Welcome to Episode 45 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast, featuring ultrarunner, mother, and former private nutrition client of mine, Veronica Leeds.

I first met Veronica when she reached out to me back in 2018 when she was relatively new to the sport of ultra running and was seeking help with her everyday and performance nutrition. She had a young son and had started running as a way to literally escape the challenges of motherhood (ahem, I think I can relate to that one!!!). We worked on healing and strengthening her relationship with food and body, while helping her become a more competitive, resilient athlete. After about four months of working together, she was ready to continue on her journey on her own.

Fast forward to August 2021, when I was browsing Instagram and her smiling face came across my feed in an article for Ultra Running Magazine about her recent training and attempt to win Eastern States 100 miler. I was so impressed by how far she had come as an athlete. Even though Eastern States did not go as she had hoped, she has had so many successful events, placing 1st (or at least top ten) female in many races in the last couple of years. She has been training hard and has ambitious goals, and I immediately thought - I have to get her on the show!

We cover a lot in this episode, including her recent bike crash (which resulted in a TBI - thank goodness she is okay, and is slowly returning to running), her many years as a competitive equestrian show jumper, her struggles with food and body image, how she entered the sport of running and her rise to becoming a highly competitive athlete, and how being a mother to her 6 year old son has played into all of this.

Veronica is such a joy to talk to and I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you so much, Veronica, for spending time chatting with me, and I wish you continued healing and a wonderful 2022 racing season!

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• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
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