Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / #104 - Rena Schwartz

Transcript

#104 - Rena Schwartz · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What is up, fam?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, bringing you another amazing episode today with none other than Miss Rena Schwartz, currently residing in Vermont.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: She's a Vermonter for the summer.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Rena was most recently you guys might remember that name very well she just took the dub at the Mount Washington Road Race about two weeks back and on top of that, got a top five finish at the US Mountain Running Championship at the Sunapese Scramble back in early June.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Rita's just like lived an entirely different life, skiing in college for Dartmouth, and it was just so interesting to get to talk about that and talk about just the Nordic skiing life and just the difference between that and trail running and how trail running is, as of right now, a hobby, but something she's considering, uh, taking a bit more seriously as she goes with, uh, all this crazy talent that she has.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, I hope you guys enjoy this one.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Reena is an amazing person to chat with, um, just super inspiring with just, uh, how she approaches the sport.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, none other than Reena Schwartz, we'll be right back.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, we are live, rina Schwartz.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: How's it going?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Good, thank you.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, super excited to have you on.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I have to be honest with you, you were this mystery going into Sunapee.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: When we did our race picks, we weren't really sure because you came on the scene, won Loon, obviously.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: You were this, like you know, larger than life nordic skier and we weren't really sure, like where you were gonna place.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Um, and then we got, then I was on the live stream and you had this like amazing, insane race at sunopee.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So it was like I have to have you on the podcast and then, as we were trying to figure this out, then you go and win uh, then you go and win mount washington.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So this was like really perfect timing to have you on yeah, I mean, I guess I wasn't really sure where I was gonna place either, so we were in that together.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how do?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you, uh, I mean, you must have rebounded pretty quick because, like, only within a couple weeks, you go and wait.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: You know, race mount wash.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Obviously that's all uphill, but still like, um, you know well, let's, let's track this from the beginning, maybe.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: How was sunip for you?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Did you enjoy it?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Have a good time?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Like it's kind of a crazy race yeah, I felt really strong.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, my goal I guess going into it was to be fierce on the downhills and I think I did a really good job of that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm new to trail racing I would say not necessarily new to trail running.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Um did a lot of trail running for Nordic ski training in college, um, and just for fun.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: But the kind of running downhill fast part is not something that I was that used to.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Um, so I think I was like really targeting the downhill there and that went well, so I was happy with it.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it was amazing to follow along your race.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I mean it just like I don't know like you.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Well, you finished fifth.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: You were right there, right in the mix, pretty much the entire time.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It was against some of the really some of the best women in the world, like those women are going to go on and probably hunt for gold medals, uh, at world mountain running champs.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So it's pretty cool that, like you step into the sport, you're kind of new to it and you're right there, like right in the mix, which is pretty.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: How did that feel to you maybe?
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: um, yeah, I guess I wasn't really thinking about making team usa going into it.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not even sure if I knew that.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: That was like what the race was about when I signed up.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm originally from verm, vermont, and it was like a race that was close by and I knew I'd be going back to new England.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So I signed up.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Um, and, yeah, it was pretty cool to be among those um, woman and kind of I feel like I was running with Courtney for a bit there and she was like talking to me a little um, and that was pretty cool.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, it was really fun to be out there with all those strong women.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was amazing performance.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: We could dive deeper into it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: As we get into it, I guess we'll probably talk a little bit more.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: It'll probably come up throughout the conversation.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: But for those who might not be aware of you, maybe maybe give me like the five minute elevator pitch, maybe talk about give me some of the background on Nordic skiing, as well as like what you did with cross country as well, Because it's just interesting to me that you were able to kind of do both at such a high level.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: So I ran cross country in like high school and track.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed doing that but was more focused on skiing.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: And then decided to ski in college and skied for Dartmouth for four years, graduated in 2022, lived in Boston for a bit and wasn't really running that much I guess it was just like pretty flat and then moved to Boulder this past fall and started running a little more, was doing a lot of kind of big mountain adventures and was finding that really fun.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Um, and then decided to hop in my first race since maybe like 2019, when I did loon um this past spring and I did the horse tooth half marathon actually and that was really fun, yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: And then I decided maybe I wanted to start racing a little bit more.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: That's so interesting to me.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So like you just kind of get bit by the bug after you know.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Kind of coming back to the sport, let's dive a little bit into like the the skiing aspect of it, because I think I don't think listeners maybe understand maybe those really in the know that like that background sets you up for to be.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Like some of the best runners in our sport came from cross country skiing backgrounds, like David Norris, I mean quite a few of them, like we saw what David Norris did at Sunapee, um, you know, david Sinclair, there's quite a few um maybe talk about like what that training is like, why that crosses over so well to trail running.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really cool to see Nordic skiers crushing it in the trail running community.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I guess it's just really a very demanding sport but also one that makes you kind of think about training a lot and kind of the science behind it and kind of the science behind it Um, and I guess mentally too it's just kind of like a lot of hours and a lot of races, um, and so it makes you kind of focus on the mental side of um sport as well, I guess Um.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: So I think that kind of can set people up for success moving into running Um, and then just kind of like the well-roundedness um of skiing, like you kind of have to work on being strong, being agile, um, but then also kind of I guess a huge part of it is also the endurance um, and just being able to go for a long time and being able to pace yourself.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about, like maybe some cause I know you guys focus a lot on obviously you kind of glossed on, it was hours but also a lot of intensity, a lot of threshold, a lot of heart rate stuff.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Do you guys did you, were you doing more, mostly like in the heart rates, like paying attention to heart rate zones, like heart rate training, um, as a skier, like how does that cause?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's?
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: It seems like that's the matrix that I see a lot of runners adopt and it tends to actually work out pretty well for them when they kind of adopt a more heart rate based training as opposed to just, uh, maybe just feel, if you will.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I, when I was like um, ski racing, I guess, um, yeah, I was counting hours versus miles, which is something that's different in the running community I've heard so far.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: I guess I don't really know exactly too much of the running stuff yet Any kind of modality of training is training, so like running, skiing, biking, roller skiing, strength, I would count that all.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I did use a heart rate monitor.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Um, we would test lactate, um, and I guess, since stopping competitive skiing at first I didn't really wear a watch at all when I was training and I found that really freeing actually.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: And even now I, um, I'd say like about once a week I go on a run and I don't wear wear a watch, and I think that's been a bit of like a release for me.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Like it's like I'm doing this because I really want to do it, I really enjoy doing it.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, so I, I I guess I haven't I've kind of trans transferred to doing a little less of the paying attention to stats like heart rate and, um, running a little bit more freely now, which I've been enjoying and I think helps me listen to my body as well.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I think it's super smart and I think it's just like, like I said, that crossover just works so well.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you this Maybe can you talk about your time at Dartmouth.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Obviously, it's this legendary university, one of the best colleges in the world.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: What was it like going there, but also being a student athlete there?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Maybe talk about what it was like skiing at a high level on the team there?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the team is really a very, very special environment and just a really special place, and I do feel very, very thankful that I got the opportunity to be part of that team.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Everyone on the team really lifts each other up in workouts, but also sees each other as humans outside of skiing as well.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: It can be really tough when you're all kind of seeing each other every day for most of a lot of the day but also competing against each other, and I guess it just requires like a lot of communication and also just really getting to know each other and I guess what ticks you or like what you enjoy both of those things.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Knowing that about your teammates is really important, and that's something that I do miss a lot.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Being part of a team like that it's interesting, is it like?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: so it's funny like I talked to a lot of D1, a ton of D1 athletes and a lot of them obviously come from the steeple.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: They're always on the track and their experiences might not be the best.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Obviously, collegiate running some people have really good experiences, but a lot of it is more eating disorders and a lot of issues that come out of it.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Is Nordic skiing at all similar or is it a very healthy environment?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: What is that kind of like at the collegiate level?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Is it much different?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Was it very positive for you?
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I don't know that much about the running collegiate experience, but I mean there are eating disorders in Nordic skiing too, um, and I think it's really team dependent um the community and kind of what the vibe is on the team.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: But I did have a very positive experience on the team in college and I think that was also kind of helped along by the fact that I did have a female coach and one that was very conscious of kind of how we were all doing.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: No, I think that's amazing, it's crazy.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: What was the goal Like?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Would you, would you do like?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Was the goal to be an Olympian?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Was the goal to just rate, like race, collegiately, like especially like as a high schooler, kind of going into college, like, how did your goals change the route?
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: And like, how did, how did like that kind of work out for you?
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: funny thing is I don't know if I ever thought like that long term about it I knew I wanted to ski in college, um, and then once I was in college I guess I was kind of just focused on the like very much in the present moment of skiing, um, and then senior year came around all of a sudden, um, and I broke my foot, the.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I was kind of dealing with a broken foot through the winter of my senior year.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: It was actually still broken and I was racing on it, and that was a tough winter, as you can imagine.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And I was thinking about skiing after college and decided that I kind of wanted to explore some other parts of my life, um, and so actually didn't really feel like I could keep skiing and also live in boston and work at the place.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I wanted to work at that time, um, and so I stopped skiing, yeah wow, do you?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: do you still like roller ski at all, or play around with any of that?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I just got into roller skiing, by the way, like in this this past, like winter ish, because colorado springs is, obviously we don't get it on the snow and I'm obsessed like it is so much fun.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, don't mess around with it at all, or?
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: um.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: So I coached the boulder junior nordic team, or this past fall and winter.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I did, and I'll roller ski with them.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I'll roller ski with the kids, but I don't really roller ski by myself.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I feel like I just have too many memories of almost crashing or just like being really hot and sweaty out there on the roller skis, and I'd much rather just go run in the mountains.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I think that's smart.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I feel like as a cross training modality can be fun, although people like drive past me and they're like who is this clown?
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Like what is this guy doing?
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like we need more of a scene like in in colorado for roller skiing in my opinion, but I don't know, that's just me, yeah I mean it's great for cross training, for sure.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah no, big time, big time.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So I gotta ask you like now that you've like obviously we'll talk about mount washington in a minute because I think that's a really important thing to discuss and get into but you've had a couple of like, really solid results.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, fifth at the us mountain running championship is no joke.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: And then you go and win mount washington, which some of the greatest women like uphill runners, um, you know, have have like kim dobson, like you're standing in the shadows of like, or of giants that have like kind of come, you know, through that race and done that.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Does it intrigue you now to maybe like want to be a professional in the sport, like Like or like want to like try to pursue that at some point in time or continue to build a race resume, or is it just something you want to do for fun, like?
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: How do you kind of approach that?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely like a tiny whisper that says um, try this, give it a go.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Um, and I think I'm still kind of navigating where racing fits into my life.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Right now I'm in a master's in social work program.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: As I said before, that's pretty strenuous 10 weeks of school in the summer and then internship the rest of the year, and I think that I'm OK if running kind of like fluctuates in my life.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm racing a lot and sometimes I'm not racing as much.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, I would love some support in that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: But I mean the running world is kind of hard to crack from the outside.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not really sure there's no like document that's like this is how you do it, this is how you get sponsors, like this is how you do this full time, this is how you support yourself while doing this, this is how you could have a full-time job while doing this.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: So I mean, like that's kind of there's a fun part to that too.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: There's some creativity that's needed in order to figure out where it fits into my life.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: um, and I guess I'm like excited to continue to explore that I think it's a beautiful answer and I think, like you're so young in the sport that there's just like you could do whatever you want.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: You know like it's you can kind of, as you go and as you develop and build your career outside of running, like you said, you could kind of figure out like okay, well, how does running fit into this lifestyle and do I want to have more professional life or do I want to go?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: You know potentially the route of a sponsored athlete and what does that look like and can I do both?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of cool.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Like I think we're seeing that more and more in the sport.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Like I think more so on the sub ultra side you can see a lot of athletes that most of them have full time jobs more or less a lot of them and kind of do do both.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: On the ultra side you're starting to see more professionalization, where people are just doing one thing.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: But I think, um, and I think there's more opportunity to do both at the sub ultra level, which is kind of cool, yeah, and I feel like that opportunity isn't really there as much in nordic skiing, which is also right.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Like there aren't that many nordic skiers that are pro but also are kind of like working full-time jobs or um, yeah, yeah, that just kind of community, at least in the U S, of people that aren't racing world cups, um, but are still kind of very much us based um is pretty small.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: There aren't many supports set up for that, so it's cool to see that maybe in the trail running world there is.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's well, it's very like you know, I think I don't know no-transcript way to make a living, doing it when you're um, maybe not winning world cups, um, but I don't really know, because I was.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I never skied after college, so yeah.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, cool, cool.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I mean it's interesting, so I always love it.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into Mount Washington.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I don't want to bury the lead there.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: You took the win this past weekend.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Uh, it was really cool to you know, obviously, get to follow that race.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Good friend of mine, actually a couple of good friends of mine, joe Gray and Remy LaRue, were out there competing as well, so it was kind of fun to follow along.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Obviously, they cut the race a little bit short this year.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe can you get into that.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know if a lot of the audience follows Mount Wash.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we get a little bit more of a following as the years go on and we start to build more of a fan base for it.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: But like, maybe talk about, like, why they cut the race short a little bit this year and then we can get into your experience.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure of too many of the details of it, but I guess I got.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: So I drove like the four hours there Friday night and I got an email that was like the race is now going to be half the course and I think it was because of like high winds and cold Maybe there was some ice up there or something like that and it it does go to the top of Mount Washington, which has pretty extreme weather, maybe even like the most extreme weather in New England, or something like that, um, and so the course was cut in half.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: It was only 3.6 or 3.7 miles, but still like quite a bit of elevation gain, like 2000 something feet of elevation gain, um, so that made it definitely made it a bit of a different race, um, and I prepared for it a little differently too, like had a bit of a longer warm-up with a little more intensity, um, and didn't even think about like eating anything during the race did you feel obviously fuel just before, like are you a gel person?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: like how did how did that go feeling going in?
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: um, I guess I don't have too much experience with fueling.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: I tried to have it gel during the sunup race and that was okay.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Like I feel like I was kind of choking on it a little bit.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Um, usually I feel like on like long runs or like big mountain adventures, I'm just like eating bars or like gummies.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, I I wouldn't.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Maybe if I were doing the full washington race I would try to have something during it, but this one was just really short.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, it only took like 32 minutes or something like that super quick one.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: How did the race play out?
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Were you challenged at all?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Were you alone?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Like how did I didn't really follow too closely.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, I wish they had like more of like a live stream that you can like watch from like start to finish.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I know something I gotta work on, but like, how, like, how like were you able to break away, get a break away and just kind of hang in there and develop a gap, or how did how did it play out for you?
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: yeah.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: So I wasn't.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty like new to this running races scene, so I wasn't really sure who the other people were on the starting line, um, so I didn't really know like how fast it was gonna go, um, um, if people were going to try and like sprint the beginnings.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: It's such a short race.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: So I kind of was just trying to hang in there around like, uh, second place, third place, um, and I think I primarily was in kind of second um, until like the last mile.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: And that's when I was like, oh, we're almost near the end, um, and tried to go a little harder, yeah, and it was like it's kind of a strange distance too, like I wanted to go really hard but didn't want to blow up, because I feel like with all the vert, there is like the chance that, even though it's short, like you could, you definitely could blow up in that time.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think we took it out pretty fast though up that first hill, and then it kind of felt like we were chilling for a bit, and then that's when I decided to take the lead.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: And then when you, when you crossed the finish line for the win, you must've been elated Like how does it feel?
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Like I mean, regardless of a shortened course, like you're now a Mount Washington champion, Like that's pretty awesome.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there was just such kind of like a scene there like so many people on the side of the course cheering, and that made it really fun and it is like a like I've heard about this race for a long time and so, yeah, it was pretty cool to cross the finish line first.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: So, like, let's talk maybe a little bit like is there anything bucket list for the summer you want to hit off?
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I know you're going to be spending a good amount of time in the Northeast um working on your master's program.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Is there any like other Northeast races that you want to get to?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I know you're talking about possibly doing catamount this weekend, like what.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: What intrigues you now that you can, you know, kind of get out to and race up here?
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I think, because I haven't done like that many different races, um, and like some of you, was my first like up down race.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: I'm kind of excited for surf series races, cause those are, I think, usually like up down races.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: So maybe Killington, um, yeah, I'll be headed back to Boulder in September and thinking about kind of focusing in on racing a bit more then, once I'm done with kind of like this summer in school, yeah, and then maybe some just like really long adventure fun runs, like I think there's like the four pass loop heard of that one like near Aspen, yeah, just kind of like getting out.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: I meanpen, I'm an East Coast person.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: It's just so cool to be in those big mountains.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: I'm really excited for maybe a longer race too.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Super cool.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you the question Now that you've obviously grew up, lived in Vermont and did the Vermont thing.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: You're back here now for the summer, but you've also spent some time out West.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: What do you like better?
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Like grew up, lived in vermont and did the vermont thing.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: You're back here now for the summer, but you've also spent some time in, you know, out west.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Like, what do you like better?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: that's a tough question.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'll always vermont always has my heart, um, so I think that there's a clear winner, um, but I mean, the big mountains are pretty hard to contend with.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I mean even just like skiing this winter, like I'd never really quite skied powder like that, or like had such long runs, um, and that's like pretty cool.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Um, that's very cool, yeah, um yeah, and the access is pretty good too.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, living in Boulder, sometimes there's a bit of a drive which can be kind of annoying.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I do miss for sure, though, especially in the winter, like the small kind of Vermont backcountry skiing, where you like don't really see many people at all, or like there's like a very small community and everyone's just like so friendly with each other.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Um, so I guess I missed that a little bit I feel like there's a like, especially in vermont, specifically, like it's like dime a dozen for ski resorts, like they're everywhere.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: It's literally one on every corner.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: It's kind of.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're tiny.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little compared to like the colorado ones oh yeah, the ones in colorado.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, bananas, like how big they are.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: It's cool.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I I been playing around up here.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I just went to like a couple of small New York ones and I'm going to go to another one this weekend to like get ready for Killington in the in the Catskills.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: And yeah, they are really little like.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: They are like just kind of tiny, but you could still get steep stuff.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: So I'm like, all right, this is not Colorado, but it's you know it'll work, you know, and there's something really special about the community they can build when they're kind of this little place and everyone kind of knows everyone else.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Um yeah, yeah, I gotta ask you this when you were so in your time, like maybe before you learned about this whole trail running thing, like did you do a lot of hiking.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Did you explore like the greens and and kind of go out to the white mountains at all and kind of explore like Mount Wash and any of that?
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Or like, were you aware of like some of like what you could do with some of those big link ups?
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I grew up doing a lot of hiking.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: My parents actually met on trail crew and then my dad worked at a hut in the White Mountains for a while.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: So my parents really love the White Mountains and that kind of instilled in me this love for them as well.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: So I have been up Washington many times, not taking the paved auto road, but yeah, I've done a Prezi Traverse, a few Prezi Traverses in there and those mountains really like I love them.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: They're, they're very beautiful and yeah, so I did.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I grew up doing a lot of hiking, um, and even like ski training.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Most of that is like honestly hiking like skiers when they're going slow training, they're like going slow training and so, yeah, you're hiking a lot, um, and I think that's probably a huge part of kind of the way I run um today, like even at Sunapee scramble, I feel like I was hiking some things that some people were running and I don't know if that like suited me well or not, but yeah, it's just kind of my style.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I mean it definitely helps like you're moving pretty efficiently.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: So I don't know.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Something worked, yeah, so cool, all right.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: So it just interests me because, like a lot of times you talk to a lot of athletes right and like they're kind of like they might not be adjacently aware of like the trail running scene itself, but like they grow up you know hiking, and or maybe mom and dad, like for you, for instance, like it makes a lot of sense Like mom and dad were you know your dad was doing the hot thing and like you know, and mom and dad were you know spending time outside.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: So it makes a lot of sense to see like kind of formative years and how people become who they are.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: So it's very cool.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to ask you this.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: So, races, as you've become more aware of the sport obviously not this year, but, like you said you're you seem to be very good at this up down thing, um, or or more mountain classic distance, outside of the series, is there anything that intrigues you, any races that you'd become aware of?
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Like, have you started looking into?
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Like, what the Golden Trail series is and things like that Are?
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: any of those intriguing to you?
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are definitely intriguing to me.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: The thing is like getting there, like deciding that you want to train for something, training for it, and not just like going on random mountain adventures every weekend, but like intentionally training for something that like involves time, that involves money, um, that involves flexibility in your schedule, um, and then getting there too, like that's that can be a huge challenge.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Um, but I guess I have some eyes on like have eyes on some fall races potentially, but probably only ones in Colorado, because, to be honest, like I I don't really feel like paying for a flight to go somewhere to race when I know that I can support kind of like the local community and around me by racing the races that are close by.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's a very good way to approach it.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Especially being very, you know, just kind of new to it makes it makes absolute sense.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I saw, so andy was kind of hyping you up.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I saw that you know he had you were wearing I think it was a trail team kit.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Are you working with the trail team now, or like with them, like at the community level, like how does that work for you?
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: yeah, so when I got to boulder this fall or this past fall I ran with them a few times and then I was kind of like focused on skiing in the winter and wasn't really running.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: And then in the spring, um, I started kind of training with them once a week just with the Boulder.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: There's like a big group of people from Boulder that run with them and that's been really great just to have kind of a community to um do inter like workouts with um, cause I probably wouldn't really integrate many workouts into my schedule, it would probably just be like all long like adventures, um, so it's been great to kind of like get on a track with them and see what what that's like.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, like I haven't really been on a track since high school, um, yeah, so that's been huge to have kind of a group to train with.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not on the elite team, though, I'm just kind of training with them.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Do you?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this about Boulder this isn't this isn't necessarily like, not necessarily a part of the trail team thing, but like, do you think you would?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Is Colorado somewhere you think you'll stay long-term or do you think you'd go back out east?
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm going back in September and I'll be there for another year, for another internship year after that.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I mean I've I've really been enjoying my time there, so I guess we'll kind of see.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting, interesting.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I feel like people either love it or they hate it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: It's like very and more people love it than than anything.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting to see what people think of it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, rena, I really appreciate your time.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and this was a great conversation.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I'm super excited that I was able to have you on after Sunapeed, and it was even more of a cherry on top.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: That Mount Washington thing worked out so super cool that we're able to do this.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Um, I hope that we have to have like many more conversations down the line, especially as you grow with your uh career, and I really appreciate your time yeah, thanks for having me.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'll see you at killington absolutely count on it.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it, okay, thanks.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: What'd you guys think?
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Oh man, what a great episode.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Want to thank reena so much for coming on the podcast to have a quick chat.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping to have rena back on as her career progresses and can have do a more longer form interview, uh, and just have a longer discussion, um, so really want to appreciate rena for coming on.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Um, guys, you can find her.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: That's going to be on instagram.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Give her a follow.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: You can find her at rena.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: That's going to be rena r-e-n-a dot s 22 on instagram.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Give her a follow, let her know what you guys thought about the episode and just send her well wishes, as she, you know, continues to just progress in the sport.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I'm sure she'd really appreciate it.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: So, uh guys, hope you enjoyed this one.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: If you did, please give us a five-star rating and review on apple spotify podcast or wherever you consume your pods.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: It has been a crazy few weeks with son of p, followed by Broken Arrow.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: So we're going to be taking a couple day break.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to enjoy some.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I've got a race coming up which is going to be super exciting We'll see how that goes and just going to be enjoying some of the northeast, the White Mountains and what's to be offered up there before making it back to Colorado.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: So hope you guys enjoy.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week and really appreciate you for tuning in.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Take care, listen up, guys.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: The Steep Stuff podcast is brought to you by Ultimate Direction USA.
• 32:15
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• 32:17
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• 32:44
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• 32:56
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• 33:05
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• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you.