Gabriella Moriarty - #32

0:00Gabby Moriarty, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me on. For the people who may not know who you are, would you just be able to sum yourself up? Yeah, so I am a High Rocks athlete. I've done, well, I've been in the Elite 15 doubles. I was once in the Elite 15 singles. We can touch on that later on what happened there. But yeah, I'm just trying my best to sort of get into the Elite 15 singles this next season. I'm also a coach and an online coach as well I think you're a little bit more than that you're such a fantastic athlete not just in like the high rock space but like I've seen you perform in other realms as well I want to touch into kind of like your background as well oh thank you where did it all start um well it all started I mean I feel like my dad was a massive influence for me I think a lot of people like say that but honestly when people meet my dad they just fall in love with him because he's just such a like a quiet guy like not pushy I feel like when you start doing sports when you're younger you get them pushy parents um so I was just one day at primary school I just kept running around the field and um I didn't really socialize very well which is mad because I love socializing now I was running around the field and the teacher called my dad in and was like my mom and my dad and was just like she just loves running around the field like she loves it and my dad has always been a big athletics fan like what what was his background football okay football he watches all sport like if you go to my parents house there's it doesn't matter if it's he supports leads but it could be any football team playing and he'll have the football on or the athletics like the diamond league and i think it's rare like a lot of people don't actually watch athletics like this is going back like in the 90s and he would get up i think with like the usa olympics and all of that he would like stay up all night just to watch michael johnson in the 200 meters like he was a proper fan um so going back to that he was then like oh my god i want to take you to the track and i went when i was eight and then i fell in love with running i loved it uh which uh was it like a harriers athletics club um so i'm originally from northampton so back then it was called phoenix like then it went into rugby and northampton so like the two combined but when you were like eight to ten you had to do all the disciplines you know like the throws the the jumps all right so you just didn't do just running you couldn't specialize no because um and this is like quite important as well like you're that young you're not developed like we shouldn't kids shouldn't be running like loads of miles like they can run but like not training like three times a week on the track so they tried to like do a few different events but i was awful the throws and the jumps i was like i just want to run like if they said you could run like three times a week at the track i would have been there like i just loved it no i think it definitely is important especially at that age i think uh i've done a lot of listening to ross edgley on this and he calls it like general preparedness and before you specialize you should you should try everything try everything and focus on like just the kind of like the the priorities like learn how to balance properly yeah learn how to throw learning how to run learn how to jump things like this you have a window of opportunity that it's called like i did a degree as well in sports coaching it was really interesting because i think it's between the age of like eight to ten you have this window where you learn sort of like your technique and it's really hard to then change it after that like I did it with running I'm a heel striker and when I went to university my coach tried to teach me how to run on the ball of my foot and wow I mean I just couldn't and you'll always revert back to your natural running style so it's important to do like loads of different events when you are young to try and like get you as a well balanced well-rounded athlete so what was your strength let's say at eight to 10 was it just um i just loved running but i was desperate because even at that age i would watch sort of like the olympics and i saw the girls look so glamorous in the 100 meters and 200 so was it the the short distance yeah i was like i want dad i want to be a sprinter and he was like i don't think you have that sort of like explosiveness which i didn't i did not have it he went but you could be good at like the 800 like let's try the 800 and i think with long distance as you've probably seen as well like you can improve so much with that you don't have to be naturally good it's good to have a little bit of natural talent but i personally think that sort of hard work does outweigh that talent with longer distances yeah they definitely say uh they say you can't teach speed you cannot teach speed no you're either born with it or you're not born with it yeah yeah and i was born with a little bit of it but not good enough to like be a specialist sprinter yeah we was actually at the track this morning and uh we're doing some 200s and i had no chance keeping up with the lads i'm just uh yeah i'm mr slow twitch muscle fiber yeah no i'm with you on that one i'm the same with lauren like lauren my coach she is so fast like when she first started coaching me um i had no like no speed and um we would go and do like sprints in the park and it was the funniest thing because i'd just be like getting going but she would have finish the 50 meters and I was like god this is so destroying but then you like you say you naturally was better at like the 800 distance was that kind of the the middle distance was your thing yeah so when you're like under 11 you can't you can do like 600 meters and like 1000 meters or 1200 you couldn't do the full distance um but as I sort of like progressed into the sport I found like the longer distances sort of like the eight I actually wasn't fast enough for I wanted to do it I loved it but then the 1500 was probably more my bag which I ended up going into that a little bit more than progressing to the steeplechase and sort of like my late teens oh okay steeplechase how was that well it was one of them you can get again I am not I'm like a good I was a good regional runner I wasn't like an international runner I was just like a good average runner um so my coach back at back in the day he was like I think you could do the steeplechase and you can go to straight finals with that so at british like the british university champs you can go to the straight final in that like you can get far in in that event because not everyone wants to do it so i thought all right you're like yeah how far how hard can that be let me tell you that is the hardest event i have ever done like you go around the bend and then there's another one there's another barrier and they're like wooden like hard wooden like barriers and then the water jump wow like you have to like clear the jump and get really far because it like goes down it's like diagonal so if you like land funny like your ankles like ruined so we used to i was part of an athletics club when we were younger as well and the steeplechase always used to be filled in summer it was like the cold dip so we used to finish our session and then go jump in the cold water just to like cool off and it was kind of like an ice bath kind of situation um but i always like wondered like how do people why do people i didn't even know what it was i thought it was literally like just some hole in the ground that was at our athletics club that's our ice bath yeah that's our ice bath there i didn't know it was an actual event so i'm actually quite curious on this like how what is the best technique of getting over is it and is it always three kilometers is that so as you get to a senior so so when you're um when i did it when i was i started when i was 16 it was 1500 meters okay then it goes to 2000 meters so 1500 and start through like the whole race so literally so you start the 1500 mark is like 100 meters round from the finish so after the first bend so the first you don't do the water jump on the first lap so you'll just sort of like 300 meters 300 meters then you've got the first one after the water jump which you just sort of hurdle or you step on it so there's one that's not filled so so there's one that's just a hurdle there's three that's not filled right okay so there's one two three we need a diagram we need a diagram we need like to just insert a track and then where the the so every time you go around the bend there's another one and you're like oh god so there's four every lap yes and one of them is a water jump yeah yeah so the best thing to do they're not super high but when you've obviously got miles in your legs it's getting yourself like up um i would start hurdling it hurdling it and then the water jump you foot it because you want to push and get as far as you can and then like jump off the actual so you jump on with one foot and you push off with that foot so how do you even go about like training for that so you put a normal barrier in front of a sandpit so you that's the sandpit acts as water i would have like my mum and my dad would come to the track on a sunday set up then my mum and dad would be moving these barriers i love how into it they are yeah oh that my mum and dad are obsessed that's class imagine having like parents like that like i bet you're so grateful for it though oh i owe everything to them they are the best but they would like i don't know many people one time the track was shut and my dad like you know what was that what's that when you do that i'll just give you a lift over a lift over my mum lifted her over the fence and me and he climbed over and that was one sunday and they had four kids as well like you know they were so good with with their time but they just loved it but they were moving the barriers and my dad be timing me and my mum you know she's an expert and everything obviously so she was like telling me how to jump over the barrier not that she's ever done it in her life but she still knew the perfect technique um so yeah that was that's how i would train for it and just hurdle drills lots of hurdle drills um and there's different techniques if you watch sort of the kenyans or the ethiopians they like clip to the side they don't hurdle it okay because they're so long yeah they literally just it's like a little clip over the side whereas i would have to sort of like hurdle and then as i got tired i would have to foot on so you decided to do this event you started training for it yeah how did you do so the best i got to the english schools final which is when you when you were like you probably heard of that if you were if you did track um you get selected by your county to represent them but you have to get a qualifying time you can't just just go so i had i think two races where i had to get the qualifying time and i just start like i think i was like a month into to steeplechase training and I got it on my first race but I'd fallen um I'd missed I think I was gonna hurdle it and then I was like no I'm gonna step on so then my foot missed it and I like bashed my head and like slid the skin off like from there to there and just carried on and I could feel this like burning like sensation and everyone was like I was running around and people were like oh god finished literally my skin was gone from there to there and i was like oh my god but i did it so i was i was buzzing with that that's insane and then i got with that time i got selected to go and the english schools was like all i ever wanted as a junior and then i went to the final and i come 12th out of 18.

11:42that's not bad to be fair like a national level yeah in your year group that is i mean i was ranked last so i was like still some going i just my brother'd have a like you're just not going to come last you're not going to come last Gabriella come on you can do this so yeah to be fair that's going into a race and like you say if you're ranked the last position like there's not really any pressure you've just got to go and give give it your own I think that's a theme of my life though I'm gonna be honest like I'm never the best I'm always like chasing like I was never like amazing at like and I know people say oh you're really good at high rocks but like when you talk at like the elite level i'm like a chaser and i've always done that with with every sort of running as well like i've always had to like chase it down it's never i've never got it straight away but i think that's good so would you say you've never really been like a natural or like naturally gifted compared to other people if that makes sense yeah no no i wouldn't say so what do you think your secret weapon is um resilience and never being satisfied with what i do um and probably when you train on your own as well like sometimes i mean i train with lauren sometimes but when i train on my own like today for example it's like it's so easy to like take the gas off a little bit but like i have this i'll set myself like things i have to do and i'm like you have to do that many or you have to do it like that and I think that comes from running as well because I did run a lot on my own and train a lot on my own but I had standards and times that I had to hit and even if I was on my own I would still have to do that I think like you should be able to train you can't you can't just rely on people in training like you have to be able to put yourself in a hell hole and you can do that on your own as well I can do it on my own yeah yeah how how did you go about learning that like stubbornness to let's say if you want to hit a certain pace on a run you're not falling short of that um i think it goes back to probably i feel like you hit a crossroad sometimes with sport especially women in sport um when i was maybe like late teens like 19 20 i was like i'm gonna stop doing this now like running and competing um you know i want to go out with my friends i want to like party i want to go you know do what i want um and then i think i did that for a little bit so did you completely stop i didn't completely stop i still ran just for like a bit of enjoyment and like went traveling and stuff but like i just felt was it kind of like a final race or an incident that happened that made you kind of like you know retire for a little bit after like university and like i and i was at university like a full-time athlete like we had a great coach we trained six times a week what university was it leeds so i had andy henderson who is alex bell's coach i don't know if you've heard about it she is unreal so we were surrounded by the brownie brothers were at the track georgia taylor brown amazing triathlete alex bell laura waitman steve cram was training laura waitman at the track like we were surrounded by incredible athletes and I was just like wow like this is amazing and I feel I keep going off on tangents but that's just me but when I first went to Leeds um you do like the cross country but but cross country I think I come like 270 something in the first year by my last year I come 40th that's amazing so that jump but that was purely from day in day out like I was like I need to be around these people and he's trained with these people these are don't it's going to help me were you training with these people i wasn't training with but just like alongside i was watching her i um was with like there was a really good group of us like girl like female athletes um and it was like no i'd never trained with with athletes of that caliber before i was just from a small town and i was usually the best in northampton so you didn't really get i'd train with the boys but it's different training with girls like you've got that you're like all of you want to be each other yeah how is that like let's say surrounding yourself with like many girls because i think especially like within athletics like it's easy especially if you're like an outstanding girl it's easy to find lads that are like pretty mediocre hitting the same time so you can train with them yeah like relative all relative obviously it is um so it'd be much easier like you say to find a group of lads and just say oh can I train with you but like what is the difference like having that group of girls is it I think it's a level playing field like you have all got you know when you when I run with boys I'm not as annoyed if they beat me because I'm like well they are they're they're they're a man they're a boy they are that's that's okay they've got that extra gear but when it's you're running against girls like it's anyone's game and we're all competitive we all want to be the best like there's there's no point shying away from that like and I think it it gives you that extra push especially like when I was at uni I was like I need to be because they were better than me and I was like I want to be as good as them and the only way I'm going to is if I keep training with them yeah I'm I'm interested because I've had a a lot of conversations recently um about like how training differs between like females and males even even within high rocks do you know how much females can tolerate i've heard females can tolerate a lot more training a lot different training yeah um what do you think like um i think females can handle a lot like obviously within within reason i i mean i never thought i'd be able to handle this amount of volume and training um because I've never trained like this before and I I didn't want sort of my body to break um but obviously my boyfriend as well like he he trains but he's got a full-time job obviously but I mean he won't he won't mind me saying this but I feel like now like I train harder than him and he's a fit like he's a fit guy um i don't think there's anything wrong in saying that i think girls just get on with it i think coaching is what coaches will say that as well girls are just like yeah they'll they'll tick the box they will complain they they are going for it yeah no offense to the lads don't annoy i know this is a very man heavy podcast boy heavy podcast but i think give it give props to the girls i think they will push themselves and they won't complain you know no it's interesting let's say um james is here from australia and he he coaches quite a few females and he's like yeah i wouldn't be able to like he's saying this i he wouldn't be able to do the training that he sets for some of his female clients wow and he won't mind me saying that but uh yeah it just shows like you say girls are pretty resilient especially i think when it comes to high rocks training oh ridiculous yeah let's um so after like you say after training on the track um you fell out well you stopped yeah i just i didn't feel i i was like i need to live and i want to live a little i want to you know how how like before this before this kind of like little break how locked in were you was you like really like really i mean not high rocks level locked in now this is a completely different ball game to me but um I was when I was at uni I realized that I was doing this for me I wasn't doing it for like my parents or anyone else because everyone knows when you go to uni it's free reign like you're living in a house with like all your girls and like you can go out and you're literally in charge of your life which is a scary thought when you're what like 18 19 like you're like wow this is I can do what I want but I decided that I wanted to train six times a week and I would always turn up to training I might have been a bit hungover sometimes but I would always I was very balanced I would say when I got to like my teens I would like still like to go out and enjoy myself and I don't regret that because I feel like it's what I needed at the time and like like now for example like I don't I don't really drink at all I don't think anyone does now when we're we're training in season like I don't and I don't go out and I'm ready to give my all to this sport whereas I'm glad I got it out of the way early yeah you kind of you've experienced it you've been there oh yeah I've done like yeah I've experienced like lots of things like went traveling like did load did loads of things which I'm really grateful that I did do it um but yeah I was really locked in at uni finish and then I probably just lost my way a little bit because you're not a full-time athlete anymore you've got to go and get a job what job did you get um i so i finished i actually think i just went i worked i used to work in like a a cafe oh okay yeah no nothing nothing big i just worked in a cafe and then i worked in a running shop and i did like gate analysis oh nice which running shop um it was called the running shop northampton all right okay so i did um but it was on this like massive lake so i used to start i used to get there at six in the morning run around the lake and then work but like i didn't really have many people in you'd get a few people and i just thought i've really got to do something like you know when you've you've had such a high like you've you've really enjoyed yourself like uni was great and then you're like is this this me now like is this life so i decided like i did that i've got a question about that so you're you're doing the gait analysis yes are you do you get commission if you sell like more insoles or like more expensive shoes or anything like that no so you was being like completely honest because completely honest so what would happen was and this would really annoy me you know people would come in i'd spend like half an hour with them like looking at their feet how they're walking like doing like calf raises all this stuff and then i would get them the shoes to try on and obviously because you're paying for a service as well you know what i'm gonna say you're paying for a service so i'd then be like yeah they're like 135 pound whatever and then someone get their phone be like well they're 95 pound on this website and i'm like right and then that was it i just thought do you know what this life is not for me i'm just yeah not i didn't i did not enjoy that and i went yeah you're right but i've just told you to get them so and they don't value no the half an hour you've spent yes which i mean we're all gonna do that aren't we like well i could get it cheaper elsewhere i just need to know like what shoes fit me you know so um i think running shops have stopped doing that now right yeah that one that one closed down yeah it doesn't seem like a very profitable model it's really not to run especially like you say if they can just get them online for cheaper and like physios do like i mean physios do all of that now and tend to tell you what shoes you need to get um I don't I can't I don't see many gate analysis shops now I don't think it's yeah good market so yeah like you say you you thought is this it like yeah yeah I remember sat I was sat like watching Netflix or something in the office and I was just like god is this it now like 21 like 21 20 I was like I need to do something like I need to get out of here so that's when I went to um like did all of asia australia stayed in australia for a year um and that actually sparked my love for running again um i would just join like run clubs like in australia did you um so i had a little flat with a few other girls um just opposite just across the bridge like darling harbour did you go out on your own or with my own okay yeah went out on my own I just thought this would be really good for me um and it would just I think it would like give me confidence as well I wasn't that confident so I thought this would be really good to just sort of like meet new people and socialize and just get better at being yeah confident so why do you think you didn't get that from like university sounds weird because like a lot of people say you gained that in university like I did gain no I did gain it but I lost it again right okay like i did gain it and then i like went into a normal job and like this job i wasn't i wasn't really seeing many people you only see like a few but it was just i was on my own um and you when you're on your own a lot i think you forget how to like you know communicate to normal people you know so i thought i need to get out i need to get out of this like rut and this boring routine of like work going home i know that's everyone's life but i just thought oh this is not for me this no no it definitely is uh quite monotonous yeah um when you see kind of like the everyday life of of quite a lot of jobs should we say there's still a lot of jobs out there that you know it's different every single day exciting and some people can't handle that either no people like routine as well everyone has yeah everyone's life is like everyone likes different things they enjoy different things i just thought like there's more for me than this surely um where was the favorite place that you visited byron bay byron bay yeah i loved byron bay do you ever see yourself like moving over there um i mean i at one point i did want to i did want to but um i like obviously my family are over here um i love my life here i like it's my dream life i wouldn't want to live anywhere else the northwest of england i love the northwest of england i love it especially the weather it's great to be fair this week let's say it's been like the best week of my life i don't know about you yeah it has been yeah i've really thoroughly enjoyed myself and i just think like i don't want to escape from my life now yeah whereas before i probably did um that's why i went traveling and and tried to to find something else um do you have good people around you now do you think yeah do you think that's like the big difference um I've always had good people I've always had good friends I've had the same friends from school which I think is rare I mean don't get me wrong I don't check in as much now but they accept that um I still have the same best friend from uni she's still one of my really good friends and I think that's more about me as a person like I've always had like a few good friends and I I keep them friendships yeah we were saying before the podcast that you you're like a really loyal person yeah in all aspects of your life and sometimes that can be like a curse as well as a blessing can be a curse yes it can but um I pride myself on that like when I do find a good friendship like it's not going anywhere I mean I haven't been the best friend recently probably because I'm so consumed with training but like I have my great training friends around me as well and like And good friends will understand that you're on this journey, you're on this path.

27:13It's not going to last forever. No, it's not. When I say that, that's literally my motto. It's not going to last forever. So we've got to do everything. Yeah, that's cool. So obviously you go traveling. You come back. Came back with nothing, Jake. Nothing? I was skint. I was skint. I was depressed. But I was like... Did you move back in with your parents? I moved back in with my parents. I didn't have a car, like nothing. I had to sell my car. I was traveling because I wanted money when I was traveling. And my dad was like, you really need to sort out what you would do. I think I was maybe around like 24.

27:49Yeah. And he was like, you need to sort out what you're doing now. So I got a job as a barista. Nice. After that. Can you do like good coffee out still? I mean, I'm a bit out of practice now, but it was an Italian shop. So I am Italian. I knew all the people there. Like it was, do you know what? it was a really lovely time in life i used to walk to the shop it's a train in the morning so i got back into training reconnected with my old coach my running coach um would train with him in the morning and i said to him like i want to give running a go again like i want to get back into good training i want to race i think that break was exactly what i needed and i want to i want to race um so he would meet me in the morning he was um neil he was in his 60s and he would bike everywhere with me so he would bike to my house knock on the door 7am we'd go for our run every day every day where'd you find this guy he coached me from 11 i feel like um i need to yeah talk about him a little bit um neil glover i'm gonna send this to him as well because he keeps up to date he says i keep up to date with everything he's probably 70 now 70 yeah i mean if i'm wrong he'll really get upset about that but basically and everyone knew him in Northampton because I had my Instagram then and I'd started like Get Fit Gabby and um he was an avid like he was always on it I was always filming him and everyone was like I love Neil he got spotted in Tesco once and he felt like an absolute celeb he was like I can't believe it someone recognized me he's a really tall bald guy um old school coach would write all the sessions in a little black book then he would refer back to the sessions and we would repeat them with the times he had like a 1500 meter predictor session so we would do that about a month out from a 1500 meter track race and he would tell me that's the time you're gonna get and it was never wrong like he was amazing and he did it all for free he wasn't and I said to him like Neil let me this was back in the day where like athletics was not about money.

29:53It was about love for the sport. So he like would train me and I would like, you know, get him dinner or get him little bits. And I did the marathon in Amsterdam and I paid for everything for him to come with me because, and him and my dad and my mom, he was like a second dad. They all got on really well. They all come together and every race, Neil was at every race, picked me up. He was there. My dad couldn't come, but he would be there regardless. um and that i think that was probably that's influenced me as a coach and athlete just that passion for sport and not expecting anything in return just doing something because you love it and not knowing what you were going to get in return probably nothing yeah that's uh i think everyone needs a neil in their life neil glover yeah honestly he would be there every morning rain or shine yeah if there's anyone um in the horwich area who fancies knocking on my door at 7am with a bike and like come on get to work jake uh come on let's get running and you can cycle next to me um i'd love that because yeah i i think that's that's probably the the only shame well to be fair i think we're building out a community now and i think it's getting stronger and stronger but um i feel like everyone runs on their own in like the northwest of england like there's not that many running groups if that makes sense that like dead serious obviously there's run clubs and everything where everyone's just meeting up for a social but like where people get together and train and they're all like progressing towards a goal like i think it's happening within training yeah it is happening training it's not as much with the running world it can because honestly that was the most joyous time of my life i had no stress i used to work in the cafe come home do my second session either at the track or like around the park neil would meet me there um or i'd go to the gym sometimes twice a day it'd be oh yeah and then i would say like you can have dinner at my mom and dad will cook him dinner or oh that's nice you know but he was he's a massive part of my journey i don't think he realizes that um like i would get emotional thinking about him because you know you've had someone in your life that's like seen you through so many seasons of life like we're talking like 11 till now we still were in touch now and i'm like 33 i'm disgusting yeah that long and he knows me but literally he knows me so well like he'll message after a race or be like i know this happened because of this like like yeah just very special person yeah no it is sad like like say especially in running i think the there are like the old school guys that oh yeah are kind of like just so into it and they three stop watches on you know the sort three stop watches on whistle bike yeah casio watch as well can't run anymore like literally physically cannot move cannot even like walk but they can get on a bike and somehow the next tier just chatting away just keep going keep going like when you're struggling just that keep going that's it he will still keep running though even though he's not like a botched calf and everything he will run till he cannot anymore yeah we had a guy at lee harrier's uh lee harry the legend called joe galvin i think he passed away a couple years ago but um he was like the guy that coached all of like the middle distance running group yeah there's always it's always middle distance isn't it yeah yeah and he was just there like every session uh i think even like i just like stroke what one week and the week later is like still at training and still like that honestly you don't they don't make them like that anymore yeah they don't they just love and they're there because it gives them that's his life like probably how that was neil's life like training it kept him going he was on his own like you know that was his whole purpose i would say yeah sick do you see yourself doing that when you're a little bit older yeah maybe yeah yeah would you actually we'll keep it for later i want to carry on with the story okay so the story where i'll go off on a million times yeah yeah so so you get back into running yeah training twice a day yep yep i end up then racing again doing like 5ks um went under 18 minutes which was i was buzzing out that was a massive that's quick that's rapid which uh 5k was that um it was like a milton key it was like 17 59 and then i was like right you know we'll we're getting the ball rolling here and then Neil I don't know what happened around this time I got I started going to another running club because he basically was like you need to be running with people who are faster he said I'll still do your easy runs with you but we need you running with faster people and then this guy Josh who was with P he set up a group called PGC1 and he had like a racing team so I joined him and that was in Daventry and I used to go and run with them on like a Wednesday night um and I said to him I really want to get like right into like the 1730s and I really want to do a sub three marathon and I want to go sub 37 for 10k and he was like right so we did all of that just as easy as that no we um I was dead into my run like I was like yeah so focused and I had like a second what made you go to the marathon by the way um everyone was doing it like all the guys so i was training with a group of guys and girls in daventry and there was maybe about 10 of us that wanted sub three so as you probably know with marathon training it's so hard to do it on your own like to do those long runs like we were doing like plus 20 20 mile long runs on a sunday like long the marathon pace sessions but with the group we were meeting up and doing those runs all together so i thought this is probably the best time but this is like going back into like 2022 2023 when like i feel like running's exploded now this was before that this was like before that sort of time sub three then as well like yeah that was a different level yeah it was probably like 230 now like genuinely like close to 230 i think it feel like a sub three in like say 2023 23 it was um to be honest with you I wanted to do it and not do another one like because I knew it wasn't the distance that I enjoyed it was just a I think if I can do that and get that time that is a massive goal that I can tick off it's not something that I then want to continue doing marathons because to be honest I'm not built for that like it took a big after the marathon I did get very injured like I'm too I don't want to say the word heavy I'm not I'm just not built for marathons i would say i know everyone comes in shapes and sizes but for me um i didn't want to i didn't want to lose any size i like how i am um which is is rare to say that as a woman and i and i just wanted to to stay like that and i didn't want to get any really bad injuries and not sort of like have any longevity in in the sport i'm i'm glad that you said that because like for for me like the marathon distance and i think i actually got a comment on one of the one of my other podcasts that i said this i said you can only run like two or three marathons a year if like that's your like sole focus like even the top guys only run that and i was like i really struggled to come back after a marathon and someone just called me weak-minded no i was like but like i think just that distance like the marathon's like completely different took me four years to get over it jake well like you can you can get back from like a five or 10k oh yeah not a problem bounce back half marathon even like a couple of weeks if you are putting serious sessions in like that like we were doing what like 60 70 for a woman 60 70 miles a week like that is a lot what's that like 110 kilometers yeah like something like that yeah it was a lot yeah and i know that my body like i know my limitations with with certain things and it's like the the carbon shoes come out then yes so they just come out yeah carbon shoes had come out um and i just knew i was like i'm really battering myself here um and it was intense it was from like so that was in the eight i did manchester in the april um and it's the block started on the 1st of january but i'd already done like a two month pre-marathon block of like building up um because i was just coming i'd done like a half i think i'd done a 120 half and then was like okay this is good this is like a good time yeah we're on track for this and then the week before the marathon my coach at the time josh he liked he liked us to do a 5k like a race which is really interesting yeah but i got 1731 the week before manchester yeah that's that's so is that your pb like still today i think i got 1734 then i got 1731 the year after like a um like a run through 5k that's my pb yeah so near and near abouts like you know the fetish you've ever been well i hadn't done any yeah i hadn't done any fight this one people say i lose you lose your speed when you do marathon training you don't no you don't because i that was proof for me i was literally like i felt like i was running on air like it was such a gorgeous feeling that i wish i felt like that more yeah i always i always think imagine training for a marathon but not actually doing the marathon like how fit you'd be because For me, it's just the marathon that sits me over the edge.

39:41Same. And then I feel like I lose fitness and I forget how to run after coming back from the marathon. Yeah. But if you basically did your full prep and then didn't do the marathon, I feel like you'd be so fit. Honestly, I couldn't get over it. I couldn't believe it. I was like, right, we're really on for this sub three now. So what time did you get? 256. 256. Nice. Yeah. 256, 47. And that was Manchester Marathon. Manchester 2023. ah incredible which isn't the flattest of courses as well there's a nice little hill going up towards yeah yeah it's nice though because everyone's out with beers and everyone's honestly it was it was incredible there was a group obviously you make your marathon besties on the day don't you that group that you end up running with and there was a group of like four of us and there was a lad i think his name was was james i remember him still he's really tall and he was like getting me like you know when you're coming up to water station he's like gab's you right you never met him before honestly the friendships you form when you run a marathon is so special and then you all get you get to the line and you're like oh my god like besties we all did it like we got the time that we wanted and then you never speak to them again and you never speak to them again they might follow you on strava you know but i think it yeah it's it's it's really lovely but i've never wanted to do one after that and have you done one no no no i did it i said i don't i do another one i mean i'll never say never but i i didn't enjoy i honestly did not enjoy that that block like just running you know just those along every sunday it was like 22 miles 23 miles at that like effort um yeah i think it really took its toll so what made you switch over to like say doing a little bit more hybrid training and then eventually falling into high rocks um so So to be honest, I just got a bit, I felt like I was running, but I'd lost that fire.

41:39You know, like I was going through the motions of racing. And I think my dad said. What was the typical, so racing, what was the typical distance? So you do the same races, like you do like different like leagues and stuff, road racing leagues. So I was doing these road. So you were doing road racing. Was you doing any track at the time? Yeah, I did. so that summer so the summer after the marathon i then pb'd again in the fact that that 5k i did i think 10 10 in 3k and then i did a 36 55 in the 10k and then i did a 442 in the 1500 on the track wow quick yeah that was it was a really great like and there i was like you know hitting these pbs but like i felt a bit flat i just thought um is this the these the races now that i'm just gonna do all the time like i love running i do i love it but i wanted something new to to do and was you training in the gym at all at this time yeah i'd always go i loved going to the gym not for upper body wasn't very good at that i just would do like yeah legs injury prevention like yeah that's that's it really just like a few squats lunges split squats step ups anything for like running a lot of single leg work and that was it never touched an erg so when was your first irox um barcelona 2023 the november i did it with an open with my friend november But remind me, is that the one where Hunter got the world record?

43:23Ooh, was it? Where he got 53 minutes? 53 minutes? It might have been, because it was like the November 2023. Yeah, he definitely got it in 2023 at Barcelona, because I was there watching. But I don't know if it was December. I don't know if they did two that year, maybe. I think they just did the one in November. Because it was quite fresh. So you raced, was it an open? It was an open. Doubles or solos? Doubles. Okay. Who was it with? my friend amy who got me into high rocks who said can you come to this class and i went yeah like i was like oh i've got a few races but this point i thought it won't harm me to just go to this class i went and i was so humbled by everything like i could do the running but the the sled all of this like i just thought what the hell the warbles i was just overwhelmed did you did you have any like experience in any of the movements beforehand no so you didn't like the sled i slid down the side like was like just like pushing it and then just was sliding and I just thought oh god this is quite hard yeah and I then was really determined to be able to do everything the warbles I couldn't squat low enough um I could do the burpees but that was literally it and the row and the ski the technique was oh do you know what I'd love to see what I was doing like back then it would be really funny okay so do do your first race what time did you get 104 104 and we won with that time oh solid so you and how how much training have you had before this for for a high rocks i'd probably gone to like three or four sessions so just naturally like with like say the full experience of all the background yeah of building your base with running and then going to the gym and everything you you was fine and you'd want for that yeah was amy fit as well amy was fit she pb'd 5k in the the runs she'd never ran that fast and i was literally pushing her i was like come on um and then that was back when you could qualify in the open so we qualified for the world champs which was man which was niece no niece yeah but But Amy, sorry, it's my stomach.

45:38Amy fell pregnant. So it was like, we're going to, so she fell pregnant, but she'd got me a ticket for Glasgow and booked everything. She went, I'm pregnant, but I've got this for you and we're going to go to Glasgow together. This is how good my friends are. But we're going to go to Glasgow and you're going to race and you've got to win. So you can go and do solo on your own in Nice. And I went, thanks mate. i went right no pressure then um that is a good friend though yeah yeah so she come with me um and we did it and i won i think i got like a 101 and this was open but solo open solo in glasgow so one on one 2024 great for your first time yeah i think that was my second i did london the week after barso and i got a last minute ticket and was like yeah yeah did you naturally did you feel more comfortable in solo or do you feel like you you were better as a doubles athlete i preferred the solo yeah i think okay because i love doing it with amy but like i think i've not done a doubles with someone i think you know when you do doubles with someone who's like you're chasing someone down or whatever no offense to amy love her but her running her running wasn't as as good so yeah she was great at the stations um but i think you can recover on the runs a little bit more so when i did it on my own i was like wow this is really hard which i obviously loved because i just sort of put myself into a hole and at that the london race is where i actually met cammy right okay yeah she was like the first time you'd ever met yeah and this really loud northern girl was shouting for the girl who was racing me who was that i can't remember who It was now.

47:27I think it might have been Mel. Because she kept like, come on. And my dad was then looking at her. Come on, Gabrielle. Like they're having like a little like shout off. And then at the end, Cammy come up to me and was like, you're a fucking beast. And I was like, wow, who is this? She's great. And then I started following her after that. And then saw Lauren. And then was always like, God, I would love to go up there and do a session. Like one of their big sessions. They look so good. Because you don't really have them around me. um at the time she was training out of hybrid right yes yeah yeah yeah so i was like i must go up there at some point and and see what you know what the fuss is about up there yeah i used to do uh quite a few of kami sessions oh did you back in the day and it yeah there's nothing like it no wonder like whichever gym she goes to like you know you've you've got a waiting list of two weeks to get on classes and everything like yeah it's really cool i think i think just the vibe that uh the guys create there i think it's it's honestly it's great it's great just makes you feel feel good when you go and train there and like everyone is just always supporting you which is lovely yeah yeah how much does that make a difference like let's say finding that kind of within training that that class environment where you can be pushed um massive i would say um do you still do them like do you still do the classes so same with you like our race is our doubles race at worlds is a friday night okay so i've been going to the death camp when they have death camp on a friday night i've not been doing the session i've been doing my session but i've been training at that time just to get used to you know the lateness and everything but while i'm doing that session you've got them all going go on gabs like go you know and on sunday this was actually really funny they did um they had like higher ops at the track but I had my track intervals like 600 meters so Lauren's obviously there coaching but she's watching me so I was doing my 600s I did like two and then she was roping the lads in to like pace me and race me on on the rep so then all of those reps were like so much faster than the ones I was doing on my own and when I'm running around everyone's like come on Gab's like come on and it just honestly makes me emotional I'm like they are so supportive it's a community and you know they're always messaging like in the group chat like when i'm racing and whatever and when i go down and like train with them even the lads they were like going for it like one of them was like i just pb'd 400 meters for that but thanks so much no it is amazing that is one thing uh i kind of missed like like you say training with uh in that class environment i think uh there's a there's a time in place for it i think 100 % yeah like you say i think you've got a which is quite unfortunate but like once you get to a higher level like you've got to be selfish be more selfish i think that's the only way that you can really explain it which sounds horrible but like you can't just do junk volume you've got to work on your weaknesses and yours you know your strengths and weaknesses are maybe different from the generic plan so you've got to kind of like focus on that so how have you found that change from like say going from classes to then and i think like you say you've done quite a good you've you've made it good because you you just train your own training whilst other people are training yeah you've got the environment but you're doing your session um but how have you found like like say switching to training on your own a little bit more um i think like you said certain days certain days it is hard um like today for example I had a second session to do and obviously everything hurts and I'm like oh my god I really this is going to be horrible it's going to be awful but I know that I need to push myself to that area it's it's when you feel like that is the most important time to flip the switch and and go all in um but I also train I am lucky a lot of my sessions are with Lauren and she's there watching everything and making sure you know I'm pushing it um and she's not very quiet as well so she'll let you know if you're sunbagging it yeah oh yeah yeah yeah because it is important like I think having like we've done a few sort of like training camps with some of the other girls that are really good like um obviously Zara, Kat, Kay and Alice Jones as well like we've done a few sort of workouts all together and it's we're all very different athletes but like we all push like all of us were trying to beat each other and we were like going for it um i mean alice raced recently in berlin and we were like both of us got pbs because we knew we were racing each other which is it's a healthy way to compete um we were like obviously um on the track we're like come on come like to each other like we both got on the row the same time and i was like come on and she was like come like we still are willing each other to do well but we're still competing at the same time which is a really healthy thing for girls to do I think I think it is okay to say as a female you are competitive there's no point shying away from it because we all are um but it's good to use that in a healthy way yeah I think you've got a really good mindset on it I think yeah like you say even i don't know what's your what's your first thought when you see that startup line when it gets released you know a couple of days before you're racing and you see that there's the strong competitors oh yeah berlin i was like whoa are you are you kind of like does that hype you up does it or does it kind of put the fear into you or are you like oh no like i don't want to race these i just want an easy race or um never i never i never say i don't want to race anyone um um because i'm always it's always at the end of the day you're you're racing what's there and i enjoy racing i think that's probably from the running background like i'm used to whoever is on the start line that's who i'm racing on the day i don't think i mean i was very very scared in phoenix when i saw that start line um but when it is just an you know like a right which is going to be like that now with all these you know for points and everything we're going to be racing the best and I I actually enjoy it because also you're racing who's there some someone might have the race of their life someone might not perform the way that they're expected to you never know what's going to happen on the day um but I'm just trying to go into it with the mindset that like I know that I've done the work for this race and I know that I've been consistent so I'm just gonna to race whoever wants to challenge me on the day what changed from getting a 101 open to then going into the pro division and then doing well enough to get into the elite 15 like what changed i mean i feel like i know that it's been a very quick for for for people um i know that they've just gone straight to pro and then advanced i actually i don't think i was that quick um i mean i did nice the world champs i got 111 in my first pro okay so 111 in your first pro yeah 111 my first pro seven minutes on the warbles honestly it was a real bad time for me that um so yeah and then it's heavy though it's really heavy and i was i wasn't i didn't do the work for it really I didn't really know what I was doing.

55:02But anyway, after that, I entered Birmingham, which was the September. Was it the October? October, maybe. So that was like my redemption race. I was like, right, I'm going to really train hard over the summer. I'm actually going to be specific with this training and I'm going to do Birmingham. And I am going to win. And then I went and I did. And I got a 105. So six minutes off. Yeah. Yeah. so i was really happy with that um and then i got an injury i think after that i taught like a tore my hamstring so i didn't really race for like um i think i did manchester doubles and i got a sub 60 which in the january in the november november december yeah they did one in yeah and then i did kataviche kataviche in the february and i got a 103 56 okay so huge a big jump that's when i joined lauren yeah right okay so that's when you joined so after birmingham i i'd met lauren a couple of times i'd met lauren in the summer i didn't like her at first um so go on talk us through that relationship how you met so um i got signed to march on fran and and lauren i had like a little meeting spoke to fran a little bit more didn't at the time they were working for march on right yes so previous to that i've skipped a step in the summer i went to a track day that cammy had sorted out i was up north and i thought i need to go to this track day with all the face like it wasn't phase seven then it was just i don't know what it was but i was like i need to go to this this is going to be amazing so um i went and i met uh lauren but she was so um what's the word intimidating and she kept like telling like telling me off and i was like what is her problem like why did she keep having a guy i was like putting my bag somewhere she's like don't put your bag there like everything i was doing she was like had a problem with and i was like god i don't like her um and then i i then realized the more she takes the piss out of you the more she likes you um she's one of them that's just like that is yeah like if you can take it you know and i can like i i don't mind i like to have a bit of a laugh and um then after that she reached out and was like we we want you to come on to mark like be a part of march on um and i honestly was crying i was like that was the first sort of like insight into this like sort of potentially coming like a full-time athlete yeah yeah yeah i remember i was driving i had to pull over i was very overwhelmed i was like oh my god what the hell like this is amazing.

57:43Cause I'd seen Mark's video and like seen like all of that. And I was like, wow, this is, this is incredible. Um, and I'd love the products anywhere I was taking that. Like I really, I really loved the product. So yeah, then joined them. And then I did Birmingham spoke to Lauren was speaking. She was telling me about myself and how I moved so badly and that I wasn't very good at this and I wasn't very good at that and I take criticism really well so I want you to tell me what what it is that I'm bad at because I need to get better at that I'm not you know say what you need to say um and she did and I just thought I wonder if she'll coach me because I didn't have a coach at this point and I just went do you reckon you would coach me and she went if you do exactly what I'm saying you take this seriously you go all in then yeah I will I went yeah yeah I will and she she was like right then we'll get going and what from like a coaching point of view like what was it that made you want to go with her because there's plenty of coaches out there there's loads of coaches I had tried a couple um but like it wasn't very personable and I think from my running days and like Neil and having that like I needed a coach that like wanted to be all in with me as well because that's all I've ever known you know like someone who's there all the time I mean it is a very we're lucky Lauren lives in the same like the same place that I live and at that time I met my boyfriend at the time and he lived around the corner from Lauren so it all just very much the stars aligned and all of that um I just knew that she was so passionate about like sport and helping someone try and break into that elite sort of level um and she was a woman as well and i liked that i thought i think she's gonna get the best out of me so i want to see what we can do together okay it's amazing it's amazing to see how like your relationship with those guys have like blossomed like you say you you travel as a little crew together yeah the crew and i remember obviously you went over to australia yep um and obviously saw you guys in melbourne and stuff like that and it just made me happy that like you say you're you're experiencing all this with a little gang of people as well that you know i think that's the best way to go about it it's the best like we've i've made such i've not even known them for that long but like we've had the most amazing memories together like traveling to all these countries like and i know them so well and they know me really well and it's like just a really special friendship as well yeah no it's good it's nice to see so after that did that put you in the rankings for the elite 15 um the 103 right no i was about 28th i think okay um so then it was the last chance qualifier in Barcelona yeah so I hadn't entered it um but Cammy had said I think we should go to Barcelona because Lauren actually isn't very good with the needing like knowing you know what races to do and that as a coach I know I have to tell her like we actually need to do this this and this she's not that good with with that side of things like we are getting better that's why I feel like our races have been so chaotic but um yeah we just kind of like the data behind like actually racing to be fair with high rocks at the moment like it's a lot less let's admit it's very hard to stay up to date it is yeah but do you know what i'm going to the beat of my own drum with it i've decided and what will be will be you know i'm not getting caught up in i need to do this at this point because i want to be in it for a little bit longer and if it's not going to happen like instantly like will happen it just might take a little bit of time um so yeah after that did Barcelona and I come fifth so the top three qualified and obviously I come fifth so just missed out but it was the most amazing race because again I went into it like not being a favorite not being you know up there and like I finished much higher than I thought and I think that was the race that made me realize you can be good at this like you have got potential and you can do it um which was yeah really really nice to have that like feeling about yourself because i've always thought i've just not been quite good enough um so that was nice and that race for the people that aren't really that into high rocks or i don't know um the last chance qualifier was a thing last year and it basically was exactly what it is on the 10 last chance qualifier and three people the top three and anyone could enter it in the world and the top three will qualify for world champs and i think that was the most stacked field more than any kind of like elite 15 race that season was the same the men's was the same i remember um there's a couple of guys that have Been in the Elite 15 before and they came like 50th.

1:02:55Yeah. And it was just everyone was so hungry for it. Honestly. Well, it was like Emily won and then Sinead had an amazing run. And then it was originally Chris Roglowski. I can't pronounce her name. She confirmed, but then someone went in the next heat and beat her time. Oh, yes. Yeah. So then I think it was Melanie Mora. So those three and they had amazing races and none of them were favorites, which I absolutely loved. like you know um i think that that race made me realize that i'm just good at racing and it doesn't matter where you are ranked it just matters how you race i love that so after that after that world champs came around world champs yeah chicago yep um so went to chicago solo pro i did um i come fourth so i just missed out again it's like i mean it's like a pattern i just missed out on the podium for my age group which do you know what i actually was just i got a pb i think i got like a low 103 um and i think i was like 10th overall out of all the age group so i wasn't really that i was happy with that like i just thought that's great i've done well um and then the next day me and dave had mixed doubles and we won no way yeah that's insane yeah we won come on dave i know honestly and my mum and dad were there obviously my mum dad came all the way to chicago my brother um and it was just one of them moments where i just looked at them and my dad just hugged me and i just remember him going like honestly it makes me emotional he was just like everything he's like everything you've wanted you know everything you've wanted you've just achieved that like you just needed to be at the top of the podium because he's followed it all with me and i have always just missed out you know never i rarely win like i'll just miss out on podium same with running and he just said that and i was just like yeah like you know that's that's something that i feel like that can't get taken away from me i know there'll be a new crown person the next year and the year after but like that was us you know we we did that and what an amazing thing to do with your partner you know yeah it was incredible oh yeah yeah it was incredible that's that's insane so that finishes off the 2025 season yeah then we come into this current season right yes this current season wow what whirlwind this has been i feel like every i feel the competition is amazing you've got like like so many people popping up out of nowhere now and i think it's really becoming a competitive sport i would say yeah it's good it's definitely good for the sport i think yeah i don't know if you'd agree with this being like in and about that elite 15 it's quite overwhelming very overwhelming yeah because someone will drop a time and you've never heard of them before and they've got you know a minute faster than your your your pb i've been doing this for three years and i'm only improving by 20 seconds of time no it is no it is it just shows that like um there's a lot of there's a lot of talent and there's a lot of people that don't know their true potential with things and also people coming in from different sports this is the thing it's like so many different you know you got swimmers you got triathletes honestly when the triathletes get involved i think that's when we're in trouble yeah um yeah but all these sort of endurance sports like netballers like you know everyone's sort of getting into it and if you are an elite sports person in a different field then you've already got that elite sports person mentality i don't have it as much as these other people who are who have performed higher than me i know that i've got grit but like they've been exposed to this you know level i feel like i'm still finding my feet with it a little bit so how has it been changed obviously like say making your debut in the elite 15 yeah and uh doing in particular well with like the doubles like um how have you found the change like the switch to being and when did you go full time um i didn't i don't i didn't really go like proper foot i wanted to work in some capacity because i love coaching i always have um i don't do as much but i do i do have some like online clients and stuff and i do enjoy that and i feel like just we do have spare time so we can yeah you know i i think with um especially the when people say oh like oh you're a full-time athlete all you do is train i anyone within the high rock space isn't a full-time like they technically no one's a full-time athlete like even the guys at the top of the space like they have commitments they have things that they've got to do whether it's coaching for brands whether it's doing activations for brands whether it's it's doing other things like social media uh youtube etc like um everyone's got a lot on their plate because they can't make enough money just from like high rocks and just from like prize money or high rocks don't pay so i think like me because i am like a chaser i keep doing that like chasing um like we're still having to we we don't get enough from sort of like other things that we have to do we also i i'm very scared i'm like oh my god this could end or whatever i'm like i still need to be doing something else just for my like my mental state i can't like just do that because i need something to fall back on and i've always been like that just have a little bit of a safety blanket with my coaching so i know that that's that i think it's good as well i think it makes you a better athlete yeah being able to coach people because sometimes at the end of the day coaching is trial and error it is yeah and you're doing trial and error on people like i say it's educated like you you genuinely want what's best for them but sometimes it might go wrong or sometimes it might go right and sometimes that's gonna be different to what you're doing yeah and then you learn from that and then you apply that to your own training and it might work and you might get better so i think it's it's kind of all towards this one goal of you becoming the best athlete that you can be but like say you have that sense of security as well i think that's yeah so is it kind of like one-to-one that you do online online one-to-one and then just some sometimes i'll do like some programs yeah just some yeah of course little programs um and then i coach three times a week down um at team which is in northwich oh amazing um so yeah i just love that the community it's got a nice community nice people and it's good to like go somewhere else to coach as well i think no of course of course and it keeps you grounded yes it does yeah i feel like being an athlete like you're on your own most of the time like you say or just with your coach whatever and your head can get quite big yeah but going into a normal environment whether you're coaching and you're just having chat where people are taking the piss out of you like yeah there's nothing more you just talk about just normal stuff like nothing about high rocks nothing like like yesterday we were talking about the carly documentary and i'm like that's what i want to talk about like yeah i don't want to talk about high rocks all the time it's nice to just talk about different things yeah so it keeps you normal but um what's changed the most so like with your whole lifestyle you said that you don't drink much anymore um yeah because like i i used to be very balanced with training and everything like i would still probably like mid-20s i would still go out and train and like have fun and like maybe not get enough sleep a night like all of that sort of thing whereas now i would say i'm like well this is one thing that me and like lauren speak about a lot like i have dedicated my life to this now and it doesn't feel like a chore it's something that I've chose to do like I'm happy with with that decision because like we've said numerous times like this might not you know you don't know how long you're going to be in it for and I know I'm aware I'm approaching my mid-30s so I want to do everything I can to like get the most out of myself because if I don't then I would just think well what if I didn't do that or you know I know and I feel confident when I go to races knowing that I'm a confidence athlete i like to know that i've ticked all the boxes and i've done everything right and my recovery has been good and all of that so i am gonna do that because i want i want to achieve my goals in the sport yeah i love how you said that you before anything that you love it and you've kind of you don't see it as sacrifices no we've chose to do like we're lucky we've we've chose to do this with I can't believe this is my life now you know like it's I'm I'm just grateful all the time because I never thought that this would happen especially like I was gonna quit like I was gonna give up competing competitively like in my 30s I thought that'll be a time where I'll just go to the gym for fun you know just go to a couple of classes and that but like I always wanted to be a full-time athlete when I was like maybe mid-teens and then I just thought well that's never going to happen because i'm not good enough and now it's happened i just want to do everything i can to like protect it how does that feel oh do you have to like pinch yourself yeah i just drive when i'm driving in the car sometimes i'm just like i'm just so happy i'm just happy but don't get me wrong there are happy times but they're also sad times i do want to touch on phoenix as well i am going to speak about that um which was my first elite 15 solo race yeah let's get into it let's get into it so um throughout sort of probably some my mid-20s um it got a bit worse towards my late 20s i'd just be like training and i would have i've collapsed like a couple of times while i've been running when you say collapsed just collapsed like i would feel a bit like not good and i'll just go down one time on the track twice in a race situation do they ever say like why like when you get when i had all my my blood's done one time a race when i was 17 and that's because i didn't i hadn't eaten enough i knew it was that but in my late 20s they couldn't find the only thing they kept saying there was like my left ventricle was was thicker the wall was thicker or something like that and um this is really stupid of me but my mum was like we need to go and see we need to like have you properly checked but I was so scared that they would say you can't do this anymore I would just be like I'm fine no I'm fine like it's fine whatever it's all right and a couple of times I didn't tell her because which is really bad she'll she'll listen to this as well and she'll be really angry but I just was so scared it would be taken away from me and that is so stupid now like I we shouldn't have done that um and around the time of phoenix like everything was fine there was a couple of sessions where we had to pull the pull the plug on the session because i just didn't feel good and then i just i know you probably feel the same as me i feel fatigued a lot like tired but like it was just another level of tired like was this like the weeks leading up or this was probably like after so i got back from obviously melbourne was a lot i've moved house that was december that was december phoenix was the end of january um so there'd been a lot going on but i just thought it's just because you know i've moved house and everything i'm just tired um but i could literally i'd train i'd have to like we didn't even touch on you went to did you go to sydney yeah so like even though like it doesn't you wouldn't think it had an impact i guess that scare would be god we've got so many little stories so after melbourne and we raced and we had a great time in melbourne we then went to sydney and when we were in sydney um so we just got there we just got there to the day the day it happened we'd we were chilling we'd gone to the beach and then um meg was like this was like you was on bondi beach on bondi beach and then meg was like oh one of her friends had recommended us to go to this um sushi place on the corner of um campbell parade or whatever it's campbell street parade we're like oh yeah we'll go there so we went there at like six so we went over to this restaurant and it was all like open like no windows or anything so we sat down me and lauren were next to each other me and cami sorry we're next to each other and um we just like about we'd ordered and then you heard this like bang and um we thought it was like the back of a car and i was like oh and then we heard two more bangs and then we were sitting here we were here we were 85 meters away from the bridge where the the shooters were me and lauren could see these heads bopping up and down and then smoke and then someone come up it was like everything happened in slow motion it was so weird and then we heard someone shout they've got guns we honestly I shot up off the table Cammie did as well I literally like hurdled the chair and I've never ran so fast in my life you just hear these back these the bangs were so loud and I started running diagonal because I thought I'm gonna get shot in the back like I'm gonna run like I'm I'm gonna get shot and I was like hyperventilating and like trying to run and then I couldn't run because I was like like couldn't breathe I'd lost everyone um was jumped over this this fence I went down a side street jumped over this fence was knocking on the door like someone let me it's luckily someone let me in and I'd had had my phone and I just rang my mum and my mum could hear the gunshots I'd gone I was like my mum in a shooting she's like what what what it's like four in the morning she's crying like i'm crying i was like oh i'm gonna die like honestly i i've never felt fear like it lauren and meg ended up being megan you know you have that fight or flight yeah meg was freeze she didn't move stay there so lauren was with meg picked her up and there was about eight people locked in the bathroom and lauren was like if he comes in because what it sounded like it sounded like there was gunshots everywhere like I thought there's got to be eight it's got to be because we didn't know then we didn't know there was two we didn't know anything but all I could hear the sirens and I thought god they're not like I was on the floor in this house and I could just hear like sirens and the gun but the gunshots were so close to us like you could just hear them and then after about half an hour I was like ringing Lauren texting mate like Cammy couldn't get through to Cammy and then I was just like oh my god that like what if they're what if they've what if they've died like just crying like oh my god they've what what the hell and then meg rang me and was like you can come out now i've like put your find my friends phone thing on and i'll like we'll all meet but we couldn't find cammy for about half an hour and she was in a garage where there was no signal so we found her and then honestly I can't that that is like nothing I've ever experienced it was horrific and I just felt so sad for like all the people that got hurt in that and like when we were walking back to we had to like get out of there everyone had to evacuate because there was bombs found in the cars nearby and um parents were running down to the beach like screaming because their kids were all on the beach the beach was like full of like kids and they were like screaming and like it was awful but yeah it was that was obviously i would not wish anyone to ever experience anything like that no it sounds horrendous it sounds yeah genuinely terrifying and like you say um do you know that hit the world that i think um do you know i think everyone felt sadness that day it was just like a place like that like you never would expect that to happen and we didn't know because it's not on our news but people we were speaking to after after like taxi drives have they said well there has been a lot of stuff going on um but we would we would never know that yeah no but in relation to like you say that's probably added a little bit of stress like even though you wouldn't think about it but like you know it's not the stress of like training or anything like that but like going through yeah that we all had to speak to people after that it was like really um just life changing life like your mind set like going into that just think it has changed yeah like your mindset in life i just was thinking i've not done everything i want to do like i don't want this to be it like i've got there's things that i want to do and then I always then think back to that when things I don't know when things aren't like going my way or like I just think I'm actually just very lucky you know I might not have been lucky if we would walk down a little bit later or you know something else happened or we we didn't go to that bar we we sat on the beach or we sat on that that grass verge you know it puts your whole life into perspective yeah and the things that you worry about i'm sure in a way like you don't worry about things as much i assume yeah i think that's probably been my whole mentality especially running around in a circle doing high rocks yeah it's not like that's probably why i'm much more um like i say like i flip the switch a little bit more as in i don't get as emotional about things now um like things happen we move on from it um a race is a race you know it's really not that deep um I think we're just lucky to be able to to do it to do it yeah exactly so I think from that and then I found out I got a space in Phoenix about like two weeks before and I'm gonna be honest I hadn't done I think after what happened in Sydney we didn't train because that was the last thing our bodies could do at that point um I think maybe like two weeks after we'd done like a few runs and stuff and then got back to training um and I didn't I don't know I just I just felt just shattered um and then obviously went to Phoenix felt good I raced the week before to just try and get I said to Lauren I think I need to do a race before that race I can't have Melbourne as the last one and everything that's like happened I feel like I need to like taste death a little bit to like you know know what that is gonna feel like so I did Manchester with Dave and that went really well and I felt good and then we flew the next day to phoenix that was literally the week before yeah um and then got to phoenix everything was fine um and then the day of the race just like i wasn't looking forward to it i don't know why i just was like i don't feel i don't feel right but i'm not gonna say anything because that maybe i'm just in my head yeah sometimes like you you just saying it out loud like creates negative energy yeah yeah you kind of tell yourself yeah i'm like you'll be fine like you know sometimes like faking it till you make it kind of like yeah just tell yourself that you're fine and you will be fine yeah actually works like yeah yeah and i was like that's all it is like you know whatever and it was amazing like it was an incredible experience um and like like on the start line i was like right come on like started um was i didn't feel like i was running well I felt a bit like clunky but I was like do you know like just get into it sled push was great sleds were great I was like right we're into it was on the burpees and like I couldn't hear you know like I felt like I couldn't see properly and I'm and apparently got about four penalties on the burpees I had no idea didn't know because I couldn't hear what was going on and then I sat on the the row and um I was just like looking at Lauren and I was just like she said your eyes were just rolling back you would like just didn't look good and then I got up to run and I felt like I was crawling and then I think it was just as I come out of the inn I just went down and um when I woke up I was on a stretcher being wheeled out of the stadium and I was just like what the hell's happened and then got back to the hospital done all these tests and they were like you're fine and Lauren was like she can't be there's the we literally saw her eyes were like rolling but there's got to be something wrong so then I came back to the UK and I went to like a specialist doctor in Liverpool and like he did loads of tests and I couldn't do anything intense for a while because they thought it was something to do with my heart so they were like you can't do anything like we need to rule anything out it might not be but it might be if so like that's your high rocks career done really because if it's your heart then what what do i do like i'm always going to be scared um so luckily it wasn't that and it was something super common actually an endurance athlete like women it was my ferritin levels okay so that's classed with iron right yeah yeah so if you i think like and this is another thing like i see myself as just a normal normal woman but like we're training like elite athletes so we require a lot more than the average so i think like a normal reading like a low reading for a woman is like an average reading is like 30 to 40 whereas elite women you need like above 60 i think mine was like 21 okay so yours which was super low like something like that but um when they were doing apparently after you've exercised that doesn't come up because of some sort i don't know the science behind it but um when something's like aggravated or whatever it won't show yeah so you need to have it done when you're like at rest um so luckily those results come back and he the doctor he was amazing he was like you have to treat yourself as an elite athlete in all aspects yeah you know because so what's your clusters like anemic it's before like an it's like how your body absorbs it but if left untreated you can go to like severe anemia so i'm just on like tablets now and i have a lot more steak i don't really have caffeine because that affects the absorption of iron um and i have to like eat things at certain times to make sure like it's being absorbed properly so yeah it's very smart and like you say with um women having a cycle as well and having the periods like obviously you need more iron as well you do yeah you do and like we're all very different like it might not affect some women but like some of us it does and it is again super common um and then with just creating red blood cells like with especially with heat training they say whether you're heat training or altitude training like you need more iron within your system because yeah your body is trying to make more red blood cells and i assume that happens when we just train every day as well yeah especially like say training like an elite athlete do you know how many hours you train in a week um roughly like 12 to 16 12 to 16 so you're training 12 to 16 hours like yeah that's a lot yeah it is and i don't think you realize how much you are putting through your body um so we are interesting to see it'd be interesting to see like your performances like after you've kind of got over this because i know it takes quite a while as well it doesn't just like you can't just like take one iron tablet and it's fine yeah that's why i haven't raced in that's why i haven't raced properly in so long like i did my first solo two solos back to back like last week and the week before because i'm now at a point where i can yeah um and that's super like i didn't i've not i've not put any of this out on social media or anything like i've sort of dealt with it and got on with it and i think like people sort of say like well i always say this no one is actually as bothered about your life as you think they are but like i think i had to just sort of like patiently like i was so desperate to do the the london the the champs, the, what was it, the EMEAs.

1:28:19Yeah, yeah. I so desperately wanted to do that, but, like, I wasn't ready. Like, I wasn't ready. I hadn't given everything enough time to, like, get to where it needed to be, and it's just about, like, being patient and knowing, do you know what, I'm not ready right now, but I'll be ready soon, and then it will feel nice and it will feel great because I'll feel like I'm lucky I get to do this again. Yeah. You say, obviously, like you say, it's not important to everyone what's going on in your life but like that message of just like you saying that and people were going through so so many things like similar to that and it will help them honestly the amount of people that reached out around that time i was like i was so embarrassed i think why i was i just was so embarrassed i was like my elite 15 debut and i did a jillian mckeith like like i just thought and i was like what if i never get to experience this again and like it's unfinished business but i feel like i mean it's getting so competitive but it's fueled to the fire isn't it like yeah as long as you use that as motivation yeah and like you say you've got nothing to lose the next time you stand on that start line you know that you you can't you if you finish this race and like you i say even though that was like the worst thing that could happen it was the best thing that happened to me like personally like how i view everything now um like it can't get worse than that yeah i mean it can but it can't i don't think it can do you ever think that sometimes that as well like you say you might have felt embarrassed but it isn't the end of the world like just the realization that like you know you have a bad race yeah you get over it there'll be another race it's absolutely fine yeah i think like what what happened in in bond like a bondi and everything that probably made me a bit more like it's really not the end of the world like you know you can't can have a little bit of a pity party for a bit and then you've got to like get i was just happy that i it wasn't anything too serious that couldn't be fixed you know it can be fixed and you'll be out there again yeah no definitely and so you've raced twice recently raced most recently in berlin last week yep and you pb'd i did yeah yeah i'm sick i'm second at the moment but there's more waves tomorrow i think yeah so berlin is over nine days yeah so technically there's like two days of racing for each category or more i think um so yeah you'll be you've got double the amount of people to go against so but yeah hopefully we stay second um what are you looking forward to i am looking forward to world champs that's i'm going to do world champs with Zara I'm just going to do the doubles with her I'm not like so on the Friday night yeah Friday night yeah how are you feeling for it I'm really excited have you done much training with Zara yeah we've done a bit of training together um we're going to do another another little mini training camp I think next weekend um does she come to you or do you go to her she comes to me because she's got like Lauren and yeah does she get on with them guys as well yeah yeah she's working with Lauren now so it's yeah she moves on from Tiago yep yeah so she's working with with lauren and it's just but that that helps the kind of doubles relationship as well yeah yeah really really helps being coached by the same person so we like know what what we're doing and i think we're just gonna go go for it again next season um i think for the doubles i think this is a real opportunity for anyone that wants to either be in the elite 15 or be competitive within the Elite 15.

1:32:01Yeah. Like this season now that you've got to be racing with like people from the same country, especially on the men's side. I don't know about the women's, but there's not many men that are competing together that's from the same country. So like myself and JK. Yeah. Jake Williamson and Hunter. Yeah. You've got Cole Lerne and I can't remember who he's with. I didn't know that. But there's all the top guys, like a lot of the top guys. Yeah. won't be oh even like tim and alex they're not from the same country so next season like none of them are going to be able they're going to find new partners so the relationships aren't going to be as strong yeah so the the level i think of like doubles racing is going to go down slightly so that just gives opportunity opens up opportunity for new people to come in um and i always say that people that are on like that brink of say your top 30 within the elite 15 singles like find a good doubles partner and go for it because you never know what could happen you could be yeah competing you could be if you've already got your foot in the door they're like me and zara are really lucky i think we're like sixth like currently in the standings um she's really good with all of that yeah um which is a great position to to be in um and obviously we've got worlds as well which which is great um but it will be interesting i think next season i know there's lots of new surprises so yeah those yeah yeah i think one got announced the other day that the first major oh they don't call it a major anymore they call it the elite 15 series is going to be on a cruise how do you feel about that um well zara gets seasick so i'm not sure about that um she doesn't do well with boats so i mean it's gonna be quite interesting it's gonna be really interesting i think we will be there and i think we'll do it i don't know the logistics of it and if you can just i don't think you can just go on for your race i'm not sure if you have to stay the whole time um i have no idea who knows who knows we don't we were talking about the other day and like i think a lot of people will complain about it but i think if again if you see it as a positive opportunity like if more people are complaining you've got a better chance if you just take it in your stride and go with it and just go with the flow like the competition is gonna be weaker this is the thing i think i mean i gotta be ready for it i'll just go with the flow to be honest i'll have to prize zara onto it and yeah see how she is yeah bunking with uh with someone that sees it can't be can't be that good no yeah maybe not staying in the same room no no i don't think so but uh yeah no that's interesting so that's the first one of the season have you got any plans over summer is there any specific tricks up your sleeve that you think you and lauren might try or do say for example i know quite a few people are thinking about like training camps maybe going to altitude doing heat um or do you think you've just got such a good thing going on here in in manchester that you're just going to keep that going and keep pushing that um i actually don't travel that well um i swell whenever i travel so i don't enjoy it like lauren always says you don't travel well you're very good in your like surroundings um i think we are probably potentially going to go somewhere we're not sure where but um it's not too bad because i won't be like racing yeah um we might do a little race in august potentially yeah um just because i've had a different season to everyone it's not been like i probably missed the first half of this year so that was sort of a little bit of an off period for me so i sort of feel like i'm peaking coming into a peak now so it would be silly not to use that um that's great have you got a race in mind um it might be in australia in australia wow so we potentially might be going there you do know it's winter over there right now i do know yeah we might there's something it's not we're not just going there for high rocks there's like a reason yeah okay yeah not for me for lauren but we yeah we might yeah no that's um and then just probably just be here for the majority um and i think working more on my running because even though that is my background it's not the same as the other girls who are coming in and are elite runners yeah they're rapid now i think um especially the the big difference i think between like the the females and males is the running on the female side seems to be like what people are progressing the most with the moment if that makes sense yeah yeah um and i don't know whether that's just the weights i don't know like i want to ask this question actually like do you think the like the weights are pretty light like now that you've got used to them and now that you're like fully yeah fledged in the elite 15 like um probably like if they were a little bit heavier would you be like yes yeah for me yeah me personally yeah because i've now turned into a station better at my stations than the runs because i'm probably a little bit heavier than the girls um like the sleds are my they're my bag i knew in berlin because they were quite tough for me they weren't because the push is is my favorite um but if you're a little bit lighter i suppose it is harder um and even the farmers carry i used to struggle with 24s really that was a real weakness of mine but now um it's easy they're all right i pick them up and i'm like these are all right don't know how i couldn't run with them yet i couldn't do a sinead but they don't feel as bad as they used to yeah so yeah i would like maybe a little bit of weight added and it might favor different athletes how much do you analyze the other athletes on the course i don't really don't because it's changing all the time for me if i was maybe a solid in the elite 15 then i probably would there might be some like a barcelona lauren was like i want you to lead this race i want you to take it out um because i think saskia was in the heat after me um so she was like take this out and go for it whereas in berlin i sort of held back a bit yeah and thought i know that a lot of these there was obviously really three really fast runners and then i sort of like crept up towards the end and i felt that that was probably the best way for me to race yeah i always think that as well i think that's i don't know it's a much more enjoyable way to race in my opinion yeah like going out hot at the start like yes some people might say it's necessary to do but if you're if you feel out of control because you're going out that hot yeah it's not it's not it's not very good and the ski is not i don't like the ski why any reason i just not very good at it yeah and i should be better i'm that's another area the ski but i don't think it's not something to lose too much sleep over because it's it doesn't it's not the be all and end all of the race yeah no i'm just interested in what why i asked that question is because i think there's a lot of like studies done on like the elite 15 men like done by other men that are like what's the optimal weight what's the optimal physique what's the optimal kind of training hours per week training split and stuff like that do you look at the elite 15 women and kind of analyze all that data and like look at if someone's a little bit leaner on that one they've they've actually raced better compared to when they've maybe been a little bit heavier or do you ever think about any of that oh yeah like you do you obviously naturally we all do look at what the people at the top are doing and think or do you just kind of like stay in your lane because there's two ways of looking at it like that can get you down and that can pull you away from what you know is best for yourself yeah because i i'm guilty of this like just being drawn into someone else's training methodology and everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses my training program looks completely different to someone else's but like i might try and copy someone else yeah when i know it's not as good for me i just think oh because they're doing well i might try to copy that have you ever done that or is it just kind of you you've trust your coach you trust yourself you trust your own instincts and you just kind of like stick with that with training i am so confident in my training and my coach and um um i have absolute like respect for for lauren and what she does and i've no like you know it has you know it has worked for me like certain things and like when other people have come on board and done the training or see my train like god that i don't think i would do that like that or that's like a training week if you don't mind okay so is it typically the same most weeks yeah pretty much the same so monday i always have off completely because the back end of my week is really heavy because that's usually when we train so we try and make that like quite hard tuesdays usually like an upper body and then threshold so at the moment because we're becoming nearer to competition the thresholds have got like slightly shorter so we've gone into sort of like k's okay um whereas before we were doing like eight nine minutes ten minutes whatever but as the last four weeks we've we've sort of specified a little bit more is there a specific volume you aim for um within that session so say for example would you do eight by a k six by k four by a k so it would be like six by k and then like maybe four by 500 just to like add the speed and that needs to be like faster than the k's okay um and then will that be done on a track or would it be we've been trying to find a 200 meter little gravel loop for the um elite 15 yeah to replicate that and actually find oh we tried the spot city it's been refugged at the moment but the indoor track no i haven't tried that so they've got that's a good that's a good shout we found we found a pond in witness okay there we go we've been using that yeah um but i actually find the gravel sometimes the the that sort of return is a little bit more like high rocks i know okay yeah just because the track it does give you a lot whereas when we are racing we don't get that return yeah so um be doing that and then Wednesday is uh legs like lower body and then air bike intervals so that could be like 10 by 3 minutes 4 by 8 minutes 4 by 5 minutes something like yeah always just on like echo bike or assault bike assault bike yeah yeah and then Thursday so today I did 800 meter run into 500 meter ski okay 60 seconds rest six times and then i did a 40 minute amrap which was this was hell it was 24 calorie on the assault bike 20 heavy warbles and then 18 burpee broad jumps just amrap yeah just amrap 40 minutes really sad times today that and then a 45 minute like to an hour easy bike okay okay so quite a lot of volume on Thursday yeah tomorrow is rowing intervals so I think it's like 500 or 600 meters like I think it's speed like fast like six times 500 it's like under 150 trying um and then it's a really awful um um wad i think it's like a k into two lengths push two lengths pull um a burpee of some sort and 500 meter ski okay five times and then a hour bike yeah and then saturday's like easy run i think i've got a burpee test on saturday and um really so what would that consist on of seven minute max seven minute seven minute max burpees on saturday and i think is that burpee broad jumps or burpee to play just burpees just burpees yeah burpee like bar like bar touches yeah yeah um and like a wad of some sort so like wobbles or again a bike or ski or something like that okay and then sunday is faster intervals like running intervals like at the moment 400 600 800 anything like that um seems like that with that week they've just like it seems like spot on do you know what i mean but it seems like there's like intensity every day do you do you kind of suit that apart from obviously monday like you say but like six days there it like the intensity increases okay by thursday like today was hard yeah thursday friday saturday and then sunday's just like the runs and a bit of strength so by sunday i'm i'm knackered i've trained that way for like months yeah so you're just kind of like used to it yeah yeah i can manage i can i can manage that that load like touch wood i've been i love that oh yeah it's interesting no like say it just shows like how much more intensity you can handle because for myself like i i follow every hard day with an easy day and alternate but like my easy day is like a set rule heart rate won't go above zone like it won't go into zone four so it won't go like above like 140 or 150 beats per minute but it just shows like you say i'd be i think i'd be ruined if i did that week that you just said i am i'll be ruined by sunday but it's like i train and then i go home and i eat yeah yeah recover yeah i recover but what you were saying with like comparing the the men like i think i do it with like body sizes and shapes like there was one period where I was like I'm too big like I need to lose some weight and then I was like like I don't want to lose any like it's hard because you constantly compare yourself to the other girls who are doing well and like then you see you on the start line you're like I look bigger than all of them but I have to try and like oh sorry i've tried and conditioned that out of my head because as women we naturally do that and we think we need to be smaller but we don't have you found comfort in like training for performance yeah rather than like aesthetics and always trying to be like like say always trying to be a little bit leaner or whatever like your goal is as a female because men have it as well like it they are like most men it's oh i want to look bigger yeah yeah i've kind of turned into like more of the female side i'm like i want to be skinny all the time i want to be skinny all the time i want to be you know people say yeah you want what you you you are and what you can't have but like i feel like we i'm i don't know i think being happy like you want to look good let's be honest we want to look good like when we are out there performing um but I've had to start I've had to like start thinking about me as an individual and how like this is my this is my shape like and I have to be okay with that and I have had to teach myself to love it and I do now like that's why I don't really want to change like I like how I look but it's taken a while to get to that point i would say yeah no it's good it's so positive and like you say i think training becomes so much more enjoyable and you can take more yeah take more punches yeah you can in the in the sense of training sessions hard training sessions i know i can withstand a lot because there's a bit more to me so i can i can handle the intensity no no it's it's amazing um moving on from high rocks is there anything else you think you want to kind of like achieve within your fitness career or do you think you're you're fully set on high rocks now and that's it um is there any even like bucket list yeah i want to run so i'm italian and my um my mum my non-ha come from a little village in italy called ginistra and my great province is that so it's about an hour and a half away from naples up in the mountains really like godfather vibes no wi-fi nothing but we've still got a house there it's nothing special it's just we do every year because it's like really special and my nonno that's my granddad he's like buried there so like we see him and everything and my non my nonna's buried there as well so like to go see her she was a real really important figure in in my life so um yeah she was amazing but a go like there so it's like a i'll try and make the story condense the story my nonna's dad is from a place called tranny which is like near the sea and he walked with a like a horse and like a horse and a trailer that he sold stuff out of all the way from tranny to ginistra which is like when i say over 100 i think it's like 82 miles wow i want to run from tranny to ginistra so you want to do an ultra yeah after you said you'd never do a marathon again yeah i'm gonna do i know but there's more purpose behind it in there it's a real my um so we're talking back in like early italy my nonna so my nonna's dad he come all the way because and he was really clever um and he like made things and sold things and then they he met my nonna's mum in a inn he stopped at an inn met her fell in love they then stayed in janistra which is the village where my nonna's from they had a shop there they were the only shop in the village they did really well i don't know what happened but a man come in and said i want to i want to sell bread or i want to sell whatever my nonna's mum was really fiery like italian woman and was like you're not like we're the only shop and he come back and killed them yeah what he come back and he slit their throats in front of my nonna she was five and her sister was seven so they were then orphaned after that that's fucking brutal yeah so like my nonna like had such a difficult upbringing and like was like i don't you know you're talking back in like 1920 1925 like the war all of this stuff and then she met my non-naught and immigrated over to italy up to england couldn't speak english like just really like just i don't know just an amazing person and like you've got to be strong to do that really strong about you as well she really had she really had something about her like she was not timid she was like a real strong powerful woman i feel like i get a lot of things from her so i really want to do that run for her because she endured so much like in life and i just think yeah i would i think i mean she'd probably be like what you're doing she'd be very worried but um have you got kind of like a year that you want to do this or are you gonna let high rocks kind of like do his thing first i wanted to do it next year not this year like maybe next year after the season but like i just thought that is a real special like personal will you do it on your own dave said he would do it with me he did promise that my mum and dad said they would they would drive alongside me um my brother said he would youtube it so it's a family affair um there we go so that is what i want to do now i've said it aloud on the podcast and i have to do it yeah we'll look forward to seeing it yeah so that's going to be after next season after next season hopefully yeah so summer next season yeah a hot summer in italy there we go there we go and so you're going to be kind of like vlogging it yeah yeah that's cool that'd be really cool um with let's say everything going on within high rocks where do you feel like you can get to oh what is a single or double both just just everything everything um like where do you think you can get to in the sport um oh god it's a really good question the doubles i think we can stay firmly in the mix i would like to say we can i really want us to qualify for worlds again next year i know it's going to be hard but i think we can the singles i really just want to have a redemption race in the singles i just want to put it to bed even if it's once like i just want to get there prove to myself that i can do it so getting the elite 15 where are you placed now ranked roughly or is it just because it's one point oh god yeah not so you've got a couple more races to do yes yeah and then hopefully back into the elite 15 singles because they've got this challenger thing now which is great where division division yeah which is like i say the worst of your advantage you can race you can race race people yeah so i'm looking forward to that i just need to get back in the top like 30 which hopefully i will after a couple of races but yeah that's all i need to do and i just want to prove to myself that i can race amongst the best yeah that's amazing after high rocks is there any other profession you'd want to take up do you feel like you're gonna go into like coaching full-time i feel like i actually think about this sometimes like anything else on like your bucket list sometimes like getting into some form of like women in sports role yeah in terms of looking after women in sports like especially I feel a bit maternal sometimes towards some of the other athletes in the sport um like I want to look after them I want to just give them a bit of advice and I just want I don't want them to get so caught up and upset and it makes me sad when I see them like that and I just think is there something that can be done like is there something that can be offered um yeah just from a mental side of things um or just like another element to high rocks like another role like that can be put in to like protect them from like a psychological point or talk to them or just help them as they navigate through because that some of them are so young yeah some of them it's crazy they've not had like any life experience and then they get thrown into this like yeah because i'm scared of i was it's daunting for me and i've had a lot of life experience so i can't even imagine what it's like being what like 1920 or like early 20s and having all of this pressure what would you say to that like say for example now we're talking to them people like would there be a couple of things that like what would you say to them try and find it's like it's like a personal thing and it's trying to find why you're doing what you're doing and the importance of it for you the fact that you aren't doing it for anyone else and also you know brands or or people supporting you they're with you through the highs and the lows people aren't just with you for the highs because that is not realistic that's not achievable you know and people want to see how you react when things aren't going your way and that also creates resilience as an athlete and it also shows you that you can overcome things outside of the sport you know like you can when things haven't got like how do you respond to that and do they have the tools to be able to do that if so how can we help them like what do they need and what tools would you think someone like needs like obviously you've been there like where you've had these laws what do you rely on in these moments not to be on your own to be surrounded by people to get back to a sense of normality um to remind yourself that there are the are other things in life And make sure that there isn't just one thing that you are doing that knowing that you are great, a great friend or like there is another hobby you might have that you enjoy doing or like being around.

1:56:51I mean, I know I say family or friends. Some people don't have a great family set up, but like friends who are like, I think it's important to have people outside of the sport, friends who love you for you. and like my friends will often tell me when i went through like phoenix and stuff and they're just like we love you for you not for what you've done or what you're doing like we love just everything about you aside from that like you're a great friend you're fun like you're you're positive like so reminding others that you're this you're that you're not just great at your sport you are but you're so many other things as well yeah you're kind of bigger than that yeah yeah no i think that's important for for people to hear is there anything like for female specific i feel like females struggle with a little bit more than males do you think confidence knowing thinking that they can't do something they'll automatically go i can't do that i've know that i've coached just women for like 10 years and i just know and what is so lovely is when they do something that they said they couldn't do and they're like a child they're like god i did i did did you see me i did it and i'm like yeah like you can do you can do that you can do hard things like girls can do hard things too like it is important for them to realize that but it's more fear fear stops people from doing things fear stops girls like instantly they'll look at some i can't do that but i always say you haven't tried try even if you fail it's not that daunting and you go again till you can do it yeah i think there's nothing nicer than like witnessing someone saying that they're proud of themselves for doing something yeah and normally it's females like yes females are very hard on themselves they expect a lot of themselves yeah i remember like emily just uh recently ran the manchester marathon and like i think it was one of the first times she was like i'm so proud of myself for doing that and like doing all the training and doing everything and like there's nothing happy and i'm more fulfilling from my point of view yeah like you know listening to that and just uh just witnessing it like unravel level when like and i bet she doesn't say that a lot no no no and like at the start or in a training block there'll be times where she'll be like i can't do this yeah and it's such a it's a it's a default for girls it's a i can't do this yeah whereas like that oh i'll be all right i don't need to train i'll be all right i'll be you know we've got one in the corner there tom but yeah yeah girls are so hard on themselves like really hard on themselves like completely different to boys like they expect a lot of themselves but it's also like they can they can do it but they also don't want to fail so once you remove that whole it's okay to fail let's just give it a go then you take that pressure of like it being perfect because it doesn't perfect doesn't exist yeah that that's amazing and like you say i think hyrox definitely needs a role that yeah it does that's my that's just what i've observed and it's concerned do you ever like reach out or try and reach out um yeah when things haven't yeah um i mean obviously like i love like the young girls in it like charlie lauren like you know after obviously lauren didn't have a great race in phoenix and then has come back and she smashed it and like after every race i always message it like because i know what that felt like i just i'm just like oh well done lauren like you know it's great to see people do that and like charlie hasn't had like she's had an she's an incredible athlete and she is amazing and she's going to do amazing things in the sport and i met her when we raced against each other in poland in uh when i got the one 103 and she was in second and um we got chatting and met phil was chatting to them both and got on really well and then since then we've always got on and we've sent voice notes and just you know through races and stuff and i'll have a lot of time for her because i just want to make sure she's okay because she's had a lot of things happen to her in the sport and she's overcome them so well and um it's just nice to reach out and just know like i always said she's like a little sister and you just want to protect certain people and make sure they're all right yeah no that's good to hear are there any egos within high rocks on the female side no it's all the men i mean i mean there are a couple of females on the egos on the female side but um a few issues but i'm not gonna make you look at you tell me no i think there's been a lot of drama i think there's been a lot of drama but i feel like it makes the sport interesting and it's good to have a lot of personalities what's it like like within that elite 15 room like before a race after the race after the race it's fun it's like nice like everyone just like forget what's happened i'm usually fangirling over lauren weeks um because i'm obsessed with her i think she's amazing um before it's very to be fair warsaw was a lovely atmosphere before because we all sort of know each other now so the warm-up we would like chatting a bit um and it was it was nice me and charlie both said like it was a nice atmosphere in warsaw because we all you know there's cat charlie lauren like zara kate and like we all know each other so it's a nice atmosphere um and then after we're just sort of catching up and wishing each other well and and stuff it is yeah it's lovely yeah that's class to be fair it's like it's like it's getting better amongst the men as well like you say i don't know what you see from the outside but um do you think there's a lot of egos within the men's high rock space there's a couple not any ego personalities oh yeah there's there's some personalities in the men 100 yeah i think it's insane i think it's pretty cool you need personalities in the sport like you shouldn't be afraid to show who you are like we discussed this before like you should be you and like not be scared of being you or in case you're not liked or i just wish it was a little bit more like people just communicate a little bit more and just like yes we're racing on this day let's not be friends on that day let's be competitors on that day yeah but in and around like we're traveling to the other side of the fucking world with each other yeah let's just we're doing this sport that you know most people the majority of people in the world don't even know what hyrox is yeah they don't like over half the people in the world do not know what they don't know it's really not that deep yeah we're going over to the other side of the world we've got that day we're racing but let's have some fun and let's like actually train together let's eat together let's do stuff let's after the race let's celebrate together i just wish there was a little bit more of that yeah it should it should be like that and i think he's getting a little bit more like that but um the girls are getting like we've you know there is quite a few of us now that like all get on and like we've said after warsaw like the english girl like we all but then again it's like nice to maybe getting you know a bit familiar with the girls from the other countries, but the English girls are very, like, we all get on.

2:03:58Yeah, I try and always offer an invite to try and, like, invite everyone around Airbnb or whatever. Yeah, you're very good at that. You are very good at that. I mean, the night before the race, I can't speak to anyone. I'm really in myself. I'm just nervous. Maybe it's my fault for not being organised and not doing it a couple of nights before, but I try and get people around for a barbecue or something, like, just chill out. two days out great night before yeah no not for me i'm like i can't speak i get really what are you thinking about i don't know i like i'm i'm watching routine you just like just sat there like it's on a bed like just basically no i am i like to have my dinner i like to just watch a film i like to just any specific film um usually a rom-com maybe bridesmaids um and then or white chicks and i'll just chill but i don't like to talk to anyone like dave knows we don't really speak just like love watching white chicks for you dave will watch anything he's just an easy going guy um and um yeah we'll just we'll just chill the morning i mean he knows that i don't like to talk so he won't really talk to me um lauren will say a little bit but i've always been that way since i was a child like i've always not said that i was worse i used to be sick before i was so nervous yeah when i was younger but i've got better now i don't know what i don't think nerves go away it's just because i care so much about it and i want to do well yeah nerves are a good thing they are a good thing they are a good thing i don't think yeah i'd be concerned if i wasn't no no it is interesting how everyone's like dynamics and thought processes are different it would be good to do a fly on the wall like different people i try and have a laugh before like even in the start tunnel i'm like good luck lads come on let's go oh you're one of them i know you probably hate me you'd fucking hate me you're like don't fucking speak to me shut up yeah literally don't fucking speak to me anyone on this start line like someone tried to do it in berlin and i was just like yeah yeah that's how everyone is so different in that after the race great i'm your bestie but not before yeah yeah yeah no um i like that have you got any like rituals um or anything people don't know about i don't because i feel like it's if something goes wrong or if something i don't have a certain thing that could mess with me so i think it's best to go into a race so your ritual is having no rituals having no rituals because i don't think this is why sometimes you know when people go to the gym they have the same exercise bike they have the same ski they use all the time we actually mix it up because it's good or sometimes i'll go to a different gym just to add a spanner into the works because i don't think it's good to be set in your ways yeah so you're not doing something mad before a race no what's your warm up like um i like to do a little bit like a like a five minute jog and then i will throw two wall balls actually that's the ritual two orbles yeah just two just to get the target um some burpees lunges um and then just some like hamstring bridges and stuff and then a couple of strides and we're we're out we're ready i don't know if uh anyone does this in the the female race but uh in the lads race people are warming up for like 90 minutes before the race sometimes it's mad like sometimes they do a full high rocks it looks like anyway they do a full high rocks before the high rocks no it's i mean we'll go on this i'll do like some quick sprints on the ski in the road just like i'll just touch a few things never touch a sled yeah never it's always different anyway it doesn't matter yeah yeah never ever touch a sled kettlebell not no we're fine with that don't need to do that but yeah i'm usually like a half an hour yeah get in there don't want to exhaust myself got too much doing the race no i love that i love that so after high rocks you're going to think about coaching like say get more into this kind of like coaching females and making sure that they're in the right mindset do you ever think you'll ever return to like athletics or anything like that um or do you think you're you're like you know as coaching or doing anything like that in the sport or do you think your place is in high rocks now i would potentially go back and do a marathon but like for fun yeah if that can be a fun thing um just because everything has been like my whole running it was just like time time time like i can't ever remember enjoying actually taking in taking in a race and like thinking oh god this is so wonderful like i'm like am i on time have you got a specific one you'd like to do london london i never did london i got it i was meant to do it the year of covid so i did the whole block and then it was covered um yeah so yeah london and i want to go and do it and just like maybe do it with someone like a friend or whatever and just like or like like my sister or just like a family member or my brother just have like a special race with them yeah that's class that is amazing is uh i want to ask a couple like quick fire questions yeah first one have you got any bad habits that people don't like really know about like bad habits bad habits i'm sure oh god dave could probably tell you or even like in terms of like an athlete is there something that you really like shit at like for example going to bed on time or something like that or jumping onto things and when you're jumping onto things jumping onto things like i have a fear now after steeplechase okay i've like i can't jump to the side so like you can't do it if someone's actually like like box jumps can't do it you're not doing so you can't i can't it's like a it's like a an issue like it's like a block if you ask me i can jump to the side on the left ask me to jump to the side on the right can't do it that's just because that one time you missed the steeplechase it's it's like ingrained i can't do it it's madness that is pretty mad yeah anything else are you are you messy at all do you leave cupboards open that's mine by the way that is like i'm i'm pretty messy i'm pretty no i say dave does that and it really gets on the tits that that's annoying um sorry dave sorry dave when he doesn't show what's the worst you know and leave the milk out don't put it back in the fridge i'm like do you see the other day emily's story i uh i put the milk in the cupboard instead of the fridge i would go mad at that and it was just like i just wasn't thinking i must have had like a busy day and you were really tired I put it where the cordial goes in the cupboard.

2:10:43Oh, and did you put the cordial in the fridge? Yeah. Oh, yeah. See, stuff like that. Or I think it can be annoying when I leave, you know, like when you don't put the plate in the dishwasher, but you leave it on the side. That's annoying. Yeah, that is annoying. But what about if the dishwasher is completely clean and it's not been unloaded and then they put it on the side? I think unload the dishwasher. Because Dave does that. You definitely do that as well. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. And then a couple of plates pile up. To be fair, I think me and I will play games. Like she'll leave a plate and I'll leave two plates.

2:11:21I'll leave another plate on top. I'm like, I'm not doing it. You can do it. It's a standoff. Yeah. And then to be fair, we've, I think when there's a third plate though, that's when we'll. Yeah, I think this is getting too far now. This is getting too far. We'll just scroll up a little bit. But yeah, that's interesting. Death Row Meal. oh god easy um is it start and main dessert gone okay so we've got we've got a bougie death row meal yeah i mean it is anyway right so it would be a camembert you know like with a with like a baguette i'm really going all in okay like a dipped in are we going like just a standard cover like one of these caramelized onions sprinkled on the top and one of them petri dishes melted in the middle baguette on the side petri dish is that the right word yeah it's like a petri you know a petri dish you know what i mean yeah i'm sure they're like science they're like gcse science right actually that is a pet yeah that is you know what i mean in nando is the big like the clay yeah clay dish a clay dish right so that because of a death row so that a few olives on the side the big the big like this yeah the big massive ones that they sell then again you are italian so yeah yeah so food is food is big for me so that and then the main would be my mum's lasagna okay is there anything does she have a spin on it it's just just insane it's amazing are we using beef mints yes she's using beef mints she's layering it with eggs pasta mozzarella cheese layers layers about seven layers gorgeous amazing and then the dessert is um a sticky toffee pudding with honeycomb ice cream and a three strawberries just three yeah exactly three yeah exactly three incredible you didn't expect that i was very i think about it a lot i do yeah next one uh if you could only do one for the rest of your life gym or run run yeah yeah yeah and you're like running a lot or you like just running are you just never going to the gym again yeah you just said you've asked me it's one or the other in it yeah i was i was very sure on that was i don't think i couldn't not run yeah okay i don't think i love the gym but it doesn't fulfill me like running does yeah no i get that like you say it's nice like going out and you can the variation of i know variations in the gym but like being outside running is like just so therapeutic uh worst high rock station the ski the ski yeah favorite high rock station changes a lot sled push the sled push on an easy day or a hard day like when it's when it's heavy or when it's light because i mean i had world the world champ sled that Chicago sled that was pretty awful yeah it's pretty heavy that or um it sounds weird because like some people would say oh well obviously a light sled but like you said before you prefer heavy weights is fine for me yeah yeah if it's if everyone's is heavy then is that not right so it's good for me yeah it's good for me yeah yeah so sled oh interesting um I don't have any more that's it that is it thank you gabby i appreciate that i've enjoyed myself no no it's been it's been really fun um yeah thank you