36. From Powerlifting to Marathons with Lexi Brandon
To go from a powerlifting competition to a trail marathon at elevation in 7 months. That's what this week's guest did as she embraces her mission to stop letting her body hold her back from living the life she wants.
In this episode, we’ll cover
How to embrace each season
What it means to be gritty
How you can go from a powerlifting competition (and squatting 300#) to running a trail marathon with >4,000ft of vert!
so much more
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Speaker 1:
0:09
Hello, friend, and welcome to Sturdy Girl, a podcast focused on strength, not size, where you will hear conversations around flexible body image, cultivating confidence and being a resilient human in both body and mind. Sturdy Girl is the podcast where we shift the focus away from your appearance and on to living the big, rad life you deserve. I'm your host, jess Heiss, dropping episodes every Friday, as we help you make the most of your Sturdy Girl summer. That is, reclaiming body confidence, wearing the swimsuit and doing the kinds of activities you want without letting your body or appearance hold you back. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of Sturdy Girl. I am joined by a former guest co-host, a client and a very good friend, lexi. Thanks for being on with us. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here, to be here another round. We don't have lav mics clipped to our shirts this time.
Speaker 2:
1:07
Kind of a bummer. I like the recording in my kitchen, but it's good to see your face over.
Speaker 1:
1:10
Zoom too Honestly, I'd rather be in person. I think originally we were supposed to record this in person, but we had way too much fun on our retreat in Tahoe to make it happen it's true, we were having way too much fun to sit down and record but Tahoe to make it happen.
Speaker 1:
1:25
It's true we were having way too much fun to sit down and record, but we're still making it happen. We didn't have AC in that house, and so we had how many floor fans going at all times that it just I don't know that logistically we could have made it work.
Speaker 2:
1:35
It was the loudest and hottest Airbnb ever. We could have done it on our kayaks.
Speaker 1:
1:40
There you go, just like the refreshing sounds of the lake and the water as we paddle, and you're my rudder. Exactly. Why don't we just do that? Would have been fun, but no, for many reasons I have you on the podcast. Obviously, I enjoy chatting with you, but you just ran your first marathon. I got to be there and it was such a rad experience. But you also just embody everything that a sturdy girl is. You are gritty. You make every focus on living your fullest, raddest, biggest life. You don't let things like your body or appearance concerns hold you back from setting goals and smashing them, and I just think it's amazing and I'm really stoked to have you with me.
Speaker 2:
2:23
I'm excited to be here and it was so fun to have you there for the race. Yeah, my first marathon was really incredible, but part of it was having you there both as a coach and as a friend.
Speaker 1:
2:33
It's such an interesting thing like being a coach, but also, as our friendship has grown and I think, like saying this to you many times over, what I'm like, okay, do I have my coach hat on or my friend hat right now, like I it I'm like, okay, do I have my coach hat on or my friend hat right now? Like I want to make sure that I'm respecting boundaries but also taking care of you and all the things that we coach on. Talking about coaching, though, you wrote up this like fantastic post-race recap of just walking yourself back through getting up the day of the race, how the race went, ways that you coped during the race, music you listen to podcasts, audiobooks but my question for you is what was the biggest lesson or biggest takeaway, biggest thing you learned from your first marathon?
Speaker 2:
3:14
I think what I really learned about myself is that I'm capable of so much more than I ever thought. It was a hard race and I didn't know how it was going to go and, like we talked about many times, I honestly did not know how it was going to go and, like we talked about many times, I honestly did not know if I was going to finish. It felt sometimes like a coin flip of, after all this hard work I'd put in, like am I going to finish? And then not only did I finish, but like I put down some of my best mile times. Like by no means to go out and win this race, but I won it for me, I won what it meant for me. I was putting down some pretty fast mile times. At the end, it was really important for me to finish. I think the biggest takeaway is that I'm way more capable and my body is way more capable than I think it is sometimes.
Speaker 1:
3:56
Or that you give it credit for. Yeah, for context, on your first marathon, we started at 9,700 feet elevation. It was in Silverton, colorado. You had what? 4,500 feet of vert in the race on deep roads. We're not just talking like. You went out and ran your local city marathon that's flat and paved.
Speaker 1:
4:15
Your first full was a gritty suffer fest. In so many ways it was gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but I remember you coming to me for, like, this is the marathon I want to do this one. And I was like, are you sure? Okay, I support this, but I just have, I have to make sure I have to do my due diligence. And so, not only picking your first marathon, picking a hard, freaking marathon, but also throwing down, like you negative, split that race so hard. It was your last. Your last, what? Four miles, when you were like, oh, yep, nope, gotta dial this in and just zoomed those last few miles, which was hilarious because, like, your Garmin didn't update and we were all like where is she? Is she? Okay, what's happening? What do we need? And then boom.
Speaker 2:
4:58
I pop out and I'm going way faster and further along than they probably would have guessed and you still had it in you to sprint to the finish line.
Speaker 1:
5:05
I think that's what blew my mind the most. I remember finishing my first full and seeing the finish line and being like, oh yeah, I'm going to sprint. And then my legs were like little stumps and they're like I can't move.
Speaker 2:
5:15
I was shocked how good I fell all the way through up until the end and then after that not so great, but it was really interesting. I'd say that this is one of, like, the most things I've been committed to and was like probably the most important to me that I committed to that. I didn't necessarily realize how important it was to me until in that moment, right like it was so important to me to finish and it was so important for me to make that cut off, and I found a lot of different levels within myself that I didn't know were there because it was important to me and I did commit to this big, cool goal, and so to find those deeper levels was pretty fun.
Speaker 1:
5:54
It's one thing to pick the race and it's one thing to start chipping away at working towards that race. But come race day it's a big and scary thing. Can you speak to like the self-talk at all during the race or in training or during the ramp up of mileage, to go from a half marathon in April to your full in July?
Speaker 2:
6:13
Yeah, there's a lot of self-talk and I think that people think that like it's either good self-talk or bad self-talk, but I had so much of both. For the most part I was in my own little world and I was proud of myself for being on my feet for five hours and I was proud of myself and was able to compare to myself because I did train alone and I was looking at my own splits, that I was able to build self-confidence and really talk to myself. And I think the benefit of these big training endeavors is that you're just out there. You're out there for so long that you get to control what you think about and what you do, and so it's a lot easier to be positive and to believe in yourself when you're not comparing to other people. And I noticed, like the self-talk, the only moments I had in the race that were a little bit harder was there was a 50K option as well.
Speaker 2:
7:06
That were a little bit harder was there was a 50k option as well. And so the 50k is all like past s marathoners and they were all running and they were looking so good and they were so fit and they were so skinny and I was making that mean a lot of stuff about myself, that it didn't mean all I had to do was get out there and run my race. And so once I settled in and was confident and about what my day belonged, as my mindset improved.
Speaker 1:
7:26
You're such a badass. I love hearing how you made it through. And then, okay, just out of curiosity, like remind me what book did you listen to during the race? For a little while at least.
Speaker 2:
7:35
I listened to most of Shoestrong by Sally McRae and I found that the audiobooks, especially like about inspiring runners and stuff, really does do wonders for your mindset.
Speaker 1:
7:47
So sometimes when you're out there for a while, you can just tune out and that can be a version of that self-talk. But I guess I deviated away from my actual question, which was on the self-talk piece and how much that has progressed is just, it's not always going to be positive and sometimes it's negative and it's just that piece of like how do you? You keep yourself going? And I think you had a lot of things just as far as like how you kept putting one foot in front of the other and kept going and kept just telling yourself you're a gritty bitch and pushing through and knowing, like I have done the training necessary for this. You also got interviewed by the people who put on the race afterwards and they loved your face glitter and your hair paint. How did that play into your training? Because I know you did hair paint a few times. You have. I don't even remember what the heck that sunscreen was called, like unicorn snot or whatever that has glitter in it, like just making it fun.
Speaker 2:
8:38
When we first started talking about this goal and I realized that, hey, this isn't just any marathon, this is a hard marathon. Realistically, the day of the marathon, I'm gonna be out there for 10 hours. And then, realistically, what does that look like for training? And that looks like five hour training runs on the weekend, plus many hours during the week. Well, what do I want from that?
Speaker 2:
8:58
And I decided to go into this training block with, like, how can I have the most fun? How can I show up and just love every minute of it? Is it exploring new trails? Like what is it? And I actually went to a girls on the run event and they all had all this hair paint and I was like, okay, that is it. That is how I'm going to have the most fun. I'm going to show up with all the glitter, all the like hair paint, anything I can do to remind myself to have fun. And what I thought was really interesting is, in a race, how many smiles I brought to people's faces when they saw me with the glitter. I had so many comments and so many people tell me how much they love the glitter, and I love that. I could also, like inspire other people to have more fun. It's not serious. All we're doing is out there putting our feet in front of the other like have some fun.
Speaker 1:
9:48
You brought so much joy to people and the fact that you're like I did this glitter for myself, but if this can make you enjoy this race for just a moment, I'll have done my job exactly. I also just want to get face glitter. Now it's the best.
Speaker 2:
9:58
And then you, once you put it on, it's always with you. You'll find it on your phone. You'll find it everywhere so you'll.
Speaker 1:
10:03
You'll find it everywhere. So you'll always remember. This is 100% not related to anything Sturdy Girl, but Blake and I used to do the World Naked Bike Ride here in Portland and one year I was like I want to just have glitter everywhere. I'm going to just like do spray on glitter and it's going to be awesome. I swear to you, I found glitter in our house for the next three years. It was everywhere you just have joy forever more once you commit.
Speaker 2:
10:25
Is that what it is?
Speaker 1:
10:25
There's some quote about glitter that I'm blanking on right now, but, yeah, you find it forever Okay. So I was just thinking about when you first started working with me about a year and a half ago and you came to me with like a legit list of goals and of bucket list things that you wanted to do and how much you just wanted to maximize life and live it to the fullest. 2023 saw a lot of firsts. You did the enchantments, you did half dome, you did a 10K, you did your first power lifting meet, you did an international trip. I love how much you sit down and you're like, okay, these are all the things I want. And then you have people like me who are the asshole reality checkers that are like, okay, how many things can we realistically do in a timeline?
Speaker 1:
11:08
But two things with this one, I just want to highlight the fact that you went from doing your first powerlifting meet, pring all three lifts, making everything look like a warmup, like I've still bummed that we weren't able, like we full sent every single lift on your first meet, but you meet, every single one of those lifts look like a warmup. I look back and I'm like, oh my God, we still don't know the limits of your strength. We never found that, we never explored it and I just anyways. Okay, so powerlifting meet late fall last year, so that was November. We turn around. You run a half in April and a full in July. Like to just shift those modalities is so freaking rad, and the ability to excel in both and enjoy both and like explore what your body is capable is really freaking inspiring.
Speaker 2:
11:53
It's really incredible. It's so much fun to test the limits and see where they are and, like I would say that in some degree to both. I didn't quite get, maybe, to my limit, I didn't get the power lifting me and I still felt pretty good after this one, and so it's really fun to like start digging into those levels of like okay, where is the maximum? And also see how it shifts over time. I love personal growth and I love goals and, like you said, I love to come up with like 100 goals for every year, but I'm always shocked about how many of them I can achieve and everyone can achieve. Like a year is actually a long time, depending on how you break it down, and there's seasons for everything, and so you can have a powerlifting season and squat 300 pounds and then you have another season where you run a marathon. There's seasons and time for everything, even if my brain wants to tell me that's not true, did?
Speaker 1:
12:43
you feel comfortable with the concept of seasons for things before we started working together?
Speaker 2:
12:48
No, because I like to do everything at the same time, right Like I'm pretty bad at delayed gratification, and so once I want something, I want to do it now. And so what do you mean? I can't lose 70 pounds and PR my squat and run a marathon simultaneously.
Speaker 1:
13:06
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
13:06
I want to do it all, and I want to do it all now.
Speaker 1:
13:09
Can you tell me a little bit more about what you have learned about seasons I?
Speaker 2:
13:12
think seasons actually make it realistic to do everything that you want to do. It allows you to like, have the mental and physical capacity to do all the things. Like. You just can't do all the things all the time, there's just not enough hours in a day, but working in seasons does allow there to be time for everything. When I look at my goals for the next year, there's seasons for it. Like you know, if I have half of them on my list, I can't just go do it today because I put it on my list today. Like there's seasons in nature and there's seasons in life and you adapt.
Speaker 1:
13:45
I really love the concept of seasons and it's something that I really leaned into gosh two or three years ago because it gave me permission to not try to give 100% to multiple things, because I have been running and I have been lifting for many years and I love both, and there are seasons for increasing strength and there's seasons for improving running and there are seasons for playing outside and maximizing all the time on the trails that I can. But I had a really hard time with letting things go because then I'm like that thing's not as important to me and I don't want it to seem like that, because I love lifting and I love running equally. And so the concept of seasons is like I think one of my biggest realizations is like three years or so years ago I was working with a client and she got pregnant and she had her first kid. All along this process she was running and lifting as best as she could.
Speaker 1:
14:35
Baby comes and then it's like it's the rebuild, like I'm going to say rebuild, but coming back to exercise and movement post baby looks different for everyone, and not a single time during that process as a coach did I ever think like, well, she doesn't care about running or lifting anymore. Like what is this? And instead it was this realization. I was like doing a check in with her and I was like this is your season of life. You are taking care of another human and you're figuring out how your body is responding and healing after giving birth to this human. And now we're coming back to running because we got the all clear and we're going back to it again.
Speaker 1:
15:08
Never once was my brain like they don't care about this anymore, and so I was able to reflect on myself and be like oh OK, so I can still value these things and just have different seasons of life because that brand new mom is not turning around and running a marathon. I really lean into the importance of that, especially as adults with busy, multifaceted lives. Having those seasons gives us permission to go all in on something while maintaining and giving less energy to something else and letting that be okay. There's a lot less brain drama.
Speaker 2:
15:38
Exactly. I have a brilliant coach too that always asks me like what are you making it mean about you? And so I think about that a lot, because one of the things that like I intentionally let go for this marathon cycle but then was also simultaneously like beating myself up about, is like I let my apartment get dirty. Like I knew that training like have an entire day of every single weekend be to train I knew that it was going to be a lot and there was going to be a season where my apartment's been cleaner Luckily I don't have a kid to raise right now lot and there was going to be a season where my apartment's been cleaner Luckily I don't have a kid to raise right now. So like I was able to develop or like set more time aside for the marathon. But some things do slip and it just wasn't a season to be like super meticulously tidy and that was OK and I didn't need to make that mean anything about myself other than I had different priorities.
Speaker 1:
16:26
That's exactly it. I was just thinking when you're talking about, yeah, your long runs were a whole weekend day because you made an effort to go up to high elevation to see how your body responded. So there was all the drive time, all the prep for food and hydration and all of those pieces, some of the times you were going up to high elevation and doing overnights. That takes a lot of time and effort. And, yeah, speaking to cleanliness of the home, I, growing up, had a family that was very, very meticulous. We cleaned the whole house just about every single day and when I moved out on my own I would still clean so frequently.
Speaker 1:
17:02
And I remember my grandma and my aunt both, I'm going to say, ganged up on me, but I mean it in the most loving way and they were like what would happen if you left the dishes in your sink overnight so that you could go out to dinner with us? What would happen if you skipped vacuuming your house for one day and went hiking instead? What if you lived your life? Is there anything catastrophic that's going to happen? And there was like this really weird letting go of this season of life. I don't need to be able to like lick my kitchen floor because it's so clean. I would rather go live and do things and maybe 15 plus years later I think I've like still kept with that where I'm like do I want to clean my house or do I want to go adventure?
Speaker 2:
17:43
I think tradeoffs are hard and I even was talking about that in seasons. But I think it is an important thing to think about when you do have some big goals in the season, Like you're not going to be able to do everything at its max, Like there are seasons of prioritizing one thing over the other and what can you let fade off a little bit and not make it mean about anything about yourself. It's also easier to cope with when you've made the conscious choice Like okay, I made the choice that I'm doing this over this. It does help with the mindset drama that can happen when you're in different seasons.
Speaker 1:
18:13
That's such a great mindset piece and, with the what you were saying to the question I love to ask is what are you making this mean about yourself? There are so many things that this can apply to. I saw a Brad Stolberg quote and it was something along the lines of not identifying yourself with the things that go on inside your head so the thoughts and the feelings and all of those. And so what we talk about? Noticing thoughts and not attaching to them. And when we get sometimes in these busier seasons or when these shifts, when you are having to make that conscious choice of like, right now, cleaning my apartment is not the priority. The priority is preparing myself for this marathon and yet still having those thoughts that come up of the mental drama of like, well, what am I making this mean about myself? That my apartment's not clean and then having to, like, stop that spiral.
Speaker 1:
18:59
That's such a powerful question to ask. It is my favorite. We were talking about your big rad list of life things and 2023, we talked about all the things. 2024, we've tackled first marathon. You had half marathon with me and a couple of friends in Maui. What's next?
Speaker 2:
19:18
Oh, the big question everyone asks no really exciting things to come. I'm eyeing a 50k with you next year, but I've now for years like been wanting to get into a weight loss season and it just hasn't been the time, it hasn't been the season, and it's finally the season. So we're going into a little bit of a weight loss season and then back, while maintaining a half marathon base because I still love running and getting out on trails, and then we'll ramp up for a 50k next year and then we'll see what happens. After that that. I've been eyeing a few triathlons but we'll see.
Speaker 1:
19:51
Which is so rad because that means incorporating two more modalities into your life and exploring that it's fun to become a beginner again. How many people say that truthfully?
Speaker 2:
20:00
how many adults are like fuck yeah, I love being a beginner at things I think it's definitely an attitude shift because, yeah, like there's definitely some days that are hard. I took a pottery class and I did 18 weeks of pottery and I'm still so bad at it. And so, like, the process of being new can be really hard, but having a positive attitude and outlook on it, like once you stop learning, life's basically over right, and so, like, how can you embrace being new, being a beginner and learning to live your big rad?
Speaker 1:
20:30
life. That was my point is, like most people, most adults don't want to be a beginner at things. They don't want to try to learn new skills because they don't want to suck at something. I'm trying to remember what, if it was a I want to say it was a teacher growing up that always used to say if you're not learning, you're dying. And so to put yourself into the beginner seat of trying new things, of pottery, of learning to, I was going to say learning to ride a bike. You know how to ride a bike, but efficiently learn to ride a bike for time, for distance, on hills, whatever, to get better at swimming and improve those skills and be a beginner.
Speaker 1:
21:02
I'm sitting across here as your coach right now looking at triathlon certifications so that I can keep coaching you through this process. So I get to learn a ton of new things too. I think it's really rad to have that mindset of fuck around and find out. Truly, in the time that I've gotten to know you, you embody that so freaking well. I'm just like I've always wanted to learn this. So let's do it, let's find out, let's mess around. I don't know how it's going to go, but I want to try it, and I think that's so awesome to just continue exploring in small and big ways.
Speaker 2:
21:33
I always figure like, why not try? Like the worst that could happen is that I decide I don't like it and then move on.
Speaker 1:
21:39
Yeah Right, you try it out for a little while and you're like, yeah, this swimming thing not for me.
Speaker 2:
21:44
And, honestly, that is something that, like I am exploring is like what happens if I actually don't like it, because a lot of the things I have tried, I do end up liking and I do go, end up going down the rabbit hole and so coming up with like, oh, I'm still not good at this and maybe I don't want to be good at it and maybe that's something I don't actually want to do as part of the exploration process.
Speaker 1:
22:06
And if you just end up falling in love with exploring the process of triathlon, you have so many modalities under your belt at that point Running, biking, swimming, lifting how are you going to?
Speaker 2:
22:16
manage your time? I don't know. I was just thinking. I'm like I'm going to have to figure out how to make it a job, because it's just too much fun.
Speaker 1:
22:23
And you're going to have to figure out how to like involve Hank on all these adventures figure out how to like involve Hank on all these adventures 100%.
Speaker 2:
22:31
We got the new leash so you can come running more with me and I'll have to get like a little sidecar for him for the bike That'll be so cute.
Speaker 1:
22:35
Oh my gosh, is he much of a swimmer?
Speaker 2:
22:37
I can't remember he loves to swim, but I recently learned this weekend that he doesn't like when I swim. Did he get really worried? Yes, he was very worried and like whining at the side of the lake and then when I actually went in, he also had to go in and like swim like circles around me my personal lifeguard.
Speaker 1:
22:53
So you go on your swims in open water and just bring him with you. He'll just swim right alongside you. You can use him as like a weighted vest Don't they have like doggy life jackets? So then you can just like drag him along with you. I think that's what I should do the best. Boy, finn, gets really worried if I'm in a body of water or when we're on the trail and we stop moving. He's like mom, what are we doing? Let's go, come on, why'd you stop moving? The herding tendencies so adorable, I know, right For children.
Speaker 1:
23:21
Okay, shifting a little bit away from just what your big and scary goals we talked about triathlon and messing around with that and like finding out about those skill levels. But 50K, obviously like we're looking at doing one together. So I'm stoked for many reasons, but I think it's a rad continuing our love of trails and hopefully getting you out to the Pacific Northwest for a race, so that'll be so much fun. I'm so stoked. So, shifting a couple of things I wanted to talk about body image a little bit.
Speaker 1:
23:50
You and I, when I was out visiting, had talked a little bit about just the growth and body image and the shifts and things that happened. I think, if we take it back to like where things started, if you will, before you worked with me, you worked with a nutrition coach and initially your intent was to cut and then, as you started learning, was it more about nutrition, more about life, more about your goals. I know when we started working together it was more about like I want to fuel my adventures. Now let's lean into seasons. So I'm so curious on that body image, mindset, nutrition front, if you could speak more on that at all.
Speaker 2:
24:24
Yeah, of course, I think, growing up with kind of oh shoot, I shouldn't go do the big rad things I wanted to do, to do the marathon, to do half dome and I think the biggest shift has been that, like, the size of my body doesn't dictate what I can and can't do, and that has been the most pivotal shift I've had. And learning how nutrition impacts my ability to do this stuff, to feel myself properly, is the only way you're going to make it through a marathon.
Speaker 1:
25:16
No, I think that there's a lot of growth that comes with that. We talked about mindset around nutrition quite a bit during the prep for the marathon, especially because a lot of it was like all right, we need to work on your hourly carb consumption, because carbs become important in endurance events. Learning to train our stomachs is equally as important as training our mind and training our body. You had to mess around with okay, do I like gels? Do I like blocks? Do I like candy? Whole foods, what do I want? And that shift that you've had towards nutrition during your first marathon Can you speak more to that at all?
Speaker 2:
25:50
It's like night and day difference. Like you mentioned, I tried all like the quote, unquote, good for you. Or like all the gels, all the goos, and I find them all disgusting. They're just like not really my jam. But what I realized is if you look at like the makeup of a lot of those things and you look at the nutrition on like nerds gummy clusters, they're basically the same and I can get down with eating nerds gummy clusters like all day, every day, and so embracing that.
Speaker 2:
26:19
I used to be someone that felt like I couldn't have sweets in my house and I'm like I'm not talking about like a few years ago, I'm talking about like six months ago. I felt like I couldn't have a lot of that stuff in the house because I would just eat all of it. But the thing about like training for a marathon is it just becomes like part of life. Right, it's no longer necessarily like a treat food, it turns into an all the time food and it's around. I use it to make up my carbs for my run and then, honestly, at the end of the day you get sick of it. I never would have guessed I'd be like someone force feeding myself like twix at the top of the mountain because I have to get carbs in. But that's who I've become, and even post race I was a little nervous about having all the stuff left over in the house, but it's still. It's just fuel.
Speaker 1:
27:09
It can be fun and it can be something I have after dinner, but it also is just like true snacks.
Speaker 2:
27:11
Yeah, your pantry is phenomenally stocked with all the good stuff, and like trying out different stuff because, like I said, like I never guessed I would have been forcing myself like you don't know what's gonna taste good or sound good at different areas. So having like a diversity of carbs is always fun okay, so nerd, so nerds, so nerds, gummy clusters.
Speaker 1:
27:30
What were your other go-tos?
Speaker 2:
27:32
I tried to do something like sweet and then something salty, so I really liked either Cheez-Its or Goldfish those are my go-to for that and then I also like kept a candy bar or two in there Jelly beans, sour Patch, kids. But what I learned is those liquid carbs always come in handy. One of the things that happened in the marathon is that I must have been grinding my teeth for the first couple of miles and I didn't realize it, which caused my teeth to be really sensitive, and so I had started having a really hard time eating. And so the liquid carbs. So I like scratch. The race had tailwind. It also had caffeine in it, so I was extra peppy and just drank a bunch of Tailwind for some carbs.
Speaker 1:
28:14
Dude, that's where your speedy last few miles came from. It was that caffeine hitting you.
Speaker 2:
28:19
Endless caffeine for like the last 20 miles. Yes.
Speaker 1:
28:23
Those are such solid choices and like I really appreciate the feed and being able to get sample packs from them when you wanted to try different gels. I have a few other clients that were like I've never tried gels and then end up quickly switching and they're like okay, tailwind and scratch is where it's at, or whole food options or those things. I think I did gels bars and liquid nutrition.
Speaker 2:
28:45
I got like sample packs of all of them and like tested out different ones and then really realized that I hated them all. So I was just going to nerds clusters and whatever else I had to get at the grocery store. It was basically like my preteen self's dream getting to stock up on Coke and Kool-Aid and all the gummy things. Oh, I don't know how I forgot Rice Krispie Treats, because I still eat Rice Krispie Treats all the time. They're still like my biggest pre-run carb source. And then also applesauce packets. They're similar to a goo, where you don't have to chew, but they taste way better.
Speaker 1:
29:20
I never want to put my personal preferences on clients at all, but I feel like on the podcast I can talk about this without it being like. This is what you should try, because I'm the same way. I think goos are disgusting, but applesauce pouches are my go-to Rice Krispie Treats pre-run, intra-run, pre-lift Gosh during peak powerlifting season. I mean, my lifts were like two plus hours long and so I was like going inside in the middle and like eating a rice krispies treat to keep going. But yeah, I'm the same way. Whole foods, liquid carbs all of those are way more accessible than goo.
Speaker 2:
29:51
And cheaper. So I know running tends to be a more like accessible sport, but it can definitely not be like race registrations have gotten expensive. Shoes are insane, you know. When you goos are two dollars a pouch and liquid carbs and all that stuff, like just a reminder, like you can make it as affordable as you need to like, don't let that be the reason to stop. Don't let that be the reason you don't go out and do something I did mini a race on salted gummy bears.
Speaker 1:
30:19
I didn't even know those were good, they're not. You just like ziplock bag with some of your gummy bears and then just dump a little salt in there, electrolytes and your carbs, like we're good. Yeah, that was my like. Go to race. I have a race picture somewhere I'll have to dig it up from 10 years ago, but it was the muddiest, gnarliest 25 K I've ever done Mud ankle to knee deep the whole race and everyone was just brown. And I came out of an aid station with a handful of gummy bears and the picture is me mid-slip. It's like a cloud of gummy bears around me.
Speaker 1:
30:51
I think you're gonna have to post this for that episode. I gotta figure out where the heck that is, because that was like four laptops ago. So we'll see if I can dig that up. Oh, my gosh. Okay, we have talked all things running, marathon, the eating piece. We have talked about next goals. Holy crap, we've covered a lot of ground. Is there one takeaway for living a big rad life? As far as confidence, body image, anything that you could give the audience, what would it be?
Speaker 2:
31:18
I really think the biggest takeaway is just to just go do the thing. Don't let whatever it is hold you back. I'm not a small human and I really never have been, and so like I let that dictate what I could do for so many years or what I could post or what I could wear, and the biggest tangible takeaway is just go do the thing. Don't let an insecurity or a belief that you have about yourself be the reason that you don't go do it.
Speaker 1:
31:45
I see you. I see you doing all the things rocking the freaking bikini, running the races, climbing the mountains, lifting the weights, doing the things. Thank you, friend. Thank you for sharing your story and encouraging people to just freaking, get out there, because it's true, there's so much we've taught you and I have talked a lot about mental drama before we hit record today, but there's a lot of mental drama around letting your body hold you back, not just because you're like, worried if you're capable, but more along the lines of like, well, runners don't look like this, do they? I don't look like this type of person that climbs mountains. I don't look like the type of person that does this oh, can I really wear a bikini? The thoughts that we have when you're like, do I want to do the thing? Do I want to try to do the thing? Okay, let's go.
Speaker 2:
32:30
Exactly and you don't have to change how you look to be able to go do 99% of things you can do as is right now, with some training or no training if you want it to be a misogi? Probably would not recommend but read the comfort crisis. Do your research and do a misogi.
Speaker 1:
32:46
Yeah, go read the comfort crisis. I just recently read it. Lexi read it a while ago and I just. There are so many hilarious references in there. I don't know as a coach, I don't know. Can I advocate for a misogi?
Speaker 2:
32:57
I think there's a level of like baseline fitness that you should have before you go Encourage.
Speaker 1:
33:04
Okay. So essentially, for those of you who haven't read the Comfort Crisis, a misogi is going out and doing something that you don't know that you can complete, something that is hard, something that is physically and mentally challenging, so they talk about like crazy feats. One of the guys decided to do rim to rim to rim when his longest run was like 16 miles, which makes my like coach brain just scream. But it was Misogi. He got really uncomfortable and tested his limits and saw how much further he could go beyond what he thought his limits were. But was it the smartest idea? I don't know.
Speaker 2:
33:39
I always think it's interesting because, like I don't always know, going into something that's gonna be a misogi, there's been two things in my life that I feel like have been there at that level and one of them was the enchantments, which I did not go into thinking was like a 50 50, like can I complete this which is like the whole thing with a misogi like it has to be a coin flip. Turns out like it was kind of a coin flip. It was very hard. And then I also had one training run that like again, I did not anticipate to be a Masogi and literally take everything I had that day. That's always. My question on the Masogi is like, how do you actually adjust for that?
Speaker 1:
34:12
I'm still figuring that out. Just get out of my comfort zone more.
Speaker 2:
34:15
I think that's a general vibe of what he was going for, but he just took it another level.
Speaker 1:
34:24
For sure. Okay, two other wrap-up questions, if you could choose one food to eat for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:
34:27
what would it be? Well, I feel like the easy answer is Nerds Gummy Clusters, because if that's the only thing I didn't get sick of, then that's probably it, but I'm a big sucker for ice cream and a waffle cone.
Speaker 1:
34:36
Would you vary the ice cream flavors, or would you just like stick with one flavor?
Speaker 2:
34:39
I mean, if that's allowed, I'd vary the flavor, but it would probably be some sort of like coffee flavor.
Speaker 1:
34:44
Blake is looking into making a Vietnamese coffee ice cream right now. He's doing an ice cream base right now and we were talking about either Thai iced tea or Vietnamese coffee.
Speaker 2:
34:52
You're just making it impossible not to come visit you, aren't you?
Speaker 1:
34:56
Come visit me, just enticing you. We're just starting weekend pizza nights, again, red fired pizza. All right, I'm on my way. Yes, a third of the country away. It's fine, okay. And then last question we both love reading. Is there one book that you have given as a gift the most?
Speaker 2:
35:14
and or recommended the most. Oh, that's actually not fair, because it's actually the Comfort Crisis is the book I have given the most. I give it to my like everyone in my family, and I end up recommending it quite a bit. It's like it's just such a good story. He's a really good storyteller and then the content, especially in this day and age, is just like super good we as humans have gotten so freaking soft.
Speaker 1:
35:37
What the heck read this book.
Speaker 2:
35:38
Stop being so soft and then you'll be in the rabbit hole of ultra running in no time. I support this.
Speaker 1:
35:44
Is there a fiction book that's a standout one.
Speaker 2:
35:47
I don't know if any fiction books come to mind. I love memoirs and like some of the memoirs that I've found really interesting, that I wouldn't have guessed that I'd recommend, and love are like the Paris Hilton memoir I thought was super good and Viola Davis her memoir they're both top tier.
Speaker 1:
36:05
I love it. Okay, friend, I feel like we have covered so much ground in this episode. Is there anything else you want to add? I guess the only thing I'd like to add is I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2:
36:15
It was so great to have you out here and like the in-person support. If you don't have a coach for some of these big rad goals, definitely get yourself one, because it makes like a night and day difference and just go do the thing. Put it on a list, decide what season of life it fits in, be open to it being in a different season than you want now and go do the thing.
Speaker 1:
36:35
Yeah, have someone like me who's like the I was going to say fun stealer, but the person who provides some direction and gives you the objectives for all of the big goals on the list.
Speaker 2:
36:46
They can all be done, but maybe just not right now. Do the things, find the magic.
Speaker 1:
36:51
There's so much out there, go find it. Thanks so much for being on, friend. This has been such an awesome conversation and I am stoked for us to sign up for our 50K and actually start training. I should say for me, actually start training. You are phenomenally already trained and I've just been half-assing my runs, so this will be good focus for me. But thank you for such a great interview and a good catch up. Thanks for having me on All right, friends. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Sturdy Girl. We will catch you next Friday.