The Asia Trail Girls Podcast

We have a very exciting podcast today where we chat about all things running and pregnancy!

We are joined today by three Hong Kong based running ladies, first up for the introduction is Katy, a British physio therapist who specialises in pre and postnatal care and specifically the pelvic floor, she shares some valuable tips and advice for those new or mums to be. We then have two new trail running mums Sayaka and Elsa who have had babies in the last two years and they run with UGlow a Hong Kong based running team. They chat to us all about their experience with staying active whilst pregnant and their postnatal experiences. We had an honest and candid chat all about expectactions vs reality with becoming a mum + how it honestly was for them mentally and physically, they also share some great personal advice with you!

This is a beautiful conversation from the heart and one not to miss!

The resources shared in the podcast below:
Return to run guidelines by Tom Goom, Grainne Donnelly and Emma Brockwell, 
https://absolute.physio/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/returning-to-running-postnatal-guidelines.pdf

therunnerphysio.com

@physiomumuk

This is a story of 3 friends who bonded over their love of ultramarathons, who after too many drinks decided to place a bet..

the bet being that they would spin a globe and wherever it would land, they would run.

They span it and it landed on Tajikistan, so it was set they would run across this small desolate little country in central Asia, and they did! 

They ran from the border of Afghanistan to China across Tajikistan, it was 400km and they did it in 7 days. It had never been run before and they were not sure it was even possible.

What makes it so interesting is that it is a story not about 'finishers' or 'medals' as it was not an event, but just about an adventure, self-determination and strength. 

We have on today, one of the group members and the only female in the group and the ONLY finisher, Jodie Gauld. Jodie, is British and is no stranger to ultrarunning, she has done many ultra marathons and multistage races, ending up with some incredible results. In fact, her first ever running event was a 50 miler, which says a lot about her character and strength. 

An incredible award winning movie was made about this venture, called Running the Roof, by Sourcy films. It is a MUST watch and tells the story behind this adventure and what happened. 

If you want to watch the video you can find the links to google play, amazon or apple TV here : https://www.runningtheroof.com/

We also discuss about Jodie's motivation, training and logistics behind ultramarathons or multistage events, how she found running as the only female and in rugged Central Asia. 

Enjoy :)

We caught up with Eszter Csillag after her 4th place victory at CCC recently.  We were really eager to delve into her training, preparation and to see if she had done anything special or different in the build up, and she certainly had…. One, having a baby in April was a big factor but also she teamed up with her new ultra coach Ida Nilsson, the Swedish long-distance runner, and ski mountaineer. So we decided to catch up with them both to focus on tips and advice for races like CCC from a coach's perspective and the person being coached. This is a juicy episode looking at both their running stories, great tips, and advice for trail, postnatal and pregnant runners. 

For those of you who are not familiar with UTMB, it is the pinnacle of trail running and what many trail runners aspire to do! It is Kona for triathletes, New York marathon for road runners and the Olympics for athletes. This race series consists of 9 different races across the French, Italian and Swiss Alps in the summer with the mother being UTMB which goes across all those Alps, it is 100 miles and has 10,000m of elevation. After the excitement recently of watching this race, what better way to celebrate with chatting to Samantha Chan, a Hong Kong Ultra Runner, who is no stranger to UTMB and has done many of the world's toughest ultras. We caught up with her on her experience here, tips and advice for those that want to do it and how to be successful. 

If you are at all interested in UTMB, this is the episode for you!

After our very exciting ATG virtual Everesting challenge last month we caught up with the top 3 soloist winners and even better they were all female and our beloved trail girls. We have Candice, Charlotte and Stephanie all based in Hong Kong. We chatted all about their experiences, how it went, the logistics, their training and what got them through those dark hours. 

If you aren't familiar with Everesting, Everesting is a concept that requires you to climb a hill as many times in one effort to reach the elevation of Everest, so 8,848m. It was originally started as a cycling event but has recently been taken over by runners. We did this event to raise money for Mira Rai's initiative Exchange and Empower, a non profit established by the famous Mira Rai herself in order to help impoverished females in Nepal, like herself, and help them through trail running. If you want to find out more about this amazing charity you can listen to our previous podcast all about their work!

Our event was a great success and thank you to all who participated and donated!! We managed to raise $6,752 for Mira Rai's initiative Exchange and Empower.

In today's episode we chat to the ever so beautiful and endearing Mira Rai and multi talented Keilem Ning about their non profit organization: Exchange and Empower.

You all know Mira Rai and her famous transformational story from living in a remote village in Nepal and having to runaway to be a child soldier to support her family to now being a professional Salomon trail athlete. Mira got spotted in a 50k trail race and since then has been supported and helped throughout her running career, which has encouraged her to give help to other female Nepalese girls in impoverished communities, the same way she was supported.

She teamed up with good friend Keilem Ng to start Exchange and Empower, which helps local Nepalese females with run training, nutrition help, coaching and education. Keilem is a world of knowledge and seems to do everything; she is an environmental activist, feminist and started Hong Kong female trail runners which has since merged with us, ATG.

We chat about Mira's life, why she runs and all about their amazing projects. They also both give their advice on our current ATG Everesting challenge for those who are joining.

We currently have a virtual challenge, ATG Everesting running now for the month which supports E & E. If you would like to join, click here...

https://www.asiatrailgirls.com/everesting-challenge

If you would like to donate click here...

https://chuffed.org/project/atg-everesting-for-exchange-empowe

In today’s 13th episode we caught up with the almighty professional runner Ruth Croft, just after her recent win at Tarawera Ultramarathon (102km) in New Zealand, where she didn’t just win it but smashed the course record in 9 hours, 21 minutes and 3 seconds. Ruth has an interesting running story which started on a scholarship running in the US in the collegiate system. Feeling burnt out from running which is an all too familiar feeling for a lot of us, Ruth found herself in Taiwan teaching English for 5 years and it was there she really got into the trails. She has dabbled and excels in all distances from the shorter ultras, uber long stuff and road races, but currently finds herself focusing on the longggg distances and Western States is her next biggie she is training for, the famous 100 mile race in the US. We had a fascinating chat about all things living, racing and training in Asia and how it compares to the West. We also delve into tips, advice and explore the very important topic of training as a woman and things we can do to optimise our performance in different areas in that subject. On top of this she tells us how we should all be having ice baths and spending 10 days in silence. Listen to this episode to find our more and hear our interesting open chat. 

50 percent of the population go through the menstrual cycle, but yet there are so many misconceptions, embarrassments and taboos around this subject... WHY? It has been inherently ingrained in many of us since a young age that periods slow us down and generally immobilise us with the awful mood swings and pain, from this we have accepted as a society that it is normal to suffer. WRONG, periods actually optimise performance and you don't have to suffer, there are many adjustments you can make to allow your period to empower you instead of inhibiting you. 

In this fascinating podcast with women health expert and medical doctor Emma Warner and professional endurance athlete and coach Carole Fuchs we delve into the topic of periods, how to optimise your training, dependent on your cycle and how to support it with the right nutrition. We go into detail about each different stage in your cycle and unpack the taboos, and misconceptions. We also discuss RED-S, the very undiscussed but paramount condition in many female athletes that needs to be looked out for. 

Do you know that basically all studies around hormones, menstrual cycles and oral contraceptions are done by and on men? So many 'health experts' claim women are an anomaly and too complicated to study in regards to training. Hence why many of the suggestions are related to men only, creating the notion that ‘women are small men....’ (in the words of the wonderful Dr Stacy Simms) we certainly are not and can't train or nurture ourselves the same way! We need to come together and talk about this subject more, making this knowledge more accessible to all, allowing us to break away from all the incorrect ideologies, shame and enabling us to feel empowered by our periods! 

This episode is one not to miss!

This podcast is for everyone, even you males as I know you have some form or female in your life, whether it's a partner, sister or daughter, this will give you a better understanding of it all!

The app I referred to is MyFlo, go and download it!

Please note that the information discussed in this podcast is not intended as medical advice and should not be viewed as such. If you have any concerns about your health after listening to this, you should contact your own doctor!

In today's 11th episode we chat to Syazana Alia a Malaysian trail runner, crossfit athlete and all round very active person. Syazana was unfortunately diagnosed with adrenal cancer last year and she is currently in recovery and rehabilitation mode whilst doing chemotherapy. She talks all about how running and a healthy lifestyle is helping her get through this. She embodies positive energy and a healthy lifestyle after turning her life around a few years ago, we delve into her empowering advice how you too, can live your best life and be the best version of yourself. 

She is also a sports medical expert currently finishing her masters in the UK, she talks us through valuable information she has learnt about injury prevention, rehabilitation and mental health. 

This episode will empower and inspire you to further your health journey or start your own. 

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Nikki Han after her amazing feat of completing the HK4TUC which is a 298km trail race in Hong Kong covering all 4 of the famous peaks. To be a finisher of this event you have to finish it in under 60 hours! Nikki is the first and ONLY ever female to have finished this race and she has done it twice!

We delved into everything that happened, her strategies, logistics, struggles and what advice she would give to other females wanting to do it. She is no stranger to Ultra events, with other 30 Ultras under her belt, many crazy personal challenges like Everesting on her 50th birthday and self supported and self navigated 100 milers. The longer and harder the race the better for Nikki! 100 milers now seem to be her warm up!

We talk all about why she runs and the fact she didn't start running until she was 40 years old. 

Nikki is a true inspiration to the world of trail running for females, her strong mindset and will is completely awe-inspiring! Nikki started off as an 'ordinary runner' she still isn't sponsored, doesn't do intense mileage of training programs and has some incredible achievements which shows us all that any one is able to do anything if they put their mind to it. I can promise you with this episode you will go away impacted and inspired!