Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 321. Embracing The Pivot: Olympian Monica Puig On Winning Tennis Gold, Turning To Triathlon & Building Mental Toughness

Transcript

321. Embracing The Pivot: Olympian Monica Puig On Winning Tennis Gold, Turning To Triathlon & Building Mental Toughness · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what you do in life, but you
0:02
Speaker 1: need to be a good person. You need to have
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Speaker 1: a good heart, and you need to do everything with
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Speaker 1: your heart and soul in it, because if not, it's
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Speaker 1: not worth it.
0:23
Speaker 2: Good morning, good afternoon, Good evening. Emily body. Here you
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Speaker 2: are listening to episode three hundred and twenty one of Hurdle,
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Speaker 2: a wellness focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people
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Speaker 2: about everything from their highest highes and toughest moments to
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Speaker 2: essential tips on how to live a healthier, happier, more
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Speaker 2: motivated life. We all go through our fair share of hurdles.
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Speaker 2: My goal through these discussions is to empower you to
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Speaker 2: better navigate yours and move with intention so that you
0:52
Speaker 2: can stride towards your own big potential and of course,
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Speaker 2: have some fun along the way. For today's chat, I
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Speaker 2: am sitting down with the ever lovely Monica Puig. She
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Speaker 2: is known by so many as a professional tennis player.
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Speaker 2: She's also the twenty sixteen Olympic gold medalists. In these days,
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Speaker 2: she's spending a little bit more time on the roads
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Speaker 2: and in the water having some fun competing in triathlon.
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Speaker 2: She most recently competed in the iron Man World Championships
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Speaker 2: in Nie and Oh my god, I have the biggest
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Speaker 2: chills after reading her Instagram recap posts. I will be
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Speaker 2: linking to her page in the show notes so that
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Speaker 2: you can do the same. But I digress. In today's conversation,
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Speaker 2: Monica talks to me about the pivot from professional tennis
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Speaker 2: to triathlon, what that looked like for her, and of
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Speaker 2: course we also go way back talking about her upbringing,
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Speaker 2: how she got into tennis, what it was like for
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Speaker 2: her to take the gold medal at the twenty sixteen Olympics,
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Speaker 2: and the challenges that came hand in hand with navigating
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Speaker 2: injury after injury, and what her internal dialogue was like
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Speaker 2: when she made the difficult decision to step away from tennis.
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Speaker 3: Monica is such a light. I was so.
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Speaker 2: Grateful to her sponsor Athleta for bringing us together. We
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Speaker 2: recorded this in their Power of She space in Paris,
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Speaker 2: and make sure if you're not yet following along with her,
2:31
Speaker 2: you do so a sap again. I linked her page
2:34
Speaker 2: in the show notes. You can find Hurdle over on
2:36
Speaker 2: social as well at Hurdle Podcast and I am over
2:39
Speaker 2: at Emily a Body. Now a little bit of housekeeping
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Speaker 2: Before I let you go, I want to make sure
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Speaker 2: that you are getting the latest episodes of Hurdle in
2:49
Speaker 2: your podcast.
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Speaker 3: Feed, So please, pretty please.
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3:01
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3:12
Speaker 2: I say this all the time, but your support it
3:15
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3:19
Speaker 2: sure that you follow, also feel free to leave a review,
3:21
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3:25
Speaker 2: love being a hurdler.
3:26
Speaker 3: With that, let's get to it. Let's get it's a hurdling.
3:35
Speaker 2: Today, I am sitting down with Monica Puek. She is
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Speaker 2: a former professional tennis player. How are we doing today?
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Speaker 4: I'm doing excellent. How are you?
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Speaker 3: I'm not bad.
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Speaker 2: I can't complain. We're not in the worst place right now.
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Speaker 1: And we just did a pilates class, so I mean,
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Speaker 1: I think we're primed and ready for everything, primed and
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Speaker 1: ready for everything.
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Speaker 2: I am not the most skilled pilates er either.
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Speaker 1: Am I I had to say, like my buns were burning.
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Speaker 3: Buns were burning.
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Speaker 1: But it was a cool experience and among other things
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Speaker 1: that you know, we've been doing around here in Paris.
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Speaker 4: So it's one to check off the list.
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Speaker 3: I want to check off the list.
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Speaker 2: And I don't want to put words in your mouth,
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Speaker 2: but as someone who considers herself mostly an endurance based athlete,
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Speaker 2: I'm a runner, I'm a cyclist, I'm pretty into Olympic
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Speaker 2: lifting these days. But with all that said, I think
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Speaker 2: that many women like myself could probably use some more.
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Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, I didn't think it was going to be
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Speaker 1: that big of a workout. I was like plates, yoga,
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Speaker 1: they're in the same family.
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Speaker 3: They're not, They're not. It's an entirely different skill set.
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Speaker 2: Speaking of the brief mention of running and cycling as
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Speaker 2: something that you know very well, when you took a
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Speaker 2: step back from professional tennis, you did get into running,
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Speaker 2: marathoning and then ultimately triathlons. Talk to me a little
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Speaker 2: bit about that decision and what made you steer that way.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was a bittersw entrance into the different
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Speaker 1: world of running and triathlon because ultimately took up running
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Speaker 1: when I hurt my shoulder. When you can't use your
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Speaker 1: upper body, might as well use your lower body, and
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Speaker 1: started to do marathons with my husband. We've done four
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Speaker 1: out of the six major marathons, and ultimately we thought
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Speaker 1: running was a punishment because we both did tennis and running.
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Speaker 4: You know, we thought, you know, running a mile here
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Speaker 4: and there, and we would.
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Speaker 1: Always cry and complain about running, and then running just
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Speaker 1: sort of became this therapeutic thing once I was no
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Speaker 1: longer able to use my upper body while I was
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Speaker 1: rehabbing my shoulder from the injuries that I had during tennis,
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Speaker 1: and running became one of those outlets for my mind
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Speaker 1: when I was in a really dark place, not knowing
5:43
Speaker 1: if I was going to be able to return to
5:45
Speaker 1: tennis or not. And ultimately, once the tennis was over,
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Speaker 1: started to do those marathons, and my husband kind of
5:52
Speaker 1: dared me into.
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Speaker 4: Doing Iron Man. He's like, maybe we should do one.
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Speaker 1: I thought he was completely crazy, until you know, for
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Speaker 1: a half iron Man, and you have to run half
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Speaker 1: marathon at the end of all things. So we thought, okay, well,
6:05
Speaker 1: thirteen point one miles doesn't really scare us that much anymore,
6:08
Speaker 1: so let's try and add the swimming and the bike
6:10
Speaker 1: into the mix and did our first half iron Man
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Speaker 1: in September of last year and have done I think
6:18
Speaker 1: it's three more or two more since, and preparing for
6:21
Speaker 1: my first full in September and the Ironman World Championships
6:24
Speaker 1: and Nie.
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Speaker 4: And didn't really think I would end up here.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, there's so much the double click on.
6:30
Speaker 2: The first thing to double click on, we have to
6:32
Speaker 2: go back to the shoulder injury that you step away
6:35
Speaker 2: from tennis. Talk to us a little bit about how
6:38
Speaker 2: that felt for you when you got to this place
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Speaker 2: that you said, I just don't think it's happening for
6:43
Speaker 2: me anymore. Right.
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Speaker 1: It's really hard to kind of wrap my head around
6:49
Speaker 1: because in a way, I still feel like I haven't
6:52
Speaker 1: totally accepted the fact that I'm no longer playing professional
6:55
Speaker 1: tennis and being here in Paris. I've been to the
6:58
Speaker 1: tennis venue a few times and seeing some of my
7:01
Speaker 1: peers compete, and I wish I could still be on
7:04
Speaker 1: the court, living all those feelings and competing again. But
7:08
Speaker 1: I was pretty fortunate that in the thirteen years of
7:10
Speaker 1: my career, the injuries I sustained were at the tail
7:13
Speaker 1: end of that, so had a pretty healthy career. All
7:16
Speaker 1: around accomplished some pretty big things, one in those being
7:20
Speaker 1: the Olympic will medal in twenty sixteen, which for me,
7:24
Speaker 1: I hate talking about myself in any way. I don't
7:27
Speaker 1: really like to brag about anything in my career because
7:29
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's not me. I like to hype
7:31
Speaker 1: other people up. But that was something that you know,
7:34
Speaker 1: I always said that being at the Olympics was something
7:40
Speaker 1: absolutely huge, and it's I don't care what sport I did.
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Speaker 1: I wanted to make it there. So that for me,
7:46
Speaker 1: I still don't believe that it happened. It was kind
7:49
Speaker 1: of out of nowhere because I wasn't really the favorite.
7:52
Speaker 1: But things just happen and when they're meant to, when
7:56
Speaker 1: they're supposed to, and it just happened for me in
7:58
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. It's like all the star line and everything
8:01
Speaker 1: came together. But in twenty nineteen it was kind of
8:03
Speaker 1: the start of the beginning to the end with all
8:06
Speaker 1: these injuries, and in a way it kind of prepped
8:10
Speaker 1: me for the goodbye because it was four really big
8:13
Speaker 1: surgeries for really big injuries that kind of piled on.
8:17
Speaker 1: Within those I believe it was three years, three and
8:21
Speaker 1: a half years of just dealing with all this adversity,
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Speaker 1: and in a way it made me mature even faster,
8:28
Speaker 1: even more during my tennis career. I think there was
8:31
Speaker 1: a lot that I could have matured on, but I
8:33
Speaker 1: wasn't really ready at the time, And during those three
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Speaker 1: and a half years, I really had to grow up
8:38
Speaker 1: and kind of accept the fact that these things were
8:40
Speaker 1: happening to me and also start thinking about the next chapter.
8:43
Speaker 3: Happening to me.
8:44
Speaker 2: But then, as what I'm hearing you say truly is
8:47
Speaker 2: that they were also happening for you. As difficult as
8:49
Speaker 2: it was for you to walk away from tennis, it
8:52
Speaker 2: was also now an opportunity to see not only what
8:54
Speaker 2: else you're capable of, but then explore other areas.
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Speaker 3: And I really don't want to.
9:01
Speaker 2: Over the fact that we just listed gold medalists yeah
9:04
Speaker 2: the Olympics, which is truly remarkable because you came into
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Speaker 2: that Olympic Games unseated.
9:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, and rank thirty four in the world. So it
9:12
Speaker 1: was my best year. I was having some really consistent results,
9:16
Speaker 1: was riding a huge wave of confidence, having started that
9:19
Speaker 1: year one hundred and eight in the world, I think,
9:22
Speaker 1: with no real shot at making the Olympic team because
9:26
Speaker 1: to qualify you have to be somewhere within the top fifty,
9:30
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until the very last week of you know,
9:34
Speaker 1: tennis qualification where it pretty much ended here at the
9:37
Speaker 1: French Open. Actually I needed to make the third round.
9:40
Speaker 1: I didn't know that at the time. My team did.
9:43
Speaker 4: They kept it.
9:43
Speaker 1: Quiet until it actually happened and they're like, you literally just
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Speaker 1: squeaked by.
9:49
Speaker 4: Was elated.
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Speaker 1: I was so happy, and then ended up losing the
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Speaker 1: next round, as most things that happen in that way
9:55
Speaker 1: when you're like, oh, thank God, and then you know
9:58
Speaker 1: your kind of performance goes down the drain, but it's okay.
10:01
Speaker 1: But yeah, it wasn't really expected of me. My whole
10:03
Speaker 1: goal going into Rio was to enjoy the experience because
10:07
Speaker 1: my mindset was, who knows if I'm going to be
10:10
Speaker 1: able to do this again, because who knows what happens
10:12
Speaker 1: from here to four years out, And COVID happened, my
10:16
Speaker 1: injuries happened, so at the time I didn't know what
10:19
Speaker 1: was going to happen, so I wanted to enjoy that experience.
10:21
Speaker 4: I stayed in the Olympic village.
10:22
Speaker 1: We had forty eight athletes from Puerto Rico and really
10:26
Speaker 1: enjoyed my time with them. And I think that shift
10:29
Speaker 1: in my mindset to really just enjoying myself, really just
10:33
Speaker 1: taking in the experience relaxed me and took away the pressure.
10:38
Speaker 1: Because the first three rounds of the tournament, I was like, Okay,
10:41
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, I'm playing well. This is great,
10:45
Speaker 1: but didn't believe that I could actually win. Until after
10:48
Speaker 1: the third round. I was like, I'm playing too well
10:51
Speaker 1: to not believe in myself or give myself the opportunity
10:54
Speaker 1: to even flip the switch and see how far I
10:57
Speaker 1: could go. But all in all, every time I left
11:01
Speaker 1: the Olympic stadium, the tennis courts, everything, I could shut
11:05
Speaker 1: my mind off. And that's something that never happened throughout
11:08
Speaker 1: my career. I was able to turn my mind off
11:11
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, I leave the tennis on the tennis court,
11:14
Speaker 1: and now it's time for me to enjoy this experience
11:16
Speaker 1: once again. And many people have asked me, why couldn't
11:20
Speaker 1: you translate that over into your normal career. I was like, well,
11:24
Speaker 1: the Olympics is not your average everyday competition. It's something
11:28
Speaker 1: completely different. There are so many athletes here who are
11:31
Speaker 1: chasing the same thing. Who have like minded goals, who
11:34
Speaker 1: really want this, and once every four years, this whole
11:38
Speaker 1: event turns into you know, passion, desire, commitment, discipline, and
11:43
Speaker 1: you see it in each and every athlete who comes here.
11:46
Speaker 2: I find it so interesting what you said, Yes, the
11:49
Speaker 2: I'm going to turn my mind off when I leave
11:50
Speaker 2: the tennis stadium, but more so the bit about I
11:54
Speaker 2: was playing too well to not believe what I was
11:56
Speaker 2: capable of, and that shows up or depicts to us
12:01
Speaker 2: that there was an amount of confidence that you were
12:04
Speaker 2: still working to find within your tennis, that you were
12:07
Speaker 2: still getting to a place where you could truly believe
12:10
Speaker 2: not only am I.
12:11
Speaker 3: Good at this, but I can win this.
12:14
Speaker 2: For someone that might be struggling to home in on
12:16
Speaker 2: their own confidence, do you have any recommendations or thought
12:19
Speaker 2: processes or mantras that you use to really hype yourself
12:22
Speaker 2: up before you have to show up.
12:25
Speaker 1: Honestly, I wasn't really big on the confidence stuff when
12:28
Speaker 1: I played because I always felt, you know, that I
12:32
Speaker 1: needed to be this person that I needed to achieve something,
12:35
Speaker 1: so confidence was really hard to come by. And also,
12:38
Speaker 1: being a woman, you're always nitpicking on yourself. So I
12:43
Speaker 1: feel like my confidence really has blossomed post tennis, and
12:47
Speaker 1: my advice to anybody now is try and find that
12:52
Speaker 1: little window or that room of giving yourself grace, of
12:57
Speaker 1: accepting yourself for who you are, because in this day
13:01
Speaker 1: and age, obviously we're critiqued so much and we're supposed
13:05
Speaker 1: to be held to this standard of perfection. But perfection
13:09
Speaker 1: is impossible. Is it is so impossible to be absolutely
13:13
Speaker 1: perfect in every aspect of life? But accepting yourself, even
13:16
Speaker 1: if it's for five minutes, because I know it's very
13:18
Speaker 1: difficult as a woman to accept yourself sometimes, you know,
13:22
Speaker 1: we're at least me. I critique myself in the mirror.
13:24
Speaker 1: I change my outfits like five times a day before
13:27
Speaker 1: walking out the door, and even then sometimes I don't
13:29
Speaker 1: feel comfortable in what I'm wearing. But you know, there
13:32
Speaker 1: are those moments where I look at myself, you know,
13:34
Speaker 1: take a deep breath, and I'm like, this is me,
13:35
Speaker 1: this is who I am, this is who I'm always
13:37
Speaker 1: going to be. So let me just accept that, Let
13:41
Speaker 1: me love myself.
13:42
Speaker 2: Isn't it so interesting though, to sit across from another
13:45
Speaker 2: woman and say something like that, And I can guarantee
13:47
Speaker 2: you that every single person listening to this podcast has
13:50
Speaker 2: certainly felt that way and non today, probably within the
13:53
Speaker 2: last week. Yet still all of those women would look
13:56
Speaker 2: at you and be like, what a beautiful human being.
13:59
Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter what you.
14:01
Speaker 2: Look like, where you come from, what you're navigating, et cetera.
14:05
Speaker 3: Everyone's going to have insecurities at one point another.
14:07
Speaker 2: You can truly be like an entirely let's call it
14:11
Speaker 2: like body accepting, right right, I'm not even talking about
14:13
Speaker 2: like extremely body positive in that right, like oh my god,
14:16
Speaker 2: I have the best thoughts whatever, but like you can
14:19
Speaker 2: be completely body accepting. Like I like to think that
14:22
Speaker 2: I'm like pretty body accepting, But that doesn't mean that,
14:24
Speaker 2: like there aren't going to be moments when I look
14:26
Speaker 2: in the mirror and I'm like, oh, this is just
14:28
Speaker 2: how it is now.
14:29
Speaker 3: Yeah.
14:29
Speaker 1: And that's so I've I try, at least I've tried
14:32
Speaker 1: to build my brand around is one word, and that's relatability.
14:37
Speaker 1: I want people to relate to me in any way,
14:39
Speaker 1: shape or form, even on my socials, Like, you know,
14:42
Speaker 1: I see all these artsy instagrams and like perfectly esthetic
14:47
Speaker 1: posts and stuff, and I look at my content and
14:49
Speaker 1: I'm like, why doesn't it look like that, but at
14:51
Speaker 1: the same time, I sometimes I don't want it to
14:54
Speaker 1: because I want people to relate to me. I want
14:56
Speaker 1: people to relate to the fact that I don't know
14:58
Speaker 1: how to make a real I don't know how to
15:00
Speaker 1: take good pictures. But I also, you know, I know
15:03
Speaker 1: what I like. I love coffee shops, I love my dogs.
15:06
Speaker 1: I love being at home. Traveling sometimes sucks and I
15:09
Speaker 1: miss being home, but then I also really love to
15:12
Speaker 1: travel and explore new places and try new things. So
15:15
Speaker 1: you know, if anybody can you know, look to me
15:19
Speaker 1: or you know, take away anything, is that I want
15:24
Speaker 1: to be able to identify with so many people. I
15:27
Speaker 1: want people to identify to me, and I want people
15:30
Speaker 1: to see me as a very approachable person because let
15:33
Speaker 1: me just tell you, if you stop me on the
15:35
Speaker 1: street and want to have a chat, I will stay.
15:38
Speaker 4: There and talking until the cows come home.
15:40
Speaker 1: It is very difficult to get me to stop talking
15:43
Speaker 1: because I just love meeting new people and sharing experiences
15:46
Speaker 1: and learning about the world about other people, and that's
15:49
Speaker 1: really important to me.
15:50
Speaker 2: Your sentiments earlier around perfection, just this concept that perfection
15:55
Speaker 2: isn't relatable, vulnerability is relatable, and That's really what we're
15:59
Speaker 2: getting at here when we talk about the desire for
16:02
Speaker 2: people to be able to maybe see what you're putting
16:04
Speaker 2: out there on the Internet on Instagram and be like, no,
16:08
Speaker 2: I totally get that, and that's really special. I think
16:11
Speaker 2: that as we continue on in this day to day
16:13
Speaker 2: of the highlight reel, the best thing that we can
16:16
Speaker 2: do as women who are trying to lead some sort
16:19
Speaker 2: of an example is show up and be our authentic selves.
16:23
Speaker 2: And that doesn't mean that sometimes there's not going to
16:25
Speaker 2: be a nice bow on it by the end of
16:26
Speaker 2: the day. Think about the net content that you're putting
16:29
Speaker 2: into the world and if you are executing in a
16:31
Speaker 2: way that would make your future self proud. That's always
16:35
Speaker 2: what I'm kind of gut checking with myself when I
16:37
Speaker 2: think about what I'm putting into the world. Is am
16:39
Speaker 2: I creating something that not only has a purpose and
16:41
Speaker 2: is worthwhile, but also just like make someone else feel seen?
16:46
Speaker 2: And going back to wanting to feel seen and dialing
16:50
Speaker 2: back a little bit to your injury period during that
16:53
Speaker 2: time frame we're talking about that four year Olympic cycle.
16:56
Speaker 2: Right after winning gold, who made you feel seen? How
16:59
Speaker 2: did you do you find comfort in knowing that you
17:02
Speaker 2: weren't alone in that difficulty that you were experiencing.
17:06
Speaker 1: It's you know, obviously family, but pretty much going to
17:10
Speaker 1: summarize it in one word or two words, and that's
17:13
Speaker 1: my husband. I met him, you know, just in the
17:17
Speaker 1: tail end of twenty twenty, just when I was starting
17:21
Speaker 1: to get injured with my shoulder. I already had an
17:24
Speaker 1: elbow injury coming back from that and my shoulders started
17:27
Speaker 1: to act all wonky. You know, we were starting to
17:30
Speaker 1: date at the time. I mean, he's known me through
17:32
Speaker 1: pretty much all of my surgeries. He's seen me at
17:35
Speaker 1: my absolute lowest point. He's taken pictures and videos of
17:38
Speaker 1: me completely chaoed on pain medication, and like within seconds,
17:43
Speaker 1: he gives me a coffee. He turns away to sit down,
17:47
Speaker 1: and I'm dead asleep with a coffee in my hand. Yeah,
17:51
Speaker 1: and he's had to wash my hair in the sink.
17:53
Speaker 1: He's had to see me cry because I simply couldn't
17:57
Speaker 1: do the thing that I felt identified me as a person,
18:01
Speaker 1: and that was Tennis, and he stood by me through
18:03
Speaker 1: it all. I had to move to Arizona to do
18:06
Speaker 1: shoulder rehab and he was working remote and he asked
18:10
Speaker 1: if he could come with me, and this is when
18:13
Speaker 1: we were dating, and I said, well, I don't know
18:15
Speaker 1: how long I'm going to be out there for. He said,
18:16
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. I want to support you. It's in
18:19
Speaker 1: those moments that I knew obviously I wanted to suspend
18:21
Speaker 1: the rest of my life with him because no other
18:23
Speaker 1: person would say I want to support you. And I
18:27
Speaker 1: was at my low point, like I can understand what
18:29
Speaker 1: people want to support at the high points of your career,
18:31
Speaker 1: when you are on top of the world, where everybody
18:34
Speaker 1: wants a little bit in peace of you. But when
18:36
Speaker 1: you are nothing, when you are unseen, when you're down there,
18:39
Speaker 1: the people who want to support you and be in
18:41
Speaker 1: your life and are not there for all the glitz
18:44
Speaker 1: and the lamb, those are the people that I hang
18:46
Speaker 1: on to. And he really came into my life at
18:50
Speaker 1: a point in time where I felt miserable, I felt
18:52
Speaker 1: worthless because I felt like I was just invisible and disappearing,
18:57
Speaker 1: and he made me feel seen. Yeah, and he supported
18:59
Speaker 1: me through everything. Still does you know? And our life
19:03
Speaker 1: is far from.
19:06
Speaker 4: Home. It's very chaotic. I literally haven't been.
19:09
Speaker 1: Home this year for more than like a month, and
19:12
Speaker 1: he supports me in everything I do.
19:13
Speaker 4: So it's really about having.
19:16
Speaker 1: Great friends, amazing family, people that really care about you
19:19
Speaker 1: despite you know, what's going on in your life, whether
19:22
Speaker 1: you're at a higher or alone.
19:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can do good times with anyone, but you
19:26
Speaker 2: can't do bad times with everyone. Yeah, So to have
19:29
Speaker 2: someone there for you that supported you through those bad times.
19:32
Speaker 3: Thank you for sharing how difficult they were for you.
19:35
Speaker 2: On that note of the difficulty, you said you just
19:37
Speaker 2: really felt a loss of self, a loss of feeling
19:40
Speaker 2: of purpose. Can you elaborate a little bit on those
19:43
Speaker 2: feelings and talk about when you started to realize that
19:47
Speaker 2: there was light for you to reach for despite dealing
19:50
Speaker 2: with so many hardships.
19:51
Speaker 4: Well, it was tough.
19:52
Speaker 1: Like I said, I felt like I was disappearing and
19:55
Speaker 1: I felt invisible. So when you're playing in your professional athlete,
20:00
Speaker 1: everything is done for you, You're completely taken care of.
20:02
Speaker 1: All the attention is on you, what do you need?
20:05
Speaker 1: And once you kind of take a back seat, obviously
20:08
Speaker 1: you become one of the has been's kind of thing.
20:11
Speaker 1: And it was kind of hard that transition from being
20:14
Speaker 1: you know, in the public eye all the time, having
20:17
Speaker 1: all of this attention to kind of just fading into extinction,
20:21
Speaker 1: I would say, because you're no longer what you were.
20:24
Speaker 1: And also in that time where I felt like it
20:27
Speaker 1: was all you know, that beginning to the end, actually
20:30
Speaker 1: did get a call and this is why I'm here
20:32
Speaker 1: in Paris is to be with Athleta. I got a
20:34
Speaker 1: call from Athleta and they wanted to be a part
20:37
Speaker 1: of my journey. And I was like, hold up, wait
20:40
Speaker 1: a minute, I'm retiring, and they said, it doesn't matter.
20:44
Speaker 4: We want women.
20:45
Speaker 1: Of all phases of life, whether they're new moms, whether
20:48
Speaker 1: they are moms, whether they're retiring, whether they're at the
20:50
Speaker 1: prime of their career. You know, all sizes, all body types.
20:54
Speaker 1: We want to support women. And I was like, so,
20:58
Speaker 1: this is what it's like to like, really be seen
21:00
Speaker 1: by someone. This is what it's like to really be appreciated.
21:04
Speaker 1: And you know, I found, like I said, those support systems,
21:07
Speaker 1: you know, when I felt like I was starting to disappear.
21:09
Speaker 1: That made me feel like a somebody, like I said,
21:12
Speaker 1: my family, you know, they they helped me kind of
21:16
Speaker 1: grasp the fact that I'm not just a tennis player.
21:19
Speaker 4: I wasn't just a tennis player. I was Monica.
21:22
Speaker 1: Every time I would come back from a trip, they
21:25
Speaker 1: always made it a point to not talk about tennis,
21:28
Speaker 1: not talk about work, and just ask me how I
21:30
Speaker 1: was doing as a person, as an individual. Where is
21:33
Speaker 1: your favorite restaurant, Let's go there, Let's let's really appreciate
21:36
Speaker 1: the time that you're home and not really focus on
21:39
Speaker 1: work in those moments. It's it's it's really important to
21:43
Speaker 1: just see yourself as you know, the superstardom of it all,
21:46
Speaker 1: it's put it to the side because it's it's it's
21:50
Speaker 1: not real. I feel like that that life, that world,
21:53
Speaker 1: it's not real because you could be up here and
21:56
Speaker 1: everybody wants to know you, but when you're down here,
21:58
Speaker 1: nobody really wants to be around. But the people who
22:00
Speaker 1: really want to be around and you feel like the
22:03
Speaker 1: world is ending.
22:04
Speaker 4: Those are the people, and those are the relationships that
22:06
Speaker 4: you have to value and keep close.
22:07
Speaker 3: So special.
22:08
Speaker 2: Such a beautiful takeaway from a really difficult moment. And
22:11
Speaker 2: you said, not only after that moment where you met
22:14
Speaker 2: and started dating your husband, but then ultimately, after stepping
22:18
Speaker 2: away from tennis, you two getting into triathlon. I want
22:21
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about that transition and almost
22:23
Speaker 2: establishing or picking up a new part of your identity
22:27
Speaker 2: when you really got into running. When you began with
22:30
Speaker 2: that modality, did you find it challenging?
22:33
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, it was a very tough transition because I'm
22:38
Speaker 1: going to be extremely honest. I was in a very
22:41
Speaker 1: mentally tough tennis player. When things got hard, it was
22:45
Speaker 1: very tough to push myself over the limit. Not to
22:48
Speaker 1: say that I didn't do it many times, and I
22:50
Speaker 1: had a coach and a team who knew what I
22:53
Speaker 1: needed from them, and I needed them to push me.
22:56
Speaker 1: But that self drive to push myself I always struggle with.
23:00
Speaker 1: So when you're running a marathon or doing a try
23:03
Speaker 1: off on or an iron man, you are out there
23:07
Speaker 1: by yourself. You know, I know my husband's somewhere on
23:09
Speaker 1: the course, but we're not doing it together because you know,
23:12
Speaker 1: we have this agreement that you know go. And also
23:16
Speaker 1: you have the finish line and you really have to
23:19
Speaker 1: battle your own demons out there, and whether you're super
23:22
Speaker 1: tired or you feel and ache and pain somewhere.
23:24
Speaker 4: You need to know how to push yourself.
23:26
Speaker 1: This whole journey helped me grow into that person, help
23:29
Speaker 1: me know when to push, when to say no, when
23:33
Speaker 1: to give my body a break and when to really,
23:35
Speaker 1: you know, just suck it up and go for it.
23:38
Speaker 1: And that was a really hard transition because running a marathon,
23:41
Speaker 1: you know, at the beginning, it's all really cool, I
23:43
Speaker 1: got the cameras, let me smile, whatever. You get to
23:46
Speaker 1: mile eighteen and you feel like you want to just
23:48
Speaker 1: crawl on the floor and die. Same with the iron Man.
23:51
Speaker 1: You know, you finish the swim, you feel like you're
23:54
Speaker 1: about to fall over because you're disoriented. You get off
23:57
Speaker 1: the bike and your legs are insanely heavy for the run,
24:00
Speaker 1: But then that euphoria when you cross the finish line.
24:03
Speaker 1: It's like I did that. I trained for that, and
24:06
Speaker 1: I accomplished that. And that's what keeps me going. It's
24:09
Speaker 1: that I continue to accomplish things. And like we were saying,
24:13
Speaker 1: these these sports were completely foreign to me, and it's
24:16
Speaker 1: like what I was talking about in the panel a
24:18
Speaker 1: couple days ago with Athleta. You can't limit yourself to
24:22
Speaker 1: one thing in life. So tennis was my thing. But
24:26
Speaker 1: if I didn't try something else, if I didn't explore
24:29
Speaker 1: another avenue, another opportunity, because I felt like I needed
24:32
Speaker 1: a competitive outlet in my life to keep going to
24:35
Speaker 1: have a goal to push for every day, a sense
24:38
Speaker 1: of purpose. If you don't explore other things in life,
24:42
Speaker 1: you never really know what you're also good at. I
24:44
Speaker 1: never knew in a million years I thought that I
24:47
Speaker 1: was going to be a triathlete, that I was going
24:48
Speaker 1: to want to do iron man Like I said. It
24:50
Speaker 1: was a dare, and I said no at the beginning
24:53
Speaker 1: because I thought it was insane. But you know, I
24:57
Speaker 1: discovered something, a passion of love for something else. But
25:00
Speaker 1: you know, people think I'm crazy, but I feel extremely
25:04
Speaker 1: empowered by this new world. And I always lived in
25:07
Speaker 1: this tennis bubble and now I'm discovering these athletes who
25:10
Speaker 1: have been doing this for so many years, and they're
25:13
Speaker 1: completely badass.
25:15
Speaker 4: It's incredible.
25:16
Speaker 3: The most badass, the most badass.
25:17
Speaker 2: And you know what else I think is really beautiful
25:20
Speaker 2: is it's not just opening yourself up and realizing that
25:23
Speaker 2: you can be good at something else. It's the concept
25:25
Speaker 2: of opening yourself up at all and realizing that there
25:28
Speaker 2: may just be other things in life that.
25:30
Speaker 3: You can enjoy. You don't have to be good at it.
25:33
Speaker 2: No, Like I don't know, I'm not really good at
25:36
Speaker 2: cycling myself, but I really love getting on my bike
25:39
Speaker 2: and tuning out for two and a half hours.
25:40
Speaker 3: I absolutely adore it. Or I'm not really good at
25:44
Speaker 3: hot yoga. Actually I'm awful at hot yoga, Like.
25:47
Speaker 4: We're not great at pilateus. But you know, we enjoyed
25:49
Speaker 4: it at the end, exactly.
25:50
Speaker 3: We enjoyed it at the end.
25:52
Speaker 2: And like I know, I'm using active examples, right, there
25:55
Speaker 2: are so many things cooking aret like anything that you
25:58
Speaker 2: can name, and if you're just not doing it because
26:01
Speaker 2: you're worried that you might not be good at it,
26:03
Speaker 2: or you're just intimidated to start, then you're truly missing
26:06
Speaker 2: out on the opportunity. And that even goes back to
26:08
Speaker 2: our conversation about mindset. It was like you were saying
26:12
Speaker 2: to yourself when you started to win those matches, I'm
26:15
Speaker 2: doing too well not to believe in myself. And sometimes
26:17
Speaker 2: you just need that one match that finally strikes and
26:21
Speaker 2: lights to be the thing that convinces you, oh no,
26:24
Speaker 2: there's a flame under there. Yeah, I just have to
26:26
Speaker 2: be the person that's willing to stoke.
26:27
Speaker 4: It, exactly.
26:28
Speaker 1: And I feel like a lot of people sometimes need
26:31
Speaker 1: a reminder that there is so much more that you
26:34
Speaker 1: can accomplish that. You don't have to just be one
26:37
Speaker 1: thing in life. You can be so many things. You
26:39
Speaker 1: can wear so many different hats. And like we said,
26:42
Speaker 1: sometimes people are so scared to try something new because
26:46
Speaker 1: they think they're going to fail already. Yeah, look at
26:48
Speaker 1: babies when they start walking, they fall down, you know,
26:51
Speaker 1: dozens of times, but yet they keep getting back up,
26:54
Speaker 1: and they keep wanting to walk because they think it's
26:56
Speaker 1: fun and the world is interesting and they want to
26:58
Speaker 1: explore more So in life, if you fall down a
27:02
Speaker 1: ton of times, that's just an opportunity to Okay, let
27:05
Speaker 1: me learn why did I fall down and what can
27:07
Speaker 1: I change so I can keep moving forward.
27:09
Speaker 2: Well, that reflection piece, that's the thing, right, because it
27:13
Speaker 2: is up to us then to take the time not
27:15
Speaker 2: only to reflect, but then learn from what happened. And
27:19
Speaker 2: if you don't take the time to learn from what happened,
27:22
Speaker 2: then you won't be able to move forward in a
27:24
Speaker 2: way that really is representative of what you're capable of.
27:27
Speaker 2: If you want to do different, something's got to be different, right, period. Yes,
27:31
Speaker 2: And so if you're interested in taking on a new skill,
27:34
Speaker 2: trying on a new sport, or whatever the case may
27:37
Speaker 2: be You have to be willing to fall a few
27:40
Speaker 2: times and then get yourself back up exactly.
27:43
Speaker 1: And you know, there's another aspect of that, like if
27:46
Speaker 1: you're around other people, what are they thinking of me?
27:49
Speaker 1: Are they judging me if I'm doing it wrong or whatever.
27:52
Speaker 1: You don't have to do everything perfectly. You're not going
27:54
Speaker 1: to be an expert at everything. And that's something sometimes
27:56
Speaker 1: that I struggle with if I'm in a group of
27:58
Speaker 1: people and i feel like I'm doing something like you know,
28:01
Speaker 1: one of my teammates in my travel on team, he's
28:05
Speaker 1: an excellent swimmer.
28:06
Speaker 4: He did swimming in college.
28:08
Speaker 1: And I get in the pool with him and he's
28:10
Speaker 1: swimming super super fast, and his technique is much better
28:13
Speaker 1: than mine. And sometimes I don't feel like doing the
28:15
Speaker 1: drills because I feel scared and embarrassed that I'm not
28:18
Speaker 1: decent at swimming. But at the same time, that's his process,
28:23
Speaker 1: that's him. He is the swimmer I'm not. But I
28:26
Speaker 1: am trying to become a better swimmer.
28:28
Speaker 4: Every day.
28:29
Speaker 1: I'm focusing on the things that will help me improve
28:31
Speaker 1: as a swimmer. So you know what, I can't really
28:33
Speaker 1: focus on what other people are thinking. They might not
28:35
Speaker 1: even be thinking of you honestly, or they might not
28:37
Speaker 1: even be paying attention to you. But if you're constantly
28:42
Speaker 1: limiting yourself because you're worried about oh my gosh, what
28:45
Speaker 1: are they thinking of me? Or the what ifs of things,
28:48
Speaker 1: then everything becomes that much less enjoyable. And you know what,
28:53
Speaker 1: I think that that is very limiting factor in life
28:56
Speaker 1: that I'm also trying to grasp. I'm not perfect at it,
28:58
Speaker 1: like I said, I still think a lot about what
29:00
Speaker 1: are people thinking of me? But you know what, those
29:03
Speaker 1: are the things in life that we need to get
29:05
Speaker 1: better at and you know, start to evolve and adapt
29:08
Speaker 1: and change.
29:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, let go of the uncontrollables, right, And
29:12
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if you follow Laura Green,
29:15
Speaker 2: she's a really funny running let's call her a comedian
29:19
Speaker 2: and I'll show you her her profile page after we
29:22
Speaker 2: stop recording.
29:23
Speaker 3: But she always says, like, nobody cares.
29:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, at the end of the day, like I mean, yes,
29:28
Speaker 2: there are people that care about you, but in the
29:30
Speaker 2: scheme of things, everyone is more often than not so
29:33
Speaker 2: focused on their own stuff. Yes, that if you're tripping
29:36
Speaker 2: in the corner, it's like, oh, it might be funny
29:37
Speaker 2: for a second, but.
29:38
Speaker 3: Like it's really okay, Right, It's really okay.
29:40
Speaker 1: Hey, I've honestly like this is you know, this stays
29:44
Speaker 1: between us, everyone between us of the podcast. I have
29:47
Speaker 1: fallen face first on Fifth Avenue with cars around when
29:52
Speaker 1: I was getting ready for the New York City Marathon.
29:54
Speaker 1: Like I dragged my feet so much when I ran,
29:58
Speaker 1: and it was so embarrassing. So happens, especially on the
30:02
Speaker 1: avenue with cars and people around. But you know, you know,
30:05
Speaker 1: it happens. But then you get back up and everybody's like,
30:08
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, is she okay? And then they get
30:10
Speaker 1: back to their lives and the exactly, you know, the
30:13
Speaker 1: horns are honking because the light is green and they
30:15
Speaker 1: have to move, you know, exactly.
30:20
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
30:23
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30:28
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30:33
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Speaker 2: I've been on the ag one train for a long
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Speaker 2: yours today. Which one which of the world Majors was
32:28
Speaker 2: your first World Major?
32:29
Speaker 4: New York?
32:29
Speaker 2: Okay, yes, talk us through that experience and how it
32:35
Speaker 2: encouraged and inspired you to do it again.
32:38
Speaker 1: So my husband actually did New York one week before
32:43
Speaker 1: a wedding. Everybody thought we were crazy. My whole family
32:47
Speaker 1: wanted me to pull out of it because if something
32:50
Speaker 1: were to happen, face plan on Fifth Avenue. You know,
32:53
Speaker 1: the the cuts and bruises don't really look so good
32:55
Speaker 1: in a wedding.
32:56
Speaker 4: Dress, but it covers them.
32:59
Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
33:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, talk I'm a.
33:00
Speaker 1: Very clumsy person, believe it or not, I really am.
33:03
Speaker 1: I trip over everything. But it was something that I
33:06
Speaker 1: really wanted to do post tennis. Was you know, once
33:09
Speaker 1: I started getting into the running, was do one of
33:12
Speaker 1: the major marathons in New York. Happened to be the
33:14
Speaker 1: first one. We were very aware it was the week
33:18
Speaker 1: before a wedding, and we still wanted to do it anyway,
33:20
Speaker 1: and it was a great experience. My husband and I
33:23
Speaker 1: did run that one together side by side, and that's
33:25
Speaker 1: where we realized, like, Okay, our paces are very different,
33:29
Speaker 1: so one of us needs to go ahead next time.
33:32
Speaker 4: And you know what, we finished it.
33:34
Speaker 1: We had fun and running twenty six miles, like I said,
33:38
Speaker 1: is a monster because at the beginning you are loving it.
33:42
Speaker 4: I loved New York. I love the energy. It was great,
33:45
Speaker 4: but that.
33:46
Speaker 1: Race was one of the most miserable New York City
33:48
Speaker 1: marathons I think for so many people because it was
33:51
Speaker 1: so hot.
33:51
Speaker 4: It was twenty twenty two.
33:54
Speaker 1: It was raining, then the sun came out, it was humid,
33:57
Speaker 1: then it was overcast. I feel like we had so
33:59
Speaker 1: many different elements come in all at once. But then again,
34:03
Speaker 1: it was a mentally challenging race and either you drop
34:06
Speaker 1: out or you finish, and we ended up finishing and
34:10
Speaker 1: it was insane. But all the while you're running, you're like,
34:14
Speaker 1: I never want to do another one again. You cross
34:16
Speaker 1: the finish line, you're like, when is the next one?
34:18
Speaker 3: I'm ready?
34:19
Speaker 1: And that was We ended up doing Boston and London
34:23
Speaker 1: in the same week as well in twenty twenty three,
34:26
Speaker 1: so it was kind of like that, Okay, when's the
34:28
Speaker 1: next one? You have five days to get ready and
34:31
Speaker 1: fly across the pond and run another marathon, but it's again,
34:38
Speaker 1: you know, it's a challenge.
34:39
Speaker 4: It's what would get me out of bed in the morning.
34:41
Speaker 1: And even though you know I'm tired, I need to
34:44
Speaker 1: train for this because I want to feel prepared. And
34:45
Speaker 1: the more prepared I am, the less it will hurt.
34:48
Speaker 1: And the less it will hurt, the more I can enjoy.
34:50
Speaker 1: So that was kind of like the chain of thought.
34:53
Speaker 3: The less it will hurt, the more I can enjoy.
34:55
Speaker 4: Exactly.
34:57
Speaker 2: I love that mindset around like oh no, we got Yeah,
35:00
Speaker 2: that's the more preparation the better.
35:02
Speaker 4: Yeah.
35:02
Speaker 1: It's like I met actually Elliott Kipchogi Humble Brag before
35:06
Speaker 1: the Boston Marathon and I had a one on one
35:09
Speaker 1: with him and I was talking.
35:10
Speaker 4: He you know, gave me his book that was signed.
35:12
Speaker 1: I gave him a tennis racket sign and he looked
35:14
Speaker 1: like a little kid at at Candy story was like
35:16
Speaker 1: bouncing the ball in the racket and hearing by yeah.
35:18
Speaker 1: I mean they were trying to protect him, like if
35:20
Speaker 1: the ball fell he would go and get it. Everybody's
35:22
Speaker 1: like oh, because they wanted him to WHI but he was.
35:26
Speaker 1: He was so sweet And then I asked him, like
35:28
Speaker 1: any piece of advice for me before I run the marathon.
35:31
Speaker 1: He's like, don't worry, just run it in two hours
35:33
Speaker 1: and he'll be done in no time. I was like, okay,
35:36
Speaker 1: maybe for you, you can run in two hours.
35:38
Speaker 4: Me, I'll be done a lot later than that.
35:41
Speaker 3: I need a little bit more time here.
35:43
Speaker 1: But you know, also a human like that superhuman who
35:47
Speaker 1: can run at the speed that he does, and for
35:50
Speaker 1: you know, as as decorated as he is in the
35:53
Speaker 1: marathon world and as celebrated as he is, you know,
35:55
Speaker 1: he loves this so much. And he didn't have the
35:58
Speaker 1: best races. You know, he wasn't feeling great, but his
36:01
Speaker 1: mindset and approach to the races, his mindset. After having
36:05
Speaker 1: a couple setbacks in the races that he had and
36:07
Speaker 1: he didn't win, he just said, look, I had the
36:11
Speaker 1: opportunity to get up tomorrow and better myself as an athlete.
36:15
Speaker 1: I'm going to see what happened. I'm going to learn
36:17
Speaker 1: from it, and I'm going to come back to the
36:18
Speaker 1: next race and I'm going to try and do my
36:20
Speaker 1: best to win. And that's the mindset. It's forever growing, changing, adapting,
36:25
Speaker 1: and forever learning. You want to be a student of
36:27
Speaker 1: the game, and that's something that I try and focus
36:31
Speaker 1: on even in track on. I have a coach, and
36:34
Speaker 1: you know, he's teaching me all of these different things
36:37
Speaker 1: because look, open water swimming is hard. Swimming in general
36:41
Speaker 1: is hard, so I need to learn the techniques. But
36:44
Speaker 1: I had an accident on my bike a year ago
36:46
Speaker 1: and still am very nervous when I get on the bike.
36:48
Speaker 1: I'm still very nervous for the iron Man World Championship,
36:52
Speaker 1: which is a niece, which is in a mountain, So
36:54
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not scared of the climbs, I'm scared
36:56
Speaker 1: of the descents. I've heard they're pretty dodgy. But again
37:00
Speaker 1: that comes to preparation, confidence, believing in yourself that you
37:03
Speaker 1: can do the.
37:03
Speaker 2: Hard things or those that don't have the context. Can
37:06
Speaker 2: you talk a little bit about how you are racing
37:09
Speaker 2: the World Championship knowing that you're, like I said, relatively
37:12
Speaker 2: is an interpretive word, but relatively new to triathlon.
37:16
Speaker 1: So the World Championships in Nice, they give the opportunity
37:20
Speaker 1: this year for a couple of people who qualify in
37:23
Speaker 1: half iron Man's with a certain time in qualification to
37:27
Speaker 1: be able to qualify for the full World Championship, so
37:29
Speaker 1: I was able to get my slot into Nice and
37:33
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to race in a World Championship, whether
37:35
Speaker 1: it be half or full. Going to be doing my
37:38
Speaker 1: first full, it's insane. I'm very I'm very, very scared
37:42
Speaker 1: to get this is Nice, right, I'm scared because it's not.
37:45
Speaker 1: You know, my best halftime was actually like ten days ago.
37:49
Speaker 1: It was five hours and eleven minutes, and knowing that
37:51
Speaker 1: it's going to have to be double that and five
37:53
Speaker 1: hours and eleven minutes on a flat course, right, so
37:56
Speaker 1: this is not going to be flat. It's going to
37:58
Speaker 1: be mountain for the bikes, so lots of steep inclines
38:02
Speaker 1: and then the descents you know, are very technical. So
38:04
Speaker 1: there's also you know, strategy involved. Do I take my
38:07
Speaker 1: try bike, do I take my road bike? What is
38:09
Speaker 1: going to be most comfortable for me? How do I
38:11
Speaker 1: approach the run? Because you know, like most people, when
38:15
Speaker 1: you start a race, you're very enthusiastic.
38:16
Speaker 4: You want to get going.
38:17
Speaker 1: Especially on the run, you need to control your pace
38:21
Speaker 1: because after a swim, after a bike, you need to
38:24
Speaker 1: run a full marathon after that. How am I going
38:26
Speaker 1: to approach that? How am I going to handle these
38:28
Speaker 1: things mentally, because in a half you can race. I
38:31
Speaker 1: feel like there you can really just say, Okay, I'm
38:33
Speaker 1: going to exert myself to the fullest and I'm just
38:35
Speaker 1: going to go. And I feel like for a full
38:38
Speaker 1: you need to learn how to pace yourself and just
38:41
Speaker 1: think of it as I need to be doing this
38:43
Speaker 1: for a whole day, and that's from sun up to sundown,
38:48
Speaker 1: and you need to finish, and my ultimate goal is
38:51
Speaker 1: to finish under twelve hours.
38:53
Speaker 4: Will I do it? I don't know. Will I finish absolutely?
38:56
Speaker 4: And they're going to have to drag me off the course.
38:57
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know someone who's listening to it here as
39:00
Speaker 2: you talk about such a really impressive but also very
39:03
Speaker 2: difficult challenge ahead of you, and maybe they're asking, how
39:07
Speaker 2: do you garner the courage, the confidence? What do you
39:10
Speaker 2: say to yourself during those hard moments to show up
39:13
Speaker 2: and rise to the occasion.
39:15
Speaker 3: What is it that keeps.
39:16
Speaker 2: You going when it really does feel absolutely awful.
39:21
Speaker 1: It's again remembering how I feel at the finish line.
39:25
Speaker 1: It's also knowing that I signed up for this because
39:28
Speaker 1: I wanted it, not because anybody's forcing me to do it.
39:32
Speaker 4: This was my decision.
39:33
Speaker 1: So when I toe the line, it's pretty much like
39:36
Speaker 1: there's no turning back. I Am going to finish it
39:38
Speaker 1: because this is what I wanted to do. This is
39:40
Speaker 1: my dream, this is my goal. And whether I accomplish
39:44
Speaker 1: a time or not, that's like, you know, that's a
39:46
Speaker 1: secondary goal, but you always want to finish. And I
39:48
Speaker 1: want to hear the words Monica Puig, you are an
39:51
Speaker 1: iron man and that only happens when you complete a
39:54
Speaker 1: full and you know that is amazing in itself, and
40:00
Speaker 1: being able to do and participate in a World Championships
40:02
Speaker 1: is already amazing. I qualified for the half World Championships
40:05
Speaker 1: next year as well, just when I did the last
40:08
Speaker 1: half in Ohio, And for me, that's what I also
40:11
Speaker 1: love about the sport is that an.
40:12
Speaker 4: Amateur can qualify for World Championships.
40:15
Speaker 1: So like you don't need to be a pro, you
40:18
Speaker 1: obviously need to dedicate a lot of your time. I
40:20
Speaker 1: feel like I don't have a social life because of it,
40:22
Speaker 1: but I'm fine with that. I don't mind, you know,
40:24
Speaker 1: training and laying on the couch with my dogs and
40:26
Speaker 1: just being like, okay, the day is done. But you
40:29
Speaker 1: know you have something to push for, you have something
40:31
Speaker 1: to strive for and you it's honestly so enjoyable to
40:35
Speaker 1: see improvements each and every day in three different sports.
40:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
40:41
Speaker 2: So to speak dynamically about all the other things you
40:44
Speaker 2: do as well. Clearly, when you were playing professional tennis,
40:47
Speaker 2: that was your full time gig. Now how are you working,
40:50
Speaker 2: what are you doing? Talk to us about what you're
40:51
Speaker 2: up to.
40:52
Speaker 1: So apart from the triathlon, I work in commentating in tennis,
40:56
Speaker 1: so I work for ESPN Deportes at the Grand Slams,
41:00
Speaker 1: do it in Spanish commentating, and then I do work
41:03
Speaker 1: with Tennis Channel as well, so I go out on
41:05
Speaker 1: location to some tournaments or I'm based out in La
41:09
Speaker 1: at the studios, which is incredibly awesome. The opportunity presented
41:13
Speaker 1: itself when I was injured, so kind of open the
41:17
Speaker 1: door and set myself up for the next chapter of life,
41:20
Speaker 1: which was you know, for me, it was nice that
41:22
Speaker 1: when I retired, I knew I already had something to
41:25
Speaker 1: fall back on, which sometimes for athletes can be pretty scary,
41:29
Speaker 1: like what is next? What else can I expect of myself?
41:33
Speaker 1: What am I good at? And it was always clear
41:36
Speaker 1: to me that I wanted to work in that field.
41:38
Speaker 1: I love and feel very comfortable being in front of
41:41
Speaker 1: a camera. I love to talk and socialize, so that's
41:44
Speaker 1: also very good. But you know, I love journalism. I
41:47
Speaker 1: love to write. I feel like I'm very created when
41:49
Speaker 1: it comes to my words and what I put together,
41:52
Speaker 1: so that was great. And then also working with Athleta
41:55
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of different things, wearing a ton of
41:57
Speaker 1: different hats, doing some MC work A tournaments, which I
42:01
Speaker 1: absolutely love because then I get to interact with some
42:03
Speaker 1: of my peers who I am still very close with,
42:06
Speaker 1: And it's just nice to be this busy. Although I
42:09
Speaker 1: do miss spending time at home, which I didn't really
42:12
Speaker 1: really realize that I missed and loved so much since
42:15
Speaker 1: I retired. You know, it's fulfilling for me because I
42:18
Speaker 1: always wanted to keep busy and not just be like
42:20
Speaker 1: twiddling my thumbs at home.
42:22
Speaker 3: Not twiddling my thumbs at home.
42:23
Speaker 2: What would you say has been the peach and the
42:26
Speaker 2: pit of this transition period within your life.
42:29
Speaker 1: I think the peach of it is just, you know,
42:32
Speaker 1: still being able to travel, still being incredibly busy, and
42:36
Speaker 1: having a lot of things to look forward to. The
42:38
Speaker 1: pit of it is, you know, sometimes wanting to be
42:41
Speaker 1: at home. My husband's at home working, he's with my dogs,
42:44
Speaker 1: not being able to see my family as much. Those
42:47
Speaker 1: little things that you know you wish you could be doing.
42:50
Speaker 1: But you know, they understand and they support me, and
42:53
Speaker 1: they want me to be happy and live my best life.
42:56
Speaker 1: And ultimately, I know there's going to be a time
42:58
Speaker 1: where I'm just going to take a back seat and
43:00
Speaker 1: take a.
43:00
Speaker 4: Little bit of a break.
43:01
Speaker 1: But right now, with all this motivation, energy drive, I
43:04
Speaker 1: just want to continue.
43:05
Speaker 4: To pursue these dreams and goals that I have.
43:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, you say being happy being such a priority for
43:11
Speaker 2: you outside of the triathlon, What would you say are
43:15
Speaker 2: the things that bring you the most joy now when
43:17
Speaker 2: it comes to your career.
43:19
Speaker 1: I think you know, like I said, I really love
43:22
Speaker 1: the travel of it all.
43:24
Speaker 4: I like going to the tournaments.
43:25
Speaker 1: For example, in a couple of weeks, I'll be going
43:27
Speaker 1: back to the US Open and working. I like being
43:30
Speaker 1: in that environment because you know, it brings back some
43:32
Speaker 1: good memories from when I played. I like being able
43:35
Speaker 1: to discover things that I'm good at and continuing to improve,
43:39
Speaker 1: as for example, a broadcaster learning how to you know,
43:43
Speaker 1: find my voice, still learning how to express my opinions
43:47
Speaker 1: in a very respectful way as well, because you know,
43:50
Speaker 1: there's a lot of criticism that comes in journalism as well.
43:54
Speaker 1: But you know, I like to learn and take things
43:57
Speaker 1: from each and every person that I meet or that
43:59
Speaker 1: I watch get better at studying my craft. What can
44:02
Speaker 1: I do to get better? What anecdotes or notes? You
44:06
Speaker 1: know that goes into you know, being a good broadcaster.
44:09
Speaker 1: But you know, there are so many things that I
44:12
Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoy. I think I'm a happier Monica from when
44:16
Speaker 1: I was playing tennis because I put I did put
44:18
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on myself. But now I feel
44:20
Speaker 1: like I understand life a little bit better. And that,
44:23
Speaker 1: like I said at the very beginning, comes with maturity
44:26
Speaker 1: and knowing who you are and loving yourself.
44:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, And what I'm hearing you say also is that
44:30
Speaker 2: it wasn't that you didn't love competing in tennis, but
44:33
Speaker 2: there's a little bit of freedom that comes when you
44:36
Speaker 2: get to a place where you're not setting the bar
44:39
Speaker 2: so high all of the time, right, And I say that,
44:42
Speaker 2: and I also respect and understand that, like you do
44:44
Speaker 2: have a high bar set for yourself by how you
44:46
Speaker 2: want to show up on broadcast. When you're in the stadium,
44:48
Speaker 2: when you're working in this new way, it's just a
44:51
Speaker 2: different type of pressure exactly now.
44:53
Speaker 1: It's not the pressure that, Okay, I need to do
44:55
Speaker 1: exactly the right thing to achieve this outcome.
44:58
Speaker 4: The outcome is going to happen already.
45:00
Speaker 1: I know that whatever I'm going to say, it's either
45:01
Speaker 1: going to rub people the right way or the wrong way.
45:03
Speaker 1: I know that I'm going into my broadcasts, and I
45:06
Speaker 1: know I'm going into every single match that I call
45:09
Speaker 1: with the facts and the facts are there. I'm just
45:11
Speaker 1: going to say what I know because I have lived it.
45:14
Speaker 1: I have been out on the court. So when I
45:17
Speaker 1: see somebody going through a pressure situation, I'm going to say,
45:19
Speaker 1: this is exactly what they're going through because this is
45:21
Speaker 1: how I felt it as well, you know. And I
45:23
Speaker 1: just try and go as prepared as possible, and you
45:26
Speaker 1: know what, whatever happens happens. But I know I'm going
45:28
Speaker 1: into each and every day giving my one hundred percent.
45:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
45:32
Speaker 2: At at the top of this, we talked a lot
45:34
Speaker 2: about what it felt like for you to have these
45:37
Speaker 2: expectations placed on yourself and perhaps like interpret the opinions
45:41
Speaker 2: of others. Someone comes to your Instagram page and they
45:44
Speaker 2: see that you are someone who has a gold medal
45:48
Speaker 2: and see your beautiful history with tennis and also now
45:51
Speaker 2: this newfound passion for triathlon. But when you look in
45:55
Speaker 2: the mirror, Monica, what is it that you see now
45:59
Speaker 2: looking back at you?
46:01
Speaker 1: H looking back? You know, I see Monica who is
46:04
Speaker 1: very ambitious. She was, you know, maybe a little bit insecure,
46:10
Speaker 1: because I feel like we all are or were at
46:13
Speaker 1: one point in time. And you know, I see somebody
46:16
Speaker 1: who wanted to be accepted by everybody and be loved
46:19
Speaker 1: by everybody. And you know what, that's okay. But fast
46:23
Speaker 1: forward to the Monica now and it's just a more authentic,
46:28
Speaker 1: genuinely happier, more accepting, more at peace with life and herself.
46:34
Speaker 1: And that again, I said, just comes with the maturity.
46:37
Speaker 1: And you know, all the years of just understanding that
46:41
Speaker 1: this is who you are.
46:43
Speaker 4: Sure, we all.
46:44
Speaker 1: Evolve, we all change, we all, you know, become different
46:48
Speaker 1: versions of ourselves over the years. But at the end
46:51
Speaker 1: of the day, this is who you were built to be.
46:53
Speaker 1: And your future's already written out for you, and we
46:56
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But if we
46:59
Speaker 1: try and be good, decent human beings each and every day,
47:02
Speaker 1: you know, with the values that our parents instill in us.
47:05
Speaker 1: And you know, my parents made it very clear they
47:07
Speaker 1: didn't care if I was a good tennis player, but
47:09
Speaker 1: they cared that I was a good human being. And
47:11
Speaker 1: that's a value that I hold with me near and
47:14
Speaker 1: dear to my heart each and every day, and a
47:15
Speaker 1: value that you know, in the future when I have kids,
47:18
Speaker 1: that's that's going to be the number one thing. It
47:20
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what you do in life, but you need
47:23
Speaker 1: to be a good person. You need to have a
47:24
Speaker 1: good heart, and you need to do everything with your
47:27
Speaker 1: heart and soul in it because if not, it's not
47:28
Speaker 1: worth it.
47:29
Speaker 3: If not, it's not worth it.
47:30
Speaker 2: So when you look in the mirror, you see a
47:32
Speaker 2: good person, yes, looking back at.
47:34
Speaker 4: You, at least I hope. I hope. So, But that's
47:36
Speaker 4: that's what I feel.
47:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, some days you feel like a little bit better
47:39
Speaker 3: than others. Depends exactly.
47:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have two problems, and that's fine, that's fine.
47:46
Speaker 4: Everybody has an off day.
47:47
Speaker 1: But yeah, as a whole, being a good person and
47:51
Speaker 1: being kind is extremely important to me.
47:53
Speaker 2: I love that, and I love the the nudge or
47:56
Speaker 2: the note, really crediting your parents with instilling that with
47:59
Speaker 2: a you. Within my own family, our family motto is
48:02
Speaker 2: doo good. And so I'm always asking myself when I'm executing,
48:06
Speaker 2: am I doing something that's good? And am I doing
48:09
Speaker 2: something that genuinely has good intentions behind it?
48:11
Speaker 3: And if not, then what's the point?
48:13
Speaker 4: Right exactly?
48:13
Speaker 1: Because there's you know, if you're being kind to other people,
48:16
Speaker 1: it's it's going to be repaid in the future. You know,
48:20
Speaker 1: you just have to always, you know, be kind to
48:23
Speaker 1: others because you know there's really no point.
48:25
Speaker 2: I also think like as someone and I'm sure that
48:27
Speaker 2: you can relate to this because you are certainly an
48:30
Speaker 2: entrepreneur yourself at this point, as someone who has to
48:33
Speaker 2: be their own advocate and an entrepreneur and has the
48:36
Speaker 2: opportunity to work with many different people, I'm constantly reminding
48:39
Speaker 2: myself that it is possible to both be kind and
48:43
Speaker 2: also be firm. You can be someone who treats everyone
48:47
Speaker 2: with respect and also be clear with what it is
48:50
Speaker 2: that you're worth, what it is that how we communicate
48:53
Speaker 2: what the expectations are, And I think that that can
48:55
Speaker 2: be a lost art. Sometimes people are not understanding that
48:58
Speaker 2: you don't have to be a mean person to get
49:00
Speaker 2: what you want exactly. You can also like just approach
49:03
Speaker 2: a situation with a nicety to it.
49:06
Speaker 1: It's called setting boundaries. Boundaries for yourself, boundaries for others.
49:11
Speaker 1: Knowing that when somebody crosses your line, because we all
49:14
Speaker 1: have a line, whether it's here or here, there's a line.
49:18
Speaker 1: If it's crossed, you need to let people know and
49:21
Speaker 1: you know, be firm. I've had people who you know,
49:24
Speaker 1: I'm having a conversation or either they disagree, they start
49:27
Speaker 1: raising their voice, and I'm not going to you know,
49:31
Speaker 1: stoop to that level. Like Michelle Obama says, when they
49:34
Speaker 1: go low, we go high. So it's always being like, okay,
49:37
Speaker 1: let me stay within my boundary. If when they're crossing
49:41
Speaker 1: my boundary, I'm going to let them know, you know,
49:44
Speaker 1: take a couple steps back or calm down because this
49:47
Speaker 1: is not the way to talk or this is not
49:50
Speaker 1: the way to act, and let's have a civilized conversation
49:54
Speaker 1: about this, you know, or if we're getting heated ourselves,
49:57
Speaker 1: let me take a step back because I'm also crossing
50:00
Speaker 1: my own boundary and that's not what I want to do.
50:02
Speaker 1: Because then you know, you lose essence of you know
50:06
Speaker 1: what you want to either communicate, you lose essence of
50:10
Speaker 1: where you are, your situational awareness or everything. So it's
50:13
Speaker 1: always about being as present as possible and knowing where
50:17
Speaker 1: your boundaries are.
50:18
Speaker 2: This really goes into that whole concept of respond versus react,
50:21
Speaker 2: and sometimes when there's a lot happening, it's a hectic situation,
50:25
Speaker 2: it can be easy to react, yes, by asking yourself
50:28
Speaker 2: and we said this before, what would make my future
50:30
Speaker 2: self proud?
50:31
Speaker 3: Right?
50:31
Speaker 2: I want to always do my best and it might
50:33
Speaker 2: not happen every single time, but of course I dedicate
50:37
Speaker 2: myself to always making an effort to respond, and I
50:40
Speaker 2: think there's so much, so much, so much value in that.
50:42
Speaker 2: As we wind down here, I'm so appreciative for everything
50:45
Speaker 2: that you've shared about your journey, especially highlighting the lows
50:49
Speaker 2: and the highs that have come with the last handful
50:51
Speaker 2: of years since Rio in twenty sixteen. Right now, looking
50:55
Speaker 2: back on your journey, going back to those numerous surgeries,
50:58
Speaker 2: those hurdles that you fail as you started to come
51:01
Speaker 2: to grips with the fact that you were.
51:03
Speaker 3: Going to stop playing tennis.
51:05
Speaker 2: Knowing what you know, now, Monica, what advice would you
51:09
Speaker 2: offer yourself going through that hurdle moment.
51:11
Speaker 1: I think the biggest word would be patience because that
51:16
Speaker 1: I'm not a naturally patient person, and I've had to
51:18
Speaker 1: learn a lot of patients, especially in the world of
51:20
Speaker 1: endurance sports, you need to be patient because it's not
51:23
Speaker 1: going to be a short journey. It's going to be
51:24
Speaker 1: very long. And also patients in dealing with the injuries,
51:28
Speaker 1: Patients in dealing with what doctors tell you, what pts
51:32
Speaker 1: tell you, what your own team is telling you, Patients
51:35
Speaker 1: with people maybe not understanding what you're going through. And
51:38
Speaker 1: patience with yourself because like I said, I'm not naturally patient,
51:42
Speaker 1: and in those moments when you know, the doctor was like,
51:45
Speaker 1: maybe you should wait another week before you start PT
51:48
Speaker 1: or maybe you should wear the brace for another week,
51:51
Speaker 1: and I really didn't want to because it was uncomfortable.
51:53
Speaker 1: I needed to be patient with others and patient with
51:55
Speaker 1: myself and knowing that I'm healing, things are happening, patients
51:59
Speaker 1: in knowing that what I knew for you know, my
52:03
Speaker 1: whole entire life, and you know, since I started playing
52:05
Speaker 1: tennis up until when I retired, like twenty one years.
52:07
Speaker 4: Of my life. It might be coming to an end.
52:09
Speaker 4: So let me be.
52:10
Speaker 1: Patient with myself and allow myself to feel the feelings
52:13
Speaker 1: that I am feeling, because that is also not very
52:16
Speaker 1: easy to do. You want to be this strong, confident,
52:19
Speaker 1: independent person, but you're also feeling a lot of things
52:22
Speaker 1: and that's okay. So be patient with yourself and allow
52:25
Speaker 1: yourself to do these things. Allow yourself to feel these feelings.
52:28
Speaker 1: So whether it's advice to myself or advice to others,
52:32
Speaker 1: be patient with yourself, be patient with others, be patient
52:34
Speaker 1: with the situation. Because patience is not easy, but it
52:39
Speaker 1: can help you in a lot of different situations.
52:41
Speaker 2: We'll never regret being patient, and you owe it to
52:44
Speaker 2: yourself to be kind to yourself. So many really awesome
52:48
Speaker 2: takeaways here today Monica. For those that don't follow along
52:51
Speaker 2: with you just yet on social give us the details.
52:54
Speaker 1: So my handles are Monica Ace ninety three on X
52:58
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Don't really post on threads. I'm not really
53:02
Speaker 1: big on TikTok. Maybe I should be, but you know,
53:04
Speaker 1: I'm no Simone Biles on TikTok. I'm no cocoa golf
53:07
Speaker 1: on TikTok, and I don't want to pretend to be
53:10
Speaker 1: because they, you know, set the bar very high. And
53:14
Speaker 1: but again, you know, on my socials, be prepared to
53:17
Speaker 1: find lots of content on coffee, my dog's traveling, and
53:20
Speaker 1: you know, just relatability. I'm always doing something, goofy, always
53:24
Speaker 1: making fun of myself somehow, so we love it.
53:28
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily's body and at Hurdle Podcast. Another
53:31
Speaker 2: hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time