Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - HYROX athlete Lucy Proctor on ADHD, PMDD and the Pressure to Perform

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Lucy Proctor is one of the world’s leading HYROX athletes. At just 23, she has already competed at the highest level — but behind her remarkable rise is a story of late diagnosis, masking, burnout and learning to understand her body. In this honest conversation, Lucy opens up about being diagnosed with ADHD and autism as an adult, struggling to make and maintain friendships at school, and mistaking anxiety, overwhelm and “freeze days” for laziness or a lack of discipline. She also shares the impact of PMDD on her mental health, body image, heart rate, training and performance, alongside the difficult journey of losing — and ultimately regaining — her menstrual cycle. Lucy explains how she changed her fuelling, recovery and approach to training, and why rest is now an essential part of her career. As a Red Bull athlete, Lucy is competing on the world stage while learning how to work with her neurodivergence rather than against it. This is a candid conversation about ADHD, autism, PMDD, elite sport, body image, self-compassion and building a healthier, more sustainable future. Keywords: Lucy Proctor, ADHD, autism, AuDHD, PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, women’s health, elite sport, HYROX, female athletes, menstrual health, lost period, RED-S, overtraining, burnout, body image, fuelling, recovery, Red Bull athlete, neurodivergence, Just As Well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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at IGPrivatewealth.com. So before today's guest arrived in our studio. I'll be honest, I thought she was just another supremely fit 20-something athlete that I would have nothing in common with and couldn't possibly learn anything from. How wrong was I? This episode is truly inspiring. It's emotional. Some of this actually heartbreaking when you hear her childhood experience of coping with symptoms of ADHD and autism. but not knowing what they were and why she couldn't make friends and why she couldn't maintain friendships

and why school at points was really challenging. Today's guest is Lucy Proctor. She is a world-leading high rocks athlete. At the age of just 23, she came second in the doubles and six in the singles. Her star is rising, but fairly recently, she was diagnosed with ADHD and autism, and bravely put this on her social media.

She felt that she had a duty to raise awareness because she knew she had a platform. Listen to Lucy talk in such honest detail about the challenges she still faces daily yet is competing on the world stage in a supremely challenging sport. That is high rocks. She told us how she went from a complete,

novice to being in the world elite 15 in just the space of three years. Now that she's sponsored by Red Bull, she's lucky enough to compete all over the world. And over the course of our chat, I discovered that all disseminated ADHD are not the only challenges she have. She also suffers with PMDD, debilitating symptoms linked to PMDD. Yet she manages to get herself in the gym when, in her own words, she wants to be. doing anything but prepared to be inspired and impressed by today's guest on Just as well. Lucy, welcome to Just as well. Thank you for having me. It's so lovely to see you here today.

You've just been sharing that you've already trained this morning and we'll do so again later. Yes, yeah, I'm just building back for my routine to get ready for next season. So yeah, two sessions a day. Six days a week? Six days a week, yeah. Goodness. And how much combination training is that in the morning and the afternoon? Honestly, at the moment, I'm trying to frontload my days quite a lot. So it means that afternoon session is kind of a bit mentally easier. So most days, it will be sort of two, two and a half hours in the morning. And then the afternoon is only about an hour or so. Only. And what does that look like? Is it cardio in the morning strength in the afternoon or does it vary? Yeah, it depends. Like, almost always cardio in the mornings. So it will, but I figured out that running in the morning is

definitely the routine for me. So my morning session will pretty much always include some from running, whether that's easy or intervals. And then it might be some erg work or some specific preparation work for the race. And then my strength is usually in the afternoon. But it could also be like an easy bike session or some more intervals. I imagine your assessment of easy is different to mine. Maybe. But I try and keep my easy days really easy. So your explosion onto the high role, World has been fairly rapid. You went from someone who was doing Barry's boot camp to someone who recently came second in the High Rocks World Championships.

And one thing that really impressed me recently was your openness about your recent diagnosis of autism and ADHD and your choice to put that on your Instagram and put yourself out there in a very vulnerable place to be. Take me through it. Yeah, I think it's kind of become more apparent over the last few years, I think I was having this conversation earlier. And I think it's something that when you come out of school and you're kind of free to be,

whoever you want to be and you're not put in that box anymore, the kind of symptoms of ADHD and autism became a bit more apparent to me. And I realized that it might be something that I kind of have and I've been dealing with. And so I've gone through the process of speaking to a sports psychologist who is amazing and helps me in so many ways. seeking a diagnosis and I've got so much support from my partners and my sponsors as well

and yeah it's been a really like freeing and liberating journey and like I feel so much better actually having shared it online as well I've had a lot of people tell me that I seem a lot more relaxed and like myself

and I honestly feel like that's the case yeah it's just been it feels nice to be able to not have to hide anything and be able to fully kind of share the highs and the loads which is something that I always really try and do yeah I just try and be authentically myself and it's been a big step in doing that

What traits in yourself did you recognise that potentially could be ADHD or autism? I think I kind of on the way to my diagnosis went back and forth over which one I thought it might be until I came to the conclusion that it probably would be both. For a while I think the more autistic traits were the ones that stuck out to me. I was always really, really routine-based, someone that really needed that structure. And it was also the things that you kind of would like classically hit. here as maybe symptoms like very easily irritated really like quite overstimulated by various things whether that's like noise or kind of busy areas or even like feelings um i was told by my mum

actually it came up in my diagnosis that there was a type of underwear that would be the only kind i would ever wear when i was a child um i don't remember this but things like that and yeah there were i remember times when like i would be doing my hair as a child and i couldn't stand having bumps anything like that in my hair. And it's things that I look back at like that and realise that it has been present all the time. So kind of those were the more like autism-based traits. And I think the ADHD ones have really come out more recently

since I've become an athlete. They're kind of the less kind of known ones. I think a lot of people would see ADHD as something where you're really loud and impulsive. And that's not me. There are lots of different ways. ADHD can present and I often actually kind of present as like again the hyperactivity comes out in kind of my training and I do have impulses sometimes I will wake up and just want to go and do

something completely random that's not my training and obviously I can't always do that but there are times when I would have gone too far and being too energetic and it's days that I like to call freeze days that happen as a result of that where I thought originally that it was just oh you know I've done too much training and I'm a bit tired and I need a rest day but it really genuinely isn't just

I'm a bit tired it's like I'm so anxious that I can't leave the house today and I kind of didn't know that that was something that might be ADHD until like fairly recently so yeah that was kind of the main indicator of that one so your anxiety manifests on days where you've been totally over-stimulated.

Your nervous system is saying, I need to retreat here. I need to protect myself. Yeah, exactly. I think it's really, really difficult. And the way I like to describe this is that when you are a neurotypical person, you are much more in touch with your energy levels.

And it's like being able to just check your bank balance at any time. And you can go in and see where your bank balance is and where your energy levels are and kind of act according to that. If you are neurodivergent, you might have limited access to like being able to check your bank balance. And in my case, and as the case with some of my friends who also have autism and ADHD, it's like you can never check your bank balance and you have to guess. And you won't know when you're in overdraft until you're in overdraft.

And then you'll know about it because you have a freeze day. When you look back at your childhood and school, can you now recognise instances where you were masking to fit in? and maybe the environment was more challenging for you than your neurotypical school friends? Yeah, 100%. I think when I look back at my school days, like I struggle to make friends and I never really figured out why that was.

And I think I often miss social cues and I still do it like today as an adult and it's something that I'm kind of learning. But again, as an autistic or neurodivergent person, you kind of learn to pretend to be someone you're not. and I try not to do that because I like who I am and I should be who I am. But yeah, I think I struggled when I was younger

because I didn't understand why I couldn't make friends or why I didn't like going to parties or why I wouldn't keep my friendships or, you know, I didn't feel like people understood me. And it was also difficult because I changed a lot as a person throughout my school years. I went from this really, really academic, highly studying person, getting a scholarship to my senior school

and being obsessed over like my exams to really caring about my sport and no one saw that one coming because I hated PE and again it was confusing because I just changed as a person and you know it's difficult to keep up with that when you don't understand it

but I didn't even understand myself so so you think that transition from being super academic to super sporty was at the expense of academia then that you left that behind to concentrate more on sport I think I started really focusing on my running

And I think it's because I realized without knowing it that it was helping me. It was, it's free medication. And the dopamine you get from training was really, really helping to ground me. And obviously because I realized how good that felt, I prioritised it naturally. But I also, again, couldn't understand why I was then withdrawing a bit from my schoolwork. And I still did well in my A levels. I didn't do as well as I kind of hoped and expected. And that was disappointing for me.

But at the same time, it was history that was. my exam that I didn't do as well as I'd hoped in. I got a C and I was aiming for an A or an A star. But I couldn't get myself to revise and I didn't understand why that was because I'd always been able to just do it. But I had this other thing that was running and it was really just, you know, I was so drawn to that and how much I enjoyed it. And I wasn't enjoying the history curriculum.

I just couldn't get on with what we were studying. Obviously, you don't get to choose that unfortunately. And I just couldn't bring myself to revise it because I had no interest. And I was like, why can't I make myself interested? So, yeah, it was, you know, kind of a balancing act. And I still did well in my other A-levels. But, yeah, I think it was kind of a balance that I hadn't figured out.

That's really interesting. So you only had so much hyper-focus available to you when you channeled that into sport that you couldn't conjure up something within you to focus on history because it just didn't interest you. Yeah. And that was so confusing to me as well because I was like, but it's one of my favourite subjects.

I've chosen this. There's ADHD in my family. So a lot of what you're saying is very familiar. And I feel a lot of compassion for little Lucy, struggling to make friends, being confused, why you can't keep friendships. Do you look back and feel quite sad for your younger self that you didn't have the knowledge you do to date

to understand the goings on and ins and out of? of navigating school. Yeah, I think so. And I speak to my psychologist as well. And, you know, it's like, I think having the understanding because ADHD and autism are never an excuse for things, but they are a really, really good explanation. And I think if I had that explanation when I was younger,

it would have made me feel a lot better because I would be able to identify why things felt a certain way or why I couldn't do things or could do things. And then I'd be a lot more secure in myself. We've had several elite athletes on this podcast and Lucy Bronze was one of them and she, the footballer Lucy Bronze, the lioness and she was diagnosed in adulthood.

So I know you are an adult, forgive me, but she was older than you, she was in her 30s and she described a lot of the same experiences as you in school. But you're still relatively young. So maybe you can look at it through a positive lens that you now have the information to navigate life going forward, more informed. Yeah, I'm really glad that I've gone through this process now

because I still feel like I'm really at the start of my career. Yeah. And it's kind of like meeting yourself again when you get your diagnosis and that's how it's kind of felt. But I feel like the work I've been able to do over the last few months and obviously I'm continuing to do is really, really helping my performance and my training and hopefully will come across in races as well.

But the fact that I've been able to do this at this point rather than five years down the line when my kind of potential to peak was a lot higher, I think it will be really valuable. So I'm, you know, I'm glad that it's something that I'm going through now. I love that. You like meeting yourself again. Yeah, it really feels like it.

That's beautiful. Take us to the point where you were diagnosed. And what was your immediate reaction? Was it relief? Or was there part of you that was quite sad that you now had this label, I suppose, to go through life? Yeah, I think both. I think a lot of people talk. about the relief that a diagnosis should bring you or does bring a lot of people. And I do get

that. And I think I did get it in some ways because I was like, okay, good. All of these things that I'm struggling with are, you know, it is a thing and it is a medical thing and it's like my brain chemistry. That's just who I am. And there is an explanation for it. I'm not just lazy or incapable of going to the gym some days. But at the same time, there's a stark realization and it almost feels like grief that you actually, A, have been dealing with this your whole life and not knowing about it and all the energy that you've poured into things and all of the times that you've been really horrible to yourself mentally because you call yourself lazy or incapable. You know, there was an explanation the whole time, but equally coming to the

realisation that this is something that I will just have for my whole life and I will have to manage it for the rest of my life. You know, it's daunting and it's scary because you can't just make it go away. But having a deeper understanding of one's self is a gift. Yeah, 100%. It's going to allow you to thrive in your career and not beat yourself up and not call yourself lazy and hate on yourself, which just sounds like you've done all too often. Yeah.

I mean, it feels like sometimes it can be a superpower, but you have to learn how to use that and be kind to yourself along the way, which is really learning. Because it is easy when you miss a session or, you know, a race just doesn't go the way you planned or you just have a bad day where you just feel too anxious to go to the gym. It's really easy to beat yourself up and go, you know, well, everyone else can do it. So why can't I? And it's like you do actually have a reason. So I'd love to dig into doing a high rocks and the environment.

I've never been. Or I work across men's health and woman's health and lots of my team have done a high rocks, but I've never actually been. But I've been told it's a really loud environment. overstimulating crowds. How do you cope with that? Because my perception of autism is someone who doesn't particularly like

being overstimulated by chaos. Yeah, I think it's really interesting because typically, as you say, it's an environment that I should not thrive in. But I think with things like that, if I've chosen to be there and I've prepared myself for it, it's easier in the moment.

Like I generally say, if I've chosen to put myself in an overstimil environment. I can't complain about it because that was my choice. But the kind of come down afterwards will always happen and does happen. So it's kind of like you have to mask really, really hard for the competition weekend. And generally the recovery does take some time afterwards. And I might have a couple of days of feeling really, really exhausted. And it's tough because often that kind of hits me like a week on from the race. So I'll kind of ride the high of the race because like the excitement and the buzz,

my ADHD loves that. And then like a week after that, all of a sudden I'll have a day where everything comes crashing down. And I just can't do anything. So yeah, it's like I like the environment of race day. I get really excited for it. And when I think about race day, apart from the actual discomfort of the race itself,

which hopefully should be somewhat fun as well, it does really, really excite me, the feeling of crossing the finish line and getting to stand on the podium and like be there. That doesn't scare me. It excites me. But yeah, at the same time,

it does have an effect and like the noise and everything does kind of subliminally feed into me and then I have to recover from that. You mentioned that you mask on race days. What does that look like for you? I think it's just putting up a front to deal with the crowds.

But at the same time, when you're on that course, you kind of have to, and I think it's the same. for everyone. You have to pretend you're someone else. You kind of have your racing persona, because behind the scenes, all of the competitors are lovely. Like, everyone's really lovely, and everyone's pretty good friends and supports each other. But when you're on the course, we're all competitors, and everyone wants to win or do well. And you have to have this, like,

other persona for racing that's maybe a little bit more aggressive and a little bit scarier. And it's someone that you are not necessarily day-to-day. I know I'm not always the person that I am on the race course, but I have to be that person on the race course to do. do the race. So I think that's kind of the version of that. And I suppose you're in the pain cave and you're just concentrating on the fact that your legs are on fire and your lungs are in your throat and this is awful and why do I do this? Yeah, there is always that thought. I don't think I can name one race or I haven't had the thought. I want to stop. Why am I doing this? What's the point? This is ridiculous. Why am I here? Why have I chosen to be here? Exactly. But I think I do

genuinely block out like the noise. I couldn't tell you one song that played on the really loud blaring speakers in a race like afterwards. And it's not the physical exhaustion that gets you then after the race. Because I'm assuming that's the day after or the, you know, the day after that. It takes about a week for the mental exhaustion to finally almost release from your body and you have to give into it. Yeah, it is a bit delayed because you're buzzing off the race.

And also I've usually had like a Red Bull or two and I'm really buzzing on the caffeine and hopefully if it's being a good result as well, you just can't sleep. I mean, and I've spoken to a lot of people, no one can sleep after a race. And often there's back-to-back grace days, and I end up in such a sleep debt, which is so bad for me as well,

because if I haven't slept very well, all of my symptoms are just exacerbated to the end's degree. It does take a while to hit. So I'll take you back to the beginning of your high-rock journey then. So you are now in the elite 15. you came second in the doubles and six in the singles. So you've broken the mythical 60 minute mark. So how was that?

Yeah, so I had been trying to do that for a while. And back in December in Melbourne, I ran an hour and was an hour and two seconds or an hour and three seconds? I can't remember. But it was so tantalising close. And then I got injured. And so I couldn't then chase that barrier for a few more months. But then I did and I did it in London in my hometown. which was amazing.

So, yeah, and now I've done it a few times. I think I haven't actually been above 60 since I broke that 60 minute barrier. So will you go below 59? I hope so. I was really close. My PR is now, I think, 5903. Wow, easy.

What's three, four seconds between friends? So what's all the more remarkable is that several years ago, you were just, you were an accomplished runner, you were a cross-country runner, but you would just go into boot camp classes and then someone said to you, you're actually really good runner and you're strong,

you should try a high rock, and you didn't even really know what it was. You've gone from being a complete novice in the high rock space to the world leading level that you are today in a fairly short space of time. Take us through that journey. Yeah, I mean, I think I just loved it. And I was so hyper-focused,

which again is just such like the superpower of being neurodivergent, that you can just sometimes focus on these things and you just carry on until you reach the top level. And that's, I think, what I did. The danger was that high rocks became like my special interest, but then it also became my job. And that's a really, really dangerous place to be because I kind of tied my whole identity to it and I lost a lot of things along the way. I think, unfortunately, to get to the top level of something, you really have to go like really all in for a period of time. And I did and I lost friends and I've struggled to maintain friendships because you do anyway with like being neurodivergent. And I had a lot of people

tell me, oh, you're over training, you're doing too much, you're doing the wrong things. And, you know, you'll always have people telling you those things. But I don't necessarily think they were true. You know, at one point I was probably doing too many classes. But I had to go through all of these process is to realize that, you know, I needed a coach and then I needed to train in a certain way and I needed to learn these lessons. And sometimes you have to realize what not to do, to do the right thing. And then, you know, I found a coach and I've changed coach a couple of times. And now I have Anthony as my coach and he's amazing. And all of my results this season can pretty much be accredited to him. So yeah, it takes a while to find the right fit. And I think

sometimes it is a little bit of trial and error. But I feel like I'm in a really good place of structure now as well. So, yeah. You've spoken about in the buildup to the 2025 World Championships, about losing your period. Would you mind talking us through that time of life and if you've resolved that situation? Have you put any measures in place to resolve the situation?

Yeah, so I lost my cycle actually, like a long time before that. but I had started actually regaining it a couple of years ago now, and it's been a bit of a process. I think no matter what anyone says, if you've lost your cycle by doing too much sport or under-fueling, that is not a healthy place to be. And unfortunately, for a while, I didn't believe that or I didn't care. And I thought that it was just one less thing to worry about

and that it was fine because I was running fast, or I was performing well or I was winning a high rock age group world title and none of those things mattered and it wasn't until I started actually thinking about the long term implications of that where I actually realised what kind of damage it does and that I should probably actually really work hard on getting that back and so I did and I started to really take my feeling more seriously because I kind of woke up one day and said to myself if you really want to go full time at this and be a full time athlete and make it your job under fueling is not really. going to fly long term you will not get to your like optimal level of performance um and if you get

injured or break a bone or have a stress fracture along the way you're not going to forgive yourself for that so yeah that was kind of a switch there but the process to getting my cycle back has been a bit of a turbulent one um i think uh as an ADHD woman i have a much higher chance of having something called PMDD and that is basically PMS but really, really bad. And for a while I thought it was just my cycle coming back and therefore my body not being very like basically being very sensitive to the hormones and the fluctuations and that maybe it would all even out. But it's happened quite a few times now, but it looks different every time and I'm still trying to figure this out and speaking to specialists and kind of working out what might help because there isn't really a cure, unfortunately.

When you say it happens a lot, do you mean you still lose your cycle intermittently or you get PMDD every time you have a cycle? No, so I haven't fully lost my cycle since regaining it. So it's just getting the PMDD each time I get my cycle now. But it can take a different form. So sometimes it has really impacted my mental health and I've been extremely emotional, really, really turbulent mood swings. And I just, the anxiety and all the symptoms of my ADHD and autism are just, just as bad as I can think that they could get. Other times it's really impacted my performance.

So I will go on a run or go to the gym and my heart rate is just crazy and my body just can't respond to any kind of intensity and even if I do sort of what should be easy training, my heart rate is just a threshold. So yeah, it's been interesting figuring that out. I often retain a lot of water as well and so my body image is just awful.

And yeah, it's difficult to, kind of compute and deal with. But at the same time, I would rather be going through all of these hoops than not have a cycle. It's remarkably mature, without sounding condescending, it's remarkably mature of you to realize how important it is to work to get your cycle back, even though it's then resulting in the symptoms that you've just described, because many women would go, I don't need that in my life. I don't need the torturous ups and downs of PMDD,

which we're very well familiar with here at women's health. Yes. What did you do to work to get your cycle back? Did you work with a doctor? I didn't know. I just kind of, I guess I took matters into my own hands and I was lucky that it did come back quite quickly for doing that otherwise I would have done.

I would have worked to the doctor. But yeah, it was just a case of really kind of eating more of the right things. And I had almost no fat in my diet and it's something that I'm continually working really hard to kind of increase and put things like chia seeds into my breakfast and avocado into like lunches and dinners. Yeah, so like increasing my fats but also my carbs. I used to eat a ridiculously high protein diet

and probably more protein than carbs, which is just not helpful performance. Not all the endurance sport that you're doing, no. No. No. And I never was like scared of carbs. I just don't think I actually realized how important they are. Yeah, it was, I was, I think at one point eating like 200 grams of protein a day, which is absolutely ludicrous for someone that's my size. And even with like my activity levels and just completely neglecting carbs. And I think it was actually that increase that probably was the main factor in getting my cycle back.

Because too much protein can really be quite damaging. Yeah, it can. Yeah. So you have your cycle. back now, but you mentioned that this can sometimes compromise your body image and yet you're someone that has to compete in these races, in the cycling shorts, in the crop tops.

That must take a lot to put yourself out of your comfort zone if you are experiencing those intrusive thoughts which I know all too well can be so powerful and so convincing that you very much listen to them. Yeah, I've had race days for sure where I just, I have such a bad body image and all I can think of is you would be going faster if you were lighter.

And it's so damaging and so difficult because those voices are so, so, so loud. They really are. And obviously, especially when you're in a sports bra and shorts, running around this course in front of like hundreds of people, it's just the most unhelpful thing because at the end of the day, you're not changing the body that you've got to the race with. And I think that's something that's helped me on race day is just to remember that, like, whatever you turn up to the race as on that day,

like physique wise fitness wise training wise nutrition wise it like that's a finished product that is going on that start line and there's nothing you can do about that because the start line is not going to move it's just there um and yeah remembering that all i can control at that moment is just going out onto the race and giving the best performance i can with what i've got on that day and even if it's not the finished product in the middle of the season i remember racing london and warsaw back in kind of March and April and I was really not comfortable with how my body was. I think potentially I was in my lucile phase at one point which meant that I was very very inflamed and I was also aware that I was kind of a little bit above the weight that I would maybe like to be at without being unhealthy

and it wasn't a comfortable place to be in but I knew that it was kind of where I was at at that point in the season for health reasons and that when I got to worlds which was the most important race I would be different. I have a similar experience absolutely that I'm not an elite athlete by any stretch but I ran the London Marathon three years ago but two and a half years ago and on the day I felt bloody awful. I just felt the whole week running up to it you know when you feel bloated you know I just felt terrible and I even went out and bought to different top to run in because I didn't want to run in the vest crop that I had because I, you know, it really was playing on my mind, probably feeding into how nervous I was about the whole thing.

And it ruined my day. Like people who say running the London Marathon is the best day of your life wasn't for me. And when the link come through for the official photos afterwards, I never opened that link and I've still not done to this day. And it's, it's sad. I feel a bit sorry for myself admitting that. but so I have a little bit of understanding of how you feel because those voices can be so loud and so convincing

and even if you try and rationalise with yourself that it's hormones and I'll feel fine next week and I'm fit, I'm healthy, look what I've done to get here. They're all drowned out, aren't they, right, by the negative voices? Yeah, I know, and every time I get my luteal phase and I become all inflamed, my partner, Tom, bless him. He knows all too well, me going, I've gained three kilos overnight.

I can't believe I look like this. My training feels awful. I'm so unfit. And he'll be there telling me, Lucy, you're in your lucile phase. You know this is all going to go away next week. And I genuinely, every single time, can't believe him. I love Tom, though.

You're in your luteal phase. How many, how many boyfriends say that? I was on the way here this morning with my husband. I'm the size of a house. But he doesn't entertain it. You know, he's like, oh, just shut up. We've been married 16 years. I think Tom is sick of it at this point.

So what does the feature hold for you? What do you have coming up in your racing? What's the next challenge? So I'm currently, like I said, starting the build into this coming season, which is really exciting. I've had a bit of an off season for probably actually the first time of my life,

which has been really, really nice. And I'm really proud of myself to sticking to that because it's not easy when you see people racing and you see people going from World Championships immediately into the next training block. And it's really tempting to do the same, but I really, really needed that time off. So, yeah, I'm building.

up for next season. I'm not actually sure when my first race is going to be, but probably fairly soon because we've got this new point system and I do need to get some points. But for me at the moment, the North Star is the elite race in London in December. So that's a big one that I'm really, really focusing on. And then there are some really, really exciting races in the new year as well. The elite series is going to take us to some really, really cool locations this year and obviously I'm really lucky that with my job I get to travel so much so I'm going to go to some really exciting countries. I'm going to get to go to Thailand. And the world champs is in Hong Kong this year. So how many races would you do on average? It really varies and it varies

with kind of like where you are as well in terms of points and qualifications because if you need to qualify for a race, you will have to race more to then qualify. So the Elite series has, I think it's five races and world champs this year. You don't have to race all of them, but if you haven't qualified yet for worlds, you will have to keep racing until you do. But you are free to race as many times as you want between those races as well, and if you need to accumulate points, you will.

But, yeah, for me, I try not to race too frequently because, like I said, it really does, like take a toll. And it's easy to kind of forget in the first few months of the season, that it's a really, really long season and it does catch up to you. So, yeah, I think eight races over the course of this season is hopefully the most that I will do. And when you say a season, how long is the season? So officially it's kind of October to June, but it doesn't really ever stop. At the moment, it's kind of not in the UK and Europe, although the European season does kick off in a couple of weeks.

But the races don't actually stop. over the summer there's races in Asia and like Australia and that region so you can go over there and race those as well and people do and I was very tempted but I didn't do you think you'll always while you're fit enough being high rocks athletes were there any other elite sports that you'd like to have a go at

I have so many things I would like to do and Tom and my team keep me really really grounded on high rocks because ultimately that's kind of my sport my job at the moment. But every so often I'm like, I'm going to do an Iron Man and everyone's like, no, you're not. You'd smash it though, wouldn't you? You could do an Iron Man tomorrow. I don't know.

I did an Olympic distance triathlon in the middle of one of my training camps and I was violently humbled. I've got to say, I think. Is the swimming? Are you a good swimmer? I'm an all right swimmer. I can hold my own, but I'm not Lucy Charles Barkley. I have so much respect.

and yeah she means she's amazing and yeah it's I think it's just all of it once you get to the run I kind of thought oh the run will be absolutely fine I'm good at that that's kind of my thing and I just felt horrific your legs are gone yeah but I will do an Iron Man at some point absolutely for sure and then yeah I just like doing kind of different sporting adventures and and sort of things that I maybe originally didn't think I could do or something that I just think would be fun and interesting and I kind of I like doing things where I don't really have any perception of what good is because then I can't put any pressure on myself. So that's usually kind of off-season challenges.

Although the beauty of high rocks is it really is for everyone. We regularly do content across men's and women's health on people in their 80s doing high rocks. It's remarkable the appeal that race has to such a broad demographic of people. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm so inspired by people. kind of like you said in their 80s, I hope I'm still able to do a high rocks at that age. But yeah, I've been trying to convince my mom

to do it doubles with me for so long. Yeah, she needs to get into the running. But, you know, I think she's kind of half keen, so maybe we'll get there. Because that's what puts me off. The strength part of it, the ergs, the rowing, all of that, fine. Running.

I bloody hate running. Yeah, it's tough. And I've been there. Trust me, I've been there. But yeah, it's, you know, you can go at any pace and I think it's just an amazing thing to be able to complete it and I think it's um a lot of people are kind of may put this expectation of a time or kind of goal on themselves and people ask me what advice I would give them for a first tie-rocks and I genuinely every time say just to

enjoy it. And I think you know more people should do it for the sake of enjoyment just to to complete it and you know they would maybe get on the start line. Yeah, have a fun day out especially when they do them in their doubles and they've got the matching kit on. Yeah, I love that. You know, some of people have got feather bowers and just turning it into almost like a hendoo while working out. I love watching the women's doubles because all the outfits just make me so happy with the colours. If there's anyone listening today

and the challenges you've described feel familiar to them, maybe they had a similar experience in childhood or some of their day-to-day in life now, it all sounds a little bit familiar to them. What advice would you, would you, would you give them? I think the first thing is just be kind to yourself. I really wish I did that more and I wish I did it more when I was younger and it's something that I will be continuing to try and do. But yeah, be kind to yourself and kind of try and be as aware as you can, but listen to your body.

It's really, really, really difficult sometimes, especially when you kind of have no choice over timings or doing a workout or something like that. But if you can just be as in tune with your body as possible and actually listen to what it's telling you. Yeah, I think that goes a long way. Well, Lucy, thanks so much for coming in to see us today on Just as well. Before I let you go, we have a few quick-fire questions. So I'm going to come to your place for dinner with you and Tom. What are you going to cook me? Oh, gosh. I think I'm making a season salad and fries. It's just my favourite at the moment. I think that's recency buyers. Lovely. You're going to go to a desert island for one year and you can only take one thing. And it can't be a...

person, what are you going to take? I hate to say this, but a treadmill. Oh, God. Really? A treadmill? Yeah. Can't run on the sand. That's dedicated.

You can run on sand. You can only drink one thing for the rest of your life, either coffee or wine. Not, you can drink other things, but you can only drink coffee or wine for the rest of your life. Which one would you choose? Coffee, 100%. And me. What's the last thing that made you belly laugh?

I don't even remember. I don't know. You're not watching anything on Netflix. Oh no, actually, I can tell you. So again, Tom and I were making dinner. I think it was last week. And everything went wrong. Things got sprayed everywhere.

Things got dropped. And at that point, we were just laughing at each other because it was a disaster. Planetaburas. What were you cooking? What were the meal turned out like? I can't even remember. Some sort of salad, I think.

It's just been so hot. And what's one thing someone listening or watching today can do to make themselves feel a list bit better. Get outside. Yeah. Enjoy some fresh air. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, thank you for coming in today. It's been an absolutely pleasure. Thank you.