WHOOP Podcast - Training and Recovering As An Elite Runner with Olympian Colleen Quigley

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

On this episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Global Head of Human Performance, Principal Scientist Dr. Kristen Holmes sits down with Team USA Track Star, Colleen Quigley, to discuss training as an Olympian, recovery, and building a healthy athlete culture. Colleen shares her experience as a NCAA Division 1 athlete at Florida State to becoming an Olympian in the steeplechase and professional Triathlete before ultimately rediscovering her passion for middle-distance running. After years in the sport, Colleen opens up about launching her professional track team, Team Meridia, empowering athletes to take control of their careers, build their personal brand, and foster authentic partnerships. Dr. Holmes and Colleen walk through the science of a proper recovery routine and its importance in preventing burnout and injury. Dr. Holmes unveils Colleen’s impressive WHOOP Age and how Colleen uses WHOOP as a crucial tool for her longevity as an athlete.(00:38) Colleen Quigley: Track Star & Steeple-Chase Specialist(03:43) Colleen’s Aspirations In Sport(06:59) Injuries & Overtraining: The Culture of Track & Field (08:20) Building a Brand: Partnerships, Personal Story, and Team Dynamics(11:58) Creating a Team: Introducing Team Meridia(19:57) Colleen’s Upcoming Training Goals(27:17) WHOOP & Tech in Mitigating Overtraining(34:14) Cycle Tracking While Training: Why It's Important For Women’s Health(40:28) Colleen’s WHOOP Age & Longevity Insights(42:31) Longevity As An Athlete: Important Role of Strength Training (46:21) Colleen on Recovery: Maintaining A Calm Nervous System(53:10) Health Benefits of Being Present & In The MomentFollow Colleen Quigley:InstagramTikTokXWebsiteFollow Team Meridia:InstagramWebsiteEpisode References:Using Data to Navigate Ironman Training with Laura Philip: AppleSpotifyYouTubeSupport the showFollow WHOOP: Sign up for WHOOP Advanced Labs Trial WHOOP for Free www.whoop.com Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

I was burning the candle over here trying to train and get myself back at an elite level. And I just got kind of like burnt out. And so I had to take a pause on training and just allow my body to tell me when it was like ready to go again. For me, what I've learned more than anything, it's the nervous system recovery that if you can balance your nervous system, your body will recover on its own. But if you're like just stuck in fight or flight all the time, you can't heal. You can't recover when you're in fighter flight. So if it's sitting on the beach for 30 minutes is going to put you into rest and digest, like parasympathetic, your body will then heal itself. Yay.

Colleen Quigley, we're here. I'm so excited to chat with you today. This is like round two for us. I know. I'm really excited to be in person with you. Oh, my gosh. Although we're like so far away. I know we are really far away.

Oh, sweet girl. It's going to be such a long conversation, I think. For our listeners, we're going to do. just dive into your data. You, I mean, gosh, your data is very aspirational. You know, just a little bit on your background. American Olympian, world record holder in the 4x500 meter relay, NC2A champion, nine-time All-American, Rio 2016 Olympian,

and just an elite track competitor generally. In 2023, you transition into triathlon, earning your pro-license you are I think probably best known for your steeplechase prowess for listeners just explain steeplechase oh yeah yeah because that's kind of like your roots right yes did you say yeah so in high school I did the 1600 3200 I never did any hurtling in high school I never in high school I could have done the 300 meter hurdles in Missouri but I never hurtled anything my college coach saw me running cross country and she said I want you to come to Florida State I'll give you a full ride and I want you to run the steeplechase and I was like okay you know but she saw yeah Karen Harvey saw that

in me so the steeplechase is 3,000 meters long so it's just under two miles seven and a half laps around a track the caveat is just a small thing is that you have on every lap you have four large wooden barriers that are for women it's 30 inches tall 36 inches for men so you have to hurdle these wooden barriers they're not like metal sprint hurdles that like fall down if you hit them. They're like horse barriers. They're big wooden barriers. So you have four of those on every lap. And then you have one of those on the edge of the curve of the track that is actually placed in front of a pit of water. That's 12 feet long. So you have to run up to the barrier. You step onto it, launch yourself off of it, and you try and clear the water pit as best, you know,

as far as you can. And so you do one of those every lap. So over the course of 3,000 meters, you have 28 hurdles and seven of these water jumps. That is just wild. That you have to navigate. gate. So it's like an obstacle course on the track. It's got to be one of the more demanding. It has to be. It's crazy. It is a crazy event when I, yeah, sometimes when I explain it to people, they're like, this sounds made up. Yeah, no, I know. It just doesn't sound real. Yeah. But it's so fun. And one thing that I love about these people is that it really forces you to stay in the moment in the race. You cannot get distracted in this event because there's always an obstacle coming your way. So it really forces you to like stay very present and focus on like each, you know,

one at a time. And it's also just you don't have your own lane. So you're always navigating these things along with a bunch of other people. And you're, you know, running under five minute pace, going over all these things with all these other people. It's like always chaos. But every steeplechase is different. And it's just like a really fun event. What I just generally adore so much about you is just your advocacy for mental health. And just all the just millions of women and girls you inspire you inspire daily. You are just putting so, so many beautiful things out into the world. And for me personally, I've just been continuously inspired by you, as is my daughter. Oh, thank you. So thank you for that. That's the most important part to me as well. When you think about who you are and I think who you

aspire to be in the world, what comes up for you? Yeah, you know, this is my 10th year as a professional track and field athlete. I graduated from Florida State in 2015, which feels so crazy to say. Yeah, I will brag for a second after I'm here in Boston now and then on Thursday I fly to Florida because I'm being inducted into the FSU Hall of Fame this weekend which is great like 10 years ago I graduated from there and so I'm really excited to like go back and so I love FSU I mean there I can't really pick favorites but I'm going to I mean they I work with a women's softball win soccer yeah the women's soccer team is so badass their women's sand volleyball team It was so dope.

We work with volleyball. Yeah. Yeah. Sand and kind of regular volleyball. Indoor. Yeah. Indoor, yeah. It's a big sports school, right?

Like being a student athlete at Florida State was really, really fun. I just felt like very supported, very celebrated. And so it'll just be fun to go back. I've been back in so long. So it'll just be fun to go back. We get to move out of a football game on that way, do the whole thing. But yeah, when I kind of like look back on that time, it's interesting to me. Now I'm 32 and I can be like,

Wow, like the things that felt so important to me at age 18 or age 22, like felt like life or death, you know, things like going to the Olympics and or winning the NCAA title or winning the Missouri high school state title, you know, like these things just like felt so like life or death. And now like, you know, at the ripe old age of 32, it feels like my kind of area of emphasis or like things that I like lose sleep over have just like changed so much. you know, now I can like see things from a different perspective. And I feel like I launched this team this summer and we can get into all that. But I launched a professional team called Meridia. And I'm kind of like the team mom. You know, I'm the oldest person on the team. And I have the most experience of all these women. And so trying to like do my best to like, I've had all these experiences and how do I kind of figure out how to make an impact on the sport at this time in my career when, you know, I'm like, I didn't go to the Olympics last year. You know, I'm not really

doing the things that I was doing six or so years ago. But now I'm actually, you know, having maybe more of an impact than I was then and having really a lot of fun with like the stage of my career and like watching that all these things shift along the way. So tell me more about the training group. Is it a training group? Sorry, I kind of assume that. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. So basically I, I, I, I graduated from Florida State University and I was part of a professional group in Oregon for six years that was sponsored by Nike called the Barman Track Club. And I went to the Olympics with them when I was training with them and made five USA teams

when I was training there and had a lot of success on the track. And then I also had a lot of injuries and a lot of issues with overtraining and just some like kind of unhealthy behaviors that eventually really took their toll on me. Is that in part of because of the culture? Yeah. Because I think overtraining obviously is preventable, right? Totally. have the right kind of data and you have the right coaching and culture thing where it was yeah like

it's the raw raw just do it when it all costs thing you know that was and I was you know I was a stage of my career where that felt right to me you know I was like you know 23 I was like yeah when it all costs like yeah that felt like yeah that like definitely you know I think spoke to me for that period of time and yeah going to the Olympics gave me a lot of opportunities I can't lie that was something that opened a lot of doors for me and and gave me a platform and gave me a lot of opportunities that I'm always grateful for. But then, you know, at a certain point around 2019, 2020 era, the injuries just really were piling up and like the time between the injuries was getting shorter and shorter. And the joy of it and like the stress of it were just

the ratios were off. You know, I was too stressed. Yeah. And injured way too much and unhappy. And like the joyous times of being healthy and training were just too few and far between to really justify what I was doing. So it came to a point where, yeah, everything kind of came to a head in 2020, end of 2020 and I ended up, yeah, not resigning with Nike. And I was off into the abyss for a little bit of the unsponsored world of like, where do I go now? Like, how do I navigate from being like this like Nike girl to like, what do I do now? That becomes a part of your identity. It did, yeah, for sure. And we created a brand within that team called the Bowerman Babes. It was at one point we had 12 women training together, like doing workouts together.

That's my best memories of that time was like being on the track, doing like these epic workouts with all these women who are also Olympians and national champions and, you know, American record holders and all this stuff and just like going to work with them every day and like feeding off that energy of that powerful, you know, tribe of women. Like those are my best memories from that time for sure. But then, yeah, when I left, I was like, okay, you know, that ended up. not being the right thing. And so I ended up having the opportunity to sign a contract with Blue Lemon. And they became my partner for the next. Now it's been like five years. And that's been incredible. A total culture shift. Like completely different. Like much more just their whole thing is about celebrating the individual and just saying, you know, whatever you're doing, like we just think you're awesome and we want to get behind that. Like you're driving the ship here. We're just

like supporting you. And at that point, I had kind of figured out more. about what I care about and like kind of where I want to place my energy around women's health and mental health and all this stuff. And so they were like, we love that, like whatever we can do to support, which felt really different than the relationship I had before of like I felt like I was supporting a brand before and now, you know, I feel like I'm being supported by a brand, which is really great. And you're supporting your own authenticity, you know, how does you show up in the world? Totally.

You know, just feeling that alignment is powerful. Which is amazing. And then the caveat just being the only downside of that being they don't have, Lou Lemon doesn't have their own track and field team. The way that, you know, a lot of these like more traditional track and field brands like Nike and New Balance and Puma and all them, they've been in the sport for a long time. So they have these established teams that they've hired a coach. Yeah, they sponsor all the athletes on the team.

And Lou Lemon doesn't do that. They're kind of coming out of from a different approach. Like picking a few individuals and then they allow each one of those athletes like you create your team around you. You pick your coach. You pick the people that you surround yourself with. I love that, though. You think, yeah, is going to set you up for success, which I love. Especially someone like you at the stage you are at in your career, you know what you need around you. Exactly. You know, and to be able to choose that is just ideal, right? Very powerful. And so, yeah, now I work with this badass female coach named Julie Benson. I hadn't worked with a

female coach since college, actually. My college coach was Karen Harvey. She was also a badass female coach. She's not in Florida State anymore, though. She's not. Yeah, she actually is not even in coaching anymore. She's got out of coaching. She got a little jaded by like the male dominated, just industry that is NCAA coaching. And she decided to pivot and do something else. But her time with Florida State and she was at a few different universities was amazing. And the impact that she made on me was changed my whole life. Like she was the one who said, you're going to run the steeple Chase, you're going to be a national champion one day. Like, you know, she saw the vision for me before. Just those people that believe in you like that. Totally. So, yeah, now working with

a female coach again has been almost a year now that I've been working with Julie. And it's been amazing too. Just the same, it's the same, very similar, at least energy that she brings to the situation. So I've really appreciated that. But the one thing I was missing and the reason I formed to this group was I miss that feeling of having 10 women around me who were working towards the same goals and inspiring one another and working hard together and sharing reps in a workout. Like, you know, I would do a workout with maybe eight times a mile and I only had to lead one of those miles the rest of the time I'm just running behind and getting pulled along for a ride. So I thought, can I have it all?

Can I choose my coach and choose my brand partners and choose my training partners and, you know, be able to like have my cake and eat it too like can I do that? Because right now there's no place in the U.S. where I could go and train and be able to choose all those things. Usually it's the brand chooses those things for you. So if you partner with a brand, they make those choices for you. And I just thought like I really, I don't want to make that sacrifice. And so yeah, Meridia is our team. And we allow the athletes to choose their coach and choose their brand partner separately. Like they make those choices on their own. And then they come to the group for the community. aspect for the training partners, for the camaraderie to be like, this is my team. And I want the

athletes to be able to support themselves, right? Like we have these professional athletes. They don't want to have to go to the effort of like, it's a lot to like you have to hire people to come film stuff for you. And maybe, you know, maybe you're editing or maybe you have someone edit things or, you know, just like the whole, all the work that goes into like telling your story as an athlete, which is honestly one of the main reasons that I was inspired to create a brand around this. I could have just been like, hey, like, let's train together. We don't have to like create a, like a formal team. We couldn't just like train together or whatever. But I think the biggest thing that I saw that a lot of athletes need support on is like the storytelling.

And it's harder and harder and more competitive than ever to be able to get contracts with brands that pay your bills. Because as runners, we don't really pay our bills like by racing. We don't track athletes don't really earn much money at races. Sponsorships. The biggest, I ran a Continental tour gold label meat in Beijing and I was fifth place and I think I won $800, you know, like you're not going to make money on the prize money. You make money through sponsorships and it's harder and harder to get sponsorships now because it's so competitive. Yeah. And so what I'm noticing with these pro athletes is they're just like, I just want to do my job, which is like train and run and train and and compete well. And all the brand building stuff is, it's not something that I

like really enjoy spending my time on and I'm outlier I kind of like I love that part of it and I see it as like my creative outlet and I have you know more energy than I know what to do with so I'm like I need to like have something to do when I'm not training because you can only run like so much out of the day but I what I've realized is that that's not normal you know like most people don't want to do that so then with the team I thought okay maybe this is a gap that I can help fill where we can take some of that responsibility off the athletes like what if we hire people for the team. Like we have an intern, we have content creators that we work with who can come to practice and like film the athletes doing what they do and then put we edit,

we put everything together so that they don't have to like stress out about stuff. And I think we're only a couple months in, but I think the theory is that we help these athletes build stories and brands around them so they don't have to and then they become more valuable. The team has value as a brand of itself, but each athlete's individual brand, also becomes more valuable so that when they go back to negotiate the end of the year with their sponsors, like they can say, like, you know, before I was never posting on Instagram and people didn't know what I was doing all season. And now they can follow along with Team Meridia and kind of become fans of theirs. And so it kind of helps everybody get more exposure. We're just at the

beginning of that. And I'm my own worst critic. We could be doing so much more. I need to hire more people to be able to help take some of that responsibility to like really amplify these athlete stories because they all have incredible stories. They all like come from amazing. Everyone has a different way of getting to where we are, having the opportunity to tell the story, you know, and have it be in a fun way that feels like they get to own that story and it's not relying on someone coming in from the outside to tell their story. Like I want them to be able to tell it on their own. So that's like a big mission of ours and hopefully will help them with all this like you know all the contract stuff and yeah and yeah branding stuff

gosh I love it what's up folks if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health performance fitness you may really enjoy getting a whoop that's right you can check out whoop at whoop.com it measures everything around sleep recovery strain and you can now sign up for free for 30 days so you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days, see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at whoop.com. Back to the guests. Do you have a location that you train out of, right? Based in Boulder. So I live in L.A. in Venice, and I am obsessed with L.A. Yeah. And we have an Olympics coming up in L.A. 28, if you guys aren't to wear.

Are you? Who knows? I don't even know what to think about L.A. 28 yet. But I had to, in order to even give myself a chance of thinking about that. I knew I had to figure this component out first and then we kind of see. So you have a foundation that you can at least give a best shot. I'm like if I'm not having fun by myself doing this in this way, what's the point of trying to go to another Olympics just to be say I'm a two-time Olympian? Like I don't care. Like I has to be something that's fun and feels like I'm doing something. I'm adding something to the universe, you know, not just like adding a notch, another notch on my belt. It's such a reflection of your maturity. You don't care about it. that anymore. So my first thought was L.A. 2080's coming. I love living and training in L.A.

I'm going to start a training group in L.A. But it turns out I'm the only distance runner who wants to live in L.A. So that didn't work. Damn. So everyone and, you know, kind of distance running, training at high altitude is really important. And for a lot of people, you know, just living in L.A. is very expensive and you have to go do training camps somewhere else and whatever. So I didn't want to give up my home based near the beach. That's where my, like, heart is. But the team is based in Boulder. So I go back and forth between the two. I spent the last six months from January through July in Boulder with the team. And then the offseason, I spend time in L.A. So you have an indoor track you work

out of? Well, the summer we were outside. Yeah. I'm just thinking January. Yeah, January and February and March are kind of tough. And that's where I'm like, are you guys sure you don't want to be in L.A. I know. I know. Seriously. But we just, you know, it makes you tough. or you figured out. I grew up in the Midwest. So I'm used to like, yeah, running in snow and all that stuff are running on treadmills when you need to. So you figure it out. But Boulder is actually and I love training there. It's an incredible place. When it's nice out, you run on a different soft surface place every day, the week for two weeks straight. Like the options are just incredible. Yeah. What kind of training are you doing right now? Well, right now. So you've mentioned

Trathlon and I did have a 4A into Trathlon. And then, you know, had a little bit of initial success. and I earned my pro card, but truly, when I, like, reflected on it, it just, it wasn't in my heart to go that route. And I had to just have a moment last summer of, like, do I truly want to dedicate myself? It's not a small endeavor, you know, it's not a light, it's not a thing I take lightly to say, I want to try and go to the Olympics in the triathlon and train for these three sports every single day for the next four years. Like, and it just wasn't in my heart to do it. So I came back to my track world, and that's when I decided. okay, if I'm going to come back to track, I got to do things differently. And so that's when I

decided to create the team. Okay. Amazing. So are you focused on relay? Are you doing? Yeah. So, well, kind of funny, you mentioned relay. There's not that many opportunities to do relays in track and field. Really? So it's so fun. It's so fun. And there actually is a crazy opportunity coming up to do a relay. So I'm going to tell you about it. Oh, my God. So I just finished my track season. I did a month of 1500s, miles, and a couple of three. I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, and then I went to Leuven, Belgium, then I raced in London, then I went to Scotland, and then I went to Beijing. So I did five races in five different countries, and it was so fun, and it was, yeah, all flat

races, no steeple chases this year. So do you take a roster? Is it like six, and you pick four on the day? How does it work? Oh, well, so it's still an individual sport. So everyone creates their own racing schedule, and they can do whatever they want. Okay, got it. We had four athletes.

Four of our women from Maritia were all doing different races in Leuven. But then some of them went to, like Katie went to Finland for one of her races. Maddie and Katie went to. So you're not traveling all together for all these events. We sometimes travel together. Like four of us were in Leuven together and spent a week in Leuven together in Belgium, which was so fun. Like just running around with your friends, eating croissants.

Like it was just the best. But then it is at the end of the day, it's an individual sport. sometimes we break off and, like, do our own races. And most of them had been racing earlier in the year. And I kind of had a couple hiccups with my health earlier this year. Right when we launched the team, I got a little stressed out. And I was just burning the candle on both ends. And so I had to take a little pause in my training for a few weeks.

And I didn't race for the month of, like, June. So I ended up kind of like racing later in the season than everyone else. So it comes back to like, yeah, it is an individual sport. you get to make those choices about what's best for you as an individual. But I ended my season about a week ago, and I take a little break here. And then a few of us are gearing up for cross-country nationals. So kind of weird, but you can do indoor track, outdoor track, and cross-country as a distance runner. There are very few opportunities to run cross as a professional runner.

It's usually more in the NCAA. So I did cross-country all throughout college. Okay. And have done one cross-country race as a professional. professional like in 2016 and haven't done any cross since then. Wow. That's a fun community. But there's a world cross country championships that are happening this year in January, in January of 2026. And they're being hosted in Tallahassee where I went to school. So I was like, wow, I got to try and make the team. Like I got to try and go. And how many people did they

take? Well, usually it's a 10K for men and women over grass, which is my ideal distance is like 3K. So 10K is a bit, a bit long for me. But this is the second time that they're hosting a four by 2K relay, mixed gender relay in cross country, which is crazy. So they're going to have a 2K loop. And there's four athletes, two men and two women from each country who form a team together. And they do it as a relay. So I don't even, I think you can do that. I know. That sounds epic. That's what I'm going to try and do. And so the trials for that are They picked the team at U.S. cross champs, which is in December. Okay.

So the U.S. governing body is going to put together teams. So yes. So they have the way they do it. So the last, they've only done the 4x2K relay one other time at World Champs. Since it was such a new event, they actually, so USA track and field as a national governing body, they just chose the team. They like selected the team and they gave an invitation to four athletes to like do it. Okay.

I can't even remember who did it. It was two years ago. But now it's becoming more popular and more people want to do it. And so they're making it a more formal, like, tryout situation. So in December, they'll host U.S. cross-country nationals, and they'll have a 10-K race for anyone who wants to make the 10-K team. And they'll send, I think they send seven athletes is usually like a full team for cross-country. So they'll have everyone who wants to do that lines up. They do a 10-K.

They pick the top seven people. They'll go. And they're the 10-K team. And then they'll have a separate race that is a 2K. And anyone who wants to make the 4x2-2-K team, they all race. And they'll pick the top two people. women and the top two men, and then they'll form the 4x2K relay team that gets to go to worlds.

Gosh, good luck. So it's going to be very competitive. There's a lot of people that want to do this because it's so fun. And there's not that many opportunities to relays on the track. If you're sprinter, you got the 4 by 1, you got the 4 by 4, you got mixed gender 4 by 4. Like, there's way more opportunities to do relays. The training for that, too is going to be so fun too. It'll be fun.

Yeah, I think we'll do some like workouts over grass and stuff. Yeah. It'll be really fun. So I'm excited for that. So in November, I'll go to just spectate at the New York City Marathon. New York City Marathon weekend in New York is just always such a vibe. And so I'll go there, cheer on a bunch of people. Good for the spirit to be around those as a spectator.

And then I'll be super inspired. And they'll go straight to a training camp in Boulder, spend the next month preparing for cross-nationals. And then December 6th in Portland. So you're basically so huge advantage going from altitude down to sea level, which is Tallahassee yes so that should be good yeah exactly yeah a lot of a lot of people do um high altitude because it's basically like legal blood doping right like you come down and your blood is way better at carrying oxygen to your muscles when you're using it so you don't get tired as fast right um and you can yeah like perform for like longer periods of time so yeah in January

should be too humid down there and I think January and you know it's going to be perfect running conditions. Yeah. The hard part will actually be the U.S. national champs in December are in Portland, and it's going to be very muddy and probably chilly, cold, rainy, gross. I mean, you lived in Portland. That's tough stuff up there. Not quite looking forward to that part. At least a necessary evil to get to the world champs. You have to get through Portland. Anyway, that's kind of like what I'm gearing up for right now. Is motivation, does it come easy to you? Like, you know, do you just get up and go and like, woo, I'm going to run. Yeah, sometimes. 400s today. I find like momentum is really important. Like sometimes when I have really good

momentum, I, yeah, it's just everything is flowing. But if something happens to like knock you off your momentum and you feel like sometimes you get through these stages where like every day kind of feels like a bit of a grind and you're like having to kind of force yourself or like trick yourself into doing like what you know you need to do. But I've always found that like that's a period of time and like it's not going to last forever. And then there'll be other times where yeah everything you just catch this wind and all of a sudden you're snowballing like in a good way like snowballing and you're just growing momentum week by week and everything's going great so yeah and allowing the momentum or allowing the motivation to be different depending on what's going on in your life

what motivated me a year from a year ago is not the same thing that's really necessarily motivating me now and so allowing that and that's normal and natural as you know as you're changing what motivated me in 2015, you know, doesn't really motivate me anymore. And that's, like, I think that's totally normal. I think that happens to everyone. We should evolve and shift. Yeah. How do you use data?

And, you know, I was just thinking about, you know, the time frame of, like, post-Olympics where you started, you know, really injuries started piling up. And it's my perception that an environment like that, who has access to so many resources, athletes should not be in a situation where they're overtraining. You know, like, I just feel like, I wonder, like, Like, how has technology evolved for you? You know, kind of where was it then? What were they measuring and kind of how has that evolved over time?

You know? Well, I'm last thing because like, what were they measuring? Literally nothing. We were not just below my mind. I mean, you've got. It's crazy. Organ, Nike. I mean, I don't even know how much that guy just donated a billion dollars.

Yeah. And presumably have access. Measuring nothing. I was working with, and I'm not here to like, you know, shit on anyone. But yeah, we just really old school approach. of just like, it felt like even just like my workout paces, you know, like doing like workouts that are supposed to be like tempo or threshold, but the paces are just kind of made up. Yeah, there's no rhyme or reason.

Everyone from Shalane Flanagan, who's the New York City Marathon winner to Kate Grace, who's an Olympian in 800 meters to myself, who's running a 3K, steeplechase, someone else who's doing a 5K, like we're all doing, quote unquote, threshold pace. at the same pace, at 5.20 pace. And that's just not, it's not possible that we could all be at threshold, like all these different types of bodies, all these different types of energy systems, all these different strengths and weaknesses athletes. Has that evolved since then? I mean, again, I'm not here to shit on anyone, but I left that situation. But that has not changed. I changed. I did change. I don't do it that way anymore. But that situation is not

changed, which, yeah, in 2025, with all the access to all the information and all the data that we have is kind of mind-blowing. I will say, you know, I'm inside a lot of these high-performance environments, you know, professional and collegiate, and I marvel at how unsophisticated they actually are at monitoring some of these very basic things that could actually yield not marginal gains, right? Like, we're talking massive impact. Yeah, and actually my little foray into triathlon was really interesting because one thing they notice about triathlon as a sport more generally is that they're much more

data-based like they really do use a lot more data they use different like numbers to kind of calculate how much stress on the body for it because they have these three different sports and so overtraining for triathlon is like it's easy to do yeah especially because two of your sports are non-impact like you can right do them all day without any like bone stress injuries like you know with running it's you're limited kind of yes and that way but um with these other sports you're just like if you eat enough, like you can just be like working out all day, which for a while was like kind of fun. I was like, oh, this is like, I love working out. I can just work out all day.

Yeah. But it's easy to over train with triathlon. So they're much more data driven as a sport in general. I found and my coach that I was working with in trathlon was used a lot more data than any running coach I was using. Trathlon, very impressive. I interviewed Laura Phillips. Okay, cool. Yeah, she was really fun to talk to.

But I mean, the amount of data that's guys, I just, whoa, okay. I think track could, like, learn a lesson from that. And I think we're kind of learning, like we're learning more. I would say in the past few years, there's been a shift to use fueling more efficiently. Yeah. Because even back in the day, I'd be doing, you know, an hour and 45 minute long run off nothing. No water, no calories. And now I would never.

Like, was that by design? It just no one did. It was a culture thing. No one on the team. So just training fast and was really kind of. And, yeah, I mean, we wouldn't even talk about it. Like, we wouldn't even use the term training fasted. We would never use that term.

Like, you'd have breakfast, and then you'd go do your long run. And it was almost like, it kind of seems weird to say, but it felt to me, as my perception of it is that it felt like if you needed that, it was like a weakness that you needed to have a gel during your 90-minute run. And like, maybe no one thought less of me. But I feel like it was like a... Unsaid. Yeah, unsaid that like, oh, like, you need a gel.

Like, it was some kind of weakness, which now I see completely. different and I'm like no you're smart you're not only do you need it to get through that run and feel really good and have the best like long run possible and get the most out of yourself during that run but now I see it as oh I'm doing the the fueling during my workout or during my run during my session in order to recover better yeah in order to show up the next day feeling better because if you end that workout on empty yeah it's so. so hard to fill your tank back up, right? If you're thinking about yourself like a car, versus like if you still were, you know, working really hard and you might end the workout

on a quarter of a tank, that's even better. That's better than finishing on empty. Yeah. And you'll recover faster and be able to like top back up to 100% easier. And so now I just think about it totally different. But I, and we're getting there. I think we're like, we're shifting, you know, more to like this type of thing. But I think there's still a lot of room for improvement. And it's just like low-hanging fruit. You're like, this is like easy stuff. Yeah. This is like just the basic basic basics. You know, did you and some of your teammates, like did you have regular cycles? Were you? Yeah, I luckily have only had one time in my career where I lost my cycle one summer for about two or three months. But I did talk to a dietitian

right after because that had never happened to me before. And I was like, you know, this is kind of concerning. And so we went back and kind of did like a food log and we just kind of noticed, okay, you were running like 80, 85 miles a week and training at high altitude again and just doing all these really intense workouts. And both my calories as well as my fat intake were kind of, you know, not sufficient. And so I was getting into that red-ass, unintentional red-as over training under-fueling. Relative energy deficiency syndrome. Yeah, exactly. So I, and I didn't realize I was doing it at the time. And I think that's one thing that we don't talk about enough is that you don't have to have an eating disorder, a full-on eating disorder, in order to experience red-out.

Right. There's these subclinical levels that are actually really problematic that lead to all sorts of illness, injury, you know, yeah. And it can be unintentional. Or you can be kind of at that level, like I've gone through times where I was injured, where I was being way too kind of careful and cautious and really not wanting to like gain weight and get out of shape because I wasn't running. I was just cross-rating. But I'd be cross-draining for two, three hours a day. and then my body's also burning calories trying to heal and trying to get better from this injury and then not giving it the fuel it needs to do all that cross-training plus recover. And I didn't lose my period at that time, but that's also, it's only one indicator, right?

I also wasn't healing very fast for my injuries. So, you know, I clearly wasn't giving my body what it needed to recover. That's what I'm so excited for this advanced labs feature that's coming online, you know, because we'll be in, I think, a position for the first time in kind of history to be able to look at these kind of subclinical moments where, you know, before you lose your period, before, you know, like creating models that help us understand when someone might be at risk. You know, you can imagine. Let's catch it early. Yeah, you can imagine we have all this blood data. We have all the physiological longitudinal data and we have the period data.

We can see someone, okay, they have lost their period. What are the things that happen? What can we see from the blood data? what can we see the physiological data that predict that, you know, and just to help people stay ahead, you know? Well, also I'm thinking about people who, so I have the copper IUD that allows me to naturally cycle, but I'm thinking about the people who are... Do you have a heavier bleed with that?

I do, and it was really bad for the first, like, few months. Yeah. And then it kind of normalized, and now it's kind of like, I've had it for like a few years now, so I'm almost like, it's hard to remember, is it now any heavier than it was? It feels like it's kind of normal now, so I don't really notice. but the first few months were tough. Yeah. But I'm thinking about people who, because I know so many athletes who don't cycle naturally,

like they're using birth control for whatever reason. There's like a lot of reasons. But yeah, so I wonder if since they can't really rely on that as a signal, they're relying more on these like other markers to help be a warning sign. Yeah, I think so. You know, I think when you start looking at, you know, testosterone and estradiol and, you know, and estrogen. And again, I think the time points are going to, we're going to really educate members

on when is the best time to take these labs. You know, so we can have the right kind of data to be able to coach folks properly. Because like if you do it in the first week of your cycle versus the third, you're going to have different. Very different levels that I think could lead us in the wrong direction. You know, lead the member in wrong direction. So yeah, I think all of that is going to be really important data to make sure that we have. Yeah. I recently got blood work done actually this summer and the recommendation was, I think it was like day five and like day 15. So I got I got it done. twice. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah. I wonder if that was to help with that. Yep. You should be at a certain

level on day five and you should be at certain levels on day 15. So it's just being able to see are those levels normal based on where you should be, you know, in your cycle. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I think for especially for women, you know, I think there's a lot of things we can learn for women who are on birth control, hormonal birth control who are on these other forms of birth control. What is better? Yeah. You know, what? And again, you know, every woman is individual and, you know, has personal reasons for making various choices but at least we can tell a woman what you might leave leaving on the table and where you might need to you know adjust levels you know to kind of get yourself to a place where you're not compromising your bone density for example or you know

like there there's certain things that I think come at a cost you know of anything exogenous you know you're kind of putting any hormones you're putting in your body totally yeah and for elite athletes it's an extra level of like I might have a race at this time in my cycle or I want to perform really well or maybe optimizing the training around that time you know around your cycle so that you're not putting yourself in a high risk situation to like tear an ACL or whatever some things you do have control over in terms of like workouts and then sometimes you don't have control over like the Olympics are when the Olympics are yeah the dates are not going to change right but how do you support yourself leading up to that and give yourself, like, the best shot of, you know,

being really prepared for that based on. It's just a little more complicated than, you know, a male athlete is just steady eddy over here. But yeah, yeah, we have like a little extra work to do in terms of like optimizing. But that's definitely an area that in the past few years I've leaned into and have been learning more about and feel that the more I learn, than where I'm like, oh my God, there's like so much more that I could be doing, especially as I get older. What have been your big learnings? Yeah, well, just noticing that the biggest thing was like, there's still this misnomer

that you're going to, that you don't perform well or that you don't want to have your race during your period. And the biggest thing that I learned was like, actually, it's the week before your period that you need to be like kind of the most cautious of or like would be the least optimal time would be like the week leading up to your period. And, you know, if you can like manage any cramping or like symptoms, the week of your period is actually a great time to race. Oh my God. Yeah. When I learned that, that definitely like blew my mind. Were you able to look back on races and kind of actually see like. Yes. And now I'm like, yeah, the week before is always

when like little issues pop up. When I have little issues with my body that I'm not like, it's not a full on injury, but it's like just something that's kind of bugging me. And when I look at it. And when I look like the pattern of that, it's like, oh, that always happens the week before I start my period. And so now I'm way more cautious of that week. And if I'm going to have a down week in my training anyway, why wouldn't I just line that up with a week before my cycle starts? So I'm not hitting the most important workout of that month during that week. Like that's just I'm not setting myself up for success there. And that's something my coach has noticed too, that we're like, okay, this seems, you know, it's a pattern. And you can, once you have,

the data and you can look at like, I'm pretty good about journaling and I always log my period in the period tracker. Then you can look, you know, look at back on things and be like, oh yeah, there's like a pattern here. Like we can just tweak some things and, yeah, and make some like, again, like low-hanging fruit changes to just timing. I love that. Yeah. You're invited to join the waitlist for WOOP Advanced Labs. Advanced Labs delivers clinician reviewed lab results right into your Woop app for the most complete. view of your biomarkers and biometrics and the most comprehensive understanding of your health. Unlike other tests, Whoop integrates your lab results with your Woop data. See how your

habits and behaviors influence your biomarkers and get clear guidance on what to change to improve your results. To join the wait list, visit our website or the Health tab in the Woop app. Colleen, your data is like, is just... Apparently, very impressive. Everyone keeps like telling me my day does really good. I'm like, okay, yeah. It's impressive. I mean, you are an Olympic level track athlete, so there's that. Well, some of it is jeans. My mom's big into cycling. She just came off of a seven-day cycling trip with all her friends do every year. They do a seven-day cycling trip where they ride like 50 miles a day on their bikes. And like, yeah, so part of it is good jeans, but then also training. We might need to. I got dig into mom's numbers too.

Yeah, we need to interview Mama Quigley. What's her handle? Yeah. Okay. So just to be clear, your whoop age is 14 years younger than your chronological age. When you think about just that number generally, what's your perspective on just this concept of health span? Yeah, well, it was really inspiring and, like, motivating for me to see that number when it came out because I'm at this stage in my career. I'm 32 and I'm competing against women who are much younger than me. And I feel this year specifically, I like felt that. I was like, I kind of feel old at this point in my sport, which, you know, I'm like, 32 is not that old. But I'm competing against women who are 19 or 20 or 25. And so I feel like older than them. But when I saw that number, it was really empowering. I was like, oh, hell yeah. I still got this. Like the numbers literally just. a number, you know. Yeah. It doesn't, it really, like, gave me a lot of confidence, weirdly. Like, to see that number, I was like, oh, like, I can compete against when you are younger than me. Like, my body is telling me it still got it. Yeah. That was really cool to see. I think it's one of those things where if you do certain things, you know, which basically that laundry list of stuff we track in health span or that we use to give you kind of a health span.

Yeah. And you read light blocking glasses. Your V-O-2 max, sleep consistency, you know, sleep duration, time in zone four and five, time in zone two and three steps, like all of those things. Yeah, you can just figure out, right, what lever do I want to like focus on, right? And knowing if I focus on those things, I can like move this number. Totally. You know, that's pretty cool. One thing I noticed on there is that I usually don't bother tracking my weightlifting. And I probably should, but I like usually don't even go in there.

Oh, your strength training minutes. Yeah. Yeah, my strength training. And that was one thing that it said in health span was that was hurting me that because we didn't know, I started entering mine in two. I'm like, oh, shoot, I got to put it in there. I got to get credit for my strength training. But that was interesting that it's a big factor. Right in your ageing, a pace of aging number, like strength training really makes a big

difference. Yeah, and you probably, when you look at the proportion of your training, you're probably obviously running way more than you are lifting. Yeah, I lift like twice a week. Yeah. But yeah, I should be putting it in there. So I get credit for it. Absolutely.

Absolutely, absolutely. Because usually I just like, I go on a run and then just, then I go and lift. Yep. I usually run. It just depends on what type of running I'm doing. But generally speaking, like I usually prioritize my running. Same. And yeah, yeah, it would just be like one long, like, oh, you worked out for an hour

and 45 minutes. But 45 minutes of that was strength training and like an hour it was running. It was interesting to see, though, that that is such a big factor. Yeah, I mean, it is. It surprised me. But I get the data must show that that's an important factor. of your muscle tissue is so correlated with longevity, right? And insulin sensitivity and, you know, all of these really big, like when you think of like the 12 chronic diseases, right, like the more

muscled you are, the less vulnerable you are to any to any of those diseases. So it's, it is quite, it is a very, very powerful lever. Yeah. I think getting, I think women especially to lift, I think is just so important. Yeah. Even my, my little sister was a professional dancer for quite a few years. And this year she transitioned out of that and is not doing it anymore. And I was facetiming her earlier the summer. And I was like, Erin, you are looking cut. Like, what is good? I mean, she usually looks, you know, very long and lean and like dancer body. Her like arms were like, I was like, girl, like, what are you been doing? And she's like, oh, really? Thanks. I've been, I've been lifting weights. And she's like, I've been like loving it. I go to the Y like a few times. Like, I don't know,

Like four or five times a week, she's like really getting into strength training. Wow. And she's like, I noticed that like my back and neck pain like disappear when I'm consistent about strength training. And she's like, I also just like feel really good. Like my body feels really good. And I was like, well, you look amazing. I don't know how you feel.

But it's really cool to see her get into it because I think it is hard sometimes for, it seems like for women to be able to feel comfortable getting into the gym and like owning that space. And it's never been a space that she's felt super comfortable in. but she's noticing the difference in her body and like how she feels in her body and stuff. So I just, every time I hear a story like that, I get so excited. I love it. How old is she? She's three years younger than me, so she's 29. 29, yeah. I've been thinking, well, I just finished writing a book and. Amazing. Yeah, yeah. But a big, a big future of the book is just this

idea that, you know, strength training really is for everyone, you know, and, you know, I think especially women, you know, as we transition to perimenopause and menopause, and you can just mitigate so many of those symptoms, so much of that pain just by having quality muscle tissue, you know, and it's like, you have the power to change how you feel. Yes, yes. You don't have to feel like this is happening to you. Like you can cause and effect. Yes. And, you know, declines in estrogen are real, right? And I'm not dismissing the realities of that, right? But But string training can offset so many of the dilettorous effects associated, you know, with a decline in estrogen, you know. So anyway, I just feel like there's so much hope, you know.

Yeah, it does require some work, though. You know, like, you know, women just got to get behind it and we got to support each other and create communities. And make the time for it and your busy, busy lives and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Hearing you talk and just the things I observe, recovery is a way of being in the world for you. Yes. You know, and it's funny because I think the women I talk to, the folks I talk to, in these conversations, like it just seems like they've arrived at that place where recovery

is essential. It's a non-negotiable. So what are the kind of things that you do to just get yourself re-centered? So you can build on this momentum that you have. Well, yeah. So this summer, we launched Meridia on June 4th. And right around that time, I got over. I was just overcooked.

I was trying to do so much for the team and like building the team and putting it together was taking so much out of me more than I like kind of expected emotionally too emotionally more than anything and then I was also burning the candle over here trying to train and get myself back at an elite level so that I can you know my health and my performance is good for the team as well right so I'm like trying to do both and you know I just got kind of like burnt out and so I had to take a pause on I had to like kind of take a couple weeks off of training and just allow my body to tell me when it was like ready to go again. And one thing I did during that time was I took a Saturday and I went on a like long hike

a Boulder Canyon is a beautiful hike if you're ever in Boulder. You like hike along this river the whole time up Boulder Canyon. And I sat down at one point and I brought my, I bought some snacks and water and a journal with me. And I sat down at one point. The water's like running. I like kind of climbed up like off the side of a tree. trail onto a rock. And I just like hung out for a little while and just like got things out of my head onto paper. I listened to music. I was talking to myself for a while. And one thing I, and I turned my

phone off for the whole time. I just turned my phone up before I left the house. And I had this like whole day to myself to kind of just like sort some things out. And I came back from that and I was like, I think I need to have. So I called it no phone Saturday. And I was like, I think I need to do a weekly no phone Saturday where I don't do any work. I just got to the point where I was like working on team stuff every moment that I wasn't like working out. I know. You just end up seven a week. And I was working. Yeah, I was like working seven days a week. And I was like, I'm headed quickly towards a period of burnout. Like I'm there already. And then we just launched. I'm like already burnt myself out. I'm like, shoot. So I kind of fell off of it when I was traveling in Europe

and racing and stuff. I didn't really do it. And so this past Saturday I got home on Sunday. and I had to catch up on things during the week. And then on Saturday, I turned my phone off and I had no phone Saturday. And I went to the market with Kevin and the dogs, my partner. And we spent the morning gardening in the garden. And then we sat on the beach and watched the sunset and just, like, had a day without the phone. And that's really, like, become a really important thing for me that I need to make sure I, like, continue to have no phone Saturday to, like, reset every week.

Also, like, a break from screens is really, really good for us. So that's something I'm like preaching to people now is like, no phone Saturday. Like do it with me. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I can definitely get behind that. Yeah.

I've been not to finish the book. I've been like trying to be, all right, have at least one day. One day a week. Yeah. But I'm not like on my laptop analyzing data or, you know, whatever. Yeah. And actually my partner, Kevin taught me that because he started a company a few years ago. And I think early on he realized that in himself.

He saw that himself too, that he was working all weekend. And so he takes, it's not. sometimes at Saturday, sometimes at Sunday, but he takes one day on the weekend. He works one day of the weekend. Yeah. And he doesn't do any work on one day of the weekend. And so, yeah, I kind of took that, you know, out of his playbook. And I was like, I think he's got, I think he's on to something here. Yeah, yeah. Because I think for a lot of us, like, I don't mind working. I love it. I love it. Yeah. And I don't. But I think it does, you know, looking at screens, I think comes out of cost. Yes. And I think we see it show up, you know. And I think I wasn't

being as productive either. Yeah. You lose your edge. Yeah. I was like working a lot but then not producing as much as I feel like I should. You're just not as clear minded. Yes. You know, when you take that time away and you get into nature especially, you know. Like reground myself. Anytime I'm like in the sand, near the ocean, reground myself or barefoot in grass or barefoot in dirt, hands in dirt, gardening. Just being close to the earth in any way that you can. I do think that is the most powerful recovery modality is just nature. I do like every single day I try to get nature whether it's just

taking my dog and a walk on the trail. The dogs are so good for that. I mean it's it's they're so damn happy. Forcing you to get out at least once a day for a walk and I never on my phone I walk the dog. So that's also a good time to like be present. Yeah that's like the biggest I feel like the biggest like recovery thing is less I mean all the other things are great. Don't get me wrong. The Norma Tech recovery boots. Right. Right. Of course. Yes. Like all the like physical getting massages all those things. But for me, what I've learned more than anything, it's the nervous system recovery that if you can balance your nervous system, your body will recover on its own. It will do what it needs to do on its own. Amen. But if you're like just stuck in fight or flight

all the time, you can't heal. You can't recover when you're in fighter flight. So if it's like sitting on the beach for 30 minutes is going to put you into rest and digest like parasympathetic, your body will then heal itself. And you can kind of, you know, get. away with not doing a lot of the other things that are very time consuming and like sometimes very expensive as well. I think that's such a great way to think about like stress is a little bit of an injury to the nervous system. You know, you just have to, it's not, or maybe injury is like not the right word. It's a stress on the nervous system, right? And you just have to make sure that you're balancing, you know, with appropriate amounts of rest, you know, and it's kind

of like this constant yin and yang over the course of the day. I think you just are really, we have such a hard time. I was just talking to a friend who's taking like a two month sabbatical and she's only like a couple weeks in and she's like I don't even know how to do this I know I know I just like this is a lot of downtime I know I know like go sit on the beach I know I know I know so I think we're yeah we have the priorities in our culture of like producing and being really I know and we get addicted to that doing doing doing and yeah it feels good to like do and we get rewarded for that we don't really get rewarded very well you know for like Yeah, chilling.

The recovery part, but it's like we can't do without the chill. I know. We'll be better at doing if we honor like the signals. Yeah, that's definitely something that I've like tried to lean more into now that I'm like in my later years of my career and like something I've learned. Well, transferring that wisdom to your team and to your, you know, the folks in your platform who follow you. I mean, this is just invaluable. So I just think like athletics in general, like any competitive sport, like that has any sort of technical component like forces you to be present, you know? And I think like that's like one of the reasons why it's so health promoter. And of course, like there's cardiovascular and neuromuscular things going on. But like just from a mental health perspective, like just being kind of forced to be in the moment. Like there's just very, it's, I think especially in today's day and age, it's just really hard to not get distracted. You know, there's just so many things pulling us in so many different directions, you know. And that comes at like a pretty high cost. I know. That's actually why like I love how Whoop doesn't have a screen on it. Yeah. Because we don't need another thing buzzing and be.

thing. When we're out there working out, it's like you should just turn your phone. If you have to bring your phone with you, like turn it on, do not disturb. Everyone thinks that my fiance, Kevin, must be an athlete because I'm an athlete. I'm like, I mean, he's an athlete because he has a body and he works out, but he doesn't make money off being an athlete. He has a, you know, a different career. But he still, you know, goes out and does runs and workouts and stuff. And he really uses it as like a time to, like, clear his head and be like, I'm going to go for a 30-minute run. My back is sore from sitting down all day and I just need to like go for a 30 minute run or whatever. And I think he was he was doing that a lot as just like an easy pace and he would think about

stuff. And I was really encouraging him to like a couple, not every time, but like a couple days a week do like a workout. Like do something where it was really hard so that you can't be in your head. Like I think that's really healthy. Like when you're running out really hard, you can't think about anything else. You just have to be like so, you know, diet. into what you're doing. And I think there's just something that's like really beneficial about that. He fought me on it for a bit. But I think it ended up being like, you don't need to do it every day. But yeah, just to like not think about life and work and all the things for even 30 minutes, you know, is like, and then you can come back to it. It'll be there when you get back to it. So I get the, yeah,

lovely gift of being able to do that like as my job every day. And I think the mental health benefits are, yeah, just incredible. Well, Kalina's has been. such a joy to speak with you. Just so grateful for all the wisdom that you generate and you put out into the world. And like I said at the beginning, like just the role model that you are, you know, to so many of us. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you all for all the work that you do to make what I do, more informed. And I can make better decisions on my training and my recovery because I have this tool. So yeah, I appreciate all the research that you do is incredible and all the advocacy that you do as well. So happy to be on the team. We have to keep us posted on

the January. Yeah, the relay. There'll be plenty of updates. December is, is U.S. Cross. December 6th. You'll post. I'll be posting all about it. Yeah. I'll just call you. And at Team Meridia is the word to follow along. Yeah, this is a new one. Okay. Yeah. Great. Yeah, thanks for having me. No, thanks for being here. If you enjoyed this episode of the Woo Podcast, please leave a rating or review. Check us out on social at Whoop at Will Ahmed. If you have a question what's to answer it on the podcast, email us, podcast at Whoop.com. Call us 508-443-9552.

If you think about joining Whoop, you can visit Whoop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. New members to use the code Will, W-I-L, to get a $60 credit on Whoop accessories when you enter the code at checkout. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the Whoop podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green. Nothing