Ep. 1176: Trying Every Sport in the World to Discover Your Next Passion Revisited - Hilary Spires

You're listening to the Adventure Sports Podcast. Thanks for adventuring with us, as

we discover what incredible athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are doing all over the world.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast. This is Caleb. In this revisited

episode, Mason interviews Hilary Spires. Hilary is a runner and a racer. However, that's

not really what this episode is about. What makes this episode so special is that prior

to taking up Adventure Sports, Hilary was a D1 hockey player and hockey had been her thing

since the age of three. And if you don't know, hockey is an extremely time intensive

sport. It really takes over your life. And so when Hilary's time in hockey came to an

end, she found that there is a void in her life. And so she decided to do something which I

haven't heard of a lot of people doing, but I think it's a great example of maybe your

time on a project comes to an end or for whatever reason, something you're really passionate

about. You can no longer do. Maybe it's time to go explore other things that you can become

passionate about and grow to love. And that's exactly what Hilary did. She had the crazy idea

of trying every known sport and there are over 8,000 of them to discover her next obsession

after hockey. And about 50 sports in, she ran her first trail race and the rest is history.

I hope you enjoy the episode. Here's Mason.

All right, folks, welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast today. We're going to hear

what I think are going to be some cool stories about about FKT's and Ultras and just living

in adventurous life in general. And we have Hilary Spires. Hilary, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Dr. B here. Yeah, so I always ask this and I know we were talking before. Where are you

coming from today? I'm up in Vancouver, BC. So Canada, the exact opposite of Florida right now,

I think. Yeah, yeah, that's totally, it's 93 here today. Not sure, you know, it's Fahrenheit,

not sure how cold it is there. But yeah, it's safe to say flat, hot world, totally different

than what you're experiencing. Totally, but it's funny. People that are like Midwest, I actually

went to school in Minnesota, Midwest or farther east or like, oh, Canada, like it must be so cold,

Vancouver is totally mild. So it's like 17 Celsius. I don't know what that is. It's not as hot as

you guys, but it's definitely not cold. I'm in shorts in the tank top. Oh, that's fantastic,

cheese. You know, it sounds great. Oh, man, so let me ask you this. Are you from that area?

Did you grow up there? And if not, because you mentioned going to school in Minnesota,

where was home for you growing up? Yeah, I grew up in a town called to Watson, which is just outside

of the city of Vancouver, like a little beach town. But I was a hockey player. So I played an

NCAA div one down at St. Cald State in Minnesota for a few years. I saw on your website that you've

been playing hockey since you were three years old. Yep, I was pretty young. Who got you into that,

because obviously you didn't say, oh, man, you might have been like, you know what? I want to play hockey.

I did. Yeah, I had two older brothers, so no surprise there. I was actually in ballet for a little

bit, but I think that I got kicked out for not really behaving. And so I said, I wanted to play hockey,

and I just kind of stuck right away. So I played longer than my brothers did. That's for sure.

And ended up playing division one. So you played D1, obviously that good. Where you also do

and other things like outdoorsy at this time, where you kind of, you're obviously in a beautiful

area where you've been a family that explored that kind of thing. Yeah, we did. So hockey got pretty

intense, pretty young. So there was a lot of time spent like traveling around Canada, playing hockey

and other ice sports and other sport called Ring At. We don't have to get into what that is,

but it fits nicely with hockey. And then I was heavily into baseball and those kinds of things.

But yeah, we're so near the mountains. We did a lot of skiing as a family, local hikes. We have

this like killer hike that I still do now called the Girl's Grime that anybody on this side of

the world, I feel like knows about. It's a mile high and then 800 meters of

games. So it's pretty steep. So I don't know what that is in feet times that by three, I guess.

It's a lot. So we spent a lot of times kind of outside doing that sort of thing. And then we,

I grew up on the beach. So I lived in a log house. My parents still live there. And it is.

The backyard is the ocean. So lots of swimming paddle boarding, ocean type stuff.

What a freaking charmed life. I don't know. You might be used to it. It sounds incredible.

Like I have the beach, you know, and we have the mountains in the summer and in Colorado,

but it's those worlds are so far apart. You know, I mean, it's like a three day drive between

them. So for you to have it all kind of right there, I know it's colder, but a colder beach

that is, but still the fact that you have it all there in both worlds is pretty remarkable.

I don't know. Did you realize that growing up or was it something you look back on and say,

you know, we are really fortunate here. You know, I did. That was a huge part of like I am one

of the people that's like, you can't stay in the town that you grew up in, you know, like you've

got to get out. So I lived in a few different places and like I went to school and like I was

saying, we travel a lot kind of for other sports. And every time that the planes were coming back

into Vancouver and you can see the ocean and the mountains, you're like, oh, this is probably

the best place that you can live. Like you can surf golf and ski in the same day if you wanted to

up up on Vancouver Island. So yeah, BC is amazing and Vancouver were just so lucky to have both for

sure. So you went away and then and then eventually came back home. Yeah, I just, my family is

really close. So that was a part of it. But also just like the stuff we were talking about,

it's really hard to live anywhere else when you're used to being able to explore and play like

all year round. The weather is good for any sport you want to play and you just kind of get

addicted to that lifestyle and having it at your fingertips. Totally. I mean, you know,

honestly, I've been in your area and you know, a lot of things are a lot of places are beautiful,

a lot of places offer a lot, but I don't think anything. There's probably a lot on parallel

with where you live, but nothing really surpasses it in my opinion. You know what I mean? So it's really

anywhere you move is just kind of lateral and or a a downgrade a lot of ways.

Totally. I wouldn't even switch to land. I'm like, that place looks like a painting, but I don't

can't afford it. And so, but Switzerland is insane.

When did you start transitioning or what did it look like for you to start moving all your

activities or majority of them outdoors and to trail running into FKTs and stuff like that?

What what what did that look like in your life? It was kind of a funny process. I guess throughout

my 20s. So I had this dream of going to the Olympics for hockey and at the point where I realized

that probably wasn't going to happen. Especially if I went down and played in the States,

like I was not good enough that anybody was ever going to track my progress going down there.

Like maybe if I had gone to Calgary or something and like just trained under the Olympic team,

like might have had a shot, but it wasn't worth doing. And that became more apparent as I got older.

So you kind of go through this like that identity shift of like, well, who am I? But

so it wasn't playing hockey competitively anymore, but I needed to play something or do something

competitive. And it always kind of run was fascinated with distance since I was really, really young.

But I never really did it competitively just against myself, I guess. And then at the same time,

I got into fighting. So I had some some kickboxing matches and was in MMA and some Jiu-Jitsu tournaments.

And that was really fun. That kind of took my competitive edge for a bit. And then I hurt my knee

really badly and had to have a surgery. And it took a few years to recover. So when I was coming

back, I wanted to run long distances again, but that wasn't really the best thing I could do for my

knee. So then I decided to sign up for Iron Man because I figured I'd be spending so much time

with the bike and swimming that it would probably be the right thing. So that ended up actually

working. I didn't really train for the run at all. I just trained on the bike and swimming.

And then when I was finished that, I said, I'm going to try to play every sport in the world.

And I started a vlog. I called all of this sports. Now when I decided I didn't realize

that there's actually over 8,000 sports. So there was a lot.

Was this like a champ? I'm sorry, I didn't come across this anywhere. Was this like a challenge

you just set for yourself? Like, you know, one of those people that I'm going to visit every

state or every province. I'm going to play every sport in the world. Yeah, it was just something

stupid. Like, I'm just going to go ahead and see what happens. And maybe I'll start a vlog. And

maybe one day someone will like want to talk about it on a TV show. And I'll get to like go try

something. I didn't even know existed. Like, it was just a really dumb idea. It didn't last that long

because I got through, I don't know, 50 or something. And then I showed up to a trail race

because I had to take off trail running. And I just never do anything again.

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being. Exactly. And I just ran to the finish line and was like, okay, take that one off. But like,

oh, I want to it was 13k. And I was like, maybe I'll just do one more. And so I like Google what

trail races were coming up. And there was a 50k coming up two weeks after. And I was like,

well, I can probably pull that off. Bad idea. Did that 50k. And then I was just like, okay,

like I'm just I'm in. I'm a trail runner now. Holy crap. When was this, by the way? Like when did

this happen for you? I'm going to say five years ago. What I love about that, Hillary, is that,

you know, I'm actually I'm on your website. And I see this picture of you in an MMA octagon with

gloves on and your outfit. And you've got this big old like bicycle tattooed on your leg. It's

just such a funny like juxtaposition because you don't see, you know what I mean? You've seen

people in the sport. And they're all about it. And you don't see him with a bike tattoo right

on their leg. It's like the clashing of two worlds. And so I was a little confused by that. But this

makes so much sense now. What I love about that is something that we talk about so much on this show

is the people people become known for something they didn't intentionally set out to do. You know,

we have so many people that did some incredible adventure because of an injury that forced

them to try new things or something in their life forced them to do this new sport. And they

discovered they loved it more than their original passion. And so for you, it sounds like hockey was

this big part of your life. And at some point, it, you know, maybe you hit a ceiling with it or

realize you couldn't go to the Olympics, decided to do this crazy thing of trying every sport in the

world. You only get so far. But look what it's led to. It's led to all these adventures. It's

led to this passion. You would have never otherwise discovered. I think that's incredible.

I guess like the way when you put it that way too, it's almost like you're searching for something

in the world just kind of directs you to it, right? Like and you just fall upon it. And for me,

hockey, the one thing I think that actually allowed me to go as far as I did was that it never

became a job. It was always something that I was so excited to go do. And I think that's such a

huge thing for kids playing sports now is that their parents maybe take it too seriously too young

or they force them to just do one sport. And it becomes something that they're not just really

excited to go do it, something that they have to do. And when hockey, I really missed that as well.

And I think that's what you get in the forest when you start a race. And suddenly you're by yourself

in the next six hours if it's spread out, you know, and you're like just you're not looking at

your phone. You're just like trudging through the mountains and here it's probably raining and

slippery. And the North Shore or Vancouver area is so technical that you're like it's such an

adventure that you never get to experience in any other part of your life. So that like childhood

wonder of hockey came back for me. And I think that's the part that I got addicted to was like

I'm just in this game trying to get to this next point and like not get eaten by a

Cougar or a bear. It's the coolest thing ever. You know that that's so cool because we always

talk about we mentioned a light here is that what what are the chances that you found the thing

in your life you were most passionate about at three years old. And you know the chances are

pretty low. The chances are you've only seen a certain little slice of the world and when you

start experiencing the rest you're going to discover something for a lot of people on the show.

It's an adventure sport in the outdoors. They discovered they love it 10 times much. I don't know

how to quantify that but so much more than than what they loved before. And so for you, you know

finding running finding trail running specifically I saw on your website you say it's a shortcut

to meditation and the way you're describing it sounds like you know it's something you have

to focus on something you have to be very present for. And I'm sure that's just one reason you

fell in love with it so deeply. Oh that's really cool. I've never thought of it that way but you're

totally right like the thing about not finding what you're like maybe meant to do at three years old

like who gets that lucky. Yeah yeah that's super cool. And you're absolutely right that's exactly

what it is. It's just like you can't think about anything else but like where you're going to put

your next step and then you're just kind of calm because as like the reason meditation works is

you can't be running through a forest and be worried about what happened yesterday or anxious

about what's going to happen tomorrow. You're just in the moment and that's the most like peaceful

place you can be. So you fall in love with this you start running, start running on trails.

What were did you start doing events or was it just strictly for your own pleasure and enjoyment

and getting out there and having peace? What did it look like for you in the sense of athletic

achievement? Yeah so it's funny like with trail running specifically again it changed how I've

viewed running because I'm built like a hockey player or a fighter which is like 57 pretty strong

not usually going to show up to the start line of a 5k or a 10k look like the elite runners right?

And I can do an okay time but I'm not going to be like a 15 minute 5k or ever or be competitive

like that. But at a trail race other things come into play like you have to be strong to climb

mountains and you have to be strong to handle the downhill of mountains and you have to have a

certain mental toughness that's like maybe I'm not the fastest on paper but if we get into a race

6 plus hours long you're going to have to weather the storm to some degree and that maybe I can

battle out whenever the day is going to do better than the person next to me so suddenly I have a

shock to be competitive beyond kind of what my physical running ability is. So that I came to realize

a little bit farther on in my trail running career which made it cool because it gave me a new

angle to look at the sport and a lot of the races are smaller and I'm you know can be competitive

whoever shows up I've got a lot of fast friends that are going to beat me on any day but the

fact that there's a shot makes it exciting. And so at first it was like I said I showed it for

this 50k and I'd only run one other trail run first and I was in your road shoes had no idea

like I was that that kid right no idea what was going to happen. My dad asked me when I was

going to finish and I was like anywhere from like 5 to 10 hours like that's the best window I can

give you. I've done that marathon at the end of an iron man a year before and that would have

been my training then and then some sprints for fights over the winter so then this was the next

summer. So literally no running at all I was just going to got this thing out and it was such a

cool adventure to be like I'm not in shape to do this and my feet blew up because of course it's

wet and the skin on your feet isn't prepared for that type of thing but I still got to the end I

finished mid pack and I was just like I don't know if I could ever do that again because that was

one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life like I've never looked down on my watch you've

been like oh I've gone an hour and I've gone actually nowhere but just thinking like this is

probably the coolest day I've ever had and I need to my husband needs to drive us or time

years is my boyfriend and then it just kind of continued on from there that I just needed to get

that experience more and more and more and then then I got him into some some running and I still

wasn't really focusing on running and we were just doing it as something we could do together and

going out and doing some random runs and then as I said like I just kind of realized that maybe

I'd be able to do well at this and started focusing a bit more and then had that like huge gains

and improvement when you start putting in a little bit of structured effort which was pretty fun

and then my husband and I got married and chose to go do a 90k in Switzerland for our honeymoon

two years ago and then since then I was going to do a hundred mile herb had a baby in there and

COVID happened I did a hundred miles on road which was stupid and just kind of started to do

everything I can get my hands on so would you say that this is still very new to you you said in

the last five years and I'm looking at your athletic bio and you know you you transitioned from like

Iron Man's like you were talking about to to this is it does this still feel new to you

and especially because I haven't focused on anything like I focused on hockey when I was younger

and I'm forever like ever and I know that there's so much more that I can learn and do and every time

that I kind of think I'm fit I like learn something else about training or my coach Ellie

Greenwood has me do something different and I see different improvements and actually through

COVID also I had a baby in there so I had some time where I couldn't do a lot that's like two

four years yeah um during COVID I had the luxury of running with my friend who is a phenomenal runner

like she's unbelievable and a little bit no not a little bit a lot faster than me but kind enough

to wait on some of these FKT attempts so us running together made me push to a boundary that I didn't

know I had before either because it's like in a 50 mile race you might get tired and think like okay

I'm gonna slow down for a second and catch my breath but when you're running with a friend that

you really respect you're like okay I don't want to disappoint her she's out here too for this

exact same reason that I am so you just push through a little more um so I think everything is

improved a lot this summer even without races just because I've um chased my friend around

that's awesome so you know you you're really falling in love with the Vince you're you're doing

really well in a lot of these events which I'm sure is you know exhilarating for your competitive side

and seeing yourself out there improving I saw that you won first overall while you were four months

pregnant of uh of a of a 13k which is just mind blowing that that had to be a pretty amazing day

yeah that was pretty cool um that was one of Gary Robin's Barthly Marathon guy one of his events so

a super technical fun race in the lot of snow and four months is about the last time that you can

really give a good solid effort when you're pregnant and I just felt really good and it was uh

it was really fun that yeah that was a super fun day of course you got a little bit of hate

male but that's too be expected when you do activity's pregnant but that's a barrier trying to break

as well so I'm sure they were upset because of course you know you have you have the strength of two

when you're pregnant well that's just it yeah it's like doping you know you just you just you got

this super power so you know I'd be upset too well you have you have extra blood volume so I

think you're you may be arching but it definitely was funny when that if there was any guys that

you happen to beat and they're like and then like the winner of this race and like also four months

pregnant the guy said next he was what the f the winner of this race Hillary and uh in her her

child a named child both one they would they need two two medals that's awesome now so so let me ask

you this are you know you you have a child I think that was around a year ago or so a little over

um yeah and then you know you're getting you know you're gaining momentum in this world and uh

of trail running and doing well in these races I don't know your goals at that point but then

covid hits how did that how did that change your practice and what you did were you still able to

get out as much as you want um what what was the basically the effect of covid it was it was tough

because the first race that was cancelled for me was about a I think three days before it would

have been March 23rd so it was like right when everybody was like we got to take this stuff seriously

right so cancelled that and I thought right away oh I hope cascading crest isn't cancelled

which would have been end of august without really thinking that would happen um it just crossed

my mind so I kind of just continued as is for a few months and it was hard at first but quite quickly

you figure out that you run for other reasons other than just events and that like a really hard

training run feels really good and the soreness of your body on like the last 10k of a 50k is also

very satisfying that's a key idea is which didn't occur into us until middle of summer and being

like oh that's almost more fun than a race because anybody can go try this anytime it's not just

who shows up on that day it's open to any runners um and then trying to do those hard effort

has been equally a satisfying so it was definitely hard and I'm totally stoked for races to come

back just for the whole event and the buzz of it um but it didn't affect me as negatively as I

thought it it would because like we've talked about in this whole podcast the adventure side is like

you can get that without racing anyone obviously the the the explosion of the popularity of FKT's

during COVID has been really cool to see just because it it like you said it's it's having that

alone wilderness aspect but also the competitive aspect uh and you can do it anytime and you can

something I've heard a lot with FKT's like you were talking about you might not be the fastest

in a race even a trail race but you can because the logistics and the planning and the preparation

are all in your hands you can find some advantages there whereas before maybe you maybe you

wouldn't be as fast as these other folks on these on these trail runs but now you've got to plan

your like your food caches or you've got to plan how to get there you've got to you know you've

got to do all that yourself basically the race directing yourself and and you can find some places

to to be better than your competitors point I didn't even really think of that as it just comes

down to like how can you get from point A to point B the fastest um and on the most recent one

that we did we actually chose a route that was different they're not a route it was a point to point

and FKT site says you can choose whichever direction you want and we chose a direction that was

less popular because there is about 500 meters more of climbing so like 1500 feet more of climbing

to go the direction that we did but we wanted to end at this town that had a lake and also

it had them the hardest climbs at the beginning instead of the end it was steeper so just looking at

different things like that is is pretty fun but it also counts because you're covering the same

ground so yeah that's a really cool point what was the FKT that you recently did

so it's called the Hudson Bay Trail which is cool it's the old trading trail for the Hudson's Bay

company where they used to just take their like beaver pelts across um which when you're running it

seems crazy that anybody would ever carry stuff along it so we started in hope which is a town

in the interior of BC and then it is 78 kilometers I don't know what that is in miles um 40 something

and it's over 15,000 feet of climbing so 4,000 meters which is a lot over that distance

and just very very very steep climb so it's like straight up straight down straight up straight down

and the previous record was 12 hours and 50 minutes so like you said you can kind of research it

out and we figured out how fast we had to be on each of the sections and we thought we could do

it in some 12 and we were 11 hours and 35 minutes which we are stoked to do so we set the new one

there and that was an unsupported effort so we carried all our own stuff

hard to carry all of your own food for 50 miles this right so luckily there were lots of water

crossings which really helped but we started super early in the morning and in the dark because

in the town that we finished in there was a pub but it closed at 5.30 pm so our biggest like

gold that lit a fire under us was to get to the pub before it I get a beer before before they

close that's great yeah so you made it we did yeah we made it and we had we kind of figured

halfway after we done what we thought was the majority of the climbing that we were going to be

no problem and probably coming around 11 hours but Strava had lied to us and said that there was

3500 meters of climbing and then the last 14k were supposed to be the descent off the mountain

when we got there I like put my poles away and we were like woohoo downhill the rest of the way like

no problem surprise surprise there's another 500 meters so again 1500 feet that you're not

expecting and I have an old fighting injury which is one of my ribs pops out very easily if I'm

bent over in climbing position without my poles for too long so as soon as I packed my poles in my

rib pops out because my my back was tight by that point so then I'm like laying on rocks trying to

get like my rib to pop back in and we're like climbing up this hill that we didn't think was supposed

to exist and at that point you're just like a little bit crazy because you've been running for

11 hours anyway and we're like I don't understand what we're doing so with that secret climbing at

the end we were pretty stoked on 11.5 hours considering your rib can pop out yeah that's pretty

impressive jeez Hillary hardcore man that that's so cool so so so for you what would you say you

know just another pivot in your life you know moving away not moving away but having to

postpone races does the FKT does that does that fulfill that need that you have for competition

and for and for being out there or was it more of a I don't know a compromise for the time being

it did more than I thought to be honest so I would have originally said yeah it was like a

bit of a compromise before we did them but that ADK was just a super fun effort and it was

really challenging and it had all the things about an adventure race that you love where you're like

in that moment and this is kind of my favorite part where you're like oh man why did I do this

and it happened quite early in this race for me actually like 16 miles in I'm like oh my god

I don't think I can finish this I can't take another step I'm gonna throw up but I'm hungry

I'm super confused on what's happening in my life right now like why where am I

um but I'm just I have to keep going because like we have to get to the end of this there's no

aid station to drop out at um and that's kind of the funnest part because we don't usually get to get

to that point in our life like I always say it's like we're so comfortable right if you're hungry

you can go to the store and you've got food if you're cold you put on a sweater um but when you're

at the edge of your comfort zone in a race like you don't really have a choice but to keep on going

through it um so that's the part of races that I really uh enjoy and kind of am addicted to and

you still get those in the FKT so that pushing me pushing the edge of your comfort zone I guess

is the best way to describe it how do you do that how do you push your comfort zone like what's going

on in your mind what are maybe some some practices you have or or routines you have to to get you

through those moments where it's like I don't know if I can do this um I have quite a few and they

kind of just like rotate around I guess so one of them that I like is I always refer to myself

in third person and I have heard that this this like changes how your brain responds to what you're

doing um because it's really easy to be like I suck and I'm tired but I would have a really hard

time being like Mason you're super shitty like why are you running so slow hurry up yeah

that that that that wouldn't make me feel good if you tell me that yeah you know like it's hard to

speak to somebody else that way because it goes against your like morals as a human but for some

reason we're fine talking to ourselves like that so if you talk to yourself in third person

you're way more encouraging and even just that kind of changes your mindset um and then I usually

think like okay you're having a low you're going to have a high again you will feel good again

like just keep going or um like let's give it five minutes and see how you feel and sometimes I'm

just like okay I'm gonna count my stats I'm gonna count to a hundred and then stop out of it um

and then other times I just think about like anything totally random like playing a baseball game

and just totally escape but you just have to trust that if you're having a low you will feel good again

hmm kind of like the route you know it's just it's gonna go up it's gonna go down most of

the time our attitude goes up and down with it uh that that's really fascinating you know that's

just just keep it in mind that those loaves are going to turn around and the highs you know

don't be disappointed if that doesn't last forever because it's not going to um but enjoy it while

you have it uh now that's a really good little trick that refer to yourself in the third person

because I I remember just yesterday at work I I needed not really with where it was more of a

personal matter but I had to kind of just be very real with somebody and I remember getting off

the phone saying I really took it light on him and it was because you're talking to somebody else

and you're just conscious of of their feelings and you know and if you were talking to yourself you

have no problem just cousin yourself out so that's that's a real but it's not necessarily helpful

that's a really good point no and your brain like your brain doesn't really know the difference of

these things it just like takes to heart what you say so there's an article you can google it

there's a bunch of really high level like NFL and baseball players and I'll do it too

that is that is a great little tip oh my gosh you learn so much from you you're racing you you've got

you've done so many different things lots of different experiences uh and and you coach now

you know it it's everything from like training to um you know like race coaching personal training

and all that what was that like when did you launch that and when did you feel maybe comfortable

enough in your own accomplishments to say I can start teaching people yeah I guess um I started

personal training and for me I've been a total uh geek I guess on this kind of stuff that

that was a really young kid and so I just sort of assumed that everybody else spent their time

listening to podcasts and reading books on peak performance and like all these things that you

need to be an elite athlete um like I have like journals where I've drawn out like peak performance

uh pyramids when I was like 10 like a total loser um like and then filling it out like for hockey it

was like you know your cardio base and then your agility and then your hands and then your

like ability to read the play and all these little and like nutrition and then sleep and

started journaling like if I have this for breakfast and get that this much sleep um that I will

score this many goals and like finding correlations and all these weird things um and then as I got

a little bit older I had friends that would like notice I was doing this so they started asking

questions and then when I got into the fighting gym um people there would be like how do I focus in

for a fight and like get rid of my nerves and got into like the mental aspect and then we would

get into like well I keep getting tired and fights like how do I train the cardio side and not

just like my combination so then started working with some of those that outside of the gym

and then other people like just seeing stuff on Instagram and then being like well hey I'm not

an elite runner but I want to run through mountains too and I think um just relating to people as being

like just a regular person and not a super elite athlete and then asking questions and then

being able to give them a tangible advice like anybody can do um and then I just realized

that it was like really rewarding when a friend was like oh man I just ran at 50k and I didn't

think I could do it like thanks so much and I was like oh this is kind of cool I could probably make

this like it sounds so cheesy but like passion into a job so it really did grow really naturally.

How do you feel it has gone for you in the sense of uh turning something you love into into more

of a career more of something you do for a job I know everyone's a reaction to it can be

totally different I know mine was unique and yeah but I'm always interested in that folks that

take something they love and try to turn it into to a career. Yeah it's totally risky right because

you don't want to take the one thing that brings you a lot of happiness and like to make it

not super fun right um but it's been good and it's been a learning experience so I use training

peaks and I like didn't realize that most people aren't taking like their training plans

that's gospel and being like well you don't miss workouts because the first thing you plan and you

just don't miss workouts and that's just kind of how my mindset's always been so realizing that like

I have to relate to people that have busy lives who I started doing this before I had a kid and be like

how can you make this actually doable for someone who's like maybe it's not their first priority

but it's still something they want to do so learning a lot that way how to make it accessible

and I've actually found that's pretty fun and it helped me relate to people

in that's a very specific detail but overall I guess it's just learning a lot about people and how

they work and that's been kind of a fun side effect and then when people reach their goals and

so many of my clients have done things that they didn't think they could do that just feels so good

it's been it's been fun it's been positive and challenging so what would you say is

one common thing with the majority of people that prevents them from achieving their

maybe athletic or adventure goals that's tough I think yeah I think it's consistency and I think

it's people doing good for a week and then getting stuck and being like well I'm too busy

and if you talk to anybody that is achieving their goals they're not too busy

and those people often have careers that are like very challenging I just actually interviewed a

girl named Anne Marie Madden who is unbelievably fast and she works at a possible crazy hours

overnight shifts and her and I had the same kind of view where it's like you just look at your

week ahead and if I have to work 12 hours but I work 10 kilometers away well then I just run to work

and then I run home and then I've done my 20 kit so finding and another girl who's like well

I work really long hours during the day I don't have two hours at night to run 10 miles but I can

run three in the morning and three at lunch time and another whore when I get home so people that

want to succeed find a way to make it work the biggest hurdle is having these big goals and

being like I just can't make time but you can and sometimes that just takes work too and that

just takes practice so it's instead of being like oh well this client isn't making the time you

know this isn't going to work helping them out and being like okay well let's look at your schedule

and like what if it was the first thing that you planned and then you planned like when you were

going to do your grocery shopping and when you were going to do the other things you have to do

around your workout and made that kind of your first priority or didn't watch any TV this week

like do things shift for you even if it's like five minutes at a time or like my husband and I do

and I have clients and I have kids it's like I don't have time to go run 25 pay on a Sunday when we

have all the kids at home I have my son and then we have I have two step daughters but like the kids

need to play so if they all ride their bikes to the park and it's five kilometers away and I run

there and then we run around the park together and then on the way home I'm going to do my like

intervals and run and then now I've knocked off a bunch of times just out of family time and we've

made it like an event so I think you can work it into your life and sorry that was a super long

tangent on that very simple question no no yeah you're talking to a tangent person right here so

you you're not going to wear out my welcome with that that's uh that's totally fine I know that

I mean that was just an incredibly potent answer in the sense of just just how many just little

nuggets of like knowledge and wisdom you shared that's uh you're talking to somebody who who has

huge goals uh but not a so so type B that it's not even funny like it's uh it's uh like what are

you just you know I mean just you know I want to do it do these adventures or or I'll set a high

goal and then my just um yeah just just not someone that that that sticks to something for a long

period of time that's very much like blows in the wind a lot like my motivations and very very

much you know procrastinator and stuff like that so it's so it's so fascinating to me to talk to

folks like you who are um who have a passion for uh like you said those peak performance pyramids

and just it's something I would never think of as a person so I'm always interested like how do

these people achieve those goals and what do they teach folks like me to to accomplish goals who

have their hands on a lot of things and want to achieve a lot of things um athletically and

adventurous but don't don't structure their life so well my my wife is a lot like you it's it's

she achieves the things she wants to because she organizes her life in a way to do so

whereas I'm like let's see what today brings you know what I'm saying yeah it's just so cool to

live the way that you do too and people like me and probably your wife always have some

level of jealousy to people who can just like I don't know see the creative side and things

properly instead of you know you got to kind of let go a bit and sometimes that's hard for us to

do having a kid helps with that because now I don't have the choice to make those choices that

things are going to just kind of happen outside of your outside of your compartments I'm sure

exactly so what have you learned having a child with uh with with with adventure and with

running and racing um and also just managing life itself how how how has that changed you and

what have you learned oh man um I've learned a lot I've learned I like I only have so many

shits to give right and especially as a a woman and a female athlete like a maybe I had two or

three that were caught up in like five pounds or something um I don't have space for that anymore

it doesn't matter you know like he's my kid's not gonna love me more or less depending on what

my body looks like um or like if my hair looks funny so well I still like to like look like a normal

nice human being sometimes um little things like that that might have bugged me before

I just don't have I don't have space for them so in that sense it's almost been like

relaxing um and then on the other side of it there is a lot of mum guilt and a lot of pressure

from society telling us that we need to like do all the right things and spend all the time with

your kid and I was really worried about not being able to get the things done but like the adventures

done but you totally can because key benefits from a seeing his mom do cool stuff and be like if I

come home after an adventure I'm like ready for someone on one kid time and be totally present and

like you know it's that it's the old um analogy that like you have to put on your own mask first

before someone else's so I think being a mom and going off of going on personal adventures

and goals just makes you a better parent um and happier 100% I mean you mentioned so many things

there that that have reminded me of other stories we've heard on this show as well as you know

my own personal experience I don't know if you've ever heard of the climber Tommy Codwell did one

of the most unbelievable challenges in climbing which was Don Wall and Yosemite and I wrote we had

him on this show a few years ago and he said that having children is what pushed him over the

edge with uh when it came to inspiration to actually accomplish that because it was like I saw

this child and said to myself that child has I have to do this so that they know that I can do this

in that and I just want them to see me doing something amazing and be proud of me and it was like

holy cow that's uh that's unbelievable because I'm sure you experience this um there's just not a

level of of of of inspiration you can take until you have a child you just don't understand and

you have one it's like oh my gosh I want them to see me as an example of not giving up my life

once they're here but but really even going after things I wouldn't have gone for before just

just so they can be inspired by it totally that's cool to hear it from a dad's perspective too

because oftentimes you just focus on like society talks about what the mom should be doing but it's

cool to see a dad take on that same kind of excitement to want to show them stuff

absolutely what what do you see in your future what do you see happening moving forward do you

see any just major pivots are you going to continue pursuing this trail running in FKT world

you know that's funny I'm like I'm a dreamer and I get bored um and I want to try new things so

I'm like I got to try to go to the master's crossfit games duh but like I don't do

so I just I have a lot of weird things I want to do um I love running I haven't found anything that

gives me that same sense of adventure and I love when I speak to people on my podcast that are

six years seven year old old years old running hundred miles like I definitely want to be doing that

but I am religiously working on my golf game because I need to have an old person sport

and every time I go by a tennis court my like heart breaks because I'm not playing tennis

I don't play tennis I never did this is just like oh my gosh I'm so obsessed with sports

so I guess it like hugely depends on what my son wants to play and I want to play stuff with him

and I want to play pickleball so I guess that's your question like I just want to keep loving sports

I think they're such a huge part of life in general and I'm going golfing with my parents after

this and I just I hope that I can continue to play all of them and that that my I was also

hanging on my grandma she's 103 because she was active so I think being active and playing

sports is my long-term goal and which sport that is I don't know it runs the game and I mean there's

only eight thousand to choose from and I'm sure more you still got a lot to try you know so so keep

trying what where can people find out more about you um Instagram probably is the best place so my

Instagram is hell sport 55 one else so hil sport 55 and if you are into running I have a podcast as

well called the trail running women podcast and we just interview women that run to put it put

put it in the simplest term put there you go that's hey we interview adventures that's that's

pretty much all it is so no that's awesome and so we will definitely push folks to that push folks

to your your training and conditioning website rugged conditioning your Instagram but

Hillary you know honestly that last answer you know I mean your story just keeps getting better

and better you're gonna go play some golf with your with your you know with your family and

hang out with your 103-year-old grandmother I mean I feel like we could keep talking but I got

to run and uh keep being an inspiration keep trying new things and uh yeah I learned a lot in this

conversation so I'm excited to release this episode and uh yeah see see see who you uh continue

to inspire sweet well thank you so much this has been um so much fun and yeah I'm looking forward

to it coming out and we occasionally sprinkle the male guest on our show so we should have you on

my spot hey I I don't know if I uh could teach anything I could I could teach you a little bit

about living like a typey person uh it's uh it's serving you well at times um other times not

too much so I love to awesome well thanks so much and have a great rest of your day yeah you as

well and talk soon okay bye first of all thank you so much for listening it means the world to us

that you choose to listen to this show if you'd like to help us further you can leave a review on

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reach out email us at info at adventure sportspodcast.com and until then get out there and have some fun