Sparta Chicks Radio: Mindset | Confidence | Sport | Women

I first spoke with Michelle Lee back in July, 2017 when she shared her goal to complete the world’s toughest nautical challenge; the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

A 5,300km / 2900 nautical mile solo, unassisted and self-supported ocean rowing event across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain all the way to Antigua in the Caribbean.

In February 2019, Michelle achieved her goal and, in the process, became the first Australian woman to row across an ocean.

Now there’s one key piece of information you need to know; Michelle did not come from a rowing background.

At the time she set the goal, she had never pulled an oar through the water.

In fact, when Michelle pulled out of the dock at the start of the race, she had never rowed in the open ocean (all her training had been confined to inside Sydney Heads). Wow!

So in this week’s episode of Sparta Chicks Radio, Michelle rejoins me to share what’s happened in the last 18 months since we first spoke, as well as how this incredible race unfolded for her.

Dr Stacy Sims is an environmental exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist at the University of Waikato in NZ.

She’s an incredible athlete in her own right too, having competed at the Hawaii Ironman in Kona as well as the Xterra (Off-Road Triathlon) World Championships in Maui.

And she’s the author of an important book called Roar. It is a profound book that will challenge everything you thought you knew about training, nutrition, racing and recovery.

At the core of Stacy’s work is the concept that women are not small men.

It seems obvious, I know!

However the majority of sports science research - and a result, the majority of what we understand about the best way to train, eat, drink, race and recover - has been done on men.

Even the common training program structure of 3 weeks of training followed by 1 week of recovery is - you guessed it! - based on research done on men, without any regard for the hormonal changes experienced by women each and every month.

Yet given that every system in our body changes across the month (not just our hormones), it’s hard and frustrating to believe this “shrink it and pink it” approach has also been applied to sports science.

But unfortunately, it has! We’ve been taught to train, eat, drink, race and recover the same way as men!

3 months after finishing High School at the age of 18, Jess Fox qualified for the 2012 London Olympics.

She left those Games with a Silver medal and, in hindsight, admits she felt the need to prove herself and to show that her result in London wasn’t a fluke.

Of course, it wasn’t a fluke - in fact, it was just the start of an incredible career!

A 2 x Olympic medalist (Jess won Bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics), Jess has also won 7 World Titles (and counting!) making her the most successful canoe slalom paddler - male or female - in the history of the sport.

And she’s on Sparta Chicks Radio this week!

We discuss:

- how Jess got into the sport (given she initially thought it was “uncool”)

- the power of writing down your goals and seeing them on a daily basis,

- why you should welcome conditions that aren’t ideal in training, and

- her experience with the Imposter Complex, especially after the London Olympics

Lucy Gossage finished last in a cross country race when she was 13 or 14.

And while she didn’t realise it at the time, she now recognises that a fear of failure held her back from participating in any competitive sport until she was talked into doing her 1st triathlon at the age of 26.

Fast forward a few years, she’s now an oncology doctor and former professional triathlete who won 13 x Ironman Championships throughout her career.

Lucy has now returned to working as an oncology doctor part-time while using her available time to chase new experiences outside her comfort zone (like her recent race at Patagonman) while using her platform to drive exercise-related initiatives for cancer patients and thrivers.

In this conversation, we discuss the fear of failure, how suffering is a choice for athletes and the Imposter Complex.

Melissa Urie joined me on the podcast way back in episode 14 to share her experience of becoming only the 2nd woman ever to complete the Epic 5 - a race consisting of 5 Ironman-distance triathlons on 5 Hawaiian islands over 5 days.

This week, Mel returns to the podcast to share her experience of competing at the Ultraman World Championships on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2018.

Ultraman is a 3 day triathlon, consisting of a 10km swim, 420km riding and an 84km run.

#spoileralert Mel missed the cut-off on Day 2 by 8 minutes (after 12 hours of racing).

Some in the same situation might describe this DNF as a ‘failure’. However, Mel views it as a battle she lost, rather than a ‘failure’.

In this fun conversation, we discuss:

- what her experience at the Epic 5 means to her now (almost 2 years down the track) and how it’s changed how she sees herself,

- her advice to women who struggle with their athletic identity and naming and claiming who and what they are,

- how she found her way through an intense period of experiencing the Imposter Complex in the lead-up to the World Championships,

- how the race at the Ultraman World Championships unfolded including the point at which she realised she may not make the cut-off on day 2,

- why she describes the race as a battle she lost (as opposed to a ‘failure’)

- the incredible event she’s decided to tackle next, and

- her experience of being on the Rich Roll podcast and whether her pesky Imposter showed up too.

Katee Pedicini’s work around hormones and their impact on our health, happiness and performance has been pivotal for many women, myself included.

Katee is the founder of Holistic Endurance and is based in Melbourne. She’s a triathlon coach and self-confessed hormone nerd who specialises in managing fatigue, stress and hormones to achieve not only performance but optimal health and happiness.

And I can hand-on-heart say Katee and her work has changed my life.

Katee has been on the podcast in both 2017 and 2018.

And if you haven’t listened to either conversation (or perhaps you haven’t heard them recently) I’d encourage you to go back and listen to them first as this episode is the 3rd part of a series, and the first 2 conversations will lay the foundations for what we talk about today.

This time, we dive into the importance of recovery and rejuvenation.

Now on the face of it, it may not seem a ‘sexy’ topic. But the importance of this can’t be understated.

You can’t have performance improvements - you can’t get fitter, faster or stronger - without recovery and rejuvenation.

And you certainly can’t have happy hormones, weight, mood and energy balance without it.

Katee has also developed a Rejuvenation Protocol  - which she shares in this conversation - which allows you to track and quantify, via a point score system, your recovery and rejuvenation (and give yourself some bragging rights in the process).

At the time of recording this conversation in 2019, Sparta Chicks Radio celebrated its 2nd birthday (or anniversary).

And there is no-one I’d rather share that celebration with than this week’s return guest, Lucy Barnard!

Lucy is attempting to become the 1st woman to walk the length of the world.

She set off in February 2017 from Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina to walk all the way to Barrow, Alaska; a journey of 30,000km /20,000mi across 15 countries that will take her about 5 years.

Yes, years.

Lucy was first on the podcast back in March, 2018 (you can find that episode here).

And in preparing to speak to Lucy for that episode, I realised we share a unique connection; we both started our respective journeys - Lucy started walking and I published the first podcast - on the very same day in 2017.

That conversation turned into our first anniversary/birthday celebration and we agreed to catch up for a yearly update throughout her expedition.

In this episode, we cover everything that has happened during the 2nd year of Lucy’s expedition, including her experience of crossing the Atacama Desert (the oldest, driest and hottest place on Earth).

Julie Howle is a talented triathlete and surgical oncologist.

She's currently the Head of the Melanoma and Sarcoma Multidisciplinary Groups at Westmead Hospital here in Sydney and a Clinical Senior Lecturer at The University of Sydney.

Julie is also an Age Group World Champion triathlete, having won her AG at the ITU Long Distance World Championships in 2017. And she's a 2x finisher for the Hawaii Ironman in Kona (in 2017 and 2018).

Plus she’s someone who openly admits that her experience of changing degrees at University “laid the foundation for a lifetime of the imposter syndrome”.

Julie and I discuss:

- how being resilient and focusing on her goals has helped her navigate her experience with the Imposter Complex,

- how the words “World Champion” sit with her,

- why she took almost 10 years from her first triathlon to do her first Ironman,

- why being sick in the week leading up to her 1st Hawaii Ironman at Kona was a good thing,

- how she’s realised getting stuck in ‘comparison’ ruins her enjoyment of the sport,

- how she (as a melanoma specialist living here in Australia, a country with one of the highest rates of skin cancer) protects her skin from the sun while training and racing, and

- what you need to do to protect and monitor your skin.

Julie is such a softly spoken, humble and genuinely lovely woman. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Steph Lowe is a triathlete, Sports Nutritionist and the Founder of the Natural Nutritionist.

Steph was first on the podcast in August, 2018 (episode #69) where we had a wide-ranging discussion about nutrition - specifically the benefits of adopting an LCHF lifestyle on everything from your hormones, weight, PMS, mood, immune system, gut health and even 3:30itis.

I asked Steph to return to the show so we could ‘deep dive’ into one specific health issue that affects millions of women; Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and the impact your diet and nutrition can have (both in contributing to the disease and reversing it).

If you don’t have PCOS, I'd encourage you to keep listening.

Our discussion around PCOS is really part of a broader discussion around the topics of hormones and menstrual cycles and the impact of nutrition, stress, exercise, supplements, the contraceptive pill (amongst other things) on it.

Alyssa Godesky is most well-known these days for being a professional triathlete and the co-host of the popular Ironwomen podcast.

What isn’t well known is that she was an ultra marathon runner and trail runner, long before she moved into the world of triathlons.

In 2018, Alyssa returned to her trail running roots and set out on a mission to break the Fastest Known Time (or FKT) on the Vermont Long Trail in the United States, a 273mi / 440km trail which traverses the State of Vermont from north to south.

Now if you saw the film ‘Finding Traction’ on Netflix last year, you know more about the Vermont Long Trail than you might think...

That film follows legendary trail runner, Nikki Kimball, on her attempt to break the (men’s) record on the Vermont Long Trail.

#spoileralert Nikki misses the men’s record but smashes the women’s record.

It turns out that watching ‘Finding Traction’ lit the spark in Alyssa to wonder if she could do it.

Fast forward a few years and in 2018 (#spoileralert), Alyssa set a new women’s record of 5 days, 2 hours & 37min, taking over 5 hours off Nikki’s record!

In this conversation we discuss:

- the self-doubt and fear of failure that nearly stopped the project before she’d even started,

- the strategies she used to avoid slipping into comparison with Nikki (who is, on paper, by far the more talented and experienced runner),

- the sleep deprivation she experienced (after having only 17 hours of sleep in 5 days), and

- the (surprising) impact the run (and the stress from it) had on her body, hormonally.