Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 131. Emily Infeld, Olympic Runner

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131. Emily Infeld, Olympic Runner · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Just be you like you, be your best version of yourself.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Don't try to be someone else's version. Don't try to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: form yourself into another person. Don't feel like you need
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to change who you are to be better, because you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: can keep pushing yourself and be your best self by
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: being you.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdler's Emily Abadi here bringing you episode one thirty
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: one of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I sit
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: big wins to how they've gotten through some of life's
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and what it really takes to follow your passions.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: My mission is simple to.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Inspire you to be your best self, move with intention,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: and have some fun along the way. For today's episode
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: one thirty one, I am chatting with Emily Enfeld. She
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: is a professional runner specializing in the five k and
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the ten k on the track and really just.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Such a good human.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: A little bit of housekeeping before we get into the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: particulars of today's episode.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: This is the last week of season three.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Next week the show will be off for a little
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: bit of regrouping before coming in hot with season four.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: When I reflect on the past few months to twelve
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: weeks of episodes, it really just is mind blowing, you know,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: season after season, I am amazed by you, the listeners,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the hurdlers. I'm also amazed by the fact that I
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: get to have these conversations as a part of my job,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and jeez, that's just so awesome. As I gear up
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: for season four, I'm still booking out guests. So if
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: there is anyone that you want to hear from someone
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: that I should chat with topics you want to know
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: more about, I am all ears. Please make sure to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: reach out to me over on social It is at
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast. Now, let me
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: tell you a little bit about Emily. She's a professional
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: runner for Nike's Bowman Track Club. But she's also a
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  Speaker 2: bronze medalist from the twenty fifteen World Championships and a
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  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen Olympian. And you know how I connected with Emily.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Emily was amped when Ayisha pratt Leer was on the show,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and she retweeted and said, I can't wait to listen
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: to this and I reached out and I was like,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: em is it time for us to hurdle?
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: And well, here we are. And if there's one thing.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I can tell you about Emily is that she is
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: fun loving, she's a positive person, and she loves, just
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: like me, to be other people's hype woman. Okay, that
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: was like three things. In today's episode, we talk about
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: her journey in the sport. She talks to me about
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: dealing with so many injuries. Literally my heart just breaks
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: every single time she brought up a new one, and
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: how all of these hurdles helped her become both a
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: better runner and a better human being. She also talks
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: to me about what it's been like to train alongside
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Chalaine for her professional career, as well as how she
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: really prioritizes recovery when she's running eighty plus miles a week.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you, if you need a little dose of positivity,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: no matter when you are listening to this episode, Emily
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: has got you covered. Before we get into today's listen,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: I would love to take a second to thank my sponsor,
• 3:43
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• 3:47
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• 3:50
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• 3:52
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• 4:00
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  Speaker 2: whiskey cocktail. Now I've listed a lot of indulgences, and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: what helps me feel my best day after day, no
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• 5:05
  Speaker 2: On this note, Emily actually talks about in today's episode
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: how a lack of idamin D may have been a
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: big contributor to her bone injuries that she experienced after
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: moving to Portland.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: So this stuff's important.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Kind on over to Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle again,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: that's Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle to claim this special
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: offer today. As always, you all know the drill at
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Emily Abodi at Hurdle podcast.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: With that, let's get to hurdling today.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Emily and Feld. She is
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: a professional athlete. She runs the five k, the ten
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  Speaker 2: k on the track. How you doing today, I'm good.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks so much for having me on.
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  Speaker 3: I'm amped to have you on.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like the moment I get to sit down
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: with another Emily, it's like good things are going to
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: happen here.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I love that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: So, how are things going over there in Portland? Good?
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: It was wild for a bit.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: We had some crazy, crazy smoke, but it's all cleared out.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: It's good now. I think we had the worst ear
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: in the world for eight day straight. So I actually got.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Out of town just so I was able to run,
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  Speaker 1: and I went to Boulder and stayed with a girlfriend
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: there and her husband, who are wonderful.
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  Speaker 4: But now I'm back and just training and getting ready
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  Speaker 4: for fall.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't really ever know what day it is,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: what month it is, but like it felt like Faull today.
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  Speaker 3: I totally know the feeling.
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  Speaker 2: So what does a typical day look like for you
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: these days? I know, of course you are part of
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  Speaker 2: the barerman, babe, So what does what does a normal
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  Speaker 2: day look like for you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're we are still on our own. We're
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  Speaker 1: not back to team practice quite yet. We had a
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  Speaker 1: little kind of six week break away from the group,
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  Speaker 1: but we're starting again on Tuesday. But so then we'll
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: get into a Tuesday, Thursday and then Sunday schedule of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: doing a track workout, strength workout, and then a long run.
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  Speaker 1: But then for right now, I've just been building my miles.
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  Speaker 1: So today I just went for a run, a nine
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  Speaker 1: mile run this morning, or just over nine, and then
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  Speaker 1: I'll do a little gym work later and then go
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: out for a second run. But for me, most days
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I'm doing two or three activities, whether it be two
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: runs in a lift or a run a cross train
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and a lift or run in a cross train, and
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  Speaker 1: then I give myself one day a week where I
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: have just like a run, just one thing to do,
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  Speaker 1: but just kind of resting in between that. So I'm
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: sitting in the NORMA tech boots talking to you.
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  Speaker 3: And you're doing a fair amount of running.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, aside from as you mentioned right now, kind
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: of getting in your recovery with a hint of fun podcasting.
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  Speaker 2: What else are you doing to give back to your
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  Speaker 2: body if with all that mileage?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I oh my gosh, I had a rough
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  Speaker 1: time at the start of quarantine just with everything kind
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  Speaker 1: of closed, trying to get in my normal therapy.
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  Speaker 4: I now I'm just accepting that I'm high maintenance.
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  Speaker 1: Like I feel like the older I get, the more
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  Speaker 1: therapy treatment stuff I need. So I this week had acupuncture,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: a massage, and then a PT appointment. So I normally
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  Speaker 1: will see two to three people a week to help,
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  Speaker 1: and then outside of that, I do a lot of
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  Speaker 1: my own recovery, whether it be in the NORMA tech boots,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of film rolling, stretching. I have my own
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  Speaker 1: set of cups, so I started cupping and then sidekick tool,
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  Speaker 1: which is like these awesome scraping tools to kind of
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  Speaker 1: help flush out my body, help deal a scar tissue,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. I have like every
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  Speaker 1: tool you can imagine, which I feel like is great.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm definitely constantly doing that kind of stuff. I
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  Speaker 1: think that takes about as much time as my actual running.
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  Speaker 1: Lifting is all the recovery stuff before and after and
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  Speaker 1: the prep of the body before and after.
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  Speaker 2: How many miles would you say, on average you're running
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  Speaker 2: right now per week in the eighties.
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  Speaker 1: I think I've been sitting pretty comfortably in the mid eighties.
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  Speaker 1: Last week I was a little lower and just under eighty.
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  Speaker 1: But I think I like to be in the like
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  Speaker 1: seventy five to ninety mile range is like where I
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  Speaker 1: feel good. I know that's like a big number, but
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  Speaker 1: I think that helps me so that I can cut
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  Speaker 1: myself slack and make sure that I'm not every week
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  Speaker 1: running ninety but that I'm kind of listening to my
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: body and cutting it back just based on certain weeks,
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  Speaker 1: and then when we get more into racing track season,
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  Speaker 1: it'll be less than that. But right now, just in
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  Speaker 1: that fall base. I like to be a little higher
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  Speaker 1: and then try to stick through that for most of
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  Speaker 1: the year unless there's like a big race, big competition,
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  Speaker 1: and then I'll probably cut my miles back pretty significantly
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  Speaker 1: from there out.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Some of the people listening to this podcast right now
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  Speaker 2: definitely let out like a chuckle when you were like, eh,
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  Speaker 2: somewhere in the high eighties.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, something like that, just casual.
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  Speaker 2: But I mean, obviously you haven't always been running eighty
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  Speaker 2: plus mile weeks. So let's, as I love to do,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: dial it back here and talk about growing up.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Where are you from them.
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  Speaker 1: I'm from right outside of Cleveland, Ohio University Heights. It's
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: like east side, east side of Cleveland, and then I
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: went to school in DC and then and now in Oregon,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: so I kind of have had a taste for Midwest,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: East Coast and West.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Coast growing up. Were you an active kid.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: Yes, I was super super active.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I did I think every support you could probably imagine.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I did swimming and tennis in the summer, I did
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: some volleyball, I did a little bit of softball, I
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: did gymnastics. I did Irish dancing and basketball for to
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the winners, and then cross country and track, and then
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I did cheerleading in junior high. So I was kind
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  Speaker 1: of tried everything.
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  Speaker 3: Not at all an athlete.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: How did you know that running was the sport that
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: you wanted to stick with?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Running definitely was what I loved most. I think about
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  Speaker 1: all the sports I did, Like in basketball, I loved
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  Speaker 1: like racing, like zipping across the court, and I would
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I feel like, I mean, as I played basketball in
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  Speaker 1: grade school, so I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: like it wasn't real, Like I think our scores would
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: be like eight to six, like it was just like terrible.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: But I would be like I was the person who
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: would try to steal the ball and have.
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  Speaker 1: A fast break, and then I would I have no
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: hand ee coordinations, I would not be able to make
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: any shot.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: But I think that was like what I loved about basketball.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: That's what I loved about soccer was like zipping back
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and forth on the field.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: But I'm just not I'm.
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  Speaker 1: A competitive person, but I'm not like I feel like
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  Speaker 1: in those kind of sports, like I'm not at you
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: out in basketball to get the ball type of person.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I'm just more I would rather like race down the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: field and if there's like a loose ball or not
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the field the court, race down the court, and if
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: there's like a loose ball, grab that.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: But I just am not.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I wasn't very good at those sports, so I was
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: definitely better at the running aspect of it, and I
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: think that also helped me to love running more. But
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I think until high school that's when I really started
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: to run focus on running more full time, and also
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: because I didn't make the basketball team, so I was like, well,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not doing that anymore, so I guess I'll just
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: focus on the running.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: The hand eye coordination finally got to you after a while, Yeah, totally.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: So when you began to focus more on running, did
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: you have a preferential distance at the time, and did
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: it take some time for you to let go of
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: basketball or were you like, Okay, this is just my
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: thing now.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Oh.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I think I knew I was not very
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: good at any sort of ball sport or hand eye
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  Speaker 1: coordinated sport, but I mostly did it just because my
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: friends were doing it, so I think I was totally
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: fine to be done with it. I'm like, well, I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: wasn't very good at that anyways. I have friends that
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I've run with so it doesn't really matter.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: But it is.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Funny because I'm definitely more distance oriented now and I
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: feel like the older I get, I'm going to try.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I would love to move up to the marathon at
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: some point, But in high school I was dead set on.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: The eight hundred. I was like, I'm an eight hundred runner,
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  Speaker 4: Like this is going to be my event.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I want to go to college and run the eight hundred,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: like I want to try to make the Olympic team
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: in the eight hundred, and I'm clearly not running them
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: running the eight hundred anymore.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: So you end up going to Georgetown.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about the decision to go to Georgetown
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: and run there.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: So I was super lucky and that I had some great,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: cool schools and coaches who are recruiting me my last
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: two years of high school, and I went on a
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: couple official visits. I thought I wanted to go to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a smaller school. I went to University of Michigan just
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: to kind of look at a big school, and it
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: was awesome. I loved it, but I just loved the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: vibe of that kind of more smaller school, and I
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't sure if I wanted to stay.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: On the East Coast.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I did have a visit to Stanford planned, but I
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: canceled it after I went on my Georgetown trip, and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I just loved it. My friend Renee, who's one of
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: my best friends, he was my host and I when
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I was there, I just felt like I fit in.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I was like, I loved the coach, Chris Miltenberg, who
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I still keep in touch with, and he's just so
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: so wonderful.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: But I loved how passionate he was.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I loved the dynamic of the team, and my friend Renee,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: who hosted me, I just we like automatically clicked and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I'm like, we're going to be friends forever. And I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: think that, along with just how beautiful the campus was.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: It's a great academic school, just totally sold me.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Totally sold you, Okay, so then talk to me about
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: your experience at Georgetown.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: I loved it.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Chris Miltenberg, who was my coach my whole all four
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: years of college. He came in the year before, so
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I was his first recruiting class.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Coach.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Miltonberg kind of set me up. He's like, I think
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you are good enough that you can do this for
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: your career. Like I want to make sure that I
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: am careful with you and your training, and laid out
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: like a four year plan for me, and I had
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: no injuries my entire college career, which was amazing. And
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I credit so much of that to him into how
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: he wanted to train me, and how he wanted kind
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of our group dynamic to be, and how he wanted
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the team to work cohesively together. But outside of just
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: wanting the team to be successful in that time, he
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: really wanted athletes to have longevity and to not feel
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: like they were so burnt out at the end of
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: their college career. So that's something that I just am
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: so thankful that I went there and I had him
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: as a coach, for him to see kind of that
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: long term and for him to instill in me that
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: belief that I could be really, really good beyond college.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: And you said that there was a goal for the
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: coach to come in and kind of reshift the culture.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: What do you mean by that? Yeah, so I.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Think it's hard because I wasn't there, I guess previously,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But I do think there was a mentality. I don't know,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: it seemed like we're sent like a lot of athletes
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: got injured or or maybe just not given as individualized training.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: And he saw that and he's like everyone is different,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Like I like, looking at me, he looked at what
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I did in high school and said, like, you, the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: maxed miles you've ever run is forty five miles a week.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: So I'm not going to have you come in here
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and run seventy miles a week. Like we're going to build.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: You're just going to add five miles every single year,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Like I think you are really really good based on
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: what you've done, but we're going to up the intensity
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but we're not going to do anything crazy.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: And I've heard horror stories, I think from other schools
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: where coaches say, you know what, we're a high mileage program,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: like you got to start running a miles a week
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and people break down and get injured. And I don't
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: want to say that that's like whatever, that's wrong, but
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: that wouldn't have been right for me. And I feel
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: really thankful that coach Miltenberg was able to look at
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: each athlete individually, where they were coming from, what they
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: could handle, and he definitely had us push the envelope,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: but he didn't he didn't want us to push to
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the point of breaking, and I think he felt like,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: you all have so much potential and you could do
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: this beyond your four years of college, that like, yes,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: we want to do amazing, incredible things and we can,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: but just knowing that we could believe we could do
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that without feeling like we had to push ourselves, like
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: past our limit for sure.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, So you go to Georgetown, and it's interesting to
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: me to hear you reflect on that time because one
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: of the biggest things that you're reflecting on is during
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: that four year stint of your life you experienced no injuries,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: which is something that's going to become a theme as
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: we continue our conversation here. So talk to me about
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: what happens when you start to accept like, wow, Okay,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I do have a future in this and I'm going
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: to graduate college and I'm gonna literally run for it.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: So, I my senior year, I actually had red shirted twice,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: so I had two seasons left. I had an indoor
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: season and an outdoor season of track left after my
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: senior year, so I was planning on coming back after
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I ran at the Olympic Trials in twenty twelve and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I ran the five k and was planning on going
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: to maybe race a little bit in Europe because I
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: had my coach was kind of talking to agents and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: to other coaches in the professional circuit who were showing
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: interest for me, and I think there's like a weird
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: thing where they weren't really supposed to contact me, so
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: they were kind of contacting him. So he was putting
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: feelers out and saying like, hey, there is some interest,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Like you do have the ability to become a professional
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: if you want to at this point.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: But I had always thought I was gonna go back and.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Get another degree, go to grad school, and use my
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: eligibility at Georgetown opposed to foregoing I mean, I redshirted
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: so that I could come back and have five years
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to run. But after I ran at the Olympic trials
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and there's people talking to Chris Miltenberg about me, it
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: kind of made me think like, hey, this is something
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I've always wanted to do, Like am I really passionate
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: about wanting to go back to grad school or do
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I want to just dive right in and pursue running
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: right now. And that's what I ended up doing, was
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I was like, why would I push this off? This
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: is something I've always wanted to do, and I felt
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: really lucky I joined the It was not the Barman
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Track Club at that time, but it was I think
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: we were still under the Oregon Track Club. But Jerry
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Schumacher and Paschal Dobear and Shelene Flanagan, who was that
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I I feel like my idol always growing up and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I have the ability to train with her.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: And Kara Goucher was on the team at the time,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: so I was like, I can train with Slanne and
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Cairo like they were too, Just like I was like,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: they are like the pinnacle of like distance women's distance running.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Like they're just both such superstars and studs.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Like if I have the ability to train with them,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go after that now and join that group.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: So that's what I ended up doing.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I love anyone who describes a woman as a stud.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: That is like so my language. I just love that.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: I just love that, I mean, and of course, I
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: think like everyone.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Nevertheless, if you are you know, a regular human that
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: just enjoys running like me, or of course if you
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: are much more talented and pursuing it as a career
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: like you, you have the opportunity to train with these
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: stellar individuals and it's like, Wow, what a dream come true.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Do you remember your first opportunity to actually, you know,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: be in the same space and what that felt like?
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I feel like I was so awkward because I had
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: just like looked at these two women as like they
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: are like the greatest like distance runners of like of
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: this time, like of that decade, like of this time,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and I'm like.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: How am I?
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Like I felt so weird. It was like a kind
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of like quote unquote recruiting trip. But I went out
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: with them and I went for a run with both
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: of them, and I just remember feeling.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: You're so awkward because I just thought, I'm like, they're
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: both so cool.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: They're so established, like they're both multiple time Olympians, just
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: like amazing women who have done just stellar things that
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I felt like I couldn't have dreamed of, Like both
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of them had had medals. Kira had a World Championship medal,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Shalane had an Olympic medal. I was just like in
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: awe that I'm like.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: Is this happening?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Like I'm really running with them, like they they think
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: that I could join their team, so it was just
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: super super surreal. But I think immediately they started just
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: making like I don't want to say, like crass jokes
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: or joked, but something like that that just made me
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: be like, oh, Okay, they're real people, like they're they're
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: not robots, They're like really funny, and I just automatically
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was like, they're awesome. I want to be part of
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: this team, want to be running with them, and want
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: to learn from the best, because that's what I'm like,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: if I want to be my best, I should surround
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: myself with.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: People who are way way, way, way way better than me.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: That'll help push me to kind of get get the
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: most out of myself.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you hear that often as well when
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: it comes to just like normal everyday jobs and hiring
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: like good individuals, good managers hire people that are better
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: than them, or hire people that they can learn from,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: not just that can be like submissive below them.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, oh totally, But I think it's smart. I think
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: that makes sense.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: It's like you want to, yeah, surround yourself with people
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: who will challenge you and get you to push yourself
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to get the most out of yourself.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Where are we in time right now?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: When I join the team. Yes, yes, so that way
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: is the fall of twenty twelve. So yeah, eight years ago. Yeah,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: so that's so. I moved out here eight years ago
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: in October and was at that time it was just
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Selene and Kira, and Kara was there for a year
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and then left, and then it was just Selene and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I were the only two females with like a group
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: of like fifteen men I think.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: So it was like us with all these guys for
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: three years.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And then we added three more women in like one
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: fell swoop, which was really nice. But before we added
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: those women, it was just Selene and I, who were
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: different events. She was definitely more marathon focused. I was
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: coming from a fifteen background, like trying to move to
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the five k, but very very different. And she, I mean,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: she's nine years older than me, so at that time
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: she was just so much more developed. So it was
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit of sinker swim for me. I was
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: getting just kind of thrown in to her training and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: doing what I could, and I ended up having two
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: years in a row getting two huge injuries, getting a
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: sacral stress fracture on my left side, and then exactly
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a year later getting a sacral stress fracture on my
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: right side. So from someone who never had any injuries,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: getting those two ones.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: Are pretty bad.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: It's i mean, back fractures are never good, and you're
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: kind of stuck without being able to do much just
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: because any kind of movement or turning up your hips
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: or anything can aggravate it and irritate it. So that
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: was from coming from like great college experience, no injuries,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: feeling super super thrilled to join this group, to be
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: pushing myself to then kind of sinking or swimming and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: practice having some really really good workouts and some good
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: road races and that kind of stuff, kind of showing
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: me I could be a really good distance runner and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: that I probably would be longer than I would have
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: thought previously. I still thought I was more of a
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: fifteen hundred runner, but then getting those two injuries was
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: kind of a rude awakening and had two years of
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: i mean kind of half running and really just taking
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: time off and recovering from those injuries.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about the pressure that came hand in
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: hand with trying to keep up at that time before
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: even the injuries set in.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, So for me, I felt like I wanted
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to prove myself, like to prove that I deserve to
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: be on this team, that I deserve to be training
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: with these two incredible women and to be training with Shalaine,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: And I felt like I had a lot of potential,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: but I think I still I probably still didn't fully
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: believe it, and I felt almost like how did I
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: get thrown into this group? Like I'm just so far behind?
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And I think the pressure that of trying to prove that,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: like I deserve to be there, that I deserve to be.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: In this group.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And at that time, there weren't I feel like people
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: weren't being signed for like huge contracts or that sort
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: of thing.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: So I still feel like it wasn't a given that
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: if you.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Were really really good in college that you would be
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: signed to be professional.
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: So for me, I was just really happy to be
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: signed for anything.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Like I thought, it was still insane that I'm like
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I'm getting paid to run, like even though I wasn't
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: getting paid very much. Just knowing that, like I'm doing
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: this for my job and I'm like getting paid enough
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: that like I don't have to do anything else was
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: kind of bizarre to me, and it made me feel
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: like I really need to show that I deserve this
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and that I can make an Olympic team, that I
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: can be on that kind of world world beater level.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And after having my first injury, it was super, super
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: gutting and it made me feel like, Okay, my first
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: year out of college was kind of a wash. I
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: made a world cross team, but I didn't do any
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: track and I'm a track athlete, so I just I
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: missed all of that. I did some road racing and
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: then got my first bad injury. So for me, I
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: just felt like, what's wrong with me? I really want
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to be I want to be good. I want to
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: be a world beater. I want to be making these
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: world and Olympic teams. But it was tough for me
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: to kind of feel like how can I press without
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: press like pushing over the line and breaking. So I
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: felt that pressure of can I work out with this
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: intensity and train at this level without getting injured and
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: kind of show that I deserve to be here, And
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: that was a struggle for me. When I had two
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: years and two bad injuries in a row that were
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: kind of telling me like, maybe your body can't handle this,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: maybe you're not meant to do this.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Maybe you can do this at.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: A good level, but not at a great level. And
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: for me, I was like, I wanted, if I want
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to do this, I want to be great. I want
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to be giving it all I have, want to be
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: competing with the best in the world. And I think
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: that was hard for me because it made me feel like,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: maybe this isn't for me, and maybe I can't I
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: can't compete at that level.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: How do you combat that negative self talk?
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Were you at the time working with any sort of
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: sports psychologist or seeking any sort of like help on
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: the mental side of things.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was tough because I don't know.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like previously I had never questioned myself to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: that extent, And I think it's easy. I don't want
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to say like when I'm young and naive, but kind
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of when I'm like just excited to be like I
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: was getting better and better and better. I never had
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: any huge roadblocks in my high school or college career.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: I was super lucky with that.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: So having kind of those dark thoughts and frustrating feelings
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: and lots of moments of doubt made me seek out
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: a sports psychologist, and then that was just working with
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: a psychiatrist here and was struggling with anxiety and like
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit of depression, and having people to talk
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to help me sow so much. And I think the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: biggest thing I learned about that is just that, like,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I love this for so many reasons, but I'm intrinsically motivated,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: and that I have to kind of remove all of
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the thoughts of like other people think I don't deserve this,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: or that I have to prove myself to them and whatnot.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I'm like these people put enough faith in me and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: they thought I deserve to be here, that like, I
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: can't kind of ruin this for myself by telling myself
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: that I don't deserve to be here. Like, everyone gets injured.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: It's part of the sport, and it's it's unfortunate, But
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: when you're pushing yourself to that extreme, like we're all
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: kind of writing a line and knowing that like it
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't make me fragile or broken, or that I don't
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: deserve it or that I can't handle it. It's just
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: that I have to kind of reevaluate what I'm doing
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and know that I'm a different athlete and a different
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: p than anyone else. So I have to know why
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: my body is reacting in this way and kind of
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: looking in health wise towards that, but then as well
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: just looking at the mental side and saying like, just
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: because I have this injury or I have this amount
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of time off, it doesn't mean I don't deserve this.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: So kind of using.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Both of those pieces to help me figure out like
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: why I got these two stress fractures, and then as
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: well to be like, just because I got these two
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: stress fractures doesn't mean that I don't deserve to be
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: here and doesn't mean that I can't be great. So
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: definitely having people to talk to was super super beneficial
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: for me. And then I think it's always easier when
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: then you get healthy. And I was able to get
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: healthy and kind of figure out my body and was
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: running really, really well. I think again helped my confidence
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: and helped me to know that I deserve to be there,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: and I ended up kind of switching from a fifteen
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: to five k to running my first ten k in
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, and I made my first outdoor Track and
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Field World team and then I ended up meddling. So
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it was I think super validating for me to know
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that after I felt so low and like I didn't
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: deserve to be there, and like I had.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: Two years that were really really rough out of college.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I was able to kind of take a step back
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: and say, you know what, I still want to do this.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: I'm still going to give it everything I have. But
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: maybe for me, I can't run as many miles and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to try to run less miles. I'm
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: going to try to do the hard workouts, and then
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I'm going to work on the mental side and my
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: own self belief. And that having those two pieces together,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I think was what enabled me to go into a
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: completely new event and have confidence in myself and to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: just go in there and compete. And I think just
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: competing and believing is what led me to be able
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: to meddle in that World Championship.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I also think, I mean, when it comes to this
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: recovery process, it's of course the mental side is really huge,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: but also of such big importance is making sure that
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: you're fueling your body appropriately to heal all of these
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: bone injuries. You know on the show before, I've had
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: both Mary Kane and I've had Molly's sidel and they
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: both extensively, extensively dealt with injuries and coming back from that.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Speaking with nutritionis and such were huge for them. So
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: did you work with anyone on the eating side as well.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, so that's something that I my first year
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: out of college, I think I just totally shifted. I
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: was just talking to this or talking to Yu Show
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: about this. But I feel like it's funny because in
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: college I and I definitely wouldn't recommend this, but I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: feel like I definitely probably drink more beers.
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: And that kind of stuff.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: So I like I cut out, I mean pretty much
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of alcohol when I became a professional, because
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I'm like I'm a professional runner now, Like I don't
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: need to be drinking all these like drinking beers. I
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: don't need to be like going out late, and like
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I don't need to be eating bad food.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: So for me, I kind of cut out.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Out a lot of stuff without supplementing, probably more of
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: like than nutrient dense food because I was like, well,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I like eat pretty balance, but like I do indulge
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: more and like fun fetty cake and like stuff that
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't be eating. So I kind of took a
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: one avy of being like I'm going to cut all
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: this stuff out, but I didn't supplement it with anything.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: So I just was not fueling properly. I wasn't taking
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: in enough calories, I think, especially for the intensity I
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: was doing. And I thought I was being like healthy
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: and I was being smart and I was like looking
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: at like what I should be eating, but I wasn't
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: eating enough of that. And I also think that there's
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: some like you should never be fully cutting things out.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I like, now that I'm older, I'm like, I think
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: that's like unless you have like an intolerance or an allergy,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I think there's like no need to just completely like
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: cut out something from your diet. And for me, I
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: was like, I shouldn't eat anything that's like quote unquote bad,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: like whether it be chips or ice cream or like
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: any yeah, anything that's like junk food. But I'm like,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: when I'm running a lot and like really intensely training,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: it's okay to have some of that stuff, and especially
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: if you're not like I felt like, I just I
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: wasn't supplementing it with more more calories and good nutrient
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: like nutrient dense food.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: So I did lose like quite a bit of weight.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I like I'm five four and I'm probably like somewhere
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: around the like one one ten, like I'm one ten
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: to one twenty. I don't know what I am, but
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: somewhere in there. But I got down to I think
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: under one hundred pounds, which was just like way too little.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: And I never I never weighed myself until I got
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: to a point where I just was not I was
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: breaking down, like my body was broken down.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: I was not able to work out.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I was really struggling like I would just bonk, And
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: it was because I wasn't fueling properly.
• 34:59
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• 36:21
  Speaker 2: At the time, did you feel like slimming down was
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: kind of part of your strategy to an effect?
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: I so that's what's.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Hard is that I honestly like, don't think I was
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: super super aware of that.
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: I did.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: I know that I looked around, and it's hard because
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: in college I rarely go on let's run or any
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: of those things. But I've always been someone who people
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: look at and they're like, oh, she's like a like
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: an average size, Like we have a regular girl running,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: like she looks normal, Like she doesn't look and it's
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: like weird because I was like, I feel like that's
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: I think they're trying to compliment me, but it's like
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: a weird thing to be like, you look average, you
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: don't look thin like all those other runners, And I'm like,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: that's a weird thing to say. But I like never
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I felt I thought I hadn't let it get into
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: my head. But then I think when I became a professional,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: and I was looking around and looking at all these
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: women who were super super cut, and I felt like
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: I was someone who like, yes, I'm I run a lot,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: I work out a lot, I'm like thin, but I'm
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: not like ripped. I was like, is there something wrong
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: with me? And I think that probably led into some
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: like subconscious and unconscious, like looking at like, oh, I
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: can't have ice cream because like I don't have a
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: six pack, so like I need like I want to
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: look like an elite athlete when like in reality, most
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: of those women, like everyone's different, and.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: But people who look the way they do like they've
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: been training for years and years and years.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: It's not like they overnight have a six pack or whatever.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: But it's also like everyone's different.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Like I just know myself and my body, and even
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: when I am really really fitting in the shape of
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: my life, I'm not like super super cut.
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: So I didn't get injured.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I feel like initially after that, which I almost think
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: is kind of a telltale sign of your body. I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: think it's good when that happens, because it's your body
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: saying like, hey, you're underfueling, like you need to take
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: care of yourself. But I didn't get my stress fracture
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: until like six months after. I realized I had kind
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: of lost probably like fifteen pounds over like a seven
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: month period, which is significant especially with someone I was
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: already pretty thin, and I think I just had a
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: delayed effect of probably not fueling properly in that chunk,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: as well as super super low vitamin D. After my
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: first stress fracture, I went and got all my blood
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: panels tested because at that point I had gained back weight,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: I had gained back muscle, and I was thankful, being
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: like oh man, like I was riding a fine line.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: But I didn't get injured, like I was super lucky.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: I just was really fatigued and kind of bonked and
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: ended up not running track just to kind of make
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: sure I could weight and get back into feeling strong
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and healthy again. But then after six months later, I
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: think I just had delayed effect of probably improper fueling
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: for seven or eight months, and then on top of that,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I was taking no supplements. I was living in Portland, Oregon,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: and I just had no vitamin D and I think
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: that contributed to.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: My first stress fracture, and then my second one.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I think was just compensation probably from my first one.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: And then I think putting on maybe a little too
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: much weight because I had this fear and which I
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: almost I think that's better, Like I had this fear
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: that part of why I got my stress fracture was
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: because I was underfueling, and I think that was valid
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: and accurate. So I think when I was recovering, I
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: really made sure that I was fueling well. But I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: do think I then probably rushed back my comeback from
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: that injury because I thought, you know what, like I
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: had this first injury, I have a lot of ground
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: to make up, and I think it was too much
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: stress on my bones trying to just jump right back in.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: And about six months into running from that recovery from
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the first sacrel stress fracture, I got a second one.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: So that made me really look and be like, what
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: am I doing wrong. I had talked to a nutritionist
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: who I worked with kind of after my first stress fraction,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: then worked with her after my second one, and we
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: really dialed in kind of what I was doing, and
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I mean she gave me confidence as well, and that
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: like I was doing things pretty right and that it's
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: most likely you're better to overfuel than underfuel. And I
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: think that was a good piece of advice for me.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: And I think that's something I don't know, I wish
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: more people talked about.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: I think it's hard. I feel like we always think.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: It's better, you're better to be littler and slimmer. But
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: I do think it's knowing that we are pushing our
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: bodies really hard. We need to be fueling, and yes,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: we do need to be fueling well and eating good
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: nutrient dense things, but like.
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: We are also working so hard.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: You can have your treats, you can have your indulgences,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and that at the end of the day, like if
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: you're fueling, like overheeling a little bit, that's way better
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: than underfueling.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: And also just like living a life that makes you
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: feel fulfilled and happy, like ye, I love what you
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: said before about like leading into funfetti cake like life
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: without funfetti cake isn't a life that I'm interested personally
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: in living.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: So it's just like you have to.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Find the things that make you happy and just like
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: not have I think like the biggest hurdle a lot
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: of the time when it comes to like finding a
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: diet that works for you is just like learning how
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: to eat in a way that makes you feel good
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: regardless of what you're intaking, and not eating to access
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: in a way that makes you feel bad. Like we
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: label these quote unquote bad foods, and then the second
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: that we see them, it's like a flag goes off
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and it's either like you're all in or like you
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: can't touch. But it's like finding that balance instead and
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: getting to a place where you just feel okay about
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: what you're putting into your body.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no, I think that's so good.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: And I just I mean, I think restricting yourself in
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: any way is not good, because I think that's what
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: you end up either falling into a pattern of like
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you start to you take something out and then it's
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: like you've just restricted yourself from so much and you
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: either then fall into that disordered eating of really not
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: eating enough, or you then feel like oh, my gosh,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I've restricted for X amount of time, Like now I
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: need to eat like a gallon of ice cream because
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: I haven't had it, and I'm like, that's also that good,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: but just knowing that, like it's okay, and I think
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know for me, I've learned now that, like
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I don't have wine every single night, but like, if
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I want a glass of wine, I'm gonna have a
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: glass of wine, and I'm not gonna feel bad about it.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: But like I there are certain times in the year
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: where I just don't crave it and I don't want it,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and that's fine. And sometimes I'm like I just want
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: like sparkling water and cherry juice, and that's totally good.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: But if I want a glass of wine, I'm gonna
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: have a glass of wine. And if I want ice cream,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: like after dinner, I'm going to have ice cream after dinner.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's like every day for two weeks straight
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: and then I don't have it for two weeks. But
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: that's just because that's what I feel like I want
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: at that time, and that's what my body needs, and
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: that makes me a happy person, and I'd rather be
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: happy in.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: Life about that.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: You talked about the twenty fifteen World Championships taking bronze
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: there and then talk me through making your first Olympic team.
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: So I was super super thrilled. I mean, I was
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: astounded in my mind. I was so happy to make
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: the World Championship team. I just really wanted to compete there,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: and I still I was so shocked to medal and
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: it just really made me believe like I'm going to
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: make this Olympic team. Like I know I can make
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: this Olympic team. I love the ten k. I found
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: a love for that event and I was really really excited,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: but I also wanted to kind of prove that that
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't a fluke.
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: I was feeling little nervous, and I think it's hard.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: There's always outside noise, and I think you we all
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: tend to focus on the one negative comment versus the
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: hundred positive comments. So for me, I was focusing on
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: a few comments of people saying, you know, I didn't
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't really deserve to meddle or I was in
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: a tactical race, and it made me feel like, you
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to prove to these people.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: I do deserve to be here.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I'm do deserve to be a world contender, and I
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: can be a world beater.
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: I can be one of the top in the US.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: So I was excited, invigorated, felt confident, but also had
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: still this kind of fire in me that like, I
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: wanted to prove these people wrong and these people who were.
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: Saying I didn't deserve it or didn't earn that.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: And then because of that, I think I pushed it
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: a little too hard. I up my miles a bit
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: too much, and I was having this adduct or pain
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: that would come and go intermittently, and it was so
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: funny because I could kind of keep it at bay.
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: And it got to the point where it pulled.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: On my bone and I fractured my hip, which is
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: really frustrating. So that was in March of twenty sixteen,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and our Olympic trials were the third week in June.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: So I went from feeling so invigorated, so confident, just
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: fired up, being like I'm going to prove anyone wrong
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: who says I don't deserve to be there, to at
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: the end of March having a stress fracture in my hip.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: And what was so frustrating about this was it wasn't
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: due to pounding or force. It was due to my
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: adductor being so tight and pulling on the bone that
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: it just it pulled, like literally broke my bone, which
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: is really really frustrating to be like, it's not an
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: impact fracture. But because of that, I only had to
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: take three weeks off of running and then was able
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: to slowly work my way back in. I went to Phoenix,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Arizona to work with John Ball, who is just like amazing.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: He's like a guru, and he was the person who
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: told me he's like you can, Like you just need
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: to get your adductor loose, so it's taking the pressure
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: off your bone and you'll be able to run and
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: you'll be able to get back in your routine. And
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: that made me feel like, man, I was like perfectly
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: set up, like I was in a great place to
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: make this team. And I had two weeks where I
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: felt so dark and low and I was like, well,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: my Olympic dream is done, Like this was my year
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: to make the team. I'm not going to make the team.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: But then going to Arizona and having someone tell me
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: like this wasn't due like this is only due to
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: this adductor being too tight, like you are doing everything right.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Your fueling is right, nutrition is right, like your mileage,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: your training, everything is good. You just have to be
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: cognizant of that. And we need to keep this adduct
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: or at bay and getting intensive work on that and
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: taking that pressure off my bone. I was able to
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: slide back into training and do a ton more cross
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: training and I was running a lot less miles but
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: doing the intense workouts. And then about two weeks for
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: the Olympic trials, my coach. At that point, I was
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: still worried that I was not going to make the team.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: I was not quite sure if I was back to
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: like my one hundred percent or my even my ninety percent.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: But my coach, Jerry, pulled me aside and he's like,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: you know what, like your workout yesterday indicated to me
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: that like you're going to make this team, Like we're
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: going to buy your ticket to Rio, like we need
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: to get your ticket before it gets too expensive, blah
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: blah blah. But like, just know that I had the
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: utmost confidence in you and making this team. And having
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: him say that to me changed my attitude and I
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: was like I have to make this team. I also
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: was the first woman on our team running on the track,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: and he said to me too, he was like, you
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: have to set a good standard for these other women,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: like everyone's we want we all want to make the team,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: but like you are the one that's starting it off,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: like you have to show them that it can be
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: done and that you will make this team. And I
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: think having him set that belief in me and confidence
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: in me, as well as him telling me like, you know,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: this is for our team, like we all want to
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: do this together, like you are starting it off on
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: a good note, like started off on the best note,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: put a good sense of pressure on me and that
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: I was like, I have the ability to do this.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I can do this, Like I want to show these
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: younger girls on the team that, like, we all will
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: be running in Rio and we'll all be making this team.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: And it was pretty incredible because all of us, all
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: of the women on the team at the time that
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: ran at the Olympic Trials made the team, which was
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: pretty pretty special.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: Was that like as empowering as you make it out
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: to be or did you also feel like, holy crap,
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: how am I can I even do this? Oh?
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I definitely definitely felt like that. I it
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: was so tough because I just had to try to
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: push those thoughts out and I'm like, I'm not even
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: thinking about that, Like I'm making this team, like I'm
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: going to crawl across the finish line to be like
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: to get the most out of myself. And I was like,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: just remove that doubt from your mind. But it's hard,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like until he kind of said that
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: to me, every day, I was still doubting.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: I was like, I don't know where I'm at.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Like I also was the only girl running the ten
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: k on the team, so I was working out by myself,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: so I had no one to really key off of,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't know, Like we were at
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: altitude and I'm like, I don't even know what these
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: times mean. I don't know what kind of shape I'm in.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: And having my coach be like it doesn't matter, like
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: you're in good shape, like you just go out there
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and compete, like you can make this team. You will
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: make this team. And having him have that confidence in
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: me just made me feel more confident in myself and
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: made me be like this is like I can do this,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Like I am capable of this. I need to take
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: that doubt away. And then just going out there racing
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: and being around these women that I have raced against
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: and have competed against made me during the race.
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think any in every race we do,
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: but in the ten K.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like I go through fa of like I
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: feel so great, I feel so good, like I'm literally
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: so easy, and then two laps later, I'm like.
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: Uh oh, I feel like we're running too hard.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: I feel like this feels too edgy for me for
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: this time and the race, and then it's like two
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: laps later, you feel good again. It's all a lot
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: of ups and downs and just trying to like weather
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: those feelings. So for me, I knew it was going
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: to feel like that, and I just tried to stay
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: calm and I tried to remind myself that I've run
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: against these women before that I can put myself right
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: in it, and I think to just having the pressure
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: of knowing I have teammates coming after me that I
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: was like, I want to make this team and I
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: know we can all make this team.
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: And then it was super like an insane week. Just
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: having all the women make the team was just it
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: was super super special.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: And then so that brings us to Rio. So talk
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: to me about Rio.
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So Rio was rough for me. I don't.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: It's so frustrating because I think I had to get
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: in such good shape for the trials and kind of
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: really peak for the trials because I was coming off
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: of my injury that it was hard for me to
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: come off of that super super high of making the
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: team and just kind of peeking for that race to
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: then go and have a stellar performance at Rio. And
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I just was thrown into a race where the world
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: record was shattered, and the world record in the ten
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: k at the time was a dirty world record, So
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: it was something that I never in my wildest dreams
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: would have imagined it would have run been run as
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: fast as it was. But there was I think three
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: women who were under the previous world record, and the
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: woman who set the new world record just completely shattered
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: that record. And it was record set by a Chinese
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: woman who admitted to doping, but it was a weird
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: thing where she had never tested positive and she admitted
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: to doping like ten, like over ten years after the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: record was set, so her record was still standing even
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: though she had said she was doped.
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: She said that record, but other.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Weird things with track and field that sometimes I'm like,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: I don't understand how things work. But it was an
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: unheard of race that I was in, and I do
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: not think I was on my a game.
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: So I got lapped.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: Eighteen minutes into the race, and it was one of
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the time. I think it was probably the toughest moment
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I've had in my running career. Of feeling so high
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: of making that Olympic team, of being so stoked to
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: be there, to then realizing I was so far off
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: and that I got lapped like a little over halfway
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: into the race was pretty gutting. So it's still a
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: memory that I want to have a different Olympic experience.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: I really want to make another team, and that's why
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: I'm so motivated for that. But it's it's just tough
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: our sport can be. There's such highs and such lows,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and it's so funny to think that something I had
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: imagined for so long was just so different than what
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: I imagined it to be. And I think it was
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a tough lesson, but I think it was important for
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: me to also know that coming off of twenty fifteen,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: like I had a killer killer year, and you don't
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: always have that. You have races where I mean, in
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: that race in particular, I still ran good but not great,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: and I just and that's okay, But it was for
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: me being good on that day was just being so
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: far off of these women who had these unbelievable performances.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: How do you keep your head up when these injuries
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: keep coming and coming and coming. I know, spoiler alert,
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: you went through a couple more in the years since Rio,
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: So talk to me about how you, you know, beat
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: that defeatist attitude.
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I I do.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: It's hard because I every time I get an injury,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: I think it's been less and less, but I still
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: fall into that belief and feeling of like, man, is
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: this my time being done? Like my body just really
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to work with me, And especially when I
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: feel like I've sought out so much help outside of
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: that to see that I'm still breaking down and these
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: things are still happening. But just trying to tell myself
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: that it is part of the sport, and it's an
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: unfortunate part of the sport. But there's no there's no
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: recipe for everyone. It's not like you get three injuries
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and that's your injury quota and you're going to be
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: healthy the rest of your time. It's so different person
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: a person, and it's a constant balance, and you have
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: to constantly be checking in with your body and revamping
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: your exercise routine, your prehab, your rehab routine. And for me,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: just knowing that my hips are my problem area and
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: I had hip surgery a little over a year and
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: a half ago, and I think that has been a
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: game changer for me. It's been really really hard recovery,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: but I do think a lot of my injuries were
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: stemming from my hip structure and I shaved They shaved
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: back my hip socket and reshape my femur head, restructured
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: it and then put my I labor them.
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: Together with sutures or staples or whatever.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: So knowing that I had something that was significantly wrong
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: with my hip just mal formed, has given me a
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: little confidence that a lot of these injuries are due
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: to that and that's something that it was a structural
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: issue that needed to be changed. And knowing that I
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: have still had good performances coming off of that, even
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: when I'm not training at one hundred percent has given
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: me confidence that I still can be good and I
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: still can be competitive, but it might just look different
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: than training looked like previously. And I think that's a
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: good reminder to everyone that there is no perfect recipe
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: or solution or training plan, like if there was one
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: set training plan, and it's like if you run this
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: amount of miles and do these.
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: Workouts, like you will be the best.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: But it's everyone figuring out what works best for them
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: and for me as well. Just getting older, I like
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: hate saying that because I'm thirty. I feel like thirty
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: is not that old, but in this sport, I just
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: think the more years you put on your legs running
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: you just have to know that you need to take
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: a little more care into your maintenance routine and kind
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: of warming up before running and doing all the due
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: diligence after.
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: I want to prevent injuries. I want to do.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Everything I can to be my strongest self and to
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: be well rounded, to make sure that I have my sleep,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: my nutrition, we have everything dialed in and my team
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: of people that will help me through that. But at
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, like sometimes injuries just happen
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: and we could be doing everything right. So just knowing
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: that it's okay, and that you do want to do
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: your due diligence, check in out everything, make sure you
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: are going through all the steps, all the motions, but
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: that if something happens, like sometimes things just happen, and
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: you can't totally beat yourself up about it because at
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the end.
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: Of the day, we're doing the best we can.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: But we're all learning, all using the information we have
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: in front of us. And that's what I still feel
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: like I have more in me and that's what's driving
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: me most today and then just letting myself learn from
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: all the mistakes I've made and just.
• 57:07
  Speaker 4: Try to keep growing. Is a better athlete in person.
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: You mentioned earlier just how in awe you had been
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: of Slaine early on in your career, and then of
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: course recently with her heading on over to be a
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: coach with Nike. How has that experience been for you,
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: kind of bringing this full circle, It's been.
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: Super super cool. I love Slaine.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: She's just I mean, she's one of the greatest athletes
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: competitors ever, but she's just an amazing person. She cares
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: so much, she loves the sport, and what's super cool
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: is that she really wants she wants to see constant
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: betterment of the women in the sport, and she wants
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: to see records being broken, and she wants to be
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: part of that. And she has been such a leader
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: and I feel like I followed her example for so long.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: But it's really cool to see her transition into now
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: being a coach, and she just loves it and she
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: gets so invested, and she's so passionate. And she's just
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: as passionate as she is about our performances as she
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: was about her performances when she was competing.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: When someone goes to your social media, they see an athlete,
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: a professional for a Nike. They see your accolades on
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: the track seventy to almost thousand followers.
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: When you look in the mirror, what is it that
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: you see looking back at you?
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I feel like I just see someone who
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: wants more, who wants to keep pushing themselves. I mean,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm super happy. I love my life.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: I feel really really thankful for that. I have a
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: wonderful partner who supports me. I have a cat who
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: will sleep on me and try to per to like
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: heal me whenever I'm feeling tired.
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: But I just I do.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: I feel really lucky to be where I'm at right now,
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: but I don't feel like I'm completely done yet. I
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: feel like I have more to my story and there's
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: more that I want to get done. So I think
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: I mostly just feel invigorated and excited. I mean, I'm
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: feeling like that today. Sometimes I look in the mirror
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: and I feel exhausted and I'm like, oh man, like woof.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: But today I feel like really happy and excited for
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: this year and just excited to get back into the
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: training group.
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: If you had a chance right now to put one
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: last thing on your Instagram as some sort of a
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: quote post, this is a big pressure question, what would
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: you want that tidbit of wisdom to be?
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, a quote post wisdom was I was just gonna
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: say to be yourself and be your best self.
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: I think it's so sweet.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: And when people I see this everywhere, like not just
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: to me, but other women are girls who are like
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: I want to be you, Like how can I be you?
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, just be you, Like you be your
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: best version of yourself. Don't try to be someone else version,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: don't try to form yourself into another person. But if
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: you can be your absolute best self and do what
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: is best for you. Like that is what I think
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: we all need to focus on, because we're all amazing,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: We're all unique, and I don't think you have to
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: form into this ideal image of a person.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: Don't feel like.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: You need to change who you are to be better,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: because you can keep pushing yourself and be your best
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: self by being you.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: What else excites you right now?
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like right now, knowing how fast two of
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: my teammates in particular have run this last year just
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: made me feel like a whole new door is opened
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: and like a realm of possibility. So I'm excited just
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: seeing how fast American distance running has gotten. And that's
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: just made me feel like I can be a lot
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: faster than I am right now, And I think that's
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: my biggest motivator is I do want to make another
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Olympic team and I want to be competitive there, but
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: I want to run a lot faster than I run,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: And that's what excites me the most and gets me
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: out the door and get to be wanting to push
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: myself every day.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: And even right now.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: There's no races on the calendar, so there's nothing that
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: exciting to look forward to. It's just kind of going
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: to be monotonous training for a while, but knowing that
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: building that monotonous training is going to allow me to
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: race at my highest level, whatever that may be. But
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: knowing that I don't think I've raced there yet, and
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like I can run a lot faster.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: What would you say has been some of the best
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: advice that you've received in your career?
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: To not compare yourself to other people. I think that's
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: really hard, and I think especially for us, we look
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: at times, I mean we as we were talking about before,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: You look at body types, you look at what people,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: what people look like, who are running certain times, or
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: you just you measure yourself on a time you've run
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: versus what other people have run. But for me, I
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: think it gives me confiden seeing people around you who
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: are running so fast, but knowing that you can't directly
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: You can never directly compare because every race is different,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: every situation is different. Even though even if we're running
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: out in a track, the weather could be different, the
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: pacing can be different.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: So you just don't know.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: So I think letting that invigorate you, but to not
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: compare and then feel bad. And I think in the
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: age of social media, it's cool because a lot of
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: people push their workouts and say what they've done and
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: this or that, But I think it's easy for someone
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: to fall victim to feeling like they're not good enough
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: or they haven't done well enough when you look at
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: this one workout, this one snippet from someone's entire training regime,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, my gosh, how did they do that? Like,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I don't think all people to do that, but instead
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: saying you don't know what the rest of their training looks. Like,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: all you know is what you're doing your day in,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: your day out, and you're doing the best you can
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: and you're getting the most out of yourself. Just being
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: excited for what you're doing, but not comparing yourself if
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: you see someone else and what they're doing. Especially I
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: found during injuries sometimes I just need to remove myself
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: from social media because I'm not strong enough to look
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: at what other people are doing. So yeah, so I
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: think just not comparing and if you need to take
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: a little break from social media. Those are probably my
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: two biggest pieces of advice.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: You have an opportunity right now to offer yourself. I'm
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: going to say, straight out of college dealing with those
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: two back to back injuries. During that hurdle moment, you
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: have an opportunity to offer yourself one piece of advice.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: What do you tell yourself?
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, man, I think that I just didn't need to
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: change as much as I thought I did. I looked
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: at myself as being a like quote unquote professional runner
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: and saying I need to do so much differently from
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: what I did in college, and I think that was
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: my downfall. I was someone who was super super balanced
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: in college and had a good head of my shoulders,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: and I think I just didn't give myself enough credit
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: for all I was doing then and felt like I
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: had to change a lot of what I was doing
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: to become what I felt like was a professional runner.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: I am so so grateful for your time. Thank you
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: so much for hanging out with me today.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 4: Oh thank you. This has been really fun.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at hurdle
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: dot Us. Connect with the show on Instagram, Twitter at
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: Hurdle Podcast, Emily, how do they keep up with you?
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: Give me all of your details.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Hi, so you can follow me on Instagram at Emily
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: Andfeld on Twitter at Emily Andfeld.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 4: And that's it.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: I am at Emily a body at Hurdle Podcast, Another
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: hurdle conquered.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.