May 12, 2024 • 51 mins
Arana, also known as Freaky Runner, shares his journey from being a rugby league player to becoming an ultra marathon runner. He discusses the shift in his identity and the sacrifices he made to pursue his passion.
Mentioned On Today's Show:
🤝 Setting clear goals and committing to the necessary training and sacrifices are essential for success
🤝 Running long distances alone can be a mentally challenging but rewarding experience, allowing for self-reflection and personal growth.
🤝 Investing in oneself and having a plan are key to achieving goals, whether it's in running or other endeavors.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the man the Cam Project podcast.
I'm your host, lachlan Stewart,and this week is a selfish
episode.
I've been getting into myrunning over the last sort of
two years, going from 400 metersto 5 kilometers to 10
kilometers and, most recently,marathons, and I'm excited about
continuing moving into theultra space and seeing what I
(00:20):
can push out or, I guess, getfrom myself in that space.
So I've been following peopleon social media who are doing
incredible things in the ultraspace and, you know, jump on a
call with today's guest aroundat Smarter and pick his brain
around ultra running and thejourney that he's been on to
achieve some of the feats thathe's done.
Since recording this episode.
(00:41):
He's gone on to do a backyardmarathon last weekend and he ran
220 kilometers straight on likea loop, which is, I think,
phenomenal.
So what you can expect to learnfrom this episode is how ultra
running can change who you areas an individual and make you a
better person.
We also dive into the ins andouts of ultra running planning,
(01:03):
goal setting and what it can, or, I guess, navigating injury and
how it requires you to shiftyour identity.
Now iran has come from therugby league playing nrl and now
moved into the ultra space.
So it's a cool transition forhim to be on, having played a
sport in a completely differentfield, to doing what he does now
.
And he's the first to admit hehas, uh, overcome a lot of stuff
(01:24):
over the years and to now have,I guess, banked the kilometers
over five years.
So he hasn't just gone fromrugby to his 100k plus runs.
He's built it up and that's amessage that I think is really
important to get across.
Everyone's starting line isdifferent in these ones, so
enjoy the episode.
It's full of so much gold and Ireally enjoyed this.
And for those of you who areenjoying the solo episodes on
(01:46):
Thursday, you guys absolutelyloved and I'm getting great
feedback from what I shared withthe things that I'm doing now
at 33.
So I avoid regret when I'm 63.
So if you didn't catch lastThursday's episode, make sure
you catch that after thisepisode.
Rana, welcome to the show,brother.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thanks, mate, Thanks for having me so.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Rana.
Welcome to the show, brother.
Thanks, mate.
Thanks for having me.
Mate, it's funny how we endedup here.
One of my buddies we were hikingaround Burley and, just as
context for the audience, one ofmy buddies was like you've got
to check this guy out.
He's just run 12 marathons in 12days, but he threw in two
ultras as well, two 50Ks and,for those who don't't know, I
rode 30 marathons in 30 dayslast year and my goal this year
(02:27):
was to do a similar one, butrunning.
So I'm always inspired bypeople like yourself who are
doing that, because I know, Ihave an idea of what it takes,
the commitment, the sacrifice onother areas of your life, the
preparation, the recovery.
And then I was looking at itand I was like fuck, a runner
used to carve up in in in theNRL and in the under 20s with
Benny Barber and all of that,and obviously followed your
(02:50):
journey.
So it's cool to see what you'redoing now, mate.
So I appreciate your time and Ilook forward to really diving
into things around.
I guess identity shift, movingfrom a footy player into an
endurance athlete and all thethings that you're working on
with Freaky Runners.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, cool mate, for sure.
Yeah, it's been a hell of aride the last probably five
years, I'd say Three years.
I've kind of really dedicatedsome time into this
ultramarathon field, eitherspace, mentally and physically.
So yeah, mate, I appreciate youhaving me on the show.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Was it that you started grabbing your interest
and attention in the ultra space?
Because obviously you know, ifyou think about rugby league,
it's very different to runningultras.
You know ultras for anyone whodoesn't know is anything over
42.2 kilometers, so it's acompletely different energy
system and sport.
So what sort of stole yourfocus with that?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I guess when I first started, mate, I wouldn't say it
was the distances, it was justrunning In general.
I've always kind of likedrunning.
Even when I was playing footy,I always ran like 5, 10, 15
kilometers.
Over the last five years Islowly increased my training and
my kilometers per week, evenrunning events.
So, yeah, I started runninghalf marathons, even running
(04:06):
events.
So, yeah, I started running,you know, half marathons, full
marathons and then transitionedinto the ultra space just over
the last you know year or so.
Really, I've always kind ofloved running the long distances
within my training block aswell.
I haven't really been a reallybig event runner, to be honest,
but I think the thing thatintrigued me was just always
trying to push myself.
Yeah, I, I always want more.
Like, I always have a chat to acouple of the guys that are
(04:28):
really close to me, and I guessone of the things that's really
hard for me is kind of being,you know, being satisfied with
either the distance or the timeyou know that I achieve on the
day.
And even you know, when I ranMount Kosciuszko last year, I
was kind of always saying, Ialways said to myself after it
even you know, when I ran mountkosciuszko last year, I was kind
of always saying I always saidto myself after it you know,
(04:48):
there was so much more left inthe tank.
But it takes time and it takesexperience to get good at these
things, and that's somethingthat I uh understand, you know,
and it takes a lot of hard work.
So, you know, it's kind of like, you know, evaluate what you've
been able to do on the day andthen then how do we get better.
So for the ultra space, mate,it's an amazing space, you know,
mentally and physically, and ifit can make you such a better
(05:10):
person, you know, why wouldn'tyou jump into it?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, obviously.
So, going from the footy playerinto that ultra space, have you
noticed a significant shift inhow you see yourself and the man
that you're becoming?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh, for sure, For sure, I wish I got into it a lot
long ago, just because of thesacrifices and the decisions
that you have to make.
You know, I say three years agobecause three years ago is when
I fully committed to mytraining.
You know I stopped drinking.
I, you know I got on a propernutrition plan.
I understand I understood fooda lot more.
Where you have to right, youknow food is energy in the space
(05:50):
and if you can't control whatyou eat, you know you run out of
petrol.
Really, you know it's theeasiest way to put it.
But definitely, mate, you know Ifeel like I'm such an
individual athlete.
I've always kind of been likethat, even when I was playing
sports, I was always kind of,you know, wanting to be by
myself and kind of wanting to doa little bit more, where a lot
of guys only did what wasnecessary in that space.
And it's still like that.
(06:11):
You know, when I still talk tolike one of my mates that I
caught up with this morning,zane Terabana, you know he's
talking about how guys stillkind of have that mentality of
just doing enough.
And I guess when I broke awayfrom all of that not from only
the alcohol side of things, butall the training.
(06:33):
I kind of got the opportunityto understand what was good for
me, and this space asks you alot of questions, whether or not
it's in training or in yourpersonal life.
So you have that opportunity tokind of better yourself by
making those decisions over aperiod of time as well.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
How have you found obviously drinking, for example,
is such a social glue forpeople with their socializing
and stuff and I know youmentioned a lot of the people
you're hanging out with now areinspiring you and motivating you
and challenging you to workharder and work on your mindset
and physically as well.
How was that going through theexperience of stepping back from
(07:11):
the drinking and the partying?
I know for myself it waschallenging.
A lot of the people that Isurrounded myself with, that's
all we really had in common.
So when I stopped having thatcommonality with them.
A few of my relationships sortof broke down, and that was
challenging to navigate.
Have you experienced anythinglike that as well?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
yeah, for sure, for sure.
Um, uh, yeah, you know, but Ithink when I kind of made that
decision, I didn't kind of mindabout pulling myself away from a
lot of those people as well.
Like I said before, I've alwayskind of been like a person
where I haven't had to reallyrely on others.
So when I kind of did make thatdecision on going by myself and
(07:50):
training a little bit harder,it didn't really affect me.
And I'll tell you a story, likewhen I was running and I was
running all these distances andI was mixing alcohol with my
running.
I actually remember one day Iwas running down the hill and I
was looking at my time and I wasmixing alcohol with my running.
I actually remember one day Iwas running down the hill and I
was looking at my time and I wasrunning down my hill and I
looked up at the sky and I saidto myself why am I fucking not
(08:11):
getting better?
Why am I not getting any better?
And it just hit me it goes well, you're drinking two or three
times a week.
You're still doing all thethings that you used to do.
How do you think you're goingto get better at running if
you're still doing all thesethings and it was kind of like,
you know, a time in my life whenI realized that I had kind of
had to put alcohol aside.
You know, and I wasn't young,you know I won't lie, but once I
(08:34):
kind of did do that, my runningwent to another level.
And yeah, you know you loserelationships.
But I guess you know youunderstand who is truly in your
life and you know you understandwho is truly in your life and
you know I won't lie, this ultramarathon space is a lonely
space at times.
But I'll be honest, I loverunning by myself.
You know what I mean.
Like just over the last coupleof months I've knocked out all
(09:02):
my challenges by myself.
I haven't really ran with manypeople All the probably 12
marathons in 12 days.
I think I might have ran two orthree days with a couple of my
mates.
So, and then all my kind of 100Kruns that I do at the moment, I
love doing them by myself aswell.
So yeah, mate, you know myrelationships now with people.
You know there's not many, butI know the relationship that I
have with a couple of guys arequality relationships and I
(09:26):
won't lie to you, mate, I don'treally have time.
To be honest, you know, like Itrain, I work, I hardly sleep.
So when I do get thoseopportunities to mix and mingle
with other people, I either wantto help people or I want to
learn.
So yeah, I guess that's whereI've kind of learned a lot from
our relationships in sports.
(09:46):
Do you know what I mean?
Um, especially with yourcoaches and your mates.
You know, once you kind of kickyour alcohol, you you think a
little bit differently as well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
That's awesome, and there's one thing that I can
probably summarize.
That is just how focused youare.
I think you've set this goaland you're understanding what
your priorities are and a lot ofpeople everyone's busy and
people try to add stuff on topof it before looking at how
their schedules are and removingthings whether it's removing
relationships, whether it'sremoving other shit that they're
(10:14):
committing to, and that's whythey're always so busy and
they're not achieving anyresults.
That's right going, going intothe, the mental sort of space
where it's like you're running100 kilometers by yourself and
I've seen you do it multipletimes on social media and then
you've done all the marathonsand you like doing that by
yourself.
What is it that you get out ofdoing it by yourself?
(10:35):
Because I just know from my ownexperiences with long runs and
stuff like that the mentalchatter sometimes is a very
interesting conversation and alot of people can't deal with
that.
So what is it that?
you take from it, and what is itthat you enjoy about it?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I think the first thing is experience right.
The more we kind of do it, thebetter we're going to get.
We all have to understand, like, where I am now has been
progress.
It's been a lot of time andeffort put into it.
So you, you know, I definitelyhad those demons that we all
talk about.
You know, in the beginning ofyou know where are we and the
body breaking down and the bodyfeeling a certain way.
(11:10):
So where I am now, um, andgoing through those experiences
in the past has definitely gotme to where I am now and I can
kind of control a lot of that.
Now.
A lot of people run with with nomusic.
Compared to music, I feel likewhen I'm in a certain state or
in a certain flow, you know,music can definitely help me.
It can get me into a betterrhythm, a better, yeah, flow.
(11:33):
I call it.
So, yeah, mate, you know likeeven the other day, I ran 100K
and I started to think about arelationship that I had broken
up with in the past and you know, and I was thinking to myself,
I was thinking where did thiscome from?
You know what I mean.
I'm in a really good state ofmind.
I'm training really well, mybody's fit and, I'll be honest
(11:56):
with a lot of people, that'ssometimes how the mind
challenges us, so every day canbe different, but I guess I've
put a lot of hard work,especially in the last probably
five months.
About reading I read a bookcalled the champion's mind and
it has so many differentexamples of different athletes
going through challenges intheir career and, you know, it
(12:18):
really helped me understand, um,how to control my emotions
through a lot of the runs that Ihave now, whether or not it's
through the beginning, becausefor me, mate, and I don't know
for anybody else, but I find thefirst probably hour to two
hours the most difficult part ofmy run.
Through the back end, once Ikind of get into my flow, I feel
like I get stronger throughoutthe run, even though my paces
(12:41):
might get a little bit slower ifI'm running 100K or the
200-kilometer run that I run, Ifeel like my mind is able to
really settle into the run and Ican control what I need to
control and I always go into arun with a few goals, right, we
always do.
I wouldn't say that I try andrun at a certain pace or trying
(13:01):
oh, whether or not.
Sorry, I don't try and runquick at a certain pace.
I always have a goal and mineover time.
But once I kind of can get intomy flow, I just really
concentrate on that goal on theday.
So but, like I said, it's takenme a lot, a lot, a lot of time
and a lot of effort to kind ofbe able to control my mind for a
(13:22):
certain amount of time likethat you know, 11 hours, 10
hours now if I can run 100Kpretty quickly, which was around
, you know, christmas, but nowwe've kind of slowed down a
little bit more, just because Iwant to run a lot further, right
?
So, yeah, mate, I guess thisyear has been a really big focus
(13:43):
on, on on my mind.
To be honest, I feel like mybody now, uh, even through the
last couple of runs that I'vedone over the last month, I'm
I'm not even joking Like, I feellike my body can, can, can go a
lot further than what it is,and we'll test ourselves when we
when we run the backyard ultrain a couple of weeks.
So I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
How do you pull up from so?
Even you mentioned you did a200-kilometer one a while back.
How did you pull up from that?
Were you out running the nextday, or what does that next day
look like for you?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That run was tough.
That run was tough.
I was really good for about 145kilometers.
So I stuck to all my paces.
I had a mate pace me as welland we had a time we had.
We knocked over all of ourgoals throughout that period up
to about 145 k's.
I had a consistent pace ofabout a six minute 20, which was
(14:35):
my goal, something that I hadbeen training up to as well.
Yeah, yeah, I ran the 100kilometers under 11 hours.
I think it was like don't don'tquote me on this but I think it
was like 10 hours 40 something.
So that was a big goal of mine.
I wanted to get a sub 12 hour100k in that.
I wanted to get a sub 20 hours100 miler, which I got as well,
(14:55):
which was 19 hours 40 something.
And then my goal that I wantedto achieve for the 200k was
sub-24 hours, but I didn't getthat one.
I got 26 hours 31 minutes.
But my recovery mate, it took alittle while because I
disintegrated one of my tendonsthrough the front of my foot and
(15:16):
I actually ran about 40K withmy leg kind of dangling there,
which is quite common,apparently.
So when I was talking to Dylan,which was my pacer on the day.
He had a bit of anunderstanding on the injury that
I had.
But because that wasn't themain injury, I actually had like
a really sore hamstring throughmy VMO, similar to the injury
(15:39):
that I had through the 12marathons in 12 days.
That was the injury I wasworried about, to be honest.
So my ankle was kind of like,ah, you know, like that's all
right, it's not even sore untilI took my shoe and my sock off
when I was finished and then itkind of just blew up so I and I
couldn't walk on it for forabout three or four days, so
that that that, um, that took mea little while.
(16:00):
But, um, when I kind offinished the run, I thought my
leg was broken because Icouldn't move it.
Um, but it was just, it wasjust a fluid around the ankle.
So once the fluid kind of likewent away, uh, ate a little bit
healthier and kind of like, letlet all the fluid kind of like
kind of get out of my body.
Um, my body was actually allright because I ended up running
the 12 marathons in 12 days,only three only later.
(16:24):
But yeah, like I say before, Ifeel like I've been able to
train my body to get to where itis now over the last five years
.
That's why I say a lot to a lotof people, like, a lot of people
are saying, oh, you need totake a lot of time off.
But I guess, even if you put itinto perspective, I started
doing NRL pre-seasons when I was15 years.
(16:44):
I was 16 years old when I firstdid my first NRL pre-season.
Back then, mate, you would knowyou know they were.
They were tough.
You know they used to.
They used to flog you.
There were no GPS's back then.
Uh, you know Gary Carden fromthe Bulldogs uh, I still talk
about the Roosters when I wasthere, uh, when I was a young
fella, that they would flog.
You do you know what I mean.
So I guess, going into what I'mdoing now, no one's yelling at
(17:09):
me anymore, it's more kind oflike you know, this is what we
need to do.
You want to do this.
This is the process, this isour goal, this is our training
schedule.
Let's just get it done.
And, yeah, I just follow theprogram and hopefully my
training gets me there on theday.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's a big point for everyone to think about is
you've literally been doing youknow you've probably been
training for longer than that,but doing like professional
level pre-seasons, in-seasons,post-seasons since you were 15,
right.
So you've got years ofexperience that have led you to
that point.
It's not just you know a couchto 100K or 200K, and that's what
(17:49):
people don't see.
They're probably people who arestumbling.
I've seen how quickly yourInstagram has been growing as
well, and there's probably a lotof people who are like, look at
this crazy bugger who's justdoing these ridiculous distances
, but they don't know the fullback story that's right, they
don't know all the hours thatyou've put into doing that, and
especially from, I guess, amuscle-building point of view.
(18:10):
Like our muscles build quickerthan our ligaments and our
tendons do, they're strengthened.
Sorry, you've got all thoseyears of footy, the lateral
movement, the speed work thathave compounded on top of that,
which, similar to you, dude,like for me, I've been doing
training since I was like 12, 13, running at a high level footy,
all that sort of stuff, andthen I just believe that my body
(18:33):
is capable of it.
There's some things now that Iknow I probably couldn't do as
well, like I haven't runlaterally for a fair while, like
stepping and all of that.
I've just been running in astraight line, so I wouldn't go
straight back to footy oranything, but it's understanding
your body and you mentioned,with the goal setting and taking
(18:53):
responsibility for all of thesethings.
You know what you want toachieve and then you sort out
people who can help you getthere and you just trust the
process.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
With your nutrition.
So one thing that I'd love tolearn more about in the ultra
space is, like nutrition thingsthat have worked well for you.
What have been some big thingsthat you've taken away that
maybe you didn't do in yourfooty career or during you're
still obviously playing, butduring football that you wish
you did earlier to improve yourperformance?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
oh, mate, there's.
There's so much.
You know.
My whole life now has done a360, to be be honest.
Just drinking water.
I bought an alkaline machineabout five years ago that I only
drink alkaline water.
Just these simple things that Ido that you can't even explain
to some people.
Do you know what I mean?
And that's the thing.
People only see what they wantto see.
Do you know what I mean?
(19:43):
They only want to understandwhat they think is
understandable for them.
So when I talk about some otherthings that I do that I don't
actually talk about on my socialmedia to help myself not only
be a better runner, but to helpmyself operate at the highest
level every day.
So my nutrition side of thingsis pretty simple.
(20:04):
I keep it really simple justbecause I know it works like
rice, fruit, mangoes.
I hardly eat red meat anymore.
It's not that I don't eat redmeat, I just feel like it sits
in my stomach.
I don't digest it the best, butalso I know what works for me.
So, yeah, I keep it quite clean.
I've never really been a bigeater, to be honest, even when I
(20:24):
was a kid.
I kind of just eat enough.
But also, through a lot of theultra marathons I'm still
learning a lot, like when I ranthe 200k.
I didn't have any, any sugarsor any car or any sugars.
Um, yeah, until you knowkilometer 130.
So I didn't have any coke, Ididn't have any cupcakes, uh,
(20:45):
cookies, or anything like that.
I kept it really clean.
I kept it only hydrolite gels,water, and then I usually have
like a croissant with peanutbutter, peanut butter or honey
now.
So I've actually really triedto get away from using the gels
and kind of go to more towardsour food.
If you would have watched myInstagram over the last couple
(21:08):
of months, I've really kind ofran and knocked over all my
marathons with food, withbananas and water and hydrolite,
just to kind of, yeah, I don'tknow, I've just kind of want
(21:30):
you're looking for that dopamine, you're looking for that hit,
that energy hit from from, fromthe gel.
So I've kind of and it kind ofgone away from that.
But also through my experiencesof running when I was a little
bit of a rookie, um, I used torun with no water.
I used to run with no water.
I used to run with no gels for30, 40 kilometers.
So mentally, like I know that Ican do these distances without
(21:54):
them.
So I'm going well if I can doit a lot cleaner, and I can do
it with Hydralight.
All that I really need to focuson is trying to keep my mind
focused for this time.
But also, what can give meenergy?
You know honey.
You know what can settle mystomach?
Croissants and croissants forme has been a big game changer
because I feel like it digests alot easier than bread when I
(22:18):
used to have.
You know, I used to carry asandwich in my bag.
But these are the things that Imean by doing this over a period
of time.
Right, it's experience, it'sgoing through the things that
you kind of need to go throughby, by doing it, by experiencing
these foods and by experiencingthese, um, these runs with not
do it, not eating the right foodand eating the right food.
(22:39):
Now.
So for me, like I said, I justknow what works for myself.
And when people you know, um,ask me questions about nutrition
, I said well, we're twodifferent humans.
You know what I do is notalways going to work for you.
You know, asked me questionsabout nutrition, I said well,
we're two different humans.
You know what I do is notalways going to work for you.
You know, even with water, withGatorade, with Hydrolyte I see
people drinking drinks and Ithink you know if that works for
them, you know that might workfor them, but for me that's not
(23:01):
something that I would put in mybody as well.
So nutrition, yeah, back in theday, when I was playing, you
know, even NRL I remember when Iwas at Penrith I used to drive
into Red Rooster every day aftertraining and get Red Rooster,
because there was one right onthe highway as you left Penrith
(23:22):
to get on the highway to go toParramatta, because I lived in
Parramatta.
But you know, if you talk toShandor Eel, he'll tell you the
stuff that I used to eat back inthe day, like I never used to
really cook.
Um, he was a big believer of,you know, eating healthy and you
know, you look at him, he's aspecimen, you know, and and I
wish it was something I kind ofyou know um, I wish it's
(23:45):
something I kind of you know.
But you know I could havechanged a lot of things back in
the day.
So that's what I mean, like myexperiences or what that I kind
of you know, but you know Icould have changed a lot of
things back in the day.
So that's what I mean, like myexperiences or what I've kind of
done in the past.
I'm doing everything wrong.
You know everything, I'd say.
You know I was probably lucky.
I actually think back now and Isay to myself how did I even
play at that high level?
You know what I mean, Like thethings I was putting in my body,
(24:05):
where my mindset was, how I wasthinking and the decisions that
I made, and I was still able toplay NRL.
I was still able to, you know,to train.
I thought I think, probably,when I think back now, it was my
mindset that got me through orgot me to the top, because I was
relentless, I trained my assoff and I've still got that in
(24:26):
me.
But everything away from footy,like you know, it was terrible
man.
It was terrible, you know.
But, like I said, the thingthat probably got me to where I
was was my training.
You know how hard I trained.
I kind of always loved winningthings.
You know I'd go out and get onthe piss.
You know I'd go out and get onthe piss and not even go to bed
(24:47):
and then go to training and kindof win all the, you know, win
all the fitness, win all thefitness.
And then you know, that'sprobably why a lot of the guys
didn't like me as well, you know.
So I partied hard but also Ialso make sure I train my ass
off as well.
But back then that was kind ofthe mentality, like I remember,
when I was at the Roosters withNate and Ashley Harrison and
Craig Wing they would alwayshave a good time as well with
(25:09):
the Bondi boys.
But they always said to me ifyou're going to have a good time
, you make sure you're ready totrain at 7 am in the morning.
And that was just somethingthat I adopted.
I just thought, what if I canand I could do it?
Do you know what I mean?
I could just wake up and trainmy ass off.
And I think that goes back downto the mentality thing, whether
or not do you want to do it ornot.
(25:30):
And you can transition thatinto ultramarathon running,
because when it gets sore and itgets tough, I remember Dylan
asking me when I was at 175kilometers and my legs were the
pain was 10 out of 10.
And I said to him.
(25:50):
He said to me um, do you wantto stop or not, and I said no.
So you know?
It's just as simple as thatit's.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
every time I hear you say a big number like 175 and
200, it still just doesn't makesense like it's such a big thing
.
So, yeah, from the outset, Ithink, a thing that people you
know the reason why I lovesports, or whether it's team
sports or individual sports it'smold your character for how you
(26:20):
show up in other areas of yourlife and, much like you, when I
was playing footy, I wasn'tlooking after the other areas of
my life and a lot of peopledon't understand how much your
life's connected.
If your relationships arefalling apart, it's going to
impact your performance in otherareas.
Your mindset shithouse it'sgoing to impact how you lift in
the gym or vice versa.
(26:40):
It's all connected.
And what I think is really coolabout when you start pursuing
things that are new for you sofor you, for example, going from
rugby league, which is whatyou've always known, to then
ultras, which is new it's almostlike this second shot at
learning how to do somethingbetter and build on the mistakes
or the things that you didn'tknow, that you probably wish you
(27:02):
did when you were younger.
We're all doing that and it'sthe reason why I love getting
into endurance sports as well,because you're just learning so
much about yourself, like eventhe fact that you went down the
rabbit hole of learning aboutnutrition.
Not only does that help you runthe long distances, it's just
going to help you for longevityfor the rest of your life.
A lot of people don't know howto eat, which is why they feel
(27:23):
crap, they look crap and theyaren't happy with their life and
it's like well you're a prettybusy, dude.
You've got a lot of stuff on,but you took the time to learn
it.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, no, I think that's probably the most
important part, right, likenutrition, we eat three or four
times a day.
I think if we're not focusingon that first, how are we meant
to train the way that we want tooperate?
And you see a lot of thesepeople now that are trying to
run these running clubs know,everyone wants to get fitter,
everyone to get trying, everyonewants to train harder.
(27:51):
I guess you know.
First of all, go away and have alook at your nutrition.
You know what are you puttingin your body to be able to
operate and do the things thatyou know you you're trying to do
.
So, uh, my, I think you know Ialways make sure I put my
nutrition first.
Even though I train really hardand I do all these things, I
really try and make sure that Iput the right things in my body.
(28:11):
Even if I want to start my daythe right way, you know I'm
putting water in my body firstand this is just a routine that
I've been able to find thatworks for my work well, for
myself as well, to get what Ineed to get out of my body.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
You spoke about as well before.
Like all the things you'relearning, you said you're either
spending your time with peoplelearning from them or you like
teaching.
So for yourself and I know wewere chatting about this offline
the ability to give back andhelp young people where has the
passion come to?
I guess?
Pass on the things that you'velearned to the younger people.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I think for me, I think if you look at society at
the moment as well, you see alot of kids that are a little
bit lost.
You know, like back when I wasa kid and when we were playing
footy, everyone was kind of likedriving each other.
I think, at the moment, for me,what I see is an opportunity to
help kids, not be thisspectacular person on social
media or whatever you know thatis.
(29:06):
It's just to kind of like findwhat they want to do, and I
think with training and withrunning and with clean nutrition
, it can help them kind of, youknow, find, you know what they
want to do, whether or not it'sIT or, you know, maybe being a
sports athlete or being ateacher.
I think, just by setting thesesmall little routine goals of
(29:28):
going out and training a littlebit harder with some like-minded
people and with some peoplelike myself and Nick Youngquist
and Louis Brown you know theseother guys that I've been
training with you know, if youget around these guys, you know
we can also help these kids.
You know, just think a littlebit differently but also give
them a safe space.
I think that's really importantthese days as well is is just
be able to let them talk abouttheir feelings and let them talk
(29:51):
about you know what they'regoing through.
I wouldn't say really talkabout their emotions, but you
know, really kind of just showthem.
This is a good thing for youguys.
You know hard work is a goodthing, but also, you know, oh,
it's hard to explain sometimes,but yeah, I think with sports it
(30:13):
kind of brings out the best inyou and with hard work I think
you know you're able to find out, you know what you want to do,
but also mix and mingle withsome really good people as well.
So that's another thing that Iwant to kind of set up
underneath Freaky Runners isjust to kind of help kids get a
little bit more fitter, you know, and really find themselves and
, you know, create a really goodcommunity, a strong community
(30:35):
around that.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, so when you were saying there around like
building getting people to dohard stuff, there's a whole
process that people don't learn.
We're living in a time wheremore people are expecting things
without doing the work.
They aren't learning theprocess of facing adversity.
It's the reason why I believepeople are more depressed than
(30:56):
ever, anxieties at an all-timehigh, because when challenges
arise which they will, becausethat's life is they don't know
how to handle it.
They don't have the supportnetworks, they don't understand
how to communicate what they'refeeling and, as a result of that
, we're looking for the quickfixes, and the quick fixes
aren't necessarily always thingsthat help you in the long run
and a lot of people now Ithink it's why what you said
(31:19):
earlier, where there's a lot ofrun groups starting up and
there's a lot of people seekingout these hard challenges,
because we want to be better andwe know that by doing this in
Sim, what you're creating aswell with Freaky Runner is
you're inspiring not only yourdirect community but people who
are following you online to dohard shit, and whether that's
(31:40):
200K or whether that's 2K, itdoesn't matter.
It's all relative to theindividual.
But once they start, theconfidence is going to build,
their network's going to improve, the confidence is going to
build, their network's going toimprove, their health is going
to improve, and it's very hardto consistently have a shit day
when you're looking good, whenand when you're feeling good and
that's why I think it's such apowerful place to start for
(32:01):
people who feel stuck, and whatyou're doing now, and I guess
even to tie into what you'redoing with freaky runner.
Firstly, why the name FreakyRunner and what's the mission
that you've got behind that?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, I guess you know there's a lot of moving
pieces in Freaky Runners.
Now you know it's become a lotbigger than what I kind of
expected it to be, but it'sencouraging, like now we've got
a marketing team behind it, I'vegot a manager on board now that
we're navigating through a fewsponsors as I was talking to you
a little bit offline and someexciting stuff happening too
(32:38):
with some sponsors.
So I won't go too much intointo that.
But I guess the vision was justto kind of um, you know, have
an opportunity for people tocome to me and you know I can
help um.
That's kind of where it started.
Now we've kind of um buildingthese other arms with the
children, with the kids, um, andthen you know, all my training
myself.
(32:58):
So freaky runners is going tobe a platform for a lot of
different things, a lot ofmoving pieces, um, but I guess
for myself it's.
You know I've always lovedrunning um and I don't know like
freaky runner the name was justum started when um, me and
christy were kind of talkingabout different names and then,
uh, all the boys the boys attraining used to call me freaky,
(33:19):
you know, over the last twoyears and I was like freaky,
okay, I like, I like freaky.
And then I was like freakyrunners.
And then we started freakyrunners as the program where
people come in and obviouslyjump on board with the strength
and conditioning programs or therunning programs now.
So that was one.
And then I restructured my, myinstagram page and, uh, chrissy
(33:40):
was just like to me, why don'tyou just call yourself Freaky
Runner?
And I was like, oh, you knowwhat?
You know, it sticks.
People call me Freaky anyway.
So I was just like, let's gowith that.
So, yeah, mate, I'm.
Yeah, you know, just over thelast three months, the page has
been able to grow.
You know, the business isgrowing.
Like I said before, we've got ateam underneath us.
(34:09):
Now we've got the new contentboys on board that we're just
about to launch all the newcontent um, with the new
sponsors moving forward.
So that's going to be reallyexciting as well.
So everything's moving in theright direction.
I think for me it's.
You know, the page is growing,but, um, I've always, I've
always done this.
I think that's what we weretalking about.
A lot of people don't understandthat I've been doing this for
years.
It wasn't until the contentboys previously that I was using
that knew me, that were likemate, you need to show your
(34:30):
training.
You know you're doing all ofthis.
You're doing all of that, youknow because they used to follow
me when I was at 1,000followers.
You know a lot of people werebecause my page has only grown
over the last three months.
Really, I was, I was at 1800only three months ago and now
I'm at, you know, almost 14 000.
So, um, you know it's been ableto grow but, like I said before,
the training who I am as aperson hasn't it's developing,
(34:55):
but I have been doing, you know,this type of training, at least
for the last, you know, threeor four years, easily, you know.
So, uh, yeah, a lot of thepeople now ask me do you sleep?
Do you do this?
And I'm like I've been doingthis for a long time.
I'm not just doing it becausemy page is growing.
You guys have just jumped onthe journey of where I am now
because I've decided to grow mypage, I've decided to put effort
(35:17):
into it, I've decided to havesome content.
Guys follow me around and showwhat I do on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
That's what happens when you invest in yourself.
Man, what do you feel like foranyone out there who is in a
similar position?
Maybe they're not quite doingthe things that they know they
should do, whether it's to growtheir page or to run their first
marathon or ultra.
What would the advice be thatyou'd give to them?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Oh, just go for it.
Do you know what I mean, Ithink, with running, first of
all, you need to have a plan,you need to have a structure,
because what that does is thatidentifies where you are right.
We're all on certain levels.
We're all on certain levels.
We all have certain fitnesslevels of where we are at the
moment.
You have to understand that.
I think that's the first thingthat you have to understand,
(36:05):
whether or not it's getting inthe gym implementing a six-week
training block for your running,because that's going to help
you not get injured, to behonest.
So, even where I am at themoment, I know there are far
better runners, far betterultramarathon runners than me
out there, but I have my plan, Ihave my steps.
If you have a look at where Iwas last year compared to this
(36:26):
year, I've been able to developmyself over time and that's the
best way to look at yourstructure and what you want to
achieve where you are at themoment.
So, with social media, just gofor it.
I say we're all very different.
Even though you might be arunner and you're doing running
things, you know you do thingsin your own way and I think for
(36:49):
myself.
You know I love.
One of the boys said to me theother day.
They said, mate, he looked atme and he goes you're actually
quite creative, aren't you?
And I, you know, I laughed athim.
I said oh, you know, like Ilove it.
You know, I love the diversity,I love the opportunity to be
different.
I love the opportunity to letother people speak about what we
(37:10):
can do collaboratively together.
You know, and when you do that,there's so many ways that you
know you can grow.
You know there's so manyopportunities in social media as
well.
You look at brands, businessesthat want to expand, they want
to grow, they want to work withdifferent types of people.
So when you have that openmindedness of being able to let
(37:33):
people speak their mind, basedon a vision for your page, you
know, or your social media page,it's only going to grow, right?
You can't do anything wrong onsocial media these days, because
there's always going to be thatsmall percentage of people that
go.
Well, that's great, that'sawesome.
You know what I mean.
You're always going to getthose other people who go.
(37:53):
Why did you do that?
For why did you do this?
So I think the diversity in apage gives you so much more
exposure as well.
I think you know and I was justspeaking to the boys about it
last night, about, like, thisphoto shoot thing that I want to
do and they said, oh, butyou're a runner.
I said, yeah, but we're workingwith brands, we're working with
clothing, we're working withshoes.
(38:14):
Why wouldn't we do a photoshoot in a way of just showing
the brands that we're workingwith?
You know, we don't always haveto be out on the road running.
You know what I mean.
We can tell a story and I think, with that social media side of
things, a lot of people I thinkyou know the algorithm's
changing now with social mediatoo People want to get to know
that person, people want to knowyou know the story, they want
(38:39):
to watch your journey.
So and I think that's my, thealgorithm's kind of working well
with my page, like I'll justchuck the camera up and talk, uh
, before my runs, now tell themthe reason why I'm doing it, um,
the distances, the times, and Ithink for me I, you got nothing
to lose.
I don't really care what otherpeople think about whether or
not I'm slow, I'm fast, I'm notrunning enough, I'm, I'm running
too much.
You know what I mean because Iknow where I am and I know what
(39:01):
my goal is, moving forward, aslong as I stay within my program
and not trying to run, you know, too fast to get injured,
because that's the only way thatyou kind of do get injured, I
feel.
You know, as long as I kind ofstick to my program and my
vision and my goals, whatever Ipost online, you know I don't
really care what other peoplethink.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
That's awesome, man.
It's a good position to get to,and you're definitely right.
I think people are veryinterested in the behind the
scenes, on how it happens.
I know I am.
I follow people to see whatthey eat, how they recover from
it, why they're doing it, ratherthan just the thing that
they've done.
Yeah, for sure.
Just quickly, before I let yougo with the ligaments in your
(39:42):
feet and stuff like that, haveyou been worried about having
permanent damage with those?
Or you're just sort oflistening to your body and
resting it when you need to, orwhat's the go with those ones?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I guess we'll find out after we run the Backyard
Ultra.
I've got the Backyard Ultranext Friday, so I have been a
little bit weary I'll say theweary is probably the word but
I'm using a really amazing spaceat the moment which is Bionic
Wellness in Sydney, surrey Hills, and you know I'm using the
float tank.
I'm using the hyperbaricchamber now I've now gone up to
(40:16):
using two hours hyperbaricchamber three times a week.
So that's what I mean.
You know a lot of peopleprobably don't understand.
They just look at thekilometers that I'm running.
But you know I've just signed asponsorship deal with g
recovery as well now.
So I get in there with all myice baths, my sauna, my leg
compression, so I'm probablydoing five to six hours a day on
(40:38):
recovery, where a lot of peopledon't understand that as well.
So, yes, I'm putting my bodythrough these crazy runs, but I
would also say I've probablypegged it back now.
I'm not running the usual16-week training block that I
used to do now, because where myfitness level is is that at the
moment, and this is what I talkabout.
I'm a more specific trainer now.
(40:58):
I'll do things specifically toreach a certain goal.
So at the moment, my goal isrunning the Backyard Ultra.
I don't need to go out and run21Ks every morning to build my
level of fitness up, because inmy opinion that's really doing
nothing for me, because I knowthat I can already run those
distances.
I need to be focusing more ontime on feet, so getting my body
used to these 10, 12, 14, 16hours.
(41:22):
And people were wondering ohwell, why did it take you a
certain amount of time to run100K?
I said because I want to tryand stay awake for 24 hours.
I want to try and stay awakefor, you know, I actually think
I stayed up for 48 hours, mylast 100 because I did 30K in
the morning, I went to workduring the day, I done 70K in
the evening, finished at 6 am orwhatever it was, and I didn't
(41:45):
even go to bed.
I stayed up the whole day,saturday, and then I didn't go
to bed until Sunday and that waskind of my strategic plan and
that's what people don'tunderstand as well.
Like through the Backyard Ultra, I want to get 35, 40 laps,
which is, you know, that's 40hours.
(42:06):
You know you do 6.7 k's everyhour.
For for as long as you, as longas you can.
Last man standing, so, um, youknow, but you know that's where
I feel like I am now.
I'm not trying to overachievethat and I had a really good
in-depth chat with dylan rin,which is my um, which is my
pacer, my good mate, uh, that Iget really, really good advice
from.
If you look at some of the stuffhe's done as well, he's got a
few records for a couple ofultramarathons as well.
(42:27):
He did the Costa Cosi, which isthe 240K run, and he's been the
only one to finish the ElephantTrail ultramarathon, which is
240 kilometers as well, and thatevent has been going for nine
years.
So these are the people that Iget my advice from.
Guys that are further ahead ofme, do you know what I mean?
(42:50):
And when I talk about myinjuries and I talk about what
I'm going through on the day,I'm not talking to a physio, I'm
talking to a person that hasgone through these things.
Obviously, you make thecalculated decision on the day
whether or not it's broken oryou know you can't go anymore.
That's fine, I can deal withthat.
But if I can run through aninjury that I know that I can
(43:10):
fix after the event or after thechallenge, then that's.
You know, that's what I'll do.
So, um, yeah, mate, I'm alittle bit wary about my
injuries at the moment.
I wouldn't even call theminjuries, I'll just call them
like little niggly injuries.
But I guess that reoccurringone from the 200K where I
(43:32):
disintegrate that tendon throughthe front, I'm sure he'll come
up and say hello in the backyardultra and let me know that he's
still there.
So I'm waiting for him.
I was meant to do a 120K runthis week, but I just thought,
you know what, I'm just going tofocus completely on my recovery
this week.
I know mentally that I'm there.
Am I there physically?
That's what I need to focus on,because I did have a chat with
(43:55):
my physio on Saturday and hesaid you know what, it would be
awesome to see you at 100% forthis Backyard Ultra, and I
actually got goosebumps.
I said you know, I haven't feltlike 100%.
Even this year.
I did feel like 100% when I rana 200K, which is great.
But I feel like I've kind ofgone up another level now and if
(44:17):
I can get my body to 100% bynext Friday which I think I
should I've got a big sessiontoday at Bionic and I've got a
big session today at Bionic andI've got another two more at
Bionic next week.
I think I should get myself to100%.
That's what you want, right?
I want to leave no stoneunturned out there.
I'm kind of treating it like ado or die.
I said I'll die out there if Ihave to.
(44:37):
I want to go as far as I can.
It was funny.
Dylan said the other day hegoes, there's a silver ticket up
for grabs at this ultramarathon and what that is is if
you win the ultra marathon, youget a ticket into the Australian
ultra marathon team, which isonly five people, so which is
(44:58):
pretty scary.
I said you know what likeimagine if I win it and he goes
mate, imagine if you did win it.
And I was said you know whatlike imagine if I win it and he
goes mate, imagine if you didwin it.
And I was like you know, we'reactually giggling he goes.
The course record on this, onthis event, is 35 laps, because
there's a bit of elevation inthis.
So people, really, people,really struggle and he was going
mate, like we were talkingabout doing 40, 40 to 45 laps
(45:20):
and he goes mate.
I think you're really in the mixfor this and I said, really,
and he goes, mate, I think thiscould be like a sign.
You know what I mean.
I'm not saying that I'm goingto go out and win it, but that's
also the reason why I reallywant to go into this 100%, you
know.
I mean, anything can happen onthe day.
Anything can happen.
You know, and I think that's thebeauty of running ultra
(45:42):
marathons and running, you know,even marathons, half marathons,
whatever you run On the day, ifyou get it right with your
nutrition, your planning, yoursupport, you can win these
things.
You know, it doesn't matter ifsomeone's been in this industry
for so long, and I think withbackyard ultras it comes down to
the fight in your mind.
You know what I mean.
(46:02):
If you can control that mindand your body kind of holds up
through that back end and you'vegot the right support crew and
you've put the right thingsthrough your body, you know you
don't know what that otherperson's thinking as well, right
?
So it's a good opportunity.
That's what I'll say.
I think it's an excitingopportunity for me, especially
(46:23):
being in the space of not a longtime.
So, yeah, we'll see whathappens next week.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
Mate.
It's exciting.
I'm looking forward tofollowing along.
Where can people find out?
Firstly, follow you, but findout more about what you're doing
and how they can get involved.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Yeah, just my Instagram.
I post every day.
As you know, mate, I probablyshare more than what I should,
but I feel like a lot of peopleconnect with me on there, not
only about training.
You've been able to see thatI've been able to connect with
people about their personal life.
A lot of people now areconnecting with me about their
stories and what they've gonethrough through their childhood,
which has kind of weighed medown a little bit.
(46:58):
I won't lie over the last coupleof weeks like I got really
emotional the other week when Iread a story about a young man
that was talking about hissisters, because I've got
sisters too, so it can becomereally real, you know, on my
social media at times, but Ilove it too, I embrace it.
I think it's such a goodopportunity to meet people and
connect with people like you.
You know what I mean.
If I didn't have my socialmedia, I wouldn't have never met
(47:20):
you.
I would have didn't have mysocial media, I wouldn't have
never met you, I would neverbeen on here today and and you
know, learn and understand allthe things that you do, mate.
So I really appreciate, youknow, like social media in
itself and I appreciate whatyou're doing and, um, you know,
giving me the time to speak onhere and tell my, tell you know,
talk about what I'm goingthrough.
So, yeah, obviously, just jumpon.
Uh, instagram, freaky runner.
(47:40):
Um, obviously we've got thebusiness up and running too.
So if someone is looking for alittle bit of help with their
training, by all means jump inthere, give me a follow, and I
always reply to everyone as well.
Everyone that kind of says, oh,you won't reply to this.
I always make sure that I reply.
So, yeah, mate, jump on there,that's where you'll find me.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Dude, I really appreciate you coming on.
I've personally taken away thepower of doing hard things,
building the mindset but notunderestimating the journey.
As you said, you've been doingthis for years to build up to
these long runs.
People are probably only seeingwhat you're doing now and just
like, oh, I was playing footylast year but you've put in the
reps and that's what a lot ofpeople are avoiding.
They're avoiding the hard work.
Yeah, for sure they're avoidingself-education to be better, and
(48:25):
I think for me that's some keythings that I've taken away.
So, everyone listening, I'llput all of Arana's links in the
show notes so you don't have togo search him for him.
You can just get on his pageand make sure you obviously
check out this Backyard Ultra.
I'm keen to follow.
Welcome back to the man the Cam Project podcast.
I'm your host, lachlan Stewart,and this week is a selfish
episode.
I've been getting into myrunning over the last sort of
two years, going from 400 metersto 5 kilometers to 10
kilometers and, most recently,marathons, and I'm excited about
continuing moving into theultra space and seeing what I
(00:20):
can push out or, I guess, getfrom myself in that space.
So I've been following peopleon social media who are doing
incredible things in the ultraspace and, you know, jump on a
call with today's guest aroundat Smarter and pick his brain
around ultra running and thejourney that he's been on to
achieve some of the feats thathe's done.
Since recording this episode.
(00:41):
He's gone on to do a backyardmarathon last weekend and he ran
220 kilometers straight on likea loop, which is, I think,
phenomenal.
So what you can expect to learnfrom this episode is how ultra
running can change who you areas an individual and make you a
better person.
We also dive into the ins andouts of ultra running planning,
(01:03):
goal setting and what it can, or, I guess, navigating injury and
how it requires you to shiftyour identity.
Now iran has come from therugby league playing nrl and now
moved into the ultra space.
So it's a cool transition forhim to be on, having played a
sport in a completely differentfield, to doing what he does now
.
And he's the first to admit hehas, uh, overcome a lot of stuff
(01:24):
over the years and to now have,I guess, banked the kilometers
over five years.
So he hasn't just gone fromrugby to his 100k plus runs.
He's built it up and that's amessage that I think is really
important to get across.
Everyone's starting line isdifferent in these ones, so
enjoy the episode.
It's full of so much gold and Ireally enjoyed this.
And for those of you who areenjoying the solo episodes on
(01:46):
Thursday, you guys absolutelyloved and I'm getting great
feedback from what I shared withthe things that I'm doing now
at 33.
So I avoid regret when I'm 63.
So if you didn't catch lastThursday's episode, make sure
you catch that after thisepisode.
Rana, welcome to the show,brother.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thanks, mate, Thanks for having me so.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Rana.
Welcome to the show, brother.
Thanks, mate.
Thanks for having me.
Mate, it's funny how we endedup here.
One of my buddies we were hikingaround Burley and, just as
context for the audience, one ofmy buddies was like you've got
to check this guy out.
He's just run 12 marathons in 12days, but he threw in two
ultras as well, two 50Ks and,for those who don't't know, I
rode 30 marathons in 30 dayslast year and my goal this year
(02:27):
was to do a similar one, butrunning.
So I'm always inspired bypeople like yourself who are
doing that, because I know, Ihave an idea of what it takes,
the commitment, the sacrifice onother areas of your life, the
preparation, the recovery.
And then I was looking at itand I was like fuck, a runner
used to carve up in in in theNRL and in the under 20s with
Benny Barber and all of that,and obviously followed your
(02:50):
journey.
So it's cool to see what you'redoing now, mate.
So I appreciate your time and Ilook forward to really diving
into things around.
I guess identity shift, movingfrom a footy player into an
endurance athlete and all thethings that you're working on
with Freaky Runners.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, cool mate, for sure.
Yeah, it's been a hell of aride the last probably five
years, I'd say Three years.
I've kind of really dedicatedsome time into this
ultramarathon field, eitherspace, mentally and physically.
So yeah, mate, I appreciate youhaving me on the show.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Was it that you started grabbing your interest
and attention in the ultra space?
Because obviously you know, ifyou think about rugby league,
it's very different to runningultras.
You know ultras for anyone whodoesn't know is anything over
42.2 kilometers, so it's acompletely different energy
system and sport.
So what sort of stole yourfocus with that?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I guess when I first started, mate, I wouldn't say it
was the distances, it was justrunning In general.
I've always kind of likedrunning.
Even when I was playing footy,I always ran like 5, 10, 15
kilometers.
Over the last five years Islowly increased my training and
my kilometers per week, evenrunning events.
So, yeah, I started runninghalf marathons, even running
(04:06):
events.
So, yeah, I started running,you know, half marathons, full
marathons and then transitionedinto the ultra space just over
the last you know year or so.
Really, I've always kind ofloved running the long distances
within my training block aswell.
I haven't really been a reallybig event runner, to be honest,
but I think the thing thatintrigued me was just always
trying to push myself.
Yeah, I, I always want more.
Like, I always have a chat to acouple of the guys that are
(04:28):
really close to me, and I guessone of the things that's really
hard for me is kind of being,you know, being satisfied with
either the distance or the timeyou know that I achieve on the
day.
And even you know, when I ranMount Kosciuszko last year, I
was kind of always saying, Ialways said to myself after it
even you know, when I ran mountkosciuszko last year, I was kind
of always saying I always saidto myself after it you know,
(04:48):
there was so much more left inthe tank.
But it takes time and it takesexperience to get good at these
things, and that's somethingthat I uh understand, you know,
and it takes a lot of hard work.
So, you know, it's kind of like, you know, evaluate what you've
been able to do on the day andthen then how do we get better.
So for the ultra space, mate,it's an amazing space, you know,
mentally and physically, and ifit can make you such a better
(05:10):
person, you know, why wouldn'tyou jump into it?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, obviously.
So, going from the footy playerinto that ultra space, have you
noticed a significant shift inhow you see yourself and the man
that you're becoming?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh, for sure, For sure, I wish I got into it a lot
long ago, just because of thesacrifices and the decisions
that you have to make.
You know, I say three years agobecause three years ago is when
I fully committed to mytraining.
You know I stopped drinking.
I, you know I got on a propernutrition plan.
I understand I understood fooda lot more.
Where you have to right, youknow food is energy in the space
(05:50):
and if you can't control whatyou eat, you know you run out of
petrol.
Really, you know it's theeasiest way to put it.
But definitely, mate, you know Ifeel like I'm such an
individual athlete.
I've always kind of been likethat, even when I was playing
sports, I was always kind of,you know, wanting to be by
myself and kind of wanting to doa little bit more, where a lot
of guys only did what wasnecessary in that space.
And it's still like that.
(06:11):
You know, when I still talk tolike one of my mates that I
caught up with this morning,zane Terabana, you know he's
talking about how guys stillkind of have that mentality of
just doing enough.
And I guess when I broke awayfrom all of that not from only
the alcohol side of things, butall the training.
(06:33):
I kind of got the opportunityto understand what was good for
me, and this space asks you alot of questions, whether or not
it's in training or in yourpersonal life.
So you have that opportunity tokind of better yourself by
making those decisions over aperiod of time as well.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
How have you found obviously drinking, for example,
is such a social glue forpeople with their socializing
and stuff and I know youmentioned a lot of the people
you're hanging out with now areinspiring you and motivating you
and challenging you to workharder and work on your mindset
and physically as well.
How was that going through theexperience of stepping back from
(07:11):
the drinking and the partying?
I know for myself it waschallenging.
A lot of the people that Isurrounded myself with, that's
all we really had in common.
So when I stopped having thatcommonality with them.
A few of my relationships sortof broke down, and that was
challenging to navigate.
Have you experienced anythinglike that as well?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
yeah, for sure, for sure.
Um, uh, yeah, you know, but Ithink when I kind of made that
decision, I didn't kind of mindabout pulling myself away from a
lot of those people as well.
Like I said before, I've alwayskind of been like a person
where I haven't had to reallyrely on others.
So when I kind of did make thatdecision on going by myself and
(07:50):
training a little bit harder,it didn't really affect me.
And I'll tell you a story, likewhen I was running and I was
running all these distances andI was mixing alcohol with my
running.
I actually remember one day Iwas running down the hill and I
was looking at my time and I wasmixing alcohol with my running.
I actually remember one day Iwas running down the hill and I
was looking at my time and I wasrunning down my hill and I
looked up at the sky and I saidto myself why am I fucking not
(08:11):
getting better?
Why am I not getting any better?
And it just hit me it goes well, you're drinking two or three
times a week.
You're still doing all thethings that you used to do.
How do you think you're goingto get better at running if
you're still doing all thesethings and it was kind of like,
you know, a time in my life whenI realized that I had kind of
had to put alcohol aside.
You know, and I wasn't young,you know I won't lie, but once I
(08:34):
kind of did do that, my runningwent to another level.
And yeah, you know you loserelationships.
But I guess you know youunderstand who is truly in your
life and you know you understandwho is truly in your life and
you know I won't lie, this ultramarathon space is a lonely
space at times.
But I'll be honest, I loverunning by myself.
You know what I mean.
Like just over the last coupleof months I've knocked out all
(09:02):
my challenges by myself.
I haven't really ran with manypeople All the probably 12
marathons in 12 days.
I think I might have ran two orthree days with a couple of my
mates.
So, and then all my kind of 100Kruns that I do at the moment, I
love doing them by myself aswell.
So yeah, mate, you know myrelationships now with people.
You know there's not many, butI know the relationship that I
have with a couple of guys arequality relationships and I
(09:26):
won't lie to you, mate, I don'treally have time.
To be honest, you know, like Itrain, I work, I hardly sleep.
So when I do get thoseopportunities to mix and mingle
with other people, I either wantto help people or I want to
learn.
So yeah, I guess that's whereI've kind of learned a lot from
our relationships in sports.
(09:46):
Do you know what I mean?
Um, especially with yourcoaches and your mates.
You know, once you kind of kickyour alcohol, you you think a
little bit differently as well.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
That's awesome, and there's one thing that I can
probably summarize.
That is just how focused youare.
I think you've set this goaland you're understanding what
your priorities are and a lot ofpeople everyone's busy and
people try to add stuff on topof it before looking at how
their schedules are and removingthings whether it's removing
relationships, whether it'sremoving other shit that they're
(10:14):
committing to, and that's whythey're always so busy and
they're not achieving anyresults.
That's right going, going intothe, the mental sort of space
where it's like you're running100 kilometers by yourself and
I've seen you do it multipletimes on social media and then
you've done all the marathonsand you like doing that by
yourself.
What is it that you get out ofdoing it by yourself?
(10:35):
Because I just know from my ownexperiences with long runs and
stuff like that the mentalchatter sometimes is a very
interesting conversation and alot of people can't deal with
that.
So what is it that?
you take from it, and what is itthat you enjoy about it?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I think the first thing is experience right.
The more we kind of do it, thebetter we're going to get.
We all have to understand, like, where I am now has been
progress.
It's been a lot of time andeffort put into it.
So you, you know, I definitelyhad those demons that we all
talk about.
You know, in the beginning ofyou know where are we and the
body breaking down and the bodyfeeling a certain way.
(11:10):
So where I am now, um, andgoing through those experiences
in the past has definitely gotme to where I am now and I can
kind of control a lot of that.
Now.
A lot of people run with with nomusic.
Compared to music, I feel likewhen I'm in a certain state or
in a certain flow, you know,music can definitely help me.
It can get me into a betterrhythm, a better, yeah, flow.
(11:33):
I call it.
So, yeah, mate, you know likeeven the other day, I ran 100K
and I started to think about arelationship that I had broken
up with in the past and you know, and I was thinking to myself,
I was thinking where did thiscome from?
You know what I mean.
I'm in a really good state ofmind.
I'm training really well, mybody's fit and, I'll be honest
(11:56):
with a lot of people, that'ssometimes how the mind
challenges us, so every day canbe different, but I guess I've
put a lot of hard work,especially in the last probably
five months.
About reading I read a bookcalled the champion's mind and
it has so many differentexamples of different athletes
going through challenges intheir career and, you know, it
(12:18):
really helped me understand, um,how to control my emotions
through a lot of the runs that Ihave now, whether or not it's
through the beginning, becausefor me, mate, and I don't know
for anybody else, but I find thefirst probably hour to two
hours the most difficult part ofmy run.
Through the back end, once Ikind of get into my flow, I feel
like I get stronger throughoutthe run, even though my paces
(12:41):
might get a little bit slower ifI'm running 100K or the
200-kilometer run that I run, Ifeel like my mind is able to
really settle into the run and Ican control what I need to
control and I always go into arun with a few goals, right, we
always do.
I wouldn't say that I try andrun at a certain pace or trying
(13:01):
oh, whether or not.
Sorry, I don't try and runquick at a certain pace.
I always have a goal and mineover time.
But once I kind of can get intomy flow, I just really
concentrate on that goal on theday.
So but, like I said, it's takenme a lot, a lot, a lot of time
and a lot of effort to kind ofbe able to control my mind for a
(13:22):
certain amount of time likethat you know, 11 hours, 10
hours now if I can run 100Kpretty quickly, which was around
, you know, christmas, but nowwe've kind of slowed down a
little bit more, just because Iwant to run a lot further, right
?
So, yeah, mate, I guess thisyear has been a really big focus
(13:43):
on, on on my mind.
To be honest, I feel like mybody now, uh, even through the
last couple of runs that I'vedone over the last month, I'm
I'm not even joking Like, I feellike my body can, can, can go a
lot further than what it is,and we'll test ourselves when we
when we run the backyard ultrain a couple of weeks.
So I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
How do you pull up from so?
Even you mentioned you did a200-kilometer one a while back.
How did you pull up from that?
Were you out running the nextday, or what does that next day
look like for you?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That run was tough.
That run was tough.
I was really good for about 145kilometers.
So I stuck to all my paces.
I had a mate pace me as welland we had a time we had.
We knocked over all of ourgoals throughout that period up
to about 145 k's.
I had a consistent pace ofabout a six minute 20, which was
(14:35):
my goal, something that I hadbeen training up to as well.
Yeah, yeah, I ran the 100kilometers under 11 hours.
I think it was like don't don'tquote me on this but I think it
was like 10 hours 40 something.
So that was a big goal of mine.
I wanted to get a sub 12 hour100k in that.
I wanted to get a sub 20 hours100 miler, which I got as well,
(14:55):
which was 19 hours 40 something.
And then my goal that I wantedto achieve for the 200k was
sub-24 hours, but I didn't getthat one.
I got 26 hours 31 minutes.
But my recovery mate, it took alittle while because I
disintegrated one of my tendonsthrough the front of my foot and
(15:16):
I actually ran about 40K withmy leg kind of dangling there,
which is quite common,apparently.
So when I was talking to Dylan,which was my pacer on the day.
He had a bit of anunderstanding on the injury that
I had.
But because that wasn't themain injury, I actually had like
a really sore hamstring throughmy VMO, similar to the injury
(15:39):
that I had through the 12marathons in 12 days.
That was the injury I wasworried about, to be honest.
So my ankle was kind of like,ah, you know, like that's all
right, it's not even sore untilI took my shoe and my sock off
when I was finished and then itkind of just blew up so I and I
couldn't walk on it for forabout three or four days, so
that that that, um, that took mea little while.
(16:00):
But, um, when I kind offinished the run, I thought my
leg was broken because Icouldn't move it.
Um, but it was just, it wasjust a fluid around the ankle.
So once the fluid kind of likewent away, uh, ate a little bit
healthier and kind of like, letlet all the fluid kind of like
kind of get out of my body.
Um, my body was actually allright because I ended up running
the 12 marathons in 12 days,only three only later.
(16:24):
But yeah, like I say before, Ifeel like I've been able to
train my body to get to where itis now over the last five years
.
That's why I say a lot to a lotof people, like, a lot of people
are saying, oh, you need totake a lot of time off.
But I guess, even if you put itinto perspective, I started
doing NRL pre-seasons when I was15 years.
(16:44):
I was 16 years old when I firstdid my first NRL pre-season.
Back then, mate, you would knowyou know they were.
They were tough.
You know they used to.
They used to flog you.
There were no GPS's back then.
Uh, you know Gary Carden fromthe Bulldogs uh, I still talk
about the Roosters when I wasthere, uh, when I was a young
fella, that they would flog.
You do you know what I mean.
So I guess, going into what I'mdoing now, no one's yelling at
(17:09):
me anymore, it's more kind oflike you know, this is what we
need to do.
You want to do this.
This is the process, this isour goal, this is our training
schedule.
Let's just get it done.
And, yeah, I just follow theprogram and hopefully my
training gets me there on theday.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's a big point for everyone to think about is
you've literally been doing youknow you've probably been
training for longer than that,but doing like professional
level pre-seasons, in-seasons,post-seasons since you were 15,
right.
So you've got years ofexperience that have led you to
that point.
It's not just you know a couchto 100K or 200K, and that's what
(17:49):
people don't see.
They're probably people who arestumbling.
I've seen how quickly yourInstagram has been growing as
well, and there's probably a lotof people who are like, look at
this crazy bugger who's justdoing these ridiculous distances
, but they don't know the fullback story that's right, they
don't know all the hours thatyou've put into doing that, and
especially from, I guess, amuscle-building point of view.
(18:10):
Like our muscles build quickerthan our ligaments and our
tendons do, they're strengthened.
Sorry, you've got all thoseyears of footy, the lateral
movement, the speed work thathave compounded on top of that,
which, similar to you, dude,like for me, I've been doing
training since I was like 12, 13, running at a high level footy,
all that sort of stuff, andthen I just believe that my body
(18:33):
is capable of it.
There's some things now that Iknow I probably couldn't do as
well, like I haven't runlaterally for a fair while, like
stepping and all of that.
I've just been running in astraight line, so I wouldn't go
straight back to footy oranything, but it's understanding
your body and you mentioned,with the goal setting and taking
(18:53):
responsibility for all of thesethings.
You know what you want toachieve and then you sort out
people who can help you getthere and you just trust the
process.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
With your nutrition.
So one thing that I'd love tolearn more about in the ultra
space is, like nutrition thingsthat have worked well for you.
What have been some big thingsthat you've taken away that
maybe you didn't do in yourfooty career or during you're
still obviously playing, butduring football that you wish
you did earlier to improve yourperformance?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
oh, mate, there's.
There's so much.
You know.
My whole life now has done a360, to be be honest.
Just drinking water.
I bought an alkaline machineabout five years ago that I only
drink alkaline water.
Just these simple things that Ido that you can't even explain
to some people.
Do you know what I mean?
And that's the thing.
People only see what they wantto see.
Do you know what I mean?
(19:43):
They only want to understandwhat they think is
understandable for them.
So when I talk about some otherthings that I do that I don't
actually talk about on my socialmedia to help myself not only
be a better runner, but to helpmyself operate at the highest
level every day.
So my nutrition side of thingsis pretty simple.
(20:04):
I keep it really simple justbecause I know it works like
rice, fruit, mangoes.
I hardly eat red meat anymore.
It's not that I don't eat redmeat, I just feel like it sits
in my stomach.
I don't digest it the best, butalso I know what works for me.
So, yeah, I keep it quite clean.
I've never really been a bigeater, to be honest, even when I
(20:24):
was a kid.
I kind of just eat enough.
But also, through a lot of theultra marathons I'm still
learning a lot, like when I ranthe 200k.
I didn't have any, any sugarsor any car or any sugars.
Um, yeah, until you knowkilometer 130.
So I didn't have any coke, Ididn't have any cupcakes, uh,
(20:45):
cookies, or anything like that.
I kept it really clean.
I kept it only hydrolite gels,water, and then I usually have
like a croissant with peanutbutter, peanut butter or honey
now.
So I've actually really triedto get away from using the gels
and kind of go to more towardsour food.
If you would have watched myInstagram over the last couple
(21:08):
of months, I've really kind ofran and knocked over all my
marathons with food, withbananas and water and hydrolite,
just to kind of, yeah, I don'tknow, I've just kind of want
(21:30):
you're looking for that dopamine, you're looking for that hit,
that energy hit from from, fromthe gel.
So I've kind of and it kind ofgone away from that.
But also through my experiencesof running when I was a little
bit of a rookie, um, I used torun with no water.
I used to run with no water.
I used to run with no gels for30, 40 kilometers.
So mentally, like I know that Ican do these distances without
(21:54):
them.
So I'm going well if I can doit a lot cleaner, and I can do
it with Hydralight.
All that I really need to focuson is trying to keep my mind
focused for this time.
But also, what can give meenergy?
You know honey.
You know what can settle mystomach?
Croissants and croissants forme has been a big game changer
because I feel like it digests alot easier than bread when I
(22:18):
used to have.
You know, I used to carry asandwich in my bag.
But these are the things that Imean by doing this over a period
of time.
Right, it's experience, it'sgoing through the things that
you kind of need to go throughby, by doing it, by experiencing
these foods and by experiencingthese, um, these runs with not
do it, not eating the right foodand eating the right food.
(22:39):
Now.
So for me, like I said, I justknow what works for myself.
And when people you know, um,ask me questions about nutrition
, I said well, we're twodifferent humans.
You know what I do is notalways going to work for you.
You know, asked me questionsabout nutrition, I said well,
we're two different humans.
You know what I do is notalways going to work for you.
You know, even with water, withGatorade, with Hydrolyte I see
people drinking drinks and Ithink you know if that works for
them, you know that might workfor them, but for me that's not
(23:01):
something that I would put in mybody as well.
So nutrition, yeah, back in theday, when I was playing, you
know, even NRL I remember when Iwas at Penrith I used to drive
into Red Rooster every day aftertraining and get Red Rooster,
because there was one right onthe highway as you left Penrith
(23:22):
to get on the highway to go toParramatta, because I lived in
Parramatta.
But you know, if you talk toShandor Eel, he'll tell you the
stuff that I used to eat back inthe day, like I never used to
really cook.
Um, he was a big believer of,you know, eating healthy and you
know, you look at him, he's aspecimen, you know, and and I
wish it was something I kind ofyou know um, I wish it's
(23:45):
something I kind of you know.
But you know I could havechanged a lot of things back in
the day.
So that's what I mean, like myexperiences or what that I kind
of you know, but you know Icould have changed a lot of
things back in the day.
So that's what I mean, like myexperiences or what I've kind of
done in the past.
I'm doing everything wrong.
You know everything, I'd say.
You know I was probably lucky.
I actually think back now and Isay to myself how did I even
play at that high level?
You know what I mean, Like thethings I was putting in my body,
(24:05):
where my mindset was, how I wasthinking and the decisions that
I made, and I was still able toplay NRL.
I was still able to, you know,to train.
I thought I think, probably,when I think back now, it was my
mindset that got me through orgot me to the top, because I was
relentless, I trained my assoff and I've still got that in
(24:26):
me.
But everything away from footy,like you know, it was terrible
man.
It was terrible, you know.
But, like I said, the thingthat probably got me to where I
was was my training.
You know how hard I trained.
I kind of always loved winningthings.
You know I'd go out and get onthe piss.
You know I'd go out and get onthe piss and not even go to bed
(24:47):
and then go to training and kindof win all the, you know, win
all the fitness, win all thefitness.
And then you know, that'sprobably why a lot of the guys
didn't like me as well, you know.
So I partied hard but also Ialso make sure I train my ass
off as well.
But back then that was kind ofthe mentality, like I remember,
when I was at the Roosters withNate and Ashley Harrison and
Craig Wing they would alwayshave a good time as well with
(25:09):
the Bondi boys.
But they always said to me ifyou're going to have a good time
, you make sure you're ready totrain at 7 am in the morning.
And that was just somethingthat I adopted.
I just thought, what if I canand I could do it?
Do you know what I mean?
I could just wake up and trainmy ass off.
And I think that goes back downto the mentality thing, whether
or not do you want to do it ornot.
(25:30):
And you can transition thatinto ultramarathon running,
because when it gets sore and itgets tough, I remember Dylan
asking me when I was at 175kilometers and my legs were the
pain was 10 out of 10.
And I said to him.
(25:50):
He said to me um, do you wantto stop or not, and I said no.
So you know?
It's just as simple as thatit's.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
every time I hear you say a big number like 175 and
200, it still just doesn't makesense like it's such a big thing
.
So, yeah, from the outset, Ithink, a thing that people you
know the reason why I lovesports, or whether it's team
sports or individual sports it'smold your character for how you
(26:20):
show up in other areas of yourlife and, much like you, when I
was playing footy, I wasn'tlooking after the other areas of
my life and a lot of peopledon't understand how much your
life's connected.
If your relationships arefalling apart, it's going to
impact your performance in otherareas.
Your mindset shithouse it'sgoing to impact how you lift in
the gym or vice versa.
(26:40):
It's all connected.
And what I think is really coolabout when you start pursuing
things that are new for you sofor you, for example, going from
rugby league, which is whatyou've always known, to then
ultras, which is new it's almostlike this second shot at
learning how to do somethingbetter and build on the mistakes
or the things that you didn'tknow, that you probably wish you
(27:02):
did when you were younger.
We're all doing that and it'sthe reason why I love getting
into endurance sports as well,because you're just learning so
much about yourself, like eventhe fact that you went down the
rabbit hole of learning aboutnutrition.
Not only does that help you runthe long distances, it's just
going to help you for longevityfor the rest of your life.
A lot of people don't know howto eat, which is why they feel
(27:23):
crap, they look crap and theyaren't happy with their life and
it's like well you're a prettybusy, dude.
You've got a lot of stuff on,but you took the time to learn
it.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, no, I think that's probably the most
important part, right, likenutrition, we eat three or four
times a day.
I think if we're not focusingon that first, how are we meant
to train the way that we want tooperate?
And you see a lot of thesepeople now that are trying to
run these running clubs know,everyone wants to get fitter,
everyone to get trying, everyonewants to train harder.
(27:51):
I guess you know.
First of all, go away and have alook at your nutrition.
You know what are you puttingin your body to be able to
operate and do the things thatyou know you you're trying to do
.
So, uh, my, I think you know Ialways make sure I put my
nutrition first.
Even though I train really hardand I do all these things, I
really try and make sure that Iput the right things in my body.
(28:11):
Even if I want to start my daythe right way, you know I'm
putting water in my body firstand this is just a routine that
I've been able to find thatworks for my work well, for
myself as well, to get what Ineed to get out of my body.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
You spoke about as well before.
Like all the things you'relearning, you said you're either
spending your time with peoplelearning from them or you like
teaching.
So for yourself and I know wewere chatting about this offline
the ability to give back andhelp young people where has the
passion come to?
I guess?
Pass on the things that you'velearned to the younger people.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I think for me, I think if you look at society at
the moment as well, you see alot of kids that are a little
bit lost.
You know, like back when I wasa kid and when we were playing
footy, everyone was kind of likedriving each other.
I think, at the moment, for me,what I see is an opportunity to
help kids, not be thisspectacular person on social
media or whatever you know thatis.
(29:06):
It's just to kind of like findwhat they want to do, and I
think with training and withrunning and with clean nutrition
, it can help them kind of, youknow, find, you know what they
want to do, whether or not it'sIT or, you know, maybe being a
sports athlete or being ateacher.
I think, just by setting thesesmall little routine goals of
(29:28):
going out and training a littlebit harder with some like-minded
people and with some peoplelike myself and Nick Youngquist
and Louis Brown you know theseother guys that I've been
training with you know, if youget around these guys, you know
we can also help these kids.
You know, just think a littlebit differently but also give
them a safe space.
I think that's really importantthese days as well is is just
be able to let them talk abouttheir feelings and let them talk
(29:51):
about you know what they'regoing through.
I wouldn't say really talkabout their emotions, but you
know, really kind of just showthem.
This is a good thing for youguys.
You know hard work is a goodthing, but also, you know, oh,
it's hard to explain sometimes,but yeah, I think with sports it
(30:13):
kind of brings out the best inyou and with hard work I think
you know you're able to find out, you know what you want to do,
but also mix and mingle withsome really good people as well.
So that's another thing that Iwant to kind of set up
underneath Freaky Runners isjust to kind of help kids get a
little bit more fitter, you know, and really find themselves and
, you know, create a really goodcommunity, a strong community
(30:35):
around that.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, so when you were saying there around like
building getting people to dohard stuff, there's a whole
process that people don't learn.
We're living in a time wheremore people are expecting things
without doing the work.
They aren't learning theprocess of facing adversity.
It's the reason why I believepeople are more depressed than
(30:56):
ever, anxieties at an all-timehigh, because when challenges
arise which they will, becausethat's life is they don't know
how to handle it.
They don't have the supportnetworks, they don't understand
how to communicate what they'refeeling and, as a result of that
, we're looking for the quickfixes, and the quick fixes
aren't necessarily always thingsthat help you in the long run
and a lot of people now Ithink it's why what you said
(31:19):
earlier, where there's a lot ofrun groups starting up and
there's a lot of people seekingout these hard challenges,
because we want to be better andwe know that by doing this in
Sim, what you're creating aswell with Freaky Runner is
you're inspiring not only yourdirect community but people who
are following you online to dohard shit, and whether that's
(31:40):
200K or whether that's 2K, itdoesn't matter.
It's all relative to theindividual.
But once they start, theconfidence is going to build,
their network's going to improve, the confidence is going to
build, their network's going toimprove, their health is going
to improve, and it's very hardto consistently have a shit day
when you're looking good, whenand when you're feeling good and
that's why I think it's such apowerful place to start for
(32:01):
people who feel stuck, and whatyou're doing now, and I guess
even to tie into what you'redoing with freaky runner.
Firstly, why the name FreakyRunner and what's the mission
that you've got behind that?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, I guess you know there's a lot of moving
pieces in Freaky Runners.
Now you know it's become a lotbigger than what I kind of
expected it to be, but it'sencouraging, like now we've got
a marketing team behind it, I'vegot a manager on board now that
we're navigating through a fewsponsors as I was talking to you
a little bit offline and someexciting stuff happening too
(32:38):
with some sponsors.
So I won't go too much intointo that.
But I guess the vision was justto kind of um, you know, have
an opportunity for people tocome to me and you know I can
help um.
That's kind of where it started.
Now we've kind of um buildingthese other arms with the
children, with the kids, um, andthen you know, all my training
myself.
(32:58):
So freaky runners is going tobe a platform for a lot of
different things, a lot ofmoving pieces, um, but I guess
for myself it's.
You know I've always lovedrunning um and I don't know like
freaky runner the name was justum started when um, me and
christy were kind of talkingabout different names and then,
uh, all the boys the boys attraining used to call me freaky,
(33:19):
you know, over the last twoyears and I was like freaky,
okay, I like, I like freaky.
And then I was like freakyrunners.
And then we started freakyrunners as the program where
people come in and obviouslyjump on board with the strength
and conditioning programs or therunning programs now.
So that was one.
And then I restructured my, myinstagram page and, uh, chrissy
(33:40):
was just like to me, why don'tyou just call yourself Freaky
Runner?
And I was like, oh, you knowwhat?
You know, it sticks.
People call me Freaky anyway.
So I was just like, let's gowith that.
So, yeah, mate, I'm.
Yeah, you know, just over thelast three months, the page has
been able to grow.
You know, the business isgrowing.
Like I said before, we've got ateam underneath us.
(34:09):
Now we've got the new contentboys on board that we're just
about to launch all the newcontent um, with the new
sponsors moving forward.
So that's going to be reallyexciting as well.
So everything's moving in theright direction.
I think for me it's.
You know, the page is growing,but, um, I've always, I've
always done this.
I think that's what we weretalking about.
A lot of people don't understandthat I've been doing this for
years.
It wasn't until the contentboys previously that I was using
that knew me, that were likemate, you need to show your
(34:30):
training.
You know you're doing all ofthis.
You're doing all of that, youknow because they used to follow
me when I was at 1,000followers.
You know a lot of people werebecause my page has only grown
over the last three months.
Really, I was, I was at 1800only three months ago and now
I'm at, you know, almost 14 000.
So, um, you know it's been ableto grow but, like I said before,
the training who I am as aperson hasn't it's developing,
(34:55):
but I have been doing, you know,this type of training, at least
for the last, you know, threeor four years, easily, you know.
So, uh, yeah, a lot of thepeople now ask me do you sleep?
Do you do this?
And I'm like I've been doingthis for a long time.
I'm not just doing it becausemy page is growing.
You guys have just jumped onthe journey of where I am now
because I've decided to grow mypage, I've decided to put effort
(35:17):
into it, I've decided to havesome content.
Guys follow me around and showwhat I do on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
That's what happens when you invest in yourself.
Man, what do you feel like foranyone out there who is in a
similar position?
Maybe they're not quite doingthe things that they know they
should do, whether it's to growtheir page or to run their first
marathon or ultra.
What would the advice be thatyou'd give to them?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Oh, just go for it.
Do you know what I mean, Ithink, with running, first of
all, you need to have a plan,you need to have a structure,
because what that does is thatidentifies where you are right.
We're all on certain levels.
We're all on certain levels.
We all have certain fitnesslevels of where we are at the
moment.
You have to understand that.
I think that's the first thingthat you have to understand,
(36:05):
whether or not it's getting inthe gym implementing a six-week
training block for your running,because that's going to help
you not get injured, to behonest.
So, even where I am at themoment, I know there are far
better runners, far betterultramarathon runners than me
out there, but I have my plan, Ihave my steps.
If you have a look at where Iwas last year compared to this
(36:26):
year, I've been able to developmyself over time and that's the
best way to look at yourstructure and what you want to
achieve where you are at themoment.
So, with social media, just gofor it.
I say we're all very different.
Even though you might be arunner and you're doing running
things, you know you do thingsin your own way and I think for
(36:49):
myself.
You know I love.
One of the boys said to me theother day.
They said, mate, he looked atme and he goes you're actually
quite creative, aren't you?
And I, you know, I laughed athim.
I said oh, you know, like Ilove it.
You know, I love the diversity,I love the opportunity to be
different.
I love the opportunity to letother people speak about what we
(37:10):
can do collaboratively together.
You know, and when you do that,there's so many ways that you
know you can grow.
You know there's so manyopportunities in social media as
well.
You look at brands, businessesthat want to expand, they want
to grow, they want to work withdifferent types of people.
So when you have that openmindedness of being able to let
(37:33):
people speak their mind, basedon a vision for your page, you
know, or your social media page,it's only going to grow, right?
You can't do anything wrong onsocial media these days, because
there's always going to be thatsmall percentage of people that
go.
Well, that's great, that'sawesome.
You know what I mean.
You're always going to getthose other people who go.
(37:53):
Why did you do that?
For why did you do this?
So I think the diversity in apage gives you so much more
exposure as well.
I think you know and I was justspeaking to the boys about it
last night, about, like, thisphoto shoot thing that I want to
do and they said, oh, butyou're a runner.
I said, yeah, but we're workingwith brands, we're working with
clothing, we're working withshoes.
(38:14):
Why wouldn't we do a photoshoot in a way of just showing
the brands that we're workingwith?
You know, we don't always haveto be out on the road running.
You know what I mean.
We can tell a story and I think, with that social media side of
things, a lot of people I thinkyou know the algorithm's
changing now with social mediatoo People want to get to know
that person, people want to knowyou know the story, they want
(38:39):
to watch your journey.
So and I think that's my, thealgorithm's kind of working well
with my page, like I'll justchuck the camera up and talk, uh
, before my runs, now tell themthe reason why I'm doing it, um,
the distances, the times, and Ithink for me I, you got nothing
to lose.
I don't really care what otherpeople think about whether or
not I'm slow, I'm fast, I'm notrunning enough, I'm, I'm running
too much.
You know what I mean because Iknow where I am and I know what
(39:01):
my goal is, moving forward, aslong as I stay within my program
and not trying to run, you know, too fast to get injured,
because that's the only way thatyou kind of do get injured, I
feel.
You know, as long as I kind ofstick to my program and my
vision and my goals, whatever Ipost online, you know I don't
really care what other peoplethink.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
That's awesome, man.
It's a good position to get to,and you're definitely right.
I think people are veryinterested in the behind the
scenes, on how it happens.
I know I am.
I follow people to see whatthey eat, how they recover from
it, why they're doing it, ratherthan just the thing that
they've done.
Yeah, for sure.
Just quickly, before I let yougo with the ligaments in your
(39:42):
feet and stuff like that, haveyou been worried about having
permanent damage with those?
Or you're just sort oflistening to your body and
resting it when you need to, orwhat's the go with those ones?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I guess we'll find out after we run the Backyard
Ultra.
I've got the Backyard Ultranext Friday, so I have been a
little bit weary I'll say theweary is probably the word but
I'm using a really amazing spaceat the moment which is Bionic
Wellness in Sydney, surrey Hills, and you know I'm using the
float tank.
I'm using the hyperbaricchamber now I've now gone up to
(40:16):
using two hours hyperbaricchamber three times a week.
So that's what I mean.
You know a lot of peopleprobably don't understand.
They just look at thekilometers that I'm running.
But you know I've just signed asponsorship deal with g
recovery as well now.
So I get in there with all myice baths, my sauna, my leg
compression, so I'm probablydoing five to six hours a day on
(40:38):
recovery, where a lot of peopledon't understand that as well.
So, yes, I'm putting my bodythrough these crazy runs, but I
would also say I've probablypegged it back now.
I'm not running the usual16-week training block that I
used to do now, because where myfitness level is is that at the
moment, and this is what I talkabout.
I'm a more specific trainer now.
(40:58):
I'll do things specifically toreach a certain goal.
So at the moment, my goal isrunning the Backyard Ultra.
I don't need to go out and run21Ks every morning to build my
level of fitness up, because inmy opinion that's really doing
nothing for me, because I knowthat I can already run those
distances.
I need to be focusing more ontime on feet, so getting my body
used to these 10, 12, 14, 16hours.
(41:22):
And people were wondering ohwell, why did it take you a
certain amount of time to run100K?
I said because I want to tryand stay awake for 24 hours.
I want to try and stay awakefor, you know, I actually think
I stayed up for 48 hours, mylast 100 because I did 30K in
the morning, I went to workduring the day, I done 70K in
the evening, finished at 6 am orwhatever it was, and I didn't
(41:45):
even go to bed.
I stayed up the whole day,saturday, and then I didn't go
to bed until Sunday and that waskind of my strategic plan and
that's what people don'tunderstand as well.
Like through the Backyard Ultra, I want to get 35, 40 laps,
which is, you know, that's 40hours.
(42:06):
You know you do 6.7 k's everyhour.
For for as long as you, as longas you can.
Last man standing, so, um, youknow, but you know that's where
I feel like I am now.
I'm not trying to overachievethat and I had a really good
in-depth chat with dylan rin,which is my um, which is my
pacer, my good mate, uh, that Iget really, really good advice
from.
If you look at some of the stuffhe's done as well, he's got a
few records for a couple ofultramarathons as well.
(42:27):
He did the Costa Cosi, which isthe 240K run, and he's been the
only one to finish the ElephantTrail ultramarathon, which is
240 kilometers as well, and thatevent has been going for nine
years.
So these are the people that Iget my advice from.
Guys that are further ahead ofme, do you know what I mean?
(42:50):
And when I talk about myinjuries and I talk about what
I'm going through on the day,I'm not talking to a physio, I'm
talking to a person that hasgone through these things.
Obviously, you make thecalculated decision on the day
whether or not it's broken oryou know you can't go anymore.
That's fine, I can deal withthat.
But if I can run through aninjury that I know that I can
(43:10):
fix after the event or after thechallenge, then that's.
You know, that's what I'll do.
So, um, yeah, mate, I'm alittle bit wary about my
injuries at the moment.
I wouldn't even call theminjuries, I'll just call them
like little niggly injuries.
But I guess that reoccurringone from the 200K where I
(43:32):
disintegrate that tendon throughthe front, I'm sure he'll come
up and say hello in the backyardultra and let me know that he's
still there.
So I'm waiting for him.
I was meant to do a 120K runthis week, but I just thought,
you know what, I'm just going tofocus completely on my recovery
this week.
I know mentally that I'm there.
Am I there physically?
That's what I need to focus on,because I did have a chat with
(43:55):
my physio on Saturday and hesaid you know what, it would be
awesome to see you at 100% forthis Backyard Ultra, and I
actually got goosebumps.
I said you know, I haven't feltlike 100%.
Even this year.
I did feel like 100% when I rana 200K, which is great.
But I feel like I've kind ofgone up another level now and if
(44:17):
I can get my body to 100% bynext Friday which I think I
should I've got a big sessiontoday at Bionic and I've got a
big session today at Bionic andI've got another two more at
Bionic next week.
I think I should get myself to100%.
That's what you want, right?
I want to leave no stoneunturned out there.
I'm kind of treating it like ado or die.
I said I'll die out there if Ihave to.
(44:37):
I want to go as far as I can.
It was funny.
Dylan said the other day hegoes, there's a silver ticket up
for grabs at this ultramarathon and what that is is if
you win the ultra marathon, youget a ticket into the Australian
ultra marathon team, which isonly five people, so which is
(44:58):
pretty scary.
I said you know what likeimagine if I win it and he goes
mate, imagine if you did win it.
And I was said you know whatlike imagine if I win it and he
goes mate, imagine if you didwin it.
And I was like you know, we'reactually giggling he goes.
The course record on this, onthis event, is 35 laps, because
there's a bit of elevation inthis.
So people, really, people,really struggle and he was going
mate, like we were talkingabout doing 40, 40 to 45 laps
(45:20):
and he goes mate.
I think you're really in the mixfor this and I said, really,
and he goes, mate, I think thiscould be like a sign.
You know what I mean.
I'm not saying that I'm goingto go out and win it, but that's
also the reason why I reallywant to go into this 100%, you
know.
I mean, anything can happen onthe day.
Anything can happen.
You know, and I think that's thebeauty of running ultra
(45:42):
marathons and running, you know,even marathons, half marathons,
whatever you run On the day, ifyou get it right with your
nutrition, your planning, yoursupport, you can win these
things.
You know, it doesn't matter ifsomeone's been in this industry
for so long, and I think withbackyard ultras it comes down to
the fight in your mind.
You know what I mean.
(46:02):
If you can control that mindand your body kind of holds up
through that back end and you'vegot the right support crew and
you've put the right thingsthrough your body, you know you
don't know what that otherperson's thinking as well, right
?
So it's a good opportunity.
That's what I'll say.
I think it's an excitingopportunity for me, especially
(46:23):
being in the space of not a longtime.
So, yeah, we'll see whathappens next week.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
Mate.
It's exciting.
I'm looking forward tofollowing along.
Where can people find out?
Firstly, follow you, but findout more about what you're doing
and how they can get involved.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Yeah, just my Instagram.
I post every day.
As you know, mate, I probablyshare more than what I should,
but I feel like a lot of peopleconnect with me on there, not
only about training.
You've been able to see thatI've been able to connect with
people about their personal life.
A lot of people now areconnecting with me about their
stories and what they've gonethrough through their childhood,
which has kind of weighed medown a little bit.
(46:58):
I won't lie over the last coupleof weeks like I got really
emotional the other week when Iread a story about a young man
that was talking about hissisters, because I've got
sisters too, so it can becomereally real, you know, on my
social media at times, but Ilove it too, I embrace it.
I think it's such a goodopportunity to meet people and
connect with people like you.
You know what I mean.
If I didn't have my socialmedia, I wouldn't have never met
(47:20):
you.
I would have didn't have mysocial media, I wouldn't have
never met you, I would neverbeen on here today and and you
know, learn and understand allthe things that you do, mate.
So I really appreciate, youknow, like social media in
itself and I appreciate whatyou're doing and, um, you know,
giving me the time to speak onhere and tell my, tell you know,
talk about what I'm goingthrough.
So, yeah, obviously, just jumpon.
Uh, instagram, freaky runner.
(47:40):
Um, obviously we've got thebusiness up and running too.
So if someone is looking for alittle bit of help with their
training, by all means jump inthere, give me a follow, and I
always reply to everyone as well.
Everyone that kind of says, oh,you won't reply to this.
I always make sure that I reply.
So, yeah, mate, jump on there,that's where you'll find me.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Dude, I really appreciate you coming on.
I've personally taken away thepower of doing hard things,
building the mindset but notunderestimating the journey.
As you said, you've been doingthis for years to build up to
these long runs.
People are probably only seeingwhat you're doing now and just
like, oh, I was playing footylast year but you've put in the
reps and that's what a lot ofpeople are avoiding.
They're avoiding the hard work.
Yeah, for sure they're avoidingself-education to be better, and
(48:25):
I think for me that's some keythings that I've taken away.
So, everyone listening, I'llput all of Arana's links in the
show notes so you don't have togo search him for him.
You can just get on his pageand make sure you obviously
check out this Backyard Ultra.
I'm keen to follow.
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