Speaker 1: The power. You're in a Runner podcast series is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Nike Running and Rebel.
Speaker 2: The best part is really just you know, you're always
Speaker 2: racing yourself. It's such a measurable event, so you can
Speaker 2: always try and challenge yourself, have personal bests on various
Speaker 2: training sessions or races. Yeah, when I'm not super keen
Speaker 2: on it, or you know, the weather's a bit cold
Speaker 2: and wet and winter like, spicing up the location, doing
Speaker 2: different loops and things like that, I think is a
Speaker 2: really good way to make it feel fresh and new
Speaker 2: and less kind of repetitive. You're always wanting more, wanting
Speaker 2: to achieve the next goal, and so it's so easy
Speaker 2: to finish a championship and be like, Okay, next time,
Speaker 2: I want to do this, I want to do that.
Speaker 2: So this year I sort of tried really hard to
Speaker 2: kind of stop and celebrate and soak it all up.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the C's the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
Speaker 1: are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
Speaker 1: makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
Speaker 1: rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
Speaker 1: one way. So this is a platform to hear and
Speaker 1: explore the stories of those who found lives they adore,
Speaker 1: the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst day
Speaker 1: will bear all the facets of seizing your yea. I'm
Speaker 1: Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned
Speaker 1: funentrepreneur who swapped the suits and heels to co found
Speaker 1: matcha Maiden and matcha Milk Bark CZA is a series
Speaker 1: of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring
Speaker 1: the self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our final episode of the Power Your Inner
Speaker 1: Runner podcast series in partnership with Nike Running and Rebel Gosh.
Speaker 1: That has gone so quickly. I feel so lucky to
Speaker 1: have been able to pick the brains of three amazing
Speaker 1: Nike athletes and olympians on Everyone's Behalf. The tips and
Speaker 1: tricks they've shared have enhanced my training so much, which
Speaker 1: you've probably been able to see from the fast improvements
Speaker 1: that I've been sharing on socials, and I hope they've
Speaker 1: done it the same for some of you, whether you're
Speaker 1: a running beginner or a season pro. They've jampaig so
Speaker 1: much universal advice into these chats that will be invaluable
Speaker 1: in the lead up to Melbourne Marathon and beyond. But
Speaker 1: even if you're not interested in running in the least,
Speaker 1: I think all three of these women still have fascinating
Speaker 1: path yer's that are empowering, motivating, and just a joy
Speaker 1: to listen to. So we've heard from Katrina on mastering
Speaker 1: your mindset and Chanaide on distance determination and defying the doubters.
Speaker 1: But I still have some pretty specific questions left around fuel,
Speaker 1: What and when does one eat and drink before, during,
Speaker 1: and after a race? How lucky are we to have
Speaker 1: as our third and final guest Lindon Hall, a fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred meter Olympian Nike athlete and very conveniently for us,
Speaker 1: also a qualified dietitian who headed to America after high
Speaker 1: school to get the college experience at Florida State University.
Speaker 1: Today we get into the guts of our guts and
Speaker 1: again in the few runs I've done since recording this
Speaker 1: episode has dramatically improved my running experience as well as
Speaker 1: the practical stuff. We also hear how Linden went from
Speaker 1: being spellbound watching the Atlanta Olympics as a five year
Speaker 1: old to actually making it to the Olympics, first in
Speaker 1: Rio and then again this year in Tokyo. It gave
Speaker 1: me goosebumps to hear Linden explain how it felt to
Speaker 1: actually qualify after dreaming of this moment since childhood and
Speaker 1: working so hard to become the fastest fifteen hundred meter
Speaker 1: runner in Australian history. Even cooler, she got faster and
Speaker 1: faster in Tokyo from the heat to the semifinal and
Speaker 1: then the overall final, where she finished in sixth place
Speaker 1: with a personal best. So we also get some fabulous
Speaker 1: tips on improving speed and why you often don't do
Speaker 1: so by running your competition speed over and over, but
Speaker 1: by doing all kinds of other runs instead. Mind blown.
Speaker 1: As I've been recording these episodes, I've really been reminded
Speaker 1: of how powerful sport can be. I mean, I get
Speaker 1: so oh TIERI during the Olympics, for the way it
Speaker 1: connects people, transcending language, culture and geography, even on a
Speaker 1: very local personal level. I've been reminded how transformative sport
Speaker 1: can be, which is a big tenet of rebels. Sport
Speaker 1: is calling campaign. If you've been out of the sporting
Speaker 1: loop for a while, Sport can be such an antidote
Speaker 1: to life's challenges, whether you have professional or competitive aspirations
Speaker 1: or whether you don't. So I hope some of you
Speaker 1: here sport calling your name again and get motivated to
Speaker 1: move those bodies. Also, just a reminder in case anyone
Speaker 1: was worried, these episodes aren't sequential, so if you're only
Speaker 1: tuning in now, don't worry. Each segment stands alone and
Speaker 1: you can listen to the episodes in whatever order you like.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy Linden as much as I did. Linden,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I'm so thrilled to have you here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's great,
Speaker 2: dang it.
Speaker 1: I've just been following your journey for so long, but
Speaker 1: particularly in Tokyo, running your PV, reuniting with your dog
Speaker 1: the other day. It's so lovely to actually sit down
Speaker 1: with you properly to chat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a super fun last twelve months, especially
Speaker 2: obviously Tokyo. The Olympics is always always the peak for sports,
Speaker 2: so it's really special that, you know, we got to
Speaker 2: actually get away with having the Olympics, given you know,
Speaker 2: the state of the world and what it looked like.
Speaker 2: I think it made it, you know, that much sweeter
Speaker 2: to get there when it was so up in the
Speaker 2: air for so long.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it was so special. I kind of was in
Speaker 1: that camp just beforehand of oh, like why are they
Speaker 1: even doing it and all the poor athletes won't have audiences.
Speaker 1: But then I feel like the whole world paused to
Speaker 1: rally around everyone and it just brought us all so
Speaker 1: much joy just when you needed it most. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine what it would have been like to actually be there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think despite there being no crowds, you really
Speaker 2: fell at the support from everyone in Australia and you
Speaker 2: felt like everyone was watching. And I know, I think
Speaker 2: everyone got creative with you know, how to support the athletes,
Speaker 2: and I guess we've got really good at adapting and
Speaker 2: being creative over the last you know, two years now,
Speaker 2: so you know, everyone's been training for it almost like
Speaker 2: you know, just like US athletes. So yeah, it was
Speaker 2: really cool and the Australian team, you know, our other
Speaker 2: athletes were obviously to come out and watch at the track,
Speaker 2: which I think Australia was like the only country that
Speaker 2: had their whole team coming out every night with like
Speaker 2: handmade signs with like terrible puns about everyone's last names,
Speaker 2: and we had drowns and like you know, we were
Speaker 2: the only people who got cheered for on the start
Speaker 2: line and that was so special to feel like you
Speaker 2: had your teammates there watching you.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I have goosebumps from that, just thinking like,
Speaker 1: I love Australia, we are the greatest, Like hearing your
Speaker 1: teammates cheering for you, and you got faster and faster,
Speaker 1: Like this is why I'm so excited to have you
Speaker 1: here today, because that's been one of the main questions
Speaker 1: is pace and like how do you and how do
Speaker 1: you support your running? So today's theme is refuel, replenish
Speaker 1: and recharge, And I'm so thrilled that you also just
Speaker 1: happened to have studied dietetics, so that's wonderful, you multi
Speaker 1: talented little champion. But what I thought we would start
Speaker 1: with is just a couple of intro questions and then
Speaker 1: we'll sort of run through your career to this point
Speaker 1: so everyone knows what your running journey has been like,
Speaker 1: and then maybe we'll jump into some of the audience questions.
Speaker 1: So to begin with, where do you sit in the
Speaker 1: running landscape, What is your ideal distance. Obviously in the
Speaker 1: Olympics you're a superstar fifteen hundred meter runner. Do you
Speaker 1: like longer runs too or shorter runs? You know, where's
Speaker 1: your space?
Speaker 2: I love the track, So if it's shorter, faster life,
Speaker 2: it's going to make you throw up, Like I'm all
Speaker 2: about it. I think i'd know a little bit like
Speaker 2: violent or something on the inside. Just you know, love
Speaker 2: that element of training because it's the closest to racing,
Speaker 2: I guess, and it's just really pushing the limits. And
Speaker 2: then you know, on the other end of the spectrum,
Speaker 2: your easier runs are social and you know more about recovery,
Speaker 2: so they're not you know, chasing your goals as much.
Speaker 2: So I think they have a really different purpose. And
Speaker 2: so yeah, I love just challenging myself because probably you
Speaker 2: know that real speed work and probably not as good
Speaker 2: at and it's a little bit newer to my training repertoire,
Speaker 2: so I feel like I've got more room to improve.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there's something something fun about putting on your
Speaker 2: spikes and trying to run as fast as you possibly
Speaker 2: get until you sort of, you know, just end up
Speaker 2: laying dead on the track. I probably sound like an
Speaker 2: absolutely crazy person. And I know I like running at all,
Speaker 2: but I can totally relate to the whole like starting,
Speaker 2: you know, a new runner at the moment because I've
Speaker 2: just come off two weeks hotel quarantine where obviously I
Speaker 2: wasn't running, and starting to run again. I did like
Speaker 2: a thirty minute jog, which shouldn't you know, in my
Speaker 2: normal training regime is not not much of a run,
Speaker 2: one of the shorter ones they get to do, and oh,
Speaker 2: maybet the next day I thought i'd been hit by
Speaker 2: a bus. So I really understand and I'm like, oh god,
Speaker 2: this is why people don't like running. It really hurts.
Speaker 2: So I'm slowly getting there and you know, the muscles
Speaker 2: are remembering how to run, but yeah, I kind of
Speaker 2: get it now. I think that's crazy.
Speaker 1: But we've actually got you at the perfect time because
Speaker 1: you have sort of had to really take a pause
Speaker 1: from moving your body really at all because you've been
Speaker 1: stuck in a room. So it's actually awesome to sort
Speaker 1: of catch you at this time where you're rebuilding from scratch,
Speaker 1: because that is like the really relatable part of running
Speaker 1: that you do have to kind of keep it up
Speaker 1: to actually keep that level of fitness. So the other
Speaker 1: two intro questions for the kind of either skeptical runner
Speaker 1: or the like hesitant or maybe fearful runner because a
Speaker 1: lot of people are kind of scared of the whole
Speaker 1: idea and it's the most democratic and beautiful thing to do.
Speaker 1: But I think until you know that, you know, you
Speaker 1: need someone to just give you a little push. So
Speaker 1: what is your absolute favorite part of running? And what
Speaker 1: is the hardest part of running? But how you combat that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for me the best part is really
Speaker 2: just you know, you're always racing yourself. It's such a
Speaker 2: measurable event, so you can always try and challenge yourself,
Speaker 2: you know, have personal bests on various training sessions or
Speaker 2: races or gym workouts or things like that, and it's
Speaker 2: so individual and you can, you know, kind of always
Speaker 2: be chasing your own goals. You know. I think in
Speaker 2: team sports you sort of don't have that because is
Speaker 2: you're you know, it's a bit you know, you might oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I had really good number of kicks today or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, like do you even watch
Speaker 1: other sports?
Speaker 2: I do, But you know, I love that It's it's
Speaker 2: kind of all about you and you can't know a
Speaker 2: bit of a control freak. So I think you just
Speaker 2: have so much control over what you're putting in and
Speaker 2: then it's really measurable, which I love because it's great
Speaker 2: to be able to see those improvements, whether it be
Speaker 2: you know, in the gym or on the track or
Speaker 2: just you know, being how to run further than you
Speaker 2: have before.
Speaker 1: And like Survivor, I found that as well as like
Speaker 1: a brand new bet. In fact, I used to be
Speaker 1: an anti runner. I really thought, I, you know, there
Speaker 1: were runners and there were non runners, but I realized, like, actually,
Speaker 1: it's so democratic because you're really just running against yourself
Speaker 1: and using like the Nike running app to see I
Speaker 1: started maybe two years ago and comparing like my times
Speaker 1: and distances because it's all sort of in one place,
Speaker 1: and being like I actually have gotten faster and further dramatically.
Speaker 1: It's so satisfying, Like it's such a rewarding thing to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's I love that because, yeah, you have
Speaker 2: so much control and just kind of bettering yourself, which
Speaker 2: is really cool. I guess the most challenging part for
Speaker 2: me is or I guess like a least favorite part
Speaker 2: of training is probably our Sunday long run, which is
Speaker 2: you know, probably shown its face on any kind of
Speaker 2: first time marathon training program for anyone out there. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I just find it really long. I get tired. It's Sunday,
Speaker 2: it's the end of the week, so you know you're
Speaker 2: doing it on tired legs usually, so it's a lot
Speaker 2: further than fifteen hundred meters as well, And people always like, oh,
Speaker 2: do you have to run that, you know, for twenty
Speaker 2: two k on a Sunday, Like you only raise fifteen
Speaker 2: hundred meters And I was like, I wish I didn't
Speaker 2: have to, honestly, but you know, it's kind of part
Speaker 2: of the package. And the kind of great thing about
Speaker 2: that is you know every runner from really eight hundred
Speaker 2: meters up to the marathon does a Sunday long run,
Speaker 2: so it's such a social occasion and so many runners
Speaker 2: in Melbourne. You know, we have a great running community
Speaker 2: in Melbourne, and you know, many people who won't train
Speaker 2: together throughout the week for their main training but will
Speaker 2: happily come together for a Sunday run and everyone kind
Speaker 2: of works in together and it's really fun because you
Speaker 2: catch up with people. You make it social and it's
Speaker 2: the weekend. People have got time to go for coffee
Speaker 2: and brunch afterwards. So yeah, I think it's for that
Speaker 2: Sunday long run. For me, it's making it social, making
Speaker 2: sure I'm going with a friend, you know, having friends
Speaker 2: for coffee afterwards is a bit of a reward for
Speaker 2: getting through the week and mixing up the location as well.
Speaker 2: Like I mean, I know I fall into the routine
Speaker 2: a lot of just going to the same place, but yeah,
Speaker 2: when I'm not super keen on it, or you know,
Speaker 2: the weather's a bit you know, cold and wet and
Speaker 2: winter like, spicing up the location, doing different loops and
Speaker 2: things like that, I think is a really good way
Speaker 2: to you know, make it feel fresh and new and
Speaker 2: less kind of repetitive, because running is a pretty repetitive spot.
Speaker 1: But this is something that I've actually only just really
Speaker 1: started to understand because I've only just started to do
Speaker 1: kind of longer distances, is that I kind of hit
Speaker 1: this plateau where once I master a certain distance, and
Speaker 1: by master, I mean like as in, I don't die
Speaker 1: halfway through, oh I do die, but like I can
Speaker 1: actually finish it. It's that to get faster, you can't
Speaker 1: just repeat it. Over and over again. So like a
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred runner like you, you don't just do fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred over and over again and hope that you get faster.
Speaker 1: And one of the biggest questions we've had is how
Speaker 1: do you once you do plateau at a certain time
Speaker 1: and pace, like, how do you get faster? And I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to get into that with you because the
Speaker 1: fact that you do have to do a twenty two
Speaker 1: kilometer run for a fifteen hundred race is so interesting.
Speaker 1: So cannot wait to get into that with you. But first,
Speaker 1: can we go through what I call your way tya
Speaker 1: or your path ya, which is just explaining how you
Speaker 1: got into running, because I think that also helps everyone
Speaker 1: understand where your background is and where all your knowledge,
Speaker 1: particularly around refueling comes from, because you know you have
Speaker 1: studied dietetics as well, and how that's kind of worked
Speaker 1: into your career. So take us back to very young
Speaker 1: Linden penleyan ess anding grandma watching the Atlanta Olympics, like,
Speaker 1: what was your pathway into running? And yeah, what led you?
Speaker 2: Hear? Yeah, So we're going to be a really long
Speaker 2: way back. I feel like, I mean, maybe I'm just
Speaker 2: old now or something the stories longer. But I guess
Speaker 2: I kind of like I loved sports when I was little,
Speaker 2: and you know, always, you know, had three or four
Speaker 2: sports on the go, and you know at school or
Speaker 2: outside of school, and netball and swimming and things like that.
Speaker 2: And I probably thought I was going to be a swimmer.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: It's a terrible idea.
Speaker 1: I'll too talented. Like I said, I just thought I was.
Speaker 2: I now associated swimming with injuries, so I really don't
Speaker 2: like it. Yeah, So it was always pretty active and
Speaker 2: things like that. And in primary school I've made state
Speaker 2: championships for athletics and for swimming, and you got like
Speaker 2: a T shirt that said, you know, state championships two
Speaker 2: thousand and three or whatever it was. And I really
Speaker 2: wanted the cross country one to kind of like complete
Speaker 2: the set. So that was like my big incentive to
Speaker 2: make state cross country. So I grew up about an
Speaker 2: hour from Melbourne, so we went to Bendigo for our
Speaker 2: sort of zone cross country. Oh my god, I think
Speaker 2: I think I would have been lucky because you know,
Speaker 2: there's not not quite as much I guess probably depth
Speaker 2: as you know in the city. Maybe there's less kids,
Speaker 2: but you know, maybe getting that state cross country t
Speaker 2: shirt was a little bit more attainable.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you are being far too humble. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: were just an amazing runner, as we have since discovered.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so grade six, you know, twelve year old Linden
Speaker 2: made state cross country championships And like, obviously I was
Speaker 2: pretty nervous, and you know, we're driving down. It's about
Speaker 2: an hour drive to Melbourne. You know, the closer we get,
Speaker 2: the more nervous I get. And I sort of start
Speaker 2: reading through the paperwork and I'm telling mom, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: how cool is this? Like if you come top five
Speaker 2: you get to go to Queensland for nationals, And you know,
Speaker 2: moms are like, oh, you know there's lots of girls.
Speaker 2: You know, they're really good. Just have fun, try your best,
Speaker 2: et cetera, like the Queensland, Like how co would that be?
Speaker 2: And then you know, as I get nervous and I'm like,
Speaker 2: mom my shoes they suck, Like how am I supposed
Speaker 2: to make it to Queensland and these shoes? You know,
Speaker 2: this is going to be your fault if I don't
Speaker 2: make it kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Oh, totally end of your life exactly.
Speaker 2: So, without probably thinking a whole lot mums. So they
Speaker 2: said to me, okay, like, if you make it to Queensland, like,
Speaker 2: we'll stop at reve along the way home and get
Speaker 2: you a new pair of shoes, like the best running shoes.
Speaker 2: So like a few hours later, I was very smugly
Speaker 2: at Rebel Sport getting a new pair of shoes. So
Speaker 2: I managed to come second and got to the National
Speaker 2: cross country So that was kind of when I first
Speaker 2: I was sort of like, oh, maybe I'm not so
Speaker 2: bad at this running thing. And then shortly after that
Speaker 2: I joined the athletic club at Essendon and sort of
Speaker 2: you know, got a coach and sort of went from
Speaker 2: there and got to run, you know, at nationals and
Speaker 2: things like that all through school, which was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: And I think some of the funnest parts of high
Speaker 2: school were, you know, going away to National cross country
Speaker 2: and like the friends I made on those trips or
Speaker 2: some of my closest friends today, you know, we still
Speaker 2: hang out a fairbit, and I think that's really cool,
Speaker 2: those friendships through sport that are just super special.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so lovely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the coolest things. Actually, this is kind
Speaker 2: of mardly off topic, but we had fifteen girls on
Speaker 2: our Victorian cross country team that won in grade six.
Speaker 2: We had five in Tokyo at the Olympics out of fifteen.
Speaker 1: In that same group.
Speaker 2: From that same group of fifteen girls, stop, I know
Speaker 2: I was the only one running, two cycling and two
Speaker 2: playing basketball.
Speaker 1: That is amazing, I know, like what a stat what attent.
Speaker 2: I know it was worth the tension.
Speaker 1: I always think, though, this is why I love going
Speaker 1: through people's whole pathway or path yay, like not just
Speaker 1: the chapter we walk into in your life now where
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you're a fifteen hundred runner, You've
Speaker 1: got really clear goals, your PBS and accolades are all over
Speaker 1: the place, like it's you know, no one is an
Speaker 1: overnight success. Like it has taken you back since cross
Speaker 1: country with that group of girls in grade six, and
Speaker 1: like you know, there's so many different seeds along the
Speaker 1: way that are planted to get you to where you
Speaker 1: are now. And I find it's so interesting to go
Speaker 1: through all these chapters and connect all the dots and
Speaker 1: then you know, trace them to where you are now.
Speaker 1: So that's amazing, I know.
Speaker 2: It's so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was, you know, round pretty well through high school,
Speaker 2: you know, made nationals things like that. It was really
Speaker 2: good at coming a second, which was really frustrating.
Speaker 1: The bridesmaid it.
Speaker 2: Was really close. It was so annoying, But I'm definitely
Speaker 2: very stubborn and persistent. I do it's how nicely you
Speaker 2: want to frame it. So yes, just kind of kept
Speaker 2: showing up, and eventually, I think in year eleven, I
Speaker 2: finally won a national championship, which was really cool, but
Speaker 2: the girl that was always beating me was injured, so
Speaker 2: she wasn't there, so it wasn't quite as satisfy. I
Speaker 2: just really wanted to beat her because I never did.
Speaker 1: Oh, but it's it's just what you how you perform
Speaker 1: on the day, right, Like you know that guy in
Speaker 1: the was it the speed skating when everyone else in
Speaker 1: front of him fell over, I'm like, he's still won
Speaker 1: on the day, exactly exactly right.
Speaker 2: And then kind of like late high school, I think
Speaker 2: like a lot of I was, I sort of really
Speaker 2: like plataued. I mean, you know, you're going through so
Speaker 2: much development and just kind of you know, before that
Speaker 2: you were essentially, you know, the same as the boys,
Speaker 2: and then things start to change and it's harder to
Speaker 2: improve you know, when you are pretty good as a junior,
Speaker 2: you set the bar pretty high. So I definitely really
Speaker 2: platawed kind of through late high school. And obviously, you know,
Speaker 2: you're doing VCE and things like that, so you've got
Speaker 2: other stresses in your life and you're trying to be
Speaker 2: a seventeen eighteen year old and you know, have fun
Speaker 2: with your friends as well. It was probably the only
Speaker 2: time I kind of thought about not running with probably
Speaker 2: sort of around your eleven year twelve, and then, as
Speaker 2: I said, pretty stubborn, pretty persistent, it was like I've
Speaker 2: committed far too much of my life to this already,
Speaker 2: Like I've got to see this through. And then after
Speaker 2: doing well maybe a year and a half of UNI
Speaker 2: at Melbourne UNI, I was like, you know what, this
Speaker 2: isn't that much fun. I don't really love like chemistry
Speaker 2: things like that. I wasn't quite studying what I wanted to.
Speaker 2: It was a little bit of a like you know,
Speaker 2: pathways that of course wasn't loving running. Sort of found
Speaker 2: myself without a coach because my coach moved into state
Speaker 2: and so decided to go to American College and run
Speaker 2: in the into double A system, which I think was
Speaker 2: like probably one of the best decisions I ever made.
Speaker 2: I had, like not only I get to travel, got
Speaker 2: my university undergrad paid for made so many amazing friends,
Speaker 2: and you know, got to live overseas for four years,
Speaker 2: which is really.
Speaker 1: Cool, and in Florida of all places, right, like not
Speaker 1: just overseas, but like at FSU.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a pretty cool place to go. Like
Speaker 2: we had great weather year round, great running, you know,
Speaker 2: had a great group of girls to run with, you know,
Speaker 2: every day. It was amazing, Like it was just like
Speaker 2: handed to you on a plate. It was like, you
Speaker 2: go go be the best you can because here is
Speaker 2: everything you need. I feel like it was the closest
Speaker 2: thing to sort of being a professional athlete without actually
Speaker 2: being one, which I think was probably that like push
Speaker 2: I needed to get to that next level because I
Speaker 2: was surrounded by you know, so many driven women who
Speaker 2: just wanted to be the best and get the most
Speaker 2: out of them and you know, you kind of had
Speaker 2: no choice but to go along for the ride. And
Speaker 2: you know, by the end of sort of college, I
Speaker 2: was like I finished in twenty fifteen, so the next
Speaker 2: year was an Olympic. Yeah, so I was kind of like, oh, real, Olympics, hey,
Speaker 2: which I've been pretty obsessed with since I was little,
Speaker 2: like Sydney Olympics. I was in grade three, so it
Speaker 2: was like prime impressionable age and I was obsessed. I
Speaker 2: still have this box that I like decorated with like
Speaker 2: my own drawings of like the mascots and like oh
Speaker 2: my the cauldron and things like that.
Speaker 1: Was it Harvey million Oi or something? I se Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Millennium Olympics exactly who is Harvey?
Speaker 2: Don't know? Maybe he designed them maybe, Yeah. So I
Speaker 2: was like obsessed with the Olympics, So it was it
Speaker 2: was pretty cool to finally like be in a position
Speaker 2: where I was kind of within a sniff of maybe qualifying. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the next year, I guess, like big things happen
Speaker 2: in Olympic years, like you see it every year, like
Speaker 2: people just come out of the woodwork and have incredible
Speaker 2: years because that's the magic of the Olympics really and yeah,
Speaker 2: I improved like nine seconds that year and ended up
Speaker 2: making it too rear and came thirteenth. So I was
Speaker 2: that painful like first person to miss the final by
Speaker 2: point oh zero two street a second and it was
Speaker 2: like such a happy, sad moment because obviously, like ad
Speaker 2: achieved so much more than I expect that year and
Speaker 2: you know, made my first Australian team gone to the Olympics.
Speaker 2: But you know, you always want more as an athlete,
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, we're all pretty guilty of
Speaker 2: that of you know, always wanting wanting more, wanting to
Speaker 2: do more. And I think that's why we keep coming
Speaker 2: back the next year, because you know, you want to
Speaker 2: better yourself and you want to you know, chase those
Speaker 2: medals and things like that.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I love you are such an amazing
Speaker 1: example of just pure dedication to a goal. And I
Speaker 1: love the idea that I think sometimes like not necessarily
Speaker 1: in the sporting or athletic context, or it's quite measurable.
Speaker 1: Something I always talk about on the show is the
Speaker 1: idea that your why, once you find it, that stays
Speaker 1: the same, but you're how, oh, that has to change
Speaker 1: along the way through different chapters, and your how when
Speaker 1: you were in Melbourne starting at Melbourne UNI, like that
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily the right how for you. It took a
Speaker 1: big shift in environment, a completely sideways sort of not
Speaker 1: really sideways, but you know, big shift to a different
Speaker 1: country to do college somewhere else and study something different
Speaker 1: and then come back. Like I love the idea that
Speaker 1: your goal has never wavered, but the way that you
Speaker 1: kind of made it there and made it work for
Speaker 1: you has had to change along the way. And it's
Speaker 1: so interesting. I find that just so fascinating, the way
Speaker 1: people find and keep their motivation as you build up
Speaker 1: to something. Because again, like an Olympics is only every
Speaker 1: four years or five kind of this year, yeah, or three,
Speaker 1: but you have to stay focused, like you can't wake
Speaker 1: up or go to the Olympics. You know, you have
Speaker 1: to be patient while you make your way to these goals.
Speaker 1: And that's also something I find really interesting, Like how
Speaker 1: has your last five years been like once you did
Speaker 1: get that pinnacle, Like, how did you stay patient just
Speaker 1: waiting for Tokyo?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess, like, you know, we get the somewhat
Speaker 2: of attention every four years for the Olympics, but you know,
Speaker 2: there's still plenty happening in those in between years, I
Speaker 2: guess in the athletics world, so you've always got goals
Speaker 2: along the way. It's not you know, I think if
Speaker 2: you measured your entire career on the Olympics, which is
Speaker 2: obviously huge. You're kind of setting yourself up a little bit,
Speaker 2: but not necessarily disaster. But if you know that one
Speaker 2: race every four years something goes wrong, you know, you
Speaker 2: get sick, you get tripped. You know, you kind of
Speaker 2: want other things, like you've got your World Championships, which
Speaker 2: are on alternate years for US, we obviously have come
Speaker 2: up games which will have next year, which is good
Speaker 2: to have those sort of the goals in between, and
Speaker 2: you know it's not quite the Olympic Games, but you
Speaker 2: know you've still got just amazing quality of competition. And yeah,
Speaker 2: probably doesn't get I guess, quite as noticed outside of
Speaker 2: the athletics world, but I think, you know, they're really
Speaker 2: good to have in between and really good to track
Speaker 2: your progress and see where you're sitting with all of
Speaker 2: the other girls. And yeah, I think I got not lucky.
Speaker 2: I think I things worked out really well, that I
Speaker 2: had a really great year in an Olympic year, you know,
Speaker 2: from an injury perspective, But you know, so much of
Speaker 2: that was down to, you know, so much for the
Speaker 2: planning by my coaches and support staff and you know,
Speaker 2: just the support network that I have and just making
Speaker 2: sure everything was as perfect and smooth as it could
Speaker 2: possibly be. And I think, you know, for such an
Speaker 2: individual sport, that team you surround yourself with is so
Speaker 2: important because you do spend a lot of time on
Speaker 2: your own and things like that. So we have those
Speaker 2: really great you know, supports around you is really important
Speaker 2: and other people making decisions. You know, sometimes you get
Speaker 2: so caught up in the emotion of it all because
Speaker 2: you know, you asked, everyone is so passionate about it,
Speaker 2: and you put so much into it that sometimes having
Speaker 2: that person to be like, no, that idea, you will
Speaker 2: get injured if you go and do that, or like,
Speaker 2: you can't do five races in one week, that's a
Speaker 2: terrible idea. You know, maybe you're quite that extreme, but
Speaker 2: you know, it's really good to have those sort of
Speaker 2: people to keep you in check as well.
Speaker 1: And then, oh my gosh, you got to Tokyo and
Speaker 1: you improved your time from the heats to the semis
Speaker 1: and then to the finals every time, got faster to
Speaker 1: run your PV. To come sixth in an Olympic final,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, congratulations. Has it settled in yet? How
Speaker 1: are you feeling?
Speaker 2: I definitely had to watch the race back a couple
Speaker 2: of times just sort of digest it and kind of
Speaker 2: break it down a little bit, just kind of you know,
Speaker 2: let it all register. But I think what was really
Speaker 2: different for me this year going into the you know,
Speaker 2: major championship of the year was just I had so
Speaker 2: much more confidence and just a real kind of, I guess,
Speaker 2: sense of belonging in that race. I think, you know, obviously,
Speaker 2: you roll up to the Olympics and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: the World Championships, and you're like, I want to make
Speaker 2: the final, because that's what you want to do, you know,
Speaker 2: that's that's the aim of the task. But I think
Speaker 2: previously I'd lined up being like I wish I make
Speaker 2: the final. I want you know, whereas this year it
Speaker 2: was like, no, you've done all the work, like everything's
Speaker 2: been gone really well, like you should, and we'll make
Speaker 2: the final because you you know, we've done everything to
Speaker 2: be there, You've run as fast as these other girls,
Speaker 2: Whereas I think other years I've come in being like, oh,
Speaker 2: maybe if like everything goes right and maybe like a
Speaker 2: couple other people have bad races and like maybe I
Speaker 2: get really lucky, I might get the last spot in
Speaker 2: the final, and that'd be great. But this year, like
Speaker 2: it was just such a different mindset and it was
Speaker 2: just so powerful to line up and feel like that.
Speaker 2: I think the heats, I was so nervous, but it
Speaker 2: was the heats and because of the COVID pandemic obviously
Speaker 2: we haven't had raced overseas almost two years, so it
Speaker 2: was you know, just lining up with other you know,
Speaker 2: women of that level was you know a little bit
Speaker 2: like ooh people.
Speaker 1: Whereas humans, yeah, social distance, mate, don't be that close
Speaker 1: to me. They should have extended the lanes.
Speaker 2: Exactly. So like I think that was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: other people in the race, other people in the track.
Speaker 2: You know, I was so stressed about getting tripped up
Speaker 2: or something because our races in Australia are a lot,
Speaker 2: a lot smaller, especially on the girl's side. You know,
Speaker 2: we don't have that same depth and we don't have
Speaker 2: you know, twelve girls within like three seconds of each
Speaker 2: other or something. You know, it's a bit more spread out,
Speaker 2: so you get a bit more room on the track.
Speaker 2: So that was like the biggest thing I was scared
Speaker 2: about going in almost was just like people. So yeah,
Speaker 2: by the time we got to the semi final round,
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, like I know what I'm doing now,
Speaker 2: like we're right at home. And I was just, yeah,
Speaker 2: felt so much more confident and so much more settled
Speaker 2: lining up for that race, and then yet carried that
Speaker 2: through to the final. Actually said, I like got progressively
Speaker 2: less nervous, wow, as we went through the rounds. I
Speaker 2: mean I was pretty nervou stood by the final. And
Speaker 2: I think we had like a really long care room
Speaker 2: beforehand when they you know, organize you beforehand and you know,
Speaker 2: get your numbers and things like that. And we were
Speaker 2: waiting just at the edge of the track under the stands,
Speaker 2: and the women's four hundred was right before us, and
Speaker 2: obviously everyone like I feel like no one missed, you know,
Speaker 2: how amazing Alison Felix was. And she kind of, you know,
Speaker 2: obviously ran incredible and needed to sort of just line
Speaker 2: a heap and die and she kind of came and
Speaker 2: laid like right in our core room area, like wrapped
Speaker 2: in an American life, just like dead on the ground.
Speaker 2: And I was like, all right, that's that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: And then we had the women's jab going on at
Speaker 2: the same time, and we had three girls in that
Speaker 2: final and they had the TV showing that like in
Speaker 2: this area, and they just showed Kelsey our Australian athlete
Speaker 2: who ended up winning the bronze medal, you know, through
Speaker 2: her medal winning throw. And I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: there's no shortage of inspiration, like just right here. And
Speaker 2: that was like so cool to have, you know, those
Speaker 2: two athletes just do amazing things sort of right then
Speaker 2: and there. It was such a great like unintentional fire up.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, like this is the chit like
Speaker 2: we're at the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, how exciting. Oh you just must feel
Speaker 1: so proud and and like all of us feel so
Speaker 1: proud for you. What an amazing achievement.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thank you. It's so fun to talk about
Speaker 2: because I feel like I get to almost like live
Speaker 2: it all again.
Speaker 1: Well, I like feel like it's such a privilege to
Speaker 1: get to sit down with Olympians and talk about it
Speaker 1: because you almost like you sort of see it and
Speaker 1: you get really caught up in the emotion. But then
Speaker 1: hearing about what it felt like on the ground is
Speaker 1: like triple goosebumps. It's just so exciting to hear what
Speaker 1: it felt like you And also to look at you
Speaker 1: and know that you're reflecting, like often it is the
Speaker 1: first or second time you've really thought about it with
Speaker 1: some distance and perspective as well. Like that actually happened to.
Speaker 2: Me, What, yeah, I do have to sort of take
Speaker 2: that step back and kind of be like that's pretty cool,
Speaker 2: you know, I think, yeah, you know, you're always wanting more,
Speaker 2: wanting to achieve the next goal, and so it's so
Speaker 2: easy to you know, finish a championship and be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: next time I want to do this, I want to
Speaker 2: do that, and you start immediately moving on to how
Speaker 2: am I going to do that? Why I'm going to
Speaker 2: do that? But I think, you know, it's so valuable.
Speaker 2: And I've sort of actually read a newspaper article before
Speaker 2: the Olympics were originally meant to be that was had
Speaker 2: a bunch of coats from Ian Thorpe about how, you know,
Speaker 2: he'd sort of been a bit like that in his
Speaker 2: career in terms of not really celebrating some of the
Speaker 2: successes when they happened. And I think I sort of
Speaker 2: looked back on my sort of last few years, you know,
Speaker 2: since the last Olympics, and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 2: I was really quick to move on, and I just
Speaker 2: wanted to do more. So this year I sort of
Speaker 2: tried really hard to kind of stop and celebrate and
Speaker 2: soak it all up and you know, share it with
Speaker 2: the people who have been so important to getting me
Speaker 2: to that start or getting to that finish line. You know,
Speaker 2: my friends, my family, my coaches and training partners and
Speaker 2: things like that, and just really acknowledge, I guess, not
Speaker 2: only their contribution, but to sort of to share that
Speaker 2: success that we were all a part of. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it's just, you know, it makes you really appreciate
Speaker 2: all the work that you put in to achieve a
Speaker 2: goal rather than being like, all right, what's next. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously you need to need to do that as well,
Speaker 2: but I think kind of having that pause before moving
Speaker 2: on it's been really important. And Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 2: I did a much better job of that this year,
Speaker 2: and it was kind of cool to be out to reflect.
Speaker 1: You actually did a really lovely post on that a
Speaker 1: little while ago, like maybe six or seven post back.
Speaker 1: I saw that you did take like a real moment
Speaker 1: to reflect on what you'd achieved and list the things,
Speaker 1: which often feels really awkward to sort of list your
Speaker 1: achievements over the year, but to stop and reflect on them,
Speaker 1: like that's a big part of CZA. What is the
Speaker 1: point in achieving your goals if you're just going to
Speaker 1: start chasing the next one straight away after and never
Speaker 1: let it settle. So I love that idea of taking
Speaker 1: a moment to celebrate and really reflect on your achievements.
Speaker 1: We have so many questions from people who have been
Speaker 1: incredibly inspired by you, who are so excited about running,
Speaker 1: but who really just don't know where to start, or
Speaker 1: who don't have the coaches or the team or the
Speaker 1: background years and years of running behind them like you do.
Speaker 1: So I'm very, very grateful to have you here to
Speaker 1: pick your brains today. From a practical standpoint, the first
Speaker 1: thing I'd love to ask you about, particularly in the
Speaker 1: context of how well you've done recently and how much
Speaker 1: you've increased your speed over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: is just that how do you increase your time? I
Speaker 1: think that's the question I got asked the most when
Speaker 1: I announced that we were going to do this, And
Speaker 1: I know that for a lot of people that was
Speaker 1: in the context of a half marathon or a much
Speaker 1: longer distance, but even the fact that you mentioned how
Speaker 1: vary do your distances have to be for a fifteen hundred?
Speaker 1: How do you work you said speedwork before. What is
Speaker 1: speed work for you? How do you actually think that
Speaker 1: people can break through those plateaus they might have hit?
Speaker 2: Well? I think, you know, having consistency and not having
Speaker 2: injuries and staying healthy is obviously like your first step.
Speaker 2: You know, you can't sort of jump to the next
Speaker 2: one before you've kind of got a solid standing on
Speaker 2: that first you know, you can't, Like, I guess even
Speaker 2: just right now, in my sort of return to running,
Speaker 2: I've spent the last two weeks just doing jogs and
Speaker 2: haven't done a whole lot any harder or faster, and
Speaker 2: just kind of you know, remembering how to run, letting
Speaker 2: my muscles adapt and so that you know, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to risk getting injured by just jumping straight in. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess. So it's almost. Yeah. We like to really
Speaker 2: work back from you know, that most important race, so
Speaker 2: obviously that was the Olympics last year, and kind of
Speaker 2: being like all right, like this is where we need
Speaker 2: to be, and then kind of working backwards from sort
Speaker 2: of that race day, you know, to build up that
Speaker 2: consistency and kind of I guess the closer we get
Speaker 2: to race day, typically a lot of the running gets
Speaker 2: shorter and faster because you know, you're really trying to
Speaker 2: sharpen up. I guess it's pretty different to those people
Speaker 2: running a marathon and a half marathon to a fifteen hundred,
Speaker 2: that's for sure, But you know, you do want to
Speaker 2: sort of be a bit fresher and faster come race day.
Speaker 2: So I guess, yeah, that sort of longer, less fun.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, training is definitely going to come earlier,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of what's coming for us in the
Speaker 2: next few weeks. But I think being able to improve,
Speaker 2: you need to I guess, like we're saying before, is
Speaker 2: not just keep doing the same thing. You know, have
Speaker 2: that variety in your training and have different distances and
Speaker 2: different intervals or things like that, and mix it up
Speaker 2: with you know, some hill running or some you know
Speaker 2: running on different surfaces and changing it up to you know,
Speaker 2: keep challenging yourself in different ways. You know, obviously probably
Speaker 2: not throwing a thousand new things at yourself in a week,
Speaker 2: but you know, picking you know, maybe one thing a
Speaker 2: week to challenge yourself on and maybe that's you know,
Speaker 2: doing a hilly run one day a week rather than
Speaker 2: running around a flat course every week or something. Or
Speaker 2: maybe it's running ten minutes longer, or you know, if
Speaker 2: you've got to watch the tracks your pace, it's you know,
Speaker 2: maybe running for the last five minutes of your run
Speaker 2: a little bit faster or something like that, and just
Speaker 2: finding you know, little new ways to get to challenge
Speaker 2: yourself and slowly creep it up and you know, definitely
Speaker 2: not throwing it all yourself in one go. I think
Speaker 2: it's it's very much, as you know, a tiered approach
Speaker 2: and you know, add one new thing and kind of
Speaker 2: you know, let yourself adjust to it. I guess you
Speaker 2: know it's going to make you sow, probably as I'm
Speaker 2: finding asking my return to run and Jim Lan things
Speaker 2: like that, and you know, wait till you sort of
Speaker 2: feel like you've got on top of that and you're
Speaker 2: not like, don't feel like you've been hit by a
Speaker 2: bus the next day. And then you know, when you
Speaker 2: feel confident with that, you know, then maybe you can
Speaker 2: try another way to challenge yourself. And I think sometimes
Speaker 2: we're having you know, maybe a training partner or something
Speaker 2: is really good because you can kind of push each
Speaker 2: other sometimes. You know, if you're going out for a
Speaker 2: run on your own, it's like, I was going to
Speaker 2: go do that, you know, hilly run today, but you know,
Speaker 2: a bit tired. But you know, if you've already told
Speaker 2: your friend or hey, we're going to go run at
Speaker 2: whatever park and there's hills there, you're like, well, better go.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, having that accountability when you're you know,
Speaker 2: trying new things or things that are hard is really cool.
Speaker 2: And then you know you kind of get to celebrate
Speaker 2: at the end, you know, high five and things like that.
Speaker 2: It's you know, kind of fun. Just to achieve it together.
Speaker 2: I think that makes it more fun.
Speaker 1: So hilly runs important for us because you're like, a
Speaker 1: track is flat obviously, so for speedwork, do you make
Speaker 1: sure to include different kind of like gradients in running
Speaker 1: as well as just intervals of different speeds within a
Speaker 1: flat surface.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we definitely do some hill sprints and things like
Speaker 2: that that really, I guess they're not much fun. I
Speaker 2: don't love them. I complain a lot.
Speaker 1: Obviously they're good for you though.
Speaker 2: Like vegetables, But yeah, it's probably something we do further
Speaker 2: away from racing. I guess, you know, I often pull
Speaker 2: up pretty sore, so I like to do well. I
Speaker 2: get told to do that a lot further away from
Speaker 2: when in more of a preparation phase than sort of
Speaker 2: a competition phase, that's for sure, because yeah, it's a
Speaker 2: different way to challenge yourself, I guess. And so you're
Speaker 2: using different muscles and things like that, so it gets stronger,
Speaker 2: that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really good advice because I often
Speaker 1: just do the same texture, like the same kind of ground,
Speaker 1: and just vary the distance, and then I'm like one,
Speaker 1: I getting faster in each of these distances, But it's
Speaker 1: probably because it's not varied at all. I just do
Speaker 1: the same thing but change out good how far I'm going,
Speaker 1: and then wonder why I'm not getting faster. But I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: varying that up just so your legs can kind of
Speaker 1: get used to it is something definitely to integrate into
Speaker 1: your routine. What about you mentioned before about injury, and
Speaker 1: I think that's another reason why, Like remembering non runner
Speaker 1: me I used to start running, I wouldn't do a
Speaker 1: warm up, I wouldn't do a warm down. I just
Speaker 1: go from zero to hero and then I'd be so sore,
Speaker 1: and then that would fuel my belief that I hated running,
Speaker 1: but it was only because I wasn't doing it properly.
Speaker 1: What about I mean a big part of today's topic
Speaker 1: is replenishing and recharging. How do you warm up properly?
Speaker 1: And how do you warm down properly? Like what actual
Speaker 1: exercises do you do? How long do you put into that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the last of normal warm up warm down is
Speaker 2: usually just an easy jog and then obviously with some
Speaker 2: sort of dynamic drills and stretching and things like that,
Speaker 2: which yeah, definitely to sort of get you going. And
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes there's a few extra bits and pieces
Speaker 2: that might have come from physio if you know, you've
Speaker 2: had a problem with something, and just keeping on top
Speaker 2: of all those little things and looking after yourself in
Speaker 2: between so that you know you're showing up for the
Speaker 2: next run and you're not in the worst state possible,
Speaker 2: I guess, you know, to help yourself a little bit,
Speaker 2: as easy as is just to be like, oh, I'm done,
Speaker 2: thank god. I don't know. Everyone's busy and you're trying
Speaker 2: to squeeze, you know, in here and there, So sometimes
Speaker 2: you are a bit you know, go go go, but yeah,
Speaker 2: sort of probably taking the time to you know, make
Speaker 2: sure you doodle warm down, or getting enough food into
Speaker 2: you and the right foods into you, and you know
Speaker 2: in summer especially, you know as we're coming into you know,
Speaker 2: keeping hydrated and getting enough sleep. I think sleeper is
Speaker 2: pretty undervalued as a recovery tool. I think it's, you know,
Speaker 2: we're so busy and distracted these days as well, Like
Speaker 2: it's easy, like the amount of times it's so easy
Speaker 2: and you're like, oh my gosh, it's like eleven o'clock,
Speaker 2: you know, you just get caught up watching squid games
Speaker 2: or something, which was us last night, and you're like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh. So I think just like having routines
Speaker 2: is really good to you know, once you make something
Speaker 2: a habit around your recovery and things like that, it's
Speaker 2: it's so much easier. It's less of a chore. You
Speaker 2: can't just do it without thinking. You're like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: finish my run, my gym session. I have this snack
Speaker 2: in the car on the way to you know, work
Speaker 2: or something. Yeah, and things like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I found that I remember to warm up and
Speaker 1: do some like calf stretches and quads and just like
Speaker 1: really quick sort of simple leg stretches. But warming down
Speaker 1: is something you just forget because you kind of like, oh,
Speaker 1: I've done it, you know, tick, and you just want
Speaker 1: to rush off to the next thing. But if you
Speaker 1: go and sit down straight away and then like an
Speaker 1: hour later try and stand up, I'm like, Oh, that's
Speaker 1: why people warm down. What do you actually do as
Speaker 1: a warm down? Like what exercises or do you walk
Speaker 1: it off? Like what kind of advice do you have
Speaker 1: to people who don't actually know what a warm down is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so if we've been doing a track session or
Speaker 2: some harder running, we'll just do like an easy jog.
Speaker 2: For me, that's fifteen minutes. But you know, that's all
Speaker 2: sort of in context of my overall training. I guess,
Speaker 2: you know, if it's five minutes because your session was
Speaker 2: ten minutes, you know that makes sense as well, And
Speaker 2: that fifteen minutes is like as slow as it needs
Speaker 2: to be on that day, and it's probably the slowest
Speaker 2: running I do for the week, And it's often the
Speaker 2: first few minutes are the worst, like and kind of
Speaker 2: once you get that hard running out of your legs
Speaker 2: a little bit you kind of almost flush it out,
Speaker 2: and you know, the last few minutes you're like, Okay, yes,
Speaker 2: that was a good idea, Like I needed that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but yeah. Often, you know, if you're training with someone else,
Speaker 2: in that first five minutes, it's kind of like, okay,
Speaker 2: no one talk.
Speaker 1: Like no, no, worse, I cannot.
Speaker 2: Exactly, so it's kind of like, yeah. It's like you know,
Speaker 2: when you get in the beach and it's really cold.
Speaker 2: In that first few minutes, you're like, oh, sort of freezing,
Speaker 2: and then after a few minutes you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is pretty good. This is nice. It's kind of
Speaker 2: that saying, like, you know, get through the first little
Speaker 2: bit when you're really tired, and then you kind of
Speaker 2: come good and you adjust and you kind of flush
Speaker 2: it out of your legs and you definitely feel better
Speaker 2: for it the next day. But at the time you're like,
Speaker 2: it is the longest like three k's of my life.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love that three cases you're warmed down.
Speaker 1: Do you do the same on like a long run day,
Speaker 1: So on your Sunday long runs at the end of
Speaker 1: the run, what would you normally do.
Speaker 2: I'll often just do some like sort of dynamic drills
Speaker 2: are not necessary, like sort of some static stretches, but
Speaker 2: sort of yeah, a few sort of I guess, like
Speaker 2: walking lunge stretches and a few sort of things like that,
Speaker 2: I guess just to do it sort of depends what's
Speaker 2: sawing cranky as to sort of probably what gets more attention.
Speaker 2: But for example, I find my hips get really tired
Speaker 2: after a long run, just you know, fatigued. So yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of kind of like sort of lungy stretches,
Speaker 2: you know, your arms over your head and twisting and
Speaker 2: kind of just trying to I love the just kind
Speaker 2: of yeah, trying to free up sort of that sort
Speaker 2: of movement through my hips and sort of some like
Speaker 2: leg swings and things like that, just to kind of
Speaker 2: try and loosen up the sort of hips and back
Speaker 2: and things like that. For me, tends to get a
Speaker 2: little bit cranky after those longer runs.
Speaker 1: And are you like are you a bath person or
Speaker 1: you're going to the ocean for the cold person? Like
Speaker 1: is it hot recovery, cold recovery? What do you think
Speaker 1: is best for the legs?
Speaker 2: Well, it depends what you've got access to. Like we
Speaker 2: don't have a bath at home, so it's oh my god.
Speaker 2: Hopefully in my next place we will, but right now
Speaker 2: we don't. But we live pretty close to the beach,
Speaker 2: so yeah, sometimes I do head down there after after training,
Speaker 2: especially in summer when it's kind of hot and refreshing
Speaker 2: as well. But yeah, definitely when I know I've got
Speaker 2: a session that's really going to challenge me, and maybe
Speaker 2: I've got a race coming up and I want to
Speaker 2: make sure I'm recovering well, we'll use the ice baths
Speaker 2: or like the hot and cold pools, which is not
Speaker 2: like my favorite activity, but in other one of those
Speaker 2: kind of like but the bullet I know this is
Speaker 2: good for me scenarios, which is, yeah, you know, you
Speaker 2: always do feel a little bit a little bit better
Speaker 2: for it. But yeah, I do kind of spend a
Speaker 2: bit of time in compression socks and things like my
Speaker 2: calves tend to get pretty cranky. Yeah, I've had some
Speaker 2: injuries with those in the past, so I like to
Speaker 2: try and baby those a little bit. And yeah, so
Speaker 2: I think it's just finding, yeah, the things on that
Speaker 2: for you get sore and tired, or the things that
Speaker 2: might have been injuries in the past, and finding its
Speaker 2: little things that make them feel better and recover better,
Speaker 2: you know, just be pham rolling or a spiky ball
Speaker 2: or yoga or something like that. You know, there's everyrun's
Speaker 2: got different ways of making their bodies feel good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now, drawing on your dietetics qualifications, this is something that,
Speaker 1: again along with speed, has been the most common question
Speaker 1: and also something that I worry about a lot, refueling
Speaker 1: after a run, but also fueling before a run. I
Speaker 1: discovered the other day I tried to go for a
Speaker 1: run before breakfast because I thought then my stomach wouldn't
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to wait for the food to settle
Speaker 1: and just avoid that whole thing. But I just didn't
Speaker 1: have enough energy. Like I figured out, I'm an afternoon runner.
Speaker 1: But the kind of question that came up a lot
Speaker 1: was and this is like maybe not for a fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred runner, but just from your dietetics background, people are like,
Speaker 1: how do you fuel up before a longer run? Are
Speaker 1: you meant to fuel during the run? You know, are
Speaker 1: you supposed to not eat so that your stomach doesn't
Speaker 1: you know, get all upset? And also how do you
Speaker 1: run and hydrate without getting a stitch? Like these dietetics
Speaker 1: questions I was like, oh my god, Linda, help so
Speaker 1: talk us through running nutrition.
Speaker 2: Yeah all right, well, yeah, like you said, you definitely
Speaker 2: want some fuel in the tank, especially for those those
Speaker 2: longer runs. So the things that are going to give
Speaker 2: our muscles the most fuel that the fuel we're actually
Speaker 2: going to use on that run is you know, our carbohydrates.
Speaker 2: And I guess the simpler that form of carbohydrate is,
Speaker 2: the easier it is for us to digest, and the
Speaker 2: quicker that energy we'll get to our muscles. So, you know,
Speaker 2: you really quick carbohydrates like your gatorade, your you know,
Speaker 2: white bread, a banana, like lollies, things like that.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I thought this was all just like
Speaker 1: us justifying ourselves having like carb loading. But I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you're confirming it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, carbs aren't like essential. So yeah, if you're
Speaker 2: sort of getting up and running or you know, running
Speaker 2: in the afternoon, it's those sort of people are Carbohydrates
Speaker 2: are the ones you want to be getting in that
Speaker 2: sort of you know, hour two hours before. They're typically
Speaker 2: going to sit a little bit better. And I think
Speaker 2: sometimes if you do struggle to digest them, sometimes things
Speaker 2: that are in a liquid form sit a bit better
Speaker 2: with a lot of people. So just you know, I
Speaker 2: guess that's just absorbed, a little easier, a little quicker,
Speaker 2: a little easier on the gut. And then yeah, I
Speaker 2: guess if you're actually going in to do, you know,
Speaker 2: like a really long run or something, it's you know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure people are if they're preparing to run a
Speaker 2: half marathon or a marathon, Yeah, you definitely want to
Speaker 2: be taking on some fuel, you know, beyond that kind
Speaker 2: of hour and a half sort of marker of time,
Speaker 2: and whether that's gels, gatorad, lollies, all sorts of things.
Speaker 2: You know. I think everyone has different things that they
Speaker 2: like or convenient to carry or things like that. Or
Speaker 2: if you know, if you're going to run back by
Speaker 2: where you've parked your car or something, you can kind
Speaker 2: of have a quick step off, or you know, if
Speaker 2: you've got to cram a gel in your sports bar
Speaker 2: or something like that, it's you Yeah, but I think
Speaker 2: what's really cool about that is it gives you, you know,
Speaker 2: if you are going to go and run a marathon,
Speaker 2: you definitely want to be practicing what nutrition you're going
Speaker 2: to take on in your marathon. In your training, we
Speaker 2: don't want to be trying new things on race day.
Speaker 1: I've had an awkward toilet moment because I tried something
Speaker 1: the first day on a race day and I'm never
Speaker 1: doing that again. So is that a thing like you
Speaker 1: have to train your body, including your bladder and boughs
Speaker 1: to cope with things along the run, because I in
Speaker 1: my mind, I was always like I will try and
Speaker 1: not eat before and then not eat during so that
Speaker 1: my body just doesn't get confused with like putting extra
Speaker 1: stuff in it. But is that totally the wrong thing
Speaker 1: to do because then you just don't have the fuel. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: Like the more you practice, you know, taking on any
Speaker 1: kind of fuel mid run while you're running, you know,
Speaker 1: the more tolerance you're going to get kind of training
Speaker 1: you've got in a way to take on that fuel,
Speaker 1: to use that fuel and it's less like poly to
Speaker 1: cause and cause an upset hopefully. So yeah, definitely something
Speaker 1: you want to be practicing in your training, that's yeah,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. And you know, finding different people different
Speaker 1: brands of products you know work better for others or
Speaker 1: different you know, sort of you've got gels, you've got drinks,
Speaker 1: you've got like lollies and chews and bars and you know,
Speaker 1: so many different forms.
Speaker 2: Of getting nutrition in that it's really important to be
Speaker 2: find what works best for you from a practicality, you
Speaker 2: know standpoint as well as you know taste digestion and
Speaker 2: you know what's its best. Yeah, So definitely practicing these
Speaker 2: things before race day is like the golden rule of nutrition.
Speaker 2: I feel like, from you know, running a marathon.
Speaker 1: Perspective, and that is so interesting that you mentioned about
Speaker 1: the hour and a half mark like that that's about
Speaker 1: where you should start because I wouldn't even know. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'd just eat all my gels straight away and then
Speaker 1: be like, oh, I've got none left.
Speaker 2: You can definitely take them on earlier, and you know,
Speaker 2: people definitely tend to, but I guess you're not going
Speaker 2: to start running out until that point. I guess in
Speaker 2: terms of what you've got on board from your breakfast
Speaker 2: or you didn't have the night before and things like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what then should you eat like the night before?
Speaker 1: And then what should you eat straight after? Because that's
Speaker 1: another thing that I always like. It's so easy because
Speaker 1: sometimes after you finish running you feel sick. I often
Speaker 1: feel a little bit not really sick, but just a
Speaker 1: bit nauseous and not super hungry. But I know that
Speaker 1: like for your muscles to recover from a long run,
Speaker 1: it's important to just push through that fielly and actually
Speaker 1: put something in your body. So what should you be
Speaker 1: eating straight after a run?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. So in our recovery, we want carbo
Speaker 2: hydrates because we want to replace the carbohydrates that we've
Speaker 2: just used. We want some protein because that's going to
Speaker 2: obviously help repair our muscle damage that we might have
Speaker 2: done and help us get stronger again. And carbs and
Speaker 2: protein work pretty well together, so they work better in
Speaker 2: a pair rather than separately. And then we want to
Speaker 2: rehydrate as well, because we've obviously been sweating and things
Speaker 2: a lot. So they're sort of our three goals, I guess.
Speaker 2: And I think it's about, you know, when we are
Speaker 2: feeling a bit nauseous or run really hard and it's
Speaker 2: getting something in and then maybe you're getting something of
Speaker 2: better quality, and maybe when you've sort of settled down,
Speaker 2: so that's something you know, might just be gatorade or something,
Speaker 2: because that's going to give you some carbohydrates and some hydration,
Speaker 2: and then you know you might settle down your stomach
Speaker 2: a little bit later and be able to have you know,
Speaker 2: some yogurt or a smoothie or something something like that
Speaker 2: that's maybe not quite as palatable in the like immediately
Speaker 2: after finishing. Yeah, and then obviously working out what's like
Speaker 2: practical if you're out and about in the summer and
Speaker 2: you've driven thirty minutes to somewhere that you've run or something,
Speaker 2: you know, what's going to stay food safe in the
Speaker 2: car at that time while you're running.
Speaker 1: You don't want to sound in the middle of a run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a lot of planning to make
Speaker 2: sure you know you're packing snacks or you know that like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, as soon as I'm done, there's like holes
Speaker 2: around the corner and I can go there and pick
Speaker 2: up whatever snack you like to have. So I think,
Speaker 2: like the worst thing for me is getting caught without snacks.
Speaker 1: I hate being caught without whether I'm running or not exactly.
Speaker 2: So I think planning, planning is key for that recovery,
Speaker 2: to know that you know you've got something there. I'm
Speaker 2: a huge fan of an up and go because it
Speaker 2: kind of ticks all of those boxes, and in summer,
Speaker 2: I like chuck in the freezer and then by the
Speaker 2: time I'm done running, it's still cold but defrosted.
Speaker 1: That's a great tip.
Speaker 2: Super handy because it's got it's obviously the liquid, so
Speaker 2: it's got to rehalf rehydration element, but it's also got
Speaker 2: some carbs and protein from the milk and the flavoring
Speaker 2: and things like that. So a bit about like all
Speaker 2: in one kind of ties me over to wake at
Speaker 2: home and then I'll get home and have breakfast or
Speaker 2: dinner or lunch, whatever time a day it is.
Speaker 1: And the night before when I'm running a long run,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, the night before, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: go for like a massive bowl of pasta or something.
Speaker 1: Is that actually what you should be doing? Like are
Speaker 1: you actually carveloading from the night before a long run?
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're running to a point where you
Speaker 2: think you're going to use all of those carbohydrates. So yeah,
Speaker 2: like if you're going to go for a two hour run,
Speaker 2: you definitely want to put a bit of attention on,
Speaker 2: you know, having a few more carbs the night before,
Speaker 2: because that way, I guess you're waking up and your
Speaker 2: fuel tanks is already full.
Speaker 1: Well, Lindon, that was such useful information. I honestly was
Speaker 1: just like stabbing in the wind, making random guesses about
Speaker 1: carb loading and when to eat. And I obviously now
Speaker 1: understand that trying to run without any fuel is such
Speaker 1: a bad idea. So I'm so glad that I understand
Speaker 1: why that was not going down too well for me.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom
Speaker 1: and knowledge and beautiful story. It's been so so lovely
Speaker 1: to have you today. Last question for you, what's your
Speaker 1: favorite quote?
Speaker 2: Oh right, it sounds a bit silly, but my favorite
Speaker 2: is when you go back to a bit of toy
Speaker 2: story here. Yes, my favorite pre race, I guess is
Speaker 2: probably where it came from is just run like the
Speaker 2: wind pools. I. I love it, which kind of just
Speaker 2: started because it's like a little joke with my mom
Speaker 2: and I when I was a kid, and then you know,
Speaker 2: we kind of just kept it going and you know,
Speaker 2: even before the Olympic, should texts me and be like,
Speaker 2: run like the wind puls Ie, and it just like
Speaker 2: makes me happy. It's a bit funny, it's a bit cute,
Speaker 2: it relaxes me, and it's about running kind of.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I love it so much, and I
Speaker 1: love that it's like that little injection of like not
Speaker 1: taking it too seriously, but you are taking it seriously.
Speaker 1: It's a bit of fun. It's like very czya. I
Speaker 1: love it so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my fast favorite one.
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you so much for joining Linden. It
Speaker 1: is just such a pleasure and I know so many
Speaker 1: people listening will have gained so much from this today.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for the chat. It was so fun.
Speaker 1: Another wonderful episode, jam packed with nuggets of wisdom that
Speaker 1: I hope you all found as useful as I have
Speaker 1: in the lead up to Melvin Mara and beyond. If
Speaker 1: you are running in Melbourne Marathon, please let us know.
Speaker 1: I'd love to look out for you on the day
Speaker 1: and hear any of your training takeaways from these chats.
Speaker 1: It's so exciting for our guests and these wonderful athletes
Speaker 1: to see how you've been implementing things that they might
Speaker 1: have shared. And yeah, watch you guys getting excited about
Speaker 1: the sport. As always, I would love you in the
Speaker 1: neighborhood to share the episode if you enjoyed listening, tagging
Speaker 1: all of us at Linden dot hole at Nike Running
Speaker 1: and at Rebel Sport, so that we can keep growing
Speaker 1: the neighborhood as far and wide as possible and hopefully
Speaker 1: accessing a lot of other potential or aspiring or even
Speaker 1: already pro runners. I hope this is helping you all
Speaker 1: embrace that and motivating you to a achieve your running potential.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to Nike and Rebel for making
Speaker 1: this miniseries possible, and hopefully we can bring you many
Speaker 1: more in the future. Hope you guys are all having
Speaker 1: a great week and seizing your yay