Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / #96 - Abby Bennett

Transcript

#96 - Abby Bennett · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, fam?
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and I'm so excited to bring you guys an episode today with none other than Miss Abby Bennett, born and raised in Maine and now resides in New Hampshire, kind of at the foothills or the base, if you will, of Mount Washington and the presidential traverse.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: It was super fun to have a great conversation with Abby.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We caught up to talk all about the White Mountain Endurance Cup that she had raced last year and jumped on numerous podiums of, as well as the podium of the overall.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: We talked about what the sub-ultra scene is like, especially living in the Northeast, and how many sweet races there are and how things have slowly changed as more and more races have kind of entered the fold in the Northeast.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We talk about training and how to prepare and be a formidable endurance athlete.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Coming out of the Northeast, I know those winters are pretty brutal and what it's like to train without sun for a long period of time.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: It's a lot different than the West.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We also talked about injury and how to deal with it.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Abby's dealing with an injury right now and we talked about some of the mental components of it, of it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: On top of that, we got into Schemo.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Abby's also pretty active on the Schemo scene.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: She did a few of her first Schemo races this summer and out West, and we talked about what the Schemo scene was like in the Northeast and how the scene is starting to grow in North America, particularly in the Northeast right now, which is pretty cool to see as well.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, I hope you guys enjoy this one.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: This is a personal favorite of mine.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I guys enjoy this one.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: This is a personal favorite of mine.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed this conversation and wishing Abby all the best of luck as she bounces back from injury and as she prepares for her 2025 season.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: So here we go, without further ado none other than Abby Bennett.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It's time.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: We are live.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Listen up, guys.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: The Steep Stuff Podcast is brought to you by Ultimate Direction USA.
• 2:43
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• 3:32
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• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Abby Bennett, welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: How's it going?
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: It's going okay.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Could be better, but it could be worse.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I'm dealing with an injury right now.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: You're probably talking to me at my lowest point in my entire running career, but that's okay, we'll get through it, but not to launch into it that much.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: But yeah, how are you doing?
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I'm doing okay.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I'm doing okay.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I'm bummed to hear about the injury, but it's the IT band you've been dealing with.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I'm doing okay.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I'm doing okay, I'm bummed to hear about the injury.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: But it's, it's the IT band you've been dealing with.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, my left IT band, um, and it's just gotten worse, and so I'm talking to a PT tomorrow so hopefully we'll get some answers.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: But yeah, just walking around even hurts and it just it's a weirdest injury.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Um, I haven't really dealt with injury in the last two years, um, so it's definitely a bummer and, uh, psychologically dealing with injuries is really hard as an athlete.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So I'm trying to figure that out.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's, especially if it's your first, second.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: I mean honestly first, second, third, fifth time, it doesn't matter.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Like every time, like I go through an injury, I have like an existential crisis of identity.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Like what, what am I like?
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Because, as athletes, like we associate ourselves so much, like we identify so closely with this sport, whether it's for you, skiing or running, whatever you know it could be any, it could be any person doing anything underwater, basket weaving, but it's like, if it's something that you're, you know, you hold yourself so true to and love, and absurd, like I guess I could say, like I'm obsessed.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: When you lose it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it's like, it's like the, it's like the death of something right, it's gotta be probably really hard to deal with.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really jarring because, like my days were entirely based around it Um training, like twice a day, um 90 to 120 minutes, like just obsessing over all the time.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: And now, like if I see someone running I start crying.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So it's like it's really hard to adjust to it.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: But I, yeah, just keep trying every day and every day like you get closer to not being injured and you get a little bit stronger mentally.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: So just working on that, yeah, I think the mental toughness is like a huge thing, cause like when you, you will, will, obviously you'll you'll be on the other side of it, and when you are, it's two things, it's like one you'll have the mental toughness and grit.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So if you ever have to go through it again, you could tell yourself, like okay, like it's, it's good.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I did before, I'm gonna get through it.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: And I think the second part too, um, is like I don't know it's.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: It's not just the mental toughness component, but it's like you, you kind of can get through anything.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know it's, it's a good vibe.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, being an athlete just makes you strong mentally in so many ways and uh, like, just like some of the ways are obviously getting through tough races, getting through training day in and day out, and then also like this is an equally important but different way that you get stronger is like dealing with with not being able to do the thing that you love.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Um, so it's a really unique thing, just like being an athlete.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So what do you?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Uh, like, now that you have some downtime obviously you got a lot of time to reflect like, what do you fill your time with?
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Read books while catching up on anything on netflix?
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Like what do you?
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: What are you doing these?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: days.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Oh man, um, I should be doing some more watercolors, but, um, I I watched so much youtube and I just started working at a local gear shop, so I'm trying to learn kind of bike mechanic stuff and get more into like gear.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I'm very bad with like gear and I'm a schema person and I also bike, but I never paid attention that closely to the how the gear works.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But, um, since I'm, I'm trying to like chip away at that every day and learn um how, how bikes work and how skis work, so that's fun.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Super cool, fun.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Super cool.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's anytime you can pick up something new and learn, like a new craft of some kind, like whether it be biking or skiing, or like improving something with skiing or learning the gear.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And because, like I don't know, I feel like cycling, running, is so simple, right, but like you have cycling and schema, which are just so technical and there's such a gear component to it that, um, yeah, I feel like the better you know your gear, the almost the better of an athlete you'll be, which is pretty that's for sure.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Um, how, how's training been going for you?
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: And you like the spring and everything, and um, I'm not sure if you ski, but are you getting into running training?
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: So I, fortunately enough, like the Springs, like Colorado Springs where I live, has been like kind of on and off with snow, so it's been like really good for year-round training.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: So I've just been running all season I have dabbled with nordic skiing in the past, like when we have like solid snowpack.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Um, I don't tour, do anything like that.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of my good buddies do.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I think one of these days I'll probably get into it.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: The problem with touring is like that leads to schemo and that leads to another obsession and it's like yeah, and it's like, oh man, like that's too much, like I, you know, I can't, especially because, like we're, we're, I'm in the greater pikes peak region, so, like where that's at, it's like a two-hour drive to any of like if you want to do any of the other resorts or anything like that.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Like I've got pikes in my backyard, but like the snowpack is kind of iffy, if you will, depending on like what the situation's like.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: So yeah if we have a good snow year, yeah, you could tour it, but like sometimes not so much so for me it's just been, um, you know, just loving the weather and just getting into.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: uh, I just literally this is my last week of a speed block finishing that up and, um, yeah, trying to figure out like okay, like just I guess it's like what, four weeks to soon, a, so just trying to start putting together the final touches and like the very specific, like really technical, uh stuff was like ski roads and like kind of mixing that up.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Um, so, that way, like the final, yeah, the final touches are on the, I guess, uh, on the proverbial Sunday for for that.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I, for I forget how close Sanofi is now.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm definitely going to be there and um it, the atmosphere is going to be so cool, like it's going to be amazing to have so many athletes come out for it and um, just excited to meet so many people.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I look up to um and watch them race.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: That's going to be awesome, um and oh yeah, one more thing on the schema thing.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: I know you've interviewed so many schema athletes and I'm like I can't believe you haven't been influenced yet.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: But props to you for sticking to uh, sticking, staying focused on the sports that you're in already.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: There's just too many sports to to like fully get into and it's just, it would just be so out of control financially.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you're so right.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: You know, for me I kind of like went into the season like it's almost like a now or never thing.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It's like let's, let's see what we can do this year, next year, and just put everything into it and you know, like I decided to self coach myself this year and just kind of like throw everything at the wall and see what's stuck.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so excited to see a big blow up or it could be awesome.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you've been making moves in silence and I'm excited to see your season this year.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you, let's talk about you, let's.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I want to.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I want to learn about your background.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: So you're from Maine, correct?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm from Western Maine, um, which isn't too far from where I live now.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Um, I live, uh, I live in the white mountains of New Hampshire, um, which is such a beautiful place, and the Northeast is just awesome place to live and train.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like we have some some of the most rugged terrain in the United States and like not so much, not so much racing up here because of permitting issues, but we've we've made some steps in that in a good direction over the last few years and there are some really cool races that happen on some of the national forest land and, yeah, it's, it's a I love it out here.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: The one thing I don't love as much as the West is the sun.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Like we, we don't, we don't have as much sunshine as I would like, but, uh, but it's okay, I'll, I'll take, I'll take the.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: I like the humidity, all the rocky terrain and um, just kind of like the lushness of it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It's like next level, like biodiversity and like um greenness everywhere.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: It's like it's kind of like a gnome land.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like it gives me alps vibes almost like and I think dan dana said this on the podcast too before dan kurtz, where he's like I feel like you can train better in the east coast or on the east coast for, like certain types of races, like maybe like racing in europe and other places, just because one there's a solid level of technicality, like you get a lot of different biozones, there's a lot of steepness.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: You might not have the 6,000 feet of relief that the Alps do, but you can still get pretty solid climbs, which is pretty awesome.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: The mountain that I live closest to, mount Washington, is 4,400 feet of a straight climb and there's a good mix of like runnable, like 15% grade Um, and then just absolute scrambling Um, and then there's like one flat section.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: So, uh, there's a, there's a solid climb, you can do it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: It's like 4,400 feet and four miles, so it's it's awesome.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: That's proper.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: We're going to gonna.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: We'll get into that, because I do want to talk about race the cog in a little bit, but first I want I want to like dial it back to your, your origin story.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Like I, I kind of read some articles on you, like from aerovipa and stuff like that in the lead up to this interview and, uh, one of the things I found interesting is, like you, you said you didn't really like run competitively in high school or college.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, and I'm still kind of surprised at my growth in the sport over the last few years.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I got into trail running and running when I was working in Boston just out of college, like got really obsessed with it and started training, like started training consistently probably five years ago.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Before that I hadn't run competitively at all, I just played some high school sports like JV sports, but never felt athletic or anything.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: And then I was just like, oh, running is such a different vibe than this high-stress job that I was in in Boston and so I just became obsessed with it then and kind of dealt with injuries for the first two years because I would just get too excited and do like a 15 mile day in the White Mountains and then like injure all my tendons and I was completely unprepared for that after sitting for like eight years without moving that much.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: And I finally figured out how to like start running sustainably and hadn't even gotten like really good consistent training until about two years ago.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: And I I think like the.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: The thing that's gotten me to this point and I think I can get a lot further is just believing that, like believing in my future self, where, like it's almost delusional to the point where I'm like I'm like I see my idols and I'm like I can get there and there's absolutely no evidence to support that belief.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: But I just have it for some reason and I'm like I'm going to do the work every day to get me to that point because I know that's in me and like, yeah, maybe I didn't, I didn't start running until recently but, um, but that means I have like a big runway and I know that my top end, like I haven't even come close to it yet.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I think I'm like maybe 40% of the way there.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: So like that's what I tell myself.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: I'm like I uh, because I keep improving every time I race, whether or not I've trained like specifically for it.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So I'm like there's evidence, there's some evidence to say that I'm still improving and I just have this belief in myself.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Um, I'll just sorry to go off on a tangent, but um, part of the reason that being injured stresses me out a little bit is because I feel like I have a little bit less time to develop that base and I'm still ramping up quite a bit.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Um, so it just scares me a little bit to think that I'm losing time and there's an opportunity cost of not being able to train during this time.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Um, but I I do have like a 10 year goal, Like I don't know if I'll fully max out my potential for another 10 years or so, so that does, at the same time, provide some relief that I'm like okay, this is just a few months in a 10-year plan, so I know I'll get there, but I hate the opportunity cost of missing training.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Opportunity.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: You're starting to sound like me.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: You used to work in finance, didn't you?
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: That's probably why.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: All right, Sorry yeah.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I pinned it.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: All right, that makes sense.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: E people okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I work in corporate finance now and I hate it, but like it's yeah totally, totally.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I totally get you on that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: When you said opportunity, because I was like that's an nba word yeah, um, um sunk sunk cost fallacy and all that that's right.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: You have so much time, though.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Like I, that's the thing I running as a patient's patient, a patient person's game.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Like I, I've gone through my fair share of injuries.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I think everybody has and most, and if anyone's listening to this that there's probably listeners listening to this probably going through the same thing and like that's the only thing I could tell people is like just you know, like you have so much time, especially cause you're young, like um, listen, I know I want to give a shout out One of my listeners, mark Tatum, like one of my favorite people in Colorado Springs.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: The dude's like I don't want to overstate his age.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: He's in his sixties, let's put it that way.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Guy's a monster.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite people in the sport.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Awesome dude.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Um, anyway, long story short.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: He got started later in life Like he was a mountain biker first and then got into trail running and like he just whips people's ass on the incline now and he's a great runner, so everybody everybody's got a different story.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: You know and and some of it, um, you know, some people come from track and field and like that's their game and you know what.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Some people hit their ceiling, if you will, and other people start later in life, like I started a little bit later and I'm happy, so yeah.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and your body can still adapt to the training.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Like, even even if you didn't start when you were five years old or something like you're even as an adult, your body can still create those changes.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: It just might take a little bit longer than if you'd started when you were younger.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: That's my theory.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: But yeah, over the course of 10, 15 years, I think your body will make those like deep adaptations, um, at the like cellular level, that will allow you to be competitive with the people who started when they were younger.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: One thing too, I will add to that you will be surprised, like when you do come back, how fast like muscle memory really is.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Like I've had plenty of times where I'll take like a month off and like it actually does come back rather quick.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: So that's awesome yeah.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Great to hear.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Stay positive, Stay positive Um.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit more going back in time about, like growing up in Maine and like this, this beautiful area that you live in, and like the white mountains.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Like were you from a young age, like out playing in the mountains, getting to explore, and especially cause you're skiing background too, like were you skiing at a young age as well uh.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: So no, I didn't start skiing until a few years ago.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Um, I went a couple times when I was in high school I think, but uh, definitely not a good skier still not a great skier, still working on that but I like the uphill part of it.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Um, I did grow up just being outside a lot and I loved being outside.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Um, like my brother and I just would run around in the woods as kids and uh, just like the biggest draw to me of this sport well, I guess there's equal draws like I love being in the woods and outside and like close to nature, um, and then the other thing is I like being in an aerobic state for like an hour plus.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: But uh, definitely had that like love of nature in me from an early age, just because of where I grew up in a rural area, um, and surrounded by, like I wasn't in the in the mountains directly, but um, definitely like hills and my parents would take us to to hike ever since I was a kid.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: So, um, yeah, it definitely like Maine is such a special place and um, yeah, it's very outdoorsy state and feel lucky to have grown up there.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: How do you deal with the winter Cause?
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Like I've spent like winters up there and I'm like, dude, you don't see, you don't see the sun for a really long time like it's.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: That's brutal oh, it is brutal.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Honestly, it doesn't get easier, um, like, especially if you're working, um, sometimes you don't see the sun for a really long time.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Uh, the the sun rises at like seven or something and the sun sets at four, I don't know.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: It's.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: It's really short days, um, and it's really cold, like this past winter.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Um, I just remember training, and just for a couple of months just training in the darkness, um, just making sure the headlamp was charged all the time, and uh, it's also like it feels to me like the cold is like a deeper cold here than out West, like it's different yeah, cold here than out West.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I went to race, uh in um, uh at solitude for the national champs, for for schema Um, and everyone was saying how cold it was and I was like it's not the same, like I felt like it was kind of balmy and um, it's like I would hear the the wind is just like it's so cold, it's like deeply cold, and I'm like I didn't realize that until I went out there.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's tough, but you just buy a lot of puffy layers.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: It's like a special type of grit too.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'll agree with this.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I grew up some of my formative years I was in Pennsylvania, like we would travel around a bunch, and like I do feel like the cold on the east coast is different than the cold, uh, like in colorado.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know what that is, maybe it's a drier cold like, not a humid cold, I don't know like, and I, like I said before, like we have the sun here, so like, even if we yeah like last weekend we got age of snow.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: The sun comes out and it like melts.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: It's amazing Like.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I can sit outside with the cutoffs and like 40 degrees and I'm totally fine yeah.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You can't do that in Maine.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: No no, and like part of of how I dealt with it while training outside so much this winter, was like I have a full body like puffy suit and I I would wear that like starting, even starting some runs, um, and definitely start and definitely skiing in it.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: Um, and I was like I'm not starting cold, Like I will get sweaty and it's fine, Like I want to be in just a full body, puffy.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I don't blame you.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about solitude and going for a uphill schema race Cause, like you raised some some really solid ladies, like Laura Hamilton Kelly Wolf is a teammate of mine like quite a few really solid women.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Like what was that race like?
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: And and I do want to dive into, like your schema background as well, yeah, um, that experience was so fun.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Like it was one of the most fun like trips of my.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: It probably was the best trip of my whole life.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Like I hadn't really known Lara that much I don't know if we met in person but we became like really good friends over there and just had some closer friends and I just got to know so many of the people in the schema world and like all just such great people and they were so welcoming to me, even though I had I wasn't sure like what the vibe was going to be like, and they they just like invited me over for dinners and, um, yeah, like like Gwen Rudy, she's amazing.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Um, and I got to like talk with David Sinclair quite a bit and it was like, um, just like meeting these people who are like I've always been fans of too.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: It was like it was like now we're friends and they're super cool.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Um, so the the best part of that race was just like becoming friends with all these people and um just having fun experiences with them.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I tried to.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: So it was my first time racing a sprint race, um, and it didn't go so well.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I was kind of frustrated Um, part of schema that I don't like and I know that it's it's an important part of it is like the technical side, and I I'm not very gifted at that and I I don't train as nearly as much as the people who are um, who are very good at schema, do.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Um, you just need to practice like all the technical transitions and um getting your foot in the right place, to like lock into your bindings and out and like getting the whole process down, and it just requires so much dedicated like patient training with it, um, and then also doing it in a situation where you're like really maxed out physically.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: That's like an entirely different experience.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's really.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: It's a really cool sport because it's not just pure like fitness grind.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: That's gonna get you to do well in it.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: It's like there's so many components.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: You have to be like really mentally quick and also have really good control of your body when you're maxed out like, or like physically maxed out, um, and that's really hard to do and I learned that there.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, the the vertical race was definitely the best Cause for me.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Like I'm not so good at the technical skills, so that one I was just like all right, I just have to like go as hard as I can for uh, 30 minutes and, yeah, it went.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: It went really well.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: I was, I was really happy with it.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Um, I I've never been so like dead after a race, like I collapsed cause I could not even stand up.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I like collapsed across the finish line.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: It was so dramatic Cause I wasn't even like in the top group, but, um, I like was hyperventilating for at least three minutes straight after and I like couldn't see anything and I was just like, oh my God, this is so dramatic.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: But I like I really could not get up or breathe at all.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: And that might have been an altitude thing, because it ended at 10,000 feet.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: So I haven't really done altitude stuff.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: So it was really hard, though it was crazy.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: That's amazing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: That's such a All right Thank you for painting the picture.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I have so many questions off this because, yeah, you are, you're.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I don't want to call you like sea level person, but like you're a little bit of like what do you live in?
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: A couple thousand feet, two thousand feet, somewhere in that range, or we're like 700, 700, oh, wow, yeah, okay, so I guess you're like kind of a sea level person and like that's pretty impressive to go up to 10k and like perform.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: What do you, what do you think?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Like, do you, did you kind of get bit by the bug?
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Do you think you want to do more of these races in the future?
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Like, what are your, what are your thoughts?
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Um, I need to do more work before I can be good at the individual and sprint.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Um, I love the individual race, but, uh, I got a little.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I actually bailed on that one because I got really spooked out.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: It was like a powder day, it was like dumping snow on us and I was in these boots and bindings that don't release at all.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: So if you fall and you start tomahawking, you're probably going to break your leg.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: If something breaks, it's probably going to be your leg or the ski.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: And so I was like really spooked out and I was like I just I can't do this right now, so I just bailed on that one, but yeah, I definitely want to do more of it.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: I think it's a sick sport and it's um, I I try to do a lot of work in the Northeast here to make it more accessible to people.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: We I work with this group called uphill new England and we were trying to like have demo gear that people can use, to like try out uphilling on a light setup.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Uphilling is is super, super popular in the Northeast.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Most people don't have super light gear, but it's like it's exploded as a way for people to get act like, get active in the winter.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Um, so it's really.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: It's really awesome doing resort labs or even doing some easier backcountry stuff here, because you see so many people out and it's like, uh, it's such a great community that's super cool.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: The thing that too is like I don't know, like where I live we have a little bit less access to like ski areas, but I feel like where you guys are you have like dime a dozen ski areas everywhere that's so true, is it?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: is it like, are this like, for instance, like alta and a lot of like, um, I was gonna say alta, snowbird, like they all close uphill access once the main season rolls in?
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Like are what are the resorts like where you are?
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Are they like open to uphill access in the mornings, or how does that work?
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: it varies by resort.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Um, With Uphill New England we're trying to create a better relationship between uphillers and resorts because some resorts have had bad experiences with people not obeying the rules and then dangerous situations happen.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: But we're trying to encourage responsible behavior and also have resorts expand their policies more so.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Some resorts are like before the resort opens we allow uphilling.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Others are only during operating hours.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Others are only after operating hours.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: So it really varies a lot and it's a little bit confusing it's kind of all over the place gotcha.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, um, I was gonna ask.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: So is there any races in the northeast for a ski mill?
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Oh there, are yeah okay, oh, let's hear what do you guys got.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, all right, we have.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: We have a bunch of races that have been going on for many years now.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Um, my friend, jesse wall, puts on a series every winter.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Uh, that's it's.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: It's awesome like the community that races up here is so fun.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Like there's there's a bunch of people who dresses in like cow onesies and they're called the ski moose, so that's awesome.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: And uh, yeah, it's just, it's like super fun.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: It's.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: It's probably a small group of maybe 30 of us that race.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Um, but we're always like stoked to see each other and get out there together.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: It's like our individual races are pretty legit.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Like it's usually like four laps up and down different terrain and between four and five thousand vertical feet, and like we go down some really tough terrain that's very off-piste at the resort, like some gnarly moguls and there's even some cliffs sometimes and it's always like icy, of course, like icy moguls, because that's what we have here.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: It's like never.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: It's never like a soft skiable, you're just like sliding down on your edges.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: So it's a bit gnarly, but that's why we love it.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Super cool, super, super cool.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Do you guys have like vertical races and stuff like that too?
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like there's no, not yet it's gone.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully fair enough.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: You know, I was just so impressed with the northeast I was talking to my buddy about this the other day because now, like you've got the cirque series coming in, and this is for mountain running at least, but like you've got the white mountain endurance cup, which we'll talk about, there's just so many sub ultra races in the northeast, like mount washington, like you gotta like the whole pick, whereas, like I feel, like in the west, like we've got them in summer, like obviously there's broken arrow there's, but like in colorado, like other than like kendall mountain and a feeling like pike's peak, like there's not that many tell your ride but telluride's kind of an ultra too, there's not that many like solid sub ultra races, whereas, like I, could go to the northeast and have a whole season and it's pretty dope, like that you can get your fill from literally from june even may, you know, with breakneck, all the way to, uh, september, which is kind of crazy.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I just think that it's kind of wild to think about, like I don't think it's kind of slept on because nobody thinks about the Northeast, which is kind of totally yeah, and I think it's especially in recent years that's really exploded more Um, and it seems like with Arab IPA coming in more to to races here and buying white mountains endurance, I think the people are more aware of the scene out here nationally.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Um, and yeah, just like sick races, like kind of sky runner style, um, really fun.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: So I'm and I'm so excited that circ is going to be out this year too yeah, it's crazy, let's talk about that, because that's actually how you came onto my radar was watching the white mountain endurance cup videos.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I was like gotta have this girl on the podcast.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Like you had this like little.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Like you and I was at hailey heinrich like have this little like back and forth at a bunch of some of these races I was like this is this is a cool little little thing we have here.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: We gotta talk you yeah, you have to have hailey on the pod.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: She's, um, she's like the strongest and I think she's the strongest like female athlete in the northeast.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Um, she's incredibly fast and really good both up and down, like technical terrain, like just she.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: And she's been at it for years too and like she just keeps improving every year.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Um, so, yeah, you should definitely talk to her.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: She's amazing, it's super cool, lots of really cool, like lots of very strong athletes in the northeast.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I was impressed yeah, yeah, yeah, like, and there are, so there are so many like strong female athletes, um, and like we all kind of have different strengths, um, so, yeah, I guess I can't say like one person is the best, because, like there's so many different types of races and, um, yeah, not even getting into road racing, but just trail stuff like, uh, yeah, there there's like so many really strong female athletes, um, so it's, that was really fun like competing with them last summer.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Um, like, it's just it's really fun to to actually have like a good group of women to run with and support each other and be competitive with each other in a fun way.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: That was my biggest takeaway of last year is just how empowering that is.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: How, how empowering that is and, um, like, in what scenario in life do you have to like do this incredibly difficult thing with someone else and like be simultaneously cheering them on and like trying to be competitive with them?
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: It's like it's such a like bonding experience and like just the privilege of like getting to push yourself that hard, especially with other women.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: It's so cool and unique to sport, especially endurance sports, where you're just out there for hours.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the best sport on earth, for sure, for sure.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, I got to pivot a little bit because I want to ask you about how the series went for you and just talk about some of the races in the series.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: But first I do have a question.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: This is out of pure curiosity, because it seems like there's a lot of roadies in the Northeast Like do you see them starting to come over to the trails now?
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Is that like more of a common thing or is it like still two very separate cliques?
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're pretty separate.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: I think the more trail athletes also road race athletes also road race, um, but yeah, there's, there's a few people who do both, but uh, way more road people and they don't tend to do trail races.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Um, hopefully, at least on the female side, um, there there's a few more men, that kind of crossover, I think.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, it's, I do both, like I equally love road racing, racing, um, because sometimes I just don't want to think about my footing and be stressed out about where I'm gonna put my foot, like sometimes I just want to like zone out and like go as hard as I can, um, so yeah, yeah, we'll work on that, though it's a key.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: It's like, I mean, obviously speed is such a key for trail running, like to to be good at uh, you know, just to be good at uphill running, or just have an enormous engine like yeah being able to run fast plays such a good role into that.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk white mountain endurance cup.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Can you, for the audience that might not be aware of it I think they should be, because I like it's, it's super rad.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Like, can you talk about some of the races uh, they're on there some of the races that you did, um, and maybe just talk about, like, the level of technicality, because some of these courses are pretty gnarly.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, most of them are pretty gnarly.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: So Chikorowa mountain race is the first one and that's in early June Usually.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Um, that's my favorite race personally and it's been around for quite a few years.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's about 15, 14 to 15 miles with around 4 000 feet of vert, maybe a little bit more.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Um, it's such a good mix of runnable, really technical um, descending and climbing like slabs, like there's a mix of everything.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Truly it's.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: It's the best trail race ever.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Um, if, if, if anyone was to come out for any of the white mountain endurance races, that would be the one I would recommend.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: Um, and just like absolutely insane views.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Uh, scrambling slabs, like just the best of the Northeast trails.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Um, slabs like just the best of the Northeast trails.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah it's.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: You go up and down the mountain, um, basically twice.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Well, the first time is like not quite to the summit, but Chikorowa has so many trails up it, so you just kind of do a weird route around and yeah it's, it's really fun.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I'll talk about the other ones too.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: So Baldface is great.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: It's a little bit, in my opinion, it's a little bit long and there's a Baldface circle loop which is about nine miles and it does that, but then it adds on another summit basically.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Uh, it adds on like another um summit basically, and it's.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I really like the classic loop and I kind of wish the trail, the, the race was on the classic loop um that's the 15k, I think, or is there a 14?
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: there's like a lesser distance.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: That's on the classic.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I've studied that because that's yeah, it's on my list yeah, yeah, you should do shorter one.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you want to do the longer one, that's fine too, but the iconic loop is like that 15K that they have.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite running loops ever.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: It's just insanely beautiful and fun.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that was a little crazy.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: And then, yeah, the Jigger Johnson one is also a really fun course.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Um, I didn't finish that one cause I just felt horrible, um, but that's, that's a super fun one.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: I'll basically all of these races go up and down a mountain twice, whether it's the same mountain or a different mountain.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Um, so there's like a really big component of having really like strong fatigue resistance and being able to turn back around and go back uphill after you've just absolutely smashed your legs with like a 2000 foot descent down technical terrain.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: So that's uh, uh.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: That's really really challenging and something you need to like train for or else you're gonna get absolutely demolished on the second climb fair enough, fair enough now.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: The what is it race.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: The cog is not a part of that, correct, it's just a separate aeroviper race that they have yeah, it's just a separate race, um, but yeah, that's, that's something, a shorter one where you're just like going all out for like an hour it's like a proper vk, isn't it?
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: 4400 feet or something like that in four miles yeah, something like that yeah, that's.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: That race is on my radar, like that's.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: If that wasn't on the day of killington, I'd probably could be doing that one, but yeah um would you do the up down or just the vertical one?
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: just the vertical?
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to do the up down the.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: I hate this ending like I'm not a good, like I shouldn't oh my god same I'm not as like stoked on descending, I should say um does it like yeah, why do you feel that way?
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: because I also feel that way.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: I'm like I don't love this.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I feel anxious the whole time yeah, I don't know.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I just like I feel like if anybody's catching me, they're catching me on the descent as opposed to like going up, like I don't know.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: I feel like I can race better going up racing yeah, I shouldn't say this on the podcast, because this gives away a lot but like it's, uh, like it's.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I just I don't know.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Descending is this like yeah, as it just doesn't get me as excited, whereas I this is actually something I've been practicing in the off season is like getting to the top of a peak, like I do.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: One of my workouts I do is on the manitou incline, which, if you ever make it to the springs, 10 out of 10 recommend.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Um it's on my list I usually go to the bailout and, um, I do like repeats on the bailout but just practice like all out to the top at threshold and then throw like, instead of stopping, like turning around and like throwing myself off the top because, like a lot of, yeah, that's like, that's the thing, like with a lot of the circ series races, like there's no, there's no stopping, like there's no slowing down yeah.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: So that's seriously a thing like you need to train yourself to like turn it around and either like go from descending to climbing again or climbing to descending, and it's it's really hard to like make that transition, but if you can get efficient at it, I think that's huge yeah, oh, for sure, for sure.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: The other thing is like I like ski roads, like I can race all day on ski roads.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: It's like technical trails, like, for instance, like the big blocky, like was a jacob's ladder in area, sections of like um, like the mount washington cog race.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I was like yeah yeah, I'd rather just run over it to the top and then, instead of having to turn around and go back down, where it's like I actually have to watch my footing and like, pay attention, yeah, I hate technical descending.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: It's just like not, I don't know, you gotta, you gotta love it, you know I completely agree and, uh, I feel like we're in a minority because everyone's like I love trail running for the descending, because it's like such a flow state and like my flow state is like me tripping and falling on my face and like just being like talking to myself, being like you're, you're okay, you're gonna make it, yeah, you know.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Just like feeling, like every step I'm like breaking, yeah, breaking my ankle, breaking ankle and you're looking over your shoulder, you're trying not to get rolled up and it's like oh man yeah yeah, it's, uh it's, it's stressful I'd find it to be the most stressful position to be in um
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: totally yeah now vertical racing is more fun.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: That's why I was still.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I saw you went and did uh broken arrow last year and went to the vk, which is sweet.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: That's a.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: I mean 2024 vk was the most competitive one we've had there and obviously this one will probably top it, but like that's, that's probably by far the most competitive race you've been in as far as, like your results go like yeah was that an eye-opener for you?
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Like what did you think?
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: like that's the best of the best that are in that race yeah, yeah, that race went so bad for me, but, um, that's okay.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Like, we all have bad races, um, I have probably like 50 of my races are not where I want them to be, um, in terms of how I feel, but it was, it was awesome like, like, just being at Broken Arrow, um was such a cool experience.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: It was a little overstimulating because there's just like so many people there and it's just crazy down in the village area, um, but but that was fun too and it was.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: It was cool to watch the other races too.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's always great to compete in like a really competitive field, um, and I'm I'm excited to try to go back to that race at some point.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Um, and someday I want to have like a legit altitude camp where I try to acclimatize a little bit, cause I think that was part of it.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: Um, I I just I think I struggle with altitude and I was struggling with some like last year, I felt like half the time I tried to do a vertical race, like I don't know, it just felt so awful going uphill.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever feel like that, um, but it's just like, yeah, yeah, sometimes you feel like you can push and then other times you're like come on legs, like do something, and there's like nothing there and and you just feel awful.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: So I don't know it.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: It's a weird.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: It's a weird sport in that, like when you do like uphill running, it's like you, you get exposed pretty quickly as to like how your body's feeling oh yeah, like if you're not having a good day, you, you feel it right away and it's like yeah this is where I'm at, and I'm just gonna have to sit in this and just hope it turns around yeah, exactly
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: yeah, no, it's funny you say that like about broken arrow.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: With it being, I mean obviously altitudes yeah, it's a huge component of it and it's it's a.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: That's probably why you felt terrible.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: But like, also on top of that, like there's something to be said about, like the electric vibes and like it being just like there's so many people at that race.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: So it's like the first time you're out on like something like that.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: That's like more of like an international scene.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: It's like whoa dude, like this is, this is huge, this is crazy yeah, it was.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: It was crazy.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: I was like seeing all the people that I look up to just everywhere.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: It was just wow, this was a lot super cool, super.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was super fun well, yeah oh sorry, what were you gonna say?
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: oh, I just I was gonna say like I have a group of friends or a few friends out there that I stayed with and, um, that, like that's always the best part of like going out and doing these things.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Like, uh, that, yeah, some of my friends like live in like near tahoe or san francisco and it's just like the best people out there, like they're so awesome that's awesome, yeah, and just like be able to do it with friends and like not going out there alone, like just add so much more to it, right.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: like Like when you have people.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: you know, when you hit around your people, like it makes you feel I don't know.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I feel like it makes me feel more comfortable and it's just like you can kind of relax and get into that in the race week and stuff like that.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this Cause like obviously I know we talked about injury and stuff like that, but we got to talk about the future and future plans, like what, what races have you excited that you want to go do Like what?
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: What are some things that are like on your radar?
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Oh man, yeah, I should have thought about this one more.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Um, I've been like disassociating from plans because I'm injured, but, uh, I I was really excited to do the Cirque series races probably Canon Um, but I.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: Circ series races probably canon um, but I don't.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: It's not looking like even killington is going to be achievable at this time.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Um, so that's bummer, but I'll.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I'll have to go out and race some of the, the ones out west at some point and I'm sure they'll be back east, hopefully, uh, next year.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: So I'll definitely do that.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I will lobby for that.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Um, uh, did you do I?
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: I signed up for the rut, so I was gonna ask you about that yeah, so I'm really hoping I can do that, like that's kind of my a race for the year, um, and I would just oh my gosh it looks incredible.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: 28k or vk uh, the 50k 50k okay oh yeah, trying to jump up a little bit okay all right, what?
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious, just out of pure curiosity what excited you more about the 50k versus the 28k?
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Just because that's that's a, that's a, that's a race like that's a really hard yeah, yeah, I might like reconsider that, but, um, I'm not sure.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: I just I feel like, um, I feel like I can be really good at those longer races, um, like it's, it's a good question, I think.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: I think I wanted like a really long, difficult adventure out there, um, and I I do want to get better at the longer distances.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: So I'm like I just need to keep trying to do them, um, and put in the training to do them, or else I'm never going to get there.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: So I just like I'm I'm trying to start here.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: And I also want to do more road marathons.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: So, just like around around, the marathon of 50 K distance is, I think, the area where I want to focus on.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm not really interested in going along from that because my body would not tolerate that, and it's.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: It's just like.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: I feel like the chance of being injured out of a race is pretty high and, yeah, it's just not my vibe.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: I like running faster too.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's something to be said about it.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: About it, yeah, I think the rut fits your style well too.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, not just like from the races that you already do, but just like your training grounds, I mean like the best advice I've ever gotten from people that have run the rudder.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Like you know, just expect incredibly steep stuff and like it's a slow, grindy race anyway, like yeah it which is it?
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Mimics the trails of the northeast, a lot like totally.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: I'm like this is, this is uh.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Where I live is the perfect place to train for the rut, besides the altitude.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: But you know can't, can't have it all yeah, but all I mean you could, you could come out a couple days before, or if you just go out the day before.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I've heard people like say, oh, if you go out the day before, and like don't take as much time and, like you're, it should work better.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of curious, I know for the opposite, because like I'm coming from six or seven thousand feet going down to sea level to race a bunch of races this year and I'm like yeah I worry about power generation, like how am I going to be able to generate the power that some of these guys can generate that live, you know, super low.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: So that's why I'm coming out like a few weeks before to like work on some specific stuff like workouts, to see if I can like get just a little bit more of an adaptation.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because that, yeah, that totally makes sense.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then probably just doing like strides and stuff, like I'm sure you're doing all that stuff, but yeah, like I think I think it'll, it'll be good.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: I think you largely have an advantage.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: So I hope so.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like I don't come down to like race on the east coast too often, so I'm like, oh, this should be kind of fun.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Um have you done a trail race out here before?
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: not in the northeast, uh, I've been like breakneck's been on my radar for a long time.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I've like I have family in that area and I've like ran around there a bunch and just never pulled the trigger on and going to the race just because it's early season.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: I've, like North Carolina, I did quest for the crest a few years ago and that was a proper mountain race.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Like that was proper hard, um, and the black mountains of North Carolina me I was like well, it should be similar.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I'm like very like fascinated with like this northeast vermont, new hampshire, upstate, new york, adirondack area.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Um, like kyle richardson, um, like he did some bike packing there last year and like just I just got a bunch of pointers from him on like some of the areas to check out.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: I was just like man, like those mountains seem really like there's just like there's a lot more there, I think.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Um, whereas like I feel like I've explored so much in the colorado mountains and like maybe the wasatch and areas like that, that I'm like not bored on it, but I'm like the northeast has more appeal to me I don't know.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting because we have, so it's like such a smaller mass of land, that's mountains here, um, but we have so many trails on them, just because people have been making trails on these mountains forever and like it's.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: It's a fairly small like mountain range, like the white mountains and the green mountains and, um, the adirondacks.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: They're all like pretty small, uh, compared to the mountains at west, but like, like I said, there's so many miles of trails on them and then at west, like you don't have as many trails I mean, you have like you can go off trail more, I think but uh, but yeah, there there is that.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: So it does feel a lot bigger than it is here super cool.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, can you talk about your time as you were a hut caretaker, weren't you?
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: Can you talk about that?
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Because that is so cool.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: We have bar camp here, which is kind of like a hut, but not really a hut, because it's not very remote.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: But anyway, tell me, I'm curious to hear about your experience.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: Is that the one that Zach Miller worked at?
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, okay.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, that sounds familiar, okay, um, cool, yeah, so I I was a hut caretaker last winter at a hut in the Northern end of the presidential range Um, like super remote was alone for like five days at a time.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Uh, the schedule was seven days on, seven days off for about five months and, yeah, it was a really cool experience Like that's where I got into all the puffy layers because I was so cold all the time and I was trying not to like burn all the fuel because I didn't want the like to be the person to like run out of fuel and the other caretaker would be like what the heck happened.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: The person to like run out of fuel and the other caretaker would be like what the heck happened.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: Like now we're gonna freeze, um, but so the the hut is like insanely cool, like we have such an amazing hot system that's similar to like the european vibe, um, and you know, I'm sure you've heard of the hut traverse, uh, which is a route about 44 miles, uh, I think like 13 000 feet.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: No, it might be more than that, um, but it's kind of like a lot of people do it hiking, but you can run it like I think katie scheid has a fkt on the female side, um, but that's that like links up all the White Mountains huts.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: I didn't work for an AMC hut.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: It's like really niche stuff here but similar organization that managed the one that I worked at.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: But really, yeah, the hut system here is really cool and unique to the Northeast, I think, and a lot of history behind that.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: Um, it felt incredible to to work there and like be so connected to the mountains and like be up there in the crazy weather.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, just like it was such a cool experience and I might I might do it again, but uh, probably not at that hut.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: Like I'd probably work at a hut that that's like more in the base of Tuckerman ravine and uh, if, if, if, I can ever again but like deal with more skiers coming through and just be a little bit more at the center of of things, because where I was was just super remote and like, yeah, not, not too many skiers or people coming through very much at all.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow, that's so cool.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: Did you like the remoteness at all or like no?
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Is it like too remote?
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: It was a little bit too much, but I did expect it.
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: So it was a cool experience.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Like I didn't always love it I was.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: I was bored a lot, but I did a lot of writing, a lot of reading.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: I was reading um, so you probably don't have cell phone reception out there, right so we actually did, so I watched like a bunch of YouTube too, which is bad.
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, it was crazy.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: Like we um, sorry, um we had like a solar panel on the roof that, uh, that powered the like battery so I was able to charge like basic electronics.
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: But for a couple months during the winter, like the sun doesn't quite hit the solar panel, so you have to like scrape it off with a roof scraper and half the time like it would just freeze over with ice and so I didn't have power or like a phone or anything for like seven days at one point.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: So I was, I was like totally in the dark, like just didn't have contact with outside world at all, so I was a little crazy that's wild.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: It's so cool to me too because, like I know, like I'm, like I've heard the stories of, like katie scheid was she used to work at the huts.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Um, I think jeff colt did as well.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: I know he's from up there yeah hillary gerardi.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Hillary gerardi.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so so many big names in the sport have like kind of come through that area or like were raised and grew up in that area and worked the huts, which is cool yeah, they like had the full hut experience where they worked for the amc hut, like summer hut crew um, which was very different than what I did.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Like they they're part of this like intense summer experience where and I think they came back for a couple seasons um, but they're like hauling like loads of food and equipment and stuff up for guests and then cooking for guests and like doing like entertaining people basically, uh, so it's like a very exhausting and like intense experience, um, and they like for fun, they would like run between the huts and like try to do it in a certain amount of time.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: So I think it was great training for them to become mountain athletes that's super cool.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: I know there's some old on videos out there.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: I think of katie's hot traverse.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I gotta go look for them yeah these days.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was listening to a podcast recently and I think maybe it was finn was talking about it.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: He's another one that's from up there.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's a lot of people from the northeast that are like in our, in our little like niche sport, which is crazy totally, and yeah, I heard that.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: I heard them talking about it in that podcast too.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: Like it's such a good video, you should watch it for sure.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta find it, I gotta ask you.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: So in the beginning of the episode you talked about kind of like a 10 year plan that you had for the sport.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: I'm so curious, like what's part of that 10 year plan, like what are some of your goals that you want to accomplish in the sport?
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: So both road running and trail running, just like running in general, 10 year plan I specifically I think it's hard to set time goals and performance goals for trail running, but for roads I want to get my marathon under, ideally under two, 40, um, which I definitely think is achievable Um, and then like probably closer to 230 is like the goal.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: And then for trails I want to just like, mostly I just want to be consistent and train as much as I possibly can, like for that 10 year period and just see where I get.
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: And I think I can get, like I think I can go a lot further than where I'm at now.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: I just want to be competitive at the top of the sport and, like I said, I know I'm not there yet and there's no evidence to suggest that I will be, but I just know that like, uh, you're rewarded with consistency and so if I just keep putting in those 90 to 120 minutes um or more, if I can, every single day, with one rest day per week, um, that I'll, I'll get where, like, I'll max out my potential and that's really like what I want to do.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: I want to get to the top of my potential.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: I love to hear it now and you definitely will, and like that's the thing, like one of the things you said earlier too, was regarding like you know, I believe in this and I believe you know almost like, so I'm, I'm very similar, I'm the point of like I'm almost like that psycho of like I believe in myself to the point of delusion.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: Like I, yeah, exactly.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe my parents like believed in me too much as a kid, but like I just like how this is like this, like weird delusional ability to like completely believe myself until I don't anymore.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know but like no, that's what you need.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I think, if you do that, yes, I think you can do incredible Totally.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: I think so many people think that because they're not, there's no sign of success at this moment, or like they're not already there, they don't think it's possible.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: But like if you just saw, like if you put in the work every day, you could be in a completely different place in 10 years.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're also having success.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: You're winning and getting on the podiums of a lot of these races that you're doing now.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: So, and a lot of these are very competitive races, especially like white mountains, endurance cup Like you're, you're right, you're right there, like you have a couple of years to figure it out and like you'll, you'll have it figured out.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: I'm curious like what shoes are you running?
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: And I know you're on their Viper racing team but like what kind of shoes are you rocking these days?
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Like, what are you into?
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: Um, oh man, I I switched it up so much.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: Uh, I would.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: I've been a fan of VJs for a really long time, just because the grip is truly amazing.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: It, and I think it's the sometimes it's the best shoe for the Northeast, where our rocks are like slippery and mossy and it's just like you don't want to slip out, like you don't want to slip down an entire slab.
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: Um, so I like the VJ max original, um, the VJ ultra and, uh, I've recently started in tapos and I like them top of pursuit.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: I think, um, I'm not a huge shoe person Like I, I don't know what's out there as much as I should and I definitely don't try like the latest models or anything.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: So, um, don't like, don't look to me for advice.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: No, I think you're onto something there with VJ.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Like I, I have very close conversations with friends, often about VJ, and I feel like it's one of the most sleptpton brands in the sport.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: Like they have amazing shoes, like especially yeah if you're running on like technical terrain like I know.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Vj is very popular amongst like the fell runners uh over in the uk which is similar terrain um yeah, and I'm excited to see what the I know they like revamped their line this year.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: So I'm excited, excited to to maybe try out some of those.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, their ultras are for it.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: They're an interesting company, like I've considered like looking at them to see if I could get them to sponsor the podcast a while back and was like trying to figure out like who the hell is the decision maker here, and I think it's just a small business.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really small.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: It was like and then they're like the north american group is like pretty tiny.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: So it's exactly.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I kind of like that.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: It's like more of a like small town vibe, yeah, yeah, you know, blue collar springsteen, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, for sure, yeah, so all right, let's get into.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: We're at about an hour here, so I'm going to get into some questions.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: I'm very curious, uh, to hear who inspires you.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, so there are so many women in the sport.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: Obviously that inspire me, but I will say the people that inspire me the most are probably people closest to me who I see working really hard every day.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: My partner, jay.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: He's a firefighter and he's worked really hard to transition his career into firefighting and like I just see him putting like consistent work every single day to get to that um, and it's just it's really cool to like like be with a first responder like every day and see like what that job is like.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: It's pretty crazy, um and impressive.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: And also my mom inspires me because she's just like the nicest person in the world and I just aspire to be like just a little bit as like kind and empathetic as she is.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: So, um, those are two people who inspire me that's a good answer.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: I like that, um, and I always you know I can always respect someone that like changes their career into something like I don't know, like I I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: So, like, when people find like what they love and what they like to do, it's always pretty cool to see yeah, yeah, and he was like just doing office work for you know most of his career after college and he's just like really unfulfilled by it and it was so detached.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: It was also in the financial services industry but it was like, really I know killing our souls.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: Um, it was like really far from what he loves and he loves being in the mountains too Um, and just like.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: Experiencing real things and being a first responder is like you.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: Just, you're like in the most intense and realist situations that you possibly can be in life.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: Um, like you, just you're like in the most intense and realist situations that you possibly can be in life.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: Um, and you could.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: You could be like one minute.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: I don't like eating dinner with your family and then like, and then like dealing with like a crazy fire, like an accident or something.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: So it's just like it really makes you feel yeah, exactly it's like so real it's real life for sure.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: All right, I got to ask you about this.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: I kind of asked you about races before.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: Is there any bucket list races that you have like for the future?
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: Like I know, I talked to a lot of people like mine is like series and all which I God damn it.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: I need to get to one of these days Like is there any like bucket list race that you want to do and it doesn't matter, could be anywhere in the world yeah, that's such a good question.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: There's so many, why can I think of any right now?
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: Um, oh man, like I literally watch all the live streams that I possibly can on races and like the any golden trail series race looks so sick.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: Um, on, like any sky running type race looks amazing.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: I, I don't know, like I I wish I could think of one, but they all look really cool.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: Do you think, um, that's something you try to get to in the next few years, maybe doing a uh, I'm a sit series and all but a golden chair series race, like if maybe broken arrow comes back for another year.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: For that I know there's a Mexico race this year.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: There's quite a few like really solid, um, golden trail races around the world.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: Um, there's, there's so many, I don't know.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: There's so many races that I want to do.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: Um, oh, I don't know why I can't think um, like anything out west that's like more mountainous too.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: I would really enjoy that.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: The rut was one of my bucket list races.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: I feel like there's one that's similar to the rut, but I just can't think of it.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: Speedgoat maybe.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did want to do Speedgoat, speedgoat is similar.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: That's another solid one.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Speedgoat that's a tough race to nail, especially the 50k.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: That's that's bananas race.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited you signed up for the rut.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a cool experience and like that's like a good, especially like dealing with injury now, like that's like you know, when you're back from injury, like when you overcome that, it's going to be so sweet, like when you get to go do that race.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: It's pretty cool oh my gosh, yeah, have you done it, or been out there?
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: I've not a bunch of like, I've trained with a bunch of good friends that have gone out to go race it.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: It's been on like I've been signed up the last two years and just like, by the time I get september I'm like, I'm a little tired, like like last year was hard because I had um with the podcast.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: We were doing stuff for pike's peak, um.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: So it's always that confliction between, like that's a late season race, uh, this year we had pike's peak upcoming the year off pike's peak again.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's like that, that kind of conflict, that it's like, man, I do so much work ahead of time for that, for like the you know all the podcast stuff that it's like I gotta.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very difficult.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: That's one of the hardest things and challenges I've been trying to figure out is how to balance like doing the podcasting thing but also trying to make sure like I have all my like eggs in the basket and everything figured out for like competing yeah seriously, I don't know how you do it like you're coming out with so many podcasts, like two to three a week, and it takes like so much time.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like that's so.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh was like how do you, how do you do that in a full-time job and train at the level you are?
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: This?
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: past week, probably a lot of other things this past week got me.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: I was like man, like this is, this is a lot.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: I need a break yeah, a beach with a margarita yeah, you need a vacation, like, or just like, reduce it to maybe one podcast a week or something, because I'm like every time I see it I'm like no, like it's like too much.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Like I love, I mean I love to see it, but like you don't need to do that much if it's like taking away from your life, you know you know, it's not too bad, like it depends on like what it is, like a lot of them like so, for instance, like certain interviews, like I love preparing for and like getting ready for them, um, and like doing the research ahead of time, and like conversation to me is like a dance, right, it's like this, this dance back and forth where, like you know, you're just trying to learn more about the person and yeah it's like a skill in a lot of ways.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: That part I really enjoy it's the editing and then the social media component.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Like this is something I was going to ask you because, like you've got like a really good youtube and you're a very good storyteller on instagram, like I found, like you're one of those people that, like you're very it's very easy for you to kind of convey.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Like you talk about your training, you talk about what you're up to, you talk about like skiing and running.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: That comes very natural to you is that.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: Would you agree with that, or?
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: thank you.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I think I've realized that it that that has it comes naturally to me.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: Just kind of recently I was like, okay, I think I'm pretty good at telling stories and I've gotten more into social media and I'm working with a couple of groups helping them with their social media and so I think about that a lot.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: I'm like how do I make this an interesting story?
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: Because that's what people want to see.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: They don't care if it's like I mean, some people care a little bit if it's like a cool shot or like you know, all the equipment you used was like top of the end, like top of the line equipment and like the sound is perfect, like people don't really care about that as much as just it being a good story.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I've been, I've been thinking about that a lot lately.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you do a great job.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: It's very like, it's very organic, it's very like.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: I think the word I'm looking for is authentic Like.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: It's very like the one I saw a couple of rails where you're like just talking about your training like, just like, this is what I'm up to, this is what going through right now.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: You're like man, this really sucks and like I'm trying to get through this and it's like you know, it's just um, it's very relatable.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: I think there's thank you, yeah, yeah, I always find it helpful when people share more, and I'm like always trying to encourage people to share more, because people are inclined not to Um, but like I think everyone benefits from it when you do so.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: I try to tell myself that too.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was super cool.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: Are you a big music person?
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: Uh, yes, but it varies a lot Like every kind of genre like it's just a mix.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: What's your walkout song?
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh man, I should have prepared for this one.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: Oh man, like I go through phases of having like a walkout song where it's like my workout song and like I choose it specifically and I'm trying to think of one I have right now, like maybe, like that's Not Me by Skepta it's so crazy, I don't know, that's just the first one I could think of.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: Or like Daisy by Ashnikko.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Daisy by Ashnikko.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know any of these people.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: I got to look this up.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God, it's so crazy.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, super cool, super cool Are you?
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: Are you listening to music during training, like, are you like a music, like like pop on the tunes during a long race, or uh?
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: I use.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I used to listen to music while training, Um, now I mostly listen to podcasts, Um, but if, if it's like, if it's a track workout or something I'll put on music and like turn it up for the intervals.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: It's the way to go.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I, it's interesting.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it like changes over time as you train and, like um, get used to like different head spaces and stuff yeah, no, for sure, for sure.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: I lost my train.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: Music stuff um music, um, oh competition.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: I gotta ask you, are you super competitive?
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: uh.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: So this has also changed over time.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: Like I used to be, I think, really competitive, like I would get so amped up and I'd be like listening to the pump up songs and everything and I'd be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna be the best, like whatever, even though I wasn't even good at the time, um.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: But but I think as you go, as you compete more and like experience like true competition, like your feelings change a little bit, like I don't feel that like desire to to win as much anymore, like I don't know, like that fire thing, um of like like I want to to beat the people here here.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: Like for me, competing is more like working with the other people and like everyone is trying to do their best, and so I'm like I feel so much like empathy and like connection to people when I'm racing and I'm like rooting for the other women when I'm out there, so probably like not so competitive anymore.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: I think it's just no, I think it's just a really positive and like, very like healthy mindset.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: And the reason I'll say that is because, like I, I was, like I said in my research for this episode, I was looking I think it was like your video or real or post that you were talking about um from race the cog and you're like you know, I just didn't have the day that I wanted to have out there, but I can't wait to come back and PR I think it was the actual.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: It was the interview that Aravaipa did with you after that race and you're like you know what, I didn't have the day I wanted, but I can't wait to come back and PR and I just, like I don't know, to do my best out there and if that's a win, that's a win, and if that's a podium, that's a podium.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: If it's top 10, it is what it is right.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: I think that's a very healthy mindset to have.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: I can't help but notice over your right shoulder you have a.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: What is that thing?
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Is that an axe?
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Is that a trophy?
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: You won.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: I'm like yeah, it is um, yeah, that's totally an axe, um, where do oh that?
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: That was x-terra, like trail run um world champs in sugarloaf maine that's dope, that's a sweet like sweet trophy it's the best trophy.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: It's like a legit axe, like I will actually use that shop wood super cool, super, so cool uh, well, listen, abby, I uh, I don't want to take the rest of your day.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to meet you, you when I come out this summer, looking forward to getting on some Northeast trails.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really appreciate it and thank you for the conversation.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: Honored to be on the pod and, yeah, very excited to be out there at Son of B and Cirque and cheer for you and everyone else.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: Thanks, bye.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: What'd you guys think?
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Oh man, what a fun episode.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Abby so much for coming on.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate the conversation and looking forward to many more in the future.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: Pretty cool stuff there.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: So, before you guys get going, do me a solid.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: You can support Abby the best way by hopping on Instagram and giving her a follow.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: You can find her at abbyjbennett that's B-E-N-N-E-T-T on Instagram.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: Give her a follow.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: Let her know what you guys thought about the episode.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: I'm sure she'd love to hear from you all.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sure she'd love to hear from people interested in races in the Northeast and stuff like that as well.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: So, super cool stuff.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Abby so much for coming on, excited for her 2025 season.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Guys, before you get going, if you enjoyed this episode, hop on Spotify, apple, youtube, wherever you consume your podcasts, and please give us a five-star rating and review.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: That's how we can continue to get these episodes of these amazing athletes out to the world and continue to do some fun storytelling there.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: Last but not least, this episode is brought to you by Ultimate Direction.
• 1:14:26
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• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: If you're in the market for a new vest right now, they're already affordably priced.
• 1:14:41
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• 1:14:51
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• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: Actually, I'm a big Harper of someone.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: I hate.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Overpriced products in the sport drives me crazy, especially because you know it means a lot to me, because I use a lot of my hard earned money on things that I really enjoy for the sport and as you do as well.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: So I want to get you guys some of the best products at the most affordable prices.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: So, yes, the race and ultra vests are incredible.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: I've been practicing in them and racing in them, and for the last year, and it's a product that I use every day.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, use code steep stuff pod.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: That's going to get you 25% off an already affordably priced item.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: And, yeah, hope we can get these on a ton of people this year Because, yeah, it's the best new vest on the market.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: So, guys, have a great rest of your week.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: I've got some amazing episodes coming to you this week, some stuff you're really going to enjoy and love.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: So thanks so much for supporting us.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you you.