Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Cam Smith | 2026 Skimo Olympic Hopeful & World Class Mountain Runner

Transcript

Cam Smith | 2026 Skimo Olympic Hopeful & World Class Mountain Runner · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, guys?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and guys, today I've got a special one.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I am so excited to bring this to you and just fanboying a little bit right now.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Just had a conversation and excited to bring this to you with none other than Cam Smith, the pride of Rockford Illinois, by way of now crested Butte, colorado.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: The stud ski mountaineer and trail runner came on the podcast.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Uh, about an hour after slamming a sub 19 minute uh time on the incline, I might, I might add um, guys, what a special conversation.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: This was so much fun.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Uh, cam is not just a special athlete, he's a really cool human.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I like someone you definitely want to be friends with.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Cam's a cool dude, um and and just special Um.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited for his future.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We talked all about some of the sets back setbacks with injury and how he battled back from that over the last few years.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: We talked about his goals for the 2026 winter Olympics cycle where he's trying to get on the trying to make the Olympic team um for ski mountaineering, which is just so incredible.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: We also talked about Kim's revenge tour where he did a whole slew of really intense sub ultra races.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: He basically put himself to the gauntlet the summer, competing against the best of the best of the races, like the Broken Arrow 23K, vk, 46k.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: He went to the rut where he literally demolished everyone uh, with a win at the vk and the 28k um.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: We talked about some of his races, like the cirque series, where he uh raced at the uh snark cirque snowbird for the us mountain running championships, um, as well as uh cirque series, a basin which was a barn burner this year, with some of the best in the world showing up um, and just so much more so, so, so much more, so much more.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Like I said, this was a really special one for me and meant an absolute lot.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm not just a big uh, definitely a fan boy, um, but just a really big admirer of cam.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Definitely somebody you want to.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: You want to be uh, not just friends with but somebody you admire.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, this further ado, cam Smith, we'll see you next time.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, we are live in the sport and when I started this podcast, like you were one of the like the handful of people besides, like joe gray, darren thomas, like people who I thought of them like oh, perfect for this podcast.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Um, you're a dual sport, mountain athlete.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: You do so much.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Um, a lot of people want to be like camp, put it that way well, thanks for saying so.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah so no, this is uh as almost like as just a fan of the sport as well.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: It it's just exciting to talk to you, especially ahead of.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: You know what you got going on over the next few years possibly.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exciting times.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: So for those of the sport that might not know, cam Smith, maybe talk a little bit about your background, where you're from, how you got into the sport and stuff like that oh man sure.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: So I grew up in rockford, illinois.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's a great place to be from midwest boy yeah and I like ran track and cross country and really loved it.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: But, um, yeah, it wasn't anything special and really wanted to walk on to the track and cross country team at what's now western colorado university, the school in Gunnison, um, and they didn't really care that I was coming.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Like I kept sending calls and emails and they're like, yeah, sure you can come here and maybe you can try out, maybe I don't know, and it was like my dream.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Um, so if that lets you know kind of where I was competitively and, uh, was just sort of having injury troubles as a high school runner, runner like just overused stuff, um, and decided I didn't want to end up pursuing all that.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: But I was all set and ready to go to western like had my classes and my dorm room and everything all figured out.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, I guess I'm still going there and my sister was there ahead of me and was doing what's called the sports program, just started by Dave Weins and encompasses all kinds of cycling, skiing, trail running, now rock climbing.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, just this umbrella that kind of covers all those sports and this program is just phenomenal.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Like taking to have those experiences as a college kid was just like, yeah, an incredible opportunity that.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Um, anyway, I'm getting kind of sidetracked, but my sister was already there doing these sports, training for things like the Grangeford ski race, doing the mountain bike team, and she's also from Rockford, of course, which is yeah, far from we'll get into that, yeah.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Um, and it was like, oh, this is what you're going to do, you're going to sign up for these teams, you're going to do these clubs, you're going to go on these trips.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: And I was like, okay.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And so she kind of got me into all these things that I was going to do recreationally.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: So I did the Nordic team, I did the trail running team, I did the ski mountaineering team and did the mountain bike team.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Um, and the program just kind of lifted me up from there, like I just wanted to do everything recreationally, but we had really good coaching and it's exciting to be around peers that do all that stuff.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: And one thing kind of led to another.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: And now I'm racing Schemo really heavily is my big thing.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: So I'm on the U S team and we're gearing up for Olympic qualifying this winter and then love trail running in the summer and I don't race my bike so much anymore and I don't race my Nordic ski so much anymore, but really love doing those too.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: That's amazing dude.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So back to Western I talked to.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think you were about a class probably ahead, because how old are you?
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: 30?
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: 29.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: , 29.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you're just a little bit older than, like, kieran Ney, Brian Whitfield like a lot of those guys, yeah, so they were like freshmen and sophomores when I was finishing up.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, jeshrin, small too yeah.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And then, like Taylor Stack and I didn't quite overlap, uh.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: And then like taylor stack and I didn't quite overlap, yep, uh, but yeah, it's.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: It brings in a lot of so crazy and it's like half the people I've had on the podcast, which is kind of funny.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Um, but yeah, just like such a deep pool of all these like amazing western athletes from that, you know, gunnison, crested butte valley area, that's just so insane.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Um, you've got some history of western, though.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Mom and dad went there right.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, yeah, that's true, yeah yeah, so my parents met as students there and they found out about it because, like other aunts and uncles and cousins all went there, so the whole family went, which is why I didn't want to go there for a long time.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go to like a big 10 school or something, and then I went out and visited my sister who I should clarify too we like weren't close growing up.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I was like so excited for her to leave for college and then I visited her when I was still in high school and she took me skiing, climbing and mountain biking on three back-to-back days I think it was November, so it was kind of the transition in seasons and I was like this place is amazing, this is where I want to be and yeah, so credit to all the family that, wow, that's so crazy, so you weren't really like.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: so we're growing up.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Did you guys do like vacations out to Colorado, or did you get to see the mountains at all, or was that more of a new?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: thing.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Illinois, which is where uh president ulysses s grant was from, is on the western part of the state, right above the mississippi river and there's this resort called uh chestnut, that, uh, you like park at the top and you ski basically down the bluffs to the river and then ride the lift back up to the top.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: So it's like 300 feet, which is pretty big for for illinois not bad dude, yeah, so we would go there a few times a year.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: That was really more my like outdoor background wow, that's so.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So you learned how to ski on that then basically, yeah, pretty much wild.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Um, I just find it really interesting because, like I, a lot of my good friends are from the midwest, namely, like minnesota, michigan areas like that and I I just think it's you get this like special level and degree of grit to be able to deal with, like cold, cold winters where you just don't see the sun for a while.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And it's whereas you come out to Colorado and we have 300 days of sunshine, so it makes it a little bit, a little bit easier for those outdoor sports and stuff like that.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it makes you a little more excited for each morning.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: So, dude, when you were, when you were at Western, in your formative years, like what popped out to you that was like now, obviously, your sister said, oh well, you should do the grand traverse, you should look into stuff like this.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: But, like, what popped out to you about, namely, like schema more than trail running.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of getting an idea of like, how did that evolve to where, like, you went from that athlete who was in college to now one of the best in the world, potentially Like how did you do that?
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: yeah, it I guess the way I describe it is.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: It was really slow but consistent and linear, which was a good place to be.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: So I didn't I almost didn't realize what was happening as it was happening.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: So the first winter like talking about skiing in particular I was gonna do the grand traverse with my, so it's a partner race.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You ski from Crested Butte to Aspen.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: It's relatively flat, actually it's 40 miles and 7,000 something feet of climbing.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: So it's more just about the backcountry travel and taking care of your gear and being able to cover the distance and all that.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: So that's at the end of the winter.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: So we were doing a lot of backcountry skiing and a handful of shorter races just to kind of get ready for the race.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: And, again with the theme of coming from the midwest, to then have your hiking and running be these like transforming these climbs up these peaks and and with skiing too, being able to make your own trail of like I'm going to climb this ridge and go to this peak and then ski down in this basin and go over here and you get to these summits in the winter, and it felt like such an inaccessible place, like it felt like somewhere human shouldn't be right, like you're standing on a peak in the winter, especially for a kid that grew up in the Midwest.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: And then instead of yeah, and instead of hiking or running down then you just skied powder back to the car, you know, and I was like this is such an amazing way to move through the mountains.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: So I think just the the way that, like I moved through the environment, is what really hooked me on it at first.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: It wasn't necessarily the races.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Actually DNF to my first race and that was pretty much.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: We did one more together and finished like third or fourth from last place and then did the grand traverse together and we were like mid-pack and really stoked about that.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't like I jumped in and did really well and got excited about that, yeah it was just like I love this form of moving.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: And then the next winter I had gotten a year older, um got lighter skis and and I think what really helped was crestte was one of the first places that had a lot of uh AT gear like the first people bringing over tech bindings and lightweight boots from Europe were a lot of the Crested Butte community folks, and so there were a lot of people with a lot of experience at that time and with gear that saw like, okay, here's a young, enthusiastic kid, let's give them our hand-me-down, almost broken pair of whatever and so, like that helped me get going a little bit.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And then, because I had some gear, then I started to do a little bit better.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Then you get a little more attention, then you get a little more support, and so it's sort of like was a positive feedback loop in that way and started to compete a little bit better at that time.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: So we local races, just like wednesday nights where 20 people show up and like, so I was racing hard in those and then I would go to like, yeah, races around colorado and uh, now there's really good youth programs.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: But at the time I was like the only person under 20, okay, doing these races.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Then I would always like stand on.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: It was like, oh, and then in the u20 category and then it was just me standing on the podium.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: there was no one in second or third place yeah so then again you like get a little more attention, like here's a young, enthusiastic person, let's support him, and then that helped me do better and better, and better than the next thing I knew I was, uh, actually competing, so it yeah, sort of happened without me really realizing it, I think just snowballed yeah, people around me and when did the team usa like, when did that start to click and when did that like become a thing for you?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so similar.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I guess that sort of picks up the story where I sort of just left it was.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Then, at 2017, I qualified as a U23 to go to the world championships.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: So, again, like in the youth category, I wouldn't have made it as a senior, but because I was younger than I had that opportunity.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: So then I raced in Europe and was able to do all the events and then I got a lot better from that experience and then, um, that kind of led into continuing to be on the team and, um, as I got, uh, maybe like 21, 22, 23, then was actually competing with the top guys and starting to do a little better.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: So really, uh, to continue from there like it was.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: There's usually like 50 to 80 athletes in a world cup field and I was just trying to beat five or 10 people at each race.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: You know, like you beat a few Romanians and another American or Canadian, and then you feel pretty good about yourself and you get 75th, sweet, moving on.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: And uh, I remember thinking like a top 25, for example, would be this, uh like, um, pinnacle experience, like if I could be like in the top half of the race or something that would mean I've arrived, and so I was kind of chipping away at that.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Then one year you're finishing the fifties, one year you're finishing the forties, one year you're finishing the thirties, and then sort of the big breakthrough moment for me was the post covet year.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: So I missed all of 2021 as far as the european season and then went over in 2022 and got third in a world cup yeah and that was the first time an american man had even finished in the top 10 of a world cup and so like, if I had been 10th it would have been history making.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: But I was third dude, and so that was sort of the big, big step up for me.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: So I was going to get to that and like, just like I think it was a breakthrough moment, obviously for for the sport, but for I mean I should actually I should say this more breakthrough member for you, but a breakthrough member for the sport even more.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: That's insane.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Like just what an accomplishment.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And and like for people listening to this, like, first place was like remy bonet, which is wild, um, you know, to be up there racing out the front with these guys.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And this was in a vertical race, correct?
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: yeah, it was um, yeah, can you talk about like how obviously there was a breakthrough, but that was kind of like life-changing, I would imagine in a lot of ways for you too.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Right for sure, I mean, it just opened my mind a lot to like, yes, I do belong and yes, I am one of these guys, and then then you just carry yourself with a lot more confidence and and there's no like fear and hesitation, putting yourself in the front of a race and racing with aggression and um, yeah, just really kind of opened my mind to possibilities yeah, yeah.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Well, dude, since then you've been on.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I mean now knock on wood and thank god you're like you're, you're fit and back to where you were.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: But you had a little bit of a roller coaster with injury following that, correct?
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so pretty much since that season.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Then I tore my ACL meniscus the following season and then, right after finishing that rehab process, had a bad shoulder injury and a weight lifting accident and then did surgery again.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So the following two winters have been brutal cut short by injury.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: And then now I'm heading back into a winter with mostly a clean bill of health for the first time since that, yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Since that breakthrough season.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: So now I'm trying to pick up where I left off there, with a lot more life experiences, mental resilience and learning a lot through these past two years.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: So I'm hoping to pick up where I left there, with now some new tools in my toolbox to be able to make that next breakthrough.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the and this is as much as you want to go into but I'm just kind of curious about like what that was, like how that ACL injury happened, and just like the bounce back from that Cause I think it would be inspiring for the audience, whoever's listening, that might've had a similar injury, whether they be trail runners or skiers, and you know, like seeing like where you're headed post, that is pretty incredible.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I had moved to Europe the fall of 2022 to spend the whole winter there.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: I was living in Arrache, france, where the Walmsleys were, did you?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: And Francois was.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about that.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: It was totally my idea first.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: No, just kidding, but I was, yeah, really close to Jim and Jess in Arrache and then there's lots of other great community members there, like the locals there.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: They're great people to train with in Amazing Mountains and everything but anyway.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: So I moved there to sort of pursue the whole winter racing season.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: And then the ACL injury happened in a just a bad crash and so packed up all my things, moved back.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, that was a really sad walk through the airport with crutches and and all my life belongings with me and all the strangers pushing my bags and everything, but anyway, got back, got surgery three weeks later, so March of 23 and basically said at that point like I need to table all other race ambitions and just make sure I can get back to full health.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Like if, if this goes quicker and I have any lingering pain or limitations with the knee, then that's going to limit my ceiling going forward.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Like I need to completely shut down everything and get this right.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And so I had a ton of help.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: My fiancee Lynn's a physical therapist and she got me in all the right directions as far as we need to find this surgeon, we need to get you into these clinics, we need to do PT here and all that.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Did you go to Stedman or where'd you go?
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I did, yeah, the.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Stedman clinic in Aspen.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Actually, just the way insurance worked and an amazing uh surgeon there, Joe Rusbarski uh, put it all back together.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: And then I went to six different PT clinics along the way.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: So a lot of people to shout out I don't want to miss anyone right now Uh, but really like that, I took all the energy I normally put into racing and training and put it into the rehab process.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: So like I was, yeah, like resting before my strength sessions, resting after not just like doing the strength after your runner, bike ride or anything and essentially it was focused on strength training primarily for a period of of a year or really 10 months, and got to the point where it was a total non-issue and I was stronger than ever before, jumping higher than ever before, and people told me that would happen and I hated hearing that like, oh, like you're going to come back stronger from this.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I had this injury and then I started going to the gym and then now I can do all these things.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, that's great, but like I was already going to the gym, I was already a high level athlete.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: I was already this I really hated hearing that, but they were all right all along is.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: It did kind of like, yeah, change my focus and intention and made me a lot stronger in that space and, um, it's doing awesome, yeah, and I've gained a lot from the process.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: And I would challenge anybody and I think this these videos were probably pre pre injury but like I would challenge anybody to go on your Instagram Like dude, you've got some of these like workout videos of you doing these like single leg deadlifts and hops and I'm just like as a as an athlete as well that likes to compete Like I am astonished at some of the ways you move like and the way you're able to get like some of these lateral movements.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, this kid's's got like.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: You got like springs in your legs, so like it goes to show like just what you can achieve just putting a lot of work and a lot of emphasis into strength training and things like that.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: So like I would look down at my leg and since I had the meniscus too, I was non-weight bearing for eight weeks, so that's eight weeks for those muscles to just wither away and I would look down at my leg and just think like there, there's no way this leg is going to run again, jump again like, lift these weights, do whatever like yeah maybe I'll be able to do these sports at a recreational level.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: But when you look down at your leg post-surgery, it's so hard to visualize that.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Um, but you just have to, yeah, keep the faith and do what you can day to day and it will will work out, if you put the commitment into it for sure.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: So I did that whole process, got cleared to race again, did one world cup ski race.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: It went great.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: I was seventh at the same race that I was previously third in, but it was stoked about that.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: And then the next morning was in the gym and then, yeah, I had my shoulder injury.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Would you do tear labrum?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: or I dislocated it.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: So there was a labrum and I had done a previous labral repair on that side and so it broke through the repaired one and, yeah, tripped some bones and tore up some cartilage and everything.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: So they did a more thorough fix this second time and have been rehabbing that since March.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: But now I'm pretty much starting from scratch.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: That kind of leads me to Cam's revenge tour.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, which you posted about on Instagram.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: So what was it?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: It was TMR.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: You did the Pikes Peak Ascent.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: You did the Grand Traverse bike ride.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: It was the 40 mile mountain bike ride.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Cirque series.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Was it a basin?
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a basin.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: And then was it Brighton in Utah.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: There is a Brighton one.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, a basin, and then was it brighton in utah there is a bright one.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did right or no?
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: sorry, I did snowbird oh, you did you still, but that's what it was.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because I was at bright, I didn't.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the rut and broken arrow.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Kendall mountain, the veil hill, climb uh gopro games like that's probably.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I wish I had that like durability and the support to be able to do all of those dude yeah.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, so like what I've said before, did you say Kendall also.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You want Kendall yeah.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: So, like I'm really proud of the rehab process I did for my knee, I'm a lot less proud of the shoulder rehab process because the second time, like it just hit me a lot harder mentally of having to go through the process immediately again and it's a much shorter recovery and much less limiting with being able to use your legs and everything.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: But I jumped back into things way more aggressively than I would recommend and it happened to work out and I had a super healthy and fun summer racing.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: But I was just so angry and eager to get back to things that I just I jumped into it with with two feet.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Dude, I love it Like awesome here.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, and there's so many things to talk about there.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I mean we can every like everybody knows you know your results and a lot of things that you've done.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I think one that sticks out, sticks out to me, that like you just continue to have success at, is the rut and I'm just like so I was supposed to go race the vk this year and I was just like pooped out and I had, um, I had a lot of media stuff around pike, so I didn't want to go yeah next year.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: I will be on that star list.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got to.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: It's an amazing race, but like dude, what is it about the 28k and the vk that you have just figured out, because it seems like you have that race's number.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: It's really interesting to me yeah, thanks, I I've, yeah, had some good ones there I did.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: I've had a couple of second places in the VK, so I have I'm not undefeated or anything.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: You're still close.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I mean that's as good as it gets.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I've just always raced well that year, I think, are up there.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I think that time of year is good for me because I'm not really running much or at all over the winter and so I've had some time to get into running season and it's just a good course for me, like technical and steep and high altitude and tough, and I just really, yeah, get excited racing up there, and I think I just have some good tools in my toolbox up there.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Like, depending on who I'm racing against, I think there's people that I might have an edge on the uphill or people that I might have an edge like racing down talus fields and just kind of, um, yeah, work wherever my advantages are and have come away with some good ones yeah, dude, it's like poetry emotion, especially watching uh, I, I think it was you were wearing the all.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I think it might have been the all pink or like the danaford, all pink, I was like I love these kits.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I'm so happy they do, because you really stand out with that on there especially, especially with the long red hair.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, this is.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when they came out with those for this year, I was like are you sure, guys?
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: That doesn't work well for me.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: They're like no, no, just embrace it.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And so I did.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Like I said, they came out great.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it was super fun to follow along.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: So you like technical, then you excel.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Like technical, then you excel.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Oh for sure, yeah interesting.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just the kind of running that I like to do for fun, like I'm more interested in climbing peaks and running ridges and going cool places, and so it's really the race that most mimics the kind of running that I enjoy doing, and so I think that's a big part of the success up there too interesting.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Are you tired out at all after doing that like crazy long season?
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: yeah, for sure, like I, uh, I, it's not that.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I wasn't tired, it was just that I was so excited to be racing yeah, yeah, yeah yeah and I was, yeah, working full-time too, and I was.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I was pretty worn down pretty much the whole summer but was, yeah, just so excited to be back like, after watching two years go by of here's this race and here's how it went, then you kind of imagine where you would have been and you think about, yeah, all the things that you were excited to do and the opportunities you lost that just when you have the opportunity, you're so excited to be able to use that, whether you're tired or not, and whether you raced the weekend before or not, no matter what you did for work that week, I had to use those opportunities.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: After watching so much time go by, regardless of how it went, I love it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Let's talk future.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: We're going to get ready for 2026.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's gonna be here before we know it, um for the audience that's unaware.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: 2026 what part of italy is it gonna be?
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Uh so the games are milano, cortina, but the ski mountaineering racing will be in bormio, which is, I think, a little northeast of cortina, I think.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Can you now?
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: I've had ray coble on and she kind of like briefly talked about the process, racing will be in Bormio, which is, I think, a little northeast of Cortina, I think.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Now I've had Ray Coble on and she kind of briefly talked about the process, because I know she's trying to qualify with Slovenian team.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Can you talk about just the American qualification process and how that looks for what is it?
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: It's going to be vertical or there won't be vertical.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: How does it work?
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the quick spiel and let me know what I'm missing is that it's the sprint and relay are the disciplines that they're racing.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, so normally we have the individual race is sort of the quintessential event of the sport.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: It's like a 75 to 90 minute.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: You're racing up and down over the mountains.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: That's like how the sport, that's like the main race of the sport.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Then there's the vertical, where you just go uphill just like with a vk in the summer and uh.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Then there's the sprint, which is like a really tiny individual on like a three minute course, um on a ski resort, so you're just on the piste.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: And then a relay which is like a longer sprint and I'll talk about that more in a second.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: But because the individual is bigger and longer and and covers more terrain and then the vertical doesn't involve those um more like skill components of the racing.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Those were tabled because of like tv broadcasting and like how easy it would be to put on, and so they're just focusing on the sprint and relay, which is really disappointing to hear at first, because that's not what got anyone into the sport yeah, he's so sick.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, in the individual too, I think like if they had like drone and helicopter footage of people racing onto peaks and skiing down coolers and right elbow and each other like running across the ridges, I think it would be the best spectacle in the winter Olympics.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I would be.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I would never tune out.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I'd be two o'clock in the morning Like an hour long, like I think they could make it like a, a totally world-class production, but that's not what the local organizing committee you went with.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: So we got to play with the hand we're dealt, which is written relay, and no matter how much effort I put into it, like I won't be competitive in a sprint, uh, but the relay is a little bit longer.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: So that's uh, one man and one woman on a on a co-ed team, and they each race two legs.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: So the female goes, the male goes, the female goes, the male goes, and you do two quick climbs, two quick descents, and so it's like a seven to 10 minute effort for each leg.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: So it ends up being 15 or 20 minutes total.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: So it does change the physiology and the demands of the race quite a bit and the demographic of who succeeds in it.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: And so that's really what I'm focused on and what the U?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: S is focused on, because also part of the sport being new to the Olympics is it doesn't have a huge athlete quota.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: So there's only going to be 18 males and 18 females in the Olympics and only those three metal events.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: So men's sprint, women's sprint, and then the relay, and then, if it's successful, if people watch it and like it, then we kind of elbow out the other sports and we gain some, some room for ourselves and it could be bigger in the future, and then the hope is that the individual and then maybe the vertical get added again in the future.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Uh, but again, this is where we're at.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Now is just like 36 athletes total in the sprint and relay, and so the way it works is they want to try to get representation from a big part of the world, like that's just part of the olympic um mission and initiative and drive.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: So each nation can only have one relay team, which is actually good for us.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: There can't be four french teams and four italian teams yeah so there's 12 relay teams total.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: There won't be any more, won't be any less.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: That means 12 nations.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: So italy gets one automatically, the first two nations at the world championships this year, in 2025, we'll get two more spots.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: As long as one of them is in Italy, then it would drop to third.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that's three teams and then it's going to go to the top team from each region.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: So North and South America are grouped together.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Europe, asia and Oceania is another conglomerate and then australia, yeah, australia and new zealand okay, um, and then africa just doesn't like.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: You still need to hit um other qualifying criteria, and I don't think any african nations are there right now.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: It'd be really cool to see hell, yeah, see that happen too but anyway.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: So that then leaves those basically like continental spots, even though we're kind of two continents with north and south america.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: So the top uh team from each of those groups qualify and then with the remaining five, six, seven spots it's just the top overall.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: So it's basically the us and canada and then chile's in there too, and the top team amongst that cluster is automatically in with a relay team.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: So that's our most direct way in.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: It's possible to lose to canada and then still be in those top remaining teams, but that's that's less likely and so really, that's our path in is that's going to get us a relay quota and then that gets us one male, one female, but that doesn't mean any one individuals going like right now we need to qualify a spot, like we need to earn a place for the U S, and we can worry about who it is later, but right now everyone on the team needs to be all in to just make sure we have a quota spot to use and then we can worry about who it is next year.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: That's so crazy now, how do you, how do you pick a partner for a relay, like man, woman, like how?
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: does that work?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: yeah, that's interesting.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: So, uh, it's, it's in the.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: In the past they've had a difficult time pairing those because they don't really race relays individually.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: So you can't like go off someone's world cup rankings and put one and one together, two and two together, so they've had to sort of guess and it's worked well enough so far.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: But the, that Olympic qualifying window where we actually are ranked, so like now the lights are on and we're seeing like starting this year, is when those points count of like, are we the top team in the Americas?
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Are we whatever overall?
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: So we need to be more serious about it now.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: So we're going to do some team time trials in November and then again the national championships in January, and then they're going to take first male, first female, second and second, third and third and race throughout the season from there Damn.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Now South America, do they have like?
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Is it like Peru, argentina, like down?
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: there.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, are they dirty or are they like, like, how does that work?
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Peru, argentina, like down there, yeah, yeah Are they dirty or are they like?
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: like, how does that work?
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: They have some good athletes, for sure.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Got some nasty ones.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: They'll be in there, yeah.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: So it's the real deal.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Like this is like you gotta.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: You gotta kill or be killed in a lot of ways to get yourself to this For sure, which is the way it should be, I think, uh.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I think these last few years were looking at this as like a quote, unquote easy ticket into the olympic games.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: And that's now that the racing is is actually going to get going this year and the lights are on and the pressure's on it's.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: It's absolutely not going to be this way because, yeah, uh, lots of nations are bringing in yeah, they're dark horses and crossover athletes and really, uh, investing in these events in particular and specializing in these races and getting the gear and technique and training dialed specifically for this relay effort, which was really new to everyone two years ago, and so the level's rising and and, yeah, there's gonna be, uh, very, very few easy ways in yeah, yeah, we'll see about some of those other.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: So crazy, yeah.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Um, quick question on this like so you're, is there anybody?
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: For the first questions on, like italy right, italy, you said, has an auto qualifier.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody from like italy in the trail running space we'd recognize, like davide magnini or somebody like that or like nadir.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Was that somebody like that would be racing, or is it davide?
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: and india are both great athletes.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Uh, they're probably.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, if they were american then they would be in there for our best athletes and have a much better path in, but because they're Italian, they're bumped into fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh position and only one from each nation is going to go.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: That's interesting, a lot of really strong athletes from the alpine nations and pyrenees nations.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: So france, spain, switzerland, italy um austria.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: Uh gosh, who am I forgetting?
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: does indora count too, and or isn't there?
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah, uh, yeah, all those great countries and there's going to be really really good athletes that are the second, third, fourth, fifth best from their nations that aren't going to go uh but that's just yeah, the way, the way the Olympics is going to try to spread out um representation from across the world is Remy.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Um sorry, I just have all these dumb questions related to like fire away people.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: I know like Remy?
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: is he just a vertical racer, or what does he do?
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: He?
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: is dominant in the verticals and really strong in the individuals and he, he's, he's done a relay and, uh, he would definitely be in there for switzerland's top athletes.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: So it, yeah, kind of depend on where he puts his um puts his efforts, but he would have a chance.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Um, he wouldn't be like a as dominant of a relay racer as he is in the other events, I think, because it brings in just a whole another element of the ones that specialize in the, the transitions and the downhill skiing and the explosive efforts.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: But he's he's so strong that, yeah, he would be able to to do well for sure, yeah, um, now you had said in november you're there's going to be um, not a relay.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: What is it like a time?
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: trial like a team time trial.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how does that work and like where will that be?
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: yeah, that'll be in aspen.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: That's new this year, so we'll see how it goes.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: But they're gonna just hold qualifying heats and final heats and then just combine everyone's time.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: They'll do a set of races on a thursday and a set of races again on a saturday and just rank everyone from there and that gives them a data point to start, and I have a feeling that those results will carry a lot less weight once we get into the season and once we race, like the national championships relays, for example.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: But you everything's so important starting now that you want to get started off at the right foot there yeah, regardless, so they're gonna.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully it all kind of becomes clear once we have some times out there.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: But it's all just a piece of the puzzle for them to be able to make those decisions of of finding that top team Interesting.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: And like, how was that?
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Like cause we haven't had a lot of snow here.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Like how's that going to work?
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Cause, like that's only a few, it's October 19th.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: We recorded this.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're assuring us that there will be snow.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: There's like, yeah, they can make snow, um, but yeah, a lot of european nations are just up training up high on glaciers and the stelvio pass, and then so crazy uh so, yeah, they're getting on snow.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Uh, we haven't quite been able to so far, but we'll see how the weather develops these next few weeks yeah, all right.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: So this is I'm going to take a kind of a left turn here um kind of back in time back to I guess it was like 2022.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Um, we kind of briefly talked about like a reshbow fort, like living in that valley with all these athletes dude, what was that experience like?
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, jim and jess francois is hanging out down the street.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, simone goslin, like all these folks like what the hell is that like?
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: yeah, and it's funny because all those other guys are like in the same neighborhood within irish, which is a tiny town too, so like jim and jess and francois were like actual neighbors, like next door or maybe there's like one house in between them, I can't remember exactly.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Then another athlete that a lot of americans won't know named yoan, who's just as strong as these guys, but like just isn't as um.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: He yeah, he just hasn't had the big results, is right there.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: And then like people that win the piramenta like basically the tour de france of schema are all scattered through there, because it's actually where the piramenta happens.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, so yeah, it's this tiny town and I was like the seventh best athlete there and it's just the perfect place for skiing, in particular, because it's like there's no piece of terrain there that's steeper than like 50 degrees or any shallower than like 20, and so it's like it's never too steep, it's never too flat and there's just mountains in every direction and everyone there skis.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: So there's a skin like you finish a descent, and then there's like five different skin tracks leading you to either this ridge or that peak, or to go back home or wherever, and you can just, yeah, how it's paradise, dude.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it couldn't be any better for for skiing.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: How was the language barrier?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Do you like?
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Did you have to like?
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Learn?
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Pick up any French.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I tried, I, um, I'm like, yeah, I'm hopeless, like I'll freeze, and then I'll like walk away from the conversation and then I'll realize what they said and be kicking myself, Cause I like knew how to respond.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Um, so, yeah, I have a long way to go, for sure, but picked up a little, love it.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: One of the things I love that you always post about is you're a big croissant guy, oh yeah.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I'm a big croissant guy myself.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Good Hard to find good.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: French bakeries in the States, but they do exist.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: There's a good one at Colorado Springs, but anyway, like where did that come from you?
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Just good fun dessert or breakfast thing that you love.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm so glad you asked um, that started that very first trip to europe in 2017, which was really the first time I traveled, uh, which is, yeah, been a great thing about all these racing journeys, because it's been what's allowed me to see a lot of the world um, but this very first trip I took, it must have been february 2017 and I was navigating my way to the, to where the races would be like, with all the travel headaches, with a guy named paul hamilton.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: I know that name um he's engaged in anime flynn okay, yeah, he's actually a beast.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: He's had some health problems lately and he was like never big on social media or anything, but he's like one of the strongest guys around, so I've heard like he's a legend.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah and I don't know if he remembers this at all or if I've ever really told this story exactly, so I hope this gets back to him somehow in a may I know we were like yeah, we were like, uh, walking from this like random tiny airbnb, like three kilometers back to the airport to be able to catch a bus, to go to catch some other train, to catch some other bus, and we we just like stopped and got these two like basically gas station croissants, and I think I probably hadn't like eaten in 24 hours and they were just like the most amazing thing I'd ever tasted.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: And so I somehow got the idea to start counting how many croissants I had on that trip.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: So I would like make my posts on Instagram or whatever during the trip and be like oh, the vertical race was great, this happened.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: And then at the bottom tagline I would say like croissants 11 and then like three days later I'd say like croissants 19.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: And then everyone thought it was funny and I just kind of kept it going.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I keep a running tally each year.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: I I want to go back because I think I'm probably getting close to some big milestones big numbers combine the years.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Are you?
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Are you like a chocolate croissant guy?
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: I'll do anything.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, you'll do anything.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Any place anywhere, anytime there you go.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, as long as it's rolled up and buttery and full of carbs and fat.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Is there any good spots in Crested Butte for good croissant?
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: There's some good ones, but they're not as accessible.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Nothing beats it financially as a good European bakery that you just walked through.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: And yeah, they're just not quite the same.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bummer man.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: We need more in the States.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, yeah, I know it's um.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah big fan, I just started getting into them this year.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I came across them all, I was like yeah, I wish you well on this journey.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you, yeah, it's a slippery slope, man.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Dude, I you Dude.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Trader Joe's sells them and they're garbage, they're just not that good.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: But you heat them up and you try to like, pretend like you're in.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: Anyway, yeah Well and a friend of mine just went on her like honeymoon trip in Italy and she came back and was like do you have like any health problems from doing this?
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Or like GI stuff, or like I was like oh yeah, I gained five pounds every time and she just like froze and was like, why don't you like tell people this, like you just tell them how great the croissants are and how many you had.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: Now, like, everything's all happy and dandy.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: You don't tell anyone that.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: You know I'm like, yeah, I usually race better, like earlier in a trip, and then I start to struggle after a few weeks or a couple pounds, she was like why don't like?
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: You need to be transparent about this.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: My watch per kilo goes down yeah.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's, it's complicated, that's funny Dude on the topic of croissants and like diet.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Like, because, like you, are training at the highest level, competing at the highest level.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Like what does your diet look like?
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Are training at the highest level, competing at the highest level?
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Like what does your diet look like?
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: do you eat super healthy?
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Or like what?
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Um, I would say so I mean, like it's obviously funny to say that after a while.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, I take my diet pretty seriously and, um, I eat vegetarian, but that's not really for um healthy performance, it's more like an environmental motivation and then, yeah, I think it's just an easy way to um commit to your sport is taking your your diet seriously.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I definitely eat well and eat a lot, and then, uh, work with scratch labs for all the like sport nutrition stuff and shout out to Peter.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and then take it all seriously for sure.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: That's very cool.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I always like to ask that question because you know you meet a lot of athletes at a high level that are don't really care about their diet.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: They just like eat, whatever.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Then you meet a lot of people that are like super dialed and I don't know.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I feel like for like like a lot of vertical racing and stuff like that, like I don't know, I didn't start thinking about it so like the last few years, but like watts per kilo kind of count for like your power output and being a little bit lighter, whatever that looks like definitely helps it does?
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: yeah, but as the races just just get faster and faster and harder and harder, I think it starts to skew back more towards absolute power.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: And of course, it is a math equation at the end of the day, but it's good to be powerful for sure.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Because the races in Europe are going to be at a lower altitude than where a lot of Coloradans live, in particular, and people in Utah, so the paces are faster, faster, the level's a lot higher, and then, if you like, add some oxygen to the equation and shorten the races up.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: It's just like such a fast, explosive effort.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: So it's it's definitely good to have some power yeah so you don't want to think about the weight too, too much how do you bridge that gap then, especially because you live pretty high up, like, are you doing a lot of like, a, like a lot of time in the gym, then yeah, that's a great question for sure.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: So that's what I definitely identified those first few years of racing in europe like 17, 18, 19 of I would have the fitness but not the the power and pace to be able to hang with these guys.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: And so I've been fine-tuning it ever since and really it comes down to like how can I mimic those outputs and those cadences and that amount of power, even being up higher?
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: We live at like 8 800 feet, and then all of our training is higher, of course, because you, yeah, start from the valley floor, yeah, and so like all.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: For just to like list off some things, like I'll lengthen the rest periods during intervals so that I can keep that quality higher, I'll do.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: I obviously do a lot of gym work, and I did before the acl injury and then now it's even a bigger part of what I do and and some speed and power work in there too.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: So I'm like sprinting on the treadmill, I'm jumping upstairs, I'm, um, yeah, working on the absolute power in that way.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Uh, I I guess kind of like I said, with lengthening the rest intervals, like probably shortening the work period that I would do otherwise, and then I'm starting to run in the winters more, where before I wouldn't run a step all winter long, from sometime in October, november, all the way until April, uh.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: But now, like I, I'm trying to run a little more, just because then I'm I'm moving faster and at a higher cadence, and uh, then, yeah, when you hit the faster speeds, when you add a couple of pounds to your feet, then it, um, is a little less unfamiliar.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: So it's a combination of all these things and I'm definitely getting better at it.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: That's so figuring out over time.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, I didn't interrupt you.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: No, no it's.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here like making my own notes.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: I think it's interesting too.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so you sound like a little bit like um, are you like you coach yourself, right?
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I do yeah.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: So I, you know what, I have a coach, or I have coaches.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I should say, um, but like there's always different things like from specific, like I always don't like getting too specific until later in the season or later until I absolutely have to like just before a a race, um, but it's just interesting uh to hear like what you're doing for, like, how many like hours a week are you spending in the gym?
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: um in the gym, like right now is probably the time of year that I do the most and it's probably four to five hours.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, but those are real high quality.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: So like I'm going in rested, I'm coming out rested, I'm I'm not doing like a two-hour cool down run after my um gym session, like those are the key sessions, yeah, of the week.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: You know now that I say it out loud, it's probably four hours four to five.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Are you hitting it like, consistently like?
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: so let's say, in four different sessions four different sessions are you like?
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: is it like very spread apart from your other, like aerobic activity or whatever you're doing for that day?
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so I guess I mean I said I go and rested, like I will do intervals the same day usually, but that's like just with an uphill focus, taking the downhills really easy.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Um, and then I'm just stacking that work on those days, but then, yeah, really resting after and making sure the quality is high.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: So, like right now, it's kind of that that build period where I'm actually trying to make progress in the gym and actually get stronger with all these metrics, where, for example, like in the middle of summer, if I'm running a bunch, then no matter how hard I work in the gym, I'm not going to make improvements just with like, yeah, if the running volume is high enough.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: So then I'm focusing more on the power and the speed.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: And then, um, yeah, you're just kind of doing maintenance at that point.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: And then, now that I'm focused and not worrying about being rested for a running race on the weekend or whatever, now I'm, um, yeah, trying to make progress do you do a lot of like single leg stuff more than double leg?
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: yeah, absolutely do you okay yeah, I do very, very few, uh like do yeah two leg activities interesting yeah I, I picked that up after going like on the incline a bunch.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh Ooh, it would actually make a lot more sense to do, you know, more single leg than double.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: Just that like specific strength, for sure.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Speaking of which, you just got off the incline.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how did that go, dude?
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was awesome.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, uh, last Like, since I'm in town, I'll do another.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: And yeah, lopped a little off my time and I'm stoked about it, but I like while I was pulling up to your house, because I went straight from there to here.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: And then I, like quick, pulled it up to see what my time was and I think I messed up the Strava segment.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Dilly dallying at the top.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: Or at the start.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: So I was 1937 last year and then my watch said like 19 flat and I I started um a little early and finished a little late.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Um, so I should have been just under 19, but um who cares?
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: yeah, yeah, exactly doesn't matter um.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I'm feeling good about the fitness because, yeah no, something's working, dude.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: You're the only human I've ever met besides joe.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: That has gone under 20 minutes, so it's kind of wild.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was um, I was thinking about that and like looking at some of the other names, because I knew I wanted to do a hard one today and like those guys in the 17s and 18s is definitely, um, yeah, good company yeah, oh for sure, some of the best in the world.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Dude.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you like?
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: When do you're using polls?
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Because I know with schema, obviously everything incorporates polls.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: How does that do you like?
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: When do you using poles?
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Because I know with schema, obviously everything incorporates poles.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: How does that do you ever like incorporate them with your running?
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Because I, when I've seen you, like in live streams and stuff like that, especially on like VKs, I don't often see you with poles?
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question.
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: I um, I don't much over the summer because I'm just naturally better at the slower paces and the steeper, harder stuff and struggle more with the faster paces.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to tailor my training more towards getting faster and so I'm not using poles much as I'm getting ready for these running races.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: And then the second, I switch from, yeah, performing as a runner to performing as a skier, like now.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: I'll do very, very few runs without poles, like pretty much everything I'm doing.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: I'm bringing them along, even if it's a little faster pace.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Then I'm gonna work on, you know, using my hands a little faster and then I'm just trying to get some kind of upper body fitness going yeah, yeah, that's so interesting.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I I'm as a as a nerd about this stuff, like I'm always looking into.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: I just started, um, I got roller skis, nice, yeah, oh, my god, is that fun.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, and I just like have read so much about how, like these nordicic skiers just have such high VO2 maxes because they're incorporating poles and there's more of that upper body component to it, and I was just like let's see what we could do in the off season, because we get terrible snowpack here.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: There's no skiing, if you will.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, it makes a lot of sense to kind of find something else to mess with too.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes it fun to change variables, no matter what.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: It does Dude.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: So on the topic of being this like dual sport athlete being at the top of two, sports.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: How do you not get burnt out?
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: No, another great question I, uh, I do take a week off at the end of every fall and the end of every spring, just transitioning between the seasons.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: Like a full week of no, no exercise, and, uh, usually at the end of that week I'm really eager to just be outside again.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: So those are really nice times of the year too.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: And beyond that, like I, I mean, I absolutely love doing these sports and I'm just excited to be out and it is two different, unique sets of demands and challenges and locations and and entire sports and and even communities, and so it's, it's fresh in that way and, um, I don't know, it's not something that I really think about, like, like, people ask that sometimes and I, uh, I'm just excited for, yeah, the turn of the page at the beginning and end of each season and I don't really know what else is going on there.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: No, it's interesting to me Cause, like I, I asked a couple of close friends that are like very good trail runners, uh, cause I told them you were coming on and I'm like do you have any questions for Kay?
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Uh, and that was one of the ones that got asked a lot was like how, how, how does he do it like, how does he not get like mentally fatigued?
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: And I do like that, and it does make a lot of sense.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: First of all, you've got this like long-range goal of like the olympics right totally, and I also think that mixing it up and doing two completely different modalities throughout the year keeps it fresh, keeps it going, and you always have something to be working towards.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know it's different.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: People's brains think differently, but I definitely can like understand that yeah, yeah, and maybe I'll.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: Um, I'll try to develop a better thought there too, and I'll come back another time and let you know.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, dude, hopefully this is the first of many, so yeah, so, dude, all right, so let's get into.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Uh, we're starting to close down now.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: We're getting to like 50, 50 minutes, but I just had a um, a cool question related to dina fit I.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: We just announced, like, that this was going to be your seventh year with them, right?
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably wrapping up year seven, and then, yeah, we're going to continue on.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: So that's, that's great news.
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, first of all, congrats.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Um, second of all, I just find it really interesting too, because, like that's a even though you're a young guy like to be sponsored for seven years and like have that degree of like help being a dual sport athlete, like seven years is a long time to do that.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: So I find that like very unique, uh, which is pretty dope, yeah, and I mean it takes it takes two to tango, like they've really invested in me over time and I think that that loyalty on both sides is really important in it.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: It makes it more valuable for both of us, right Cause then we're associated with each other and that relationship has been built over a long period of time and, like you, you hear one and you think the other, and I think that yeah, that that long-term commitment and loyalty is is good for both sides, yeah it's amazing, great, brand, cool, all kinds of cool stuff
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: yeah back in the day, it was like three years ago I was on.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: I think it was four years, three or four years ago I was on the trail hero oh, so I was running in the ultra one hundreds and I was like oh, this is awesome.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they got good stuff.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Um dude, all right, I know I'm kind of all over the place, but I do want.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I did one question I forgot to ask you.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: It was about Pyramenta, oh sure, where you, you and your teammate finished.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: What was it like?
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: ninth, yeah, yeah.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about that?
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: It was very historical for Americans.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: But also I don't think people realize, especially listeners, what kind of badass race that is.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is so cool Before I lose my thought there have been some American female teams that have finished even higher, but we were, I think, the highest for any male team at least.
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, it's an amazing race.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: So it's four days long.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: Uh, you race for two and a half to four hours a day.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: Usually they try to keep it at 10 000 vertical meters across the four days, so that's 32 800 feet and so, yeah, it could, it could vary.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: There could be a little bit longer days, a little bit shorter, and they're different every day.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: And they announce what the course will be the night before at like 6 PM.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: Uh, and the racer meetings are actually very funny, cause they'll like okay, here's the course, and then they'll give you this long description of of like what to watch out for, and like, oh, it's going to be icy here and dangerous here and make sure you bring this kind of skins for this part.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: And then, like, we're going to use crampons up this Ridge, and then there's a rope here, and then they'll like talk for another few minutes in Italian explaining it all, and then someone will come on in English and be, like okay, there's a long climb and then a short wait.
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: I think I missed some information there.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's just the coolest race.
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: So it's again in these the same mountains uh the bouffortant, and uh solid French.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm, I'm faking it.
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: Someone someone that actually knows what is going on is laughing at me somewhere in France right now.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: Um and so, yeah, the courses are different every day and they try to like go in four different directions from the town basically, so you're rarely repeating the same climbs and descents.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: And, like what Tom and I were saying after racing is, it wasn't like one of our sort of pinnacle experiences as athletes.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: That was like a lifetime memory yeah, like waking up and racing in these amazing mountains and there's like there's literally thousands of people lining like a single transition zone, like there's one place, like one summit, where you're ripping skins and skiing down.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: There could be 3 000 spectators at that spot and so like to have people 5, 10 deep cheering for you, screaming and cowbells yeah cowbells and like making fondue and like all kinds of you know crazy french stuff.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: Uh, it was.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just like it moves you to tears during this race, just like how special the experience is and and it's so cool to have that level of competition too, like there's you're in for uh, what is it like?
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: 10 or 12 hours of racing total.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: You are like in it like in the pressure cooker, with someone immediately in front of you and immediately behind you that entire time.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: And then it's, it's kind of cool to go through this with a teammate too, cause you're each going to have different highs and lows and different strengths and weaknesses, and so you have to work through it all together and your experience, the whole thing as as a pairing, and and yeah, it's just such a special experience.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: And and my last thought, too, is the top 10 I'll go, uh, this region's really, um, famous for their cheese, their Beaufort cheese, and so the top 10, I'll go home with, uh, five kilos of cheese per person.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: So you have this wedge, that's that's 11 pounds, and so it's like the size of I don't know, like, uh, it's, it's, it's a big chunk of cheese.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: How do I take this home?
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: So I've seen some races do like giant things of like prosciutto and cheese and I'm like totally unique Like yeah, it's pretty awesome.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, dude, well, well, thank you for describing that experience, cause I think that in the States like more uh of this excitement around these races and like where the entire community comes out and gets involved and like hangs out on course, and totally cheers people on and stuff like that.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: Um, as we wind down, I got one more question for you is like, cause you're so good on this American side of racing?
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: maybe after the Olympics is like something like golden trail or something like that, something you would consider racing at all, or yeah, you mean in running in particular um, definitely I uh, so I've I work full-time in the summers, um, and I have a few side hustles going on too, and then I'm trying to train and race on top of it and uh, um, it's just been a little too much lately as the years have gone by.
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: So I think or not I think I am, these next couple years, really going to try to like pare down on other commitments and really invest in in training and racing for the next couple of years and see where that takes me.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: So that's definitely going to open some doors, just energy wise and timing wise, cause it's it's really hard to take time off in the summer too.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: So I can like maybe make a long weekend out of it to go to broken arrow or the rut, but I'm not going to like miss two weeks to go to to Chamonix for like the UTMB races or something.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: But um, yeah, so I haven't really had time to put a bunch of thought into future planning yet, but I'll definitely be making a bigger investment and have more free time the next couple of years and see where that goes.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, so I'm not sure quite yet but the only reason I say is because, like the future, you're someone I would love to see it like as a gamma or a series and all or something like that.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: So definitely, yeah, yeah, it'd be cool.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: I, I mean, I, I have a feeling I'd get chewed up and spit out.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: I think the first time there, but it'd be really exciting to.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, give it a good go that's a segue too hard, but I like I can remember like one of the first times I saw you on a live stream, like you and eli were taking each other to the woodshed yeah, yeah, the broken arrow vk yeah, what a race.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: Probably the best vk live stream ever, I would argue.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Uh, just because it was such a close race just back and forth.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Like eli would make a move, you would match.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Oh dude, so cool yeah, and I think we both thought that we were done like three separate times, right, like like, yeah, you're just trading blows and dropping someone and they come back, and then they drop you and you come back, like I I thought that I was toast like three different times and that was to have that whole thing captured on live stream, like so cool.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: I went back and watched it before this exciting, yeah, it's uh.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just, like I said, one of the best uh, and it's just so cool to see like how I mean, that wasn't that ago, but it's just cool to see, like where Eli's career has gone, where your career has gone since then.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: It's just been really dope.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: You just obviously had some amazing, both you guys, so hell yeah man, um, dude, what's your, what's your take on competition?
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Like, maybe you can like add some some like color to that.
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, you know, so I, uh, I started working with a sports psychologist just through the injury process.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: I was actually trying to get connected with one.
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: For a while, uh, of just getting back into skiing last winter was difficult and scary and hard to trust the knee and everything even when I had the strength to do it.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: And so I was, yeah, working with the USOPC to try to get connected with a sports psych and, um, by the time we got connected, of course it takes a few weeks to jump through all the hoops and everything was when I had had my shoulder injury.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: So then we got on the phone and I was like hey, so I know, like we got together cause of the knee, but hey, something big just happened.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, which is actually great, cause that this has been the time that I've struggled the most through the two years was those initial days of the, the shoulder injury, and we spent a lot of time.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Um, it felt suspiciously like therapy was what the joke I kept making, and we were just, yeah, like talking about growing up and talking about like what life will look like after sport and this and that, and it made me really frustrated for a long time I was like I just want you to tell me how to win Like I want.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: Like I want to race, I want to win, and I want you to like help me get there.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, why are we talking about feelings and stuff?
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: And what she was sort of looping back to was like my values in life and and a lot of those I realized after having these conversations are what my journey in sport is helping deliver me to right, so, having adventure and making memories and feeling joy and all these components of life that I find really valuable, I realized the reason I'm so invested in competition is that's helping deliver me to those absolute values.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: Right, invest in competition is that's helping deliver me to those those absolute values, right.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: And like, sitting on the couch for a long period and thinking about all these things, that just um, it either is going to break that spirit or make it a lot stronger.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: And, uh, it definitely made it made it stronger in that way of just um really thinking critically about the why to all those things.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: And so that was a really great process to go through with her and um to all those things.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: And so that was a really great process to go through with her and, um, I just, uh, I I love it and I love that it like brings out a level of like fierceness and this like intensity in life that's hard to to match anywhere else.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: And, um, very primal.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, and I just want to seek it out any way that I can.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Now you've mentioned something like very and I think a lot of people deal with this like how did it almost be?
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: It becomes an identity in a lot of ways, and especially for you because, like you are on a path that like potentially of the highest of highs, like have you started to thinking about, like I mean, obviously this is not something you really reconcile until after the fact, when you come down almost in a lot of ways.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: But it's like, how do you associate that as, or do you try to disassociate so it's not almost your identity, and you are this cam, you're this fiance or husband and you're this amazing person, this amazing friend.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: How do you disassociate that with sport?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: It's hard.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's friend, how do?
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: you disassociate that with sport.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: It's hard, yeah, it's hard, I can't even do it Like, yeah, I probably have.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: Hopefully I'll have a friend like listening to this whenever it comes out like laughing about, like disassociate, like he's an asshole, when we're just hanging out and playing this board game.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: Are you the kind of guy that like has to destroy that?
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: person yes, yeah.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Are you the kind of guy?
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: that like has to destroy that person that I am same way.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't even be on a hike with my wife and, too, like I keep alluding to work, I work for the adaptive sports center in christa butte, yeah, and so we do all kinds of outdoor programming for all kinds of people with any kind of disability and so like.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: That definitely grounds me in a way of like I can work with someone for years and years and then, like, maybe we bump into someone on the trail and they mention like, oh, like, how's your, how's your race last weekend?
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: And the person that I've like known for years is like, what race?
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: Like, oh, do you, you run, like whatever Like, and no one really cares, and that's really um yeah, it's probably one of the greatest races in America.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's really grounding less about racing.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: So so that definitely um is a big.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: That definitely helps um me balance things.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: And then um I I don't really have a problem turning it on when it comes time to race, especially missing this time.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: And I think missing all this time has freed me up in a lot of ways too.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: If I used to be really attached to, to identifying myself like as a consistent athlete, like I always perform well, I always perform well at the right time, like I really rarely have a bad day and then you miss two years and that goes out the window.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: Like there's no more thinking that, um, and even like that I have come back, like I find I have, like I I have come back.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: Like I find I have, like I still have high highs, but with such inconsistent training last few years, like I've just had some dud races too, I think as a result of, yeah, the rhythm being broken so much.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: But anyway, like now that I I'm not tied to that identity of like Mr Consistent, it sort of frees me up to like I'm so excited to be here Like this.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: I missed this opportunity so much that I like just can't wait to see how it goes, cause for two years I didn't get to see how it goes.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes you dangerous too.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, cause you have nothing to lose at that point.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: You've already lost in a lot of ways.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure, dude, that's dangerous cam.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: I like that, yeah.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: All right, dude, I appreciate that answer and that was what I was trying to get out of you.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: A little bit was more, because I am very much that person Like I can't play a board game without wanting to dominate you and destroy you, like it's a very primal.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: It's weird, I don't know.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to describe it, other than it drives my wife crazy.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: Curious to see who inspires you.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: Gosh, I just pull things from all kinds of people and, yeah, I definitely am a believer that everyone in the world knows something that you don't, so try to gain as much from others that I can.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: But to give you an answer, an easy one to say is there's a man named Murray who works at our local Nordic Center, which is a nonprofit, or that's at least how we got together.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: Um, he mostly volunteers there.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: Now he's been going through a battle with cancer since 2014, I want to say, and it's a nasty cancer.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: And he, um, he had a long career as an endurance athlete before getting sick and, um, he and I just became like like in a mentor, mentee way in one way, uh, but just like a friendship in another.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: And, um, he thinks it's so exciting to see me racing and seeing him go through the yeah, just the nasty battle that he's in.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: He crosses my mind a lot in these difficult moments, like during a race, like at your highest, um, highest output and highest level of pain.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: It's like, well, I know that I'm really excited to tell Murray about this race afterwards and call him up and say like, oh, this has happened, this happened.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: And I really don't want to call him up and say, then I, you know, then I gave up, or then I let this guy buy me or something.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: So, like that accountability of wanting to, um, like pursue this to the highest level that I can to to make him proud is is something that has been, yeah, a tool in difficult moments and, um, just a good perspective to like have that relationship with him over the last few years for sure.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: That's a beautiful answer Shout out to Murray man.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what an inspiring guy.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, for sure, for sure, and just like I, I, I, I, I, I really I don't know.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: I can understand that because you know whatever pain and strain, like, whatever pain and difficulty that he's going through with that sickness, like that you know it.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: It's so much bigger than sport, you know what we have to do you know stuff like that.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: So no, I definitely.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: Uh, that's a beautiful answer.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna get silly with this one okay what's your take on bigfoot, on bigfoot um, I totally believe that those like two-dimensional bigfoot signs that people put in their yard to try to scare you are real love those ones I don't really believe in any other bigfoots other than those.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: I'm open to someone changing my mind, um, but yeah, I guess I don't really have a super well developed thought of bigfoot that's fair.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: That's fair, all right.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, last one, what's your take on like all these ufos people say ufos you believe in, like aliens and stuff like that yeah I do.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: um, I mean, I've never seen anything weird in the sky, or like um, yeah nothing, yeah nothing, that I couldn't like come up with some weird explanation for Uh, but it just feels like a math equation to me.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: Like the universe is so just impossibly hard to comprehend.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: Big and um.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: There's gotta be somewhere else that supports life Like I.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there's like other green people with tentacles that speak in high pitch voices Like I.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: Hope there is but, mathematically.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's gotta be some kind of life out there for sure it's true, so that's a good take.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: I think that's similar to one I there's so many theories you could have.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, dude, thanks for coming on the podcast.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks so much for thinking of me and inviting you, and this has been really fun this has been.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: This was like top top one for me, like it has been really exciting having you on and, uh, dude, I just want to wish you the best of luck in your journey, man thanks, I really appreciate it we're all cheering for you going into 2026 and, you know, have the highest hopes for you.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: So thanks man.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I really appreciate it absolutely, bro.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: Thanks for coming on, thanks what'd you guys think?
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: what a episode.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: This one meant so much to me and, like I said, I was so excited to bring this to you all.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed this one.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: Like I said, this was arguably, if not my favorite, one of my favorites.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: I know I say this every episode, but, damn, was this a good one and it just, like I said, pretty cool.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Guys, before you log off or hop off, jump onto Instagram.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: Do me a solid.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: Do Cam a solid.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Give Cam a follow.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: He needs more than 3,000 followers.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Let's get him a bunch more.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: Hop on, type in Cam C-A-M from CB that's Cam from Crested Butte.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: Nobody picked that one up.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Or just type in Cam Smith and find Cam from Crested Butte and definitely give him a follow, because lots of good stuff on there, lots of good videos and photos of him trail running and ski, mountaineering and especially as he goes through this Olympic gauntlet, if you will, over the next few years.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: It'll be kind of fun to follow along on that and get some cool videos there, some photos as well.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: Guys, I hope you enjoy this one.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: Like I said, this one is is is pretty dope.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: Um, if you could and if you wouldn't mind doing me a favor.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: If you're listening to this on Spotify, apple, um or YouTube, do me a solid and a five-star rating and review would be amazing.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: Please give us one.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: That would help.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Even more so, though, if you enjoyed this episode, if you loved this episode or any other episode that you might listen to that you might've really enjoyed, hop on Instagram, share that in your story and write about why you liked it.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: Or tell me, give me some feedback, Let me know whether you liked it.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: Hopefully you didn't hate it, and, yeah, it's.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: My call to action is if anybody liked these episodes, please give them a share on Instagram.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: It's how we can get this out to the world.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: That's the goal, that's the intention.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: We want to grow the sport.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: We want to get these episodes out to the world so they can listen and, hopefully, be inspired as well.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: So, guys, I hope you have a great rest of your week.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for tuning in and, yeah, thank you.