July 17, 2025 • 51 mins
Danielle Lewis returns for a raw and honest round 2 on Stupid Questions with Seth Hill. From adopting three kittens to recovering from a brutal bout of food poisoning just days before defending her Ironman Lake Placid title, Danielle opens up about the highs and lows of life as a pro triathlete.
She and Seth dive into the mental side of sport—how social media shapes performance narratives, what drives her when things get tough, and how visualization and grit help her find her edge. They also explore the personal: marriage during COVID, future dreams of motherhood, and the tension between private values and public personas.
Candid, thoughtful, and occasionally hilarious, this conversation spans everything from the ethics of sport to the healing power of cats, community, and vanilla ice cream.
Danielle’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/danilewistri/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast today on the POG.
Going to be catching up with a round two interview with
Danielle Lewis, professional triathlete, super nice gal.
Good to connect with her after ayear, I guess since the last
time we had her on in June of 2024.
Crazy how fast these episodes are going, but just wanted to
say thank you so much for being here.
Hope you enjoyed this interview and if you are watching, check
(00:22):
it out. Got the stupid questions signed.
It may be backwards in the camera.
I'll have to figure that out. But anyway, without further ado,
we'll introduce you to, for the second time, Daniel Lewis.
It's OK, it's OK, We're OK, we're good.
Just it's all good if you have this new bottle set up for the
back of the bike and it just came in today and so Angie wants
(00:45):
to get it on the bike so we can test it out tomorrow.
OK. Is that for the new rules and
regulations stuff? Is that why you're doing that
change? No, I don't know.
It's some rear assistant who wants to try out SO.
Nice, so this is the same place we chatted last time.
(01:05):
Yes, I think. In the garage.
In the garage, Yeah. And.
Garage. Yes, in the garage?
Yep, in the garage gym. Nice, How's the garage gym been
doing these days? It's good.
It is also hot here. Yeah, I was going to.
Ask you some 100° days are pretty close to it at least, but
it doesn't get hot until like the afternoon.
(01:26):
The mornings are still fine in the like 60s or so and then it
just kind of like warms up. Yeah.
So you're going to be sweating by the end of this interview,
probably. Yeah, maybe just a little
glistening. Yeah, nice.
Well, Danielle, thank you so much for coming on again.
I really appreciate it. I was just looking back at the
(01:46):
last time we chatted. I guess it was like early June
of 24. So it's been over a year and a
month. It's crazy how fast time got
goes by, but thank you for making the time to jump on
again. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thanks for having me. You've had a lot of people since
the last time. Yeah, it's crazy, 160.
I'm trying to remember if when Iwas talking to you last, if I
had started doing 2 a week yet because I had built up such a
(02:09):
crazy backlog that it was kind of making the podcast like
really old in terms of the conversation versus when we were
airing them. But yeah, started cranking out
two a week and it's been fun to try to keep up with that now.
Yeah, it's definitely a good challenge and you get to meet a
lot of cool people too. Oh yeah, yeah.
I think for me, the biggest thing has been the
(02:30):
conversations, meeting people from so many different
backgrounds. It's interesting because you
know, a lot of the people have been from triathlon, but it
brings together a lot of people from many different walks of
life. So I've been really fortunate to
hear a lot of perspectives that have challenged me in a number
of different ways. So it's been good to get, you
know, more people and figure outwhat what I believe, why I
believe, maybe question some of the things I believe, but it's
(02:51):
been pretty cool. Yeah, awesome.
So what's been new with you? You've been traveling the world,
racing obviously a lot, but what's going on in your life in
the past 370 days? I mean that pretty much sums it
up besides the fact that I just adopted 3 more cats.
So you're the cat lady? Yeah, I was.
(03:14):
It's funny. We we we got the cats.
Well, OK, hold on. So I knew you so our long time
Kitty Miles, he passed away right before Oceanside.
And that was really sad for us because, well, he and Andrew go
like way back. He, Andrew rescued Miles and his
brother. I'll be off like a they're like
(03:37):
on a shipping container or something.
And he had to like bottle feed them and all this stuff.
So he had a pretty close bond tothem.
Bond to them. And Miles, brother, I'll be died
pretty tragically and suddenly afew years ago.
And that was hard on him. And so I always knew, like
whenever Miles, whenever it was his time to go, it would be
(03:58):
really hard and it was really hard on us.
But we had some time to like kind of grieve and we have a
little like memorial to Miles inour house.
And but, you know, Andrews wanted to get two more kitties
just, you know, 'cause the 2 cats that we already have, they
kind of adopted me as their person.
And so Andrew's feeling left out.
(04:19):
Yeah. And so he, yeah, he wanted some
kids to be like his own. So we go to this like, really
cool. It's, it's called simply cats.
It's a no kill shelter. And they're really good about
doing adoption stuff. They do the vaccines and they
take care of them for like health wise and all the stuff.
So anyways, we go there and I told myself, OK, I'm not allowed
(04:40):
to really like participate in this, this is for Andrew.
And I can't look at any orange kitties or brown tabbies 'cause
that's what he wanted, orange and brown or brown tabbies.
So I found those cute little white Kitty and I started
chatting like oh this thing is so cute and the white Kitty was
like the brother of this orange Kitty.
So the adoption place wanted them to go together and Andrew
(05:03):
found a brown tabby. So Long story short, we ended up
coming home with three kitties instead of two.
And it was. Probably.
Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
And that's a lot like when you say kitties.
How old are the cats? Are they still to the age where
they're very much kittens? Yeah, 12 weeks, 1010 weeks, 12
weeks in that range. Yeah, Are they destroying
things? No, they're so sweet.
They're actually really good cats.
(05:24):
They're all really sweet. They haven't started destroying
anything, although I wouldn't put it past them at some point.
Yeah. How many cats do you have in
total then right now? 5. 5.
Yeah, so I didn't actually tell the world on, you know, on
social media about getting the kittens because I didn't know if
having 5 cats is something to belike, excited about or something
(05:45):
to be embarrassed about. Yeah, well, how many cats is too
many cats in your perspective? I think it depends on how many
litter boxes you have to clean. I think I'm good with two litter
boxes. I think any more than two litter
boxes we have a problem. Yeah, well, you're trying.
(06:06):
You have to change it out weekly.
Daily. How often do that I've never
actually like had? Indoor cats.
I mean, if it stinks, I just scoop the poop, man.
You know, we can't have that. But also, you know, like kitties
have to, you know, they need, ifyou have too many cats, then you
have some that just kind of likego and hide and you never see
them. And we don't want that.
(06:28):
You know, we want them to be like part of our lives so.
So how how long has it been since you've had the three?
What's today? Friday?
I think 3 weeks today. Are they start, are they bonding
or the one that Andrew wanted tobond with more is it is that
happening? I think so, yeah.
I'm trying to make concerted effort to kind of be like, no,
(06:49):
go over there. Yeah.
Yeah. But you know, cats are just
going to do what cats want to do.
And they're all just so cute. Yeah, they are.
And sometimes me, my, I've neverreally had cats.
We had outdoor cats growing up, but my wife had this cat.
They actually called him Tabby and he was the most
temperamental thing 'cause like I would go to Pedim sometimes
and he would be super nice, but then on a dime he would just
(07:11):
flip and then you know, like grab onto your hand with his at
least his front claws and try tobite you as like such an
interesting personality. Very different than the dogs.
I think I'm more of a dog person, but alas, cats are
pretty cool too. We we have a dog and he now just
thinks he's a cat. Yeah.
So the cats like play with him pretty.
(07:32):
Easy. Yeah, He, he and some of the
cats getting some wrestling matches.
It's it's pretty funny. Yeah, that's fun.
So a minute ago you were saying social media wise, like you
didn't put it on social media because you know, you didn't you
kind of worried what people might think.
But diving into that a little bit deeper, I did have a
question specifically about the social media side of things.
(07:54):
In your opinion, what is or for your experience, what is too too
much to share or when do you kind of bar the line?
For myself personally or in general, like what do I think
of? Let's say, let's go.
Personal. Yeah, let's go personal and then
you can give your public opinionas well.
Well, you know, it's just, it's just it's a personal thing.
(08:20):
I mean, I think people should have the freedom to share
whatever they want to share and say what they want to say.
And if people want to listen, they listen.
If not, then not they don't. You know, I mean, obviously,
like as an athlete, you know, I have agreements, obligations,
whatever you want to call it, you know, with partners to do
certain things on social media. And so got to make sure I kind
(08:41):
of check off some of those boxes.
But then just like other life stuff is, I don't know, for
myself. And just whenever I get
motivated to do it, I do it. And I've most of the time not
very motivated to do it. So that's.
Yeah. So if you could go without the
social media stuff, you'd you would probably do that.
I don't mind it. I mean, I like sometimes, you
know, being able to stay updatedwith what some of my friends or
(09:03):
family are doing. I don't necessarily feel like,
you know, you know, I expect people to put stuff out there.
It's nice when they do. It's kind of how I feel about
it. And sometimes I just don't even
go on social because I just don't want to.
I don't really care to look at what's going on in the world.
(09:25):
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, in the broader context, you mean even like, like on the
world stage right now? Well, yeah, I do sometimes
prefer living under a rock. Yeah, how come?
Oh. I don't know, I just like my
cats. It's.
Really, it's it's a very stereotypical answer.
(09:45):
Someone's going to make fun of you for that.
I like the honesty though. That's pretty simple.
I like, I like this world that Ilive in here, you know, I just
that's it. It's so simple.
Yeah. What do you do?
You find that you're, I hesitateto say performance, but like,
like the way that you operate mentally and view yourself as an
athlete, does that ever? Do you have the temptation for
(10:07):
the ever to be an an effect or effect the way that you kind of
view yourself and the way that you perform and the expectations
you have? So are you saying if I post or
not post does that affect my psyche?
Well, more of on the along the lines of like the people that
follow you. So like the majority, I would
(10:28):
imagine with the social media side, especially Instagram
triathlon, like a lot of people follow you because I see you in
a race and then you know, whatever.
And so then they're kind of putting out into the social
media sphere all of this positive reinforcement.
And sometimes that can turn intonegative reinforcement depending
on who the person is commenting.So I'm wondering like does that,
is it ever a temptation for thatto let to affect the way that
(10:49):
you value yourself? Well, I do find a lot of
inspiration in what I do becausefrom other people as far as like
I am oftentimes motivated and races to keep going because of
the story that I want to tell. I think about this during races
too. I think what is the Instagram
post that I want to have after this race when things start
going South in a race, it's like, OK, but what's that story
(11:11):
that you want to tell? Do you want it to be one that
you just gave up, you quit, you had this problem and that
problem, and because of these things that happened to you, you
didn't do as best as you possibly could have done?
Or do you want it to be, you know, a story of resilience, of
overcoming something, of succeeding when there wasn't
visibly a way to succeed? You know, so that kind of stuff
(11:32):
does motivate me, you know, whenI think about why I do what I
do. How would you grade yourself as
an athlete? On what?
What's my experia? Yeah, well, I mean, I could keep
it open. I'm thinking more of like the
way that you were talking about for writing a post, basically
not giving up, mentally strong. You feel like you're performing
(11:55):
well. Like how do you feel like you're
doing? Well.
Perhaps it's a poorly phrased question.
Like if I was to grade my mentalgame as an athlete, yeah, that's
(12:15):
always in flux. It's always in flux.
I don't think that there's like AI mean sometimes you could say,
oh, you're an A+ and today you're probably enough.
Yeah, give me an aggregate of the past year I.
Left. Seems like you've been going
through a lot. Right now.
Maybe. When are we airing this?
(12:38):
It'll air next Thursday. Before Placid.
Before Placid, yeah. Yeah, I I'm always finding
something to overcome and get through.
But I will say that it seems to be one of my greatest strengths
(12:59):
or assets is overcoming things. So gosh, it was so not OK.
What's today? Today's Friday, not this past
Wednesday, but the Wednesday before last last started
experiencing some like really terrible like food starting
(13:25):
going blank foodborne illness. OK.
Food poisoning. Food poisoning, Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Symptoms right?
So I've had problems in the bathroom, OK and now like OK,
maybe this is something that needs to get out of my system.
I'll let it you know, it's probably not a big deal.
There is something bad last night, it'll pass.
So end up getting out on a bike ride, had a 5 hour bike ride,
(13:50):
went and did that and just just kind of this kind of like the,
you know, during it came back and just sort of was feeling
pretty off and then had some really bad diarrhea, nausea,
vomiting the rest of the day. And yeah, Long story short, all
(14:11):
of this, the problems lasted forfive days.
Ended up losing like 3 lbs in five days.
And I'm like, I've got Iron Man like Placid in like less than
two weeks and I'm just sitting here losing weight and I can't
eat, you know, or train. Yeah, not good.
(14:31):
So anyways, ended up in the ER because I'm like, I can't get a
hold of all of this. I get some tests done and it did
end up being a common foodborne pathogen.
And so we've finally kind of figured out probably where it
came from. So yeah, anyways, things cleared
(14:53):
up early this week and then I could start kind of
incorporating some food, trying to admit a big pot of chicken
noodle soup, try to start eatingon that.
And then Tuesday I could start eating a little bit more.
And then finally things have really settled down with my my
gut. And I have been just trying to
heal my gut and try to regain some weight and some strength
(15:18):
ready for Placid. So yeah, everyone is believes
that I'm going to be back to full strength and ready to go.
I'm trusting them, Yeah. I was going to say, do you
believe that? Yeah, it's coming around.
First few sessions were challenging because when you're
trying to work out when your tank is empty, it's it's hard.
So I've had to be incredibly in tune with my body and knowing
(15:41):
like how much is too much? What what can I do?
What should I do? What shouldn't I do?
You know, I'm used to doing 3 workouts a day essentially, you
know, two or three workouts a day.
And so there's the day when I get to where I'm maybe going to
do my third workout, I'm like, Idon't think it's a good idea for
me to do that because I just feel like I'm going to try to be
(16:02):
pulling from an energy store where there's just the energy
that doesn't exist. So I'm not going to do that.
I'm just going to go eat some food.
But I feel like my strength is getting back and getting better.
And thankfully kind of all of this happened when there's
really not much more to be gained in terms of like fitness.
So just a matter of getting strength back and sharpening
(16:24):
some things up and getting my head screwed on straight and
ready to go well. Good for you for, I guess taking
the break. I've heard from a lot of people
that typically will push throughthose types of things, but I
think it's really important to be able to do that so.
I was impossible. I am telling you it was
impossible like. It felt impossible because you
like, I have to do this thing, Ihave to check off the box, I
(16:45):
have to be prepared. No, it wasn't physically
impossible. I was in a bad place, yeah.
Did you feel a sense of peace when you gave yourself the
permission to not do it? Like do you feel good after you
made that? Call.
Yeah. You know, it just shit happens.
Yeah, literally, you know, you just have to, like, roll with it
(17:06):
and just, there's nothing you can do about it.
So you just do whatever you can.And that's just what the focus
is. It's just like, you know what?
Just don't even think about the race right now.
All you can do is just think about your health and
prioritizing that. Yeah.
Would you consider yourself a stoic person?
What do you mean? Do you can like?
(17:27):
Oyster. Yeah, like whenever something
happens, do you typically go up and down like a roller coaster?
Are you pretty even keeled? And.
Yeah, I think I'm pretty even keeled.
It's certainly, I had a couple days, a couple, probably a few
days. Sure.
It's like I don't know how I'm going to be able to do this.
(17:48):
Like I just don't know how. And I have to remind myself
like, OK, you don't need to do an Iron Man today.
You have to do it in 10 days from now or 11 days from now or
9 days or whatever it is. You don't have to do it today.
You just so just don't think about it right now.
So I think yeah, I, I, I would say so I think when chaotic
(18:13):
things happened, I tend to be pretty calm.
Yeah, that's a gift. Do you?
Have you always been that way? I think so.
You both my parents may have talked about this before.
We're in the Marine Corps, you know, And I think I was pretty
used to seeing them in action and then my dad in action, too,
just being able to be calm underpressure.
(18:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think they're also just taught that in like team sports
growing up especially I've had acoach and I played basketball in
high school and I think being poised under pressure was like
one of our team mottos. So I probably that probably
stuck with me. Yeah, Yeah, it's interesting.
(18:58):
I feel like it's hard for some people.
It's harder for some people to learn that and then not as hard
for other people just depending on.
I really think it comes down to the how we were brought up.
Like you're saying, with your parents being able to have that
discipline or know how to go through something super
difficult. But with kids, when they see
just the tumultuous up and down it, it's so interesting how we
would just model whatever we see, not even necessarily what
(19:19):
we're told to do. Yeah.
So I was thinking like an interesting type of a question
to ask you in retrospect to havethe like past year.
This may be a difficult questionand if you don't want to answer,
you don't have to. We can move on to another one.
But if you were could write Danielle a letter to like past
Danielle from one year earlier when we talked, what do you
(19:40):
think you would communicate to yourself about what was to come?
I don't know. I think that I even continue to
learn from my past self. Like years and years ago, kind
(20:01):
of what we talked about before. Like a year ago or so, you know,
I think that I, if I write something down in like training
peaks or if I've journaled something or written something
down somewhere, I was like, oh, I forgot about that.
Oh, that's a good reminder from like my past self.
I should remember that. No, but I really don't really
(20:22):
feel like I haven't quite an answer to this one because I
feel like there hasn't been significant change between now
and this time last year. I think, you know, the biggest
thing is just to kind of keep trusting, keep going and keep
believing and do the best you can.
(20:44):
So for this question then, if you were to grade your happiness
with the sport, what would you say between like a scale of 1 to
10? Like when I'm done 10, I can
just do this forever? Where do you think you fall on
that scale? I don't want to do this forever,
No. There's way too many hours spent
of being tired and hungry and alone.
(21:08):
And the training is hard, you know?
It's not, It's not. It's not always fun, especially
at the end of. An Iron Man block right before a
race. Yeah, except, you know, and you
live your life thinking about, oh, the next race that's coming
up. And then everything that you do
is revolving around, like, making sure you're preparing for
this. And then if things don't go
(21:30):
right, it's like, oh, OK, so allof this was for what reason?
Yeah. So what was the question again?
Yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, your happiness within the sport
right now, just like the contentment, the happiness about
it. I'm not unhappy, I'm happy.
(21:54):
I I love what I do. I wouldn't change it.
I'm not ready to be done. Yeah.
So again, I don't know that I can give it as.
A number. I just like numbers.
I'm obsessed with numbers. So if you.
Can't agree it like that's fine.Well, because I don't think it's
so like hard and fast. I think it's either you either
enjoy it and you're do it and you're continuing to move
forward in it or you don't. Yeah, and if you don't feel
(22:19):
that, you should probably quit. Yeah, if you're not happy with
it anymore, then don't do it. I think this is the sport that
it's hard enough as it is, you've got to just really be
enjoying it to keep moving forward.
Yeah, and forgive me if I asked you this question last time, but
how old are you and do you thinkthat you will like have it
(22:40):
figured out what you are interested in doing post
triathlon? What if I don't remember how old
I am? I mean, it happens.
I I'm getting to that age. I said I was 33 the other day
and I'm not 33 yet. I'll be 33.
So it happens. OK, we're in an odd year, so
that means I'm 37. OK, Is there?
(23:03):
I don't know. Again, I'm telling my age.
What was the question again? Is there a point when I'm going
to be like, done? Yeah.
Well, no, there will be a point when you're done, but yeah, like
what do you know kind of what you want to do after you think.
No, I don't really. You have some.
(23:23):
Interests or hobbies that you think you'd like to just dive
into? I think I'll eventually get into
coaching. I don't know when.
I think that's a big commitment though, and I don't know that
I'm ready to commit to people yet, if that makes sense because
like I would put a lot into coaching.
I think I do a pretty good job at it, but I but I know at least
(23:47):
where I am in my career that a lot of the focus is on what I'm
doing and I don't want that to take away from what I would give
and invest into other people. Yeah.
Do you think that you'll be a mom?
I see that in my future, I don'thave a timeline.
Yeah, probably should. But I'm also at the age, it's
(24:08):
kind of like, I don't see that if I was to have a kid, I'd be
able to come back. Oh yeah, just because, like, you
are later in your 30s, Is that why?
Probably that, and then just having, like, support, too.
I mean, it's just my husband andI here.
So yeah, I just don't know if I would want to come back.
That's a lot of time. The sport's a lot of time.
(24:30):
And so it's like, I don't know, I would just feel really tired
all the time. And I'm already tired all the
time, so I don't know if I want to be that extra tired all the
time. All the time will come.
Are you this is these are personal questions at this
point, but I hear it's like somewhat of a popular thing, but
like the freezing of the eggs. Have you done this type of?
Oh gosh, I don't. I don't even think about this
stuff. Yeah, it's a totally yeah.
I don't even think about it. Yeah.
(24:51):
Yeah. OK.
Well, I have no follow up question to that other than
yeah, being a parent like is it's, it's fascinating me just
because my sister just had her second child and I'm 33.
So it won't be too terribly longbefore that next chapter comes.
But I was just going to say it seems like there's like this
superpower that is attached to some of these athletes that have
(25:13):
come back and, you know, have a child behind him.
And I haven't figured out what exactly that is.
It's just like there's a deeper sense of motivation maybe.
I don't know. That and probably a lot of help
I would assume. A lot of help in what way?
With the child like having help,Yeah, changing diapers and doing
(25:35):
all the things needed to. It also seems like there's like
a level of like mental boost from it.
Do you? Do you agree or disagree?
Well, sure, absolutely. I mean, you have to be
committed, right? You can't just be like half in
being a parent and half in beinga triathlete.
I mean, these are things that you have to be super committed
(25:57):
to and super disciplined in yourday.
You're training and everything that's involved to take care of
everything. Yeah.
So I want to shift gears just slightly or not so slightly.
But on the topic of you talking earlier about partnerships and,
you know, some of the boxes you have to check off, I'm curious
(26:18):
if you've ever come across an instance with a partnership or
some kind of a sponsor who they asked you to do something that
you just didn't feel quite rightabout doing?
Or if there was any like Gray area or something that you had
to kind of put your foot down and say like, hey, this isn't
something that I'm comfortable doing.
(26:39):
No, no, I haven't. And I think part of that just is
because of just that vetting process that I go through prior
to accepting a, a sponsorship ora partnership with somebody,
right. So like, I want to work with
companies that have people that I connect with, where values
(27:02):
align and products that I use the products, right.
And I think just because of someof that vetting process, maybe
avoid some things in the back end where it's like, well, you
know, we want you to talk about this, this or this.
It's like, well, I don't know ifI actually agree with this, this
or that. So yeah.
(27:25):
Do you have something specific that you look for like in a
partner? I mean, obviously it's got to be
something that you're interestedin, but and also do partners
more now in your stage of your career?
Do more people come to you then you have to like kind of go out
and and seek them out? I think there's a little bit of
a combination most of the time, still is.
If there's somebody that I'm interested in, then we'll seek
(27:48):
that out. And then I think if people come
to me, it might be more of like product type type things.
It's like, hey, we'll send you this.
If you do, you know, post about this, this and this.
I'm like, I don't really want todo that.
So I, I could probably buy your thing for like 20 bucks.
I'm good. I appreciate it though.
(28:08):
Thank you. I mean, I mean, I don't want to
say this and people are like, oh, I'm not going to e-mail her
anymore. Like, well, don't do that, but I
well, you can all you get so many there's if you're
constantly getting stapled, like, oh, we'll send you this
thing. And if you can do this for us,
like, well, I don't know, I really want to do that.
So anyways, yeah, like I said, Ithink it's just it's a little
(28:29):
bit of a combination. Yeah.
Do you ever feel like the tension between who you are
privately and what people expectto see from you publicly?
No, but I think just like in thethe world that we live in, it's
not always like a free space to maybe say things that you want
(28:51):
to say on social media, right So.
Please elaborate and give me some examples.
I don't. I wish I did.
I don't know, I could just be like.
Like current events stuff. Like politics?
Yeah, current events type stuff,if I guess I could caught topic
could be like trans women in sports, right.
(29:18):
So if I was to have an opinion on that, you know, or what
society might be was like the wrong opinion, you know, you
just kid, I don't know. It's just sometimes it's better
just not say anything, is it? Yeah, sometimes it's better to
just not say anything. Yeah.
(29:40):
Do you have an opinion on that matter that you would?
Be I do, I don't care if people can do whatever they want to do,
whatever they feel like they're led to do and they feel like
it's right for them in their life, go for us and do it.
But I think when it comes down to science, like genetic males
have testosterone and they all have this or many, many, many
(30:03):
years of their life until they begin to transition if they're
transitioning from male to female.
And so they come into sport and say, Oh, no, well, I'm on
hormone replacement therapy or, or whatever.
It's like, well, it's not the same because you've had years of
development. So it's, it's like, OK, so if I
was to go and just use testosterone from a long period
of time and then come back into the sport and say, oh, no, I'm
(30:25):
females like, well, no, you werejust off and you were doping for
a long time. Like, well, that doesn't make
any sense. Like, you know what I mean?
So just, it's just not, it's just not, it's just not fair for
women's sport. But that doesn't mean that there
cannot be a pathway for them to compete and they're.
On division. Yeah.
(30:46):
It just as as it stands, there'sjust not really that pathway.
Yeah. So yeah, there's a lot of
fumbling around in the dark. It's been really interesting to
sit on the sidelines, obviously someone who's not professionally
involved in any sport, but to see particularly just around the
political scene, how there's just just this great flip flop
and what the main narrative is pushed on the major news outlets
(31:10):
or, you know, the popular people.
How people just flip flop and itkeeps coming back to me.
I feel like it's ends up being about money for some reason.
It's like that seems to be what moves the needle.
And then soon as this side isn't, I don't know,
flamboyantly bombastic about, you know, standing in the sand
and drawing this line in one particular area.
(31:30):
When that kind of dies off and people aren't as interested and
it swings the other direction, Ifeel like that's really weird.
Like, that's like the pendulum, usually a pendulum kind of, you
know, settles in the middle, butit just keeps swinging to such
extremes. It's like there's no, nobody
seems normal anymore, which actually, I think most people
are normal. I think most people sit in the
middle. But we're made to believe
(31:50):
through just what all the popular, you know, all the reels
that get pushed with the billions of views or whatever it
is the some form of media watch.It's just just, yeah, I don't
know. Which is again, why I choose to
just stay at home with my cats. Yeah.
And live under the rock, yeah. Do you think a day will ever
come where something just happened so intense for you?
Like I'm, I mean, you always have your cats, but you're just
(32:14):
going to be, it would like get you up out of your seat to go
and be like a loud voice for a particular set of issues or
values. Well, I think if there's
something that really is just apparently wrong, perhaps,
perhaps. Yeah.
(32:35):
How do you know what's wrong? And if you're getting sick of
these like kind of Gray questions, let me know.
But I'm I'm trying to like get you cracked open a little bit
more in the values section of things.
How do I know? I mean, aren't we all just kind
of born with a sense of right and wrong though too?
I mean. Some people would say no, some
(32:55):
people don't think there's anything is right and wrong,
which I think is crazy, but. So it's OK to be a serial
killer, I mean. Where do you draw the line?
So I mean, they, if they're, I don't know, they're lying to
themselves. Yeah, yeah.
No, I think that there really isan innate sense of right and
wrong. But for some reason, it's
(33:19):
becoming easier in popular culture to to tell people, oh, I
don't think that's true. And so it becomes like this
objective, or, excuse me, not asobjective, the subjective view
on what truth can and can't be, which is hard because I talked
like I had an hour and a half conversation with Ari, you know,
Ari Clow. Yeah, I had a conversation with
(33:40):
him, a couple episodes with him,like only his second time when
we were talking about this concept of right and wrong and
what truth is. And I believe that there's like
very defined sets, almost like physics of what truth is and is
not. But then there's areas that are
actually kind of black and white.
And I don't think that I have the brain power to be able to
decipher one way or the other, because every experience that
(34:01):
somebody has can kind of be shaping how they view that one
thing. So.
Yes, yeah, just in our society, people do tend to think that
their way is the right way and they're not willing to
(34:22):
understand where somebody else is coming from and putting
themselves in in their shoes andtrying to understand their
perspective. And I think that's that's sad
for our society. Yeah, it is.
It's really hard. So I went to this.
It's like this three day retreatthat one of my friends paid for
me to go to and it had people. I would say there's 40 or 50 of
(34:45):
us from very drastically different walks of life.
And you know, when you walk intoa room, maybe it's a pro
briefing or whatever, and you kind of eye people you don't
know before and you kind of castthese judgments and it's a very
human thing to do because you'retrying to place people to know
are they safe? Are they not safe kind of a
thing. So I did this in this room with
these people. And one of these exercises we
did, we were told to go and sit with the person who we just
(35:07):
absolutely decided in our mind, like, that's not a person I'm
going to click with. So I chose this old, just
grouchy seeming man. And over the course of the
weekend, we did some of these exercises one-on-one.
And by the end of that weekend, I kid you not, I like it, was
embracing this guy and crying atone point just because he was
able to hold space for me. And this conversation where I
(35:28):
was talking to him like he was my father.
So he's a solar father figure. So it's this whole thing.
But it just taught me the lessonthat, like, if you put everybody
and I say everybody but people into rooms with just people that
you think that you would not getalong with and have people share
from their heart, just like the experiences that they have.
There's this crazy thing that starts to happen where you, you
like, really do fall in love with a person because you see
(35:50):
the human side of them. And I wish that we could do that
with like, world leaders, all ofthese grumpy old men who decide
who goes in the battle line and dies and who doesn't.
You know, it's like, what can wemake that happen?
Like, what would need to happen to make that happen?
It just needs to happen. I think if I was to go into a
room, I don't know that there'd be anyone that I'd be like, I'm
(36:13):
not going to sit next to you unless you stink and you're
sneezing all over the place. That person has a story.
Well, you know, they can tell methe story from over there, but
other than that, I try not to be, you know, too judgmental
because I know everyone does have have a story.
They've got a perspective, they have history, you know, wherever
(36:35):
they came from and what they've experienced in life, so.
Yeah, yeah. Speaking of stories, I don't
know if I asked you this last time, but how did you meet
Andrew? We met their mutual friend and
met at a race actually. Oh really?
Chattanooga 70.3. Oh nice, was this worlds?
(36:55):
No, you've been married for a while, I guess.
Got married during COVID. Oh wow, what was that like?
I think maybe about you that too.
Apologies. Yeah, I don't recall, but it was
really cool. We rented the steak house on
Hayden Lake, which is just sort of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
(37:16):
And like, gosh, it was like 5 stories.
It was wicked because on the side, it was on the side of this
hill, but we invited just a few of our triathlon friends and it
was like a three day ordeal. It was kind of like a little
like mini training camp. And then we had family, some
family come in. It wasn't very big, just if some
family members come in and had alittle ceremony there on the
(37:37):
lake. And yeah, it was super, super
simple. But like, perfect for us because
we've built a triathlon lifestyle.
Yeah, yeah. Super neat.
So what are some of the lessons you've learned about yourself
since being married? What?
I don't know, we got like cats more than I thought than I did.
(38:03):
Oh, good. Send me these questions in
advance because you're asking methese questions at the end of
like Iron Man training. I know.
We're both tired. We can put a pause on that
question if you want. OK, maybe I'll figure it out.
What are easy? What are some questions that you
think that I should ask? I mean, I really like grits
(38:27):
vanilla ice cream, which you probably wouldn't guess.
Why wouldn't I guess vanilla icecream?
Super plain and boring. No, the best vanilla, it's
vanilla ice cream is done right.There's this place in town
called Taste in Sea Creamery andthey have this Madagascan
vanilla, whatever that means Madagascar.
(38:48):
But it is when vanilla ice creamis done right, it's like the
best thing ever. I don't think ice cream needs to
have a ton of flavors and chunkybits and all this other.
Stuff, yeah. I could be dreaming about food,
though, because I'm still tryingto like, eat more games.
Yeah, some weight and strength. How much weight are you trying
to gain back? Like do you think you'll be able
to do it by the time you race? So I, I don't mind sharing like
(39:15):
my weight at all. I get hesitant sometimes and
people are like, oh, if she weighs this, I should try to
weigh this because sometimes girls like, oh, I need to try to
like match whatever she doesn't know.
So anyways, I have a certain threshold that I try to not go
below because I, I found that ifI do go below that I just, I
lose strength. I don't recover.
I'm really fatigued, more than Ishould be too I.
(39:39):
Feel like. Yeah, so I work hard just like
stay above this. And then also like my weight
fluctuates throughout the year. So like the offseason I'm
usually like 7-8 pounds heavier than like race weight.
And then that just will naturally kind of get to where
it needs to be during when I'm peaking and racing.
(40:04):
So anyways, I went 3 lbs under my threshold with this whole
like. Getting sick thing.
You're getting sick, getting sick thing.
So I mean, it's kind of like tempting, like, do I consider
this a blessing since there's somuch climbing in Lake Placid?
Watts per KG are going up. Exactly.
(40:24):
Well, we don't want the watts part to go down though.
So anyways, yeah, now I am goingto try to gain back some of that
weight so I don't lose strength.That's the important part.
Well, what are your I mean, yourthis may have been different
maybe even a few weeks ago before you were sick, but what
are your hopes at a Placid? Do you have any like, hopes,
(40:44):
dreams? Expectations different now than
it was maybe a few weeks ago. What was a few?
Weeks ago. Well I mean it won Placid last
year so defending champ always wants to try to win again right?
But at the same time I have alsonot had a good Iron Man this
year. I've done 2 and they just didn't
turn out well, so I need ideallyjust a good result.
(41:08):
Good solid result, no issue, no nothing weird happened.
I just want a good clean race. If one can just dream of that,
that's ultimately what I want. I think that's probably still
what I want even after just getting sick.
I think now, though, after getting sick, I think for
(41:29):
myself, my main goal is to mentally get myself engaged and
ready to go and just fight. Yeah.
And not just be afraid of it. I can't sit there and think, oh,
I was sick a few weeks ago and This is why I feel bad.
Like I can't be thinking about that on race day.
(41:51):
It's something of the past, you know?
So that's my my big focus. When you say that's your big
focus, like to get to that pointto where you're able to walk
into the race and have the mindset that would be give a
healthy race regardless of the outcome, like performance wise.
But just like mentally engaged where you're talking about, is
there certain things that you have to do to get there?
(42:11):
Or is it just kind of thinking about the positives, writing
those things down? You mentioned journaling
earlier. Like do you do any of those
things to help sharpen that tool?
Yeah, probably more just like visualization of like how I want
to feel and react and respond. And during the race, certain
(42:35):
things that I want to be thinking about telling myself
just the narrative I want going through my head during race day.
So I think about those things and visualize that.
And that's probably the bulk of it, quite honestly.
And then, yeah, maybe a little bit of of journaling or just
writing some things down. Have you ever, aside from
(42:58):
finishing, cried during An Iron Man?
Who hasn't? What were the tears?
Were they always sad tears or were they happy tears as well?
They're everything. Why am I doing this?
Oh, this hurts. Oh, this is terrible.
I quit. Oh, this is amazing.
Yes. You get everything.
(43:18):
Yeah. Have you ever gotten off the
bike and been like, I'm excited to run?
Yeah, further than like the after mile 5 because everybody,
I guess wants to get off the bike.
Sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I like, I like.
Well, when you're feeling good, the run's amazing.
Yeah. If you're not, then yeah, it's a
rough day. Yeah, it is a rough day.
(43:39):
What percentage of the time do you think you feel that?
Most of the time, if my nutrition has gone well, yeah,
yeah. And if I don't have, usually if
I have, if I'm having issues with the run, it'd be the
second-half of the marathon. And it's a my stomach isn't
(44:02):
clearing or settling and I startgetting some GI issues.
Yeah, we've been there. I mean, I haven't even done that
many. I've only done 2 and the second
one was very much that, yeah. Have you cried during An Iron
Man? I have, yeah.
The very first, I mean, I did was Chattanooga.
Do you want to hear the story? Yeah, so Iron Man, Chattanooga
(44:22):
hometown race, obviously. So in May I did the 70.3 and it
was the exact opposite of positive mindset.
I went in kind of hard, gave up before I even really started the
race, and my power meter was messed up, which I found out
afterwards. But because that I was so
married to like, this number, I wanted to hit it just, yeah, it
got me to just this terrible place.
(44:43):
And then I got on the run and I basically gave up.
And it's interesting how the body kind of falls in line with
the mind. So then I start hurting
everywhere. And anyway, it was just a
terrible race. And I cried at the end of that
race because I was like, I did so bad.
And it was after these, you know, I just kind of had gotten
into the sport. So I was still on this like
hockey stick, exponential growthof like, I'm just going to be
the best in the world, you know?So anyway, Iron Man came around
(45:06):
and I'd really thought a lot about no longer married to the
numbers. I just wanna enjoy it.
So I did the swim. Obviously it was super fast,
'cause it's Chattanooga. It was like a 42 minute swim and
I got out on the bike and my legs felt really good as I was
like climbing out of town. You know how you start to head
out of town? And I just started bawling
because I was so excited. Like it felt so good.
(45:26):
I had family there and I even dropped my chain like a mile
later on the railroad tracks andgot off and put it back on.
But I was still just so pumped and excited.
So. And then when I finished, yeah,
I have to send you the picture of me crossing the finish line.
It's just the most ugly cry you've ever seen.
But it was it was a great experience.
And then my next Iron Man was terrible.
(45:47):
So that is Iron Man, that's it'sso hard to be so consistent in
those. Yeah, it's kind of reminds me of
Challenge Roth. I know that just happened
recently and we did that last year and that was an absolutely
amazing experience. I mean I remember it's a 2 loop
(46:07):
bike, but the on the 1st loop you come around a corner and you
look up and you see Solar Burke,the hill with all the people.
Immediately I saw I got it. Just goosebumps and chills
everywhere even now. And I think about it and then I
immediately just started crying.I'm like why am I crying?
Why were you crying? I don't know.
It's just, it was just because if it was all of the emotion and
the energy, I think is, I think I just felt the energy.
(46:30):
It was all for you or whoever was in that line.
Well. I was, I just saw it.
It was like half a mile away or a quarter mile away or I just
saw it and I knew what I was getting into and it was like,
wow, like it was nuts. Yeah, that's cool.
I I want to do Roth just for that hill I that's why I've so
many of those videos I've seen and it gives me chill bumps
(46:50):
watching it. But yeah, once you experience an
Iron Man and then you see something like that, it does
make it super special. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing another
Iron Man in October, so I. Which one is that?
Iron Man, California. Oh see, there's another fast
one. See, look at you kicking the
fast swims. I just live in California now.
Was it a fast swim? Oh, cuz it's in the Sacramento
(47:10):
River. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that
until. It's a flat bike.
Yep. Yeah, really good, really good
choice for somebody who's $1.25 and five foot five and can't
hold the power on the flat. It's like all these big train
dudes that just fly by. But I'm I would look forward to
it. I want to beat my old coach.
He's going to be there from Tennessee, so it'll be fun.
Oh, good. OK.
(47:33):
So after Placid, what's going onin your world?
So the 70.3 Boise is here the weekend after, which is so
exciting. I don't know yet if I'm racing.
I'll make that decision after Placid.
Say you're going to be recovered.
I've done it before. I've done a full and then a half
the weekend after. It wasn't actually that bad.
(47:54):
Maybe I was just like mentally prepared for it.
But I think this just being likea hometown race, there's
certainly part of me that just wants to do it just because it's
just a hometown race, you know? How can you say no?
But I have a lot of other eventskind of locally and things that
are happening that weekend too. So it's just going to be a
(48:15):
really fun time. I'm excited about that.
We're planning on, if maybe there's people that are doing
Boise, going to invite all of the pros.
I have one of my partner sponsors are going to pay for
free round of drinks for all thepros after the race at a local
brewery, which I'm super excitedabout.
(48:35):
So I'm gonna invite everyone to that.
And then hopefully the day afterthe race I can get a bunch of
people to go float the river. We have the river that goes
through downtown Boise. It just takes like a couple
hours to float, but it's pretty cheaper.
Tubes and stuff, yeah, that's super cool.
We do that. They used to do that a lot in
Tennessee. So that's the weekend after and
(48:56):
then after that I will probably recover a little bit and then
get ready for Kona. Yeah, the big the big final
shebang of the year. That and then Spain.
How long? How long after that is Spain
after Kona? December.
What is it? Hold on.
(49:19):
Should I Google it? Then November, Yeah.
Which one is it? It's in November.
Is it? I think it's just a few weeks,
yeah. What's the?
City or the race name? Oh, it's in Marbella MARBELL.
Oh, you. Oh, for the world champs,
(49:39):
obviously. Yeah.
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, it is on.
It's not telling me. Oh, November 8th.
Yeah. Nice.
That's exciting. Then that's a full season.
And you started racing how early?
In April. Yeah.
Does that feel like a long season to you?
(49:59):
I guess not. That's pretty standard.
I don't feel like I've raced that much this year, which is
weird cuz I think I raced more last year at this point.
Yeah, nice. Well, it's coming down the Pike.
That's yeah, that's those are some huge races to train for and
a lot of travel. Yeah.
Good deal. Sweet.
Well, Danielle, thank you for letting me ask all kinds of
(50:23):
questions. I know you've got a lot of
training on your belt. I hope they continue to gain
back the the weight and you're able to get to a place that you
feel mentally strong and healthy.
And it'll be fun to track you injust what did you say, 10 days?
It's on Saturday, Sunday. That's the 20th so.
Yeah, 9-9 days. 9 days. Yeah, it's coming down the Pike.
(50:45):
Yeah. Well, thank you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
And good luck in your training for California, too.
Thank you so much to Danielle for jumping on the podcast again
and letting me dive into her life, even though she is pretty
tired, has been going through a lot with the upcoming like
Placid. So is this air?
She's gonna be racing just here in a couple of days.
(51:07):
Yeah, it's this is on Thursday, so Friday, Saturday.
She'll be racing on Sunday. So make sure to go get the
Ironman checker app or make sureto follow that race online.
Yeah. Thank you again to Danielle for
coming on. If you may at this point in the
podcast, thank you so much for being here.
Check out the show notes for anyof the description stuff that
has to do with the podcast, suchas the newsletter or the stupid
question socks that you may wantto pick up.
(51:30):
Yeah, if you are watching on YouTube, like comment,
subscribe, turn the notificationbell.
That really helps. Can you continue to grow the
podcast there? And if you're on Spotify or
Apple podcast, if you could likereview, comment on those
platforms that continues to helpgrow the podcast as well.
Thank you guys so much for beinghere.
Hope you like the sign and we'llcatch you in the next one.
Peace.
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast today on the POG.
Going to be catching up with a round two interview with
Danielle Lewis, professional triathlete, super nice gal.
Good to connect with her after ayear, I guess since the last
time we had her on in June of 2024.
Crazy how fast these episodes are going, but just wanted to
say thank you so much for being here.
Hope you enjoyed this interview and if you are watching, check
(00:22):
it out. Got the stupid questions signed.
It may be backwards in the camera.
I'll have to figure that out. But anyway, without further ado,
we'll introduce you to, for the second time, Daniel Lewis.
It's OK, it's OK, We're OK, we're good.
Just it's all good if you have this new bottle set up for the
back of the bike and it just came in today and so Angie wants
(00:45):
to get it on the bike so we can test it out tomorrow.
OK. Is that for the new rules and
regulations stuff? Is that why you're doing that
change? No, I don't know.
It's some rear assistant who wants to try out SO.
Nice, so this is the same place we chatted last time.
(01:05):
Yes, I think. In the garage.
In the garage, Yeah. And.
Garage. Yes, in the garage?
Yep, in the garage gym. Nice, How's the garage gym been
doing these days? It's good.
It is also hot here. Yeah, I was going to.
Ask you some 100° days are pretty close to it at least, but
it doesn't get hot until like the afternoon.
(01:26):
The mornings are still fine in the like 60s or so and then it
just kind of like warms up. Yeah.
So you're going to be sweating by the end of this interview,
probably. Yeah, maybe just a little
glistening. Yeah, nice.
Well, Danielle, thank you so much for coming on again.
I really appreciate it. I was just looking back at the
(01:46):
last time we chatted. I guess it was like early June
of 24. So it's been over a year and a
month. It's crazy how fast time got
goes by, but thank you for making the time to jump on
again. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thanks for having me. You've had a lot of people since
the last time. Yeah, it's crazy, 160.
I'm trying to remember if when Iwas talking to you last, if I
had started doing 2 a week yet because I had built up such a
(02:09):
crazy backlog that it was kind of making the podcast like
really old in terms of the conversation versus when we were
airing them. But yeah, started cranking out
two a week and it's been fun to try to keep up with that now.
Yeah, it's definitely a good challenge and you get to meet a
lot of cool people too. Oh yeah, yeah.
I think for me, the biggest thing has been the
(02:30):
conversations, meeting people from so many different
backgrounds. It's interesting because you
know, a lot of the people have been from triathlon, but it
brings together a lot of people from many different walks of
life. So I've been really fortunate to
hear a lot of perspectives that have challenged me in a number
of different ways. So it's been good to get, you
know, more people and figure outwhat what I believe, why I
believe, maybe question some of the things I believe, but it's
(02:51):
been pretty cool. Yeah, awesome.
So what's been new with you? You've been traveling the world,
racing obviously a lot, but what's going on in your life in
the past 370 days? I mean that pretty much sums it
up besides the fact that I just adopted 3 more cats.
So you're the cat lady? Yeah, I was.
(03:14):
It's funny. We we we got the cats.
Well, OK, hold on. So I knew you so our long time
Kitty Miles, he passed away right before Oceanside.
And that was really sad for us because, well, he and Andrew go
like way back. He, Andrew rescued Miles and his
brother. I'll be off like a they're like
(03:37):
on a shipping container or something.
And he had to like bottle feed them and all this stuff.
So he had a pretty close bond tothem.
Bond to them. And Miles, brother, I'll be died
pretty tragically and suddenly afew years ago.
And that was hard on him. And so I always knew, like
whenever Miles, whenever it was his time to go, it would be
(03:58):
really hard and it was really hard on us.
But we had some time to like kind of grieve and we have a
little like memorial to Miles inour house.
And but, you know, Andrews wanted to get two more kitties
just, you know, 'cause the 2 cats that we already have, they
kind of adopted me as their person.
And so Andrew's feeling left out.
(04:19):
Yeah. And so he, yeah, he wanted some
kids to be like his own. So we go to this like, really
cool. It's, it's called simply cats.
It's a no kill shelter. And they're really good about
doing adoption stuff. They do the vaccines and they
take care of them for like health wise and all the stuff.
So anyways, we go there and I told myself, OK, I'm not allowed
(04:40):
to really like participate in this, this is for Andrew.
And I can't look at any orange kitties or brown tabbies 'cause
that's what he wanted, orange and brown or brown tabbies.
So I found those cute little white Kitty and I started
chatting like oh this thing is so cute and the white Kitty was
like the brother of this orange Kitty.
So the adoption place wanted them to go together and Andrew
(05:03):
found a brown tabby. So Long story short, we ended up
coming home with three kitties instead of two.
And it was. Probably.
Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
And that's a lot like when you say kitties.
How old are the cats? Are they still to the age where
they're very much kittens? Yeah, 12 weeks, 1010 weeks, 12
weeks in that range. Yeah, Are they destroying
things? No, they're so sweet.
They're actually really good cats.
(05:24):
They're all really sweet. They haven't started destroying
anything, although I wouldn't put it past them at some point.
Yeah. How many cats do you have in
total then right now? 5. 5.
Yeah, so I didn't actually tell the world on, you know, on
social media about getting the kittens because I didn't know if
having 5 cats is something to belike, excited about or something
(05:45):
to be embarrassed about. Yeah, well, how many cats is too
many cats in your perspective? I think it depends on how many
litter boxes you have to clean. I think I'm good with two litter
boxes. I think any more than two litter
boxes we have a problem. Yeah, well, you're trying.
(06:06):
You have to change it out weekly.
Daily. How often do that I've never
actually like had? Indoor cats.
I mean, if it stinks, I just scoop the poop, man.
You know, we can't have that. But also, you know, like kitties
have to, you know, they need, ifyou have too many cats, then you
have some that just kind of likego and hide and you never see
them. And we don't want that.
(06:28):
You know, we want them to be like part of our lives so.
So how how long has it been since you've had the three?
What's today? Friday?
I think 3 weeks today. Are they start, are they bonding
or the one that Andrew wanted tobond with more is it is that
happening? I think so, yeah.
I'm trying to make concerted effort to kind of be like, no,
(06:49):
go over there. Yeah.
Yeah. But you know, cats are just
going to do what cats want to do.
And they're all just so cute. Yeah, they are.
And sometimes me, my, I've neverreally had cats.
We had outdoor cats growing up, but my wife had this cat.
They actually called him Tabby and he was the most
temperamental thing 'cause like I would go to Pedim sometimes
and he would be super nice, but then on a dime he would just
(07:11):
flip and then you know, like grab onto your hand with his at
least his front claws and try tobite you as like such an
interesting personality. Very different than the dogs.
I think I'm more of a dog person, but alas, cats are
pretty cool too. We we have a dog and he now just
thinks he's a cat. Yeah.
So the cats like play with him pretty.
(07:32):
Easy. Yeah, He, he and some of the
cats getting some wrestling matches.
It's it's pretty funny. Yeah, that's fun.
So a minute ago you were saying social media wise, like you
didn't put it on social media because you know, you didn't you
kind of worried what people might think.
But diving into that a little bit deeper, I did have a
question specifically about the social media side of things.
(07:54):
In your opinion, what is or for your experience, what is too too
much to share or when do you kind of bar the line?
For myself personally or in general, like what do I think
of? Let's say, let's go.
Personal. Yeah, let's go personal and then
you can give your public opinionas well.
Well, you know, it's just, it's just it's a personal thing.
(08:20):
I mean, I think people should have the freedom to share
whatever they want to share and say what they want to say.
And if people want to listen, they listen.
If not, then not they don't. You know, I mean, obviously,
like as an athlete, you know, I have agreements, obligations,
whatever you want to call it, you know, with partners to do
certain things on social media. And so got to make sure I kind
(08:41):
of check off some of those boxes.
But then just like other life stuff is, I don't know, for
myself. And just whenever I get
motivated to do it, I do it. And I've most of the time not
very motivated to do it. So that's.
Yeah. So if you could go without the
social media stuff, you'd you would probably do that.
I don't mind it. I mean, I like sometimes, you
know, being able to stay updatedwith what some of my friends or
(09:03):
family are doing. I don't necessarily feel like,
you know, you know, I expect people to put stuff out there.
It's nice when they do. It's kind of how I feel about
it. And sometimes I just don't even
go on social because I just don't want to.
I don't really care to look at what's going on in the world.
(09:25):
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, in the broader context, you mean even like, like on the
world stage right now? Well, yeah, I do sometimes
prefer living under a rock. Yeah, how come?
Oh. I don't know, I just like my
cats. It's.
Really, it's it's a very stereotypical answer.
(09:45):
Someone's going to make fun of you for that.
I like the honesty though. That's pretty simple.
I like, I like this world that Ilive in here, you know, I just
that's it. It's so simple.
Yeah. What do you do?
You find that you're, I hesitateto say performance, but like,
like the way that you operate mentally and view yourself as an
athlete, does that ever? Do you have the temptation for
(10:07):
the ever to be an an effect or effect the way that you kind of
view yourself and the way that you perform and the expectations
you have? So are you saying if I post or
not post does that affect my psyche?
Well, more of on the along the lines of like the people that
follow you. So like the majority, I would
(10:28):
imagine with the social media side, especially Instagram
triathlon, like a lot of people follow you because I see you in
a race and then you know, whatever.
And so then they're kind of putting out into the social
media sphere all of this positive reinforcement.
And sometimes that can turn intonegative reinforcement depending
on who the person is commenting.So I'm wondering like does that,
is it ever a temptation for thatto let to affect the way that
(10:49):
you value yourself? Well, I do find a lot of
inspiration in what I do becausefrom other people as far as like
I am oftentimes motivated and races to keep going because of
the story that I want to tell. I think about this during races
too. I think what is the Instagram
post that I want to have after this race when things start
going South in a race, it's like, OK, but what's that story
(11:11):
that you want to tell? Do you want it to be one that
you just gave up, you quit, you had this problem and that
problem, and because of these things that happened to you, you
didn't do as best as you possibly could have done?
Or do you want it to be, you know, a story of resilience, of
overcoming something, of succeeding when there wasn't
visibly a way to succeed? You know, so that kind of stuff
(11:32):
does motivate me, you know, whenI think about why I do what I
do. How would you grade yourself as
an athlete? On what?
What's my experia? Yeah, well, I mean, I could keep
it open. I'm thinking more of like the
way that you were talking about for writing a post, basically
not giving up, mentally strong. You feel like you're performing
(11:55):
well. Like how do you feel like you're
doing? Well.
Perhaps it's a poorly phrased question.
Like if I was to grade my mentalgame as an athlete, yeah, that's
(12:15):
always in flux. It's always in flux.
I don't think that there's like AI mean sometimes you could say,
oh, you're an A+ and today you're probably enough.
Yeah, give me an aggregate of the past year I.
Left. Seems like you've been going
through a lot. Right now.
Maybe. When are we airing this?
(12:38):
It'll air next Thursday. Before Placid.
Before Placid, yeah. Yeah, I I'm always finding
something to overcome and get through.
But I will say that it seems to be one of my greatest strengths
(12:59):
or assets is overcoming things. So gosh, it was so not OK.
What's today? Today's Friday, not this past
Wednesday, but the Wednesday before last last started
experiencing some like really terrible like food starting
(13:25):
going blank foodborne illness. OK.
Food poisoning. Food poisoning, Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Symptoms right?
So I've had problems in the bathroom, OK and now like OK,
maybe this is something that needs to get out of my system.
I'll let it you know, it's probably not a big deal.
There is something bad last night, it'll pass.
So end up getting out on a bike ride, had a 5 hour bike ride,
(13:50):
went and did that and just just kind of this kind of like the,
you know, during it came back and just sort of was feeling
pretty off and then had some really bad diarrhea, nausea,
vomiting the rest of the day. And yeah, Long story short, all
(14:11):
of this, the problems lasted forfive days.
Ended up losing like 3 lbs in five days.
And I'm like, I've got Iron Man like Placid in like less than
two weeks and I'm just sitting here losing weight and I can't
eat, you know, or train. Yeah, not good.
(14:31):
So anyways, ended up in the ER because I'm like, I can't get a
hold of all of this. I get some tests done and it did
end up being a common foodborne pathogen.
And so we've finally kind of figured out probably where it
came from. So yeah, anyways, things cleared
(14:53):
up early this week and then I could start kind of
incorporating some food, trying to admit a big pot of chicken
noodle soup, try to start eatingon that.
And then Tuesday I could start eating a little bit more.
And then finally things have really settled down with my my
gut. And I have been just trying to
heal my gut and try to regain some weight and some strength
(15:18):
ready for Placid. So yeah, everyone is believes
that I'm going to be back to full strength and ready to go.
I'm trusting them, Yeah. I was going to say, do you
believe that? Yeah, it's coming around.
First few sessions were challenging because when you're
trying to work out when your tank is empty, it's it's hard.
So I've had to be incredibly in tune with my body and knowing
(15:41):
like how much is too much? What what can I do?
What should I do? What shouldn't I do?
You know, I'm used to doing 3 workouts a day essentially, you
know, two or three workouts a day.
And so there's the day when I get to where I'm maybe going to
do my third workout, I'm like, Idon't think it's a good idea for
me to do that because I just feel like I'm going to try to be
(16:02):
pulling from an energy store where there's just the energy
that doesn't exist. So I'm not going to do that.
I'm just going to go eat some food.
But I feel like my strength is getting back and getting better.
And thankfully kind of all of this happened when there's
really not much more to be gained in terms of like fitness.
So just a matter of getting strength back and sharpening
(16:24):
some things up and getting my head screwed on straight and
ready to go well. Good for you for, I guess taking
the break. I've heard from a lot of people
that typically will push throughthose types of things, but I
think it's really important to be able to do that so.
I was impossible. I am telling you it was
impossible like. It felt impossible because you
like, I have to do this thing, Ihave to check off the box, I
(16:45):
have to be prepared. No, it wasn't physically
impossible. I was in a bad place, yeah.
Did you feel a sense of peace when you gave yourself the
permission to not do it? Like do you feel good after you
made that? Call.
Yeah. You know, it just shit happens.
Yeah, literally, you know, you just have to, like, roll with it
(17:06):
and just, there's nothing you can do about it.
So you just do whatever you can.And that's just what the focus
is. It's just like, you know what?
Just don't even think about the race right now.
All you can do is just think about your health and
prioritizing that. Yeah.
Would you consider yourself a stoic person?
What do you mean? Do you can like?
(17:27):
Oyster. Yeah, like whenever something
happens, do you typically go up and down like a roller coaster?
Are you pretty even keeled? And.
Yeah, I think I'm pretty even keeled.
It's certainly, I had a couple days, a couple, probably a few
days. Sure.
It's like I don't know how I'm going to be able to do this.
(17:48):
Like I just don't know how. And I have to remind myself
like, OK, you don't need to do an Iron Man today.
You have to do it in 10 days from now or 11 days from now or
9 days or whatever it is. You don't have to do it today.
You just so just don't think about it right now.
So I think yeah, I, I, I would say so I think when chaotic
(18:13):
things happened, I tend to be pretty calm.
Yeah, that's a gift. Do you?
Have you always been that way? I think so.
You both my parents may have talked about this before.
We're in the Marine Corps, you know, And I think I was pretty
used to seeing them in action and then my dad in action, too,
just being able to be calm underpressure.
(18:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think they're also just taught that in like team sports
growing up especially I've had acoach and I played basketball in
high school and I think being poised under pressure was like
one of our team mottos. So I probably that probably
stuck with me. Yeah, Yeah, it's interesting.
(18:58):
I feel like it's hard for some people.
It's harder for some people to learn that and then not as hard
for other people just depending on.
I really think it comes down to the how we were brought up.
Like you're saying, with your parents being able to have that
discipline or know how to go through something super
difficult. But with kids, when they see
just the tumultuous up and down it, it's so interesting how we
would just model whatever we see, not even necessarily what
(19:19):
we're told to do. Yeah.
So I was thinking like an interesting type of a question
to ask you in retrospect to havethe like past year.
This may be a difficult questionand if you don't want to answer,
you don't have to. We can move on to another one.
But if you were could write Danielle a letter to like past
Danielle from one year earlier when we talked, what do you
(19:40):
think you would communicate to yourself about what was to come?
I don't know. I think that I even continue to
learn from my past self. Like years and years ago, kind
(20:01):
of what we talked about before. Like a year ago or so, you know,
I think that I, if I write something down in like training
peaks or if I've journaled something or written something
down somewhere, I was like, oh, I forgot about that.
Oh, that's a good reminder from like my past self.
I should remember that. No, but I really don't really
(20:22):
feel like I haven't quite an answer to this one because I
feel like there hasn't been significant change between now
and this time last year. I think, you know, the biggest
thing is just to kind of keep trusting, keep going and keep
believing and do the best you can.
(20:44):
So for this question then, if you were to grade your happiness
with the sport, what would you say between like a scale of 1 to
10? Like when I'm done 10, I can
just do this forever? Where do you think you fall on
that scale? I don't want to do this forever,
No. There's way too many hours spent
of being tired and hungry and alone.
(21:08):
And the training is hard, you know?
It's not, It's not. It's not always fun, especially
at the end of. An Iron Man block right before a
race. Yeah, except, you know, and you
live your life thinking about, oh, the next race that's coming
up. And then everything that you do
is revolving around, like, making sure you're preparing for
this. And then if things don't go
(21:30):
right, it's like, oh, OK, so allof this was for what reason?
Yeah. So what was the question again?
Yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, your happiness within the sport
right now, just like the contentment, the happiness about
it. I'm not unhappy, I'm happy.
(21:54):
I I love what I do. I wouldn't change it.
I'm not ready to be done. Yeah.
So again, I don't know that I can give it as.
A number. I just like numbers.
I'm obsessed with numbers. So if you.
Can't agree it like that's fine.Well, because I don't think it's
so like hard and fast. I think it's either you either
enjoy it and you're do it and you're continuing to move
forward in it or you don't. Yeah, and if you don't feel
(22:19):
that, you should probably quit. Yeah, if you're not happy with
it anymore, then don't do it. I think this is the sport that
it's hard enough as it is, you've got to just really be
enjoying it to keep moving forward.
Yeah, and forgive me if I asked you this question last time, but
how old are you and do you thinkthat you will like have it
(22:40):
figured out what you are interested in doing post
triathlon? What if I don't remember how old
I am? I mean, it happens.
I I'm getting to that age. I said I was 33 the other day
and I'm not 33 yet. I'll be 33.
So it happens. OK, we're in an odd year, so
that means I'm 37. OK, Is there?
(23:03):
I don't know. Again, I'm telling my age.
What was the question again? Is there a point when I'm going
to be like, done? Yeah.
Well, no, there will be a point when you're done, but yeah, like
what do you know kind of what you want to do after you think.
No, I don't really. You have some.
(23:23):
Interests or hobbies that you think you'd like to just dive
into? I think I'll eventually get into
coaching. I don't know when.
I think that's a big commitment though, and I don't know that
I'm ready to commit to people yet, if that makes sense because
like I would put a lot into coaching.
I think I do a pretty good job at it, but I but I know at least
(23:47):
where I am in my career that a lot of the focus is on what I'm
doing and I don't want that to take away from what I would give
and invest into other people. Yeah.
Do you think that you'll be a mom?
I see that in my future, I don'thave a timeline.
Yeah, probably should. But I'm also at the age, it's
(24:08):
kind of like, I don't see that if I was to have a kid, I'd be
able to come back. Oh yeah, just because, like, you
are later in your 30s, Is that why?
Probably that, and then just having, like, support, too.
I mean, it's just my husband andI here.
So yeah, I just don't know if I would want to come back.
That's a lot of time. The sport's a lot of time.
(24:30):
And so it's like, I don't know, I would just feel really tired
all the time. And I'm already tired all the
time, so I don't know if I want to be that extra tired all the
time. All the time will come.
Are you this is these are personal questions at this
point, but I hear it's like somewhat of a popular thing, but
like the freezing of the eggs. Have you done this type of?
Oh gosh, I don't. I don't even think about this
stuff. Yeah, it's a totally yeah.
I don't even think about it. Yeah.
(24:51):
Yeah. OK.
Well, I have no follow up question to that other than
yeah, being a parent like is it's, it's fascinating me just
because my sister just had her second child and I'm 33.
So it won't be too terribly longbefore that next chapter comes.
But I was just going to say it seems like there's like this
superpower that is attached to some of these athletes that have
(25:13):
come back and, you know, have a child behind him.
And I haven't figured out what exactly that is.
It's just like there's a deeper sense of motivation maybe.
I don't know. That and probably a lot of help
I would assume. A lot of help in what way?
With the child like having help,Yeah, changing diapers and doing
(25:35):
all the things needed to. It also seems like there's like
a level of like mental boost from it.
Do you? Do you agree or disagree?
Well, sure, absolutely. I mean, you have to be
committed, right? You can't just be like half in
being a parent and half in beinga triathlete.
I mean, these are things that you have to be super committed
(25:57):
to and super disciplined in yourday.
You're training and everything that's involved to take care of
everything. Yeah.
So I want to shift gears just slightly or not so slightly.
But on the topic of you talking earlier about partnerships and,
you know, some of the boxes you have to check off, I'm curious
(26:18):
if you've ever come across an instance with a partnership or
some kind of a sponsor who they asked you to do something that
you just didn't feel quite rightabout doing?
Or if there was any like Gray area or something that you had
to kind of put your foot down and say like, hey, this isn't
something that I'm comfortable doing.
(26:39):
No, no, I haven't. And I think part of that just is
because of just that vetting process that I go through prior
to accepting a, a sponsorship ora partnership with somebody,
right. So like, I want to work with
companies that have people that I connect with, where values
(27:02):
align and products that I use the products, right.
And I think just because of someof that vetting process, maybe
avoid some things in the back end where it's like, well, you
know, we want you to talk about this, this or this.
It's like, well, I don't know ifI actually agree with this, this
or that. So yeah.
(27:25):
Do you have something specific that you look for like in a
partner? I mean, obviously it's got to be
something that you're interestedin, but and also do partners
more now in your stage of your career?
Do more people come to you then you have to like kind of go out
and and seek them out? I think there's a little bit of
a combination most of the time, still is.
If there's somebody that I'm interested in, then we'll seek
(27:48):
that out. And then I think if people come
to me, it might be more of like product type type things.
It's like, hey, we'll send you this.
If you do, you know, post about this, this and this.
I'm like, I don't really want todo that.
So I, I could probably buy your thing for like 20 bucks.
I'm good. I appreciate it though.
(28:08):
Thank you. I mean, I mean, I don't want to
say this and people are like, oh, I'm not going to e-mail her
anymore. Like, well, don't do that, but I
well, you can all you get so many there's if you're
constantly getting stapled, like, oh, we'll send you this
thing. And if you can do this for us,
like, well, I don't know, I really want to do that.
So anyways, yeah, like I said, Ithink it's just it's a little
(28:29):
bit of a combination. Yeah.
Do you ever feel like the tension between who you are
privately and what people expectto see from you publicly?
No, but I think just like in thethe world that we live in, it's
not always like a free space to maybe say things that you want
(28:51):
to say on social media, right So.
Please elaborate and give me some examples.
I don't. I wish I did.
I don't know, I could just be like.
Like current events stuff. Like politics?
Yeah, current events type stuff,if I guess I could caught topic
could be like trans women in sports, right.
(29:18):
So if I was to have an opinion on that, you know, or what
society might be was like the wrong opinion, you know, you
just kid, I don't know. It's just sometimes it's better
just not say anything, is it? Yeah, sometimes it's better to
just not say anything. Yeah.
(29:40):
Do you have an opinion on that matter that you would?
Be I do, I don't care if people can do whatever they want to do,
whatever they feel like they're led to do and they feel like
it's right for them in their life, go for us and do it.
But I think when it comes down to science, like genetic males
have testosterone and they all have this or many, many, many
(30:03):
years of their life until they begin to transition if they're
transitioning from male to female.
And so they come into sport and say, Oh, no, well, I'm on
hormone replacement therapy or, or whatever.
It's like, well, it's not the same because you've had years of
development. So it's, it's like, OK, so if I
was to go and just use testosterone from a long period
of time and then come back into the sport and say, oh, no, I'm
(30:25):
females like, well, no, you werejust off and you were doping for
a long time. Like, well, that doesn't make
any sense. Like, you know what I mean?
So just, it's just not, it's just not, it's just not fair for
women's sport. But that doesn't mean that there
cannot be a pathway for them to compete and they're.
On division. Yeah.
(30:46):
It just as as it stands, there'sjust not really that pathway.
Yeah. So yeah, there's a lot of
fumbling around in the dark. It's been really interesting to
sit on the sidelines, obviously someone who's not professionally
involved in any sport, but to see particularly just around the
political scene, how there's just just this great flip flop
and what the main narrative is pushed on the major news outlets
(31:10):
or, you know, the popular people.
How people just flip flop and itkeeps coming back to me.
I feel like it's ends up being about money for some reason.
It's like that seems to be what moves the needle.
And then soon as this side isn't, I don't know,
flamboyantly bombastic about, you know, standing in the sand
and drawing this line in one particular area.
(31:30):
When that kind of dies off and people aren't as interested and
it swings the other direction, Ifeel like that's really weird.
Like, that's like the pendulum, usually a pendulum kind of, you
know, settles in the middle, butit just keeps swinging to such
extremes. It's like there's no, nobody
seems normal anymore, which actually, I think most people
are normal. I think most people sit in the
middle. But we're made to believe
(31:50):
through just what all the popular, you know, all the reels
that get pushed with the billions of views or whatever it
is the some form of media watch.It's just just, yeah, I don't
know. Which is again, why I choose to
just stay at home with my cats. Yeah.
And live under the rock, yeah. Do you think a day will ever
come where something just happened so intense for you?
Like I'm, I mean, you always have your cats, but you're just
(32:14):
going to be, it would like get you up out of your seat to go
and be like a loud voice for a particular set of issues or
values. Well, I think if there's
something that really is just apparently wrong, perhaps,
perhaps. Yeah.
(32:35):
How do you know what's wrong? And if you're getting sick of
these like kind of Gray questions, let me know.
But I'm I'm trying to like get you cracked open a little bit
more in the values section of things.
How do I know? I mean, aren't we all just kind
of born with a sense of right and wrong though too?
I mean. Some people would say no, some
(32:55):
people don't think there's anything is right and wrong,
which I think is crazy, but. So it's OK to be a serial
killer, I mean. Where do you draw the line?
So I mean, they, if they're, I don't know, they're lying to
themselves. Yeah, yeah.
No, I think that there really isan innate sense of right and
wrong. But for some reason, it's
(33:19):
becoming easier in popular culture to to tell people, oh, I
don't think that's true. And so it becomes like this
objective, or, excuse me, not asobjective, the subjective view
on what truth can and can't be, which is hard because I talked
like I had an hour and a half conversation with Ari, you know,
Ari Clow. Yeah, I had a conversation with
(33:40):
him, a couple episodes with him,like only his second time when
we were talking about this concept of right and wrong and
what truth is. And I believe that there's like
very defined sets, almost like physics of what truth is and is
not. But then there's areas that are
actually kind of black and white.
And I don't think that I have the brain power to be able to
decipher one way or the other, because every experience that
(34:01):
somebody has can kind of be shaping how they view that one
thing. So.
Yes, yeah, just in our society, people do tend to think that
their way is the right way and they're not willing to
(34:22):
understand where somebody else is coming from and putting
themselves in in their shoes andtrying to understand their
perspective. And I think that's that's sad
for our society. Yeah, it is.
It's really hard. So I went to this.
It's like this three day retreatthat one of my friends paid for
me to go to and it had people. I would say there's 40 or 50 of
(34:45):
us from very drastically different walks of life.
And you know, when you walk intoa room, maybe it's a pro
briefing or whatever, and you kind of eye people you don't
know before and you kind of castthese judgments and it's a very
human thing to do because you'retrying to place people to know
are they safe? Are they not safe kind of a
thing. So I did this in this room with
these people. And one of these exercises we
did, we were told to go and sit with the person who we just
(35:07):
absolutely decided in our mind, like, that's not a person I'm
going to click with. So I chose this old, just
grouchy seeming man. And over the course of the
weekend, we did some of these exercises one-on-one.
And by the end of that weekend, I kid you not, I like it, was
embracing this guy and crying atone point just because he was
able to hold space for me. And this conversation where I
(35:28):
was talking to him like he was my father.
So he's a solar father figure. So it's this whole thing.
But it just taught me the lessonthat, like, if you put everybody
and I say everybody but people into rooms with just people that
you think that you would not getalong with and have people share
from their heart, just like the experiences that they have.
There's this crazy thing that starts to happen where you, you
like, really do fall in love with a person because you see
(35:50):
the human side of them. And I wish that we could do that
with like, world leaders, all ofthese grumpy old men who decide
who goes in the battle line and dies and who doesn't.
You know, it's like, what can wemake that happen?
Like, what would need to happen to make that happen?
It just needs to happen. I think if I was to go into a
room, I don't know that there'd be anyone that I'd be like, I'm
(36:13):
not going to sit next to you unless you stink and you're
sneezing all over the place. That person has a story.
Well, you know, they can tell methe story from over there, but
other than that, I try not to be, you know, too judgmental
because I know everyone does have have a story.
They've got a perspective, they have history, you know, wherever
(36:35):
they came from and what they've experienced in life, so.
Yeah, yeah. Speaking of stories, I don't
know if I asked you this last time, but how did you meet
Andrew? We met their mutual friend and
met at a race actually. Oh really?
Chattanooga 70.3. Oh nice, was this worlds?
(36:55):
No, you've been married for a while, I guess.
Got married during COVID. Oh wow, what was that like?
I think maybe about you that too.
Apologies. Yeah, I don't recall, but it was
really cool. We rented the steak house on
Hayden Lake, which is just sort of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
(37:16):
And like, gosh, it was like 5 stories.
It was wicked because on the side, it was on the side of this
hill, but we invited just a few of our triathlon friends and it
was like a three day ordeal. It was kind of like a little
like mini training camp. And then we had family, some
family come in. It wasn't very big, just if some
family members come in and had alittle ceremony there on the
(37:37):
lake. And yeah, it was super, super
simple. But like, perfect for us because
we've built a triathlon lifestyle.
Yeah, yeah. Super neat.
So what are some of the lessons you've learned about yourself
since being married? What?
I don't know, we got like cats more than I thought than I did.
(38:03):
Oh, good. Send me these questions in
advance because you're asking methese questions at the end of
like Iron Man training. I know.
We're both tired. We can put a pause on that
question if you want. OK, maybe I'll figure it out.
What are easy? What are some questions that you
think that I should ask? I mean, I really like grits
(38:27):
vanilla ice cream, which you probably wouldn't guess.
Why wouldn't I guess vanilla icecream?
Super plain and boring. No, the best vanilla, it's
vanilla ice cream is done right.There's this place in town
called Taste in Sea Creamery andthey have this Madagascan
vanilla, whatever that means Madagascar.
(38:48):
But it is when vanilla ice creamis done right, it's like the
best thing ever. I don't think ice cream needs to
have a ton of flavors and chunkybits and all this other.
Stuff, yeah. I could be dreaming about food,
though, because I'm still tryingto like, eat more games.
Yeah, some weight and strength. How much weight are you trying
to gain back? Like do you think you'll be able
to do it by the time you race? So I, I don't mind sharing like
(39:15):
my weight at all. I get hesitant sometimes and
people are like, oh, if she weighs this, I should try to
weigh this because sometimes girls like, oh, I need to try to
like match whatever she doesn't know.
So anyways, I have a certain threshold that I try to not go
below because I, I found that ifI do go below that I just, I
lose strength. I don't recover.
I'm really fatigued, more than Ishould be too I.
(39:39):
Feel like. Yeah, so I work hard just like
stay above this. And then also like my weight
fluctuates throughout the year. So like the offseason I'm
usually like 7-8 pounds heavier than like race weight.
And then that just will naturally kind of get to where
it needs to be during when I'm peaking and racing.
(40:04):
So anyways, I went 3 lbs under my threshold with this whole
like. Getting sick thing.
You're getting sick, getting sick thing.
So I mean, it's kind of like tempting, like, do I consider
this a blessing since there's somuch climbing in Lake Placid?
Watts per KG are going up. Exactly.
(40:24):
Well, we don't want the watts part to go down though.
So anyways, yeah, now I am goingto try to gain back some of that
weight so I don't lose strength.That's the important part.
Well, what are your I mean, yourthis may have been different
maybe even a few weeks ago before you were sick, but what
are your hopes at a Placid? Do you have any like, hopes,
(40:44):
dreams? Expectations different now than
it was maybe a few weeks ago. What was a few?
Weeks ago. Well I mean it won Placid last
year so defending champ always wants to try to win again right?
But at the same time I have alsonot had a good Iron Man this
year. I've done 2 and they just didn't
turn out well, so I need ideallyjust a good result.
(41:08):
Good solid result, no issue, no nothing weird happened.
I just want a good clean race. If one can just dream of that,
that's ultimately what I want. I think that's probably still
what I want even after just getting sick.
I think now, though, after getting sick, I think for
(41:29):
myself, my main goal is to mentally get myself engaged and
ready to go and just fight. Yeah.
And not just be afraid of it. I can't sit there and think, oh,
I was sick a few weeks ago and This is why I feel bad.
Like I can't be thinking about that on race day.
(41:51):
It's something of the past, you know?
So that's my my big focus. When you say that's your big
focus, like to get to that pointto where you're able to walk
into the race and have the mindset that would be give a
healthy race regardless of the outcome, like performance wise.
But just like mentally engaged where you're talking about, is
there certain things that you have to do to get there?
(42:11):
Or is it just kind of thinking about the positives, writing
those things down? You mentioned journaling
earlier. Like do you do any of those
things to help sharpen that tool?
Yeah, probably more just like visualization of like how I want
to feel and react and respond. And during the race, certain
(42:35):
things that I want to be thinking about telling myself
just the narrative I want going through my head during race day.
So I think about those things and visualize that.
And that's probably the bulk of it, quite honestly.
And then, yeah, maybe a little bit of of journaling or just
writing some things down. Have you ever, aside from
(42:58):
finishing, cried during An Iron Man?
Who hasn't? What were the tears?
Were they always sad tears or were they happy tears as well?
They're everything. Why am I doing this?
Oh, this hurts. Oh, this is terrible.
I quit. Oh, this is amazing.
Yes. You get everything.
(43:18):
Yeah. Have you ever gotten off the
bike and been like, I'm excited to run?
Yeah, further than like the after mile 5 because everybody,
I guess wants to get off the bike.
Sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I like, I like.
Well, when you're feeling good, the run's amazing.
Yeah. If you're not, then yeah, it's a
rough day. Yeah, it is a rough day.
(43:39):
What percentage of the time do you think you feel that?
Most of the time, if my nutrition has gone well, yeah,
yeah. And if I don't have, usually if
I have, if I'm having issues with the run, it'd be the
second-half of the marathon. And it's a my stomach isn't
(44:02):
clearing or settling and I startgetting some GI issues.
Yeah, we've been there. I mean, I haven't even done that
many. I've only done 2 and the second
one was very much that, yeah. Have you cried during An Iron
Man? I have, yeah.
The very first, I mean, I did was Chattanooga.
Do you want to hear the story? Yeah, so Iron Man, Chattanooga
(44:22):
hometown race, obviously. So in May I did the 70.3 and it
was the exact opposite of positive mindset.
I went in kind of hard, gave up before I even really started the
race, and my power meter was messed up, which I found out
afterwards. But because that I was so
married to like, this number, I wanted to hit it just, yeah, it
got me to just this terrible place.
(44:43):
And then I got on the run and I basically gave up.
And it's interesting how the body kind of falls in line with
the mind. So then I start hurting
everywhere. And anyway, it was just a
terrible race. And I cried at the end of that
race because I was like, I did so bad.
And it was after these, you know, I just kind of had gotten
into the sport. So I was still on this like
hockey stick, exponential growthof like, I'm just going to be
the best in the world, you know?So anyway, Iron Man came around
(45:06):
and I'd really thought a lot about no longer married to the
numbers. I just wanna enjoy it.
So I did the swim. Obviously it was super fast,
'cause it's Chattanooga. It was like a 42 minute swim and
I got out on the bike and my legs felt really good as I was
like climbing out of town. You know how you start to head
out of town? And I just started bawling
because I was so excited. Like it felt so good.
(45:26):
I had family there and I even dropped my chain like a mile
later on the railroad tracks andgot off and put it back on.
But I was still just so pumped and excited.
So. And then when I finished, yeah,
I have to send you the picture of me crossing the finish line.
It's just the most ugly cry you've ever seen.
But it was it was a great experience.
And then my next Iron Man was terrible.
(45:47):
So that is Iron Man, that's it'sso hard to be so consistent in
those. Yeah, it's kind of reminds me of
Challenge Roth. I know that just happened
recently and we did that last year and that was an absolutely
amazing experience. I mean I remember it's a 2 loop
(46:07):
bike, but the on the 1st loop you come around a corner and you
look up and you see Solar Burke,the hill with all the people.
Immediately I saw I got it. Just goosebumps and chills
everywhere even now. And I think about it and then I
immediately just started crying.I'm like why am I crying?
Why were you crying? I don't know.
It's just, it was just because if it was all of the emotion and
the energy, I think is, I think I just felt the energy.
(46:30):
It was all for you or whoever was in that line.
Well. I was, I just saw it.
It was like half a mile away or a quarter mile away or I just
saw it and I knew what I was getting into and it was like,
wow, like it was nuts. Yeah, that's cool.
I I want to do Roth just for that hill I that's why I've so
many of those videos I've seen and it gives me chill bumps
(46:50):
watching it. But yeah, once you experience an
Iron Man and then you see something like that, it does
make it super special. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing another
Iron Man in October, so I. Which one is that?
Iron Man, California. Oh see, there's another fast
one. See, look at you kicking the
fast swims. I just live in California now.
Was it a fast swim? Oh, cuz it's in the Sacramento
(47:10):
River. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that
until. It's a flat bike.
Yep. Yeah, really good, really good
choice for somebody who's $1.25 and five foot five and can't
hold the power on the flat. It's like all these big train
dudes that just fly by. But I'm I would look forward to
it. I want to beat my old coach.
He's going to be there from Tennessee, so it'll be fun.
Oh, good. OK.
(47:33):
So after Placid, what's going onin your world?
So the 70.3 Boise is here the weekend after, which is so
exciting. I don't know yet if I'm racing.
I'll make that decision after Placid.
Say you're going to be recovered.
I've done it before. I've done a full and then a half
the weekend after. It wasn't actually that bad.
(47:54):
Maybe I was just like mentally prepared for it.
But I think this just being likea hometown race, there's
certainly part of me that just wants to do it just because it's
just a hometown race, you know? How can you say no?
But I have a lot of other eventskind of locally and things that
are happening that weekend too. So it's just going to be a
(48:15):
really fun time. I'm excited about that.
We're planning on, if maybe there's people that are doing
Boise, going to invite all of the pros.
I have one of my partner sponsors are going to pay for
free round of drinks for all thepros after the race at a local
brewery, which I'm super excitedabout.
(48:35):
So I'm gonna invite everyone to that.
And then hopefully the day afterthe race I can get a bunch of
people to go float the river. We have the river that goes
through downtown Boise. It just takes like a couple
hours to float, but it's pretty cheaper.
Tubes and stuff, yeah, that's super cool.
We do that. They used to do that a lot in
Tennessee. So that's the weekend after and
(48:56):
then after that I will probably recover a little bit and then
get ready for Kona. Yeah, the big the big final
shebang of the year. That and then Spain.
How long? How long after that is Spain
after Kona? December.
What is it? Hold on.
(49:19):
Should I Google it? Then November, Yeah.
Which one is it? It's in November.
Is it? I think it's just a few weeks,
yeah. What's the?
City or the race name? Oh, it's in Marbella MARBELL.
Oh, you. Oh, for the world champs,
(49:39):
obviously. Yeah.
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, it is on.
It's not telling me. Oh, November 8th.
Yeah. Nice.
That's exciting. Then that's a full season.
And you started racing how early?
In April. Yeah.
Does that feel like a long season to you?
(49:59):
I guess not. That's pretty standard.
I don't feel like I've raced that much this year, which is
weird cuz I think I raced more last year at this point.
Yeah, nice. Well, it's coming down the Pike.
That's yeah, that's those are some huge races to train for and
a lot of travel. Yeah.
Good deal. Sweet.
Well, Danielle, thank you for letting me ask all kinds of
(50:23):
questions. I know you've got a lot of
training on your belt. I hope they continue to gain
back the the weight and you're able to get to a place that you
feel mentally strong and healthy.
And it'll be fun to track you injust what did you say, 10 days?
It's on Saturday, Sunday. That's the 20th so.
Yeah, 9-9 days. 9 days. Yeah, it's coming down the Pike.
(50:45):
Yeah. Well, thank you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
And good luck in your training for California, too.
Thank you so much to Danielle for jumping on the podcast again
and letting me dive into her life, even though she is pretty
tired, has been going through a lot with the upcoming like
Placid. So is this air?
She's gonna be racing just here in a couple of days.
(51:07):
Yeah, it's this is on Thursday, so Friday, Saturday.
She'll be racing on Sunday. So make sure to go get the
Ironman checker app or make sureto follow that race online.
Yeah. Thank you again to Danielle for
coming on. If you may at this point in the
podcast, thank you so much for being here.
Check out the show notes for anyof the description stuff that
has to do with the podcast, suchas the newsletter or the stupid
question socks that you may wantto pick up.
(51:30):
Yeah, if you are watching on YouTube, like comment,
subscribe, turn the notificationbell.
That really helps. Can you continue to grow the
podcast there? And if you're on Spotify or
Apple podcast, if you could likereview, comment on those
platforms that continues to helpgrow the podcast as well.
Thank you guys so much for beinghere.
Hope you like the sign and we'llcatch you in the next one.
Peace.
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