she's got through,
and she's all, oh my God.
- Oh, where's that bike?
Well yeah, please do leave your captions
in the comments section below.
Now time for the GTN Tribe,
and this week it's sent in by Geneva Triathlon Club,
one of two triathlon clubs in Geneva.
But they think theirs is the best.
- Well, I hope they do.
They've got some pretty strong sign work, here.
Now this one, genevatriathlon.org, it looks very,
there's a bit of an Australian theme going on somewhere.
- [Mark] I did actually have to check,
they were from Switzerland, not Australia.
- [Heather] Yeah, I'm slightly concerned.
Well, I'm not sure if I'm more concerned
about the sharks in Switzerland,
or the kangaroos, or the ostrich.
- Kangaroos on bikes!
Wow, yeah!
But yeah, having a look through all their photos,
yeah, it seems like a really fun club.
They travel around to races together,
as we see here, looks really nice,
whichever race they're at there.
Some cool kit.
- [Heather] All looks sunny as well, looks like that helps.
- I think that's Lake Geneva behind as well,
with the big fountain you can see behind the guy.
It's actually, Geneva was my first ever international race.
And it was a good race, pretty cool.
- Well, there you go, nice memories.
- Yeah, so, and there we go.
- And they obviously get some pretty hot weather
at some point. (laughs)
- Also, well, we love seeing your Tribes and your Clubs,
so please keep sending in, using hashtag #GTNTRIBE.
Right, thanks very much for all your contributions
for the show this week.
We are actually off to Montau very soon,
and we're gonna be doing lots of open water swimming,
so we'd love more of your suggestions and contributions
as to what you want to see, what you want to hear,
what you want to know, so please,
send them in and drop them in the comments section below.
- And that's it for today's GTN show,
thanks so much guys for having me on.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, thanks for coming, Nikki.
Well, if you haven't done so, again,
and you want to watch more GTN videos,
just click on the globe to subscribe.
And last week we did a little bit of an investigation
into riding with clipless pedals, and flat pedals.
And that video's just here.
- And if you are entered for your first triathlon,
we have actually done a series of videos,
How To Train For Your First Triathlon.
You can see that by clicking down here.