Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Each Thanks for tuning into the daily
Speaker 1: podcasts from Body and Soul. I am Felicity Hally. Do
Speaker 1: you ever get into that mental cycle where you're so
Speaker 1: tired you know you should exercise, but you just can't
Speaker 1: pull yourself out the door. But then you wonder if
Speaker 1: you do exercise, will it reinvigorate you? Or perhaps you're
Speaker 1: so tired you should just do nothing. Oh it's called well,
Speaker 1: I call it the exercise versus rest mental cycle. To
Speaker 1: shed some light on it, I am joined today by
Speaker 1: Ellie Salthouse. She's a professional triathlete and whoop athlete, and
Speaker 1: she shares her mental mantras that the ones that help
Speaker 1: pull her through and also well she gives us the
Speaker 1: download on her rigorous training regime. Make sure you're listening
Speaker 1: to Extra Healthy USh as well where we go and
Speaker 1: be deeper into whether those one percenters, the things like
Speaker 1: ice bars and saunas actually help performance. You can catch
Speaker 1: that one wherever we get your podcasts Elly, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us on Healthy How are you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Thanks for having me I'm really well. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've caught you in between tours. You're in Brisbane,
Speaker 1: you're about to head to New Zealand. Where are you
Speaker 1: up to in the whole racing.
Speaker 3: Yes, I've been back in my hometown of Brisbane for
Speaker 3: about four weeks now and I've just started my World
Speaker 3: Championship training block and I'm actually off to Melbourne tomorrow
Speaker 3: for a race and yeah, then i'll be off to
Speaker 3: New Zealand in three weeks for the World Championships in Taupo.
Speaker 1: Now, what does your training look like in a week?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know will vary whether you're in season
Speaker 1: or out of season and what you're doing, But what's
Speaker 1: a typical training load for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely varies depending on what type of block
Speaker 3: I'm in at the moment, but right now, being a
Speaker 3: heavy block leading into the World Championships, I'm probably doing
Speaker 3: between twenty five to thirty hours of training at the moment.
Speaker 3: So that includes about twenty k a week of swimming,
Speaker 3: between three hundred and four hundred and fifty k of
Speaker 3: riding depending on elevation.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Then I'm running somewhere between forty and sixty k a
Speaker 3: week as well, So it really depends whether we're in
Speaker 3: kind of a speed week a base week. It varies,
Speaker 3: but that's probably what I'm doing at the moment, and
Speaker 3: then I have two strength sessions in there as well,
Speaker 3: and then all the recovery on top of that.
Speaker 2: So that's why it's a full time job. People don't
Speaker 2: always understand that it takes a lot of time.
Speaker 1: So you do that training load when you're in season
Speaker 1: and then you race, or do you taper off when
Speaker 1: you come up to a big race like the World Championships.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I only do about seven days of time, so
Speaker 3: my table will typically start exactly a week out from
Speaker 3: a big race, and we have it pretty refined now,
Speaker 3: so my load will basically half by the time I
Speaker 3: reached that race.
Speaker 2: But it's really.
Speaker 3: Fine balance between being too fresh and being not fresh enough.
Speaker 3: So we really refined my taper over the last couple
Speaker 3: of years because I was finding that I was coming
Speaker 3: a little bit too fresh into some races and that
Speaker 3: can make you feel a little bit sluggish on race day.
Speaker 3: So we've added a little extra load to my race week,
Speaker 3: which is now had me coming in not quite as fresh,
Speaker 3: but I am actually feeling better. So yeah, it's a
Speaker 3: very fine balance, and I spent a lot of time
Speaker 3: refining it.
Speaker 1: What when you I mean, it's a heavy training load
Speaker 1: in a week, and how do you kind of well
Speaker 1: find the balance between when to kind of load up
Speaker 1: and when to knock it back a bit and when
Speaker 1: you around how your body and not just your body,
Speaker 1: but your mind is feeling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, sometimes the mind and the body aren't
Speaker 3: always on the same page. And that's where I actually
Speaker 3: utilize the Whoop device a lot, which is allowed me
Speaker 3: to wake up and obviously see my recovery score every morning,
Speaker 3: and so sometimes you know, I wake up feeling not
Speaker 3: so great and then look at the recovery score and
Speaker 3: it probably reflects that, in which case there's probably a
Speaker 3: need for me to reduce my training that day, maybe
Speaker 3: take a little extra time to rest or even back
Speaker 3: off some of my intervals and just give myself the
Speaker 3: time I need and my body the time it needs
Speaker 3: to recover. But sometimes it works the other way. You
Speaker 3: wake up and you're like, oh, I'm not feeling it today,
Speaker 3: and you look at your recovery score and you're actually
Speaker 3: in the green, and so you know, there's sometimes this
Speaker 3: imbalance between the body and mind. But having that objective
Speaker 3: data allows you to really be able to see what
Speaker 3: your body is actually feeling on the inside and whether
Speaker 3: you need to push today or recover it. Recover today.
Speaker 3: But then on the other hand, there are days that
Speaker 3: I need to push when I'm not feeling great because
Speaker 3: I guess sometimes I wake up on race day having
Speaker 3: only maybe two or four hours sleep.
Speaker 2: And I need to push.
Speaker 3: I can't, I can't move race. So sometimes there is
Speaker 3: value in doing that as well. But every single day
Speaker 3: you definitely cannot do that, otherwise you'll end up in
Speaker 3: a hole. So you definitely need to listen to your body.
Speaker 3: And I've I've found for me having the objective data
Speaker 3: allows me to listen to it more than how my
Speaker 3: body is actually feeling.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen to your body. It's so true. It's
Speaker 1: such a cliche. How do you actually listen to your body?
Speaker 1: What do you what happened?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: What do you tune into?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I'm pretty in tune with my body
Speaker 3: after having having done this for so long. But I
Speaker 3: think your body gives you sign and you really need
Speaker 3: to listen to them. I mean, for me, when I'm
Speaker 3: in a big, big training block and I'm not feeling
Speaker 3: so great, first sign will probably be a sore.
Speaker 2: Throat or just really really tired. When you wake up,
Speaker 2: the motivation starts to really falter. And I think those
Speaker 2: things for me are all abnormal, and those things are
Speaker 2: things that I know when I need to back off
Speaker 2: a bit to prevent myself from really getting into a hole.
Speaker 2: I think I love training, and when I wake up
Speaker 2: and I just don't want to get out the door,
Speaker 2: that's when I know for me that that's a sign
Speaker 2: that I need to be careful.
Speaker 3: I'm usually right on the edge when that happens. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think just really listening to the small signs. Your
Speaker 3: body is pretty intelligent and it will start giving you signs,
Speaker 3: so you just allow yourself to listen to them. And
Speaker 3: I think that's the most important thing.
Speaker 1: How do you talk yourself through a training session when
Speaker 1: your body saying yes, but your mind saying hell no.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean this happens a lot because when you
Speaker 3: are in pain, for instance, or in a position that
Speaker 3: you want to get out of, your body will also
Speaker 3: put in little blocks, mental blocks to tell you to
Speaker 3: run away from whatever obstacle you might be facing.
Speaker 2: So I think having some mantras.
Speaker 3: Or having some little things that you can say to
Speaker 3: yourself to get yourself out of a little rut. So
Speaker 3: for me, for instance, when I'm training and racing, I
Speaker 3: have three little things that I say to myself that
Speaker 3: I work harder than everybody, I'm the best here and
Speaker 3: no one can beat me. And those three things I
Speaker 3: just have on repeat in my mind. And not only
Speaker 3: are they very positive things that give me a little
Speaker 3: boost in morale, but they also allow me to get
Speaker 3: rid of any negative thoughts and just solely focus on
Speaker 3: those things. I think the more energy and focus you
Speaker 3: give to a negative thought or an unhelpful thought, the
Speaker 3: more it snowballs into something bigger.
Speaker 2: So if you can redirect.
Speaker 3: Your focus onto something that's going to be helpful, not
Speaker 3: only will you forget the unhelpful thought, but then the
Speaker 3: positive thoughts start to snowball as well, so it works
Speaker 3: both ways. So yeah, I think that's really important to
Speaker 3: have things either written down or that you can easily
Speaker 3: remember to grab onto really quickly when something negative or
Speaker 3: unhelpful starts to come in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, such little things, but they can be so powerful.
Speaker 1: What talk to us about a race that you're most
Speaker 1: proud of, perhaps even one that you did kind of well,
Speaker 1: you came off for our sleep, or you struggled to
Speaker 1: get through, or some a race that you powered through
Speaker 1: and that you proudly got to the end.
Speaker 3: Well, I think this year I've had one of those
Speaker 3: races that I'm super proud of because the Pro Series
Speaker 3: race is a new series for us, and they're kind
Speaker 3: of higher level races than what we're used to doing.
Speaker 2: And I had one.
Speaker 3: Of those in Colorado this year in June, and I
Speaker 3: got off the bike not feeling great, right, So I
Speaker 3: had had not a great swim, not a great ride,
Speaker 3: and I came off the bike eight nine minutes down
Speaker 3: from the leader sitting in second, and nine minutes over
Speaker 3: a half marathon at our level is a very big gap.
Speaker 3: So I was very proud of the way that I
Speaker 3: was able to mentally hold together and overcome the fact
Speaker 3: that I wasn't feeling that great physically, and I managed
Speaker 3: to run down the nine minute gap and close down
Speaker 3: thank you, Yeah, closed down the gap with one kilometer
Speaker 3: to go. So I think that's probably something I'm really
Speaker 3: proud of because more than something I physically overcame, it
Speaker 3: was more a mental thing, and I think that's often harder,
Speaker 3: especially at this level. So I think that's a race
Speaker 3: I'm really proud of. It's not always the fact that
Speaker 3: I won, but it's something that you know, I've worked
Speaker 3: really hard on the last couple of years and when
Speaker 3: I can push through something like that, that's what makes
Speaker 3: me really proud.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's impressive, Well well done and all the best
Speaker 1: when well in Melbourne and New Zealand.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Always impressive professional athletes. Those trifle honors. How good are
Speaker 1: those little mantras? She hasn't adopt a few of those.
Speaker 1: Actually I did run with a mantra when I did
Speaker 1: the half marathon. I am strong, I can do this
Speaker 1: and my go tos anyway, what are yours? You can
Speaker 1: tell us? You can DM me across social media at
Speaker 1: Felicity Halle and also if you have any ideas for
Speaker 1: upcoming episodes around fitness let me know anything else head
Speaker 1: to Body and soul dot com. Do do you for us?
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Speaker 1: your local Sunday paper and until tomorrow, Stay healthy