Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 630: Amelia Boone- Obstacle Course Racing's Queen of Pain

Episode Date: November 2, 2017

In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin speak with Amelia Boone (www.ameliabooneracing.com). Amelia is a full-time corporate attorney, obstacle racer, and ultrarunner. Dubbed “The Queen of Pain,” Amelia is a 4x world champion and one of the most decorated obstacle racers in history. Over her career, she’s amassed more than 50 podiums and 30 victories in obstacle racing. Highlights include: 3x winner of the World's Toughest Mudder (2012, 2014, 2015) Spartan Race World Champion 2013 Spartan Race Points Series Champion (2013 & 2015) 3x Death Race Finisher (Winter 2012, Summer 2012, Summer 2013) These victories have not come without a cost. Amelia has faced many health challenges in the past year and this episode goes deep into her training, her mindset and what drives her to push through pain. Amelia talks about the high security working for Apple (3:10) The process of getting through law school (6:10) Where does she get her competitive spirit? (7:45) What started her path to obstacle racing? (10:09) Anything is how you do everything People searching out for suffering Where does she find challenges now? (15:00) How does her body hold up to these races? Medical issues? (16:09) Ran, at one time, every other weekend for a year! Were their signals before she got these injuries? (21:25) Rebuild your strength first before adding in impact Meditation play a key along with her training? (24:30) Amelia talks about loss of her cycle (26:20) How has her training changed? (27:34) Learn how to move again The place you hurt is not where the dysfunction is How does she re-frame her thought process now when training? (32:06) The “Queen of Pain”  “I am not broken” – Letting go of that fear Where does her drive hold her back? (36:35) How does she do it all? (39:30) Define what your all is Pop-Tart pre-workout starter? (41:40) How does she deal with trolls? (44:13) Injury at World Championships in Tahoe (49:09) Does she consider her injuries as gifts? (50:32) You don’t learn anything when you are winning Life lessons, overrated? (51:34) Currently working on (52:29) What is her next race? (54:26) Who mentors her? Seek advice from? (55:50) A day in the life (57:10) Has she found things that help get out of go-go mentality? (58:10) Adding fat into her life / Nutrition talk (1:00:45) Related Links/Products Mentioned: MAPS Performance  Tough Mudder: Mud Run | Obstacle Races 2018 STARTS NOW | Spartan Race Inc. Obstacle Course Races WHEN IT ALL COMES CRASHING DOWN (Blog post) Western States Endurance Run How Estrogen Protects Bones – ScienceDaily Amelia Boone on Beating 99% of Men and Suffering for High Performance Joovv | Red Light Therapy for Your Entire Body Acupressure mat Calm: Meditation to Relax, Sleep, Relieve Anxiety and Lower Stress Is a Low-Carb Diet Ruining Your Health? - Chris Kresser (article) Featured Guests & People Mentioned: Amelia Boone (website) (@ameliaboone)  Twitter (@arboone11)  Instagram Joe DeSena (@realJoeDesena)  Twitter Dr. Justin Brink (@premiere_spine_sport)  Instagram Courtney Conley (website) (@drcourtconley)  Instagram Caroline Burckle (@caroburckle)  Instagram Zach Bitter (@zachbitter)  Instagram Would you like to be coached by Sal, Adam & Justin? You can get 30 days of virtual coaching from them for FREE at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get our newest program, MAPS Prime Pro, which shows you how to self assess and correct muscle recruitment patterns that cause pain and impede performance and gains. Get it at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Also check out Thrive Market! Thrive Market makes purchasing organic, non-GMO affordable. With prices up to 50% off retail, Thrive Market blows away most conventional, non-organic foods. PLUS, they offer a NO RISK way to get started which includes: 1. 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If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Saldas Defano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, Amelia Boone. Oh, the Queen of Pain. She's got to be one of the most decorated obstacle course racers. She is a badass. And the world, right? She's am masked more than 50 podiums and 30 victories in obstacle course racing so crazy

But a lot of people don't know she went through some crazy struggles. I think in 2016 Stress fracture to her femur. Yeah, and to her sacrum. Those are two areas that are very very difficult to break Yeah, and so it kind of pointed to maybe overtraining or a sacrum, those are two areas that are very, very difficult to break. Yeah. And so it kind of pointed to maybe overtraining, you know, maybe just pushing too hard, like how does she, we talked a lot about this with her in the episode. Rumor has it. This was her favorite podcast she's ever done. And I heard she's been on some pretty damn good fucking podcast.

Yeah, that's what she said. That's what she said, I think. I mean, not only that, this girl has, she is not only kicking ass and doing all this with Spartan race all over the world, nonstop, right. Sad, I think. I mean, not only that, this girl has, she is not only kicking ass and doing all this with Spartan race all over the world nonstop, okay? So the amount of discipline and running takes, she, one year, she talks about this in the episode, she did a race every other weekend for an entire year. Imagine the work ethic it has put in,

it has to go to do that. In addition to that, this woman runs a full-time job as a lawyer for Apple. She's kind of like the terminator. How fucking crazy is that? Yeah, well, and that's the thing, like is she the terminator? And we talk about that in this episode. We get really deep with her. It's a great conversation. You're not going to want to miss it. Now, if you are listening, you are interested in optical course racing, or you want to be able to move like some of their top athletes.

We have a program that we designed for you. It's called Maps Performance. It is our answer to, you know, functional training, crossfit training, obstacle course type training. It is a program designed to get you to move better, period, bar none, mobility, strength, agility, power, you know, having a big endurance, all of that. It's in the program. There's four phases.

It's the longest program that we offer. I think it's like 16 weeks long, if I'm not mistaken, or something like that, 14 to 16 weeks long. Four different phases all broken down, video demos of the exercises. This program probably contains more movements that you've never seen or know of in comparison to other programs If you're always into hypertrophy training give this one a try

I promise you're gonna see some huge benefit especially to your prime exercises like squats deadlifts and hand cleans It's a great program. You can get get more information on it at mind pump media dot com Don't forget to if you want to find a milia bo, you can find her at EmiliaBoonRacing.com. It's Emilia's AMELEIA, and then boon is B-O-O-N-E-Racing.com. And her Instagram is at our boon 11. That's ARB-O-O-N-E-1-1, and that's for Instagram. My girlfriend works for JJ Albany's, which is the largest concrete company in the area.

So they do a lot of stuff for Apple, like Google. And so they're so undercover about stuff. Like if they're laying, they'll be laying like concrete for like a new building and they have to, they're the only companies they have to do this with. Everybody else they poor concrete for it. No one has to do, it's not a big deal. But with Apple, it can't be titled Apple, it's gonna have like a code name.

People, if you have, you pull your phone out, guys are gonna be- No, she'll tell me, she'll tell me if people are getting launched off a job and actually fired if they pull their phone out on the job site. They can't even pull their phone out on the job site, it's so strict.

I mean, it's like, how do you think of our phone stuff, leaks, it's because our suppliers. So if we say we need glass screens for, and so everyone's like, oh, new iPhone has glass, I just gonna be a little bit more of a lot. So that's how it leaks out. It's not with an Apple, it's who we're getting our parts from.

Yeah. That's crazy. That's all we know. She told me it's like, and do you feel this at all working there with like with all the other, the big four right to your Amazon? Is it like everyone's building their own little campuses

and it's almost like a race back and forth? It feels like as an outsider looking in it, it feels like you guys, it's like one-up in the end. Yeah, that's what it seems like. It's like, oh, Google just got this. Oh, here comes Apple. It's like you got a future country. Right, I feel like.

I live in Apple land. Exactly, now with Amazon and their second campus, wherever that's going to be. And I was like, oh, what city? And please, God, don't bring it down to the Bay area. Oh, it's crazy around here. No need anymore. No need anymore.

How long have you been there for now? I've been in Apple for two years. Oh, just two years. Oh, yeah, just two years. What did you do before that? I was at a law firm in Chicago. So I was there for six years at one large law firm in the world. I wanted to be a lawyer when I was at a law firm in Chicago, so I was there for six years at like one large law firm in the world. I wanted to be a lawyer when I was a kid and what she liked to argue.

No, it was true. That's true. My mom always told me I was a kid. She's like, you're gonna be a good lawyer one day. She's scolding me. But what turned me off, I'll never forget I was 16 years old and I was dating this girl and her father was a lawyer. Yeah. And I went to his work and I'm standing in his office and his whole office is from Florida ceiling just all these books all the way around him. And I was like, whoa, I was like, do you have to read all these? And he's like, oh, I've read all of those.

And I'm like, he's like, you have to read at least that just to become a lawyer. And at that moment I was turned off. I'm gonna show you. Because I, it was like, it wasn't like a few books. It was like so overwhelming. I looked around and thought this would take me lifetime to read the book. And they're not like fun books.

No, no, no. They're like this of law. It's another language, really. And the funny thing is I still kept some of my textbooks from law school and they're all highlighted and color coded. And I go, why do I keep these? And people are like, oh, you keep them put in your big corner office when I'm like,

no, you don't. I don't know. Maybe it's just like this. I spent so much money on law school. I'm gonna take this textbook. You have to know this. You have to see what I did. Like look what I did.

I read all this. Well, being a kid who wanted to do that and then absolutely changed my, I would love to ask you, what that process was like. Was it some of the hardest time studying, going through the school, what was it like for you? Yeah, I was one of those kids that I loved school. If I could be a lifelong student,

I would be a lifelong student. I would be like, what can I go back and get my degree? And I almost, I thought about, I wanted to get a medical degree. I was like, can I be like a doctor of physical therapy and a lawyer or something like that? Yeah, that's cool, though. So I love school.

So I love school. And that's why to me at this point, I feel like. Why do you think that is? Is it some structure of school, is it learning or both? Something early on maybe happened to you? Yeah, I know.

What was so wrong in your life, that you liked, you know, for me, I just, I love to learn. And so when I don't know something and then I'll delve into that area and things like that and I think it started when I started getting involved in athletics, which wasn't until I was out of law school. I mean, it was really when I was like 27 years old when I started racing.

And so I wanted to learn everything about the body and everything about training methods and things like that. And so I just, I don't know, I just love to learn. I've always been an overachiever. Always, always, unfortunately. I remember a win, it was like the summer reading program. You know, just to do it for do that, your parents put their, like the summer reading program

and you had like had to read a number of books when you were a little. So I was seven years old and you know, you're supposed to read 20 books a summer and you would get a certain sticker. I think I read 112 that summer because I just, yes. Wow. Wow.

I just had to win. I just had to win. I had to beat all the other students. Not just win, crush everybody. Crush everyone. You want to be first, second and third. So unpacking that, where does that stem from? Did you get it from your parents?

I mean, where you pushed at an early age, what excited you about learning like that? No, the funny thing is, is my parents, and you talk to them are very kind of like average students, like they were B and C students, like they were smart, but they always told me they saw from very early age that I was just like kind of innately driven. And so they acted as a balance to that and to be like, it's okay, Amelia, to get a B. Oh wow.

It's okay, like you don't always have to be very good parenting. And I owe a lot to them is that how do I have parents that, you know, we're like, if you don't get an A, if you don't get in the top school in the country, if you don't do this, I mean, I think I would have combusted at an early age. So I think there is definitely something that is innate there.

And it's hard to really pinpoint where it comes from. Because my sister is very smart but is the complete opposite. She's very laid back. She's very, I mean, we're like pretty much you would never guess we were really. Who's older? Yeah, as you're older. And how are siblings? It's just the two of us.

Okay. Do you find it tough to be still? Yes, absolutely, which being a lawyer then is very tough sometimes because you're at a desk for so long. And so that's why I think it's one of those things where if you're at a desk for 10 hours a day, then I'm like, I wanna go out and run for 40 miles a day to get rid of all that energy and things like.

And you said that started after law school? Yeah, I mean, I was an athlete growing up. I played soccer, I played soccer, team sports, just kind of a jack of all trades kid. I was pretty good at everything I picked up. I was actually an excellent golfer. It was just way too slow for me. I couldn't deal with it.

But I never really thought about playing beyond high school. And I was never really good enough to play beyond high school. I always just was going to focus on academics. And so I didn't really do anything during college, during law school. I think I was one of those people. I went to the gym and did the elliptical for 30 minutes because that's what you did to stay in shape, right?

But it wasn't until I was the first year associate at a law firm in Chicago. And I saw a lot of my friends around me to deal with the stress, you know, it's a very high stressful environment. There was a lot of happy hours and a lot of boozey and don't give me wrong, like I'm all for that, but that's how they decompress

and I kind of found racing and athletics as like my stress release. And that's kind of where it started. What was the first thing that you did that really kicked that off? Was it a race or was it? Yeah, I signed up with through friends of four coworkers at work,

showed me this thing, they're like, look at this, it's called a tough mutter. And they showed me like these people crawling through electrical wires and jumping over fire. And I was like, sign me up. Yeah, you're like, sign me up. Let's you're like, that's me. Sign me up, let's do this. So it was up in Wisconsin at the ski hill in Wisconsin.

And we ran it and we finished. And everyone was like, that's cool. Check that off the list. Like, go back to our lives. And I was like, when was the next one? And I got an email a week after that said, congratulations. You're invited to sign up for the first world's toughest mother. Which so the world's toughest mother was a tough mother course

where you did it as many laps as possible in 24 hours. I'd only run one race in my life at this point, this tough mother. And for some unknown reason, I decided I wanted to do that. It was in December in New Jersey. And no experience. I'd first decide I'd ever run was 13 miles. And for some unknown reason, I decided to pull the trigger and do that.

What year was this? 2011. Okay. Yeah. And it was probably the most miserable that I've ever been in my entire life, but I think it was the most alive that I ever felt too. And that's just kind of what kept me going back. Now, do you have this personality and everything that you with work and everything else? Do you feel like that? How do you do everything?

Anything is how you do everything? Yeah, I think that it's funny. I actually think that people are very, like I actually think I'm pretty risk-adverse and pretty, the lawyer part of me is very logical and very driven by thought and the head and things like that. Then I feel like it's almost that the racing is kind of the outlet, the primal outlet, to be driven by, you know, things being like, by the heart, and just by pure physical drive.

And so I almost feel like it's kind of that outlet that the rest of me doesn't really, doesn't really get, because if you ask my parents when I signed up for that first race and they're like, what? I mean, that's just not, you know, I was the kid that was like afraid to, I was the kid that didn't wanna sleep over

at a friend's house because she, because I was afraid I wouldn't get enough sleep at night, you know, like I just, I was always very by the book would not take any risks. And so then it's like, oh yeah, sure I'm gonna go run around in the freezing cold for 24 hours in December. It seemed completely out of personality for me. So it feels like breaking free.

Yeah, completely. And I think that I think, and I think that the more I've seen kind of the sport of obstacle racing evolve, and you see more and more people drawn to it, and I think it's because so many people are trying to search for something there. Is that like we have set up our lives in such a way that like everything can be easy.

Like everything can be automated, everything can be given to you. And it's almost like people are searching out for suffering because we live in a world and I'll say this like in our obviously in America and this is a gross generalization because there is still a lot of unnecessary suffering in America, but we have set ourselves up to where everything can be so easy. And I think that human nature is to at some point wanna struggle and people have found these races as kind of that outlet.

100% and so we talked to Joe DeCena about was exactly that. Yeah, I'm sure. Because we talked to Joe DeCena about was exactly that. Yeah, I'm sure. Because we talked about the rise of just OCR in general. 15 years ago, no one was really doing anything like that. Also, you see this and we are becoming so plugged in that it gives you that sense of feeling, that pain, that struggle.

You just don't get that, we used to get that 20, 30 years ago or even further back. Well, I think growth happens from challenge. And when you're not being challenged regularly, like we evolved to be, and the thing is a lot of people don't realize why they feel terrible. Why do I feel terrible? I have everything. I've got a house.

I've got my family. I've got a job. Like, why am I anxious? Why am I depressed? Like, even people who eat healthy and who exercise, like, why do I still feel this way? And it's, we evolved growing and learning through challenge. And when you take all that away, it can feel, for many people,

it can feel empty. Yeah, and it's never enough. That's the thing. So you get the nice house, you get the corner office, you get, you know, your two and a half kids in the white pick offense, and then you corner office, you get, you know, your two and a half kids and the white pick offense. And then you sit there and you go, what, what, what else? You know, and it's never, people are never going to be satisfied. So it's, one of those things it's, it's finding different means, I think.

Now, as you continue to do this, because you've been racing now for since 2011, you said? Yeah. Okay. And obviously, highly decorated, very successful in racing. Where do you find that challenge now? It's tough. I mean, I think for a while I kind of went through this a little bit disillusionment that I was like, okay, I've done everything. I've won a bunch of races. I've won world championships and so for me it's always seeking out that next challenge and there's a lot of races on my bucket list that they're not necessarily. The great thing about obstacle racing is it's evolving. There are more and more races

coming out and there are more different challenges. I'm going to Iceland in December to run a 24 hour obstacle race in Iceland in December, which should be fun. It's a 23 hours of darkness. Nice and warm. And a great way to see the country and the dead of winter. But I think for me too, it's also, I've branched, started to branch off into just pure ultra running as well. And there's a lot of really, I just kind of find like the gnarliest thing out there.

And I say, I want to do that. How's your body holding up to this constant challenge because it is extreme in the sense that you're pushing your body on a consistent level or constant, always finding those new challenges. Have you noticed any detriment to your, whether it be your physical body or hormones or anything like that or the things that people expect, you know, to be challenged in that case. Yeah, I flew very high for about by first five years is that I was just I we raced you around and I race almost probably every other week year round for five years. And a lot of these, I mean, there's some are shorter. Yeah, it's true.

A lot of them are and there was no concept of off season. And because I didn't come from a very structured, I didn't run in college, I didn't play in college, I didn't have a concept of like cycling your training or even taking an off season. And it caught up to me. I mean, to spring of 2016, I got a stress fracture, my femur,

that ended up spiraling into a full fracture. And then I was out for six months with that and I tried to come back, can't you try to come back too quickly because I had no idea what I was doing and I ended up with a stress fracture of my sacrum. Like I was out for 18 months. And that's actually forced me to completely kind of

readjust my thinking and my process with this because I trusted my body for so long to just do what I needed to do. And that I put it through a lot of abuse. I spent three or four days out in the woods with Joe to send out during his death races, carrying things up a mountain and just going on no sleep. My body was great, and it did what I asked it to do. And then all of a sudden, everything just broke. And I think that it was fine, like, okay, take a step back.

And realize, like, you've had no strategy to your training at all. And like, maybe you actually, like, you're an athlete in a million, and now you need to train like an athlete. I million, and now you need to train an athlete. Yeah, that's it. Going back and having the academic mind that you have, did you really go back and kind of dive into,

how can I make this more effective? How can I train to promote more strength? Yeah, because when you talk about stress fractures of those such strong bones, you're talking about the femur, the sacrum, those two areas are pretty rarely broken in that particular way. Did you have to go through testing

to see what's going on? Are my mineral levels off, hormones, like what's happening? Yeah, so I went through, how did Dexascan for bone density and luckily bone density was normal. Vitamin D was normal. I'm a sun worshipper, so everything was normal. Vitamin D was normal. I'm a sun worshipper. Everything was normal in that

regard, but to be completely honest, I had it had periods for a really long time, either, is just with the level of training. My estrogen levels were non-existent. I also realized I was with the femur. I was starting to, I'm pretty lean as it is, but I was starting to lean out more and I never get on scales. And so I think I was starting to drop a lot of weight with how much that I was running. And I didn't really realize it

and just the body can't take that. And then it was interesting after the femur, I ended up, I was no impact. And I carry a lot of muscle, and I ended up losing 20 pounds when I was no impact and I carry a lot of muscle. I ended up losing 20 pounds when I was no impact like after the femur stress fracture. At this point, are you questioning your own drive in the sport at all?

I'm questioning, I'm questioning like my body. I'm like, what did I do? You know, like if anything, the fire to, like when you're involuntarily sideline, all of a sudden something you are like, wait, no, no, no, no, that's my identity, that's my life. Like, I want to come back to that. So a part of me that was getting burnt out on all of it,

I suddenly rekindled that drive. But I was also just sitting there and being like, what is going on, you know, and trying to figure out. And through this entire process, through the year plus on the sidelines, I realized the things that I did wrong. And so, like with the femur and that,

this is what I tell everybody now, and this is exactly what happened, and what I did wrong is like, when people get injured, you think you're like, shh, the first thing is like, I'm gonna gain weight, I'm gonna get out of shape, I'm gonna blah, blah, blah, blah. You should actually probably gain weight while you're injured because your body needs that,

and I'm not talking like 30, 40 pounds, but your body needs those extra nutrients to help heal. And I didn't do that. And so, and then that actually prolonged everything. And so, like now, it's like, I regained all that weight, but I just, it took so much longer because I just, you know, like, I didn't do all the things that I was supposed

to do while I was injured. Yeah, it's, in my experience, when you ignore signals of the body long enough, they get louder and louder until you tend to get forced. Like, okay, now you can't do anything because you have this, whether it be autoimmune issue or injury or whatever, looking back and the good thing about hindsight is it tends to be 2020, looking back where there's signals leading up to those two things that you can look back and say, okay, those might have been some signals telling me that I needed to change things

or adjust my nutrition or whatever. Yeah, honestly, with the femur was really tough because I have a fully torn labor on my hip, which refers a lot of pain down through the area where the stress fracture happened. So I just thought I was running through with a torn leg. I was running through it thinking like, this is pain that I'm familiar with because it's torn labor, it's gonna like ache until I get it fixed.

So that one, I mean, my big issue there is I was ramping up to run Western states, which is like, the Super Bowl of Ultra Marathons. And I ramped up my mileage too quickly. I absolutely did. I went from running like 50 miles a week to over a span of two months.

I bumped from 50 miles a week to 100 miles a week. I mean, it's stupid. It's absolutely stupid, because I didn't know what I was doing. And so, but I mean, I definitely with trying to come back after the femur and then try to come back with the sacrum, I tried to start running when I was severely underweight and I had no muscle bass. Within three weeks, when I started running again, I ended up with stress fraction in the sacrum. three weeks when I started running again, like I ended up with a stress fraction in the sacrum.

So, had I had to do it over again, which I hope I never have to do over again. My biggest thing is like, once, you know, for, for anyone who's gone through a stress fracture or major injury or something like that, like rebuild your strength first and then introduce impact again. I wish I'd started off with with, you know, just pure strength or gotten back to squats, deadlifts. Everything that I used to do, I used to do a lot of CrossFit, which I got away from. And CrossFit, we can talk about positive and negative as well law, but I was a much stronger athlete. I think when I was actually moving heavier weights. And so for me, it was like, okay,

like work on plyometrics, work on balance, work on, just those strength aspects, build up that muscle first, and then go back to trying to run and trying to do and reintroduce the pounding and the impact. Did it ever cross your mind and maybe stop altogether? I did, it did. And it wasn't your mind and maybe stop all together? I did. It did. And it wasn't. It was after the sacrum.

I just threw my hands up in the air and I was like, I can't. I tried to cross train my way throughout the stress fracture in the femur and what I ended up doing was just making things worse because I was creating more imbalances. I was writing an aerodol like a assault bike with one leg. I mean, so you think about it, I was just peddling with my left leg, thinking that I was like getting to work out where my right leg was atrophine, because it was broken. I mean, and so yeah, with, I actually, with the

um, sacrum, I just for four weeks I did nothing. It was the worst. It was so bad, but it was necessary. Knowing your analytical and logical side during this time when your sideline forced to not move, are you reading and learning a lot about how to progress afterwards? So you're doing lots of study at this point. Lots of study. Now what about rest and meditation and these types of things? Have you were you visiting any of this at this moment or is this always part of your training?

Yeah, no, I famously said like, I don't meditate running as my meditation. And that was about three months before the stress fracture happened or as I call it, I came down with the case of the femurs. But so I was kind of forced at that point. And I downloaded all, you know, I did headspace and calm I came down with the case of the femurs. But, so I was kind of forced at that point. And I downloaded all, you know, I did headspace and calm and played around with those apps.

And I got into a daily meditation practice. And it was really hard. And I do it every day still. And I'm really bad at it. Like I'd like to say, like I'm really good at it. But most of the time sitting there thinking about my to-do's the next day. And like I'm still really bad at it,

but I do it every day. And at some point, I feel like it will magically become easier. It's a practice. And for overachievers, that's the hardest part. Yeah, it's for someone week and week and all relate, right? We've talked about this on the show before when you're a very type A type of personality to settle us down. But like I always talk about on the show too,

it's those, those are the people that needed the most. Yeah. Like if there's anybody that needs meditation in their life, it's like us and you like because we are so go go go driven, run these crazy races, train all day long, like we are so competitive with ourselves. I feel like that it's, we will benefit from that more than anybody else.

So it's, you know, did you get scared when you lost your period? I would think that would freak you out going through that. Yeah. One of the tough things about a four female athlete, and I can say this for anyone out there, is that, so for instance, if you are on some type of birth control, like so I've been on IUD, had an IUD for 10 years. So you don't get periods with that. So you don't actually know if you are getting periods. And so the key is then I had to go and I did tests and saw an endocrinologist and they

do your estrogen levels and you're, you know, you're luteinizing hormones and everything like that and tell you, like, whether or not you'd be it, because estrogen is so key for bone health. And so I think that that was one of those things that they talk about the female athlete triad and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but it was bringing back up those estrogen levels. So I highly recommend for any female out there who's struggling with injury,

and if you aren't getting periods for, because you have, are on some type of birth control, like get tested and check it out. Yeah, well, if you would have been tested, you could have gone. I would have known, you could have taken preventative measures and things like that.

And so these are all things that now in hindsight that I wish that I had done, but I thought I was like, things are going fine and blah, blah, blah. And so it's knowing that, and that was, and blah, blah, blah. So it's knowing that. That was, you know, it really important for me. How has your training changed since then? Yeah.

Because that's a bit, it's been a year, over a year ago. Yeah. That'll happen. So basically, when you start, I had been off running for pretty much a year. And so it's frustrating because you're pretty much starting over from ground zero on that point. One of the big things is I need to learn how to move again. When you've been, especially when you have anything with a back, if you've ever thrown

out your back, if you've ever done anything, you know how everything is connected to all your vertebrae and your sacrum and everything locks down. I worked a lot initially when I worked with Dr. Brink, you guys know very well. On a lot of just movement patterns, like animal movement patterns, a lot of crawling, a lot of things to like be like, okay, your body can move again because for so long I had just locked everything down.

So I, you know, I started off very, very slowly with running it again. It was like a mile at a time, at a 10 minute pace, and having to build back up, and then also incorporating a lot more single leg balance and figuring out, was fascinating for me, is that pretty much all of my injuries have been on my right side. Like all of the dragging things that I've had have always been on my right side. And so for so long we've chased up and down my right chain being like what is wrong, what is wrong? What we figured out is actually it's my left side.

That's all messed up. It's compensatory. Yeah. So my left side I have these like wind swept mechanics where when I run my left leg crosses over, shifts all my weight over on my right leg. My right leg is taking the front of the impact. And was that you and Brink that put that together?

Or was it somebody else? Yeah, yeah, working with Brink, also working. I don't know if you know, or with Dr. Courtney Conley, who also works with rock tape and she's podiatrist and she took a video of me and was like, what, look at your legs. And figuring that out and just my left chain is so tight. My right chain is super loose and we've just so working now on evening those out, I think is really key.

And it's been really enlightening for me is that the place where you hurt is not the place of dysfunction most of the time. That's very, very true. Usually it's because it's doing something for another party of body that's not working properly. Now during this period of relearning patterns and moving differently, you can't train super

hard, right? Otherwise you're going to reinforce some of those old patterns. So that must have sucked. I mean, you know, being on the sidelines and doing nothing sucks, don't get me wrong. But what's even been more frustrating is this entire, I've been running now for about running consistently

and training consistently for about nine months. And I'm just like, why am I still not back to? Well, like why do I still feel so out of shape? And I think it's because you have to go so slow to start out with is that your body, you're ready. I'm mentally ready to go out there and run 20 miles, but it's like, nope, you can't do that right away, you know?

Like, you're going to start off very, very slowly. There's two parts. There's, well, there's more than two, but the two main issues that happen with a major injury, especially if that injury challenges a psychological identity that you will create new patterning because of the physical injury, but then there's a psychological component where it's protective.

It's very, very protective of the body what's going on, we tend to hold on to pain as a result of it. I worked with an athlete who had a shoulder injury that ended her competitive career. And through working with her, shoulder looked fine after a length of period of time of training. Biomechanics were fine, there was no more dysfunction, MRIs look good. Still felt that shoulder pain, still was moving in a way that was almost trying to protect it, which then reinforces more bad patterning. And it was really through identifying that psychological component to where she was

able to, and really it literally happened one day, like literally one day it was a light bulb that went off for her, and she was like, well my shoulder isn't hurting more. And over the course of weeks it it started moving the way it should. So that's the tough part when you're such a decorated athlete in a particular sport or event. And you have an injury that literally challenges that. Well, the mental discipline of it's been able to get you through all these things. So now, how do you sort of like reframe that thought process like going into training and going into competing now?

Well, you know, this has been something that's been running through my mind for this past entire year is that what the biggest issue for me is that I have now be from a year on the sidelines, gotten mentally into space where I'm like, I am broken. I am broken. And getting out of that is really hard. And it's almost like I made my career, my athletic career known. People knew me as the queen of, know me as the queen of pain. And like, being able to fight through anything and being able to ignore that pain and keep going and do these incredible things. And now all of a sudden, I would get after rebuilding and coming back any ounce of pain,

and I would suddenly go in this flight response. I am broken again. I am broken again. I have another stress fracture. I have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and thinking that I'm weak and getting through that. I mean, this is embarrassing to admit, but so I've been back running for nine months. I've probably had eight MRIs in that span of time for fear of additional stress fractures

just because of getting to an arrow. And they've all come back clean. And it's funny because it was just actually a few weeks ago where I finally sat down and was talking to my coach and I have a coach that helps me with does my running programming. And he's like, you are not broken anymore. You have had eight MRIs that you have feared have been met.

You're strong, you're back. You know, we had to, you've gained the weight back, you're still gaining all the muscle back. And you are a strong person. And I literally sat down in my journal, I journal almost every day, and I just wrote, I am not broken over and over and over again. And for some reason that light bulb just went off my head. I'm like, I can do this.

I can do this. And I think for me, it's that letting go of that fear and realizing that I don't have to be afraid anymore. But having that relationship with pain is so difficult because for so long, it was so easy for me to ignore it. And then all of a sudden, I was super hyper aware. And so it's finding that good place in the middle. It's, you know, I found success with,

so what you're talking about is actually extremely common with people who are also de-conditioned, believe it or not, where I'll have someone who's been overweight their whole life and they'll say, I am fat. And like you said, I am broken. And really if we break down what you're saying, whether you say, I am fat, I am broken, I am tall, I am short, you are none of those things.

You're identifying with a state or with a body that is constantly changing. And realizing that helps a lot of people, realizing that they're not fat, their body has body fat, or I am not broken, I've had broken parts. It is not who you are, because once we start to identify with those things in our bodies, if we encounter a challenge, it challenges our very core of who we are,

and that's a very difficult thing to deal with, much more difficult than a broken femur or bad recruitment patterns. It's that mental side that becomes so difficult. Are you, because you're working with Dr. Brink on patterning, you're working with some other, are you working with anybody on that, on that part of it, that sports psychology part or the, you know, the, that side of you that fears that. Yeah. Unfortunately, that's the one piece that I did not reach out to Sports Psychology. I thought about it.

And in hindsight, probably should have, and probably would have made the process a bit easier. I luckily have some great friends that we have kind of been sounding boards for each other that have been through similar processes. So no, though, I'm still not opposed to. No, that I think about them. Like a probably a good thing.

Well, you know, something that I've probably somewhere between, I'd say, 50 and 100 OCR marathon runners, people that do endurance sports have trained in my career. And they all have some things in common. And when we first started talking today, we were talking about where what's happening with tech and how we're becoming so plugged in and people are searching for this physical demand

to be challenged or whatever. But what I ran across with all these athletes that I was training was, they had a lot of stress at work and they were attracted to this other physical stress. And that physical stress was the outlet from the mental stress, but the same stress they were getting at this high, and I think of someone like you, I can't help but think that with the job you have. I mean, you're an attorney for one of the largest companies in the world.

I know you can't have like a low stress job. Yeah, you ain't got to tell me. We don't have to talk about your job. And I would already know, you know, just with my experience. And so, you know, someone like you, uh, I, and it would take a long time, uh, for me to get this message across to the people I was coaching, but because I know you love what you do, but I would eventually tell them that, you know, all these signs that we're getting, this is your

body telling you that you already got plenty of stress in your life. You already got a lot of challenge. You've already got a lot of drive, and I was going to ask you, because you seem very self-aware, that, you know, you're always saying to show your greatest strength is your greatest weakness, and for sure your drive has made you very successful in many avenues, you know, I always say on the show, your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. And for sure, your drive has made you very successful in many avenues. You know, where do you see that, hindering you or holding you back? Yeah, I agree.

And the funny thing is, it took me a while to realize that whole stress is stress concept. That physical stress, mental stress, emotional stress, like they all break your body down. And I had in my mind that, stress, mental stress, emotional stress, like they all break your body down. And I had in my mind that, look, I can run really hard in the mornings, but it's okay because I'm sitting on my butt for 10 hours a day, so I've got all the time in the world

to recover. What I didn't realize is that, you know, most professional athletes who are training at the type of level that like I train at, like they train in the mornings, but then they're like doing all the recovery things during the day that you should be doing and sleeping. I mean, my biggest thing is like, for years

I got probably five to six hours of sleep and I like consistently. And trying to compete at the level that I was competing against a lot. And I mean, you see a lot of people doing obstacle racing is full-time professional career. And I'm sitting here juggling both and I'm not saying like, whoa, it's me, but I'm just saying that I did not realize and appreciate how the going 100 miles an hour in the morning

physically and then 100 miles an hour during the day, mentally and emotionally, like would then end up compounding everything. So, that has been a very hard learning process for me. I can only imagine we actually posted on our Instagram page that we would be interviewing you and people and we're asking us questions to ask you. Yeah.

One of the most common questions was, how does she do it all? How does she do, you know, the attorney, how does she do the training? And so hearing that, also being somewhat of a role model, especially for women and girls who want to do these types of things. And it is, I'm going to be honest with you, very empowering. It's, I have a daughter. And if you were her hero, I would not be upset about that because it's a very empowering you're a very empowering figure, but at the same time, knowing that, hearing that, it's like,

I can keep going. I gotta keep doing this. Does that go through your mind? You mean in terms of like, I gotta keep racing or I gotta keep like doing it all? Like doing it all. I'm gonna keep doing it all. No, I mean, what I've always, what I have come to realize is that you can't have it all. No one has it all. What you have to do is define what your all is and then be like happy with that. And for me, I enjoy both.

I enjoy the juggling of the two. I have to realize that I have to make sacrifices in other areas. And then I also have to probably make sacrifices sometimes in performance,, in terms of athletics or performance in terms of work. And it's not always going to be a perfect fit. And I think that, you know, more and more I've realized that

if you really do want to compete at the highest echelons of a sport, you're probably going to have to be a professional athlete. Like the whole weekend war, your stick doesn't, you know, you might, it's pretty tough, it's tough, but I enjoy it that way. And so I think that it's really important just to keep, I mean, my training volume is a lot lower now than it used to be. And maybe that's why I still feel really out of shape, but I also realize that I feel much healthier because of it.

And so- Has nutrition changed throughout this process? Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing for me was putting back on the weight and I've been trying to look, I've never been dogmatic in nutrition. I've experimented with a lot of things, but it has been focused more on getting more fats in my diet.

Did you start the pop tart thing? I started the pop tart. You gotta tell the story, because somebody inboxed me like two weeks ago, finally we're getting to it. We talked about it. I talked about how it made its way into bodybuilding. So I was in Men's physique the last four years.

Yes, this tripped me out. So here I'm in my 30s competing. And you know, pop tarts have been around forever. All of a sudden, everybody's using them in the gym before they go workout. And it's like everyone's using it before in the back. And I'm going, what the fuck? I don't get it.

I never liked pop tarts as a get it, never, whatever, right? But I even found myself trying them in it. And I ended up eating it. It was like a popular 80s food and then all of a sudden. I know, this is why, okay, so like, people are like, how are you not sponsored by Kellogg's? I'm like, because I'm not their target demographic. I'm not a four year old and I'm not a mother of a four year old.

But yeah, so in 2013, I was running the Spartan Race World Championship and I was destroying the field. I think it was winning by like 45 minutes. And the race director at one point yells out to me as I'm going over this obstacle. He's like, damn, Amelia, why'd you have a breakfast this morning? I was at Pop Tarts, which is actually true. I did.

And then ever since then, it is a pre-race ritual for me. I have Pop Tarts every time before every race. I'm not eating Pop Tarts in a daily basis. I will get rid of that myth out there. I don't, some people get angry at me because I'm, you know, they feel like I'm promoting junk food. I'm like, I'm not, it's a thing. It's more ritualistic of anything, but I do actually believe that, you know, everyone has their, ever you need to have a pre-race, a pre-workout, or, you know, type of food that you know is

going to sit while on your stomach. And Bob Tarts are very easily digestible source of carbs, and they've always sat well in my stomach and so I've rolled with that. But it's made its way to the body building when it's being labeled. Oh, cinnamon roll. Cinnamon roll hands down the best if I recommend people to try.

Have not tried. I have a box of like the Jolly Rancher one sitting at my house and just can't bring myself to try. I was a toaster strutal, dear. That one was all, yeah. Let's see the issue with toaster strutals. That's too fancy. Is that when you're traveling and I race in the middle of nowhere.

Like, I mean, our races are in the middle of no squad. I was an outlier, but they're generally, like, there's nothing around. So you're not going to have a microwave for a toaster for a toaster strutal, unfortunately. How do you deal with, you just, you touch on something. I saw you kind of roll your eyes a little bit with the people that give you a hard time.

And I'm sure this is, I'm sure in the last five years, this is probably a somewhat new experience for you. I know it's been for even for us, and we talk about on the show of, you know, once you gain this traction of people following you, how do you deal with that stress? Do you get probably get a lot of people that are always trying to tell you what to do, and what to say, and how do you deal with that stress? You get probably get a lot of people that are always trying to tell you what to do and

what to say and how do you handle that. Yeah, it's hard. I'm not gonna lie. I wish I could be one of those people that's like, I can tune out the people on the internet and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I don't listen to them. I'm actually a pretty sensitive person, and so I think it's just more, it's more reps. It's almost like the more you, the more it happens, the more people that say mean things,

the easier it becomes almost, because you like start to realize that you just start to learn how to deal with it. I totally, and I really still remember the first one that really, see it. So all the rest after that, no big deal. But the first one, do you remember the first one that like really bothered you what someone said to you?

Yeah, actually. So there was a picture of me jumping over the fire, winning a Spartan race a few years ago. And it was a weird angle. It was like shot up from the ground. It was just, it was an attractive picture. But like a bunch of people on the Facebook page, all these dudes were like, weird body.

Like weird. And I just, I was sitting there like, what? Like, what do you, what rights do you have to come in? And all I wanna do is respond, but what I've always been told is like, don't feed the trolls, if you do, it's gonna make it worse, it's gonna make it worse,

but I'm just sitting there and I'm like, and it's also the lawyer on me that I also just wanna argue about everything too. So I tried not, I tried to just kind of like, don't fan the flames, but I think it's also hard for me because people told me like, just don't read your Instagram comments or don't blow a blow.

But I like to engage with people. And so if somebody's taking time to like comment on my Instagram, like I'm gonna respond to them, so I do read the comments. And to be fair, 99% of what I get from people are fantastic, but it's just always that one asshole that can ruin everything, seriously. Yeah, we experienced that.

Yeah, I was like, I'm sure that you guys get it all the time, too. You know, not in. Adam gets it all the time. Yeah. What? What? What? It's wrong with him.

But you're right, though. You get the reps. It's not so bad, but it was the very first one. Because for quite some time, we actually had a lot of love. In fact, we kept saying it to each other. We kept waiting for it. Yeah, we're like, in a day now. It's going to happen.

We should be getting socked. It's going to be like, what if you people pay an attention, right? And then finally, it happened for me. And when it happened, I was just like, and I think, well, if I look back, I think that, you know, it's definitely my insecurities that make me feel so butt hurt over that. Like, why would I let some person, I've never met in my life, make a statement about me,

and then I get bothered by them. Like, that's me, you know, shame on me for even allowing that to happen, that obviously struck a chord with me. And so I've actually now flipped it on its head. It's been huge growth for me that every time I get attacked or that it actually gets me in that feeling where I wanna respond, now I've trained myself

one, not to respond and then two, I kind of reflect on that go like, okay, what does that say about myself? Why do I let some strain? Because who's this person to me? I don't know who the thaw I was giving them control. Yeah, why would I even get my power away who's this person to me? I don't know who the finally giving them control. Yeah, why would I even get my power away like that and allow that to even bother me? And so it's allowed me.

It's been huge. I mean, we talk about all the time. The show's so much like therapy, like because you do. We get so many people commenting on every hanging on every word that you say and that you do. And the ones that actually get me fired up are the ones that make me kind of dive back in and go like, hmm, why do I actually? And actually, to be honest,

some of them have actually given me things to work on. So I'll forget when I was on Tim Ferriss's podcast and somebody commented, I can't listen to this girl. Her vocal fry is awful. I had no idea what vocal fry was. Yeah, I need the do-up. And I was like, it's, you know how, it tends to be, men do it too,

but women get crucified for it. And so it's kind of trailing off. And it's like that kind of thing. And apparently I've read studies that it just, it doesn't, it's correlated. People seem, it seems Valley Girl, I guess. But I was doing it unconsciously. And so it was one of those things

when I saw that comment, what is this? And now I need to work on this. And I feel I'm not a valley girl. I swear to God. And so some of them, you know, I say like all the time. There we go. And everybody gives me shit for that.

And I get it. I'm always see I just did it right there. But yeah, I'm always checking myself. But yeah, sometimes it's constructive. Yeah. So sometimes thank you constructive trolls. I would take it. I've developed as defense mechanism

where I make fun of myself before they can. Yes, but because I'm a little here, don't worry. No, now you can't. I'll just like highlight how bad it is. Yeah, now you can't do anything about it. Exactly. So moving ahead, now you just broke your pinky finger. We were at the race with you. Yes

We saw you afterwards and you were talking about how and you're so like oh, yeah I think I don't know I couldn't grab anything I think I might have broken it and then talking to you today and getting the details You didn't just break it you smashed the fuck out of it didn't you have to get like screws and yeah So I had plates. I've a plate and several screws in the pinky Which I didn't realize you could plate and several screws in the pinky, which I didn't really as you could put that much metal in a pinky finger. But I remember, I thought I had just jammed it or dislocated it because I had Dr. Brink

take a look at it and he's like, oh, it's not moving. He's like, it's moving too much. And so after the race, after Spartan race world championships, when I just wanted to go out and have a beer with my friends, I sat in urgent care and trucky for five hours while they tried to, because it was also like clawed and curled up, and so they had to like pull it out, and then he goes, you need to say a hand surgeon ASAP, and I was like, really? And he goes, these breaks, it's like an oblique fracture, don't heal well unless you get in effect.

So I had surgery two days later, I was lucky I was able to get in and it's just like really I mean I feel like you should pick up fishing or something I know I know I should still Maybe another sport If anything, if anything it's just annoying because you need your you need your fingers for obstacle racing and I mean at least I can still run right now but It's kind of hilarious if I think about it Well let me ask you this the when you had your big injuries, your femur, your second one,

looking back, do you consider them gifts now? I, when I got injured, she's like, hell no. Well, no, so this is funny. When I got injured, everyone told me, like, you'll come back stronger and I just wanted to slap them. Like, people, I was like, you're, there'll be a silver lining in this, and I'm going to smack you across the face right now. Shut up.

But now, reflecting back on it, I, yes, I do see the silver lining, and I think that learning from, you know, I flew high for so many years, and what I've learned is you don't learn anything when you're winning. And I feel like life lessons can be overrated sometimes, but I also feel like they make you a smarter person

and a smarter athlete. And so to sit out for that entire year, to kind of reformulate my relationship with a sport, to kind of look at where I wanna go, moving forwards, and what I wanna do as an athlete, and as a person, I think was very valuable time for me. Tell me more about what you just said about life lessons. About how they're overrated. Yeah, yeah.

Where does that come from? You got to share it now, Matt. No, I mean, I think life lessons are very important, but I also think that now we can be in this situation and the culture where it's always about lessons and it's always about being deep, and people can almost overthink and over-process and over-analyze, and it's always about being deep. And people can almost like overthink and over process and over analyze. And sometimes you just gotta be.

Sometimes I think that the more miserable people, the more, sorry, if a person is miserable, it's almost because they're like stewing in their own shit way too much. You know, it's more often than not. Yeah. That's what I think. Right. And so I'm all for lessons. And I'm all for the learning and life is all for the learning life is a constant process,

and I love that process, and I kind of love the ups and downs, and I've learned to embrace that. But I also think that sometimes, you know, you can just circle the drain. The pit of the audience. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you don't come across as somebody that. What do you currently feel like you're working on within yourself? What are you currently working on?

Good question. I feel like right now I'm kind of in this transition mode in terms of as an athlete. I mean, you go through this process where it's like, when do I hang it up? You know, and I'm not hanging it up. But it's, if you're no long, for so many years, I was on the top of every single podium and I was winning everything. And then you're off for a year from injury, you come back and you're not performing at the same level that you were. And it's kind of that process of like, I mean, for me, it was a huge ego check this year

to go out there until that start line, to know that I wasn't feeling in a position where I actually could compete for a podium spot, but just because I was so grateful to be out there and be able to run and be able to do this again, I was going to go out there anyway. Awesome. And I think that I don't want to be one of those people that gives up a sport because I'm no longer winning every single race.

Like as long as I still love it, I'm gonna go out there and compete. And that's been, that was a very, it's been a very hard process for me to set aside that ego and be like, I'm gonna compete to the best of my ability and be fine with that. And realize like, you know, it's not, you are not your race results, et cetera,

that type of thing. And so that's been something that I've been working on. And then just really kind of owning like where I am and where, what is the new challenge that I want to take on? And like I'm always going to be involved in an off-obsol race, and I'm always, you know, I'm going to run Spartan races, I'm going to run Tough Matters,

but like there are other things out there that I'm really, really drawn to and just kind of curing up and figuring out. I think that's what you're saying about, you know, doing them because you can do them, not necessarily because you're gonna win. That kind of embodies the spirit. Yeah.

I think of what obstacle course racing wants to stand for. So that's pretty awesome. When's the next race for you? Or do you have any in your scope? Or are you just waiting right now? Yeah, I mean, so I do, I have two big ones coming up. The first one, World's Toughest Matter, which is, you know, is a huge, is a 24 hour race, is in two and a half weeks at this point, and that's going to be difficult with the pinky.

We're going to, it's going to be a game day decision. I mean, that's tough. People like, just go out. There's a guy that ran up with a broken arm last year, and I'm like, yeah, but I still want to be able to compete, you know, and that's like, yes, I can go out and run it for fun, but I mean, it's really hard to do obstacles with only one hand. So I'm hoping, you know.

Nothing wrong with saying you want to win. No, I mean, that's the thing is like, I still want to compete. Like, so it's just like, am I okay going out there with a massive handicap? And is it smart of me? And I okay going out there with a massive handicap? And is it smart of me? And I'm going to have to, I see my surgeon the week before. And then there's the one in Iceland that I spoke of earlier.

20 Spartan has a 24 hour race in Iceland in December. That should be good to go for, hopefully. And then it's next year. I think I'm going to focus a lot more on ultras and ultramarathons and really I'd love to get back to Western states, which is where I was training for that when the femur happened and you know, just some other big hurraises on their eyes. So you strike me as somebody who probably has a lot of women that look up to her and you probably even mentor quite a few people, do you have like a circle of people that mentor you or that

you look up to or that you seek advice from or you just so overwhelmed with everything you've got going on? I'm alone, well, no, I'm kidding. No, I definitely have a group of what's funny for me is that I have some of the people that keeps me the most grounded in life are the people that I've known since I've been very young. And so my closest girlfriends in life were like a group of like seven of us from middle school and high school.

Oh wow. And you know, they know nothing about the racing world, but it's so refreshing and we rarely see each other because we all live in different parts of the country. But like to keep those people and keep them grounded in your life. Because they've known you from so long and they don't give a shit about my racing. They don't care. Yeah, it's a refreshing. They're like, do what you want.

But then I have some good, one of my great girlfriends, Carolyn Barkles, she was an Olympic swimmer. She has been my rock throughout all of this. And I have just different people, different coaches, and things like that that really kind of keep me together. And that's really important. And honestly, my family is the most important. I mean, I talked to my parents at least once a week, and they hear everything.

So what does your daily schedule look like? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a morning person. Some people would say it's a middle of the night person, but I'm off about 4 a.m. And then that's when I train. It's difficult now because the light in the winter, you know, sun doesn't rise until later and the trails don't open till later, but I'm out there with a headlamp normally

dodging the rangers. Don't tell them that. I have none of them listen. And so I have a big Ranger following. Yeah, I mean, do you have a big Santa's A Park Ranger following? Yeah, too much. Yeah, so I run and I train the morning. I mean, I run generally five to six days a week.

I have a one full rest day. And then do some strength a few times a week. And then I'm at work by about 8 a.m. and then work through the day. And then sometimes I'll do the strength session in the evenings and whatnot. And then I go to bed, turn into a pumpkin about 9 or 10 p.m. and do it all over again. So I have, I've had to put stuff in place to kind of de-stress or relax because I have a very similar go-go life. One of the things that's been huge for me is I've started to like turn my electronics off

by like 7pm because if I go beyond that I have a real hard time sleeping for years. I slept for four hours a night and I just thought I was one of those people that will always toss and turn and never be able to sleep. Right. Until I started diving more into it and trying to figure out, and that's been a huge hack for me to do that. And I always know when I don't,

it makes a difference on my sleep, and when I do it improves it, have you found things that you've added into your life that kind of help you get out of that go-go mentality all the time? Yeah, so I have a nightly routine, kind of wind down routine that's been really helpful for me and I don't know how much of it is actually science or just the entire ritual of

it, but I generally, I take epsom salt baths almost every single night. The amount of epsom salt that I go through is like gnarly, like I need dropship bends every few weeks. And I also, I recently got a red, like a red light or a near and fried light by the Juve guys. We have one here. Yeah, that thing has been fantastic. Have you noticed benefit from using it?

Yeah, I mean, it's difficult to quantify sometimes, you know. Because there's so many things. There's so many different things, you know, I like to be super scientific about it. But yeah, I mean, I've noticed definitely, especially if I have nagging tendon muscle type of stuff, I actually will lay on the ground and put my feet up against it, like legs up against, like, you know,

when you put your legs up against the wall, and then use it that way. And I don't know, I'm so far so good, I've only had it for about a month or so, but do that at night. And then so, I just kind of like putting those things in place before bed. And then I lay on an acupressure mat every night.

Have you ever seen those? Like they have little, like, they're called like bed of nails. Yeah. Like the little like spiky things. Uh huh. You sleep on that or you just lay on it? I fall on a sleep on it, which is not a good idea. Apparently it's okay to sleep on them, but I woke up my back was on fire.

But no, I actually meditate at night, which most people don't recommend. Everyone says you should do it in the morning, but that's what I do right before I go bed as I look. Hey, if it works for you. I lay on my acupressure mat and I listen to calm is my is my app of choice and then I go to bed. And that's, you know, worked out really well for me. You said you increased your fat intake too.

Yeah. How is that? What kind of fat and how is that? How is it? Has it helped you in any way? Yeah, it's primarily been through oils, you know, coconut oils and avocado oil, things like that. And then try to actually increase the amount of fatty meat.

I think I've always had an adversion to fatty meat, but I think that there's a place for, I've definitely tried to increase red meat intake as well, you know, like fatter cuts of that to get in some of that. I mean, like I said, it's hard to notice, like it's hard to, because I'm not very scientific about it, and I'm like throwing in everything all at once.

But I definitely feel in just in terms of recovery and whatnot, and just healing process is helped out by the extra fat intake. That's awesome. Have you ever tried to follow a super regimen meal plan before or have you just kind of exercised your way through? I know, right. My super regimen popped out.

Well, I do like that you're honest about that because it is. I mean, the amount of exercise and movement you're doing, you probably could almost need it out. Yeah, I think I can get into slippery slope if I try and get too controlled with my diet. And I have, I tried to go super low carb and did a stint, I did a three day fast.

Actually during my, when I was broken, because I had heard about how fasting can actually, you know, send your growth hormone levels through the roof which then stimulates... Stimulates, stimulates... Right, which then stimulates healing. And so...

But maybe not during injury. No, yeah. Though it was an interesting experiment because by the third day of like fasting, I was taking a bit of exogenous ketones, like I was flying high. I felt, I felt fantastic. I was like, I could do this for 10 days.

And then like, no, I mean, but I don't recommend that. But so I've never really gotten, that was the only time that I'd ever like really gotten ketosis, but I see how people like can kind of thrive on that. But I just, it's too restrictive. I mean, it's just too hard. Well, you're an endurance athlete. Yeah, it's too restrictive. I mean, it's just too hard. Well, you're an endurance athlete.

It's not advantageous for someone like you. True, though, there are a lot of, I mean, Zach Bitter is a father-adapted. Yeah, we've had Zach on this show. But he's, I don't think he's true. I don't, I don't think he's so funny. No, he still uses the carbs. So he uses carbs.

Yeah, he runs keto and then, and then, then exactly, then it just takes way less now, right? So that's what's so great about it. Because it increases insulin sensitivity so much. So then he is racing or running. He can take, you know, carbs and his body just utilizes him. Very effectively. And I don't remember what he said, but it was, it was quite,

it was more, it was a huge, yeah, it was different to me. I think it races in the past. You'd eat up to 600, 900 grams of carbs, where he only needed like 300 now or whatever. Yeah, I would love, I mean, in an ideal world, I would love to be, I mean, to get into that process, to become a fat-ed-up deflate takes a fair amount of time. And I've heard it's really hard for women.

It's much, much harder for women. So when you're very true, so going so restrictive, either cutting too much fat or too many carbs for women, while training at a very, very high intensity. When you put that all together, it can spell disaster for hormones. It can cause so, whereas you can have estrogen issues when you go too low fat, you can have thyroid issues.

If you go too low carb for too long, cycling it is what some people will find. Yeah, so if there's something about the T3 or T4, I can't remember which one of those is that can be thrown off by the low carb for women. Yeah, because your body starts to adapt. So I'm starving and I'm exercising a lot. Let's adapt by reducing our activity with our thyroid.

So it's not necessarily a good idea. And as far as endurance is concerned, you can, these ultra high marathon runners, some of them do do ketogenic diets and do very well, but when you're doing obstacles, which require some strength, probably not a good idea for performance, you're probably better off doing a little bit of both.

Yeah, I would never, I mean, it's fascinating to me, but it's one of those things, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get in ketosis, I'm gonna become fat adapted, and then like three hours later, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna get in ketosis, I'm gonna become fat adapted and then like three hours later, I'm like, ooh, bowl of chocolates.

So, it's just not more. I've been meaning to ask you since you came in your necklace. What is that? It looks like a bone. It is a buffalo tooth, actually. Is there any meaning behind it? I was given to me and I really like it and I can kind of like rub it

almost like a worry stone when I'm stressed out and I don't think it was supposed to be a necklace but I made it into one so. Very cool. Very very cool. Well thanks for coming on. Yeah thanks for having me. It's been awesome talking you. You're very inspiring and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future, whether that means winning more races or moving in different directions or whatever. It's very compelling hearing some of your stories. So, excellent.

Thanks for coming on. Yes. Just welcome down here. Check it out. Go to YouTube, Mind Pump TV. We post a new video every single day. You can also find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Radio. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

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