WHOOP Podcast - From partier to pro athlete: how cyclist Orla Walsh became one of Ireland's top athletes

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

Orla Walsh's journey to professional cycling was far from ordinary. She was a self-described party girl who was smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day, but that all changed when she started biking to work.  She quickly transformed her life and is now one of Ireland's best athletes, winning three straight national championships in women's sprint. She sits down with Jeremy Powers to discuss her journey to sport (3:13), her competitive spirit (8:46), getting into racing (11:28), her vegan diet (15:31), being a woman in cycling (25:06), how she uses WHOOP (31:08), her respiratory rate story with COVID-19 (32:29), rest and recovery (34:06), and the performance mindset (37:17).Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks? Welcome back to the WOOP podcast, where we sit down with top athletes, scientists, experts, and more. Learn what the best in the world are doing to perform at their peak. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Woop, where we're on a mission to unlock human performance. We've got a great guest, track cyclist, Orlo Walsh. But before we get to her, a reminder, you can get 15% off a WOOP membership if you use the code, Will. that's W-I-L, the Whoop 4.0 is shipping on demand around the world. That's a big deal for us because we've been in backlog for seven months since literally

the day we launched the Whoop 4 and we are now coming completely out of backlog and shipping on demand. So check that out, whoop.com. All right, this episode, Orla Walsh, Orla is the Irish champion in the women's sprint and is the national record holder in the women's 500 meter time trial. Her journey to becoming a pro athlete was far from ordinary, though. She didn't begin cycling until her 20s when she started commuting into work on a secondhand bike given to her by her dad. She then fell in love with it and quickly transformed herself from a self-described party girl who was smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day to one of Ireland's best athletes. Our resident cycling

expert Jeremy Powers slides into the host chair for this discussion. Jeremy's a legend in the cycling space in his own right. He is a four-time cyclocross national champion in the US and was one of our first guests on the WOOP podcast in 2019. Orla and Jeremy discuss how she discovered cycling and how her competitive juices started flowing even while just commuting to work. What it's like finding your sport late and how she's making the most of her career heading into her third putting on muscle while eating a vegan diet, the challenges women face in the cycling world, and using Whoop in her day-to-day life

and how Whoop helped alert her that she had COVID. Without further ado, here are Jeremy and Orla Walsh. All right, hello, everybody. I'm Jeremy Powers, and I'm today joined on the Whoop podcast by the infamous Orla Walsh. Orla is a professional track cycling. from Ireland, and she's raised World Cups, the European Championships, and she's currently the Irish champion record holder in the women's sprint,

the women's 500-meter TT, and the women's Kiernan, among some other cool accolades. So, Gora, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It's still really weird listening to that, because if you'd tell me a couple of years ago, I'd be doing a podcast about my sporting career, I would have told you you're mad. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing that I think we should chat about,

is this that you've had such a unique path. You know, sometimes when you come into cyclists, they're, you know, at five years old, there's the pictures of them on the BMX track and they're going out there. And you took a way different path to getting into sport. In fact, after listening to some of your interviews, you've said that you really, like, even in like younger, like your grade school and high school, you didn't, you really weren't that into sports. So tell us a little bit about how you found the bike.

Yeah, no, like in school when I tried, like I tried a lot of sports when I was younger, but I was really, I've described myself as like a bench warmer. You know, I wasn't, I was okay, but I was never great. And so I kind of fell out of sport in my teens completely. Like I did absolutely, when I say nothing, I did absolutely nothing. I started smoking. I started, you know, hanging out with probably the bad kids out and feels, drinking beers. And yeah, exercise was not part of my.

teens at all and well into my 20s I did literally nothing. So it was only in 2015. I had to commute in and out of work. I had a job in town and I had university and didn't have a car, couldn't afford to buy a car. And actually in Dublin, like if you were to drive, it's just an absolute nightmare with traffic in the morning anyway. So my dad, God bless my dad, he suggested I start cycling because he used to commute in and out on his bike. We have this bike-to-work scheme in Ireland where you can get like a tax reduction on a bike. So he had a bike and he had another secondhand bike that he wasn't using anymore. So he gave me that.

And that was the beginning of my professional career. That was the beginning of me falling in love with cycling. I couldn't believe how easy it was to get door to door. So it just gave me that freedom I could get from my house. to the office in less than 20 minutes instead of queuing for a train, busy train, waiting on timetables. And so, yeah, started commuting every day. And that was it. I was like, I'm never not riding a bike again. You said a little bit about kind of this like bad girl lifestyle. You were just living like, I mean, to touch on that a little bit after watching some documentaries and some

different pieces with you, you know, you really, you were like a hardcore partier. Would you be comfortable saying that? Like you shredded on the weekend. in life and then it was you know kind of your dad being like hey why don't you try to like commute into work obviously there was all these other compounding factors but your ability to just kind of cut the cord on that lifestyle and then be a very high level professional athlete is like it's not a story that you hear every day I think at that point in my life I was already trying to look for an escape from that lifestyle and you know I was 25 26 at that point

and I'd been doing it for years. I hadn't planned on becoming a fitness freak or getting into sport at all. It just kind of, I think the two just aligned, like in my mind I wanted to move away from that life. And then all of a sudden I found something that I really liked and I was really enjoying it. And I just, when I find something that I'm passionate about, I guess,

I get, like people would describe me as, like, obsessive. So I remember I was in work and my bosses don't like this, but I was in work. every day and I'd be looking up on Wiggle, which is like cycling buying stuff online, like looking up helmets and looking up shoes and like already just like so into trying to get into the cycling culture immediately. And I just thought it was really cool. So, you know, I wanted to look like the cyclists on the road as well. And then immediately I just put that party girl identity, I guess, behind me. And like my new identity was like, I'm a cyclist now. Like that

was it as like I'm psychers. So what are the things that you find when you're riding, like the endorphins that you might get from going out and like dancing with your friends and feeling the energy of the crowd and the extrovertedness? That is something that in cycling I definitely connect with is the ability to get kidded up, have some caffeine or coffee or whatever and kind of just start chatting. And then once you start riding, you know, all this blood is going in your brain and you're like got all these great thoughts and you're riding. Is that kind of the sense that you felt like oh man this is this is almost better than like going out and looking for this like this weight of of kind of chatting and having a good time is like this is actually even

better and I really find this to be like obviously a lot healthier but also like maybe even more satisfying absolutely everyone's always searching for like connection and like to be a part of a community and a group and I think my party life so like yes I hung around with all the people who did the same things but I feel like when there's a lot of like booze and other substances about like you don't ever you're not making real connections with anybody really um it's all muted by the substances so with cycling you know i'm meeting people who have a similar passion and there's real connection there with people in a healthy environment and you know we're out there and beautiful scenery climbing mountains going to coffee shops like i love i loves all of that

and of course something that kept bringing me back was was the competitive side of me as well I won't lie by that yeah we're definitely going to get into that so yeah tell us a little bit about what it was like to kind of go from a commuting cyclist where your dad had helped you get going and you know you had kind of dropped this this other lifestyle you kind of started to commute but then kind of to get to the national stage what that felt like for you or how you how you got to that place I realized how competitive I was even just in the commuting side of things like I'd be cycling in and out of work but like if if someone passed me I wasn't having it you know it would become a race it would come a race me and some random guy just racing into town

and my dad would do the same thing so he would he would cycle home with me in the beginning and I always I tell the story before but there's a hill just when you get out of town coming into the Phoenix Park and he used to just like sprint up this hill and at the beginning I would get dropped and I hated that so much so every day I was like

he's not going to let him beat me up this hill this time and then eventually over time I started beating him and dropping him so there was something about seeing myself getting stronger and faster I just wanted more of that and after about a I say I was commuting

for about a year before again my dad was saying why don't you join a cycling club and we did a bit of research and Orwell wheelers which is actually on the other side of Dublin from where I live but went and joined that club because it had a high number of female members so not that I wasn't planning on getting into racing or anything at that point I just felt like it wouldn't it be nice to have more women because I hadn't cycled really with any women at that point women who were interested and biking. And so I did my first spin. I remember it was March 2016 and nearly immediately one of the women was like, oh, you should try, you should try racing. I'm like, racing. Like,

I'd never seen women racing bikes. When would I have seen, I've seen the Tour de France. That was about all I knew about women competing in cycling. And so it was about a month later that I did my first road race and it's kind of a funny story because I had no clue I was like completely naive to hold thing

so you're obviously if you show up to a race you're supposed to show up like an hour before to warm up sign on get your numbers I showed up five minutes before the start of the race it's like well it starts at one

so you know I'll show up a five to one be grand very professional very pro I had no idea I showed up anyway And the commissar, who's running the event, felt sorry for me, I think. So I was like, oh, it's my first race. He just let me go.

I didn't have a number and I hadn't signed on. That's probably against lots of rules. But anyway, off I went. And because it was 40km, which is quite short, 40km, completely flat. I ended up, we were getting to the end and I could see the finish line. And I'll honestly never forget this because it was my first race and it was my first result. saw the line and I started sprinting and I realized I was like I was passing people out that like in my eyes were like big professionals um they were probably a lot of these women were just local you know local club riders as well but I thought they were like prop the real deal and I came third in the sprint so after that I was like that this lads I found my call and I'm that but I got a bit too excited too soon because the next phase I went to had a hill and I was immediately dropped so I started doing a bunch of road race and then that year I got dropped in nearly every race like consistently because I wasn't training I was just commuting then showing up for races at the weekend and getting dropped shockingly and so then that winter I decided okay I'm going to

going to get a coach and I'm going to come back next year and I'm going to not get dropped. Like that was my only goal was just not get dropped. So I used to go out in the wits. This is silly when I look back. I used to go out in the winter. This is Dublin in the middle of like 7pm at night. I used to go up the Wicklow Hills like sub-zero with these two guys that were also in my club for like three hours. That was so stupid.

But that's the only time because I was working. so it was the only time I could train. And so then the next year, I wasn't getting dropped. I was last and a bit longer, a bit longer, a bit longer. And I started getting some podiums in the bigger races on the road that year, which coincided with the national program, was doing a talent transfer. So I applied for that because someone told me I should apply for it.

Didn't think I was going to get selected, but I think they tested 100 women from different sports. I got selected for retest and then I got selected for a national camp that year. Eight riders were selected and then by the end of that year I raised my first World Cup. That's amazing, isn't it? Let's change from the how you got into it and this and that to kind of where you are now because one of the things that we know about you is that you have adopted a vegan lifestyle. so you're a vegan and also you're doing like a ton of off the bike work as well so you know you've really gone and made a huge change in kind of your day to day and you've also evolved and from everything that we've we've kind of talked about is that you've been able to really kind of change how you eat and the way that you basically time management as well so tell us a little bit about your routines and kind of how you came to being a vegan and then of course how you're strengthened in your work on the gym and maybe a little bit of what your day to day looks like when you go and work out on the track and then how things look so I started in the

endurance obviously as I described I was road and then I was brought into the team pursuit which is an endurance event on the track. In 2019 I decided I wanted to give sprinting a go which is a completely different discipline and will require it requires me to be much stronger so I spend I'd say half like nearly half of our training would be in the gym so at the moment we would I have two gym sessions a week sometimes it like over the winter months it had been three gym sessions a week and we got three track sessions and very minimal road so today for example I only had to do 90 minutes flat easy that that's my endurance for the week whereas previously that would have been a recovery day for an endurance rider I think I was about five or six kilos lighter as an endurance rider just the amount of volume that we did on the road just burning calories burning calories. And so as a sprinter, just to be more solid and be more powerful, I had to gain muscle. And that actually nearly coincided with when I switched to a vegan diet as well. So to all the naysayers, I have put on like sick. Actually, at one point I was like

eight kilos heavier. I'm a bit lighter now. But that was all done on a vegan diet. And I'm still I'm still lean, as in low body fat percentage, so I've gained muscle. And yeah, the vegan, the vegan ping, I wanted to be vegan for ethical reasons. When did you make the switch to being a vegan? What year or when? So it was mid-2019. Okay. So I was still endurance when I switched, and everyone was telling me, you can't do it.

And I was like, do you don't tell me. what to do. So I ended up, do you know, have you watched the game changers? You've seen that documentary? I can't say that I have. Okay. Well, it's about vegan athletes basically. So I, I watched this documentary. I reached out them because I wanted to be vegan, but I didn't know how to do it. So I asked, listen, do you have any contacts for a nutritionist? So I speak to someone And then I ended up having a consultation with a sports nutritionist who specialises a vegan athlete. So I felt confident then that I had the basic understanding of what I needed to do to stay, you know, on top of my nutrition, stay on top of my protein and supplements or whatever I might need. And I never looked back.

That was it. Now, it took me a while to kind of, you know, I'm changing what I've done for 30 years. everything I've known about nutrition and eating and my favorite meals, that all went out the window. But I did it like overnight. The easiest approach I found was taking what I already did. So say if, I don't know, say a lasagna was one of my favorite meals, I just would veganize it. So every meal that I was used to, I would just make it vegan. And that seemed to work fine in the transitional period. And now, obviously, I've gone way down the vegan rabbit hole where I'm eating like tempe and tofu and, you know, I wouldn't have eaten those things

before. So yeah, it's been, it's been fine. I've no issues. My bloods are all great. I'm not protein deficient. Bloods, bloods are all perfect. They're still, to be honest, they're pretty much nearly the same. The only thing that's changed was my cholesterol, because there's no cholesterol. You only get cholesterol and animal products. So my bad cholesterol went down dramatically actually because it was actually on the cusp of being unhealthy, even though I was 11% body fat and then, you know, training all the time. I still had high cholesterol. So I think I would have eaten probably a lot of dairy and not so much, a lot of meat,

but definitely most of my meals had animal products in them. So I was getting a lot of cholesterol. So that went down. And that's basically it. Everything else seems like pretty much the same. So that's amazing. Well, actually, so walk us through a couple of your, like, favorite meals that you like. I think people would love to know. Like, not, you don't have to go superty, but maybe like what you have for breakfast and kind of what your favorite go-tos are. Like, after a hard workout, you know, someone might say, like, I could never ride five hours and then be a vegan. I think people think that I'm just eating salad. Like, well, no. Like, no. Like, like, a perfect go-to that, like, would really fill me off. would be like a burrito like everyone loves burritos so rice in a wrap with beans with with tofu or tempe whatever you want and then you know all the vegetables in there as well like you can get

really hearty delicious filling nutritional meals and you don't like I if I was hungry I wouldn't be in a good mood okay so hangary would be very hangary and like for breakfast my breakfast didn't change spend much because I used to always eat oats, oatmeal in the morning anyway. So it's still that I just make it with oat milk or soy milk, whatever I want, nuts, fruit, seeds, whatever toppings I feel like that day. And I usually have a protein shake as well. I have pea protein, which again, people are like, oh, you don't get all the amino acids. But peas have the full amino acid range. Everyone calm down. So I guess what a vegan diet is, it's not that you're not getting the full amino acid rains

you need to eat a big variety of different foods throughout the day and I eat a lot of calories like I'm eating high carb I eat four to five times a day and yeah that seems to do the job you're from Ireland but you've actually gone to Mayorka which is a little island that's crazy

about cycling and you've made that kind of like your second home away from home because Ireland doesn't actually have an indoor track but right now you're in Switzerland Tell us about that. Tell us about how you have to move and shake because you're, you kind of, you live out of a bag. You know, you're always just like kind of putting a label on a box, sending it to the next place that you're going to go to be able to train to be able to live and chase this dream. Yeah. So I guess cycling Ireland, generally, for their endurance program, they had a base set up in Mallorca. So because Ireland doesn't have the facilities at home, we don't, we have an outdoor track. But if it rains, you can't write on it, and if you've ever been to Ireland, you'd know that it rains there quite a lot. So, and it's also like, it's not an Olympic standard velodrome. It's, it's 450 metres long instead of 250, and there's like barely any banking. So it's just not ideal.

So they set up a camp over in Spain, and we'd use the velodrome in Palma. And unfortunately, for me, there's no sprint program. So, well, if they have a really good endurance program for track, they don't have a coach or a program for sprint. So for me to want to pursue this, I mean,

I'm really grateful that I was able to get an invite from the head coach here. I don't know who put in a good word for me, but they were like, this girl's trying to do sprint. And then, so my federation would have had to approve the invite and saying, yeah, we would like to support Orla.

going over to the centre. So the World Cycling Centre is basically here in Switzerland. And it supports athletes from all over the world. So we've got an athlete from Suriname. We've got Trinidad and Tobago. We've got Italian sprinter, Guatemalan sprinter. So they're athletes that don't have the same, they don't have a federal,

they either have a broken federation or they don't have a support system in their respective countries. So we've all come to join together here as a team And we train together under the guidance of a high-performance coach here And we get everything provided to us And it's just yeah It's a high-performance environment that I wouldn't get anywhere else Do you think you're growing from being this is I believe is this at the UCI

Is this at the is this at their HQ? Is this where this is? Yes, the UCI Center. Yeah So the UCI for anyone that doesn't know is the is the international cycling Federation. They are kind of the governing body of all things cycling globally and all of the countries federations are members, you know, of the union cyclist international, the UCI. And basically, it's just the union, the cyclist union, the cycling federation union that brings everyone together. And there's a track program there that you're, you're clearly in. And do you think, I mean, I've heard just such phenomenal things about the level of attention to detail, the coaching opportunities,

the one percenters that that you're able to unlock there. I, Is this a huge opportunity for you, a huge moment in your career to be in this program and be working in this way with everyone? Yeah, I mean, like, especially for me as like an older athlete to be given the opportunity to develop, it's fantastic. I was here last year, but I only did a three-month stint, but even within that time frame, I did my fastest times ever. So I would like to hopefully now, this is still another three-month trial period, but hopefully I'm going to be staying here for longer this. year. There's no point really in me just in three months and then going back to my own to training on my own. I need the structure and I need the support of a team around me and a coach on site. So yeah, I mean, for me, this is the best place to get the most out of myself.

I'm aware that there's a finite period of time that I can potentially be competitive. So I'm throwing everything at it. Get the best coach, the best environment. and hopefully I will get the best out of myself in the next few years. How many women are in the program? There's just three of us here at the moment. Three, yeah, three women and four guys. What's that like? I mean, women's cycling is, of course, the talk of the town.

We've got the women's tour de France coming now. You're one of the more visible women, especially on like the social media side, but definitely like track cycling. You know, there's a lot of women racing. But what's it like right now, do you think, to be a woman in cycling? it's definitely still an uphill battle for sure like there's good moments bad moments but uh you know for example i went to an event at the end of last year and showed up and they decided to cancel the women's event the day of because they didn't have enough riders signed up now that that's that's

that's in line with the rules there's not enough riders here so we're not going to run the event but many events might give the women there the opportunity to race even though they might not get UCI points for it so there were four of us there willing to race and we wanted to race each other and they said now it's cancelled so I would have like paid for myself to be there I would have you know I had to fund all of that myself and then to be told that I wasn't able to race it was a bit disheartening and you can't help but think if there if there weren't enough men and they'd probably need to run the event. Or there was events that they may not even just,

they won't even have a women's event at all. They won't give you the opportunity to even, you know, have enough riders to sign up. So I'm lucky in a way that I think track cycling specifically is a lot more equal. And we're playing a level, more level playing field, I think, than the road. I know girls on road teams who, I think only was it this year

that they've introduced a minimum wage whereas prior to that they'd be racing world tour races on no wage there's definitely still a lot of work to do but it's getting there positive signs maybe even in track is they've equaled the distance for the team sprint

so it used to be three men over three laps and the women only did two laps and two women so they've they've equaled that event now, so they're both three riders, three laps for the team sprint in track. But there are other events that, like, say for example, the 500 meter time trail, the men don't do 500 meters. They do it a kilometre. Like, I'd like to do a kilometre. I think I would be better at a kilometre than 500 meters, but it's not an auction. It's like the men do

a kilo and the women do 500 meters. I don't know why it's like that. But... They follow that long history of cycling things where the cyclocross races for women are only 45 minutes, or now they're 50, the men race an hour. Yeah. What's going to happen after 500 meters, I'm like? So then I guess the question that I would follow up with around all of that, you know, kind of like melee of women cycling and the events not being long enough and not really being equal is like, I guess the question that I'd have for you is it's not by luck that you've reached this level of success,

that you've worked hard. What do you think is the number one thing that you've been able to do to put yourself in a successful position? because I you know people listen to the podcast they want to know like what are what is it that helped you get to this point and I would I'd love to know from your opinion like what are the keys that you were able to unlock for yourself to get you to be able to get to the Irish talent ID program and then to you know the UCI base what what were the things that you feel like really allowed you to get to this point yeah I mean I'd have to say just all the support that I've got sure people can do things to a certain point on their own like I have you have you have to have to have to have to have to have of the willingness to work, the willingness to, like, put yourself in a hole for training, a lot of sacrifices, eye on the goal and making plans as what steps do I need to do to get to that point. But I needed all the people around me to help me get there. So, you know, the first step was joining the cycling club. There were women there. There's the women's Cycling Commission, they encouraged me to try race and they they would have organised women's

training sessions and kind of low level skill workshops and it was just kind of saying yes to all of these things and asking people for advice and asking people for help as well because I think people are always this they want to be independent when they're pursuing their goals but you need ask the experts ask the people in the know and you'll get to the way you need to go quicker. So, you know, I would have had support from the club and then I would have had support through the national program once I applied for the talent transfer. So they would have kind of handheld us quite a lot into the elite level competition.

And yeah, once you kind of, I found my feet in that world. It's just a case of, yeah, having a good team of people around you. I suppose, and keep your eye on the ball. Yeah, you have to. You have to always have a bit of a mentor and someone that's kind of pushing you along. And it's teamwork makes the dream work as the saying goes, right? Like you've got to have people around. No way, no way.

It's never, yeah, it's never an overnight success either. Let's talk a little bit about your whoop and how you came to found it. Because one of the really awesome things that you've been able to do is, of course, tell people through your social media and through all of the things that you're doing, like your journey. And one of the things that really, I think, just turned people's heads, rolled their heads off their body, was this article that you wrote for bicycling magazine around how you learned about COVID from your whoop. And I'd be curious, you know, given like everything that we've talked about today around your lifestyle and kind of this huge transition that you've made from the beginning, the young days of Orlo Walsh to now this national level, international level track cyclist and how Woop has been able to be a part of your world. because it seems like from what I gather, it's not just that it also helped you, like,

ID that you had COVID. That was like a real nice thing. But it might be something, it might be something more for you. It might be a product that really helps you be able to stay honest with yourself. See what you're doing day to day. I mentioned that before. Like, I'm quite obsessive. And I'm very, obviously, I'm goal-orientated.

And I like to have all the numbers for everything. So, like, one of the first things I would have done in sighting was to buy a bike computer and buy a heart rate monitor and, you know, track the distances I was doing and making sure everything is going in the right direction. I'm pretty sure I just saw an ad for Whoop on Instagram and I was like, I need that. So the minute I saw it, I was like, yes, that's going to help. I want to do everything that I can to make myself the best athlete I can be. so whether that had been you know me becoming a vegan because I thought I still believe that it's the best and healthiest diet that anyone can be on performance wise and longevity but I'm also thinking okay well that's just one part of the picture that's my diet and how do I control my sleep habits how do I control you know my loads how much I'm training how much I'm recovering so this is just like the perfect tool for me

and my control freak waves to know exactly what's going on in my body. So, as you mentioned, it did clock that I had COVID the first time round because I had like a bit of a cough. I was like, I have a bit of a cough. And I remember his messaging my friend, Damon. And he's like, oh, maybe you've got COVID. And I was like, no, no, I don't. And the next day, like, I was planning on going into the sports campus,

which would have been a disaster. but I opened up my wupp that morning and then my respiratory ray had like shot through the roof and I was like that doesn't look good it was like way it was way out of what the normal range was so I went to got a test and I was positive but yeah for all the other

factors like my sleep I sleep for me is particularly why I love using woup because I just if I don't get enough sleep immediately you can see it you can see my recovery go down so I've learned that I need

I need like nine hours honestly and most people think nine hours that's insane I'm like I need nine I need nine hours so you know stuff like that you're learning about yourself and then you can work your routine around what you think what your body needs so it's a really useful tool how do you think about your days off it is a huge thing for cycling is always like oh how much harder can I train than the next person or you know in life we're always like oh if I could you know if I could just answer more questions on the grab or if I could you know do this next event or if I could travel to this place because someone's asking me to come in, it's really as time management and rest days. And I find, you know, when I was an athlete, I would be always looking at like how little I would do and trying to use it to really limit myself. Do you find that it helps you in this way as well? Because you seem like very, you know, you're doing a lot. I think people underestimate the strain that just day to day life can have. Say, for example, if I'm traveling to a competition, sometimes that day strain can be higher than an actual training day.

So there's a lot of things going on in life that you need to manage. So when I, if I have a rest day scheduled, it's a rest day. Like I don't move and I don't do anything taxing. And that makes a huge difference. I think people underestimate how important recovery is in being able to get the best out of yourself. You don't train. If you don't recover hard, you can't train hard. Just doesn't happen.

So recovery is like a huge part of my training as well. Like I can't go full gas every day. Right. I love that. Tell me about what goals you have for this upcoming season and the rest of the year. What's on the horizon? One of my main goals is I'd like to get a certain time in the 200-meter time trial. I don't have the indoor record.

and that's one of my mini goals and then hopefully the biggest goal for this year would be to qualify for the World Championships we still don't know if the World Championships this year is an Olympic qualifying event they still haven't officially announced it but either way I would love to be racing there

and national championships of course want to go back and make sure I win again it was in my goals nothing like winning and also being the best in your country is like such an honor yeah i can't imagine like what it feels like to be the irish national champion it's funny because like obviously before i won nationals like i won my first nationals three years ago and in the 500 and and each year i go back there's obviously there is a growing kind of pressure to be like well kind of have to like there's almost more pressure at nationals than there isn't an international event because i'm almost

expected to win, you know, if you're going in as the favorite, there's definitely more pressure. So, like, this year I would have been probably more nervous for nationals than I would have been on my first nationals because I was like, oh, God, I have to win everything. I hope I don't make a mistake. How do you deal with it? It's always so interesting the rituals that you have around, like, different events and, like, what you do to bring yourself down or, like, you know, you don't want the tachometer to be at 10,000. You want to just be able to can control it. It's so hard. It's something, that's one of the things that I struggle with most, I'd say.

And I put that down to the fact that I've not been in competitive sport for very long. So I'm still trying to manage that. But thankfully, I'm working with a sports psychologist as well. So I've got management methods, I guess, to keep me. You don't want to be panic mode, but you also don't want to be completely relaxed. We've tried both. If I'm too relaxed, I also don't perform. So it needs to be somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, it's just kind of going in with the right mentality, which I'm still trying to finesse, but it's more, for me, it works more if I just look at everything like just another training ride, an important training ride. But if I use the word race too much or like me to win or I'm thinking about the outcomes too much, it all goes out the window. So I just need to look at the actual process and this is another training. effort. What am I, what I, what I need to do in this effort to get the most out of myself? Whatever the outcome is, is the outcome. But process, process. Right, right, right. Yeah,

that's a, that's a normal feeling. So I guess from like, you know, from the beginning to the end, right, from like where you were in your teens, you know, late teens to 20s, to being a pro, to now racing and like, you're, you know, you've said the word Olympics. What is, what do you think you can, you can be happy with if you get from cycling fully? Like, what is your, what is your, what is your, what do you want to be able to look back on your run through cycling and through track cycling and say hey i did this thing and i'm really proud of that like for me at this point i'm kind of as long as i feel like i got the most out of myself in a race scenario and i went as fast as i've ever gone and but it's not fast enough for the olympics that's fine fine with that i just want to

get the most out of me. And so far I feel like I haven't reached, I haven't reached my full potential yet. I know I say that as a turning 33 years young this year, but coming to sports so late, I feel like there's still years left to improve and get stronger. And relatively speaking, I'm still like a developing rider compared to like riders who are 10 years younger than me. So, and I get inspiration from seeing other riders, like there's other writers that women who are in their late 30s. Very Anna Vos is winning me in the world championships, you know, in her late 30s. So yeah, there's definitely, there's examples of this. Absolutely. So there's plenty, it's plenty left

to me. So, yeah, I would be satisfied knowing that I did everything I could to get the most out of myself. And the Olympics is like, that's a pipe dream. But. If I don't go to the landing, I will not be disappointed. Well, Orla, thank you so much for taking the time, for being a great ambassador to the Whoop crew, for letting us all live vicariously through all of the cool things that you're doing and your journey through this sport. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us.

No worries. Thanks for having me. It's been fun. Thank you to Orla for coming on the Whoop podcast. A reminder to subscribe, leave a rating or review to the Whoop podcast. We are officially out of backlog for a whoop 4.0. Amazing to see the demand for that product. You can get 15% off a WOOP membership. You use the code Will. That's WI-L.

Check us out on social at WOOP at Will Ahmed. And with that, folks, I wish you a very healthy week.