Becs Gentry: I don't want the pressure of being fast and I don't
Becs Gentry: want the pressure of running long. We'll come back to
Becs Gentry: the irony of that. But I want to enjoy it.
Becs Gentry: I just really want to enjoy it again.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Hey, everybody, and welcome to Set the Pace, the official
Rob Simmelkjaer: podcast of New York Road Runners presented by Peloton. I'm
Rob Simmelkjaer: your host, Rob Simmelkjaer, the CEO of New York Roadrunners,
Rob Simmelkjaer: and I am thrilled to be rejoined and reunited with
Rob Simmelkjaer: my co- host from Peloton, Becs Gentry. Hey, Becs, how
Rob Simmelkjaer: are you?
Becs Gentry: Hi. I'm good. Thank you. How are you?
Rob Simmelkjaer: I'm good. Why does it feel like it's been so
Rob Simmelkjaer: long? Is it just me?
Becs Gentry: It's been so long.
Rob Simmelkjaer: I feel like it's been months since I spoke to you.
Becs Gentry: It has. It's been months. We've taken a bit more
Becs Gentry: time to have the shows produced in a wonderful way
Becs Gentry: and give our guests and our episodes breathing time and
Becs Gentry: it's just been such a fabulous change. Then I've been
Becs Gentry: away, you've been away. There's been different races and different
Becs Gentry: pieces of life. There we go.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. And that's all-
Becs Gentry: We're here. We're back.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Well, it's great to-
Becs Gentry: Yes.
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... see you if virtually, and I'm looking forward to this episode because we're going to
Rob Simmelkjaer: catch up on all things Becs and where you are
Rob Simmelkjaer: now in your running journey a year and a half
Rob Simmelkjaer: after your unbelievable Great World Race. But I have to tell
Rob Simmelkjaer: you, before we get into that, I had so much
Rob Simmelkjaer: fun on Saturday with your colleague, Camila Ramón-
Becs Gentry: Yeah. Camila.
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... who co- hosted the podcast with us at the
Rob Simmelkjaer: conclusion, the after party of the RBC Brooklyn Half. She was awesome.
Becs Gentry: She ran. She ran. She did the Becs. She ran to
Becs Gentry: work and she crushed it, as did Mariana. Yeah, she's
Becs Gentry: amazing. She's fantastic.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. You better watch your back. She could definitely give
Rob Simmelkjaer: you a run for your money as co- host of this podcast.
Becs Gentry: Well, if I have to hand it over to another Peloton instructor, so be it.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Good to know we've got another Peloton. Great option. Many,
Rob Simmelkjaer: I'm sure. So many of you guys are so good
Rob Simmelkjaer: on camera and everything you do. It was a lot of fun.
Becs Gentry: Good.
Rob Simmelkjaer: We'll talk a little bit more about the RBC Brooklyn
Rob Simmelkjaer: Half. But if you really want the full on recap
Rob Simmelkjaer: of that incredible record setting event that we had on
Rob Simmelkjaer: Saturday, you can check out that episode that we recorded
Rob Simmelkjaer: live from the after party. We'll talk a little bit more
Rob Simmelkjaer: about that later. But, Becs, let's spend some time talking
Rob Simmelkjaer: about you and everything that's going on. And the last
Rob Simmelkjaer: time we had a one- on- one conversation, it was
Rob Simmelkjaer: right after the Great World Race and you were still
Rob Simmelkjaer: in disbelief. I think everybody was in disbelief that you
Rob Simmelkjaer: had just done that. And then since then, you've had
Rob Simmelkjaer: some ups and downs with some injuries and things like
Rob Simmelkjaer: that, but it seems like you're doing well now. Where
Rob Simmelkjaer: is the world of Becs Gentry right now when it comes to running?
Becs Gentry: Taking a turn. Taking a big turn. Well, let's go
Becs Gentry: back. Let's go back 18 months or whatever. I can't
Becs Gentry: believe it's quite been that little time. It feels like
Becs Gentry: it was so much longer ago. Completion of the Great
Becs Gentry: World Race took so long to settle in. I think
Becs Gentry: when we did the podcast episode about it, I was
Becs Gentry: definitely still on the post event high. I think a
Becs Gentry: lot of the conversation we had was... As you say,
Becs Gentry: it was like disbelief. It was. To this day, I
Becs Gentry: still can't get my head around the fact that I
Becs Gentry: ran a marathon in Antarctica. That's just weird. When I say that, I'm like, "
Becs Gentry: That wasn't me. I haven't been to Antarctica. That's a
Becs Gentry: different human." But I think we all have that imposter
Becs Gentry: syndrome style memory association for many things in our lives.
Becs Gentry: And then I carried on running and I feel like
Becs Gentry: I can talk about this openly with you guys because
Becs Gentry: in my role at Peloton, I'm a running coach and
Becs Gentry: I have been a running coach and instructor and personal
Becs Gentry: fitness coach to people for a very long time. I
Becs Gentry: knew it wasn't correct that I was carrying on running.
Becs Gentry: I knew deep down, I was like, " This isn't right."
Becs Gentry: After something of that magnitude, I need to give my
Becs Gentry: body the respect it deserves. I took time off literally
Becs Gentry: the couple of days after the race. And my coach warned
Becs Gentry: me that because of the long build and the nature
Becs Gentry: of the race, that if my body wanted to run,
Becs Gentry: it would be expected that I wouldn't necessarily... Your body
Becs Gentry: can't just stop and switch off for the most part.
Becs Gentry: And I wasn't injured after the race, so there wasn't
Becs Gentry: essentially a reason to curtail running totally. And he was
Becs Gentry: right. I took a couple of days off of running
Becs Gentry: and I went from Miami while we finished the race
Becs Gentry: down to Florida to see my aunt and I ended
Becs Gentry: up running a few 5Ks, just a few during that
Becs Gentry: week of just shaking the legs out. Nothing speed based,
Becs Gentry: just moving. But I didn't stop. I didn't give myself
Becs Gentry: a week of going to rehab and getting my body
Becs Gentry: worked on with a physical therapist, doing acupuncture, swimming perhaps
Becs Gentry: instead of running, or biking, or anything other than running.
Becs Gentry: And that carried on. And then I put in the
Becs Gentry: calendar Grandma's Marathon. I was like, " I'm going to go
Becs Gentry: for it. I'm going to go and do another road
Becs Gentry: race. It's going to be middle of the year." And
Becs Gentry: the climb, the build started to come again and I
Becs Gentry: did a few races. I did the Nike women's half.
Becs Gentry: Keira D'amato and I ran side by side for the
Becs Gentry: whole race. It was absolutely incredible. Keira doesn't run slow,
Becs Gentry: even though that was her slow run day. It was
Becs Gentry: incredibly fast half marathon. And all of a sudden, I hit
Becs Gentry: a wall and I just woke up one day and went, "
Becs Gentry: I don't want to run. I don't want to run.
Becs Gentry: I didn't want to go to work." I did not
Becs Gentry: want to run because I didn't enjoy it. It was
Becs Gentry: becoming a pain in the ass and I resented it.
Becs Gentry: I tried going for a run without my watch, without
Becs Gentry: my phone, without any technology just to run. And I
Becs Gentry: did not want to do it. And that hurt my
Becs Gentry: soul so much because running is a huge part of
Becs Gentry: who I am. It doesn't identify me but it kind
Becs Gentry: of does in a strange way. But the most important
Becs Gentry: thing is it's given me so much joy and to
Becs Gentry: all of a sudden not have that joy was heartbreaking. And
Becs Gentry: so around that time I started the initiation of the
Becs Gentry: 67Strong4Kids with Jennifer Garner and we did the fundraising for
Becs Gentry: Save the Children and it was moving a mile a
Becs Gentry: day. It didn't have to be a run. It could
Becs Gentry: be a walk, it could be a bike ride. It
Becs Gentry: was just moving your body for a mile a day.
Becs Gentry: And I kid you not, Rob, that was the absolute
Becs Gentry: max I wanted to do most days of those 67
Becs Gentry: days. And some days for 12 of my waking hours,
Becs Gentry: I shunned it. I was like, " It's fine. No one's
Becs Gentry: going to know I'm not going to do it." " Oh,
Becs Gentry: I'll do it. I'm going to know I didn't do
Becs Gentry: it because it's for a cause. This isn't just you
Becs Gentry: and running. This is for a cause." And I'd be
Becs Gentry: out at 9: 00 just running up and down my street
Becs Gentry: to get the mile done. That's how much I did
Becs Gentry: not want to run. It took a lot of self-
Becs Gentry: talk. It took a lot of time for me to
Becs Gentry: rebuild this love. And I think pulling out of Grandma's
Becs Gentry: and having this very honest conversation of, yes, I had
Becs Gentry: an event that weekend that ended up challenging it, but
Becs Gentry: I think me in love with running would have absolutely
Becs Gentry: put the marathon first and figured out life around it.
Becs Gentry: And me in that spot took the chance to not run
Becs Gentry: the marathon, to not have to carry on training for
Becs Gentry: it a few weeks in advance. And I was very
Becs Gentry: honest and open and said," I've fallen out of love
Becs Gentry: with running. I'm not upset that I'm not doing this
Becs Gentry: race. I don't care. I'm thrilled, to be quite honest.
Becs Gentry: I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm not going to Grandma's." No disrespect
Becs Gentry: to the wonderful race that is Grandma's Marathon. I will
Becs Gentry: run it one day. After that, after the combination of
Becs Gentry: 67Strong and for the rest of 2025, I essentially stepped
Becs Gentry: back from making myself run outside of work. I have
Becs Gentry: to run for my job and I needed to get
Becs Gentry: back that running joy at Peloton because for some of
Becs Gentry: my classes even I was on autopilot. I wasn't inspired.
Becs Gentry: I wasn't creative, which is not a good thing when
Becs Gentry: it's your job. It took a while. It took a
Becs Gentry: while to actually want to go outside, to lace up
Becs Gentry: my trainers, and go for anything more than a three-
Becs Gentry: mile run. That was about my max. A four- mile
Becs Gentry: run felt nah, not interested in that. No. Three miles
Becs Gentry: because it's about a mile and a half to take my
Becs Gentry: daughter to school and back to my house. So in
Becs Gentry: summer, I like to run her down there and back
Becs Gentry: and that was my cap out. And to get through that,
Becs Gentry: this sounds so dramatic, a lot of people have a lot
Becs Gentry: of things going on in their life, but for me it was very,
Becs Gentry: very awkward because I'm supposed to be this person who
Becs Gentry: embodies running, but I'm seeing everyone and their mother is
Becs Gentry: running more miles than me. And it's not because I'm injured, it's because
Becs Gentry: I just don't want to.
Rob Simmelkjaer: I know how you feel, by the way, with not
Rob Simmelkjaer: running with people looking at your Strava because you work in the
Rob Simmelkjaer: running industry and wondering, " Why isn't this person running more?" For me,
Rob Simmelkjaer: it's injury, although I've been easing my way back the
Rob Simmelkjaer: same thing.
Becs Gentry: You're coming back.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Three miles here and there.
Becs Gentry: Which is just fine.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah, I get it. It's when you've got the eyes
Rob Simmelkjaer: on you and people expect a certain thing of you.
Rob Simmelkjaer: For you, they expect lots of miles and very fast
Rob Simmelkjaer: miles, so I get it.
Becs Gentry: Yeah. And then I guess it was serendipitous that I
Becs Gentry: had been in talks with HOKA for a minute. I
Becs Gentry: had gone through trialing their shoes because I hadn't run
Becs Gentry: much in them and we were talking about a sponsorship,
Becs Gentry: an athlete ambassador role, and I needed to know what
Becs Gentry: these shoes were about. I needed to understand what these
Becs Gentry: shoes would do for me essentially. And that compelled me
Becs Gentry: to get out and run because I was trying their shoes.
Becs Gentry: I was trying other shoes as well just to see
Becs Gentry: what all the difference was in the world of running
Becs Gentry: shoes. And then the conversation continued. I did fall in
Becs Gentry: love with a pair of their road shoes. Austin and
Becs Gentry: I actually sat down and he was like, " What is
Becs Gentry: it about running for you? What do you want from
Becs Gentry: it? Because right now what I think you're trying to
Becs Gentry: get isn't working." I was like, "It's not. I don't want the
Becs Gentry: pressure of being fast and I don't want the pressure
Becs Gentry: of running long." We'll come back to the irony of
Becs Gentry: that. But I want to enjoy it. I just really
Becs Gentry: want to enjoy it again. And it was taking so
Becs Gentry: long to enjoy it. And then I sat down with
Becs Gentry: my team and HOKA and said, " I'm thrilled to partner with you
Becs Gentry: guys, but I want to turn. I want to take a
Becs Gentry: turn and that I want to step away from road.
Becs Gentry: I want to go and do what makes me happy
Becs Gentry: in my heart." And that is being an adventurer and
Becs Gentry: getting to run on these trails and not have thousands
Becs Gentry: of people around me. I have so much anxiety and
Becs Gentry: claustrophobia of big races. I get very nervous in the
Becs Gentry: start corrals, just... I hate being in crowds. I don't
Becs Gentry: go to concerts. I don't go to things like that.
Becs Gentry: I get very, very bad anxiety from it. And the-
Rob Simmelkjaer: You did not know that about you. Yeah.
Becs Gentry: Yeah. That's why I don't tend to do a lot
Becs Gentry: of the races unless I can literally be at the
Becs Gentry: front because I get so worked up because I can't
Becs Gentry: get out. There's too many people and I can't get
Becs Gentry: out. And so that side of running is where I
Becs Gentry: began. I ran 50Ks before I ran 5Ks when I
Becs Gentry: started running and immediately, my heart was starting to blossom
Becs Gentry: again with this, " Ooh, ooh. Okay. Ooh, this is going
Becs Gentry: to be fun. Ooh, what are we going to do?
Becs Gentry: What are we going to do? How far are we
Becs Gentry: going to run? What's on the cards?" I guess that's
Becs Gentry: the abridged version of how I am at this point
Becs Gentry: in my running career, which is saying goodbye to road
Becs Gentry: racing as my dominant choice of race and embracing way
Becs Gentry: more of those trail races.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Amazing. I love this change for you. I think this
Rob Simmelkjaer: is fascinating. There's so much that you've said that I'm
Rob Simmelkjaer: sure different people listening can relate to different parts of
Rob Simmelkjaer: it. Running is hard. That's one of the things that
Rob Simmelkjaer: attracts all of us to it is that it's hard.
Rob Simmelkjaer: If it were easy, well, we wouldn't be here talking
Rob Simmelkjaer: about it every week because who talks about something that's
Rob Simmelkjaer: easy all the time? You just do it. I think
Rob Simmelkjaer: what's hard about it is what makes it great, but
Rob Simmelkjaer: when you do it as much as you've done it and you
Rob Simmelkjaer: did it as part of your job as well, it's
Rob Simmelkjaer: so easy to see how you could have gone on
Rob Simmelkjaer: this kind of a journey. What is it... You talked
Rob Simmelkjaer: about the lack of crowds. What else is it for
Rob Simmelkjaer: you that makes trail running different? It sounds like maybe
Rob Simmelkjaer: when you're out there in nature, running on the trails,
Rob Simmelkjaer: does it feel almost like it's not running? Like you're
Rob Simmelkjaer: having an adventure where you happen to be moving quickly
Rob Simmelkjaer: through the trails?
Becs Gentry: Exactly. Exactly. And there's no pressure. There's no pressure. The
Becs Gentry: variables of road racing are few and far between. Even
Becs Gentry: though as humans we love to create however many it's...
Becs Gentry: Where is it going to be a slightly undulating hilly
Becs Gentry: road race or the weather? Really, they're the only things
Becs Gentry: that are going to come at you other than like
Becs Gentry: you drop your fuel, you don't take the right fuel,
Becs Gentry: you have a stomach bug. Okay. Things like that, but
Becs Gentry: that can happen on any given day. For trail, you've
Becs Gentry: got this... You know going into it that it is
Becs Gentry: going to be so challenging in different areas. Most trail
Becs Gentry: races do have a road section because a lot of
Becs Gentry: them start and finish in very cute towns. So you're
Becs Gentry: likely to be starting on tarmac for a lot of
Becs Gentry: the bigger trail and ultra races. And I just love
Becs Gentry: the fact that when you get off, you make a
Becs Gentry: turn, off that tarmac, and then you're just suddenly going up,
Becs Gentry: up, up, or off, off, off into the desert, into
Becs Gentry: the mountains. And it's like your brain just disappears into, "
Becs Gentry: Huh, I'm just moving." For me, I'm not a professional
Becs Gentry: trail runner. There is a lot of professional trail runners
Becs Gentry: who do go for speed and they are a lung
Becs Gentry: on legs, these people, they're unreal of how they conquer
Becs Gentry: these mountains and deserts. And for me, it really does
Becs Gentry: alleviate that extra pressure that I've come to understand that
Becs Gentry: is on my shoulders when I do road racing. That's self-
Becs Gentry: created because of where I got to in my career
Becs Gentry: and I'm very, very grateful for that. But I'm also very
Becs Gentry: understanding of my own body and my own mind. I'm
Becs Gentry: very precious of my own body and my own mind
Becs Gentry: because of my job, because of all the extra pressures
Becs Gentry: I'm constantly under. I'm like, " Why choose to keep pushing
Becs Gentry: myself in an area that's causing me extra anxiety when
Becs Gentry: I can keep running, but I can take the notch
Becs Gentry: down of the anxiety and the enjoyment up and I
Becs Gentry: can keep running?"
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. So this newfound love of trail running landed you
Rob Simmelkjaer: at the starting line of the Napa Valley Trail Marathon.
Becs Gentry: Yes.
Rob Simmelkjaer: You're back to the marathon distance but now on the trails.
Rob Simmelkjaer: What did it feel like for you... I actually have
Rob Simmelkjaer: two questions for you. First of all, how do you
Rob Simmelkjaer: train for a trail marathon? Are you finding trails to do
Rob Simmelkjaer: long runs or are you around trails enough to do
Rob Simmelkjaer: long runs? Or are you just training on the roads
Rob Simmelkjaer: and on the treadmill? That's my first question. So answer that first.
Becs Gentry: Yes.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yep.
Becs Gentry: For me, personally, again, we've just all in the trail
Becs Gentry: world and a lot of people outside of it have
Becs Gentry: just recently been witnessed to a huge race called Cocodona 250,
Becs Gentry: which is out Flagstaff, Arizona and records were broken this
Becs Gentry: year. It was absolutely unreal to see Rachel Entrekin, and if you
Becs Gentry: don't know her, look her up, she has boomed unto
Becs Gentry: the trail in ultra running world, who won it outright in
Becs Gentry: 56 hours.
Rob Simmelkjaer: That's right.
Becs Gentry: Yeah.
Rob Simmelkjaer: To be clear.
Becs Gentry: Do the math.
Rob Simmelkjaer: She was the first human across the finish line, male
Rob Simmelkjaer: or female. Absolutely.
Becs Gentry: Yes. The next person happened to be male and he
Becs Gentry: was 90 minutes after her.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Wow.
Becs Gentry: Put it that way.
Rob Simmelkjaer: That's insane.
Becs Gentry: She stopped for 15 minutes, I think it was, in 56 hours and nine minutes
Becs Gentry: to cover that distance. And the elevation was 39,000 feet
Becs Gentry: overall, I think. It is bonkers. Someone like that to
Becs Gentry: be at the top of her game... She lives in
Becs Gentry: Arizona. She is out there training on the trails all
Becs Gentry: the time. She can run those in her sleep. She
Becs Gentry: could run them with her eyes closed. That is her
Becs Gentry: job. That is her full- time job. She is a young
Becs Gentry: athlete, a young professional athlete who does that. I live
Becs Gentry: in New York. Well, predominantly live in the city.
Rob Simmelkjaer: We've got the Bridle Path in Central Park.
Becs Gentry: We've got the Bridle Path.
Rob Simmelkjaer: I'm not sure how much that's really helping you train for a trail marathon.
Becs Gentry: Weirdly, I did a lot of loops of Central Park
Becs Gentry: because of the hills. It is really, really good for that.
Becs Gentry: But honestly, it is a lot of treadmill. It's a
Becs Gentry: lot of hiking with a weighted vest. Yes, come at
Becs Gentry: me if you don't believe it. I don't run in
Becs Gentry: a weighted vest. I don't like that feeling personally. I
Becs Gentry: do feel like that stresses my shoulders out a bit
Becs Gentry: too much to have that moving here all the time.
Becs Gentry: Yeah, the jumping. But I love a hike. I'll pop
Becs Gentry: on my weighted vest and I will put Virgin River
Becs Gentry: on Netflix and I will plow through episodes and I'm
Becs Gentry: just hiking on that tread. It's a very similar process
Becs Gentry: to training for 777. I didn't run a marathon every
Becs Gentry: day for seven days to train for running a marathon
Becs Gentry: every day for seven days. What I did do was
Becs Gentry: train on very, very tired legs all the time to
Becs Gentry: get my body used to that feeling. And that is
Becs Gentry: similarly what I'm doing now is I will go and
Becs Gentry: do my whatever workout I need to do, whether it's
Becs Gentry: a strength workout, whether it's just a speed workout or a
Becs Gentry: running workout and I will finish it off with either
Becs Gentry: floors on a stair machine or 30, 60, 90- minute hike
Becs Gentry: on the tread. So my legs are tired going into
Becs Gentry: a hike and they just are like, " Okay, this is where
Becs Gentry: we just have to become our strongest version of ourselves."
Becs Gentry: So no to the trail running training. But funny you
Becs Gentry: asked that the reason why I chose Napa was multifaceted
Becs Gentry: really, but the basis of it was because I wanted
Becs Gentry: to practice running on the trails ahead of Canyons 50K.
Becs Gentry: So it was date reason, I had time off from
Becs Gentry: work already carved out. So I was looking for a
Becs Gentry: race on that exact day somewhere in the U. S.
Becs Gentry: I saw Napa Valley and I was like, " Well, that
Becs Gentry: sounds nice. I like wine. I like running."
Rob Simmelkjaer: Seems like an easy talk to me.
Becs Gentry: This is a really nice weekend.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah.
Becs Gentry: Yeah. And it was the weekend before my 40th birthday
Becs Gentry: and so I thought to myself, " Treat yourself. Go and
Becs Gentry: get a nice hotel, go and spend a weekend and
Becs Gentry: have some spa services and some you time and really
Becs Gentry: make yourself love what you're properly starting to do again."
Becs Gentry: And so yeah, I signed up for a small race
Becs Gentry: Endura sports, very small organization and they do all these
Becs Gentry: ultra and trail races around, I think, the U. S.
Becs Gentry: maybe and internationally. I don't know. But anyway, it was
Becs Gentry: tiny. There was 300 people across the 10K half and
Becs Gentry: full marathon distances-
Rob Simmelkjaer: It's awesome.
Becs Gentry: ... running this.
Rob Simmelkjaer: You crossed the line in that one in three hours,
Rob Simmelkjaer: 22 minutes, 58 seconds, the overall winner of the race,
Rob Simmelkjaer: male or female, I believe. No surprise there. Now, okay,
Rob Simmelkjaer: so you did that. You have run 2: 32 on
Rob Simmelkjaer: the roads in marathon trials. What was harder for you
Rob Simmelkjaer: doing three and a half on the trails or two
Rob Simmelkjaer: and a half on the roads?
Becs Gentry: I still think two and a half on the roads
Becs Gentry: was mentally more... There was way more digging deep. And
Becs Gentry: the monotony. The monotony of doing it on the road
Becs Gentry: is relentless. It's just... Nothing changes. You just got to
Becs Gentry: keep that pace and you've got to hold on for
Becs Gentry: a dear life until you get to the finish line. Whereas
Becs Gentry: on the trails, it's undulating times. One minute, you are
Becs Gentry: hiking up to the top of a point, you're taking
Becs Gentry: a breath and jogging it out on a plateau, and
Becs Gentry: then you're absolutely bombing it down. The downhills, those paces
Becs Gentry: are going back up and then you do that on
Becs Gentry: repeat over and over again as your legs get more
Becs Gentry: and more tired. But I think mentally the monotony is
Becs Gentry: more difficult than with trails where yes, it's tough mentally,
Becs Gentry: but for me taking it down to a walk or
Becs Gentry: a hike, I'm like, " Okay, this is my reset. I'm
Becs Gentry: still moving and that's all that matters. I'm still moving
Becs Gentry: forward. Just let me reset my brain and try again."
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. It went pretty well, it seems to me. Okay.
Becs Gentry: It did.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Take us to the Canyons. This is a 50K ultra
Rob Simmelkjaer: in the trails. Remind me where this is.
Becs Gentry: Auburn, California.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Okay, got it.
Becs Gentry: So Northern California.
Rob Simmelkjaer: And this was your goal race. You had picked this
Rob Simmelkjaer: out as a goal from before Napa Valley, right?
Becs Gentry: Yeah. I needed to complete this race in order to
Becs Gentry: qualify for my race at the end of summer. There
Becs Gentry: was no time constraints other than finishing it. I had
Becs Gentry: 10 hours to finish it, but there was no qualification
Becs Gentry: time other than that.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Just finish.
Becs Gentry: Yeah, just finish. Napa was the warmup for it, was the get the legs
Becs Gentry: back ready, figure it out. And then I had four
Becs Gentry: weeks in between Napa and Canyons to get myself prepared.
Becs Gentry: I've never traveled so much in my life in those
Becs Gentry: four weeks. I think I took 18 flights in four
Becs Gentry: weeks or five weeks, I think it was in the
Becs Gentry: end of just all over the world, not just within
Becs Gentry: the U. S. I was Europe, East Coast, West Coast,
Becs Gentry: up, down, side, side, everywhere. So my body was exhausted from
Becs Gentry: that. I managed to squeeze in some epic running in
Becs Gentry: the Canary Islands where my parents lived because I had
Becs Gentry: to go out there to look after them. It was
Becs Gentry: volcanic running. So it was just me. Tallulah and Austin
Becs Gentry: stayed here in the U. S. so I was single
Becs Gentry: and free. So I definitely did go out for three
Becs Gentry: hour runs and put the pack on and then had
Becs Gentry: fun, which was great and unexpected mini training camp for
Becs Gentry: myself while I was out there. And then Canyons came
Becs Gentry: around and honestly... I don't know. I think after Napa, I was
Becs Gentry: prepared and excited of like, " Okay, I'm going to go
Becs Gentry: into a big race. There's going to be some big
Becs Gentry: athletes there." There were some big athletes lining up. I knew
Becs Gentry: Molly was going to be there.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Molly Seidel-
Becs Gentry: Molly Seidel-
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... who has transitioned from the road to the trails
Rob Simmelkjaer: as well. Yeah.
Becs Gentry: Exactly. She's taking her to 2: 26 or 2: 23, something really
Becs Gentry: fast, off the roads and onto the trails very recently
Becs Gentry: too. And she is dominating in the 50K and soon to
Becs Gentry: be the hundred as well. But I felt ready. I
Becs Gentry: felt excited to do it. I felt interested to see
Becs Gentry: as well whether the world that I left of trail
Becs Gentry: running 10, 15 years ago, it was the same now. And
Becs Gentry: that trail running world was in the U. K. and
Becs Gentry: Europe and I'd never really gotten into the trail running
Becs Gentry: world in the U. S. So I was so interested
Becs Gentry: to see what it was like if it was going
Becs Gentry: to still feel like a kind of granola hug in
Becs Gentry: a weird way. A crunchy granola hug.
Rob Simmelkjaer: And did it?
Becs Gentry: And it did.
Rob Simmelkjaer: It did.
Becs Gentry: It did. It did. There was the '90s rock playing
Becs Gentry: at the... What's it called? The village, which is just
Becs Gentry: a teeny, tiny parking space basically, which was turned into
Becs Gentry: where you go and pick up your bib. And it's
Becs Gentry: just... There's no show. There's no bravado. Even there was
Becs Gentry: the likes of Hans Troyer there, who was one of the
Becs Gentry: most incredible up and coming young male trail runners. And
Becs Gentry: then... There's nothing. They're just running. They're literally just all
Becs Gentry: running all the time. And I loved it. I loved
Becs Gentry: it. It was Austin's first experience of ultra world and
Becs Gentry: trail running and he was just like, " Wow, this is
Becs Gentry: so different to world marathon majors or even New York
Becs Gentry: Road Runners." It's so very different to the races that
Becs Gentry: we see regularly in big cities. His eyes were just...
Becs Gentry: All the time. And because these race weekends and trails,
Becs Gentry: there are multiple races and they all are happening simultaneously
Becs Gentry: depending on the distance that you choose. So once the
Becs Gentry: first race starts around the start finished village, it's just
Becs Gentry: a buzz all the time of like, "Okay, the 25K people come
Becs Gentry: in and then the 50K people come in, then the
Becs Gentry: 50 mile, then the 100K, then the 100 mile." And
Becs Gentry: it's just a weekend of celebration and smelly, filthy, agonizing
Becs Gentry: bodies walking through the area.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Becs Gentry: I was really excited to get there for sure.
Rob Simmelkjaer: So you finished as the 13th female in this race, a time of 4:
Rob Simmelkjaer: 46 over 32 miles. I guess it was your first
Rob Simmelkjaer: real ultra, right? And so when you got to finish-
Becs Gentry: For now. I've done many, many in the past.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yes, yes. In this new world of Becs.
Becs Gentry: In this new world.
Rob Simmelkjaer: How did it feel different for you to reach the
Rob Simmelkjaer: finish line of that race versus all these marathons you've
Rob Simmelkjaer: run, whether we're talking about Olympic trials or majors or
Rob Simmelkjaer: even the 777, what was the feeling like getting to
Rob Simmelkjaer: that finish line?
Becs Gentry: It was a journey. It was a real journey. It
Becs Gentry: was... Again, I go back to the lack of pressure
Becs Gentry: that I feel before. Probably because I'd been doing it
Becs Gentry: for a long time, but I was very methodical about
Becs Gentry: my days before running road marathons and very specific about
Becs Gentry: what was going to happen and need to go to
Becs Gentry: bed at this time and very, very regimented in it.
Becs Gentry: And I think that also stole the fun for me.
Becs Gentry: That's not what floats my boat. And I know a
Becs Gentry: lot of people love routine and regimen, but I just
Becs Gentry: do not. I thrive in spontaneity and just having a
Becs Gentry: bit of a soft edge to life. And it was
Becs Gentry: just random. The night before the race, Austin wants to
Becs Gentry: go see this restaurant, we're sitting at a bar in
Becs Gentry: a restaurant and now I'm not having a drink, but
Becs Gentry: still I'm not sitting down and eating pasta or pizza. I'm
Becs Gentry: like, "Oh, we're just going to try a bunch of these foods.
Becs Gentry: This looks fun." And we went to bed. It was
Becs Gentry: an early start the next morning, obviously, but it was very chill
Becs Gentry: and it literally wasn't until we got to the start
Becs Gentry: line and... Another thing I love and because it's a
Becs Gentry: small race, the race started at 7: 00 A. M. I
Becs Gentry: got to the start line at 6: 40 and that's fantastic.
Rob Simmelkjaer: That is amazing.
Becs Gentry: Yeah, I had the stuff I needed on my back
Becs Gentry: in my pack and I was finishing it where we
Becs Gentry: were starting. I knew Austin was going to be there
Becs Gentry: and if I needed a hoodie, if not, my hotel
Becs Gentry: was an eight- minute walk, great. It's much more comforting
Becs Gentry: to me. I'm not somebody who likes to hang around
Becs Gentry: after a big race and get cold and I just
Becs Gentry: want to get home or get away. And that's also
Becs Gentry: sometimes very stressful. It's a long journey. So that was
Becs Gentry: fun. But it wasn't until I got down into Central
Becs Gentry: Auburn that I got nervous because I saw Molly Seidel,
Becs Gentry: I saw all of the pro women at the front waiting
Becs Gentry: to go. And because of my partnership with HOKA, it's a HOKA sponsored
Becs Gentry: race, they were like, " Becs, you're in with the pro
Becs Gentry: women to start." And I'm like, " Oh, no." An immediately...
Becs Gentry: I was like, " No. This is... No. I'm not a
Becs Gentry: pro in this. This is my second race. I don't
Becs Gentry: know what I'm doing." But I just went there. I
Becs Gentry: just put on my Peloton face and was like, " Okay,
Becs Gentry: sure. Yay." And it was lovely because Molly and I
Becs Gentry: knew each other and she immediately just big hug and I
Becs Gentry: looked her, I was like, " Dude, what are we doing
Becs Gentry: here?" She's like, " I don't know. We're both from the
Becs Gentry: road." And looking around, there was a lot of young,
Becs Gentry: young, and I'm talking like 23, 24- year- old women who
Becs Gentry: have come from college running and are just doing 50Ks
Becs Gentry: because they're so strong and so flexible in their running
Becs Gentry: journeys right now. Rob, the men went, we crept forward,
Becs Gentry: and I'm just like, " Oh, God, what is this going
Becs Gentry: to be like? We're 32 miles ahead of us. How is
Becs Gentry: this going to go?" And I just said to myself, "
Becs Gentry: Just run your own race. Run your own race." And so
Becs Gentry: we're lining up. I'm on the front line. Literally, it's
Becs Gentry: like, I can't remember the girl who was here, me,
Becs Gentry: Molly Seidel, and then the other two girls who podiumed
Becs Gentry: with their head. I'm looking at the photos that were taken like, "
Becs Gentry: What was I doing there?" They went out the gate
Becs Gentry: in 6: 50 pace. Not what I've been training at,
Becs Gentry: not what I expected. I stubbornly, the Aries in me
Becs Gentry: held on for a mile or so with them. But
Becs Gentry: we were at the bottom of Auburn and it was
Becs Gentry: like this, climbing, to get to the trails and I
Becs Gentry: just hung. I hung for as long as I could
Becs Gentry: until we hit the first downhill, and I will admit
Becs Gentry: I'm not good at the downhill.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Downhills on trails are scary. I have done a couple things.
Becs Gentry: Trying.
Rob Simmelkjaer: I've done a Spartan race and running some trails and
Rob Simmelkjaer: it's scary because you're not just landing on pavement. Every
Rob Simmelkjaer: step could be a disaster. Every... You could hit a root.
Becs Gentry: Absolutely.
Rob Simmelkjaer: You could hit a pothole, whatever it might be. You land in the
Rob Simmelkjaer: wrong place and you've got a problem.
Becs Gentry: You've got a big problem and then you're stranded in
Becs Gentry: pain. That was my first humbling moment and that's when
Becs Gentry: I said to my... I just had to have a
Becs Gentry: big internal conversation of, "Becs, you promised you were going to
Becs Gentry: do this to run your race, not compete." And I
Becs Gentry: just had to be like, " You've got to not look
Becs Gentry: at the watch, A, for the distance and B for
Becs Gentry: the pace." Because I was seeing eight, nine minute, I was just seeing
Becs Gentry: it creep up from the 6: 50s that I knew
Becs Gentry: and loved from road racing to paces I'm not used
Becs Gentry: to running it. And I was getting-
Rob Simmelkjaer: With my kinds of paces. Yeah. Things that start with eights.
Becs Gentry: Yeah. But it's different on where you're at and it was
Becs Gentry: just in my brain not what I'm used to seeing
Becs Gentry: in race. Even though I've been training that, I've been
Becs Gentry: hiking on the tread at three miles an hour. That
Becs Gentry: is very, very much bigger numbers than I'm used to
Becs Gentry: seeing pace wise. But in a race scenario, having gone
Becs Gentry: out the gate like that, I just got that stubborn
Becs Gentry: like, "Oh, God, I just want to keep up with them."
Becs Gentry: And off they went. They're just one by one. I
Becs Gentry: was like, " Okay." But after that, I started to just
Becs Gentry: have fun. I sucked it up. I took the wind
Becs Gentry: out of my sails that first two miles. It really did.
Becs Gentry: I was angry with myself that I didn't just get
Becs Gentry: around the corner from the start and the cameras and
Becs Gentry: be like, " Okay, see you," but you live and learn, because we
Becs Gentry: then had seven miles of just straight uphill climbing, which
Becs Gentry: was very tough. But the minute I start cracking jokes,
Becs Gentry: I realize I'm in a good place and I did.
Becs Gentry: I was coming up on a guy and I could
Becs Gentry: hear... I was breathing so heavily because I was just
Becs Gentry: trying to get... I was like, " Huuu, haaaa." And I just
Becs Gentry: shouted to him. I was like, " It's not Darth Vader. It's just
Becs Gentry: me. My name's Becs." And he's like, "What?" And he just starts laughing so hard. He
Becs Gentry: was like, " Thank you. That gave me the distraction I
Becs Gentry: needed from this."
Rob Simmelkjaer: That's awesome.
Becs Gentry: I'm like, " You got this."
Rob Simmelkjaer: That's really fun. Gosh, there's so much I want to ask.
Rob Simmelkjaer: My question, so you felt good at the end of
Rob Simmelkjaer: the day with your finished-
Becs Gentry: I feel good.
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... did you feel good about it?
Becs Gentry: I did. Look, I know I'm not good on downhills
Becs Gentry: because I haven't trained them. As you say, I live
Becs Gentry: in New York. I haven't been training on the trails.
Becs Gentry: Two weeks before the race, I went to run the
Becs Gentry: part of the Appalachian Trail. I rolled my ankle many
Becs Gentry: times on there as anyone would. It's one of the most
Becs Gentry: technical trails on the East Coast. And it wasn't a
Becs Gentry: bad roll. It's just little tweaks that you get on
Becs Gentry: the trail. And I just wasn't fully confident in my
Becs Gentry: stability, but also I wasn't fully confident in my ability
Becs Gentry: full stop. So there were many times I had to step
Becs Gentry: to the side because I could hear people coming down.
Becs Gentry: And I just watched them in awe, Rob. I'd be like, "
Becs Gentry: How? How are they not just falling?"
Rob Simmelkjaer: They're like cats.
Becs Gentry: They were flying.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. They're like cats.
Becs Gentry: Floating.
Rob Simmelkjaer: They're scampering down these hills and every step somehow works
Rob Simmelkjaer: for them. Yeah, I've seen it.
Becs Gentry: Works for them. And then I take two steps and I'm like, "
Becs Gentry: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." Bambi on ice trying to get down it. So
Becs Gentry: that was frustrating. But conversely, I'm really, really good on uphills.
Becs Gentry: I'm really strong. I'm really stubborn and I will take
Becs Gentry: my place back on the uphills. Unfortunately, the downhills were
Becs Gentry: just getting very, very technical because they'd had a lot
Becs Gentry: of rain, so it wasn't just... There was the valley
Becs Gentry: where the rain had come shooting down, so rocks and
Becs Gentry: this steep valley so it got technical. But it was
Becs Gentry: a lot of time by myself. I spent a lot
Becs Gentry: of those 32 miles all by myself. I got to
Becs Gentry: see Austin twice. Once I knew and I was really,
Becs Gentry: really excited about seeing him. It took me back to
Becs Gentry: our first ever, when I ran New York City Marathon,
Becs Gentry: and I knew I'd fallen in love with him when
Becs Gentry: I was waiting to see him on my mile somewhere
Becs Gentry: between eight and nine that day. I kept thinking of
Becs Gentry: that and how excited I was in 2019 to run
Becs Gentry: towards him. And when I was struggling, 15 miles was
Becs Gentry: about where I was going to see him. And same.
Becs Gentry: He was later than he'd said he'd be and I was like, "
Becs Gentry: God, he does this every time." But it was just
Becs Gentry: so like, "Okay, there's my person, you can keep going," and high-
Becs Gentry: fives and hugs and had a Diet Coke and off
Becs Gentry: we went and then he surprised me a bit later
Becs Gentry: on, which made me cry because I wasn't in a
Becs Gentry: good spot at that point, but still it worked and
Becs Gentry: I definitely... Yeah. I think I should have really done
Becs Gentry: the kilometers two miles translation earlier because I got to
Becs Gentry: 30 miles and like, " Where's the finish line? Why are
Becs Gentry: we not done?" And we had another two miles. So
Becs Gentry: that was my only big downfall.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Becs, tell me about the finish. This is the longest
Rob Simmelkjaer: single race you'd ever run in your life at 50
Rob Simmelkjaer: kilometers. So this was something new for you. What did
Rob Simmelkjaer: it feel like to reach that finish line?
Becs Gentry: Yeah. The longest I've run in 10 or so years and
Becs Gentry: a big decade change was daunting to go into it knowing, "
Becs Gentry: Oh, it's been a long time since I've run this
Becs Gentry: distance." Yeah, as I said, the race unfolded pretty undramatically.
Becs Gentry: There was definitely moments of frustration. There was moments of
Becs Gentry: learning, of being like, " Okay, remember to tell coach how
Becs Gentry: I felt here. Remember to tell him this really sucked
Becs Gentry: and I wished I could do this better. How can
Becs Gentry: he help me?" So that's what I was taking from
Becs Gentry: Canyons all along the way. But again, having so much
Becs Gentry: fun of being out there, Northern California, Auburn was so
Becs Gentry: beautiful, Rob. It was my first time there and that
Becs Gentry: nature is just... We climbed so high. We're on the
Becs Gentry: top of these mountains. We're looking down into these stunning
Becs Gentry: valleys. Part of the course is part of the Western
Becs Gentry: States course, which was incredibly inspiring to run on that,
Becs Gentry: to just know the gravity of madness that people are
Becs Gentry: going through when they're running Western States and they're at that point on
Becs Gentry: the course. It's quite late on, so their bodies are
Becs Gentry: broken down, their mind is even more broken down. And
Becs Gentry: then it was kind of a loop course and you
Becs Gentry: pick up... You come back to where you started. There was only
Becs Gentry: very, very small sections that you repeated. And as I
Becs Gentry: said, it was technical, it was challenging, so much up
Becs Gentry: and down, just constantly climbing and descending over and over
Becs Gentry: again. And then as I mentioned, I hadn't done the
Becs Gentry: translation of kilometers to miles correctly. We got through the last
Becs Gentry: aid station, I think, at 24 miles, maybe 25 miles and
Becs Gentry: I said to a guy, I was like, " Ooh, last
Becs Gentry: one nearly there." And he looked at me, he was like, "
Becs Gentry: Yeah, sure." Went off and I was like, "All right, what is
Becs Gentry: he talking about?" I'm thinking that we finished at 30
Becs Gentry: miles, not 32. So I'm celebrating like, " Woo- hoo, six
Becs Gentry: more miles to go."
Rob Simmelkjaer: That's rough.
Becs Gentry: That was really rough because in those last two miles was one of the
Becs Gentry: steepest climbs, not the longest, but one of the steepest
Becs Gentry: climbs to finish us off and that sucked. But I
Becs Gentry: found another runner and we were both quite spent by
Becs Gentry: that point and we got to a point where he
Becs Gentry: was human four by fouring as well, using his hands
Becs Gentry: and his legs to get up the hill. I went
Becs Gentry: to jog and then I pulled back and jog and
Becs Gentry: that's how I like to do it. And then he
Becs Gentry: looked at me, he was like, " All right, okay. You
Becs Gentry: go, I go." I was like, " All right, we've got
Becs Gentry: this together." And we just helped each other motivate. And
Becs Gentry: then we got on the road where on the way,
Becs Gentry: the girls, the women and we'd been doing 6: 50
Becs Gentry: pace and I'm just laughing. So I was like, " How?
Becs Gentry: I'm doing 10- minute mile pace right now." But it was
Becs Gentry: uphill still and it was back on the tarmac, but
Becs Gentry: I knew I was at the end. And again, knowing
Becs Gentry: Austin was going to be there. And just knowing I'd
Becs Gentry: done it and coming into that finish line was absolutely
Becs Gentry: unreal. I was really expecting my legs to be unreal
Becs Gentry: levels of pain and I don't say this to give
Becs Gentry: myself props, but I was fine. I say this, if
Becs Gentry: anything, I underestimated what I could have done. I think
Becs Gentry: I held back quite a lot for the in the
Becs Gentry: moment pain that I was experiencing. The immediate muscle soreness,
Becs Gentry: I was scared and I was like, " No, no, I
Becs Gentry: can't get that sore because I've got to keep running."
Becs Gentry: So that taught me of like, "No, no, no, you're good
Becs Gentry: at flushing out. You have a good lactate threshold. You
Becs Gentry: can go harder in the moment," because I did not
Becs Gentry: experience much soreness after the race, which was very good
Becs Gentry: knowing what I have ahead. And then as I said,
Becs Gentry: it's a festival weekend. You have multi- race distances coming
Becs Gentry: in. So we stuck around to see other people finish
Becs Gentry: the different distances, whether it was the 100 kilometers, 62
Becs Gentry: miles, or the 100- mile race of which my very good
Becs Gentry: friend Jeremiah, he completed that, the Canyons 100 mile race.
Becs Gentry: And so it was very inspiring to see all the
Becs Gentry: different stories, all the different abilities, and all the different
Becs Gentry: smiles and pride coming through.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah. Running is all about communities. We talk all the
Rob Simmelkjaer: time about the different communities that we have in New
Rob Simmelkjaer: York, whether it's the clubs or group training or... All
Rob Simmelkjaer: kinds of communities that exist around running. Do you feel
Rob Simmelkjaer: like you're finding your community in this space, this trail
Rob Simmelkjaer: running space?
Becs Gentry: Yeah.
Rob Simmelkjaer: You're new to it in this chapter, but does it feel like you found your people?
Becs Gentry: Yeah, I feel like I'm happy it wasn't very different from what I
Becs Gentry: left behind because I did have a very romantic memory
Becs Gentry: of the trail world. So I'm happy that romance is
Becs Gentry: still there and blossoming. And it's lovely. It's really, really
Becs Gentry: just welcoming. Not to say road racing is not road racing, the
Becs Gentry: communities are equally as welcoming and wonderful. But it's nice
Becs Gentry: to do something different. It's nice to do something on
Becs Gentry: the smaller scale. It probably sounds really strange to people
Becs Gentry: listening of like, " This Peloton instructor who's on one of
Becs Gentry: the biggest fitness platforms in the world doesn't like doing
Becs Gentry: these big events," but that's who I am. I'm a
Becs Gentry: small town girl. I actually really like being away from
Becs Gentry: the big city. I like being away from the hustle
Becs Gentry: and bustle. And so this is where I'm at right
Becs Gentry: now. I'm meeting myself where I'm at right now and
Becs Gentry: it's a very, very nice spot.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Not that you didn't like the running you were doing on
Rob Simmelkjaer: the roads or the-
Becs Gentry: No.
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... Olympic experiences you had. We just all have different
Rob Simmelkjaer: seasons and chapters of our lives, right?
Becs Gentry: Yeah.
Rob Simmelkjaer: It's not a matter of an absolute I like, I don't like.
Becs Gentry: No.
Rob Simmelkjaer: It's I like, I don't like now.
Becs Gentry: Exactly. And it's not even I don't like. It's just not when
Becs Gentry: I'm focusing all of my energy on anymore. Don't get me
Becs Gentry: wrong, I'm fully down if I could have run the
Becs Gentry: RBC Brooklyn Half at the weekend, I would've done. I
Becs Gentry: would've been there because I love that race and there
Becs Gentry: are going to be multiple New York Road Runners events
Becs Gentry: that I'm like, " I want to run it," because I
Becs Gentry: love it and I love that world, but I'm not training my
Becs Gentry: butt off to be at the forefront of those right
Becs Gentry: now. That's not where my energy's going. But other trail
Becs Gentry: races, yes, that's where I'm going to be on that incline, baby.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Have you been able to work this into the Peloton
Rob Simmelkjaer: classes at all?
Becs Gentry: Yes.
Rob Simmelkjaer: How have you managed to do that? It would seem
Rob Simmelkjaer: hard to do, but maybe with some of the settings on
Rob Simmelkjaer: the treadmill, what have you done to integrate this trail running-
Becs Gentry: Yeah, good question.
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... into your classes?
Becs Gentry: We might get some hate mail from this. No, it's...
Becs Gentry: The crew-
Rob Simmelkjaer: Really crazy hills on the incline?
Becs Gentry: Really crazy hills, essentially.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Like 20 degrees?
Becs Gentry: No. Our Peloton Tread+ goes up to 15% and our
Becs Gentry: other tread goes up to 12.5%. So there are maximum
Becs Gentry: inclines on our hardware. And that if you're on a
Becs Gentry: different piece of hardware, I can't tell you what it
Becs Gentry: goes up to. But yes, I have my Becs' Beast
Becs Gentry: crew and they are down for it. And I always,
Becs Gentry: always let everybody know at the start of my training
Becs Gentry: cycle ahead of it, I'm like, " You know when I'm
Becs Gentry: training, you're training because it's just how it's going to be.
Becs Gentry: I'm going to get more jazzed by programming because I'm
Becs Gentry: so excited by what I'm training that I want to share
Becs Gentry: things with you guys and it's going to creep into
Becs Gentry: my classes and it's going to be really fun." So at
Becs Gentry: the head of this year, I said, " I'm training for
Becs Gentry: trail races. They're mountainous. They are going to require me
Becs Gentry: to be running on incline a lot. Not all of my
Becs Gentry: classes, but when we do it, we're going to do
Becs Gentry: it right." Yeah. Hill training is a form of speed
Becs Gentry: work. So if you're looking to get faster, even on
Becs Gentry: the flat road, you are going to benefit from doing
Becs Gentry: hill training, full stop. It makes you a more efficient
Becs Gentry: runner. It actually can improve your form. It can improve
Becs Gentry: your stride. All things that a flat roadrunner needs and
Becs Gentry: should want to get better at. A lot of people
Becs Gentry: hate it because it's uncomfortable and we're humans and we
Becs Gentry: don't like to put ourselves in uncomfortable positions. It's just
Becs Gentry: where you want to take your journey. But my Peloton
Becs Gentry: classes have been hilly, that's for sure.
Rob Simmelkjaer: What's the feedback from people been? Are people liking this? Are
Rob Simmelkjaer: you getting people on the tread with you at Peloton
Rob Simmelkjaer: who are like, " You know what? I think I want to try this trail
Rob Simmelkjaer: thing and put some of this hill work to use?"
Becs Gentry: Yeah. We actually have a really big trail audience out
Becs Gentry: there for Peloton because of our vast reach, especially in
Becs Gentry: the United States. Our membership is sprawled all over the
Becs Gentry: country, so there are an awful lot of people who
Becs Gentry: are training with us through the app, who are out
Becs Gentry: in the likes of Arizona, Utah, those very, very traditional
Becs Gentry: hilly trail running worlds and they're running outside, they're taking classes
Becs Gentry: and it's just a natural thing for them to be
Becs Gentry: on there. And then there's our city dwellers who have
Becs Gentry: their treads in gyms or apartments who are all of a
Becs Gentry: sudden finding themselves super strong. They're combining it with hikes,
Becs Gentry: they're combining it with their speed work on the flat road
Becs Gentry: and seeing benefits and thinking, " Oh, she's not wrong. This
Becs Gentry: isn't just a ploy to get people to take more
Becs Gentry: hills classes. It is actually working. And I'm seeing quantifiable
Becs Gentry: results from utilizing the incline on the treadmill." I just
Becs Gentry: think it's tough. It is really tough. It's about understanding
Becs Gentry: that... It's the true understanding, should I say, of forward
Becs Gentry: is a pace. You just have to keep moving forward.
Becs Gentry: You don't look at your pace. I taught a 45-
Becs Gentry: minute hills run this morning and you cannot look at
Becs Gentry: your pace if it is going to bother you. You
Becs Gentry: just have to look at the clock. If you need
Becs Gentry: to look at a clock, look at the ticking of
Becs Gentry: the clock, of the duration of the class passing by
Becs Gentry: and the incline. They're the only numbers you need to
Becs Gentry: see. As long as you are just keeping tracking up
Becs Gentry: that hill, I don't care whether you're walking, jogging, or
Becs Gentry: running. We're getting up it. And that is my ethos.
Rob Simmelkjaer: (inaudible) . I can't help it. We always ask this question
Rob Simmelkjaer: when we're talking about running in these events. What's next,
Rob Simmelkjaer: Becs? What do you think-
Becs Gentry: What is next?
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... is next for you?
Becs Gentry: She's going to keep going higher.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Is there something you're... You don't have to, right? But maybe you do. You're
Rob Simmelkjaer: Becs Gentry. So I have a feeling there's something you probably
Rob Simmelkjaer: have on your mind. What do you think is next for
Rob Simmelkjaer: you in this world?
Becs Gentry: I have a very big race at the end of August, which I'm still
Becs Gentry: keeping close to my chest because that's just how I
Becs Gentry: roll. I like to keep the pressure in a very tight-
Becs Gentry: knit nucleus of people so it's not too heavy on
Becs Gentry: my shoulders. Running is Russian roulette. You know that, Rob,
Becs Gentry: so well. You can go out for what seems like
Becs Gentry: an easy, very simple run and you can damage yourself
Becs Gentry: and injury can come out of seemingly nowhere and you're
Becs Gentry: sidelined. So I think that's why I keep a lot
Becs Gentry: of this racing specifics to myself because if that does
Becs Gentry: happen, there's only a few people that I'm going to
Becs Gentry: feel like I've let down other than myself. I've said
Becs Gentry: very openly, it's a race in Europe at the end
Becs Gentry: of August, people can probably decipher it if they want
Becs Gentry: to, but it's going to be a lot of training.
Becs Gentry: Luckily, as I said, I have the Appalachian Trail on
Becs Gentry: my doorstep. It's very technical, but I can practice the
Becs Gentry: climbing uphill, and I have a fantastic piece of hardware and
Becs Gentry: my bounce on tread that I'm spending an awful lot
Becs Gentry: of time with my head grazing my basement ceiling right
Becs Gentry: now because it's going so high.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Lastly, Becs, what's your advice to someone listening to this
Rob Simmelkjaer: who maybe they're a regular roadrunner, maybe they're running roadrunners
Rob Simmelkjaer: races all the time who's curious about this space? What's
Rob Simmelkjaer: a good way to try this out?
Becs Gentry: Oh my gosh. Really and truly, find a location that
Becs Gentry: you want to run in. That would be my first bet
Becs Gentry: because you're going to enjoy it more. If you're thinking like, "
Becs Gentry: Okay, I'd really like to go to the Pocono and
Becs Gentry: run a trail race up in the Pocono Mountains," or "
Becs Gentry: I want to go to Northern California and run a
Becs Gentry: race in Northern California." And then from there, go and
Becs Gentry: have a look at what races there are coming up on
Becs Gentry: the dates that suit you. Most trail races have those multi-
Becs Gentry: duration, multi- distance options. A lot of them start at
Becs Gentry: 25K, which is such a weird distance when you come
Becs Gentry: from road racing because you're like, " Well, there's not a half-
Becs Gentry: marathon. It's not a full marathon. It's just really weird." 25K, but that's
Becs Gentry: how it is. It's 25K, it's 50K, 100K, and 100 miles. They're generally the distances
Becs Gentry: that they'll offer. I think the 25K is generally a
Becs Gentry: really lovely starting point to the trail world, because you
Becs Gentry: get just enough time out there to get the lactic acid
Becs Gentry: building in those legs and those lungs and then you
Becs Gentry: are done. You're like, " Okay, well, that was great. I
Becs Gentry: don't need to take a full meal with me in
Becs Gentry: my pack." You probably won't need to take poles. You
Becs Gentry: probably won't be required to carry a liter of water,
Becs Gentry: for example, which adds weight to you. It's a little
Becs Gentry: bit more of a soft launch into that world if
Becs Gentry: you've never done it before. But yeah, check it out.
Becs Gentry: And then a lot of these places, if you drink
Becs Gentry: or don't drink, they have fantastic scenery. There's a lot
Becs Gentry: of vineyards or brewhouses in these trail running areas. So
Becs Gentry: there's a lot to see and a lot of them
Becs Gentry: are these old... In the U. S., I think there's
Becs Gentry: a lot of mining towns and things like that because
Becs Gentry: of where they are proximity in nature to what nature
Becs Gentry: used to provide for us in our day- to- day
Becs Gentry: life. So there's a lot to see and experience. So
Becs Gentry: make it something for you that's not just about the running.
Rob Simmelkjaer: I love it. I love it. Becs, congrats. I'm so
Rob Simmelkjaer: psyched to hear you're doing this and loving this, and
Rob Simmelkjaer: you've found a new way to love running in a
Rob Simmelkjaer: totally different way. But you know what? Again, you say
Rob Simmelkjaer: it all the time. Forward is a pace and you found
Rob Simmelkjaer: a new way forward.
Becs Gentry: Yes. Thank you.
Rob Simmelkjaer: This was so much fun. I got to know you
Rob Simmelkjaer: a little better with this once. I learned things about
Rob Simmelkjaer: you I did not know. I'm sure listeners did as
Rob Simmelkjaer: well. And so excited for you. So excited for everybody
Rob Simmelkjaer: who finished the RBC Brooklyn Half this past weekend. Maybe
Rob Simmelkjaer: some of them will hear this and go find a
Rob Simmelkjaer: half in the woods somewhere. I think that sounds like a
Rob Simmelkjaer: lot of fun, but I think I might do it
Rob Simmelkjaer: myself. I want to go check that out, but it's
Rob Simmelkjaer: been awesome.
Becs Gentry: Absolutely.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Thank you for sharing all of this and that's it
Rob Simmelkjaer: for this episode of Set the Pace. Again, congrats to
Rob Simmelkjaer: everybody who ran Brooklyn. We'll see everybody out there in
Rob Simmelkjaer: a race coming up soon. We're going into our busy
Rob Simmelkjaer: season now, Becs.
Becs Gentry: Oh, yeah.
Rob Simmelkjaer: June's busy. We think we're marathon and with the halves, but
Rob Simmelkjaer: we got a lot going on in Brooklyn. We've got
Rob Simmelkjaer: Achilles, we've got Front Runners, and the Pride Run. We've got
Rob Simmelkjaer: the Mastercard mini 10K. We've got the Queens, Citizens Queens
Rob Simmelkjaer: 10K. So we just got a very busy month-
Becs Gentry: Oh my gosh.
Rob Simmelkjaer: ... of running coming at us and-
Becs Gentry: The best.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Yeah, that's a lot.
Becs Gentry: The best.
Rob Simmelkjaer: It's a lot.
Becs Gentry: Peloton has got something for whatever running mood you're in.
Becs Gentry: Try instructor led runs and walks that are built to
Becs Gentry: fit into your routine with classes that help you stay
Becs Gentry: consistent, build speed, and be in the moment. Track your
Becs Gentry: metrics, see your progress, and train smarter. We've got it
Becs Gentry: all to help you reach your goals and stay on
Becs Gentry: track. Peloton, the official digital fitness partner of New York
Becs Gentry: Road Runners.
Rob Simmelkjaer: Thanks for joining us. See you next time. Enjoy the miles.