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Caleb Olson | 2026 UTMB Pre-Race Interview
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Caleb Olson joins us in our Chamonix studio a little over a week out from his debut at UTMB.
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Single tracks coverage of the 2026 UTMB World Series Finals is brought to you by Norda Precision Fuel and Hydration and RAID Research. The single best way you can support our coverage in these next two weeks is by supporting our partners. You can use our discount codes linked in the show notes of these episodes. You can mention us in post-purchase surveys and a lot more, all that good stuff. It helps a ton. A few notes here. Obviously, Norda recently released the 055 shoe model. This is a fantastic trail super shoe, especially I think in the multi-day category and in these hundred-mile mountain races. Go check it out. They've also got a new partnership being announced, I believe, on August 26th. So stay tuned on socials for that. Precision Feel and Hydration, our official nutrition partner of this coverage. They're going to be set up all week in Chamonix as well. They have a ton of athletes racing, including Caleb Olsen, Rachel Entriken, Rachel Drake, Tyler Green, to name just a few. And then finally, Raid. They have a showroom here in Chamini from August 24th through the 29th at Stanglard Sports. That will include a range of 2027 prototypes that can be demoed to get your feedback on. They're also selling their LF5L vest, running belts, and current apparel line. So yeah, thank you to Raid, Norda, and Precision Fill and Hydration for making these entire two weeks possible. All right, our 2026 UTMB World Series Finals coverage continues, and I am blessed, overjoyed, I would say, overjoyed is the word, to have a good friend in studio, Caleb Olson. Caleb, how are you doing this fine Tuesday, Wednesday afternoon in downtown Sham? Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm doing well, losing track of the days, but it is awesome to be here. Thanks for having me on. Do you know I think YouTube knows, but do you know what the elephant in the room is? I have no idea. Yeah, I don't really know either, but um, I mean, just looking at you. Something looks different. Today is day one of trying out a French mustache. Talk about the genesis of this idea.
SPEAKER_02Back in like January, I had the thought of like, what would be something funny I could do for UTMB, something I haven't done before. And for some reason the idea hit me of like, a mustache. But then I thought, if I'm gonna do it, I want like one of the big curly French ones. Turns out those are really hard to grow. Like they take like months and months of preparation, and like apparently your hair learns the right way to grow if you like style it every day and stuff, which I didn't have the dedication to do. But this was my uh kind of like half-hearted, like give it a decent attempt, but also I don't want to walk around with the big mustache all styled up all the time because it's actually like pretty annoying to have on your face. So this is my uh attempt at it. We'll see. I have a feeling it won't stick around until the race, but I wanted to at least give it a few days of airtime.
SPEAKER_01We appreciate you committing it to this interview. Of course, this is the best place to debut it, I could imagine. Alright, I wrote down two quotes. One of the last times we trained, it might have been the last time, it was in Auburn post- uh Western states last year. You were basically incapacitated, but we did a we had a great reflection on your on your win there. One of the quotes you had, if I think about what race is gonna define me as a runner, I would have never picked Western states. I'd rather be good at a UTMB or something cool like hard rock. Why?
SPEAKER_02Uh I think a lot of it has to do with like training and and the actual race itself, but you spend so much time for preparing for any of these ultras, trying to get on routes and courses that are similar to what you're gonna be racing, so that you can be prepared for it. And what that means for Western states is that you're trying to spend as much time as possible in as much heat as you can on like rolling kind of non-technical gravel, like what what that ends up meaning is like Salt Lake City area, foothills, BST kind of trails that just aren't really my favorite things to be running, and it feels pretty forced for me. Um the style of training that I do for something like UTMB tends to be a lot more like getting up to high alpine peaks and running down ridgelines and like coming out early to the Alps and spending time out here to just get used to the area and the trails out here, and I just think that's way more beautiful and inspiring. And I love that the course does a loop around this iconic peak that I've climbed several times. It just has a little more meaning to me, I think, than something like Western States.
SPEAKER_01So it's super important to choose like what you'd actually like to train for, like what where you have to be every single day for three or four months.
SPEAKER_02Right, because that's like you spend so much more time training than you do actually racing. You have to enjoy what you're doing, or else you're just gonna burn yourself out.
SPEAKER_01I remember after Western, like you said you kind of told yourself before that race that like this is the last dance. I'm gonna throw it all out there because I I'm probably not gonna come back. Would that same psychological device work for UTMB? Like, could you theoretically use that for this and you think you'd probably get the best out of yourself that way?
SPEAKER_02Or I think I'm kind of coming to this one with the opposite approach of like I'm in this for the long haul. The goal is to one day win UTMB, and if that's this year, awesome, I can just check it off and move on to the next thing that excites me. But if that's five years from now, then I'll spend the next five years trying to figure this out and uh do it until I get it right.
SPEAKER_00Five years.
SPEAKER_02I'm just throwing a number out there.
SPEAKER_01What would you say, yeah, over the last few years as you've kind of become professional with this, what what's worked best for you mentally to get ready for a race of this magnitude?
SPEAKER_02I don't know if I've really if I feel like I've nailed that yet. I think it's kind of trial and error. Um it seems like what works best mentally is kind of like I mentioned earlier, like do things that I enjoy, and if there's things that I don't enjoy, put a tight timeline on them. And I think I've noticed that that's kind of how I work in life in general, not just in running, but like I can power through something hard and uncomfortable if I know when it ends, and if that end point is not super far out. Like for Western States, I was like, I'm doing a dedicated like six weeks right now, it's gonna be tough. Marshall was just born, and I don't love what I'm doing, but then it's gonna be over, and so there's like an end in sight. For this one, I think I just love what I'm doing a lot more, and it's still a grind, it's still hard, and like I've been working hard, and so it's nice to know like basically today, actually, like the taper starts and then the race ends the block and we move on, but it's also just been a lot more fun. So I think my mental strategy is just do things that I enjoy, and if I'm liking what I'm doing, then I tend to do a lot better at it. Would you consider last summer here like a scouting mission? That's not why I came out, but it did sort of turn into a scouting mission. Um, I ended up seeing part of the course. I did Mount Blanc twice, and so I got to get inspiration through like going to the summit that is at the center of this entire event. And I spent a lot of time just in the Alps in general, getting ready for worlds, doing a lot of vert, spending time with people who I look up to in the sport who I could see how they were training and like get some ideas, or I think that kind of like influenced what I thought might work for training for UTMB. So I think it was helpful to come out last year and experience that. And then I've also been out racing CCC three years in the past, so I'm familiar with that part of the course and how to race that.
SPEAKER_01If you take into account all the time you spent out here since like the beginning of this decade, like all the CCCs last year. Um I mean, how much was there to learn for you over the last three weeks about how to approach this race? Like how much more of the course do you appreciate now, stuff like that?
SPEAKER_02I had never done some sections of the course, like from uh Le I'm gonna butcher these names, but like Le Chapu or whatever. Les Chapu over to Cormayer. I hadn't seen that part yet. And that I think was great to see, harder than I had imagined it would be. And so like actually feeling what the downhills feel like, I think is good to just know, like, alright, there might be a few things I want to tweak in my training over the next three weeks to prepare for this. But I think in general it it wasn't like revolutionary, it was more just little reminders of like it rains here and I should put on a jacket when it rains because the Wasatch is so dry, like I never practiced that. So little things that you kind of take for granted if you live in a place like this, probably, and aren't really tough skills, but just good reminders of like I need to uh just perfect that a little bit for race day. And I'm sure there's plenty of things that I haven't found yet, too, that I'll find out during the race and then maybe take forward into another race someday.
SPEAKER_01What skill were you like spending the most time on?
SPEAKER_02I think maybe the biggest eye-opener were was that my downhill legs didn't quite feel ready. I had kind of a rocky start to the season with some injuries and like rehabbing a femur issue, and that made me really hesitant to put too much weight through the quads, I think. So I did a lot of my like big weeks with very easy downhills, um, just taking it slow and careful and making sure that I don't overwhelm any of the problem areas that I had going on that I was trying to rehab. And that worked for getting in big volume, but it didn't work very well for like toughening up the legs, I think. So the biggest realization out here is like I've got to take a little risk, and even if it means uh I I do think I'm in the clear on a lot of the injury things I was dealing with, but even if it means like risking a little bit of health there, you've got to toughen up the legs in order to handle this course, I think.
SPEAKER_01Is there any difference in pressure when you've already won one of the big ones in our sport? Internally, I well, yes, I think so.
SPEAKER_02Like now I'm getting mentioned in the like UTMB announcement posts and stuff like that. And uh like I don't know if that really affects how much pressure I feel, but I think more internally, like I just know that there is the possibility of me winning a big one now because I've done it before, and so it makes me want that and think that maybe that could happen this time. And I think once you let yourself like dream a little bigger like that, and think maybe this'll be another big one, you uh kind of s sometimes have to deal with the pressure that comes with that and like makes me more nervous because it's not like this doesn't I don't know, this affects my career, this affects like my family's well-being, and it's something that I've worked hard for and just care a lot about.
SPEAKER_01So I think internally I put a lot of pressure on myself for it. You told us in that Western interview that one of the big unlocks in that race was going out harder in banking time. Do you keep that front-running identity in UTMB?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about that on a lot of my training runs because I've felt tired for like a month or two now. Like I my legs have not felt great. I just have been like deeply fatigued, I think, which is not super abnormal for me. Like that's fairly normal for a training block with big volume. But it's just hard to imagine going the pace that I know some of these people in the front are running, and I'm doing my training runs and I'm nowhere close to the splits that I know front people will be hitting at UTMB, especially in the first like third when everybody's going really fast. So that makes me think that either the taper is gonna breathe some life into my legs and everything will magically work out, and like the race day energy will just carry me through to these faster splits than I'm thinking I'll hit right now. Or I'll get out there and I'll see everybody running really fast and I'll think they're crazy and I'll drop 10, 15, 20 minutes back and just hope that eventually I can make up that time.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I was gonna ask if I was gonna ask if in previous training blocks it's been important from a confidence standpoint to be able to either hit race course splits or at least to feel like if you needed to, you could, versus like making that difference up with just race energy.
SPEAKER_02Like for Western states, I went out and did a little training camp and scattered it out, and I did like three what felt like moderately easy days on the course at about what I thought I might be running at. Like, it's not that hard to run hundred-mile pace for three or four hours if you're truly running hundred-mile pace. Like, that's something that you should be able to hold for 14 to 20 hours, depending on the race. And so I actually ended up like during Western States, I compared my splits during the race to my training runs, and they were within a couple minutes most of the time. Like it was a pretty accurate uh training block, I guess, in terms of matching race pace to these training days. On the UTMB course, I don't know because there's such a drastic slowdown usually between the front of the race and the back half of the race that it's hard to hit these paces at the beginning when I'm tired and I'm in a training block, but then at the end I can pretty easily run faster than a lot of the UTMB splits because people have slowed down a lot by that point. So I'm hoping that it kind of averages out and like the slower on the front end and the faster on the back end just works out to uh average, I guess, but it's hard to know right now.
SPEAKER_01How did you feel 10 days out from Western states in 2025?
SPEAKER_02Uh I felt tired and excited to taper, and I don't remember who said it, but I I want to say it was like Dylan Bowman or something. Some podcast I listened to a while ago. Somebody was talking about tapering so tapering enough that they get like antsy to go out and do something big and like they love that feeling of wanting a big adventure. And I feel like right now I don't want a big adventure. I want to like sit at home and not run and uh watch TV or something, hang out with the family. And so I'm hoping that a few days or a week of like really low running gets me excited and antsy to go out and do another big day because that does come around pretty fast, and like I get anxious for that quickly. Uh but right now and 10 days before Western States, I think I'm feeling like, man, I just put in a lot of work and I'm excited to chill.
SPEAKER_01Did you get that uh Debo feeling like the day or two before the race at Western was like, I'm ready, I'm ready to bury myself?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it came around and I got myself into the right mindset and like the pop came back and the energy was there, and so I'm hoping and trusting that that'll happen this time too.
SPEAKER_01Mentioned coming back from the injury earlier this year. Talk about uh I mean, what's like a lesson that you picked up from the first half of 2026?
SPEAKER_02I actually think my training was great. I think maybe the biggest lesson was food related. Like I think I think I wasn't eating enough, and so I've been really conscious of food since the injury. Like you don't get a stress fracture in the middle of your femur. Really like that's a big strong bone, and I feel like the only reason I might have gotten that is because I wasn't eating enough to fuel everything I was doing, which was a good wake-up call. And it's still hard to feel like I'm getting in enough, and it's not like a it's not like a watching my weight or like the way I look kind of thing, I don't think. It's more just like an appetite, like I I think my appetite doesn't keep up with the training sometimes. So it's trying to find ways to trick your body and squeeze in extra calories and carbs and stuff. But I think that's been my biggest learning and takeaway from all this is just making paying attention to how much I'm eating versus how much I'm training and making sure that it's enough.
SPEAKER_01Do you generally feel that even with the injury factored in, like you've gotten better as a runner this year, like your career's progressing?
SPEAKER_02I think so, yeah. Uh definitely in terms of like vert and mountainous terrain specifically, I've put in like the most mountainous volume that I've ever done in my life, and I feel like I can really consistently like my ceiling is not nearly as high as it was for Western states. Like I can't go out and rip fast miles, but I can hold a moderate pace for a very long time without dropping off, which I think will be more important for a race like UTMB. So I think I'm progressing, but I'm also shifting from like a little less on the top end and a little more on the base.
SPEAKER_01I want to go through some of the races you did, even going back as far as GPT last year. Actually, let's start with GPT. Like, what did what did you get out of the GPT experience that you think is essential for UTMB this year?
SPEAKER_02Super different than Western. Like Western, you basically start in the morning and you finish in the evening before it gets dark if you're going fast. And so I hadn't had that experience of like really racing through a night. I guess I'd done Transgrand Canaria, which starts at midnight, but that still isn't like racing through an entire night. Um GPT definitely was racing through an entire night, which is part of why I picked it. I wanted practice with that. Got practice with like preparing for and dressing for adverse weather. There was lots of rain and fog and wind, and it was cold up on the ridges, but it was also hot and sunny in the morning before the storms hit. So we got like a big variety of weather, and I think that was really helpful for me. Um maybe it also helped me a bit in the in terms of like finding some internal motivation because there wasn't a lot of like people to run with. I was kind of on my own after like 30 miles or so, and that was a long time, many, many hours just in my head questioning why am I doing this, do I like this, that sort of thing. And uh I think it's good to just go through that every once in a while and remember why you're out there and that you can do these things even if you're all by yourself. And hopefully I'm not all by myself during UTMB, but like there's always stretches where things thin out, and now I know that I can keep myself moving even if that happens.
SPEAKER_01And then with Speed Goat, is is Speed Goat as advertised like this great test piece for UTMB? I mean like Tim Tollefson, Dylan, Jim, Adam, like they've all used this in years past to get ready. I think so.
SPEAKER_02I did it before my first and second CCCs in 21 and 22, and I felt like it was great prep. It was like a good, I think it was a pretty good time predictor. Like I knew about double speed goat would be maybe around what I could do for CCC. For UTMB, I don't know what that conversion is yet, but um, it still did feel like a good effort. I felt like I was really happy to be able to knock 15 plus minutes off of my best time from previously, even though I was in the middle of a training block and was like eyes on UTMB. It felt good to know that I still had improved significantly over the past few years, even in that condition. How about broken arrow? Uh broken arrow was I'd say on the early side of when I was starting to trust the femur a bit more and like run more again. And so I did the ascent, like the VK uh broken arrow, which I knew would be a little rough, and uh that was a good workout, but like I wasn't competitive in it. And then the next day I did the 46k, which I hadn't actually been planning on doing, but I was just mapping out runs and I was like, this like kind of actually matches what I want to do anyway, and then I can use aid stations, so I may as well just do it. And again, like I kind of treated it like a training day more than a really like hard race, but it was a good effort, uh pushed me faster than I had done a lot of my long runs at, so nice to kind of shock the system in that way, and I think it also opened the door for like making me want to do speedgoat because I had already done a race with similar stats, and I still had that feeling of like I want to actually push and try and be competitive in something. So I was able to get some practice with that at Speed Goat since it had been sort of a long time since I'd really felt like I was trying to compete at a race.
SPEAKER_01Do you feel like it's uh it's relatively easy for you to go into a race with a training objective or trying to test something for like a bigger project like UTMB, or is it hard to like maybe turn off like the competitive impulse and treat that as like its own end?
SPEAKER_02In general, I think I'm pretty good at it. I feel like I've done a lot of these sort of tune up races. I like doing 50Ks throughout the winter. In Moab, there's a nice race series that Madden Moose puts on, and it's a good way to just stay like to give yourself a harder effort long run, have it be supported, and then just remind your mind a little bit of like what it's like to sort of compete. And like a lot of these don't have super deep fields, or I'm not trying to go harder than a certain threshold. So I kind of set a line for myself. And if somebody out there is going harder than that, I don't push myself to keep up. So I think I can turn off the competitiveness a little bit if I draw lines for myself like that. Otherwise, I get sucked in and I try and beat them and go too fast, and then I have to take a few days to recover, and it kind of changes the training that I'm looking for. So I think I'm pretty good at trying to do that, and I think it's really helpful for me, but it's also hard to completely separate the competitive side from the preparation side. What's your coaching situation right now? I am being coached by mostly there's kind of a group at the Nike Sports Research Lab. I'd say the primary people who have been helping me out are Brett Kirby and uh Brad Wynne, and then uh Kat Bohr also has been really helpful. But it's just a group of scientists at Nike, and they have been we've gone through like a trying a few different setups, and what we're at now that I think has been a good kind of middle ground between like super hands-on coaching and really hands-off coaching, is we sort of do these like weekly or bi-weekly check-ins, and they're guiding me with setting longer-term goals, like weekly and monthly goals, and then I'm more in charge of what I do in the day-to-day. And if I have questions or I want help with specific workouts, they're more than happy to do that. But I've just found, especially coming back from injury, I like the flexibility to really listen to my body and play it by ear. And sometimes I wake up and something's been like slightly achy the night before, and I just think like I should probably not do what I had planned the day before. So it's really nice to be able to feel the flexibility of like calling an audible whenever anything seems like it's not the right move. So um, yeah, that's where I'm at right now with that.
SPEAKER_01Is there a particular philosophy there? Like if you know people are familiar with like the Roaches or Evoke or CTS, like is there like a different philosophy here from the Nike team and you guys?
SPEAKER_02I don't know what all of those coaching systems philosophies are, but I think I would say this is more coming from just the general like scientific physiology philosophy of like what kind of training theory may maybe it's most similar to like marathon training. Um but I I mean that's the wrong way to say it. Uh maybe what I should say is they're probably most familiar with marathon training. For like Kipchoge and stuff, right? Right. They were involved with Brig 2, they've been involved with many great Nike athletes on the track side too, and so they're used to like these really fast, high-performing track and marathon athletes. So that's why that's why I would say we're coming at it with that perspective. But I think they also have been learning a lot about trail. They did like a ACG farm team scientific study thing over the summer, and it was like this big committing, like 16-week block, I think, where they brought out almost 20 people to go live in Oregon and just basically study them full-time and have them follow these really specific programs. So there were lots of learnings from that, lots of learnings from just talking to me and other ultra runners, and then we sort of just uh adapted what they knew about general training theory to trail running, and a lot of it was me just giving suggestions and then them giving feedback on whatever my ideas were. But I guess that's uh it's not really like any other system I've seen. What what did they learn about the farm team? Uh I don't know all the details. I know that they had some different groups of like various focuses, like uh kind of an uphill focus group and a downhill focus group. And I don't know that I don't think that they have had time yet to like analyze all the findings from it and put out research or anything yet because it just ended like last week. But I'm sure we'll see some stuff coming out of that that they've learned. So nothing that you can use right now.
SPEAKER_01Nothing that I know that I can share that I can use right now. Talk about differences in nutrition between Western and UTMB, if if there are any at all. I don't know, there will be any.
SPEAKER_02I think I kind of nailed the Western nutrition for the most part, with the exception of it's really hard to stay hydrated when you're that hot and sweating that much. Here it will be a little less hot, so I'm hoping it's easier to stay hydrated. Other than that, like the fueling, uh, my recipe is super easy, and I like I use precision. I eat one 90 gram pouch per hour, and then I fill up the rest with uh I'll do like a carbon electrolyte drink mix that gets me a bit over 100 grams of carbs an hour, and that seems to be a place where I can just stay and like the stomach is comfortable and I can do that all day long. Basically, I did that at the GPT one through the night too. So it's tried and tested, and it seems to work pretty well, and it's simple for me.
SPEAKER_01So it it's not more complicated by like different temperature zones and altitudes and just areas of the UTMB course and it being like And if I'm going downhill, then I need to dial it back to 70. The rod philosophy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, or the yeah. Um I don't know. You could make it as complicated as you want. I think that if you just eat when you can and make sure you're at least hitting some baseline number, which for me I think is like kind of 90-ish grams of carbs an hour, then energy levels tend to stay decent, and maybe it'll turn out that I'm wrong and I'll be bonking or I'll wish that I had some solid food or something. So I'll have some backup plans with me at crew spots and aid stations, but for now that's the plan, and it seems like it's always worked for me in the past. Does radical airflow make an appearance in your UTMB kit? I don't think so. I really liked radical airflow for Western states while I was wearing a belt. And when I'm wearing a vest, it just feels like it takes away a lot of the advantages because it depends on the air being able to really freely move through and around your body. And for this one, because it's not quite the extreme temperatures and because I'll have a vest on, I think I'm gonna go with still a cool innovative shirt, maybe not quite as eye-catching as radical airflow, but more just like a simple t-shirt. Is it debuting some type of new gear? Keep your eyes out. You gotta look pretty closely to know that it's any different than a normal t-shirt, I think. But uh But there's innovation there. There's some innovation there, yeah. It it dries fast. It's it's a cool little lightweight shirt.
SPEAKER_01How about shoes? What's if you if you had to race it tomorrow, what shoe are you wear?
SPEAKER_02I think the Ultrafly 2. Uh I've really liked the ACG Ultrafly. It's what I wore for Western State, so I know that it can keep my feet comfortable for 100 miles. Um it is a little stiff, so like hiking some of the uphills, that's why I'm like sort of questioning whether or not it's the perfect shoe. I have one other shoe option in the quiver that would be kind of a debut of something cool that I would love to use. And so that one might make an appearance if I want a little change up from the Ultrafy, but I think the Ultrafy is probably my go-to safe bet. Counting grams in your required gear. On some things, I think I mean it's hard because you might actually need a lot of this required gear. Like part of what I've realized is sometimes it's better to just have decent gear than to shave off 10 grams. And it's tempting, and like I don't know. I haven't decided exactly which things are worth compromising a little bit yet, but for the most part, like I was just up the other day on Cul de Bonome in the night, and like it was warm and clear when I started, and then up on top, I was in a cloud and it was cold and windy, and I layered up and I realized I couldn't see anything, and like it like things change quick, and so I want to be ready for that, and I think I might err on the side of being prepared, at least if things look at all questionable.
SPEAKER_01Before we go, uh a couple non-running related questions. You've been you've now been here for a couple weeks. Favorite things to do in Sham when you're not training?
SPEAKER_02I have been spending some good time up at various huts that I haven't been to before. I think my favorite one so far is the Albert Premier Hut, which like overlooks this cool glacier. It's over by La Tour. If you are into taking lifts, you can take a lift a lot of the way up there. But it's it's up high. It's got great food, charcuterie boards. Um, we've been taking Uno decks up to different places and this game called Six Keepwong. But we've uh been playing some podcast. Yeah, we've been playing some fun card games just sitting around at Huts, and uh that's been really nice.
SPEAKER_01What books are you reading right now?
SPEAKER_02I'm not really reading any physical books right now, but I'm listening to an audiobook. I've been I think this training block has maybe been the deepest I've ever gone into the audiobook hole, and I've listened to a lot of audiobooks over the past couple months. Right now I'm working on the fifth book in the Brandon Sanderson uh Stormlight Archive, like Way of Kings series. It's called Wind and Truth. And each one of these books is so long, it's like 50 to 60 hours per book. So that's been a real-time commitment. And honestly, it's good, but like is it like 250 hours of listening time good? Like, probably not, but it has kept me entertained during a lot of runs. I've been I feel like I've been running a lot more solo now that I've kind of changed up my work schedule and I'm more free to run later in the day or later in the morning. It's meant a lot of solo runs and so a lot of audiobook time, and that's been fun to just like transport off into a different world while I do my run. Does that series get your recommendation or the first couple books do? By book five, I'm like, this is the last one that's at least currently out right now, and I'm like kind of ready to move on to the next thing. But it is good. The some other ones that I've listened to before this series that are maybe higher on my recommendation list are Name of the Wind, and then um completely different genre, more like Western, but Lonesome Dove was great too.
SPEAKER_01Last question for me. The last time I saw you, which is well, we went to Annapurna last night, so I saw you last night. Yeah. But before this trip last time, I saw you was at a movie theater. We went and saw the Odyssey.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And we were in such a rush, or at least I was, that we didn't even get to debrief it. Do you write? Do you did you like it?
SPEAKER_02I liked it, yeah. Um that was a fun one. It was me, you, and Morgan in the theater, and that was it. When you go at 10 a.m. to a three-hour movie, turns out there's uh a lot of seat options, so that was great.
SPEAKER_00Um I liked it. Did you like it?
SPEAKER_01I thought it was great. I think they we were offline, we were talking about like actor selection. I thought it was all good. Matt Damon was great, and Tom Holland and Zendia. Yeah, star-studded cast. I guess we didn't see it in IMAX.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Did not see it in IMAX. Maybe missed out on like 50% of the movie.
SPEAKER_01What was your reaction though? Like, what were your takeaways?
SPEAKER_02What did it do for you? Oh, what did it do for me? Finn asked me this question after every time I finish a book or watch a movie or anything. He's like, what did it mean for you and what are you what are you taking from it? And I'm like, I don't know. I was just entertained. I just liked it. But for this one, it is a pretty epic journey. Um, you always make me dig deep and think a little more about things. So uh I guess maybe like the whole time he stayed focused on the mission to get home to his family, and like even though it took years and years, he he had that focus, and sometimes he got off on these little side quests and got distracted. But like it's cool to see it's this like legendary story that's like one of the oldest stories out there, basically. It's like the original epic story, and it has held up over all this time, but it's just cool to see like the longevity of it, uh both in terms of it as a story and in terms of like the actual like Odysseus' ability to stick to something and go through this lifetime uh journey to get back to where he came from. I don't know exactly what that means I'm taking from it, but time's long and it's cool to stick with things.
SPEAKER_01Dude, Caleb, we appreciate you so much. Cannot thank you enough for stopping by the studio today. And uh yeah, I always enjoy watching you race, and I I think there's very few people in the sport that I think possess certain mental characteristics to kind of push through when it's tough. And so I know you Timby is gonna be tough, but I think you're up to the task. So excited to see it all unfold. Thank you.