Healthy as a Horse: Episode 13 - Sarah Chapelle

0:00Welcome to Healthy as a Horse. My name is Ellen Malone and today I am here with Sarah Chappelle. Here is a sophomore Hillsdale studying exercise science and biology. She is a member of the women's track team, a photographer for charge athletics and a member of countryside Bible Church. Welcome to the show Sarah. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. So I interviewed your teammate Yali two weeks ago but you're the first runner I am interviewing on the show. If you could describe what your season looks like for Hillsdale and then kind of get into your weekly and day-to-day schedule as well. Yeah. So if you had interviewed Yali a few weeks ago, you'd probably know that we have two seasons.

1:00So indoor starts in December and we just ended that last week and outdoor begins now. And we'll be competing until it all depends but probably until early May or late May if you make Nationals. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So it's a year round semester round sport. How long did you get off between the indoor season and the outdoor training? So us sprinters are in a recovery week right now which is really nice. We're at this place where we've all kind of pushed our bodies to the limit. A few of us are kind of pampering some hamstring injuries here and there. So we get this week very chill, a lot of hip mobility. Last week we start picking it up again just kind of light workouts and the week after that we hit it hard and we condition and we sprint for the next two weeks to kind of

2:02get that base before we move into a taper outdoor season is super short. Training year rounds, we really only get like week or two breaks after each season. So of course we're in that right now. And then after outdoor it'll be similar and then we get into summer training which is in my opinion super fun. It's sad because you're not with your teammates but you're kind of in that gritty part of this season or you're training and you come back for fall and then it's the same kind of grittiness but then it's with your teammates and so it's even better towards December. We start a little taper. We peak usually in the first week of December for our one meet and then we start another training cycle for indoor track in which we peak late February for conference. Okay, that makes sense. And so for swimming I know personally we have in season 20 hour weeks and that is 20 hours between a meet or in the pool or in the weight room working out.

3:04I know you guys with running kind of have some on your own stuff what does that look like? Usually our on your own things are things we don't really necessarily do alone but we do them as a team just without a coach. Okay, often can look like curved treadmill workouts using the new curved treadmill room above the jam. We do those at like certain time slots with our captains and a lot of active recoveries on our own so that's kind of the majority of what we're doing on our own in season. Okay, that makes sense. How is your experience at Hillsdale different from your runny experience in high school or hurtling mostly right? So how did that adjustment go for me for you as a freshman last year? Yeah, it was very complex. So in high school most of my training was actually on my own. Okay. I was a part of a really great program and a really great team and some of the best friends I ever made are on that high school team. I mean we made podium for state a few years four by four as a team all of it but I was

4:12the only hurtler. Okay. And I had a coach who he was great. We have a great relationship to this day but I was again it was very one on one and so coming to Hillsdale I had other hurtlers with me and that was such a blessing. Yeah. I mean I can't say anything negative about having a training group because you just have more eyes on you and you can have more eyes on others and so it's kind of helping you in your technique and in your motivation just being there for one another day and day out it was wonderful. So that was the biggest difference for sure. Yeah. Being a teammate I was just talking about that with my coaches is a reciprocal relationship. You are a good example to them and that calls them higher but they call you higher as well. So yeah that's huge. You've mentioned to me before you became a Christian your senior year of high school and how did this affect your approach to sports especially since it was so close to coming in as a freshman to Hillsdale.

5:14So my testimony briefly is really just my recognition of my own pride that I was self-reliant for so long and really thought that my good works and my good standings just in my community was my salvation and I realized that I was so broken and I needed Christ to save me and I couldn't do it on my own and gave my life to him. Before my salvation I entirely was doing track for the recognition and I loved the accolades and I was good at it. I once stayed all four years. I loved the praise that came with that. But my senior year of high school once I was saved it really became more fun. That's awesome. That was great because I was just basking in this joy of knowing that it's not my salvation is not on me and so running track became just a way to glorify God like wow God thank

6:18you gave me this gift I'm going to glorify you by using it and I'm going to focus so much more on my teammates because I realized my priorities were more in check. Well that's hard when you are training so much on your own you're taking pride in what you're doing because you are doing it very independently but that is a really heavy weight to carry at the same time. Yeah and we're I mean kind of like the reading in our sports leadership class I think it was last week like we have to focus on our teammates you know the true gospel purpose of sports if nothing else is to point people to Christ. And I think a lot of times people can take that and say well I can't just only focus on my teammates because I do have to do well for their sake to be a good teammate and I don't I do not think that those are exclude each other you being the best athlete you can be is part of being a good teammate but it's not doing it's not being a good athlete for the sake of yourself it's just such a reciprocal relationship like I said so being

7:24a Christian doesn't make everything magically super easy in sports and I know you kind of experienced some like would you call it sport induced anxiety yeah okay your freshman year how has this challenged you to grow as an athlete and in your faith yeah so in high school I would get these breathing attacks okay um usually after some sort of conditioning reps or after races and I never really knew why and I talked to a doctor about it and they called it sports induced asthma I experienced the same thing yeah and then last year it only happened after her bad races bad races specifically okay or races that like I wasn't happy with the outcome of it not necessarily that they had to be objectively bad my boyfriend had struggled with anxiety and his whole family really had um throughout their lives and they had gone to counselors in therapist

8:26and really knew some good tactics about anxiety and so he was able to gently point out to me he's like I don't think that this is just asthma because it's only happening in these scenarios and I hear the way you're talking to yourself and it sounds like anxiety and that was kind of hard for me to deal with because I first I was like I don't do mental illness like I that's not I would respond the same way yeah I know you mean like no I find um but after talking with him about it also talking with some of my teammate to an experienced anxiety and also talking to Becky one of the therapists on campus was able to realize what was happening and take some steps to kind of put things in perspective a lot of prayer these hyperventilating episodes you could call them I was able to remedy them with some

9:30breathing exercises every time I felt my physical responses starting like the heart rate the short of breath all of that I knew what to do physically the mental part was harder I had to take a lot of time realizing the reason that I was running and put time into just kind of prioritizing things and I leaned into my teammates a lot because they knew what was going on and they were very loving and gentle with me and they were also experienced in this and so it took a lot of dependence on others and dependence on God but I've I've really I've been delivered from that type of anxiety that's awesome I think it's such a beautiful story because so many people realize that they're dealing with anxiety or something and then it just becomes a diagnosis and nothing else I think you putting in a lot of effort and work into not only the practical breathing exercises that helped you but looking inwardly and examining your motivation at the

10:36core of why you do your sport that is probably the two most constructive things you could have done and just not getting stuck in a place where you're like map I have anxiety you know and this is just going to be something I deal with obviously something you deal with but it's something you're actively dealing with and constructively dealing with so I think that's really beautiful story for sharing yeah one thing Jesse's mom said my boyfriend's mom said is that even though you're dealing with anxiety you don't need to put that label on yourself exactly to make yourself think you're an anxious person and that this is just always how it's going to be everyone's going to deal with some level of anxiety in some point of their life yes you just have to figure out how to deal with it and you don't let yourself sit in it and that really helped me I think that's the best way to look at it because so many people label themselves and then think it's not something they can kind of overcome or work through so that's a really good way to look at it

11:44you're listening to healthy as a horse my name is Ellen Malone and I'm here with Sarah and we're talking about her experience as a Hillsdale college athlete you mentioned to me you're interested in life balance so for people listening the seven aspects are physical intellectual environmental vocational social emotional and spiritual health and this is a health and wellness podcast and I've never really read those aloud and kind of define them for people who are listening so I think it's awesome that you mentioned you're into this stuff so that I could kind of define it for myself how do you avoid like the culture of sickness surrounding these areas one of the um podcasters I listened to Alex Clark she says that like our culture is spiritually sick and physically sick but I think you could argue it's an all seven

12:47of these areas so how do you actively fight that would you repeat the like the the definite yeah physical intellectual environmental vocational social emotional and spiritual health I'd say spiritual health is at the root of all of it you got to be right with God you have to understand that he is your savior and being in him should be the root of your life as I know you like you understand this so that's definitely the biggest thing because you can count everything else as joy once once you are in Christ every ounce of suffering every ounce of sickness that comes your way any sort of trial you can have so much comfort knowing that you are in Christ and knowing where you're going but physically especially in America we are just not doing very well as you can agree I would agree yes I think that especially at Hillsdale like that's kind of just a known fact

13:50you're like yeah well most of all eaters just poison my brother he just went to this navy seal training sort of camp and the guy he was training with is this super crunchy like drink raw milk and eat all this beef and he gave them like 31 of the thorn supplements yes oh my gosh I have to show you a picture I remember Caleb telling me about like stuff he would say is poison like he would literally call just like regular Greek yogurt poison he would call like this stuff that you would consider healthy like he would say it was poison just because of all the just added junk yeah one of the things that drives me crazy is the marketing behind it there's so many things in the grocery store that they'll just put a healthy looking graphic on it and then people buy it and then you flip it over to the back and you're like whoa I can't say you're trying to fool me oh I do it too I'm like this label looks healthy like bloom yeah pretty much yeah no it looks so healthy there's

14:52like fruits on it it's best out there's a few things that like that guy recommended like there's a coconut based yogurt it's called cocoa June this is not a paid ad it's actually really good and it's not a poison yogurt a way I kind of combat this is just trying to eat whole foods it's as close as we can do as college kids like we're on a meal plan we're and they you know they say they don't use seed oils and that is great and truthfully the food has gotten a lot better even just in like taste but there's only so much we can do and we can control our controllables is what I like to say so I've kind of made I'm on a very small meal plan and I cook a lot of my food but what I've done is I eat up the hill on weekday lunch and dinners and then for breakfast I do that on my own I get these pastures eggs from all the super cheese those are good yes and they're

15:53good for you I use European style butter and some fruits sourdough like simple three ingredients sourdough which I'm gonna start making it next year I will it's so good I will I used to oh really I think I'll try again this summer I might get tips from you when it is so easy really it is so easy once you build a habit of feeding it and knowing what it is supposed to look like yeah it's super easy and the actual act of making the bread is beyond simple if you know remotely anything about how to bake okay people on their little blogs these really sourdough crazy people get on there and they have these super specific instructions of how to make the absolutely best sourdough it is like a four step process okay it's just doing it a couple times to figure out how you like to do it you know what that's actually really encouraging thank you it's so it's so much fun because I've been really scared to start and I really wanted to because it's so healthy it is very fun it's not super scary what is your favorite niche health tip I have asked a couple people this question and they

16:58said sauna or like ice rolling was Molly Kennedy's little tip on her shin splints so anything like it can be super random oh gosh okay this seems so basic but so many people miss it okay and I was getting injured for like four years in a row because of this drink enough water I don't think 90% of athletes on campus drink enough water I probably don't know like you need to be drinking almost your body weight in ounces and then of course pounding electrolytes I use mineral salt it's from the Baja gold brand okay every morning have that with this like half a lemon and some some water and it helps you know and that is so much better for you than the liquid IV yes it is awesome that's a great tip yeah drink enough water you will have a lot more energy and probably

17:59a lot more muscle injuries a lot less muscle inner sorry yeah yes yes you will have a lot less muscle injuries drink enough water yes that's good yeah especially if you're taking any sort of creatine supplement yes creatine will dehydrate you extra water so I like to ask everyone who comes on the show this question like I've heard people make this statement around campus but do you believe being an athlete at this level comes at the sacrifice of your health because some people say like very firmly yes and I think it's more complicated than that what do you think it's kind of funny I've been thinking about that this week and I like never have off the bat say no as a track athlete I am so particular about the things that I eat and obviously my hydration like I just said and I'm conditioning and sprinting and lifting at a very high intense level part of me looks

19:00forward to the day when I don't have to sport specific train just because it does put it does put a strain on your body because you're doing something so specific so much yeah my hips like my hips are out of alignment my shins hurt you know I've got two muscles or hamstring strains right now but those things are temporary and the base that you're building as an athlete in this age as a woman especially where like with your bone strength it is crucial to really preventing again this is for women like preventing osteoporosis in old age athletes are in a much better place to do that because you're building bone density and people who aren't lifting aren't working working out hard aren't staying fit in this young age will have bone decay injuries like you're saying you're experiencing now I think people let those scare them about when they're older but

20:08because they they just have this image in their head that they're going to end up experiencing these injuries someday when they're 80 years old and they're not going to be able to walk and then like that is way blown out of proportion of these these little injuries you're experiencing now even if they're a little bit bigger if you recover from them and still it choose to be a good athlete yeah that's like setting you up for success not to have all these extra aches and pains when you're older yeah and even mentally like coming back from stuff it's just so much better and this little tweak like I'm going to get over it in two weeks yep it's it's going to be fine and also for those of you who aren't athletes and aren't working at and and don't work out you're not going to get bulky from working out I am training at a really high intensity at a crazy level and I would not consider myself nearly close to bulky I would say the same thing yeah like the daintiest we still look like ladies yeah that's nice you have to really try to look

21:15like a muscle mommy to look like a muscle mom probably takes some testosterone just a little and I'm not going to do that I'm not going to do that either well thank you so much for coming on this show today Sarah I had a great time with you yeah this was awesome I'm Ellen Malone and this has been healthy as a horse for radio free Hillsdale 101.7 FM