Taryn Smith - The Crash Nobody Warns You About After a Huge Win

17:51Taryn Smith:Run your business smarter with Square.

17:54Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Get started today. Would you consider yourself neutral?

18:02I don't think I'm neutral.

18:05Taryn Smith:I think I try to just accept what's happening. and in my best days I don't attach labels to it but I'm also a human being and definitely get swept up in the the currents of life and so on my best days I try to just let things happen and recognize I can't control the weather I can't control my conditions but I can control how I

18:33Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:respond to it that is wise and I'm sure you read the book man search for meaning Viktor Frankl and he says that there is space between the stimulus and response. You didn't have to do this. And you and I were chatting about this idea of strong women, which ultimately I think leads to conceptually strong people, strong society and our standards. I'm sure that doing hard things cultivates that. Is there a greater mission for you for all of this?

19:09Taryn Smith:when I think about the row and when I think about my place in the world, I want to keep my side of the street clean. I like to focus on what I can control and what I can do. Because at the end of the day, I think it's I can't control what other people think or do. I can only control what I do and what I contribute to this world and what I bring to the table. And so that's where I normally choose to direct my energy, but I hope the residue this journey leaves behind is that I was scared. I was terrified. I was a beginner. I failed a lot and I did it anyway. And I don't mean to downplay what I did when I say this, but if I can do it, anyone can.

19:54It really is a beautiful, beautiful message.

19:58Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Would you do it again?

20:02Taryn Smith:I had such a perfect experience while I was out there that I think to try to replicate it would just inevitably be a disappointment. I might do it as a pair because that would be a different kind of adventure and experience for me. But I also think there's something to be said for having enough. I think we are sold the idea that you always need more and always need to do more and push. And I think a huge triumph can be for even just a moment, have enough.

20:35Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:This is enough. This, you know, again, you're settled into a little bit of limbo right now. You're going to be moving, doing all sorts of things. Do you think that this experience exposed any weaknesses for you that you go, OK, I see this is what I need to work on? Absolutely. Absolutely.

20:55Taryn Smith:This experience showed me the lengths I will go to to avoid conflict with people. I don't like disagreeing, especially with the people that I'm closest with. And I struggle to speak up when someone said something that's bothered me. And that is some work I need to do going forward. And did you find that out because you were alone and by yourself? yeah I had a lot of time to reflect on life on my relationships on how I conduct myself in the world and that's one of the things that popped up how are you going to work on that I mean because it's it's challenging yeah practice I think I need to practice more practice yeah do you think that

21:43Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:there is a landscape where women well let me ask you this first do you think women recognize their

21:50Taryn Smith:own strength absolutely and I think we're also capable of so much more I think women have infinite strength in my opinion and this this experience helped me tap into one side of it but when I think about what it means to exist as a woman in this world, to me, I'm inspired by my friends that are having kids and in going through that part of life. That's when I was tired, I think, well, some of my friends have babies right now and that's way more exhausting than anything I'm doing out here.

22:26Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I mean, I would kind of agree. Yeah. But not really, you know, hard is all relative at any moment in time. We've been asked all the obvious questions, right? Those obvious questions totally exist. And then there's always as a deeply feeling human, which I believe that you are, there's always this other stuff that maybe people aren't asking you that's just out there. So I just want to put that on the table.

22:52Taryn Smith:Yeah. One thing has popped up and that would be about my journaling prompt because I did journal throughout this entire thing. And And I think a gratitude practice is amazing. It's important. And the happiest people I know are the ones that have an active gratitude practice. But in my tough days, when I felt alone or misunderstood, it was sometimes tough to feel grateful for what I was going through. And so I tweaked it a little. Instead of writing down things that I was grateful for, I would write down five beautiful things because even in moments of intense pain, I was still able to recognize that there was beauty around me.

23:36Taryn Smith:And that helped snap me out of some of the bad moods. Was it immediate?

23:44Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:It was. That was the quickest way. There, and I'm sure that you've experienced this, that there's typically a linchpin and maybe for some people it's a phrase or a song, but it's something that it's very black and white that it happens. My husband has a saying, you know, that just move someone out of whatever repetitive thought or domain that one is in. How did you manage your physicality? Being in a position physically, in a rowing position, seated, were your legs extended? How did you think about the health? Again, you had said that you were chafing. How did you take care of the organism.

24:27Taryn Smith:Yes. As I went across the ocean, I spent my off time focusing on mobility. And so when I wasn't rowing, I did take moments to just stretch to twist things. It was a lot of back and forth. And so when I got on the oars or got off, I would always take a moment to just physically twist in my chair and kind of wring things out. I also spent a lot of time focusing on stretching out my fingers because sometimes when people get to the other side, they have claw hands from gripping the horse for so long and their fingers won't extend. And so I wanted to avoid that. That's not permanent. Not permanent, but a couple of weeks, they stay like that.

25:05And so I wanted to

25:06Taryn Smith:avoid it.

25:07Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And I did by stretching a lot. And when you say a lot, were you very disciplined in the amount of time? You know, are you doing five downward dogs, you know, six twists, whatever you call them, pretzels?

25:24Taryn Smith:It's funny because I have done this. I did this thing that required a lot of discipline. But why are you air quoting that? Because I don't think I'm a particularly disciplined person. None of my days look the same. I didn't have a daily routine and I still don't. I don't get up and do 15 minutes of yoga and then a 10 minute meditation and then the cold plunge and then the red.

25:46Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Exactly.

25:47Taryn Smith:And some people have that and it works really well for them. But for me, I like to go with the flow a little bit. Instead of forcing myself to do things at certain times, I just knew at some point in the day I need to stretch. At some point in the day, I need to take my supplements. At some point in the day, I'm going to call home. and having a little bit of flexibility in the routine was freeing for me because if I'm told to do something even by myself that means I don't want to do it um that I mean it's kind of surprising right then how would you say that you were able to do what you did if discipline is not your language how did that how did that work out the phrase that really encapsulates this endeavor is for me is send it go for it all the time and so every moment of the day I was sending it I was going for it I was doing the things that I needed to do and I was very regimented about the safety side of things but as far as maintenance of my body and the health side of things.

26:55Taryn Smith:I'm a little more flexible. Sleep. What about sleep? Sleep was tough. And from the beginning, that's what I was most nervous about was the sleep deprivation. I slept pretty well on the boat. There were some times when I had hives all over my body from sun exposure and the cabins themselves where I slept, they get very, very damp and soggy. And so when I I would lay in there with those hives that really exacerbate the pain and the itchiness. And there was a two day period where I didn't sleep. And that led to one of my toughest days. I would just lay there and itch and scratch. And I tried taking Benadryl or putting cortisone cream on it, but nothing helped.

27:39Taryn Smith:And then the more I couldn't sleep, the more I couldn't sleep. And it just grew into this monster in a way. And that day I cried a lot. And that was one of the days when I had the toughest conditions, when my boat almost capsized a few times. The Marlins stalked me that day. And I got to the end of the day. I just looked up at the sky and said, I want my mom. And it was terrifying. But once I reached about 6 or 7 p.m., the wind died down a little bit. and I realized it was one of my most successful days in a way. I covered more ground than I normally did and everything worked as it should even though I was scared and tired.

28:24Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Did it make you have this realization that things are going to happen regardless of how, you know, in those moments? Yeah, totally. Things are going to happen and you just have to deal

28:34Taryn Smith:with it.

28:35Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Whether you cry, like doesn't matter, there will be an outcome. Yeah. You know, know, you go from point A to point B, it's kind of like pregnancy. Some of my friends are pregnant right now. And it's can be terrible. It can be terrible. But there's point A to point B and kind of that space in between. It's like, there's going to be an outcome.

28:58Taryn Smith:Yes.

28:59Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And you don't have to manage the middle or not. It still, it still happens.

29:06Taryn Smith:Exactly.

29:07Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You weren't good at sleeping

29:08Taryn Smith:the damp cabin I didn't realize that was the worst part in a way it just got really hot and damp in those cabins and so when I would lay there at night sometimes water would drip on me so annoying full feeling did you have a hydration plan yes and no again it was something that I knew I needed to do throughout the day I drank a lot of water and so I had a big hydro flask next to me. And I stopped every 20 to 30 minutes to take a big drink of water. And I had some electrolyte mixes as well. But I didn't track it throughout the day because there's so much on board to be aware of. At all times, I had to think about what way is the boat pointing?

29:51Taryn Smith:What's the wind doing? Am I going in the right direction? Is there a ship nearby? Am I OK? Do I need to eat anything? Do I need to drink anything? And it's so much to think about, especially as one person. And so I, I didn't track that side of things quite as much, but it was just a part of my existence on the boat.

30:14Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Does that mean that it was really hard to just empty your mind?

30:22Taryn Smith:The days that I felt most present and in a way, I won't say empty, but just really, really in tune with what was happening around me were the scariest moments. And so in some ways, those were freeing from the chatter that normally occupies my brain space. I was really locked in to staying alive.

30:41Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I can imagine that that would hijack your nervous system and your, your mind and brain. What, how did you process that? Because what I'm hearing you say is that when things were not life or death, that there's a lot of noise. Yeah. And then there is a moment where you have to be singularly focused and that is the moments in those moments you actually felt the most free yeah it was freeing and it was terrifying and i think as it was happening it's something that i didn't have the space to process because

31:20Taryn Smith:the next moment i was i was just as scared especially that week when the weather was huge the whole time there was never a moment where i got to take a sigh of relief and even after I got off the boat in Antigua it took me a while to have that experience integrate with who I am and as I was doing interviews and podcasts for the first couple weeks I told stories and I talked about it but it was almost like I was giving a book report on someone else's life

31:48Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:instead of talking about my own yeah was it just because it was I don't know if traumatic was the is the right word or was it just i mean it's a big thing and and it's big on your body the physiology it's really challenging i think

32:09Taryn Smith:i don't know if the word trauma applies but there were moments that were really distressing and

32:13Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:stressful and i like i like that reframe because trauma is not the right word yeah you know you've got this big dopamine push it's you know after people run ultras or whatever they do yeah Yeah, it's moments when I, at least in a small way, feared for my life.

32:30Taryn Smith:And so I had to let that settle a little bit once I got back.

32:34Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Do you know the moment where you were able to go from book report to real lived experience?

32:40Taryn Smith:It was gradual. And part of it was seeing how I interacted with people. Because when I first got back, my brain and my body had adjusted to being on the boat. and I was used to a certain amount of adrenaline in a day and the endorphins. And so when that was gone, I was really irritable and I was grumpy and I was tough to be around and I would snap at people for no reason. And then I would watch myself behaving in this way and I had no idea why I was acting like this. And I started to realize it was part of the journey,

33:16Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:part of the process.

33:16Taryn Smith:And they didn't tell you, we expect that. I'd heard about the post row blues. It was so much worse than anything on the post row blues.

33:26Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:It was a really, it was a really challenging time in my life. We, again, we see this in clinical practice is that after someone has accomplished a huge feat, that as high as they go is as low as they're going to fall. And it mirrors that as intense and exhilarating at that peak, you will equally feel the dark side. Yeah.

33:50Taryn Smith:It's the law, right? For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.

33:54Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You knew that you had to hydrate. You drank electrolytes. You had utilized amino acids, perfect amino, which probably saved your muscle and also your caloric load. You weren't incredibly sore. You were able to get your nutrition in. And it sounded like the biggest thing was being able to keep up with the total caloric load. Chose foods that you like. Yeah. It also seemed to free you from any kind of food cage or noise cage, which I think is really cool.

34:26Taryn Smith:Yeah.

34:26Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And is there anything else on that nutrition side that you would have wished you had done differently or better? Maybe you wanted to bring coffee next time. Did you bring instant coffee?

34:37Taryn Smith:I had coffee and tea. I found that when I was out there, it was such a hassle to make it that I never did because I'd have to get the jet boil out and have hot boiling water, which is one of the most dangerous things I did. And I did it every single day. But at any point, a wave could have knocked over the side of the boat and sloshed hot water on me and I would have had really severe burns. And so I didn't drink coffee, even though I normally do on land. I would have I would have brought more Nutella. I ran out about three weeks before I got to land and that was such a tragic day. That was very disappointing.

35:14Taryn Smith:But I was generally happy with my nutrition plan.

35:17Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You did well with it. And the drinks, how did you get the water? Did you utilize some kind of tool to distill it down?

35:27Taryn Smith:I did. I had a desalinator on board. And so I was able to draws in water from the sea, goes through a filtration process. And then I had fresh water and that's what I used to drink. and make meals and then shower once a week. Okay. Any other cool pieces of equipment? There's so much cool kit on board. I had a life raft. And so I would use that if my boat capsized or if there was a fire or it was in some way uninhabitable. How was that stored?

35:56Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Was it a ripcord that you pull and then it inflates or?

36:01Taryn Smith:Yes, it was stored in a compartment that was on the deck of the boat. And so that's part of what helps the boat self-right is that the hull is where we store all of this equipment and our food because that's heavier. It has to stay flipped the right way. So that's where I stored my life raft. And if I got it out, I'd throw it off the side and then it would self-inflate. I had a Starlink. That's what I use to send pictures and videos back home. And it worked amazing while I was out there. I had some satellite phones that I used to call home.

36:35Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:How did they charge? Is it solar powered? Solar powered. Did that work even when it was overcast?

36:42Taryn Smith:It did. Part of life on board, though, was battery management. And so when it was overcast. I was careful not to make too much water because that really draws the batteries. And I had to be careful about it because people get into trouble when they overextend their batteries and then you're out of luck.

37:02Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And you had mentioned that there has to be a certain weight of the boat. Was that that if you I mean, could you have packed more or did it need to be a certain weight to be able to meet your goal at a certain time?

37:14Taryn Smith:I had a certain amount of supplies that I was required to bring for the race rules. And so I had to have 85 days worth of food. I had to have things like the life raft and the toolkit and all of that safety equipment. I think the boat weighed about a thousand pounds with everything on it.

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38:58Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Your favorite pillow, a dehumidifier or something like that? A dehumidifier would have been amazing. I mean, do you realize how many pieces of equipment that you could come up with that would help rowers in the future? In the future.

39:12Taryn Smith:Yes. I think part of life on these boats, they're so small, less can be more. and so I didn't bring a lot of extra stuff because that was going to be weight that I'd have to pull across the Atlantic I did have a little volleyball that my mom got me so I had my Wilson on board and on purpose and then one of the best things I had were these little battery powered fairy lights and I wrapped them in the stern cabin where I slept and so at night I was able to turn on these very lights and my cabin was really cozy and inviting and that had an outsized impact on my happiness. Cognition. What was the name of your boat?

39:55Taryn Smith:Allons-y and the meaning's twofold for us so it means let's go in French which I think really captures the spirit of the endeavor but my grandparents were also part of a dance club and it was called Allons-y and so when my mom and I were trying to come up with a name for the boat she thought that one would be fitting.

40:12Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:That's so sweet. The anything else that you wish that you had brought?

40:18Taryn Smith:I was really happy with everything I had. To be honest, I felt like the boat was well stocked. I had all the food I needed. I was happy with my mix of electrolytes. I actually one thing that I would have done is I would have gone to a place where you can get screen prints done and I would have had some pictures of family and friends. I was wondering and I would have put those on the cabin walls.

40:42Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Yeah, I would have loved that. I was wondering if you had painted it or if you had decorated it because yeah, not having to rely on tech what the visual I think is probably could have been really important.

40:54Taryn Smith:Yeah. I think I would have gotten pictures and put those in my cabins. I did have a boat wrap. And so my boat was wrapped in the names of everyone who supported me and everyone who got me to the start line. And so I did feel very cocooned and love from from

41:10Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:people who believed in the journey. It is just really outstanding. Your next endeavor is going to be, it'll be interesting to see what lever you try to pull and how you try to make it challenging. When you were done with the row, how did you recover your body? What, had you lost weight? Had you, I mean, again, fight or flight, not sleeping. You have high levels of cortisol. You're also eating a robust amount of calories, you're assuming. You have your carbohydrates, your proteins. It sounds like most of your proteins came from perfect amino because the mountain house foods, again, depending on which or the freeze dried foods, depending on what you choose.

41:51I don't think that their macros have, unless you're really particular, I'm not so sure

41:57Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:that they keep up with what I think would be considered ideal in those types of situations. I haven't seen all of them, but at least the ones that that I've seen. How was it on the recovery end?

42:11Taryn Smith:Yeah. So while I was out there, I didn't really have an appetite, which surprised me. I thought I was going to be very hungry throughout the day, given the amount of work I did. But I just never really felt like eating. When I got back to land, I could not stop eating, though. I was so hungry all of the time. And I had lost about 15 pounds, which is quite a bit of weight to lose in that amount of time. And how much were how much did you weigh when you started? When I started, I was about 175.

42:42Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And how tall are you?

42:44Taryn Smith:5 '7".

42:44Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I knew you were tall. The shoes help the clogs. You lost 15 pounds. Were you surprised? Were people like, oh my goodness, You look.

42:53Taryn Smith:It was noticeable. Like, yeah. And because I'd been working out and I had a decent amount of protein, I was able to keep a lot of my muscle mass.

43:02Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:What and what happened? You lost 15 pounds. And then what was the recovery like?

43:06Taryn Smith:Yes. The recovery was interesting because I was physically active that whole time, but my heart rate never got up very high. And so when I got back to land, I was actually out of shape and I tried going for runs and I could barely run two miles. And what helped me was actually doing things that I normally wouldn't do. So I went to a spin class and I found that that was a nice way to get back into cardio. Uh, that was also very social because my whole life I've been introverted and that served me well while I was out on the boat. But when I got back to land, all I wanted was to be around people.

43:44Taryn Smith:And I'm still, I feel more extroverted than I've ever been in my entire life. And I want to do things with people all of the time. So I, um, I was happy to have a more social workout routine. So for all you introverts,

43:56Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:it's entirely that simple. Just row across the ocean for 3000 nautical miles in 46 days. And you will be at the life of the party. Yes. Fair to say. Yeah. What was your first meal when you got back? I mean, did anyone ask you that?

44:11Taryn Smith:Yeah, I had a gin and tonic.

44:12Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You're like,

44:13Taryn Smith:fuck this shit. Exactly.

44:16Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Rub my feet. I mean, you probably really needed a pedicure after that. Pizza. Did you have a thing?

44:22Taryn Smith:I went out my first night back on land. So a friend met me in Antigua. She was there with my parents and she took me out to this bar and it's up on a hill that overlooks the dockyard and the harbor that I rode into. Gorgeous night, gorgeous sunset. that she came over with a plate of barbecue chicken and I just demolished it like a wild animal. And I had to work really hard not to wipe my hands on my dress afterwards because of what I'd done while I was out at sea. So it took a second to readjust to polite society.

44:55Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:If you were like, yeah, so you're having turnover for dinner or you guys are going out. the um did it push you more into yoga or less or did it change those fundamental training principles

45:12Taryn Smith:I'd say that's something that's actually pretty consistent throughout the entire thing is my relationship to yoga it's something that always makes me feel better and so whenever I'm in a mood or a funk or I'm angry, it's a cue to me that it's time to go move my body and be mindful and meditate a little bit.

45:33Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You make this decision fully untrained for it, right? What was your first step, the non-romantic version of what it took to begin to think about this?

45:47Taryn Smith:I think that's the side that isn't captured on Instagram. It's that it took three years to bring this row to life. So the first step was training. I found a coach who was based in London who trained lots of other ocean rowing athletes. And so he did all of my programming and I started rowing on the erg. I started lifting. I had never really lifted before and it became my favorite thing to do. I loved how strong I got through this process. And then I went and actually lived in England and trained there. So I took courses on sea safety and navigation. I learned how to row. That was going to be an important part.

46:25Taryn Smith:And then I lived on my boat at a little marina in Burnham on Crouch, this town where the boats are built. And I rode up and down the river and then out into the North Sea. And at every stage, I had to be okay with being a beginner and being bad at things. And I think that's why I was successful through this project is that I was willing to be a beginner and willing to fail.

46:51Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Do you have a lot of friends? I do. You do?

46:54Taryn Smith:Yeah.

46:54Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:The reason I ask is because I wonder if that is easy to relate to others that are perhaps less open-minded than you.

47:10Taryn Smith:I feel very lucky that my friends are also ambitious people. A lot of my friends out in Idaho love spending time outside and they push themselves to do marathons and Ironmans and they travel the world as well. And so I think our adventures do look a little bit different, but I couldn't have done any of the things I did without my friends and without my community. They are the ones that got me to the start line. They believed in me every second of the way. And I'm really grateful for their support. What did you study in college? Political science and French. You did? Okay. Political science and French.

47:47Taryn Smith:So really close to rowing. Exactly.

47:49Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:A lot of parallels there. A lot of parallels. A lot of parallels. You're in the mountains. You had never trained before. You were not a collegiate athlete. Nope. What about your parents?

48:00Taryn Smith:My mom is an elementary music teacher. My dad's an attorney, but there's not a lot of athleticism

48:06Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:in the family. Athletic with his brain.

48:08Taryn Smith:Yes.

48:09Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Is he the reason why you want to go into law?

48:12Taryn Smith:He is. It's the family trade. I would be the fourth generation of attorneys in our family. And so it's not something I want to do because I feel forced or pressured to, but it's something that I take a lot of pride in and I've seen how much you can help people.

48:27Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Your dad is a little, But will you go work in his law? Is it his law firm? I do work for him right now. You do? Yeah. OK, but you will go back. You think when you do criminal defense?

48:36Taryn Smith:Oh, I'm not. He actually does bankruptcy. And so that's the kind of law I'm practicing or helping with right now. And so I'm not sure where I'll end up. Why criminal defense? I think that the idea that everyone deserves a defense, no matter what they've done, is one of the most evolved thoughts we've had as a country. I think it shows that everyone deserves empathy. And that's why I want to go into it.

49:05Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Do you have siblings?

49:06Taryn Smith:I have a younger sister. And is she on the law train as well? We could not be more different. She is in film and cinematography. That's what she's studying at university right now. And so I don't think that we would have been friends if we weren't siblings.

49:21Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:But because we are siblings, we are the closest of friends. Okay. And you imagine learn a lot from each other. Absolutely. You're in the Sawtooth Mountains reading Vogue, which I didn't even know that they get Vogue in the Sawtooth Mountains. You read this, you hear about challenge. Was it on your mind? Was your brain primed for the next thing that you were going to do?

49:44Taryn Smith:It was. I was looking for my path forward. I just spent a season living in the French Alps. And so I went to Chamonix. I wanted to get good at backcountry skiing. And I loved that, loved my time in the mountains. But when I got back to Idaho, I had also just graduated college and I was thinking about what am I going to do with my life? And that question was floating around in the back of my mind until I read this article. And it was instant. I knew I had to go row. What do you make of that instinct?

50:22Taryn Smith:it was a calling. And that sounds a little corny or cheesy when I say it out loud.

50:29Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Frankly, I don't think it does. I think it's actually required to do those big things. Again, I'm curious as to your perspective on that.

50:39Taryn Smith:Yeah. It was an instinct in a way that I've never really had before. The only other time I'd felt that strongly about something. It was going and living and working at Redfish. I knew that was something I had to do in the same way that I knew I had to row across the ocean. And I've gotten the question, what's next from a lot of people? And it's funny because even though I have these plans, I don't have that same instinct that I did for these other two things. And I think it's something that we're not meant to experience at every moment in our life. I think it's good to have seasons of rest and seasons of reflection.

51:16Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:One of the things that I have seen my friends and myself challenged with a lot is being able to accept that idea of limbo,

51:25Taryn Smith:which is essentially what you're talking about.

51:28Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I have to come to understand how you are so evolved at 26, really. And I think the listeners and the viewers, we typically, and we're going to talk about the science of your training. We're going to talk about the the strategic discomfort that you put yourself in and what that looks like from nutrition perspective and rowing on the erg, which is probably and has been one of my favorite tools. I really appreciate that. But there is a level of thought and experience that is so far beyond your age. And I'm sure everyone listening to this is thinking the same thing. Do you think that this is just inherent in your nature?

52:11Taryn Smith:I think a huge source of inspiration for me has always been my yoga practice. I started from a young age and hearing that you can learn to be uncomfortable in an uncomfortable situation is, it's a voice that's always in the back of my head. And that really influenced my motivation for the row from the beginning. I wanted it to be a meditation on impermanence and on joy and recognizing that everything passes, everything changes, everything ends, which is actually a wonderful thing. A quote I really latched on to was from Thich Nhat Hanh, thanks to impermanence, anything is possible. And whenever I feel scared or I doubt myself or I'm going through a period of grief or depression, I think thanks to impermanence, anything is possible.

53:04Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:this is going to end. One of my best friends, her name is Elena Brower. Do you know who that is? She's a yogi. She is actually a chaplain now and she helps people die well. And the idea of impermanence is something that I've thought a lot about and it's been quite a struggle. But you've been able to take the idea of impermanence and make it positive, which I think is a challenge. Have you been on the other side of impermanence from a negative standpoint? Meaning the hard days go, the depression ebbs and flows. And then on the other side of impermanence is you lose a loved one that you never see again.

53:51Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Have you experienced the other side of impermanence yet?

53:55Taryn Smith:I have. When I was training for the row, my grandfather, who is who he's who I want to be when I grow up, he passed away. And it's it's such an immense grief for our family because he sailed and he took me out on boats in Nebraska. And so I think my love of boats really comes from him. And I would give every single thing I have in the world to be able to sit on a boat with him and sail. And it's so hard because I want to share everything that I did with him. But when I was out on the boat and my hardest moments, I could picture him so vividly sitting there with me and I would ask for his help or ask for his opinion and just see him so clearly there.

54:47And so it's, it is hard.

54:52Taryn Smith:And I think that's also just a part of life is that life is uncomfortable and it's hard and it hurts. Um, and that's a lesson I learned through this experience as well. It wasn't sunshines and rainbows and dolphins all the time. Sometimes life is just hard.

55:08Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I would imagine that most of it is hard and you felt him there with you it's um kind of like your your guiding compass

55:22Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:3 ,000 miles solo. How long did that take?

55:27Taryn Smith:46 days.

55:28Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:How was the weather?

55:30Taryn Smith:We actually had amazing conditions this year. We had a lovely following breeze. And so the first three weeks of the row, the weather was perfect. Then around Christmas time, New Year's, it died down a lot. And so there was no breeze to help push the boat. The boat didn't have a sail or a motor, but it did drift with the wind. And so without any sort of breeze, it really was a slog pulling the boat through the water. And then how does one do that? A lot of grit.

55:59Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I mean, do you have, I don't know. I know a lot about canoeing. Yeah. Embarrassingly enough, but I know nothing about rowing.

56:08Taryn Smith:Yeah. So it is, um, I face backwards sliding seat. And so I would be on my seat, have my feet strapped in to these foot straps, and then I would row. And so most of the power from the stroke is actually generated with your legs, not your arms, because those leg muscles are so much bigger. And so in those, those slow days, it was really, really working hard, sweating quite a bit. And then the weather picked up a lot. We had crazy, insane wind and conditions. and there were times I thought the boat would capsize and it rained every day all the time, which was by far the hardest part. And it - Just being wet and cold.

56:48Taryn Smith:Being wet. It was so just demoralizing to have that much gray and not be able to see the sun.

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58:18Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:48 days. Now you said the rower, did you also use the standing skier when you were in training? Or was it, if we think about your physical training, and I also, I'm really curious about your survival skills. It sounds like you started training on those first.

58:34Taryn Smith:I did. I first took my course on sea safety and navigation and first aid at sea. And I could have taken that course later, but I thought I'd like as much time to really soak in those skills as possible.

58:50Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Because I want to come back to this, the sea safety. Were you in shape when you started training? I was. You were in shape. How did that training look? Because I imagine that you are rowing for how many hours a day?

59:04Taryn Smith:When I was out at sea? Yeah. At sea, about 12 hours a day.

59:08Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Okay. Yeah. For anyone listening who is complaining about their day job, at least you're not rowing on the ocean alone, solo. Take me through a little bit about those, that type of training block and how you utilized your coach? What kind of things were you doing to train up for a 48 day row? 48 days, yes? Yes. Or 46. 46. 46.

59:33Taryn Smith:I started pretty small. And so Gus would send me workouts in the gym. So I'd start with maybe 10, 15 minute blocks. And I I only rode three times a week during training because it's very easy to get burnt out on on the erg. And so he would send me these these blocks and eventually they got bigger and bigger and bigger. And so towards the end, I was on the erg for my longest session in the week, maybe five or six hours. And then I also spent a lot of time lifting and training for the row was more like injury prevention and mental and building mental resilience. than it was actually prepping for that amount of rowing.

1:00:14Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I actually, I love that risk management.

1:00:16Taryn Smith:Exactly. Because that's the most dangerous thing that could happen to me out there, um, was beginning a big injury. And so how did you know that just from learning, uh, from other rowers? I talked with the community of the sport. It's a fascinating group of people. There's people like me that don't have a huge background in it. Some people did row and in college or the Olympics. And then there's a lot of people that are going through a midlife crisis and pick this.

1:00:43Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Instead of pickleball, they chose rowing. Exactly. They chose ocean row. Your coach had you start very small, which makes a ton of sense. Yeah. What type of injuries, what risk management were you looking to avoid?

1:01:00Taryn Smith:Spent a lot of time building out my core. I think anything that would happen with ribs out there would be really dangerous. And sometimes that happens with, with rowing. Would that be costochondritis?

1:01:12Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You know, when people get inflammation around their ribs, is it the repetitive nature of it?

1:01:16Taryn Smith:No, I think so. Yeah. I, um, I'm not well-versed on, on that side of things. That's great about what is going to go wrong. Yeah.

1:01:24Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Rowing core.

1:01:25Taryn Smith:Yeah. Got very strong with my core, um, built out my leg muscles quite a bit, um, and did a lot of, uh, pull-ups and, and like rows. at the gym as well. When you started how many pull ups? None. By the time you were done? It's kind of a very I can only do two. My my legs really were the ones that got me across the ocean.

1:01:50Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Okay.

1:01:51Taryn Smith:Yeah.

1:01:53Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Take me through what as you were going through this training, you spent a year, you started training a year out or three years out. You said that it took three years to get up from point A to point B?

1:02:04Taryn Smith:I signed up in 2022. And so that's when I started preparing for the row. But I really started training in earnest in 2023. So it was two years of pretty intense training.

1:02:16Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:How does that work? Meaning there's a row that everyone is doing or take me kind of give me the picture in terms of what I'm looking here to understand the pressure.

1:02:29Taryn Smith:Yes. So So bringing the row together was in a lot of ways more stressful than the row itself. I had to train at the gym. So I found a coach that was very highly recommended and had a good track record of getting athletes across safely and also producing athletes that could walk after that felt OK because it is an immense thing to put your body through. And so I found Gus connected with him. And then I also had to find a boat. I had to handle all of the logistics and get all of the kits for the boat. And people that do this sport, everyone takes a different path, a different route. Some people work with a coach.

1:03:10Taryn Smith:Some people don't. Some people have a lot of sailing and nautical experience. Some people like me are complete beginners. And so there's really no cookie cutter way and bringing something like this to life. But getting good on safety equipment's a priority for everyone. and then developing some physical capacity is also key.

1:03:29Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I was doing my research prior to this, and basically your body has done something almost no human bodies do. I mean, how many people do that? You are the first woman to compete in the world's toughest row as a solo athlete. You had 50-plus days alone at sea. I know that the row, is that accurate? I know that the row you had mentioned is 46, that you're pulling an oar every two seconds. Is that also accurate?

1:03:57Taryn Smith:Yeah, it was a pretty slow rate. And so the row itself, it felt more like walking than it would running. But I was rowing for 12 hours a day for 12 hours a day.

1:04:07Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Sleep I have in some of the background that you were sleeping 90 minutes at a time.

1:04:13Taryn Smith:I did a little different approach to sleep. So a lot of times with teams, they choose to do two hours on two hours off. Most people do this as a team of four. There's always two people on the oars and then you alternate. So everyone's pretty fresh. Because I was doing it by myself, I actually decided to row for 12 hours during the day. I took breaks to eat, do some navigation, call home. And then at night, I would rest for six to seven hours. I wasn't always sleeping during that time, but I was at least resting my body. And I think that's part of the reason I had such a positive experience is that I did get those longer chunks of rest.

1:04:57Okay.

1:04:59Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Your Etsy first days, I'm sure there were days that you wanted to quit. Did the quit ever get in there when you were training up for it?

1:05:08Taryn Smith:There was never a moment that I was going to stop. I think there were lots of moments where I thought this isn't fun or I'm not enjoying this or why am I doing this? But even when I asked myself why, I never – I knew I had to get to the start line. And then when I was out at sea, even in the toughest weather, big conditions, I never would have teleported back to land. I knew that I wanted to get through that.

1:05:37Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Never a moment where I'm throwing in the towel. Exactly. This weather sucks. It's raining. It's still raining. Do you attribute that to your, I'm assuming, meditation practice? I do. Five years from where you are today, five years earlier, could you have been able to do it?

1:05:59Taryn Smith:I don't think so. I don't think that I would have wanted to do something like this five years ago. I think the practice of pushing myself out of my comfort zone is what got me to this point. And so when I was 20, I didn't have the capacity to do something like this, but I could move to Idaho. I could move to the mountains. And that was really scary for me at the time. I moved somewhere where I didn't know anyone. When I went out to Idaho the first time, I knew I had to go. But I was also terrified that no one would want to be friends with me because I'd be the slowest one on hikes and I'd be a hindrance to the group.

1:06:36Taryn Smith:But everyone was very kind and generous. And I, you know, then I started climbing and I was afraid, you know, no one's going to want to take me climbing. but people were eager to teach. And so the process of, you know, gradually doing bigger and bigger projects outside is what got me to ocean rowing. This was a big project that I would definitely

1:06:59Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:say the moment that you were on the ocean alone, I mean, there was no safety boats, anything. It's unsupported. Unsupported. Yeah.

1:07:10Taryn Smith:So there was a safety team back on land and I called them every couple of days and just to check in, make sure the boat's okay. I'm okay. But there

1:07:18Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:was a couple of days. Walk us through being on the ocean alone. Perhaps one thing that you could have never predicted.

1:07:28Taryn Smith:All of my thoughts became my own. It was amazing to be free from marketing, to not look at any advertisements. I just felt so me. I felt like a kid. And I realized that the voice in my head was just my own. I didn't think about what anyone else expected of me or what anyone else wanted from me. I just thought about who I am as a person. And so I think a lot of my values really distilled throughout the process. And another thing I didn't expect was as I'm rowing, if the condition stayed the same and wind direction stayed the same, then my speed slowed down. That meant that I needed to eat something because I was the only thing powering this boat across the ocean.

1:08:19Taryn Smith:And so my relationship to food completely changed because I got to see how what I eat impacts my ability to perform. That was surprising for you. It was because I just never thought about the math of it. And so I think having this kind of outside, you know, just measure really showed me that relationship because I think as women, especially we're fed a lot of confusing, misleading information about food. And I think that was it was very validating just to see what you eat is going to propel you across the ocean. And what was that? Take me through your day. I ate a backpacking meal every day.

1:09:01Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Are you talking about an MRE?

1:09:03Taryn Smith:It's a freeze dried meal.

1:09:05Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And so mountain house. Yep.

1:09:07Taryn Smith:A lot of mountain houses. Was it a lot?

1:09:09Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:We've got a lot of that.

1:09:10Taryn Smith:A lot of mountain houses. And then I had a lot of Nutella, a lot of peanut butter. That was good. And some Snickers was always a happy day when I got some chocolate. Part of ocean rowing is just bringing food that's going to taste good because you need as many calories as possible. and having some treats throughout the day was helpful.

1:09:30Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Did you frame it up for me? Is there a fridge? Is it a Yeti cooler? There's a bathroom there. Are you taking, I don't know, exercise breaks, TV? What does that look like? Kind of a day in the life. Well, a day in the life and the logistics of how are you mapping out? I'm assuming there's no aid station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, like a 7-Eleven where you could.

1:09:56Taryn Smith:sadly no orange juice or something no uber eats out there um i definitely have to tip i brought 85 days worth of supplies and food on my boat and so i had 4 000 calories a day i packed two backpacking meals a day but i normally ate one i had a snack pack every day And so that was full of things like granola bars and crackers and cashews. And I would eat that throughout the day as well. I normally had my one backpacking meal in the evening. So at sunset, I would typically boil some water in a jet boil, pour that in the freeze dried packet, wait a while, and then eat my dinner and watch the sunset over the horizon.

1:10:42Taryn Smith:Did you do your own nutrition? I worked a little bit with body health. And so they helped me out and they provided me with a lot of supplements for the row, which was great because my muscles never felt fatigued. There were lots of things that hurt on the boat or hurt me while I was out there. So my backside was in a lot of pain, a lot of chafing.

1:11:03Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Glutes, hamstring.

1:11:04Taryn Smith:Muscles felt fine. It was I did not expect that. I felt pretty fresh the whole time. The first week, there was an adjustment period where my core really hurt because I was using it so much. Then my back hurt, then my arms hurt. But after that, you know, training day one was – or rowing day one was prep for day two. And so I did get a lot stronger throughout the crossing.

1:11:29Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:When you put together your macros, do you remember what your carbohydrate, protein, fat load looked like? or I actually didn't look at those splits.

1:11:40Taryn Smith:Uh, for me, the priority was just bringing food that I would want to eat because if you have food and it's, you know, if you're not eating it, it's just wasted, wasted weight out there. Um, and so I focused more on food that I really enjoy over the nutritional aspect of it, but the freeze dried meals are pretty nutritious.

1:12:04Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Listen, I kid you not, my dad was visiting from Ecuador. I grew up hiking and camping and doing physically hard terrain challenges with my dad, which was one of the reasons, number one, you are extraordinary. And number two, I think being on the elements, especially now as a young, because I did this as a young girl, changes who you are. But this all is bringing me back to the freeze-dried meals. I came out. My dad was visiting from Ecuador. My dad and my husband said that they were going to get and prepare dinner, go to the backyard. There is a nine-person tent set up with Jetboil. And my husband is serving beef stroganoff, the mountain house meals.

1:12:49Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:We have an array of flavors. And I will tell you that, number one, they're delicious. Number two, depending on what you get, you're getting about 50 grams of protein. They have, I mean, they're amazing. And 50 or more grams of carbs. But again, you weren't tracking your macro so much. Were you able to bring items that were perishable? No, I wasn't. Yeah, I didn't have a fridge. Not have a fridge. How did you utilize, you said that you worked with body health, which I'm a huge supporter of, as you know. What did you utilize?

1:13:25Taryn Smith:I took Perfect Amino every day. So I did two to three servings a day of that. And then I also had the multivitamin and the eliminate tablets. And that was one of my favorite things because out on a boat in the middle of the ocean is the last place you want to have gut issues. And I've never felt better.

1:13:45Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:It really is extraordinary. Yeah. Did you always finish your meals?

1:13:51Taryn Smith:Normally I did. Yeah. I ate the whole thing.

1:13:53Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:If you didn't, and there's a reason why I'm asking because this is very high volume training and also not even training, just a high volume activity. Hydration is probably key for you. Yes. As you were having these meals, so you finished each meal. If you didn't, did you feel, did it impact your performance?

1:14:18Taryn Smith:it that's a tough question to answer because the week when the weather was the biggest when there were huge waves gusts of wind up to 40 miles an hour I didn't get my jet boil out and I didn't prepare any of the freeze-dried meals because I was worried about spilling hot water on myself and it was also in such a state of fight or flight I wasn't particularly hungry and so that week I I ate a lot of peanut butter, Nutella, and then crackers, things I didn't have to rehydrate. But I had so much adrenaline because the conditions were insane that I felt pretty energetic during that time. And so it's tough to compare week to week because the conditions also really impacted how I felt and what I was doing from a nutrition standpoint.

1:15:05Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:We all remember what a freshly cleaned room smells like. Straight chemicals, you know? As I think about it, I used to touch this stuff with my hands directly. And the more we learn, the more we understand the whole body burden of these compounds over time. We all have, frankly, enough to worry about. Cleaning products should not be one of those things. And I remember when people thought I was crazy because I was really concerned about all of these cleaning products. I get it.

1:15:34Taryn Smith:The essential oils might not clean everything.

1:15:36Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:But on the other hand, I'm not sure that we need these very aggressive cleaning products. And typical cleaning products use chemicals that leave synthetic fragrances and other endocrine disruptors as well. There's also harsh organic compounds on your countertop floor, your sheets that kids sleep on. These chemicals accumulate over time, forcing your body to carry that burden. And that's why in our house we use Branch Basics. Their premium starter kit uses one plant and mineral-based concentrate to replace every single toxic cleaner in your house. It has zero fragrance and zero endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

1:16:19Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:It handles everything from our laundry to our kitchen counter without compromising our health. The only thing I wish it did different is if it would actually clean itself, but it doesn't. Branch Basics is available at Target, Amazon, and branchbasics.com. You can get 15 % off the premium starter kit with code DrLion at branchbasics.com. That code is DrLion for 15 % off. Highlight the conditions. Highlight when it changed. There's usually that moment where there's a change in direction, not literal change in direction.

1:16:59Taryn Smith:So it was about week five or six and I woke up in the morning. It was completely overcast day. I'm rowing along. Where were you? I was about three fourths of the way done at this point. The wind kept building all day. There was one point where a huge wave knocked my boat. So it was facing due south instead of facing due west, which is really dangerous because it means that the boat could capsize at any point. The boat, the wind is coming at the boat from the wrong direction. So I row really hard to get it unpinned. Keep rowing.

1:17:35Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:But wait, pause. Unpinned. Again, I've never been in the ocean in technically a rowboat. Is this, but I have seen The Little Mermaid and some of these other movies where the boat is swinging. Yeah. I mean, are we talking about massive swings? For the listener or for the viewer, paint that picture for me.

1:17:57Taryn Smith:The boat is tiny in the ocean. It's 24 feet long, five feet wide. 24 feet long, five feet wide. Pretty, pretty small boat. And so I felt every single wave as it hit the boat. Generally, there was a following sea, meaning the waves were coming from behind and pushing the boat in the right direction. But this day, the waves were coming from every single direction. So it felt like I was really being pushed around, kind of punched around by the water. And so when that that wave came around and knocked my boat, it was terrifying because I was pointing in the wrong direction, but it was also overcast and I couldn't see the sun.

1:18:38Taryn Smith:Now, generally, the sun was my landmark during the day, rises in the east, sets in the west. It was very helpful to have that while I'm out there in the middle of the ocean, have at least something to show me that I'm going in the right direction. But that day I couldn't see it. And so when I was turned the wrong way, I was so, so, so scared. but I looked at my compass, got it turned around. And then you were scared. I was terrified. Scared about what? I was scared the boat was going to capsize. That was what would have happened if that happened? The boat's designed to self-right. And so I was always tethered on to the deck of the boat.

1:19:14Taryn Smith:If it had capsized, I would have been okay, but it's not something that I wanted to experience.

1:19:21Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Is that true? Is that true? Because do you, did you have something that you could call for help? Is there an SOS button? Or I mean, what if your phone fell into the ocean? I mean, how?

1:19:33Taryn Smith:Yes, we actually do have a device on deck called an EPIRB. And so if the boat capsized, that would activate and then it sends a signal to a satellite and the satellite pings the Coast Guard and then the Coast Guard coordinates a search and rescue if I don't call it off. And so if I if I had capsized, someone would have been alerted. But most likely I would have just kept rowing. Still a situation I didn't want to handle. I didn't want to have to go through that. And then I also just felt very disoriented. I felt a little bit lost for a minute. And there was no one that was going to help me. And I think that was one of the scariest parts as well.

1:20:14Taryn Smith:Vulnerable.

1:20:14Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Would you say that that was a accurate way to describe that? Yeah. Vulnerable, exposed. Yeah. Were you strapped in?

1:20:22Taryn Smith:You were strapped in.

1:20:23Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:If you were to capsize, how does that not drown you?

1:20:28Taryn Smith:The boat keeps flipping. And so if I capsize, the boat would self-write. I was always tethered to the deck. And so I would jump back on deck and call off the E-Purb and keep rowing.

1:20:40Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Okay. In my mind, I would think it was like a seatbelt, but it's not. It's just a tether.

1:20:45Taryn Smith:It's just a tether. So I wore a climbing harness and then it was a tether to a jack stay on a deck that could move back and forth.

1:20:53Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You, I'm sure, didn't expect conditions to get that way. Had you prepared mentally? Had you visualized if things didn't go well? I did.

1:21:03Taryn Smith:I spent a lot of time going through crisis ops and imagining the worst case scenarios and how I would react to them.

1:21:11Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Did it play out the way that you expected your physiology?

1:21:14Taryn Smith:It played out better than I could have expected.

1:21:16Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Tell me more.

1:21:18Taryn Smith:I prepared for the worst things to happen. And I also prepared for the road to be a miserable slog the whole time. And there were moments that were terrifying, but there were also moments that were so much fun. The first three weeks, I didn't feel like I had to be very tough because I trained really well. I dedicated my life to getting ready for this crossing. And so by the time I actually got to sea, I had a great time. Then the weather did get big. It did get punchy and I was terrified, but I had run through very specifically in my head. Okay. What happens if you get a cut and you're bleeding and you have to cope with that?

1:21:56Taryn Smith:How are you going to manage? If the boat capsizes, what are you going to do? If something breaks, how are you going to handle that? So I went through the worst case scenarios. And while I was out there, I ended up with the best one. What about predators, sharks, apex predators? So I saw a shark my first morning at sea, and the sharks were actually pretty friendly. It came in. Said no one ever. The shark, he was a nice guy. He kind of swam around the boat and then went off. What was terrifying were the marlin. So I'm from Nebraska. I'd never seen a marlin in my life. If you haven't seen one. They're these huge fish.

1:22:34Taryn Smith:They weigh 700, 800, up to a thousand pounds. And what makes them dangerous for ocean rowing boats is that they have this pointy beak that can pierce a hole in the bottom of our boats. So I had supplies to fix my boat should that happen because it's not unheard of. And there were a couple of times a marlin stalked me and I yelled at it. I swore at it. I told it to go away. It didn't listen.

1:23:00Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Eventually it swam off. But are these aggressive? I mean, are they aggressive?

1:23:04Taryn Smith:Not particularly. I think they're more curious than anything else.

1:23:08Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You were less what I'm hearing you say is that I'm watching too many movies and Jaws. I shouldn't be watching that. You were less concerned about the wildlife than you were about the conditions or other elements. Absolutely.

1:23:25Taryn Smith:I was far more concerned about what the power of the ocean could do to me than the animals living in it. Are you still rowing? No.

1:23:36Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I'm never rowing again. Yeah. Taking a little hiatus from rowing. That is funny. And are you back to strength training?

1:23:43Taryn Smith:I am.

1:23:44Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Yeah. Slowly building up. What is what does that look like?

1:23:47Taryn Smith:It's less than I was doing before. I am trying to be gentle with myself because it was two years of pretty intense training. And it was also those two years were very stressful and all of the logistics side of

1:24:00Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:things too. So which most people don't realize that there's a whole other side. It's the physical training and then the mental organization of probably all of that.

1:24:10Taryn Smith:Yes. So when I do go to strength train, I pick a couple exercises I want to do. Maybe I'll do some squats. Maybe I'll go do a couple of pull-ups. And then I do some, some arms or some back or something, but it's, it's a gradual process. It's, and when did you finish your row? Just January 29th.

1:24:30Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:January 29th. February 1st, you're, you were out to party, right? Like that's it. The training, you're slowly, gradually getting back into it? Is it just because you feel exhausted from the whole physical experience, the whole deep training experience?

1:24:49Taryn Smith:I felt exhausted from the structure of it. Every day I had mapped out what I was going to do in that day for a workout. And that was perfect and exactly what I needed for that time in my life. And now it's nice to have a little bit freedom and flexibility around it. So I did sign up for a marathon. I am back to running.

1:25:09Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:When is your marathon?

1:25:10Taryn Smith:That's in September.

1:25:11Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:And which marathon is it?

1:25:12Taryn Smith:The Omaha Marathon. Omaha. Okay. So doing that. But then I'm also doing things like tennis lessons and spin and going to fun workout classes with friends and bringing some variety into it.

1:25:25Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Yeah. I mean, I can imagine after three years of rowing that you would be ready for something new, maybe line dancing.

1:25:32Taryn Smith:That's a good idea.

1:25:33Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:We're doing it this summer. It's going to be great. That's a good idea. you are doing somewhat flexible training schedule two to three times a week, would you say? Or are you down to two times a week for resistance training? Resistance training twice a week. Resistance training two times a week. And then the cardiovascular activity. How often are you doing that?

1:25:51Taryn Smith:I'm doing three runs a week, one day of flex time. And so that's either tennis or swimming.

1:25:59Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:What about the mobility and yoga? Are you doing that every day, almost every day?

1:26:03Taryn Smith:Yeah, I do a little bit of yoga every day.

1:26:05Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:What about your nutrition? Are you still eating Nutella? Or have you hit your Nutella quota for your life?

1:26:15Taryn Smith:I think I could eat Nutella endlessly. It's one of my favorite treats. But I have scaled back the amount that I'm consuming because it's not,

1:26:22Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:it wouldn't be the healthiest choice now that I'm back on land. But there's nothing that you thought to yourself, okay, I'm never eating that again.

1:26:31Taryn Smith:just the amount of processed food I was eating it's kind of gross to me at this point because I had to go so many days without food that's perishable right now that I'm no fruits or veggies so now that I'm back home I'm focusing a lot on making meals and just enjoying fresh food

1:26:51Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:again did you ever do your blood work before or after yeah did you notice any changes I would

1:26:57Taryn Smith:love to get the results to you because I don't have anything memorized. I would love to see what

1:27:02Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:that looks like. And then what about supplementation? Did you remain on a multi? Are you still taking amino acids? How do you think about maintaining supplementation?

1:27:13Taryn Smith:Yes and yes. I still do perfect amino and I still take a multivitamin every day. And I take melatonin to sleep at night.

1:27:21Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:I was wondering because you didn't mention it. Did you bring it with you when you were rowing?

1:27:26Taryn Smith:I did. I had body health sleep and I used it a couple of times, but there were also moments when I was nervous that I'd get into too deep asleep because if the boat was blown off course, then an alarm would go off. Uh, or if there was a boat near me and I needed to respond to that and the alarm would go off. And so I never wanted to really get into deep sleep. Uh, cause there's too much to worry about. You don't want to be groggy. And I would also argue that if something

1:27:56Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:were to happen, it would wake you up so intensely that probably tranquilizer wouldn't even work because you would be like, okay, I'm awake. There's a marlin and a shark and dolphins fighting and pirates. I don't know. Have you added anything else?

1:28:12Taryn Smith:I haven't changed a whole lot.

1:28:13Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:You haven't changed a whole lot. Yeah. Great program. The Nutella. I'm going to look at your blood work. I'm just so curious as to what that looked like. And then now has your weight restabilized? Do you feel like your body's in a good place? It feels less stressed?

1:28:31Taryn Smith:I feel so much more relaxed than I did the past two years because as I was training and preparing, there was always more to do. And I wouldn't have changed anything for the world. I learned so much through that process, but that was a season of my life. And I think it's important to have the next time of relaxation and a time of recovery and to just let this be a moment when things can stabilize and settle down a little bit. And so I feel like I'm relearning my hunger cues. That's an important one. It is. Yeah. Because after going through something like that, it's such a huge change to put your body through.

1:29:10And so I'm just letting things settle.

1:29:13Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:How long do you think you'll let things settle? I'm sure people are like asking you that and it must be the most annoying question.

1:29:19Taryn Smith:I mean, letting things settle for me is signing up for a marathon and starting to write a book and doing speaking engagements. So I do always like to have a goal in mind. I think that's my footholds. That's how I like to go through life. I really, really love that.

1:29:35Dr. Gabrielle Lyon:Yeah. 3 ,000 miles, one woman, one boat. And is there one question that everyone needs to ask themselves? Why not? Taryn Smith, you are extraordinary. And just an example of doing hard things. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Now,

1:30:01here comes theешествие.