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5-MINUTE FRIDAY: On the Courage & Vulnerability It Takes To Travel Alone · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:20
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Emily A Baddie here. You are listening to
0:24
Speaker 1: five Minute Friday from Hurdle. You know I did a
0:28
Speaker 1: lot of good work and getting ahead for my trip away.
0:34
Speaker 1: If I've been following along on social or listening to
0:36
Speaker 1: the show, then you may know that I am actually
0:40
Speaker 1: leaving Paris today to head back to well toward home.
0:45
Speaker 1: I'm coming to Chicago for the marathon, not to run it,
0:50
Speaker 1: but to host a live podcast in the morning on
0:55
Speaker 1: Saturday with Tracksmith. It is sold out. However, the next
0:59
Speaker 1: thing on my list after getting this episode into the
1:02
Speaker 1: queue for you who is figuring out where the post
1:05
Speaker 1: podcast Hurdle meetup is going to be, because I know
1:08
Speaker 1: that there are a few people that wanted to get
1:10
Speaker 1: in that didn't get tickets. So stay tuned and make
1:13
Speaker 1: sure you check in over on my Instagram at Emily
1:16
Speaker 1: A Body. If you want to get in and hang
1:19
Speaker 1: with some hurdlers, I will keep you posted. It'll be
1:21
Speaker 1: probably around like ten thirty in the morning or so
1:24
Speaker 1: in Chicago, not far from where the podcast is at
1:28
Speaker 1: Chicago Athletic Association. Anyway, like I was saying, I did
1:33
Speaker 1: a pretty stellar job of getting ahead with the show
1:37
Speaker 1: so that I could make sure to just be really
1:41
Speaker 1: present while I was traveling a little more background. I
1:46
Speaker 1: decided to take this trip not just to Paris. It
1:50
Speaker 1: started in Milan and then I went to Florence. I
1:55
Speaker 1: did a day trip Akai, rented my first car internationally,
1:58
Speaker 1: and drove to Cortona, which is where they filmed under
2:01
Speaker 1: the Tuscan sun. I sabered a bottle champagne, and then
2:07
Speaker 1: I loved Florence for Paris. I've been in Paris for
2:11
Speaker 1: a few days now, since Tuesday. If you're listening to
2:14
Speaker 1: this on Friday, October eighth, and yeah, that's kind of
2:20
Speaker 1: the gist of it. And I did that because again,
2:23
Speaker 1: even following on at home, which I know you have,
2:26
Speaker 1: I pulled an audible on going to London when I
2:29
Speaker 1: started to feel a nagging pain in my hip area
2:34
Speaker 1: abdomen area, knowing that running that marathon would not serve
2:38
Speaker 1: me and could put me at risk for more injury,
2:42
Speaker 1: and I decided to go to Italy instead. Okay, now
2:45
Speaker 1: you are all cut up to speed well today for
2:48
Speaker 1: five minute Friday. I strategically wanted to record this episode
2:52
Speaker 1: while I was away because I wanted to kind of
2:56
Speaker 1: have a post mortem even though it's sad because you
2:59
Speaker 1: know it's not technically over yet, but it's over for
3:02
Speaker 1: the sake of me leaving your by the time the
3:05
Speaker 1: next episode of Hurdle comes out. The thing about traveling solo,
3:09
Speaker 1: and I get so many messages about this when I
3:11
Speaker 1: do it rightfully so because it's really not something that
3:15
Speaker 1: a lot of people will do in their life. And
3:18
Speaker 1: I don't say that to shade anyone, so to speak,
3:22
Speaker 1: but a lot of people will never desire or maybe
3:26
Speaker 1: feel as though they need to travel alone. Maybe these
3:31
Speaker 1: are the kind of individuals who have always been in
3:34
Speaker 1: some sort of substantial relationship. I'm sure that has something
3:36
Speaker 1: to do with it. They could be married, they could
3:38
Speaker 1: have kids, or maybe it's just not something that interests them.
3:42
Speaker 1: And I would argue that solo travel is something that
3:46
Speaker 1: may not interest someone because maybe they're scared. Maybe they
3:51
Speaker 1: don't see how it could be enjoyable to be taking
3:56
Speaker 1: on a different place completely alone, thinking about what it's
4:00
Speaker 1: like to go to dinner alone or to walk around
4:03
Speaker 1: constantly alone. And I think the first time I opened
4:07
Speaker 1: myself up to solo travel, I remember I had an
4:10
Speaker 1: old girlfriend, like six seven years ago. We met doing CrossFit,
4:14
Speaker 1: and she went on like a two or three week trip.
4:19
Speaker 1: I think it was like at least three weeks. What
4:20
Speaker 1: am I kidding to I want to say, Thailand. And
4:24
Speaker 1: she lived on her own in New York, and so
4:25
Speaker 1: did I. I had newly I think at the time,
4:28
Speaker 1: moved into my first studio apartment actually, and I remember
4:33
Speaker 1: being so mystified by the fact that she was interested
4:37
Speaker 1: in going across the world by herself. And she said
4:44
Speaker 1: to me when she got back, well, I mean I
4:47
Speaker 1: already lived by myself, so why not go see something
4:51
Speaker 1: I want to see?
4:52
Speaker 2: Right?
4:54
Speaker 1: And I mean I had a moment there. Hearing that
4:57
Speaker 1: was a big unlock for me, right, because at the
5:00
Speaker 1: time I didn't realize just how much I was already
5:03
Speaker 1: doing on my own while living alone. And the reality
5:09
Speaker 1: is that just because I lived alone at that time,
5:12
Speaker 1: it didn't mean that I was super comfortable spending this
5:15
Speaker 1: time by myself. And hearing her say it in that
5:18
Speaker 1: way it kind of encouraged me to want to go
5:22
Speaker 1: outside of my comfort zone. Now. It was a few
5:24
Speaker 1: years still until I pulled the plug on my first
5:27
Speaker 1: solo trip. That was back in twenty eighteen in March
5:31
Speaker 1: to Italy as well. But it kind of opened the door,
5:36
Speaker 1: like the door was cracked open, right. And I tell
5:40
Speaker 1: you this story today because on my second trip across
5:44
Speaker 1: the world on my own, what I've been able to
5:47
Speaker 1: articulate about what this kind of experience means to me
5:52
Speaker 1: is well, I mean, how do I say this? It's
5:55
Speaker 1: courage right, It's courageous in my mind, traveling alone is courageous.
6:01
Speaker 1: And it's also an opportunity to come back to my
6:04
Speaker 1: inner voice and refocus on my insides without distraction. You know,
6:09
Speaker 1: I feel like I want to ask you what would
6:11
Speaker 1: you do if you were the only factor? Again, what
6:15
Speaker 1: would you do if you were the only factor, if
6:18
Speaker 1: your decisions were based purely on what was in your
6:23
Speaker 1: heart and not impacted by others? Now? Every day, I mean,
6:27
Speaker 1: think about it. We are so influenced by peer pressure
6:30
Speaker 1: and family obligation and Instagram people that you were romantic
6:35
Speaker 1: with past or previous Oh my god, the past ones
6:37
Speaker 1: lately have been tearing me up. Like we're impacted by
6:42
Speaker 1: bosses and just other people needing our input and our inbox,
6:46
Speaker 1: and I mean the list goes on. So what would
6:50
Speaker 1: you do if you had the opportunity and I'll use
6:54
Speaker 1: the opportunity strategic here, the word opportunity. What would you
6:59
Speaker 1: do if you could silence that lingering acquisition about how
7:03
Speaker 1: things should be? Yeah? I know it's kind of crazy, right,
7:09
Speaker 1: because how often in our lives do we have an
7:11
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. Solo travel brings me back to me.
7:16
Speaker 1: It helps me walk away from the lingering inferiority complex
7:21
Speaker 1: that I have in my day to day despite being
7:23
Speaker 1: so confident in who I am, because this is human nature.
7:28
Speaker 1: There's for me when I travel, I don't have an
7:30
Speaker 1: international data plan. I'm literally wandering foreign streets without Wi Fi.
7:35
Speaker 1: I am in a place exploring on my own, just me,
7:39
Speaker 1: my thoughts and I and my heart. It's kind of
7:43
Speaker 1: funny because it reminds me of running a marathon at times, right,
7:46
Speaker 1: I mean you have to do a similar internal audit,
7:49
Speaker 1: like a deep dive of self to go after a
7:52
Speaker 1: goal of that proportion, especially, I mean when the race
7:56
Speaker 1: starts and the gun goes off and the result is
7:59
Speaker 1: entirely up to the runner as an individual, and it
8:02
Speaker 1: is such a It's a love letter, right, It's a
8:05
Speaker 1: love letter of self rooted and determination. And you're working
8:09
Speaker 1: on you know, overcoming the hurdles of hurt in your past,
8:13
Speaker 1: and you're writing it with all of this grit and
8:17
Speaker 1: it's just you out there, it's just me out here.
8:21
Speaker 1: And for me, like, I go back to this word
8:24
Speaker 1: courage again, right, because it's so courageous to be willing
8:29
Speaker 1: to do that level of self inquiry. It is so
8:32
Speaker 1: courageous not only to do that inquiry, but then to
8:35
Speaker 1: deal with the external feedback that you may get from
8:38
Speaker 1: people you don't know in this new place, right, I'm
8:40
Speaker 1: talking about every single host or waitress that greets me
8:45
Speaker 1: when I go to sit down at a restaurant says
8:47
Speaker 1: the exact same thing, Oh, it's just you. And I
8:52
Speaker 1: realize on this trip that the first time around, like
8:55
Speaker 1: that felt like kind of like a bullet. Every time
8:57
Speaker 1: someone asked me that this time I'm around, I'm like, yeah, mother, okay,
9:03
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna swear, and I don't want to cuss
9:05
Speaker 1: at them when they say this to me, but yeah,
9:07
Speaker 1: it's just me. It's just me, And like, how lucky
9:11
Speaker 1: am I that it's just me? And sometimes they see
9:14
Speaker 1: the wheels in their head and they're turning and they
9:16
Speaker 1: start to wonder, like why is it just her? What
9:18
Speaker 1: is she doing? Is she okay? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Ah, man,
9:25
Speaker 1: it's courageous. It's so special for me to have this chance.
9:32
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that every single moment when I'm
9:34
Speaker 1: traveling alone is like absolutely roses, although I'm sure a
9:37
Speaker 1: little bit of Instagram makes it look that way. But
9:41
Speaker 1: you gotta take the bad with the good. It's like
9:45
Speaker 1: what Karen said last week, right, without knowing grief, there
9:49
Speaker 1: is no joy, and without experiencing pain, we wouldn't truly
9:53
Speaker 1: appreciate love. Now, I recognize that not everyone again will
9:58
Speaker 1: choose to travel alone in they're life, But the point
10:02
Speaker 1: that I'm getting to here is that I really hope
10:05
Speaker 1: that you find the thing that enables you to feel
10:07
Speaker 1: this purely, this uninhibited, this without worry of what other
10:12
Speaker 1: people think. I want you to be able to take
10:17
Speaker 1: the kind of breath that literally reverberates in like your
10:20
Speaker 1: lower tummy. You feel deep in your soul because you
10:24
Speaker 1: deserve that. We all deserve to come back to center
10:29
Speaker 1: and be able to ask ourselves like who am I?
10:33
Speaker 1: When absolutely no one is watching? I recognize that I
10:39
Speaker 1: am at the helm of a community that I am
10:41
Speaker 1: involved that I am often giving so much of myself
10:45
Speaker 1: to others, and I choose to be that way. But
10:47
Speaker 1: for me, this trip, this time, I wish I could
10:52
Speaker 1: do it more often, But it's my opportunity to come
10:54
Speaker 1: back to me and I hope that you can do
10:57
Speaker 1: that as well, in whatever way works for you. It
11:02
Speaker 1: took me a while to get this comfortable, and I'm
11:04
Speaker 1: not saying that it happens overnight, right, So be easy
11:08
Speaker 1: on yourself. Like so many other situations in your life,
11:11
Speaker 1: have some grace, And for me, I had to find
11:16
Speaker 1: a lot of grace this week digging through some of
11:18
Speaker 1: the things in my closet, so to speak, that I
11:20
Speaker 1: wasn't really ready to confront, or maybe I was and
11:25
Speaker 1: just wasn't willing until now to take the time to
11:27
Speaker 1: do it. And so courage theme of the week. My
11:33
Speaker 1: prompt for you this week one was the last time
11:38
Speaker 1: you truly felt courageous? Again? When was the last time
11:44
Speaker 1: you truly felt courageous? And now a listener question.
11:52
Speaker 2: Hey, Emily, this is Ralphie Perez. I'm based here in Orlando, Florida,
11:55
Speaker 2: and I'm a marathon runner and avid listener of your podcast.
11:59
Speaker 2: My question you is based around nutrition. I love the
12:02
Speaker 2: fact that you are a busy, active person. You have
12:05
Speaker 2: this thriving professional career. But as a fellow professional, sometimes
12:10
Speaker 2: our nutrition tempts to fall lower on the priority list
12:14
Speaker 2: just because we're so busy with our day jobs and training.
12:17
Speaker 2: What are your tips and tricks to keep nutrition in check.
12:20
Speaker 2: I love to hearing the tips you have or products,
12:22
Speaker 2: especially a New Yorker who's always on the go.
12:25
Speaker 1: Ooh, this is a good question. Thanks for the question, Ralphie.
12:29
Speaker 1: So glad you're a hurdler for me. I would be
12:35
Speaker 1: completely lying if I said that I follow any sort
12:38
Speaker 1: of specific diet. But I can only go for so
12:41
Speaker 1: long without any complete regard for what's good to put
12:45
Speaker 1: in my body. Right, So, if you follow me on
12:48
Speaker 1: social you've seen me, especially over the last week. I mean, God,
12:51
Speaker 1: I'm on vacation, so wine and carbs and croissants. I
12:54
Speaker 1: have two in a bag behind me sitting right here.
12:56
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, but when it comes to
12:59
Speaker 1: my nutrition, and there are a few things that are
13:02
Speaker 1: like non negotiables for me, the first and the most
13:05
Speaker 1: important one, and you hear about it all the time
13:07
Speaker 1: on the show, and probably any podcast you listen to
13:11
Speaker 1: is Athletic Greens. I brought eleven travel packs of Athletic
13:15
Speaker 1: Greens with me on this journey. I literally left a
13:19
Speaker 1: few more for my girlfriend to bring to Chicago because
13:22
Speaker 1: I needed to consolidate my space and I would be
13:25
Speaker 1: seeing her as soon as I got in. Athletic Greens
13:27
Speaker 1: is a non negotiable for me and my day to
13:29
Speaker 1: day routine because it is how I give back to
13:32
Speaker 1: my body to feel better, no matter if I have
13:36
Speaker 1: two croissants sitting behind me, if I have wine multiple
13:39
Speaker 1: times a day, although that is not my regular I
13:41
Speaker 1: do not want to come off like I am drinking
13:44
Speaker 1: too much. But I know that the antioxident equivalent of
13:48
Speaker 1: twelve service diffruits and vegetables, probiotics, probiotics, adaptagens, superfoods. I
13:54
Speaker 1: mean they now call it ag one from Athletic Greens.
13:57
Speaker 1: Ag one is the thing that sets me up for
14:01
Speaker 1: success every single day, and it helps me feel more
14:03
Speaker 1: energetic and focused because of a lot of the adaptogens
14:06
Speaker 1: that are in there. So I can't recommend it enough.
14:09
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to make this an advertisement, but it's
14:12
Speaker 1: now slowly becoming one. A little bit so of course
14:14
Speaker 1: you know they are a sponsor on the show. If
14:16
Speaker 1: you're like not in on it yet, I really can't
14:19
Speaker 1: talk about it enough. So give it a try. And
14:21
Speaker 1: the good news is that if you do go and
14:23
Speaker 1: give it a try, it's you committing to being better
14:27
Speaker 1: in your body. And they have a lot of free
14:28
Speaker 1: stuff for you. So you'll get five free travel packs,
14:30
Speaker 1: you'll get a year supply of vitamin D, something that
14:33
Speaker 1: I learned that I was a little bit low in
14:35
Speaker 1: when I did my last Inside Tracker, and all this
14:38
Speaker 1: stuff so important for a balanced, happy, healthy life. So
14:41
Speaker 1: Athletic Greens huge, huge thing that is a regular my routine.
14:46
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't tell you where to go. Of course,
14:48
Speaker 1: it's Athleticgreens dot com slash hurdle. There's no code necessary,
14:51
Speaker 1: but you do need to go through that link to
14:54
Speaker 1: get all the freebies. Again, it's Athleticgreens dot com slash hurdle. Anyway,
14:59
Speaker 1: as of the last I would say, up maybe a
15:04
Speaker 1: couple of months. I okay, So I'm obsessed with this
15:08
Speaker 1: like ten or fifteen minute or less delivery service in
15:10
Speaker 1: New York. It's called Gorillas. And the thing about Gorillas
15:16
Speaker 1: is it makes it so easy for me without much
15:18
Speaker 1: of a delivery feed to order ice cream at like
15:22
Speaker 1: ten o'clock to my apartment in ten minutes or less.
15:25
Speaker 1: And as great as that is, I have started going
15:29
Speaker 1: back to This isn't like a landmark breaking nutrition tip,
15:32
Speaker 1: but I've been freezing grapes again because I realized, hey,
15:35
Speaker 1: to just stop having so much saturated fat before I
15:38
Speaker 1: go to bed. So frozen grapes are my new sweet
15:40
Speaker 1: go to. I'm getting a lot better. I'm drinking water
15:43
Speaker 1: with my coffee in the morning. So why my whole
15:46
Speaker 1: process in the morning is I wake up, I have
15:48
Speaker 1: an espresso, I usually work out. Then I after I
15:51
Speaker 1: work out, work out, shake up my athletic greens, and
15:55
Speaker 1: then with the athletic greens, I'll bring a entire camel
15:58
Speaker 1: back bottle with me into my office. So by doing that,
16:01
Speaker 1: I kind of kickstart water drinking in the right way.
16:04
Speaker 1: And another tip to get on the water train if you,
16:07
Speaker 1: like me, struggled for a really long time to make
16:09
Speaker 1: hydration a priority, is to get a bottle that you
16:12
Speaker 1: like to drink out of. Right, I'm sure you've seen
16:14
Speaker 1: so many people on Instagram using like zillions of these
16:17
Speaker 1: like bottles that have different markers and different words on them,
16:21
Speaker 1: like you're doing great, keep going halfway through, et cetera,
16:24
Speaker 1: And like I totally see how the motivation can be
16:26
Speaker 1: there with that, but you might not need to go
16:28
Speaker 1: that far. I'm obsessed, obsessed, obsessed with my Eddy bottle
16:32
Speaker 1: from Camelback. It's got a straw on the top, and
16:34
Speaker 1: the straw changes everything for me. I definitely drink more
16:39
Speaker 1: water because I don't have to like go through And
16:41
Speaker 1: this sounds like so lazy, but the process of like
16:43
Speaker 1: unscrewing the top the straw, it's just right there. It's
16:47
Speaker 1: a bite straw. I'm into it. I'm into it. Camel Back.
16:50
Speaker 1: I keep this is again. You know that the stuff
16:53
Speaker 1: on the show I love is stuff that I really use,
16:56
Speaker 1: or the stuff that on the show that I talk
16:58
Speaker 1: about is stuff that I love and that I really
17:00
Speaker 1: and that's why these are all sponsors of the show.
17:02
Speaker 1: Cammelback is a custom code for you. You get twenty
17:04
Speaker 1: five percent off anything custom by using the code hurdle
17:08
Speaker 1: to five at camelback dot com slash custom Again, that's
17:12
Speaker 1: hurdle to five. Twenty five percent off is legit. But
17:16
Speaker 1: other than that, I'm rambling here. My diet is just
17:20
Speaker 1: me listening to my body, prioritizing eating healthy, whole foods
17:24
Speaker 1: and enjoying the little things in moderation. Right we life's
17:28
Speaker 1: too short, so be good to yourself, take care of you,
17:32
Speaker 1: show up some athletic greens. And also a good breakfast
17:35
Speaker 1: is a good foundation for a good day. I'm really
17:36
Speaker 1: big on the picky bars oatmeal. That's a staple in
17:40
Speaker 1: my routine. It's super filling and it's got a lot
17:42
Speaker 1: of good stuff in there. But otherwise scrambled eggs, whole foods,
17:48
Speaker 1: laying the foundation for a good thing. And yeah, that's it. Man.
17:53
Speaker 1: I can't believe Chicago Marathon weekend is here. I'm so
17:55
Speaker 1: excited to see some of you this weekend. A huge,
17:57
Speaker 1: huge good luck congrat you have come so far. To
18:02
Speaker 1: everyone that's going to be tone, that's starting line and
18:04
Speaker 1: going out there and putting it all on the line.
18:05
Speaker 1: Tomorrow you are going to be great, and I will
18:07
Speaker 1: be on the course cheering for you. Go get them
18:12
Speaker 1: another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.