TBP 189 :: Lucie Hanes- Running and Climbing and Eating Disorder Recovery

Lucie Hanes is a 27-year-old climbing coach out of Eagle, Colorado, who is pursuing her Master’s of Science in Applied Sports Psychology.

I met Lucie in the Wicked Cave in Rifle last summer, and the next time I heard from her was when she reached out via email in response to the episode I did with Matt Pincus about running and climbing.

In that episode, Matt and I basically conclude that running isn’t going to help your climbing, and that it may in fact hinder it. And that there are other more effective ways to train endurance for climbing.

Lucie emailed me to say that she was not only a high performing climber (having sent numerous 5.13’s), but also a high performing ultra runner. She wanted to tell the story of how it’s possible to do both sports well as a counter to my episode with Matt.

Lucie is incredibly passionate about both of her sports, and my conversation with her ended up being even more enlightening than I thought it would be because it turns out she’s also in recovery from an eating disorder. And she’s very open about it, so a lot of our conversation ended up being about body image, disordered eating behaviors, her health consequences of underfueling, and how she’s recovering from all of it.

While she does provide details about her training for both running and climbing – and how she does both at the same time – I want to stress that this is not necessarily something that all humans can imitate without negative consequences. Lucie will admit herself that she may be an outlier, and she also concludes at the end of our talk that running may be inhibiting her climbing abilities and vice versa.

So this is NOT an episode wherein we are wholeheartedly advocating for people to train for running and climbing at the same time, and do it with the gusto that Lucie has. I honestly considered not publishing this episode because I knew it would be triggering for some people.

But after a lot of thought, I decided that this episode could be very helpful for people who struggle with disordered eating and over-exercising behaviors. Lucie is finding that she is healthier and happier now that she’s eating properly to fuel all of the exercise she does, and that is the lesson I want everyone to hear.

I want to thank Lucie for her willingness to talk about difficult things; Her vulnerability is invaluable to us all. I very much enjoyed this talk with her, and I felt super connected to her during it. I wish she lived closer to me so we could hang out, honestly.

If you’d like to work with Lucie, you can find her at www.insideoutathlete.com, where she consults with athletes on mental strength coaching in sport & performance.

• Why running is her form of moving meditation

• Instagram @luciehanes

Photo of Lucie climbing by Charlie Postlewaite

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