Mark Bell's Power Project - Rewriting the Rules of Hybrid Fitness – Mindset, Motherhood, Making a Champion Ft. Lauren Weeks

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Discover the winning formula behind Hyrox world champion Lauren Weeks in this exclusive episode of Mark Bell's Power Project! 🏆 Learn how Lauren juggles life as a mom, elite athlete, and three-...time Hyrox champion while sharing her proven techniques for dominating fitness racing. Whether you're into CrossFit, strength training, or looking to elevate your personal development, this episode is packed with actionable insights.🔥 Highlights from this episode:- Lauren's incredible journey to winning a Hyrox championship just 10 months postpartum.- How Hyrox combines running with functional fitness stations for the ultimate athletic test.- Expert training tips, including how to optimize strength, endurance, and recovery.- The role of mindset and how to push through challenging moments in competition and training.- A behind-the-scenes look at the growing Hyrox community and its global appeal.CHAPTERS:00:00 - What is Hyrox02:19 - Popularity of Hyrox04:51 - Hyrox vs Other Competitions09:23 - Finding a Coach14:58 - Vivo Barefoot Shoes16:55 - Starting Your Fitness Journey17:58 - Unique Aspects of Training19:25 - Tia-Clair Toomey's Training Intensity24:10 - Building Aerobic Capacity26:38 - Tia-Clair Toomey’s Home Gym29:07 - Training Techniques for High Rocks31:18 - Common Injuries in High Rocks33:06 - Microdosing in Training35:28 - Understanding Lactate Threshold42:40 - Essential Home Gym Equipment44:18 - Skierg vs Rower Comparison45:30 - Improving Running Performance46:49 - Sled Training Benefits52:30 - Optimal Workout Lengths55:00 - Speed Requirements for High Rocks56:40 - High Rocks Drug Testing01:01:20 - Common High Rocks Injuries01:04:06 - Treadmill Running Techniques01:10:48 - Husband's Expertise in Fitness01:12:30 - Sponsorship Insights01:14:51 - Effective Fitness Products01:16:34 - Choosing the Right Shoe01:20:00 - Importance of Foot Strength01:21:50 - Injury Prevention Strategies01:23:20 - Nutrition for Athletes01:25:25 - Importance of Sleep01:27:15 - Upcoming OCRWC Event01:29:50 - Overview of Decafit01:31:24 - OCR Community Engagement01:33:24 - Cost Considerations for OCR01:34:00 - How to Connect with LaurenSpecial perks for our listeners below!🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel, and use code POWERPROJECT for 10% off any lab!Best 5 Finger Barefoot Shoes! 👟 ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM?si=JZN09-FakTjoJuaW🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎➢https://emr-tek.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi-Rox specifically combines running with functional fitness stations. One of my most recent races was in Glasgow. It was a four or five day weekend and they had over 20,000 people finish the race. Being able to know what you're getting into and being able to train specifically for that allows you to have a goal. I personally love CrossFit, like that is a background of mine, but you don't know what you're getting into when you go to a competition. Your daughter is two, but you are the three-time High Rocks world champion.
Starting point is 00:00:29 Did you win it when you were pregnant? I won 10 months postpartum. You gain more blood volume when you're pregnant, which means my aerobic capacity had gone up and it actually stays elevated for quite a long time after working within your threshold zone. So after that, it gives me a range. But if you run over that, you're actually doing yourself a disservice. Tell us what in the heck is high rocks. Are we starting?
Starting point is 00:00:54 We started. Yeah, this is a start. I didn't start in ground zero here, trying to fill people in because they're going to be like, what's high rocks? If it's like CrossFit, I'm out of here. People already left. So I do come from a CrossFit background. It has a lot of CrossFit elements to it, but they're the less skilled elements, so it's more grunt work. A lot of people are now calling it fitness racing, so it's something that combines running with functional fitness stations.
Starting point is 00:01:20 So, High Rocks specifically is eight runs and eight stations. Each run is one kilometer. And then there's a rock zone. So that's all the running that you do getting from your station to back to the run course. They say that the run plus the rock zone should equal 8.7K. So a little bit over 8K of running each time. The eight stations, again like are very Functional so they're like I'd say the most skilled one is the final station and that's a wall ball
Starting point is 00:01:52 So you do have to be able to get below depth and then have accuracy to hit a target But everything else is is something that you would you can see doing every day like the ski in the row is a pulling movement Like every we're pulling in some sort of capacity every single day A sled push we have a sled pull. There's burpee bra jumps Sandbag lunges And farmer carry are all the stations not in order the amount of people at these events is like Completely insane and the amount of participants. I think that might be a little different than what we've seen from CrossFit
Starting point is 00:02:25 A lot CrossFit did a great job with their online fitness competition It seemed like high rocks does a better job of the in-person Interaction that everybody has why do you think so many people are getting so attracted to this? It seems like it's you know getting bigger and bigger Every day and this I think I believe it's getting bigger and bigger every day. And this, I think, I believe it came over from the UK, right? Germany, so it started in Hamburg.
Starting point is 00:02:51 And you're right. So my first event was in Miami and this was in 2019. I think we had less than 400 people racing that whole weekend. One of my most recent races was in Glasgow. It was a four or five day weekend and they had over 20,000 people finish the race in that amount of time.
Starting point is 00:03:09 So like the amount of growth that the sport has seen is like so astronomical. Um, like I went into it like just for fun. Like I just wanted to enjoy it. I never realized that this was going to become a profession and something I could follow. But yeah, as far as like what are people attracted to, I think there's a lot of things like, one, Hi-Rex does a really good job of making you feel like a professional athlete
Starting point is 00:03:33 no matter what level you're on. When you go to a race, they have giant blow up start tunnels, they have DJ bumping music the whole time, there's a huge crowd, they take you through a start tunnel. And in this start tunnel, there's always a hype person that's getting you ready to go.
Starting point is 00:03:50 There's smoke machines. When you finish the race, you're running up a ramp. You get patches. People are collecting flags. And then finally, because it is the same race every single time, so similar to a marathon or an Ironman, now we're chasing the goal of trying to PR every time. So like you set your mark and there's that addiction of,
Starting point is 00:04:12 well, how much better can I get and can I improve? So no aspect of the race ever changes? No aspect of the race has ever changed, no. They've changed like rules in terms of like the burpee broad jump is a good example. When I first started, there was like one rule set in place and, and they've kind of adjusted that to make the movement look more professional versus, um, we were originally allowed to stagger step.
Starting point is 00:04:39 So like one foot was a little bit further in front than the other before jumping and it just doesn't look clean. So they've changed some rules to clean things up. But besides that, yeah, it's been the same. Do you think because some of the variables are like more controlled, you know, and in CrossFit games, it would be a two day, and sometimes even though, maybe I'm wrong,
Starting point is 00:05:00 maybe it was a three day event, CrossFit games? I think once they add the teams in, it becomes like a four, but I think the individuals, yeah, you're right, are three days competing. Yeah, three days competing. And so what you saw happen fairly often to CrossFit Games was Rich Roning, Matt Frazier, and some of the female athletes too,
Starting point is 00:05:19 they would be so far ahead that by the time the last day came around, because there were so many different events that they did, that these guys, these men and women would be so far ahead that by the time the last day came around because there were so many different events that they did That these guys these men and women would be so far ahead and just made it like to try to watch it like they tried To put it on ESPN, but it was unwatchable Because there was no competition. It was like All right, he won yesterday and we're gonna air Sunday and just we're just gonna watch these guys like do nothing because we already know Who's first.
Starting point is 00:05:48 And, uh, it was still fun to watch cause it's fitness and it's, it's cool thing to watch and it's very impressive. Um, but do you feel like because of way high rocks is doing things, it's very controllable. I'm sure they can do it outdoors, but most of the events I've seen are indoors, so you get to control the climate and then because there's these eight events that are the same every time, it's like, well, someone who's really fast, like yourself, who's a world champion, can finish it in like under an hour.
Starting point is 00:06:12 And then so I'm imagining there's other women, there's other men that are probably fairly close to each other at the end of the race, probably makes it more compelling. Yeah. I think being able to know what you're getting into and being able to train specifically for that allows you to have a goal. So yes, I personally love CrossFit. That is a background of mine, but you don't know what you're getting into when you go
Starting point is 00:06:34 to a competition. You don't know exactly what to train for. Which is kind of cool. It is. It's really cool. But kind of sucks. But I have loved being able to know, okay, this is what I need to do to get better at my cadence and my lunge.
Starting point is 00:06:48 Like I know I'm gonna have a hundred meters of lunging. I know I'm gonna have a hundred meters of lunging every- You don't normally have an airplane flying over here. I've definitely heard it, but. Yeah. So I like, if I wanna get faster in that station, which is actually one of my slower stations I need to attack it from a bunch of different angles. I need to be working on single leg strength
Starting point is 00:07:10 I need to be working on my cadence and my speed I need to work on my power output and then there's still a run after that like I need to be able to make sure That no matter how hard I'm pushing on that lunge I can still run after it and then I'm gonna have a hundred wall balls I can still run after it and then I'm gonna have a hundred wall balls. Mm-hmm Let me ask you this when it comes to like high rocks Versus because people are always thinking high rocks versus CrossFit and high rocks has these specific events Do you think that there might be as you called it a fitness competition, right? Do you feel like there's any aspect that might be missing that you may be filling within your training or do you like do? You get the gamut of fitness by training for high rocks?
Starting point is 00:07:46 No, so I fully believe that to have a complete fitness routine, you need to expand far outside of the eight movements that we're doing. OK. I like they call them simulations to redo the race and all the stations. I very rarely do that. Like my training is very much many movements outside of what we're doing. And so I do a lot of cleans, I do a lot of snatches,
Starting point is 00:08:15 I do a lot of dumbbell work, like a lot of box jumps. I'm working all these different plyometric and power output areas to try and get a full and and again Like there's so many ways to train for high rocks I just truly believe that hitting all these eight stations is not the best way to one be The best that you can be for the race, but also to be the most fit you can possibly be so I'm training for General fitness and then when I come to a big race like an a race like world championships be the most fit you can possibly be. So I'm training for general fitness. And then when I come to a big race, like an a race, like world championships,
Starting point is 00:08:53 I'll dial in and get more specific, like two weeks out, just two weeks out, not even two to three. Like that's, that's it. Okay. Sounds like very conjugate, very like West side barbell did a lot of stuff like that. And some people that prepped for CrossFit would do that because they didn't know what's going to happen. But a little bit like World's Strongest Man, they have a good idea. Like in World's Strongest Man,
Starting point is 00:09:11 they don't know exactly what they're going to be faced with, but they know they're going to carry something really heavy. They know there's going to be some sort of pressing motion. There'll probably be some sort of squat. So they at least have a basic idea. Who's helping you design some of this? Is this just your own programming or do you have a coach? How's it work? So and this might not work for everybody, but my husband is my coach. We actually have
Starting point is 00:09:36 a business together where we put out like the training theories that we've developed through like high rocks training and there's a couple other fitness racing, it's called the hybrid engine. But originally I was doing it myself, I was just like running and doing crossfit training and then I had my daughter and time became an issue. So I needed to figure out how to better use my time to be the best athlete I can. So that's when I gave over my training to my husband.
Starting point is 00:10:05 Hey, wait just a second here. There's some math going on here in my head. Your daughter is two, but you are the three time High Rocks world champion. Right? Right? How the fuck did that happen? Did you win it when you were pregnant? I won 10 months postpartum,
Starting point is 00:10:23 and then I won two years previous to that. Gosh, that's postpartum and then I won two years previous to that. But I did compete at between seven and eight months pregnant at the world championship, but I finished ninth on that one, so not a win. Lugging around with a little extra weight maybe. But seven to eight months pregnant and competing, how was that? Like that, like that's, you're almost there. I think I have video on there somewhere. It might be the first one.
Starting point is 00:10:50 If you look at it, it's like one of my pinned ones. It's a weird question, but like when you were training, did you maybe feel stronger in some ways? Cause you were like a little bit bigger. Yeah. Some things like the, the skier cause I had more mass to pull down on the skier. Yeah. I did feel like better. That's interesting. Things like the burpees were quite a bit harder.
Starting point is 00:11:10 It's the one I'm kissing her. Yeah. So this is. Your baby looks fake. She's super cute. I saw a couple of videos. I mean, I'm super biased, but yeah, she's. Honestly, I wonder how many, like, I mean, I know everyone wants to lift everyone up, but I wonder everyone that was past ninth place, how mad at themselves. I must have
Starting point is 00:11:30 been. I'm sorry. Like, cause you're eight months pregnant. You get nice. I was still pretty fit. But so this one, it was, they had the world championships in Vegas that year. Um, at the time, like I really wasn't flying much so because it was a drivable distance. I went to it But yeah, this is the world champ get some criticism over that when you post some videos of you you know with a pregnant belly and you're doing squats and stuff like that and like what is some of the Information that you've seen like how safe is it? How you know, I don't know if you got advice from your doctors or what? Yeah, I have definitely gotten I've gotten both ends of the spectrum like I've gotten criticism and I've gotten people uplifting me Before every race like I went in for an extra checkup with my doctor just to clarify
Starting point is 00:12:25 Not that she understands like fully what I was doing. I did the best to my ability to explain this is a race. I'm going to be pushing hard. These are the movements I'm doing. Is it okay if I move forwards with this? And every time she told me yes. One of my concerns because things I had read previous to getting pregnant was you have to watch how high your heart rate is. And again, I'm not a doctor. I can't give you advice, but she told me that I don't need to worry about like my heart rate elevating. I did wear a
Starting point is 00:12:49 heart rate monitor during the race just to like make sure it's not astronomical. Her biggest concern for me was heat. So like making sure my body wasn't overheating. So there was another race earlier on in my pregnancy that I wanted to do that was gonna be in a desert. And she's like, absolutely not. No, you cannot do that. Dehydration. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:14 So like that was her biggest concern for me was making sure I don't overheat, but she had no concern about like me lifting or doing these movements or running or elevating my heart rate I think some of the stuff I've heard is like Just maybe a little bit more caution the further along you are with pregnancy and like a heavy heavy lift I think that's like one of the one of the concerns Is just so in high rocks doesn't require you right?
Starting point is 00:13:41 There's no max lift of any kind and so. And honestly, all of our bodies are gonna change during pregnancy, but during that time, because you're right, I wasn't lifting nearly as heavy as I had been because up until that point, CrossFit was where I was getting my strength and I was lifting a ton. By the time I had gotten out of pregnancy in my postpartum, early postpartum period, I had lost a ton. By the time I had gotten out of pregnancy in my postpartum, like early postpartum period,
Starting point is 00:14:06 I had lost a ton of muscle. I was significantly, I don't wanna say weaker, but I wasn't as strong. I wasn't nearly as strong as I had been before I had started. But I'd come in relatively with like a high level of strength. So when, once it was time for me to race again, I still had plenty enough strength
Starting point is 00:14:30 to get through the tasks well in the race that I was competing in. Because yes, you need to have some level of strength, but it's not the astronomical level that I needed to try and compete in CrossFit. And on the other end, so you gain more blood volume when you're pregnant, which means my aerobic capacity had gone up
Starting point is 00:14:51 and it actually stays elevated for quite a long time after your postpartum period. All right, we've been trying to build up our feet for a long time, trying to make some changes to our feet. And Seema, what are some differences you've seen with wearing some Vivo barefoot? Yo, well, it's kind of crazy because I was a soccer player my whole life
Starting point is 00:15:08 and I thought I had strong feet until I, you know, started actually doing foot exercises and strengthening the feet and wearing barefoot shoes. And first thing I want to mention is like, when you guys start wearing barefoot shoes, have other options because these shoes are flat, which allows your foot to like really work on the ground. They're flexible, so your toes are going to be curling more when you take each step, right?
Starting point is 00:15:29 And they're wide, so your foot's going to be getting more action than ever. So it's a good idea to, you know, have your barefoot shoe, but then have something else that allows your foot a little bit of a break. But man, for me, in Jiu Jitsu, my feet now work like hands. So now when I'm playing my guard, my feet are grabbing the opponent. It is, it is. And. So now when I'm playing my guard, my feet are grabbing the opponent. That's a little scary.
Starting point is 00:15:45 It is, it is. And people feel weird when my toes grab onto them, but it's because every single day, I walk around in barefoot shoes, and they're getting stronger as I just take my 10 minute, 20 minute walks. I think it's amazing. You know, I've known a lot of things about fitness
Starting point is 00:15:59 for a really long time, but I did not know what a weak point my feet were. And my feet used to hurt all the time. I had like a callus thing on the side of it that was always just bugging me. I tried to get wider and wider shoes. Plantar fasciitis. I went all the way up to getting like a 13 and a half shoe,
Starting point is 00:16:16 which I don't need a 13 and a half shoe. I got no business wearing that size, but I was trying to make up for, I needed like more width, but most of the shoes don't have it. And like Chuck Taylor's they like vans they like Nike's but almost all those shoes are Fairly narrow and they're kind of hurting people's feet and so you want better feet get yourself a pair of Evo's so my Aerobic ability was now like so much better And I'm sure it's regulated by now, but I came out of that period a significantly stronger runner, just not quite as strong in my lifts.
Starting point is 00:16:53 Wow. What did you, what kind of sports and stuff did you do when you were younger? Like how did you, how did you start getting obsessed with being fit? Cause you obviously been fit for a long time. It's not like you just started high rocks out of nowhere. So, I mean, like my first and true love was soccer.
Starting point is 00:17:10 And I've played that my whole life. I was doing- There we go. Yeah. I was doing even adult leagues, like through the beginning of when I had started high rocks. Because as I had said, it was for passion. Now that it has become more of a profession,
Starting point is 00:17:26 I'm not currently doing any soccer. I will hope to get back to it. It's just the risk of injury right now is a bit too much for me to jump into. So it was soccer and then swimming as well. So those were my two big sports growing up. So a lot of running, a lot of pivoting, a lot of it's explosiveness with soccer combined with like all the aerobic
Starting point is 00:17:52 capacity that you get from a swimmer and learning breathing techniques and holding your breath and being able to work under duress. Is some of your advantage, maybe some of that explosiveness, like what do you think is the attribute that you have to where you're able to win a world championship? I think mindset, honestly, like is a big part. Because everyone already has a lot of the tools, right? And I think a lot of people have a strong mindset too. I've just, even from when I was younger, I remember being in like playoff games and our
Starting point is 00:18:24 team would be down. I specifically remember a game, we were down seven nothing. And like, yeah, it was awful. Yeah. And I could see like my teammates had like given up and I was not about to do that. I was the one running like a chicken with my head cut off because I wasn't gonna give up until that whistle blowed.
Starting point is 00:18:46 And yes, we lost seven nothing, but I mean, anything I've ever done, I'm fighting until they tell me it's over and maybe even pass that. So with that being said, I mean, you have a really strong mindset when it comes to this. How hard, like, how often do you have really, really hard training sessions that you would deem
Starting point is 00:19:08 hard? Because I think, you know, people, sometimes people hear that and they're like, okay, that means all my training sessions have to be balls to the wall. And then they're just overdoing. And I think a lot of people find it hard to find the zone where they can get good hard training sessions, but still benefit from training sessions. I can move them forward that aren't as hard, right? So how does that structure for you? That's a really, really great question.
Starting point is 00:19:29 And I wish more people asked that. One, one session a week, am I doing like so hard that it's really pushing me to my limits? And I do a lot of such, because I'm not doing just one session a day. The amount of volume I'm putting in is usually hovering around 20 plus hours a week. I'm putting in a ton of volume throughout the week
Starting point is 00:19:56 and one session in that and all those hours. So you mean like not even one day, one of those sessions. One session, not even one day, one of those sessions? One session, not even one day. It is like really, really high intensity. I have a ton of low intensity. So if you were thinking of looking at heart rate zones and like in a five zone model, the majority of my time training
Starting point is 00:20:17 is in a one zone, one or zone two. Okay. And then like some of it will be in a zone three zone four. Um, even that those zones are very few and far between it's majority Z one Z two. You say those don't be zone forward that maybe be 30% 20 to 30% of the training. Less less less. Okay. Yeah. I am very much an aerobically driven athlete and, and so far on the aerobic side where, yeah,
Starting point is 00:20:50 I don't think even in that one session that I'm saying is really hard, am I in a Z5? It's just like high Z4. Can you explain the zones a little bit? Yeah, so these are heart rate zones and they're gonna be different. And are you wearing a heart rate monitor or are you monitoring it like in different ways?
Starting point is 00:21:06 Cause you've been doing it for a long time. I have a tan line from my heart rate monitor over here. What's the brand and what do you use? Just so people have. So I have a Garmin on right now. I'm gonna switch to have more accuracy in terms of a chest strap. But the armband that I was using was a Coros.
Starting point is 00:21:27 Is a Coros and they have watches as well. You can get heart rate monitors off of Amazon as well that are if you want it on your arm. But I'm gonna try and I like the matching models. So I'm gonna do garment to garment. But yeah, so the zones are gonna be different depending on like your heart rate, depending on who you are.
Starting point is 00:21:48 So I have a very low resting heart rate. So. What is it? Mine is like a 37. Wow. Yeah. To 39 on average. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:00 Wow. Gonna live to be 160 years old. But I'm also like so much smaller than you guys. I'm 5'3 and you guys are probably over six feet. I mean, yeah. But so my zones are lower, like my Z1, my Z2 is lower than maybe I think someone's Z2 might be like a 120 to a 135, like you might see that pretty often.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Age plays into it as well. Age plays into it as well. Age plays into it as well. Like the amount of training you've done, the type of training. But I use those zones. For context actually, just to actually, my zone two peak is like 156. So it's like that's much, much higher than yours, right?
Starting point is 00:22:41 Yeah. So, and I'm heavier too. So it's like, it can range. And give people a little reference too. A lot of times they say just an easy way to find it. And there's other ways to find your, your kind of ideal zone two heart rate, but they'd say like 180 minus your age
Starting point is 00:22:55 is a simple way to kind of get a halfway decent number. And it'll give you like an idea. And there's ways to like, you can get things like that tested, you can go into facilities, but yeah, if you want a general idea, um, and age, age way to do it is we'll help you for sure. Um, I think like if you, if you are training a lot, it might not be as accurate.
Starting point is 00:23:16 Cause I want to be accurate at all for you. But like for, for the majority of people, yeah, that, that, that would be, it's a base. It's a start. And then also they say like, if you can nasal breathe, right? But that's gonna be dependent on the person too, because someone could train themselves to be able to like, probably go like a 170 heart rate and probably nasal breathe through some of it. But the like, so the lower intensity stuff
Starting point is 00:23:41 allows us to be available. So I'm able to come back and train every single day instead of drilling myself like into the floor and maybe not being able to do the session I wanted to do because I worked so hard the next day. You don't need to do, or at least I don't believe you need to do such hard sessions all the time to move the needle.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Like you can, the needle movers really, I think only need to be once a week. A question for you too on this, because I think this is really cool. You know, we had Chris Henshaw on the podcast. We talked, we've talked to him extensively about this for multiple episodes. And how, first question,
Starting point is 00:24:20 how many years have you been training like this? So specifically the way I'm training right now since I had my daughter's when everything trained changed but in terms of Building like my running volume. Yeah, I started doing that in high school like I I am I joined a lacrosse team, and this is kind of like where my running journey started. I joined a lacrosse team like my senior year of high school. I'd never played before.
Starting point is 00:24:52 And I don't wanna be a weak link on a team. Like I wanna be an asset to my team. So to make sure that I could do well, I would take my lacrosse stick and the lacrosse ball, and I would practice cradling and I would like run a mile down the street to our local church and throw the ball against the wall a bunch of times.
Starting point is 00:25:12 This was before school and then practice cradling and running it back to home, get ready for school, go to school and then just like have that extra touch and that extra practice before I went to practice later in the day because I wanted to be somebody that could help the team and not was like holding them back. And through that process, I learned I loved just running. So eventually like I dropped the stick
Starting point is 00:25:35 and just like kept building on those miles. Yeah. One reason I asked you that is because like, I think sometimes when someone is within a zone to heart rate, let's say they're testing it, they think that that intensity is too easy because the output that they have. Usually I think sometimes they're like, I could do much more than this, but then the heart rate skyrockets and then it really beats them up. But for you, I'm assuming that over time, your expenditure within those workouts continue
Starting point is 00:26:04 to increase while your heart rate stayed at this level. So now like your workout may actually be something super hard for somebody else, but because you've built that capacity, it's now your own too. Right, and this, exactly, like it is all individual and my journey, I'm 35 now, so my journey through
Starting point is 00:26:22 like starting to do these easy runs is now a 20 year process. So in terms of I've started adding more quality work over the past three years, but the easy running and the base of it has been a 20 year journey. I like these lunges you were trying to do. Ryan, if you can back that up to the lunges.
Starting point is 00:26:44 This is not an easy setup. You have to have a little bit of weight and you do your lunges and you get like partially the way through it and then you have a toddler run some interference. And then it looks like she's got like, what does she have, like a foam roller? So those, you know, for like glute bridges,
Starting point is 00:27:01 like the little cross pads. She wants to get in. She's like, I want to, yeah, she grabbed. So that's what we use sandbags and starts doing her. So I am incredibly privileged in that I get to, I have all this equipment at home and I can do all this stuff at home. And, and we found a house where one of the garage doors
Starting point is 00:27:23 opens straight into the backyard. So she can run around in the backyard. Well, like I'm- Got the home, you're like thinking that this is my gym. Like that's the way you're kind of- Oh, that was the process. That's so great. Most women are maybe concerned about the kitchen
Starting point is 00:27:37 and so forth. No, we needed a three car garage. We needed a flat land so that I- Oh my God, she's setting up for something dangerous in the background. Oh yeah, I know. If you my God, she's setting up for something dangerous in the background. Oh yeah, I know. If you watch her, she's about to hang.
Starting point is 00:27:48 Oh, that's so awesome. I'm about to hang. Wow. Oh my God, she's an animal. Yeah, no, she's. Yeah, she can probably do that for a while. How long do you think she can hang? I think she can probably go for about 10 seconds.
Starting point is 00:27:59 It'll probably be the most, which is really good for a two-year-old. Yeah. But yeah, like the space I'm super privileged with, what I have gone out of my way to do is find things that she can do to mimic what I'm doing. And I just leave it out because if she doesn't wanna do it, she doesn't have to do it.
Starting point is 00:28:19 But like usually if she sees one of us doing something, she also wants to do it. So if I'm doing something with dumbbells, you know those like fat grips you can put on something to make it, they look like dumbbells to her. So she'll pull those out and she'll do dumbbell work. We have that pad to make a sandbag for her when we're doing sandbags. So we built a sled out of PVC pipe for her. So when I'm doing sled work, she can push with me with her sled.
Starting point is 00:28:45 I just like, I make sure what, and she has her own barbell, but like I just make sure whatever I'm doing for that session during the day, I leave out so that when she sees, she's not asking me to join in and I don't have to stop as often. She just sees that it's there and she can jump in.
Starting point is 00:29:03 And sometimes she does, sometimes she just run in circles in the backyard. The capacity, you know, I think these, having different capacities, I think is really critical and important. I see you, you know, bench pressing. So you're like, you know, where's a bench press fit in a high rocks?
Starting point is 00:29:18 But it would, in my opinion, it would be in the category of like general fitness, general physical preparedness. You do have to push yourself up off the ground when you're doing your burpees and stuff like that. I would imagine and just in general, just not being weak through the upper body is going to be of benefit. Is that kind of what you're doing here when you're doing bench pressing and stuff like that? Yeah, so we've taken a ton of different training theories that we've done throughout like our our journey as athletes And different things that we've done to try and get stronger over the years
Starting point is 00:29:51 So we incorporate like things like small junior or things from catalyst or the French contrast method I believe this might have been like a version our version of a small off in like a version, our version of a small off. But personally, we really like the French contrast method the most. So it's where you're doing a lift that's heavy and then you're pairing it with a plyometric. So for us, like it's a squat into a high box jump
Starting point is 00:30:21 or maybe a front squat into an explosive 10 seconds on the assault bike. Just like the contrasting allows us to recruit more muscle fiber and then is allowing us to get better power output, which yes, hyrox is very much an endurance sport, but there's so many elements to it that our ability to access that power output could be so advantageous that we really need to make sure we're continuously practicing it.
Starting point is 00:30:51 Because with the amount of running we're doing too, it's so easy to lose power. And I've seen that, like if I go too long without trying to access it. So my bench is nowhere near where it was never good first of all, it was never good But it's nowhere near where it was like even five years ago, but it doesn't mean that i'm not still doing it Like we usually cycle through um push press pull push press pull What are some things that are really hampering some of the people that do get in high rocks? Like what are the common, you know with crossfit we heard, you know, quite a bit of injuries and stuff like that. What are some things that
Starting point is 00:31:28 could really slow someone down that it starts to watch this, they go to an event, they get all fired up? I'd imagine you got to start kind of slow and you have a long history of at least some informal running through, like running around on soccer field and the cross and so on. And so when someone starts this, what's something they should really be kind of looking out for? So again, like more than 50% of the race is running. So it is really important that you are working
Starting point is 00:31:58 on your running, but with that becomes, there's danger with that because that's actually the sport where injuries are most common. So because of because you do need to be working on the running and because injuries are so prevalent that's where we are seeing the most amount of injuries whether it's soft tissue or tendons or ligaments. So you do unfortunately as much as you want to do a ton right away, you do need to start with low volume onto it and build up and I would very much encourage doing prehab work surrounding your knees
Starting point is 00:32:33 and your toes and your ankles and your ligaments. And I don't know if you guys have ever seen like the knees over toes guy. Yeah, I know a few times. I've never had him. I love watching his videos. Yeah, and it's been super helpful for me too. I incorporate a ton of the exercises he puts in
Starting point is 00:32:54 just to try and, cause even though I've been doing it for a long time, like it doesn't mean I'm like, I'm also very likely to get injured. So I do as much as I can fit in to try and prevent that. Where does some of that stuff fit in for you? Are you doing this like while you're watching TV or something?
Starting point is 00:33:11 Because it sounds like you got a busy day with many training sessions. It is a busy day. So like I have those like foam slated blocks that I leave inside the house. And like when I'm getting ready in the morning or when we're making breakfast, it's like, it's in the kitchen.
Starting point is 00:33:27 So I'm doing, I'm doing like the little things because it takes what 20 seconds to do a couple reps. So it's just there. We're waiting for her breakfast to cook. I'm doing a couple like just knee exercises. There's no weight involved. I'm literally just kind of going up and down, raising my heel or maybe doing some tib raises, but just some,
Starting point is 00:33:48 sometimes it's against a wall. So I could do a tib raise just leaning against the wall. Um, but that's, that's where I'm fitting it in is making food or getting her ready. You know, I, we, we talked about this idea of like microdosing. That's what we call it. And I, I, it's so great to hear you mention this because I think when we sometimes think about workouts, it has to be during our workout, you know?
Starting point is 00:34:12 And you're fitting all of this in in just different parts of the day. I think sometimes people think it's useless. If you just do a set of tip raises like, well, where's the fatigue? Where's the, well, what's going on here, right? And so how long have you been doing that type of practice and how helpful
Starting point is 00:34:28 have you found it to be? So specifically with the knees over toes, I started doing a little over two years ago now and I started because my knees were hurting. And of course, like we always wait for a problem to happen before we try and fix it. What I didn't allow happen this time was once it was better to stop. like we always wait for a problem to happen before we try and fix it. What I didn't allow happen this time
Starting point is 00:34:47 was once it was better to stop. So I like don't miss a day. Like I am working on protecting my knees seven days out of the week. Like I don't miss it. Yeah, yeah. And cause sometimes like maybe I'm not traveling with the the weighted tib bar But I can still lean up against the wall and raise my toes if I'm on vacation or something
Starting point is 00:35:13 So I I don't miss like I don't I don't want to feel that pain again I know it's so easy for us to think okay. I'm better. I can stop I Didn't stop. So yeah, I don't I was doing them this morning in my hotel room. Yeah. How technical do you get with some of this stuff? Like, are you really tracking like the different heart rate zones? And are you tracking like your lactate threshold?
Starting point is 00:35:38 And have you gotten like a VO2 max? And how deep into this rabbit hole do you go? So if it was up to me, I wouldn't go that deep and I wouldn't be as good as I'm like, I wouldn't perform as well as I'm doing. My husband is very much a numbers guy and pushes it and loves the data and the science. And I've learned so much through that.
Starting point is 00:36:00 And we are very big on like threshold training and like the Norwegian method and blood lactate. What's some of that mean? So yeah, I'm sorry. Like lactate threshold. So your lactate threshold is a zone in which you're like between your aerobic and your anaerobic.
Starting point is 00:36:19 So for us we do, we measure that through, like you prick your finger, a little bit of blood, you can do it on your ear too, but I don't like that. So I prick my finger, a little bit of blood comes out, I stick it in what looks like a blood glucose monitor, it's just measuring the lactate in my blood, and it gives me a reading. So we often do what's called a ramp test, and by often I mean every couple months, so not often. Just to kind of figure out what zones I should be running my threshold efforts at.
Starting point is 00:36:52 So I do, as I said, one hard workout a week, which is above threshold. But then I have two threshold workouts throughout the week, which is not that super high intensity, but it's also not easy. So that's where I'm saying like that zone three, zone four is. And you'll see like professional runners
Starting point is 00:37:13 maybe testing their lactate every time they do a threshold. That's just like not realistic for me. So I test it every couple months to see how fast I should be running approximately to be in that zone. So you test it mainly only running or have you tried to test it in different things? I've only done it in running, but you can test it in different things. You can do it on the bike or yeah, you can test it.
Starting point is 00:37:38 And it's after like a sort of a maximum effort or like middle of the workout where it's the hardest kind of thing or there's a couple different ways that you can do it I I started talking about like the ramp test so for us I do five minute intervals starting out like a moderate pace and I hop off the treadmill I prick my finger I test the lactate I bump up the speed and I do that for six to if I'm missing the mark and so once you hit your anaerobic threshold You'll be now at the measurement is four millimoles So I did one last week to get a more updated version and I hadn't realized like how much better I had gotten
Starting point is 00:38:18 So I had to do I ended up doing like nine intervals to be able to like crest over that like four. We did nine total intervals. Nine five intervals. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. So it was, it was a long, it was a long workout, but so it started a moderate effort and then it, and then it pushed to that harder effort, um, just to figure out, okay, at what point am I now above my anaerobic threshold? Um, so it's, it's increasing the pace every single time and pricking my finger and just seeing where it's measuring.
Starting point is 00:38:49 So in the beginning, it might be like 1.7 and then 1.9 and then it could be at like 2.2 for a couple. And then you finally start seeing it get to like 3.2, like, okay, now we're close. Now we know we're getting close to your anaerobic threshold. And like, once I hit over four, I'm like, okay, now, and then usually I go, which is why I didn't, I do one more beyond that just to make sure
Starting point is 00:39:12 there wasn't any error in the readings. And the one that graphs off of that. How do you improve some of that capacity? Well, working within your threshold zone. So after that, it gives me a range of, okay, if you run from this pace to this pace, you're gonna be in your threshold zone. But if you run over that,
Starting point is 00:39:34 you're actually doing yourself a disservice. So you're no longer in that threshold zone. So like overworking is not gonna make you better all the time. But you also don't wanna to be sandbagging, which is why I was getting an updated test. And of course, other ways to improve that is doing some VO2 work as well, like added on there.
Starting point is 00:39:54 So you can, I think the easiest way to do it is just adding strides to an easy run. So you can do your easy run and then when you finish or even during if you want, just do three to five, 15 to 20 second sprints. Just make sure you're warm because like sprinting is also where a lot of injuries come in. But that will help your cadence, your turnover, your power output, which will then then translate into just being a better runner and it'll increase your threshold as well without being in that threshold zone.
Starting point is 00:40:30 The way that I use Methylene Blue is very similar to the way that you're using it. I don't use it every day. I think things that push that button to change your mood, you might wanna be a little cautious with it. In my opinion and the feelings that I get from Methylene Blue, it does change my mood a little bit. It's a mood enhancer. When I go out and run, I it does change my mood a little bit. It's a mood enhancer.
Starting point is 00:40:45 When I go out and run, I feel like I do have a little bit more endurance. I do feel like I can breathe a little bit better, but that could also be, I've been training very hard as well, so it could be an adaptation to that as well. But as we've had David Herrera and many other people come on the show before,
Starting point is 00:41:00 they basically just say Methylene Blue is a electron donor and it allows the body to utilize energy just more efficiently. And I don't know if I can feel that per se, but I know that I feel better when I'm running when I'm using methylene blue. Yeah, post sessions of grappling,
Starting point is 00:41:16 that's what I usually use. I use it two or three times a week, post sessions of jiu-jitsu, I always feel like I have more energy, like much more energy than I typically have. Which makes me understand that, you know, if did want to go for longer sessions, I could, but it also helps me understand that I'm gonna be recovering better for my next session the next day,
Starting point is 00:41:32 which is a big deal. But yeah, I think that if you guys, first off, this stuff is great because it's third party tested, Methylene Blue and other sources like the stuff that you'll see on Amazon or like random websites, there's no regulation. So a lot of people have levels of toxicity from the supplement because it's not dosed correctly
Starting point is 00:41:53 and there are other things in that methylene blue. Again, this is something that is lab made. It's not, you know what I mean? So you gotta be careful and this is why we like using this stuff because we know it's not gonna mess us up. You can go on their website and go on the transcriptions website and you can get a report of The third party tested methylene blue and double triple check it for yourself In addition to that they have the can of teen which I have not used that much But when I have used it pre-workout, I did notice I get a zip from it
Starting point is 00:42:22 It has I think it has nicotine in it along with a couple other things to go along with the methylene blue So do yourselves a favor check out transcriptions check out what they got strength is never weak this week This never strength catch you guys later. You still have to work on that threshold zone to get better, but that will accelerate it Curious about this when it comes to because I think I've seen so many more people trying to get workouts in at home, right? Uh, and you know, not everyone can have all of the equipment, but if you were to give, or if you were to suggest five to seven pieces to have, to get like the full gamut of everything, right? What would be the things that you would suggest somebody try to have?
Starting point is 00:43:04 Dumbbells. I love dumbbells for sure. Um, like the full gamut of everything, right? What would be the things that you would suggest somebody try to have? Dumbbells. I love dumbbells for sure. So just for like a normal home gym. A home gym, but I think someone who also wants to build a level of endurance, not just get strong, but also like have other aspects of their fitness improve. So yes, dumbbells I think is so universal.
Starting point is 00:43:24 There's so much we can do with it. If you don't have the ability to buy a treadmill, which obviously is gonna work on our endurance, you can run outside. But if you have the ability to buy a treadmill, it's probably been for me the most useful tool. Just a normal treadmill? Just a normal treadmill.
Starting point is 00:43:44 And the reason is if you have kids at home, like I can do my workout and at pace with her sitting right next to me, or in our case, like we do have two treadmills right next to it, so she'll often go on the one next to me. But for me, the treadmill is game changing because if I'm running outside and I have her in the stroller Like there is not a chance. I'm gonna hit the paces that I'm supposed to hit
Starting point is 00:44:10 So if you're if you're in a place where you're juggling that and you have kids, I think a treadmill is huge beyond that like I Think a lot of people would say the rower, but I you could only have one, I really love the SkiErg. Okay. I think there's so much use to it, especially if you're trying to avoid doing any more leg work. Like, yes, you are using your legs,
Starting point is 00:44:37 but not as much in the rower. So it's a much more upper body core piece of equipment while still getting aerobic work in. So there's not many things besides swimming that you're doing upper body work while also working on your aerobic side. So that's why I personally love this skier. I wouldn't say like you really need more than honestly,
Starting point is 00:45:03 a treadmill dumbbells and maybe one of those machines or like an assault bike It's always great. But What do you think about a sled? Do you think somebody should try to fit in a sled or is a sled like For you I if you so the problem with the sled is you need the space to if you have the space yeah. If you have the space, yeah, a sled's great because if you look at some of the professional marathon runners, now they're even incorporating sled work in because it's making each of their strides more powerful.
Starting point is 00:45:36 So now when they're running, they're not just getting faster by like the turnover, they're also getting faster because every step they take is stronger. So they're gaining more ground. So I find it fascinating. I've been following Connor Mansus coaches and how much. And of course, I wanna feel validated in what I'm doing. And I do a ton of sled work, so I'm kind of looking for that.
Starting point is 00:45:59 But just to see that these Olympic level marathoners are also doing sled work, yes, is validating to me, but I love like diving deeper into that science. Yeah, if you have the space for a sled, they're great because like one, it's a great fitness tool, but also like if I go back to that, let's work on our knees. The backward sled dragging is so, so good for like trying to keep your knees healthy.
Starting point is 00:46:30 So you don't have to just push like the backwards work is. I'm all into the workout your daughter's doing, pushing the PVC pipe. Sometimes she makes up her own. But yeah, no, this one was, this one was a tag team. With the, with the sled, when you mentioned some of those high level athletes, I'm not sure if Ryan can bring up a clip. What was the guy's name that's using the, the marathon runner that's using the sled? Connor Mantz. And how are they using that? Is it, is it more like a prowler type thing that they're kind of leaning into or is it a, what kind of sled is it?
Starting point is 00:47:05 Are they around the waist? No, I've seen them use like the sleds that you just saw. So not, they can use a prowler, but just like the four post sleds. Gotcha, okay. What I've noticed is they're doing usually lighter weight, more sprint style. So like you see me grinding through
Starting point is 00:47:22 kind of some heavier things and I'm not moving very fast. I've noticed that the sled work I've mostly seen them do is lightweight and sprint. Like they're just going all out. Yeah, it's interesting because when you work with a sled, if you find the right weight, you can really lean into it maybe the way that you would accelerate at the beginning of a sprint.
Starting point is 00:47:45 Um, you can also find an appropriate weight that you might be able to lean forward just enough. I wish I knew his coach's name because I think he's the one that he's got some of the videos on that has like all the videos. I like deep dive into all their coaches. I'm always curious of like the new theories and ideas of things coming out. Have you seen the, uh, the new sled, the, by a torque fitness, the, the new theories and ideas of things coming out. Have you seen the new sled by Torque Fitness, the newer version of the tank?
Starting point is 00:48:11 Is it the one that has like a long? Yeah, yeah, so I know I had mentioned, I think maybe over the weekend that I had went to another event called Decafit. That's the sled that they use in their event. Oh, sick. Yeah. I can have one sent to you.
Starting point is 00:48:25 You're the champ. So it would be very easy. That'd be amazing. They, um, they, yeah, they're, they're great because like you, you might not need as much space because it can turn too. Yeah. So you can, and you can take it out on, so also we need to, yeah, we need to be mindful of our neighbors.
Starting point is 00:48:41 So like, um, when I have a sled, like I've put carpet down, one to mimic the race, but also to not have noise when I'm going, because I don't, I don't want to make my neighbors mad. But if you have wheels, like that doesn't make any noise. So you can go. Yeah. It's so quiet.
Starting point is 00:48:59 How are you doing your sled training? Cause it doesn't look like you weigh a whole lot. And then how much weight are you asked to push during high rocks? I should know the exact weight of this. I guarantee it's on the high rocks weight. I think it's 225. That might be for the pole, but the push is more.
Starting point is 00:49:17 I think the push is like... So how are you training for either one? Sled pull 1722 sled push 2 25, unless this is in kilos or is that open? So there's two different categories. It's different from men versus women or okay. Um, it's different for men versus women, but it's also different. There's two weight categories. There's pro and open. And um,
Starting point is 00:49:40 I really wish they'd change the name of that because like pro doesn't necessarily mean you're pro and open doesn't necessarily mean you're Pro and open doesn't mean that you're lesser than either the only difference is the the weights are heavier in the pro division and Lighter in the open everything else is exactly the same is the pro doubles. Do they have the same weight or Pro pro doubles have the same weight pro open have the lighter weight. Okay. I'm seeing sled push pro doubles for women. 152 kilos.
Starting point is 00:50:10 Does that sound closer? That sounds probably about right. Yeah. And then that would be just over a little over 300, 320, 340. Yeah. How are you pushing 300 pounds? So that's where all the strength work comes in. So we're often in like a nine day cycle push.
Starting point is 00:50:26 Like I'm squatting, I'm deadlifting. Lunging. I'm lunging. Yeah. I'm doing tons of like bench press or push press or strict press. I think like there's been a lot of carry over from like all the strength training I had done in CrossFit.
Starting point is 00:50:42 Yes, I've lost a lot, but like there's still a lot there. And I try to not let too much of it go. And then within our programming, we also add in like applied strength, which is a lot where a lot more of our power output comes to which is like cleans and sometimes snatches or we overweight the wall balls. So you're doing heavy wall balls and
Starting point is 00:51:07 Yeah, it's heavy sometimes I don't know how i'm pushing it How far how far do you need to push it? Uh, so it's 50 meters total They put it into 12.5 meter sections. So you're going back and forth Twice for a total of four lengths And then you have to also pull it as well And then you have to pull it it as well. And then you have to pull it. The pole is lighter than the push though. And the pole, they use a rope to pull and they give you about a five foot section approximately. So I think when they are, what I've heard from when they originally were designing the sport, they didn't expect the carpets to have so much friction on them that
Starting point is 00:51:45 would make the pole so hard. So they thought people were going to be hand over hand pulling it, which some people are. But the majority of people are using that five foot section to pull by like walking back and then going back up to the front and then walking back. So it becomes like very much a back exercise because like you're getting you're getting super tight just trying to Stay in position you work on some dead lifting and stuff like that for that or not really. Yeah, I think like deadlifts and And pull-ups at which you wouldn't think because it is not really an arm pulling movement, but we do a lot of pull- in our, in our training.
Starting point is 00:52:25 And I think it translates to the skier even more. So yeah. Now going back real quick to cause you know, you mentioned you do multiple workouts a day and I know all these workouts are programmed. They're intentional. Um, but generally what is the like, what is the length of some of these? Because you mentioned 10 minutes, right? How often are they 20, 30 X minutes?
Starting point is 00:52:53 Or do they generally range between 10 to 15 minutes multiple times? Or? The core stuff, yes, is usually 10 or less minutes. We're trying to work on core minimum three times a week, usually like three to five times a week. But the aerobic pieces are 45 to two hours. Like those are much longer pieces.
Starting point is 00:53:18 So like 45 minutes to a two hour piece. And again, if it's two hours, that's like very much closer to, as I had mentioned, like a zone one type of workout. You will see some that are around a half hour long, but yeah, so strength, like with warmup included is probably less than 30 minutes. Applied strength around 20 minutes, maybe core 10 minutes.
Starting point is 00:53:44 It's that like easy work that is taking an hour, 90 minutes, potentially two hours. So that's where like the long pieces are. Okay. Yeah. You mentioned the treadmill and how it has some convenience for you, especially because of your daughter
Starting point is 00:54:03 and that situation as well. But what I like about a treadmill is it really has a lot of controllable variables where sometimes you're outside and maybe it's just way hotter than you expected for the day and you forgot to bring hydration with you or something, you're just out there, you're dying, and you're supposed to have this like particular pace and you sort of just are having trouble keeping it. When you go on a treadmill, it's like, well, you better keep pace with what you're supposed to have this like particular pace and you sort of just are having trouble keeping it.
Starting point is 00:54:25 When you go on a treadmill, it's like, well, you better keep pace with what you're doing otherwise you're just gonna fly off the back of the damn thing. Yeah, it allows you to be mindless. So it's like really nice to get on and sometimes that might be my harder workout, but I can still turn off and just,
Starting point is 00:54:43 okay, this is the pace I'm gonna do. This is what I know I'm capable of. I have science and data that backs up. This is what I should be running, so I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna get it done. And it always happens. I'm always able to get it done. But yeah, I love being told by the treadmill,
Starting point is 00:55:02 this is what's happening. How fast do you need to be to be awesome at high rocks? There's a range. So like there's some people that are really, really good at the stations and they don't have to be quite as fast. But the sport is developing for sure. Like when I came in in 2019, I think I was more on the strength side
Starting point is 00:55:24 and less on the runner side. And I was able to get away with that because the sport, not that it's not in its infancy now, but it was like really, really new. As it's developed, you've seen the running be incredibly more important. And that's where you can, you can take five seconds, 10 seconds, maybe 20 seconds off of a station, but in all of that running, there's minutes that you could potentially be taking off as you're progressing.
Starting point is 00:55:53 So it really depends on what your goals are. I'd say, I wish I could give you like the average range of like how fast you need to be. But in that one of those last clips, you'll see Miriam Von Rohr who actually just won the CrossFit Open the past two years. She's incredibly fast on the stations, but maybe not one of the fastest runners on the field. But she's still like when she races, she can be like up in the top pack. She's won European championships before. And so she's like a really good example of like, you can do well, um, if you
Starting point is 00:56:34 hammer those stations, but you need to be somewhat decent in the running as well. These, uh, athletes are muscular, you know? Um, so that's interesting with running being a big component because a lot of times, like runner-runners are usually, they're not normally very muscular or they're lean but they're kind of on the skinnier side. What do you think makes high rocks athletes kind of end up with maybe a little bit more muscle mass?
Starting point is 00:57:03 Is it because of the other requirements of some of the stations? I think right now a lot of it has to do with maybe some of the sports that people have been coming in from in the past. Some people have, we have had people come in from powerlifting, so they are already muscular. But we've also seen a lot of people come in as triathletes, which yes, they're very endurance based,
Starting point is 00:57:30 but they also traditionally have more muscle on them than a typical runner. I think we haven't had too many pure runners come in. And you'd like, and be at the elite level, there are a couple. So I don't want to say that there aren't any, but you do see that if you were to go to the, like I said, 20,000 people raised in Glasgow,
Starting point is 00:57:54 like you see people of all body shapes and sizes. And some people might be a little bit smaller than others, but yeah, generally you see fairly muscular people. Yeah, Hunter McIntyre is pretty jacked. And he's pretty heavy. Like he's a tall guy. It's not like he weighs like 170 or something. I mean, he's gotta be 210, 215.
Starting point is 00:58:17 Yeah, so he's probably, not probably, he's definitely the biggest frame in the elite field, but for sure. And I find it so impressive what he's doing because he is an anomaly. Like there isn't anybody- I think he's hilarious too. He's cocky, you know, but he's funny.
Starting point is 00:58:37 There isn't anybody doing what he's doing at his size, like in this elite field right now. So it's very impressive to see him run with some of the top guys when he probably outweighs a lot of them by like maybe 30 pounds. This has nothing to do with Hunter McIntyre, but is high rock stroke tested? It is.
Starting point is 00:58:58 Yeah, cool. It is. But right now, they're only doing it for the elite field. So it's not like everybody and they've only been doing it in competition. I would love to see us have to like sign something that does out of competition. So like randomize, for example, in CrossFit
Starting point is 00:59:19 you can just have somebody knock on your door and be like, hey, Pee in a cup. We're not at that level yet, but they have, we've only been in this stage for about a year where they've been doing the testing at, like within the event. So I think it's just a stepping stone. I think it's gonna continue to evolve.
Starting point is 00:59:39 And I think one day we'll get to the place where maybe they're doing some out of competition testing. But so yes yes there is There is drug testing right now But it is only in competition and I I do think we need to do more than that Did you get any opportunities to train with some of the other female athletes? Yeah, so I had mentioned earlier we have our programming business and It's called the hybrid engine and we have, I think there's four majors throughout a year and one of the majors we had nine athletes
Starting point is 01:00:14 compete in the elite field out of like, so there's 15 men, 15 women, and then 30 total. We had like nine of those 30. I used to live in Salt Lake actually with one of the girls that was on that team with the pink sports bra that you had passed. We recently moved back to Vegas but she was at the same gym as me. But yeah we like it's we've we've definitely we've got a growing team. We're not just like the elites. We have like age groupers and people just trying to learn, but we have a lot of people that I'm on the start line with
Starting point is 01:00:52 that are like under our umbrella, which has been really cool because yeah, I don't get to train, some of them, two of those girls live in the UK, so I don't get to train with them. But I still get to talk and we get to talk about our training and it's very similar so we can ask like, how'd you feel about this? The only one that I really got to do some training with is her name is also Lauren
Starting point is 01:01:16 because we were living in the same city for a little while. Within high rocks, men and women, I mean, you've, you've paid attention to a lot of athletes. You've seen like some of the things a lot of athletes deal with. You find that it's like certain sports, there's a trend for certain types of injuries. I'm just wondering, I mean, high rock seems pretty decently well-rounded in terms of some of the things that are being done, but do you notice any specific types of injuries that you just see trending a
Starting point is 01:01:43 bunch amongst a lot of different athletes. So unfortunately it's been like kind of ridiculous injuries that I've seen like in the people that I know like not anything they did with training just fluke injuries so um there was a major in Vegas and one of the male competitors didn't get to race because he tried doing burpees in his hotel room and jacked his foot up and couldn't race. And then in this past major in Glasgow, one of the girls that's on my team, Kate, we were in the middle of the race
Starting point is 01:02:16 and she fell and twisted her ankle. So like, it's just been a lot of kind of freak accidents that seem to be taking a lot of the, at least the athletes I know out. But beyond that, what I would see more generally for people, sometimes some hip problems, because you're like, it's just, you need to make sure that we're doing like rotational work. But it's usually knees. And the reason I would think is one, all the pounding of the running, all the squatting we're doing,
Starting point is 01:02:49 and then all of the lunging, like you really like, that's why I'm so diligent about like making sure that I'm working on it every day, because I think that is like the most common area to get injured within our sport, because we're not just doing the running that's gonna hurt it,
Starting point is 01:03:04 we're also doing like this, all the squatting that could potentially hurt it and all the lunging and they're attacking your knees in different ways. So it's pounding with the running, the loading with the squat, the slamming your knee on the ground when you're lunging, like it's just, you're kind of attacking it
Starting point is 01:03:20 from many different angles. Gotcha, and have you by any chance noticed anything with feet with people? Like the two things you mentioned were ankle and foot. Have you noticed anything else with like people's feet? Just cause like, you know, somebody's coming into this, there's a sled, there's a running,
Starting point is 01:03:34 there's just a lot of stuff on the feet, right? So anything there? There is a lot of stuff on the feet. I haven't noticed, but I would expect it. I just haven't noticed as much with it. Where I would also expect to see more is like calves, because especially if we're doing a lot of work on the treadmill or because so many of us
Starting point is 01:03:53 are running in super shoes now and the plate is really hard on your calves and then combine that with the sled push. So now it's a lot of calf work there. So that's where I would expect to see more that I haven't seen as much of yet. Random question about the treadmill actually. Um, and Mark, you too, now I don't do much treadmill running, but do you guys notice any, do you have to propel yourself differently on a treadmill or does it mirror
Starting point is 01:04:18 outside running pretty well these days? Just cause I remember in the past when I used to run on treadmills and then running outside, it just seemed totally different. but maybe that was just because of the shitty treadmill I was using. No, I think you're right. I think it is different. I think if you look at your treadmill to make sure it's not on a zero incline, a lot of people say to mimic running outside to put it on a two, I put it on a one.
Starting point is 01:04:43 I think it works fine. Okay. But I do think that if, if I leave it at the zero, it feels like I'm almost running downhill, which I like, I don't want to get used to that. Um, but like what is great with the treadmill is when I'm not doing a speed session, I can bump up the incline and work on strength running. So that is probably my favorite part beyond like setting a speed and knowing I have to hit it
Starting point is 01:05:10 that I can use it for another way to like build some strength in the legs. I think a lot of running too is like, it's a little more up and down than we think it is rather than just forward. Obviously you are propelling yourself forward is very clear that you are. And so running outside is going to have a different impact and
Starting point is 01:05:27 Your hamstrings probably need to be in there a little bit more, but I found for myself personally that the The skipping and the kicking back of your leg actually being really productive for me personally to get into better positions Almost like a weight would shove me into position in a squat, as I go faster on a treadmill, it's gonna kick my leg back into positions I otherwise might have trouble getting into. So for me, and for that reason, people need to be a little cautious too,
Starting point is 01:05:56 because you start going too fast and doing that too aggressively, kind of out of nowhere, you could be compromising yourself. But I think, yeah, if you're asking a treadmill to like do all the work that you're gonna get from outside, then you're probably making a huge mistake. You need to do definitely, if you're gonna use a treadmill, you definitely gotta get your outdoor work too.
Starting point is 01:06:14 Right, and I have a friend, one of the girls that was on the team, she's switched all of her running to outdoors because she felt like, and maybe it's just a personal preference, she felt like the treadmill was doing too much of the work for her and she wasn't able to feel what she was supposed to do when it came to race day.
Starting point is 01:06:34 I personally haven't come to that point. I still feel that I can access the speed on the race course, but that could be completely person to person. So I think that's something people would need to play around with. And if they really are having trouble with it, I would bump the incline up a little bit
Starting point is 01:06:53 because it will instantly make it harder. It's an interesting thing because you could go potentially a little faster than normal. So let's say you wanted to try a seven minute mile and that's not normally what you can do outside know outside might be able to achieve that on a treadmill So because the the tread is like going underneath you with every with every turn make sure you're picking your foot up But that might be like it might be kind of a decent training tool It's just kind of as long as you're not trying to cash in
Starting point is 01:07:21 What you're able to do on the treadmill with exactly what you're able to do outside and I think you'd Be okay, would you say the volume split for you is 50-50 or like more outside more treadmill or more treadmill more? More outside for sure Anything easy I'm doing and unless it's like a warm-up for a treadmill session. I'm outside. Okay, it's Like so my threshold session, both my threshold sessions throughout the week, anything that I need to be at a certain speed, I'm on the treadmill.
Starting point is 01:07:51 Gotcha. I will never go to a doctor ever again about my general health. All they want to do is put you on pills. Really well said there by Dana White. Couldn't agree with him more. A lot of us are trying to get jacked and tanned. A lot of us just want to look good, feel good.
Starting point is 01:08:04 And a lot of the symptoms that to get jacked and tanned. A lot of us just want to look good, feel good. And a lot of the symptoms that we might acquire as we get older, some of the things that we might have, high cholesterol or these various things, it's amazing to have somebody looking at your blood work as you're going through the process, as you're trying to become a better athlete, somebody that knows what they're doing,
Starting point is 01:08:22 they can look at your cholesterol, they can look at the various markers that you have, and they can kind of see where you're at, and they can help guide you through that. And there's a few aspects too, where it's like, yes, I mean, no, no shade to doctors, but a lot of times they do want to just stick you on medication.
Starting point is 01:08:37 A lot of times there is supplementation that can help with this. Merrick Health, these patient care coordinators, are going to also look at the way you're living your lifestyle, because there's a lot of things you might be doing that if you just adjust that, boom, you could be at the right levels, including working with your testosterone.
Starting point is 01:08:52 And there's so many people that I know that are looking for, they're like, hey, should I do that? They're very curious. And they think that testosterone is going to all of a sudden kind of turn them into the Hulk, but that's not really what happens. It can be something that can be really great for your health because you can just basically live your life
Starting point is 01:09:10 a little stronger just like you were maybe in your 20s and 30s. And this is the last thing to keep in mind, guys. When you get your blood work done at a hospital, they're just looking at like these minimum levels. Merrick Health, they try to bring you up to ideal levels for everything you're working with. Whereas if you go into a hospital and you have 300 nanograms per
Starting point is 01:09:30 deciliter of test, you're good, bro, even though you're probably feeling like shit. At Merrick Health, they're going to try to figure out what type of things you can do in terms of your lifestyle. And if you're a candidate, potentially TRT. So these are things to pay attention to, to get you to your best self. what I love about it is a little bit of the back and forth that you get with the patient care coordinator. They're dissecting your blood work. It's not like you just get this email back and it's just like, hey, try these five things.
Starting point is 01:09:56 Somebody is actually on the phone with you going over every step and what you should do. Sometimes it's supplementation, sometimes it's TRT, and sometimes it's TRT, and sometimes it's simply just some lifestyle habit changes. All right guys, if you want to get your blood work checked and also get professional help from people who are going to be able to get you towards your best levels,
Starting point is 01:10:14 head to MerrickHealth.com and use code PowerProject for 10% off any panel of your choice. And that's like, for multiple reasons, convenience is also for one of them, like because I am like primary caretaker for my daughter. Like I can't just like leave her in the middle of the track and run around the track and I can't do it on the shoulder. Maybe my answer would be different
Starting point is 01:10:38 if I had somebody watching her. But for now, like it's working for me. It works for her, it works for our family dynamic, so I'm sticking with it for now. Okay. How does your husband know so much about this stuff? How does he, you know, he's programming your training and stuff and you're winning world championships over here.
Starting point is 01:10:56 So, he does so much research in the most loving way possible. He's a giant nerd. He's been like researching all of this for as long as, like before we were into it. Like we were always even like whatever sport we were getting into, we were trying to figure out, he was trying to figure out like, okay, like what program,
Starting point is 01:11:21 what type of strength session can we do to get better? Like we've tried so many different over the years, like different strength programs. And now that we're in hyrox, we've tried so many different types of like running programs and we're just trying to figure out what works best for this sport. And it's a constant like evolvement. Like we're still learning, we're still trying new things. And usually I'm the guinea pig. And if it works, like, then we bring it out to the rest of the masses and we put
Starting point is 01:11:49 it out onto our training, if it doesn't, then we usually like, don't give it to everybody else. Um, but so he comes from, he's an engineer by trade. He comes from an engineering background, like he loves numbers and data and like anything to do with it. And it it and it's a puzzle for him. So we're constantly like putting things in and pulling them out and seeing what works and what doesn't. And if it worked for me, we'll try it with like everybody else.
Starting point is 01:12:16 And then if we see a good response from like all the people that we have following us, then we know like, okay, like let's keep moving forwards with this. If we see other people maybe not responding as well as I did then okay we need to address that and change it. It seems to be a lot of companies trying to associate and affiliate with high rocks. I noticed that you know I went on their website and just saw like a lot of sponsorship seemed like there's a lot of energy drinks a lot of hydration I think that's really cool because you know that shows that
Starting point is 01:12:49 People are spending money within the sport and It's gonna it shows that it still has a lot more room to grow because there's people that give a shit about it and there's a lot of sponsorship rather than Something like powerlifting. It's like there's not as many, powerlifting never really broke out in that way to where you had the participation that you're getting from High Rocks. So that seems pretty cool. Is it kind of hard for you to kind of figure out what brands to sort of associate with and stuff? Because I imagine any of these companies that are associating with High Rocks would probably want to have you rep their
Starting point is 01:13:25 brand. Honestly, it's more challenging than I had ever expected because there's always people that just want to send you something and I don't want to just be sent something and then be expected to post about it because they sent me something. It's just too much work. Yeah, you don't want them to not get anything out of it either. Yeah. And I know what I like. that's just like too much. Yeah. You don't want them to not get anything out of it either. Yeah. And, and like, I know what I like. Like, I know the things I like, like I, for example, like I love Garmin and they don't always work with like a
Starting point is 01:13:54 ton of athletes. Um, there's some other companies, like there's one that's starting to sponsor high rocks and I'm sure they're amazing, but like, I know what I like. And, and I like will hold out for like to be able to like work with the Company that I've used for Ten plus years like and what I'm comfortable with and what I know what works for me. So like It is hard because sometimes what I want they don't want me. So I just kind of have to I sometimes what I want, they don't want me. So I just kind of have to, I just wait and hope that one day,
Starting point is 01:14:27 like what I'm going for, like they'll also like find some sort of reciprocation with that instead of me just kind of taking what's being offered my way. So it's hard because yeah, like there are often people that like want to work with you, but maybe like I don't want to take something just to take something like I want to I want to believe in it I want it to be something that I've used I want it's what are some of the products that you use
Starting point is 01:14:54 What are the what are the brands that you really enjoy and see like good benefit from in terms of like? Training hydration things that you really feel like are moving the needle for you. Yeah, so Training hydration things that you really feel like are moving the needle for you. Yeah, so um, like Forewarning like i'm sponsored by the feed which is like a company that Is kind of like amazon for supplements so you can go on to a website and you can get which is one of the reasons I love them and wanted to be with them because this way I could get all because I don't get my with them because this way I could get all because I don't get my gels from the same company. I get my vitamins from the from the same company that I get my protein from.
Starting point is 01:15:30 So because they offer all of that, I didn't have to align with one, sorry, with one company and and then not get the stuff that I want and already used. So that's why that's really worked for me. But like gels and hydration, I love precision nutrition. I also love like Morton has really great gels. Sometimes hard to find stuff that kind of agrees with your stomach and it's a terrible thing to try to find that out. Yeah, it is.
Starting point is 01:16:00 It is. And as I mentioned- Where's the porta potty? And that's a real thing. People do have digestive issues, but protein powders, I love ascent protein and vitamins I've been getting from Clean and Designs and Sports and Momentus. So having the flexibility to go to all these different companies has been Really nice that I didn't have to align with just one I could still align with a company but also get all the things I was already using How do you find like the right shoe? it seems like like I test my shoes out sometimes by pushing a sled like I've been I've been a huge fan of
Starting point is 01:16:43 sleds for a very, very long time. And, uh, like I like my shoes to be like comfortable. So I always buy my shoes a little bit on the big side, but then even if I tie my shoes up pretty good and I go to push the sled, my shoes come off. So like, how do you figure out the shoe equation? Because you need to run, you need to run like hell because you're in a race. And then you're also pushing a sled and doing all these other activities. I'm smiling because before training or before like,
Starting point is 01:17:12 for any of these other questions that you would expect to be the number one question coming from somebody, it's always the shoe. Like it's gotta be the shoes. But you're right. Like you need something that you can run in and has traction for the sleds. Like if you don't have traction, it doesn't matter how strong you are.
Starting point is 01:17:28 Like that sleds not going to go anywhere. I personally still gravitate towards a carbon plated running shoe. I just look for a carbon plated running shoe that has decent grip on it and not all them do. So like there's some like Asics makes a really great running shoe that has decent grip on it. And not all of them do. So like there's some, like ASICS makes a really great running shoe, but there's no grip at the bottom of it. So like it's out, like you can't use that. There's many different options out there right now.
Starting point is 01:18:00 Right, what I'm currently running in for my race is a Mizuno, which is like not very common You don't see a lot of Mizuno's out there But they have Like the super foam it has a carbon plate in it, but also has these like little shark teeth grips on them I think one of the other common Brands you see out there, of course, they sponsor high rocks as Puma So you see a lot of people wearing Pumas.
Starting point is 01:18:27 Often it's also their carbon-plated shoe. You don't see a ton of people in like winning their age group or in the elite field not in like like a carbon plated running shoe. So it's finding the brand and the model of one of those that works best for you, but also like it has to have some grip on it. And then in terms of like the shoe falling off, what I don't like about these ones is you can't heel lock it. So it's the tying of a heel lock shoe.
Starting point is 01:19:05 So this one doesn't have like the extra hole to heel. Maybe this one does, I don't remember. But heel locking your shoe, most shoes have like that extra hole that we never use. That will allow your foot to stay in place. If you like Google how to heel lock it, it'll take 30 seconds and then do that before you push a sled.
Starting point is 01:19:25 Yeah, and you guys are, you're on like a pretty hard surface. You're on like polished concrete. Yeah. It looks like. And so the super foam that I had mentioned makes a really big difference. So when I first started, I wasn't running in a super foam type of shoe and like my body felt it.
Starting point is 01:19:43 And not that it doesn't feel after the race now, but like it felt all that pounding. So having the extra foam protecting me while I'm running, it's hard, it is, it's in a convention center. It's hard concrete, like it's hard on your body. It has been really nice. It's so much more comfortable. You were mentioning earlier that you've done a bunch
Starting point is 01:20:01 of stuff in sand for your feet. Sounded like it was a while back, but what were you doing? So I would do a lot of like either barefoot walking, barefoot running, and then also, and you can do it with a towel, but like trying to grab the sand with your toes. So strengthening, strengthening your feet. And it has like, I'm embarrassed,
Starting point is 01:20:19 it's been a really long time since I've done any of this, but it was, yeah, something that I was doing to help strengthen my feet. Yeah, I think lower leg injury, you were saying knees, I think knees, shin splints, ankles, plantar fasciitis, all kinds of different things gonna happen to people's, basically just lower leg. I mean, that's really.
Starting point is 01:20:43 And we don't all have access to sand. So that's why like, I could try and make the excuse right now that I'm not by sand, but you can mimic some of these things with like a towel and just putting it down and like trying to grab the towel with your toes and pulling it in and out. Yeah, so training your feet would be really smart when you're like in a sport like that.
Starting point is 01:21:03 Yes, and I actually, that's a really good reminder for me that I should start doing it again. Like I said, I need to send you a link to the, there's a toe thing I started using recently and it's made out of like a rubbery foam type thing and it's on like a little slant, it's on like an angle and has these little ridges in it and you put your feet on it,
Starting point is 01:21:23 but the second you kind of put your feet on it, the second you start to sink into it. And so as soon feet on it, but the second you kind of put your feet on it, the second you start to sink into it. And so as soon as you sink into it, you're kind of forced to like bear down. You can do all kinds of different exercises with it. But yeah, my foot has been banged up. I have been pretty resilient. Nothing has really taken me out,
Starting point is 01:21:39 except for this stupid thing that's going on with my foot right now. And I've had to take several weeks off of running and I'm just chomping at the bit to get back to it. I definitely would have loved to run with you while you're here, but I gotta wait until this thing heals. How do you handle injuries? Like are you able to, obviously a lot of times
Starting point is 01:21:57 you can work around them, but have you given anything that has sort of completely sidelined you? I always figure out what I can do. I think there's few things that can completely sideline you to where you can't do anything. I'm still training all the time, just can't run. Yeah, especially as I talked about, we have all these erg machines.
Starting point is 01:22:23 If I can't run, I can get on a skier or a rower or the bike or there's a, there's very few things that could stop you from swimming. So like whether or not you like swimming, like it's a great exercise. There's always something you can do. And then beyond that, maybe you, maybe you have a shoulder injury.
Starting point is 01:22:41 Okay. There's other ways you can work your upper body, like whatever that injury is. And same thing with your legs. Whatever that injury is, if it's a knee thing, there's something you can do that's going to still allow you to do strength work. So no, yes, I've had injuries. That's just part of the job. Like you're gonna have injuries
Starting point is 01:23:07 when you're training as much as we do. Even if you're not training as much, it's gonna happen. I just always find something else. Like I'm never not moving. I keep my training plan. I look at it of like what I was supposed to do. And then I just look at, okay, what can I do instead of that that will give me as close to the stimulus as I was supposed to do. And then I just look at, okay, what can I do instead of that that will give me as close to the stimulus
Starting point is 01:23:26 as I was trying to get. And along with that, how's your nutrition? Well, what's that look like when it comes to training? It's really hard right now because I've gone through periods of trying to track macros and I'm like, it's just impossible. I have a, she's two and a half and anytime I make food, it's not just mine. So like the thought of trying to like track or measure
Starting point is 01:23:57 and then like giving her some or she's just coming over, I could make her the exact same thing that I've made myself. It doesn't matter. She still wants off of my plate. And I'm not gonna tell her no. So like that just, it just doesn't work. So I've had to get better at like knowing,
Starting point is 01:24:14 okay, you need X amount of protein. So make sure you're prioritizing protein, you're about to go work out, you need carbs, like this is an endurance event, like you're about to go do a really hard workout, make sure you're getting carbs before you start, just making sure I'm adding fats into it. So I am so far from perfect in my nutrition, but like,
Starting point is 01:24:35 I try. But you know how much you gotta eat for performance. I just try to do the best that I can, knowing that like when I'm making stuff, it's often not for me, even if it was like initially for me, but I like have completely given up on tracking. It's just like so unrealistic right now. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:24:55 Yeah, nutrition can be difficult, especially when you're, you know, you have a toddler, but it sounds like you're already tuned in with like what you need. And as long as you're tuned in with it. Yeah, and it's still playing around too. So like, hey, I had this and this for breakfast before I ran, but I didn't feel like I had
Starting point is 01:25:11 a lot of pop or energy. Maybe I add an extra banana onto that. Like, do I feel better the next day? So it's like constantly kind of trying to fine tune it. And I'm never finding the perfect because every day is different too. So it's just playing around with what might work best. What about sleep?
Starting point is 01:25:29 You're able to get any of that? I definitely need more sleep than what I'm getting. Sleep is, I think, the most important thing. I don't think I'm doing a good job with it, no. We have about seven weeks now until our world championship. So it's time to just kind of, okay, you have these other obligations. It doesn't matter right now.
Starting point is 01:25:57 Like it's time for me to sleep first. Isn't it kind of funny? Like the training is like, yeah, I'm gonna get the training in. Like I'm gonna, I know I'm going to train like really hard and me and my husband are coming up with a good plan and, but the sleep part, I don't know how much, I don't know if they'll be able to really dedicate every day
Starting point is 01:26:13 to getting eight hours of sleep. And really I think I should be getting probably nine and I'm not, not getting nine hours of sleep. So it's for sure we're in, we're in like that window that I, I need to kind of let some other tasks and obligations go to make sure it's happening. And anytime you get your toddler down for a nap, you know, they're, they're like a little animal.
Starting point is 01:26:36 You know that they're just like recharging their batteries. You're like, they're just going to, they're just recharging right now. Like give me more hell when they wake back up again. She has a ton of energy. You see you see kids often just they get tired and they could be at like a hundred miles an hour and just pass out. I've never seen her pass out ever. She could be super tired. It doesn't matter. She's gonna keep going until she's she has to be like put in her room into her bed or it's go go go. Wow. Yeah
Starting point is 01:27:07 That's actually probably pretty good for her. Yeah, that's good for her. Yeah exhausting So the championships are coming up in just a handful of weeks now, yeah, so Last year it was in Nice, France this year. We are lucky that it's in the US so it'll be in Chicago So not too far of a travel, which is really nice. How are lucky that it's in the US so it'll be in Chicago. So not too far of a travel Which is really nice. How you feeling for it? Good. Yeah, i'm excited. Um I have So I have my individual race and then I have a partner we qualified In a partner race and then they also they'll pick like captains for a relay team
Starting point is 01:27:44 and then they'll have like country versus country relay team. So that one's a lot of fun. The way they do the relay is you have four people on the team, you each take two runs and two stations and you just like, it's a sprint. So it's not the grind. It's an all out sprint effort
Starting point is 01:28:00 because you're doing a one K run into a station and you do two of those. That's it. Is this going to be in the same weekend? It'll be the same weekend, yeah. So is it going to be individual first, then partner or partner then individual? Individual first, I think really will be the next day
Starting point is 01:28:15 and then partner will be the day after that. And you're just doing two of those or are you doing all three? I mean, I hope to do all three. They haven't announced who the captain is yeah for team USA and If it's not me, I hope they pick me to be on the team So I mean just a just a curiosity then how do you handle the recovery from day to day because you're going all out For because you want to win so it's not just yeah, how do you have so we're all?
Starting point is 01:28:42 Prioritizing like that individual race because most, like my partner is also doing the individual with me. Okay. No, it's really, really challenging because our races are evening races. So the women are usually at six and the men might be at eight or something like that. And we're often taking caffeine before we're going.
Starting point is 01:29:02 And then you have all the adrenaline. I, myself and everybody I've talked to in the field, we don't sleep that night. Like you're so wired from caffeine and from the adrenaline of the race. Like you don't sleep. So no, it's, you can try as much as you want with the recovery and it's just not. They need to set this time up different. I mean, what?
Starting point is 01:29:29 Yeah. I think like they try and make the spectacle of it for the evening race. And I don't mind being in the evening. The part that I do mind is the fact that I don't get sleep that night. Almost like for, if it's an individual race, I can't remember the last time I slept the night after.
Starting point is 01:29:50 Wow. Yeah. What is Decafit? So Decafit is very similar to Hirox in that you run and go into a station, they just have 10 stations instead of eight, and it's shorter. So they have a 5K run versus the 8k and their stations are also significantly lighter.
Starting point is 01:30:13 So your output is really, really high. So the, the event itself is about half the time domain approximately. Um, which means you can access that higher heart rate because for highrox, it's taking us anywhere from an hour, average time is 90 minutes, people will go upwards of three hours. You're not maxing out your heart rate for one to three hours, but DECA being about a 30 to 40 minute race,
Starting point is 01:30:41 you can get into a super high heart rate. So I think like it's more accessible for people to step off the street and do a decafit. Like every, like the movements are more accessible, it's less running, you can kind of pull somebody off the couch and get them to do one where it might be a little bit harder to get them to do a high rocks.
Starting point is 01:31:02 The issue is because of how accessible it is, that encourages you to go that much harder. So for me, I actually find the DECA harder because of how much harder I can push myself, where I have to very much pace myself in a high rocks race. There's not as much pacing in the DECA fit. What's this community like? Like it's gotta be fun, especially for you being the champ
Starting point is 01:31:29 when you go to these events. I'm sure like a lot of people wanna take pictures with you and stuff like that. It seems like it's an awesome community. I have friends, shout out to Beckham Big Rig, my friends Zach and Desiree. They're huge fans of this and they sold their home and they sold their business and they travel around in an RV
Starting point is 01:31:48 and they love high rock stuff so much that they just did an event I think in Florida and they travel around the country and they do some of these things. So I'd imagine the community's gotta make you feel pretty good. Yeah, and so the community, like it is amazing and it's just when you find like minded
Starting point is 01:32:07 people where you have a shared interest in and and to go to an event and it's not like, oh, I found one friend that also likes to do something. It's thousands upon thousands of other people that have, yeah, invested their life into it like maybe they're not like owning an RV and traveling from race to race, but they're spending money on training. They're getting the shoes, they're working on their nutrition. Like they're listening to all the podcasts.
Starting point is 01:32:33 They're trying to learn on how to get better. They are traveling to the races. They're getting hotels. Like it's a big investment both financially and time-wise to be able to pursue something like that. So when you find other people that are also interested in it, like you just kind of gravitate towards them. And everybody's, from my experience,
Starting point is 01:32:53 been incredibly positive and uplifting, and like they enjoy the event. They want to see, like when you're out on the course, like people are cheering for you, but you're also on the course often with hundreds of other people. Like when you're not in an elite wave, it's hundreds of people on the course at the same time
Starting point is 01:33:11 and people are, like if you're having a hard time, somebody's gonna run by you and be like, you got this, like keep going. So it's just, it's really cool to be able to like have that encouragement because we're all gonna be in a dark place at some point in this race What is it? What does it cost? I'm sure it depends on what you sign up for whatever but yeah, it'll definitely depend on what you sign up for
Starting point is 01:33:38 And they've they've increased the prices over the years. So I would say it's probably anywhere from 120 to 140 for a race. That's my guess pretty cool with 20,000 people signing up. Yeah, that's great. Well, yeah, and if it's a doubles, like it's usually like double that, like the person's still paying like whatever the individual price would have been. I'm not sure about the relay, to be honest. I don't know how much the relay costs.
Starting point is 01:34:00 What, how do people get ahold of you? How can they find out more about your programming and all that stuff? Yeah, so my um, my Instagram is at Lauren underscore e underscore weeks Our program is the hybrid engine and we also have an Instagram for that and a website You can google the hybrid engine You might have to like add high rocks on to it to make sure it's not a car or something That's popping up into your into your feed but you can find us on Instagram and then
Starting point is 01:34:28 my husband who's like the I Guess the scientific mad mind behind it if you're looking for him It's at a wild parasini on Instagram a wild parasini. Yeah, so his last name is parasini His first name is Parasini. So, and his first name's Anthony. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. Cool. Awesome, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you.
Starting point is 01:34:49 Thank you, I appreciate it. Strength is never a weakness, weakness never a strength. Catch you guys later, bye.

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