April 24, 2025 • 45 mins
Tash Cooper-Smith shares her journey from the UK to becoming a sports scientist, shaped by family, a love for the outdoors, and a pivotal shift toward sports nutrition. She discusses her work at Precision Fuel and Hydration, her research on carbs for athletes, and the growth she's experienced in managing stress and expectations. Passionate about mentorship and leadership, Tash reflects on the balance between career and personal life, with future goals of completing an Ironman and pursuing a PhD.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
How's it going everyone? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
And in the pod, we're going to be talking with Tash Cooper
Smith. She is a sports scientist over
precision fuel and hydration andshe did her masters and on
endurance fueling and carbohydrate metabolism.
So she definitely fits in with the crew over at Precision Fuel
and Hydration. If you do want to connect with
her, actually check out the shownotes in the description below
(00:25):
where you can have a free 20 minute call with her and be able
to figure out what is the best way for you to fuel and terms of
carbohydrates and electrolytes and fuel.
Excuse me, hydration. Yeah, really great team over
there have helped me a ton. This is not a paid ad, by the
way. I'm just doing this because they
really helped me a ton. And as you guys see, all the
time I drink out of this water bottle.
(00:46):
So anyway, without further ado, I want to introduce you to Tash
Coopersmith. There you go.
But yeah, thank you, Tash. First of all, cool thing to I
guess put a little emphasis on your name.
I've never heard anyone with thename Tash before, so that's is a
cool name. Where?
What's the etymology of this word?
Do you know? It's, I mean, my name's Natasha.
(01:07):
I just don't get called it very often, honestly.
Like, my mom's the only person who calls me Natasha.
So if I hear it, I'm like, oh God, what have I done?
Yeah. So yeah, Tasha was a childhood
nickname that just stuck, I think.
Yeah, cool, cool. So where are you from?
Originally I'm from Buckinghamshire which is sort of
(01:28):
near London in the UK and I moved to Dorset when my parents
moved down here, which is where I'm based now at the position
HQ. Yeah, awesome.
Do you do you like growing up where you grew up?
Was it more of like a country setting or a city setting?
It was kind of a mixture of both.
It was a little town, let's say on the outskirts of London, but
(01:52):
there was so much countryside around it.
So yeah, I was always quite an outdoorsy kid, which I just
loved. And it was nice that I could get
into the city or, you know, go out and and see things without
being miles and miles away. Yeah, kind of like the perfect
happy medium between the two. Yeah.
Do you have siblings? I do, I have a twin brother.
(02:14):
OK, nice. Who was born first in terms of
minutes? I was, and I take so much pride
in that. Yeah.
Yeah. What was it like growing up with
a twin? I think when you're a kid
anything is annoying, so having a sibling is always someone to
fight with. But as we grew up and as we got
(02:34):
older it it was like having a best mate.
It was so much nicer as we like towards, I don't know, 14 years
old. Plus it was just someone to do
something with all the time. And I think we just got closer
and closer because now he's likethe person I would do absolutely
anything with, which is so nice,having someone like.
(02:56):
Yeah. You said you guys or you enjoyed
like the outdoors. Was that something that was
pretty common in terms of the activities growing up as a kid
in your family? Were you guys a very outdoorsy
people? Yeah, I mean, my parents aren't
particularly sporty, not not that outdoorsy, but they never
let us just sit and watch TV allthe time.
(03:17):
It was always like, if it's raining, you're going to go and
walk in the puddles and like jump around and do things like
that. I think it was just an emphasis
on being outside. And because of that, we, we got
into a lot of sports. So we both did things most days
after school and on weekends. And it, instead of it being like
forced upon us, it was, it was always a choice, which was super
(03:38):
nice. And I guess I just carried that
on, you know, throughout the rest of my life.
Just being outside is like the best thing for my head, which is
it's nice living where I do, youknow, and basically on the
coast. Yeah, for sure.
In those younger years, when youstart to have some of these, I
don't know, experiences with sports and whatnot, there's a
(04:01):
lot of lessons to be learned. Do you recall any like key
lessons that you start to learn about yourself during those
earlier years of getting involved with sports?
That's a tricky 1. I think doing sports teaches you
an awful lot, you know, teaches you things from teamwork to just
self worth and how hard you can push yourself and believing in
(04:22):
yourself. I think for me, that's probably
the biggest thing I learned Just, you know, you work hard at
something and even from a kid just playing like tennis with
your friends, you learn to like push yourself and and focus on
being in the moment and, and doing as much as you can and
being the best you can at something.
I definitely took that on from, you know, a very young age up
(04:43):
until now. Yeah, for sure.
So who do you believe that Tash is?
Like who is Tash? That's a good question.
I could give you a million answers because the easiest 1 is
a sports scientist, because that's my that's my job role.
I could say daughter, sister, that kind of thing.
(05:06):
But honestly just tricky. I think at the moment I probably
identify as an athlete, let's say, and yeah, I'm not really
sure I could say much more than that.
Yeah, so athlete, you work, a daughter, a sister.
Those hint at some of the valuesthat you hold closest to you.
(05:28):
But if you were to hold them allup and weigh them, which one
would be the heaviest? Which one takes most of your
mental bandwidth and your time? Time is always going to be the
job. And I, I love what I do for
work. And it's, it's great that it
kind of overlaps with my hobby and, and being an athlete and
doing that kind of thing. But it takes the most time
(05:51):
purely because I'm very passionate about it.
So I'll do everything I can to, you know, get the best out of
what I'm doing daily and I'm giving the people I work with
the best of me. But that being said, family is
massively important to me. So chatting to my family and my
parents, my brother, pretty muchevery day is also very
(06:12):
important. So it's kind of balancing at
all. Yeah, for sure.
Do you do you think that you're more like your mom or more like
your dad? A bit of both.
It's so hard. I I always get told that I'm
like my dad because I look more like him.
We have some of maybe the less favorable characteristics in the
like some of the things that I, you know, how you cope with
(06:34):
stress of your patients, that kind of thing.
Definitely from him. But with my mom, I definitely
get her caring side and and likethe the loving warmth that she
had growing when I was growing up definitely sort of got passed
on to me, let's say. Yeah.
Do you think that you spend moretime in terms of the decisions
and the way that you operate life?
Do you spend more time in your head or in your heart?
(06:59):
Definitely in my head. I think I've been known to
overthink quite a lot of things.I think I end up getting to the
thing I, I, I have in my heart, you know, the thing you actually
want to do as opposed to the thing that your head's telling
you to do. But it takes me a long time to
get to that. Yeah.
What? So let me ask you this question
and maybe this will give a little bit more emphasis to how
(07:21):
your heart operates, but what's an experience that you've had?
It can be any point in your lifethat you would want to live over
again. Wow, Yeah, that's a a big
question. And there's no rush.
You can think about it if you want.
Yeah. Can we circle back on that one?
Yeah, sure. So let me ask you this.
(07:46):
When did you come to the conclusion at like when you
started to grow up, that maybe sports science is something that
you wanted to get into? When I was in secondary school,
so when I was about 1617 and having to decide my A levels, so
I was actually going to study, Iwas surrounded by a lot of
people who want to see medicine and be doctors and dentists and
(08:08):
that kind of thing. And in that I kind of got
swooped up a bit and I thought like, oh, this is the route for
me. This is definitely what I want
to do. And then I thought about it a
bit more and I actually visited University of Birmingham, which
is where I ended up studying. I visited there looking at the
facilities for medicine and I was kind of like, OK, cool, you
know, there wasn't much there. And then I thought, why not just
(08:30):
drop into the sports science department?
And I did. And I got chatting to one of the
lecturers there and everything changed.
I was like, this is for me, thisis what I want to do.
It was like the easiest decisionI've ever made.
You know, I just, I got there and I was like, yeah, I can see
myself being a student here and then actually eventually having
a career in that. And it didn't really change from
(08:52):
there. You know, I, I stuck did my
levels, which were chosen to do medicine.
So they weren't necessarily whatI loved, but I did them, got
through them, got to Birmingham and I just sort of got sucked
into it all. You know, I did my undergrad
there, and so I'm doing researchtrials.
And honestly, I just kind of didthem for fun.
I was like, oh, look, someone needs me to cycle for how long
(09:15):
and take some blood samples. Cool, I'll do that.
You get paid as a student. That's like a massive win.
And I just started asking questions, and I got so hooked
on research and Physiology and how it all correlates to my own
performance and how you can improve performance.
And then I was like, OK, I really want to be a sports
scientist. And yeah, it's not changed since
(09:36):
then. Yeah, wow, that's, that's not
super typical, especially for younger people, for us to have
figured out exactly what we wantto do and just dive right into
it and go full steam ahead. Would you chalk that up to just
you've always kind of known thatyou wanted to get into that
area, or did you have some key mentorships that helped guide
you in that direction and any ofthose things?
(10:00):
I think my childhood and lots ofsports definitely sort of set
that in my mind from a young age.
I was always, you know, any option to I had to do something
active, I would. And then I've always loved
science and I had some really great science teachers when I
was a kid that you know, when you have someone that you just
like and you get on with and it just makes you more interested
(10:21):
in the subjects. I had that across the board.
And then from then I was like, I, I want to learn about human
body. So that's where I thought being
a doctor could work. But then I realized actually, I
just want to do it in sports setting.
I want to do it focusing on on one specific error.
And yeah, it wasn't as easy as Ithink I made it sound.
It was a lot of like, is this right for me?
You know, where am I going to get in life doing a sports
(10:43):
science degree? Because it's quite hard to get
an actual job in, in, in this field.
So it's always in the back of myhead, like, am I doing the right
thing? But ultimately I knew that I was
passionate about it and if you work hard enough about something
you want, you could hopefully get there and, and I was very
fortunate I did. Yeah.
So did you ever have any when she kind of got ingrained into
(11:08):
this pathway? Did you ever have any second
guesses like, oh, maybe I shouldhave gone the other route?
I did when all of my friends were talking about it and, you
know, they were doing their medical degrees and being all
smart and that kind of thing, I thought, have I done the wrong
thing? And there were points in my
undergrad degree where I thought, this is actually quite
straightforward. And I don't mean that because
I'm super clever. I just mean, like, I understood
(11:29):
it because I enjoyed it. And I thought, like, could I
push myself more? And then I just realized that I
loved it. And I only did well because I,
you know, put F into it. And I never thought I've made
the wrong decision. I just thought, how can we make
it better? So yeah, it was kind of up.
Yeah, what, what were you or what are you searching for now?
(11:50):
Like what brings you the most fulfillment in the work that you
do? I think because we work with a
lot of top level athletes and wehelp with the fuel and hydration
strategies for their racing. I think working with someone
who's had maybe a not so perfectstrategy and I'm not not saying
that they will, you know, they come to us and they have no idea
(12:10):
because they all do have an idea.
Otherwise they wouldn't be top level athletes, you know, they
wouldn't get that far without some clue.
But I think it's so rewarding having someone that comes and
it's like I could do with some support.
You then provide that and seeingthem have a good race.
And to me a good race isn't, youknow, top step on a podium.
It's having a a solid race and agood performance where they've
(12:30):
not suffered as a result of fuel, hydration or or something
that we can help with I guess. So your focus is endurance
fueling and carbohydrate metabolism?
I believe that's what you studied in school, correct?
Yeah, I did a research master's in it.
So after my undergrad, I sort ofstuck around for another couple
of years and I did a research project where we looked at, it's
(12:53):
kind of looking at whether or not you could personalize
carbohydrate intake because the recommendations at the moment
are pretty broad. I mean, saying to someone you
need like sixties 90 grams of carbs an hour is it's good, it's
good guidance. But I wanted to know how
specific can we get with that? You know, can can we dial it
into an individual or other trends?
So I did a research study on it.So yeah, yeah.
(13:15):
So what have you learned that most may not know or understand?
In in that field. Or if you have other things too,
yeah, feel free to share those. I just don't think it's as
straightforward as current scientific recommendations are.
You know, I don't think the trends are that obvious.
I don't, I mean, I only had say like 12 participants in my
(13:39):
research study, but they were all different ages, different,
you know, male and female, different body weights,
different heights, all relatively well trained and
mostly triathletes. But I saw no correlation any of
the data with how many carbohydrates each of them could
use individually. So we gave them all the same
(13:59):
amount. We tried to understand, you
know, is, is there a trend that and I found none.
So to me that meant that, you know, if you had 27K males at
the same fitness level, there isno reason that the use of
carbohydrates is the same. And I think it made me take a
bit of a step back and think, OK, so when I give a
(14:21):
recommendation to an athlete, it's not just this is the
science, but it's actually tell me about how you feel.
Tell me about how having this amount makes you feel.
And yeah, I guess Long story short, it's just there's so much
more research that we, as you know, people need to do and as
scientists need to look into before we say that we have the
perfect sort of recommendation. And, and I mean that across the
(14:43):
board, you know, not just with carbs, but with sodium and
caffeine and everything that I do and recommend people, it's
like, hang on, you know, what's worked for you before and, and
try to work that out instead of just being like science says
this. So go and do this.
Yeah. What is your daily task list
look like? I mean, obviously you're working
with athletes and formulating these different strategies for
(15:04):
them, but what all does that entail?
Honestly, it's, it's pretty diverse.
It varies all the time and especially time of year.
You know, early on in the year when race, when athletes aren't
racing, then it's more just a lot of writing.
We're trying to build on the knowledge hub base that we have
as a company and, and get more blogs and articles out there so
(15:27):
that we can share the knowledge that we're all building
individually when we read research papers, but we can
share it to our customers and you know, people reading those.
So at the moment, a lot of my time is spent writing those and,
and working on that. And other than that, I have
calls and chats with my athletes, so the ones that I
work with on what their races are looking like, how I can help
(15:49):
them and support them in their fuel and hydration.
We recently got the performance lab where we do heat
acclamation, heat testing, lactic threshold testing.
So when we have customers or athletes and ambassadors in,
we'll have to run those sessions.
And then we have an awful lot oftravel, you know, as we come
(16:10):
into the spring, in the summer, yeah, we're going to have more
races to attend and, you know, crewing opportunities, that kind
of thing. So yeah, it that's you.
Sorry, I'm like muting myself twice here so I can sneeze.
All good. So how did you get involved with
Precision Fuel and Hydration? Like I, I've talked to a few
(16:32):
other people who've worked there, a couple of the gals that
you probably know and their experience was kind of right out
of university. Was that similar with you?
Yeah, I finished my master's degree earlier last year, and
when I moved down here, I I someone put me in contact with
position. I I heard about the company and
(16:53):
I'd heard of them before. Bless you.
Yeah, I'd heard about them before.
And I thought maybe I'll just drop the message, you know, I'll
see what they're about. Hadn't used their products,
anything like that. Came and actually chatted the
guys. And you know, when you go into a
place and you think like, oh wow, it's a really cool bunch of
people. I just instantly like really got
(17:16):
good vibes from them. Anyways, I went back, finished
the rest of my degree and I emailed them again and I said
like, hi, me again, what are thechances you need a sports
scientist? And it was kind of loud.
We're actually really busy at the moment.
So I thought, OK, I'll give it abit longer.
So I had like 6 months between leaving uni to actually starting
here and I think maybe the annoying persistence that I had
(17:39):
got me the job. But I did study something that
was quite novel. So looking into the carbohydrate
stuff wasn't that common. And I think it got the guys
pretty excited maybe on what I could do.
But it was, it was very informal.
You know, I came in for a few different conversations with,
with Andy and Johnny and the rest of the team and I just
(18:00):
showed a very keen interest in them and yeah, they, they took
me on board. So I was very fortunate that it
was so informal and I want to say easy.
It wasn't easy because I was persistent, but yeah.
Yeah, there's one thing I've learned, especially in the
polycast world of getting peopleon.
It's persistence is definitely key.
Is persistence that value? Is that something that you have
(18:24):
carried with you throughout yourlife?
Is that more of like a nature thing or a nurture thing you
think? I'm not sure it's hard to
describe it as persistence. I think it's just when I want
something, I will do almost everything I can to get it
within reason. And I think this job was
something I was like, I, I thinkI'll excel there and not just
(18:46):
supporting them and and being a good addition to that team.
I actually thought that it wouldbe so good for me as a person
and a sports scientist to, to grow Where I got that from.
I'm not sure. I think it's probably again from
my mom. She always told me as a kid, you
know, if you want it, like make it happen, your your only excuse
is you not trying hard enough ultimately.
(19:08):
So I think I just sort of kept following on with that.
Yeah, you feel like your mom anddad are proud of you.
I'd. Say so yeah, yeah, they they
tell me enough. Good.
And I maybe didn't feel like it when I was younger, especially
when I chose sports science, every medicine that was always
like a, oh, no, what are they going to think?
You know, because sports sciencehas some connotations compared
(19:31):
to being a doctor, for example, that it's that it's not as good.
But now I know where I am that they're kind of like, you know,
they see me go on trips with thecompany and they're like, wow,
OK. She's, she's doing well now.
So yeah, it's nice. So I've had the opportunity,
like I said, to interview you, afew other people that work there
and Andy himself and have intertwined communications with
(19:52):
a number of different people on your team.
I could describe the culture andit's one that I do really enjoy
just from being involved in the manner that I have.
But I'd be curious from your perspective, like what is and
how do you describe the culture of precision fuel hydration?
Yeah, I, it's, that's so easy for me to answer.
And I, I actually had this chat like a month in when I started
(20:15):
last year when Annie and Johnny said how it's going, I said, you
guys make it feel like you're 1 big family.
And I don't think my perceptionschange.
I mean, we've grown as a companysignificantly in the last year.
We've employed more people and, and just, you know, gotten
bigger and, and that's great, but those values have stayed the
same. And I think throughout whenever
(20:37):
they've taken on new people, it's like, will they fit into
the slightly weird culture that we have?
And it, it's not a normal officebased environment.
You know, people feel like they are basically like family and,
and they get on in that way. And it's, it's very open and
it's pretty warm and loving. I mean, it's, it's a weird way
to describe where you work, but yeah, it, it makes you feel so
(21:00):
welcome and, and at home and everyone is so dedicated and
hard working. Like, you know, people want to
be here not just to earn money and then have a job, but
actually because they do love what they do.
And we're all like that, which is lovely.
Yeah. How has it?
How has this opportunity in the job stretched you as an
individual? And what things have you learned
(21:21):
about yourself? I know that I've changed an
awful lot in the last year I came into this.
I don't want to say I thought I knew it all because I really
didn't, but I think I thought I knew more than I did.
And it really opened my eyes to see that there is just so much
out there and, and so many things that you think you might
(21:42):
understand, you actually don't. And being open to that change
and being open to actually beingtold that I was wrong was
something that I ended up welcoming.
And I think my confidence because of that has grown
significantly even with the opportunity to be given.
So to me, traveling and seeing the world is like always tough
(22:02):
on my left side. You know, any opportunity I get
to do that I would take. But then when you do on a scale
where you're actually working atthe same time, it becomes quite
stressful. And I know that I don't cope
with stress that well. And I just let it like build up
usually. So for me, understanding that
and then working out ways to actually just cope with that
because I wasn't going to turn down trips because they made me
(22:25):
stressed out or, you know, exhausted.
It was like, OK, fine, we'll just work out ways to manage it.
It's made me become so much moreconfident in in just who I am
and just being able to talk to someone and having faith in
saying that I actually do know what I'm talking about.
You know, I wouldn't be here if I didn't.
Whereas at the start I was like so nervous and I just feel like,
can someone else do it? So it's really nice having that
(22:48):
and knowing that I've grown. Yeah.
So what are some of the ways that you have coped with that
stress? Because like I have worked on
been on work trips before and you're wanting to do things and
then sleep schedules get all wacky and less sleep means more
stress, which means you got to be even better with time
management. And it's kind of a spiral out of
control if you're not careful. So how, what things do you do to
kind of cope through that? I think in the moment,
(23:10):
especially on those trips, I thebiggest thing for me is
acceptance. So accepting that this is what
it's going to be like for a weekor so.
And it's never like I say it as if it's going to be bad.
I just mean for me, I struggle with that.
So it's accepting that, OK, you're going to be tired and
you're going to have short people and you're probably going
to be grumpy and then those kindof things.
And as soon as I've accepted it in my head, it's like, OK, fine,
(23:34):
you can kind of cope with that. And otherwise it's just if I
need to go for a 10 minute walk and clear my head or go for a
quick jog or, you know, have 5 minutes away from people, that's
normally where I, I recharge most.
Just being on my own and sort ofgathering my thoughts and some
quiet time is, is the easiest thing thing for me.
And I'm going to get back from the trip.
(23:54):
I, you know, spend a few hours on my bike or something like
that and it's like, OK, fine, you know, I, I can cope, get
more sleep and that kind of thing.
But I think embracing being in the moment and accepting that
this is actually a such a cool opportunity.
You're going to be stressed, butit is worth in the long run.
Yeah. No, nothing, nothing good ever
came in in during a time of ease.
(24:18):
You know, I've been told like never, never let a good crisis
go to waste. And I'm not saying that these
trips are necessarily crisis, but anything that puts pressure
has the, I think the potential to either help to grow you if we
attack it from the right angle or completely deflate us.
So it's cool to hear that you'refiguring that out.
So I'm curious to know, you know, you said in the beginning
(24:40):
you didn't know, you didn't know.
So what were some of the things that you were wrong about?
I'm not sure I could tell you a specific thing.
I just think I thought that I'vegot this master's degree in
sports nutrition, you know, I know so much about it.
And then I realized that there'sthis whole side of sports
nutrition with electrolytes and hydration and that kind of
(25:01):
thing. I just, I knew were important.
I just had no idea about them, you know, the specifics to I was
completely oblivious to because it wasn't in the area that I
focused on. So when I got outside of that
and I got, you know, immersed init here, that was something I
was like, OK, wow, that's a lot of information I now need to
sort of digest and process and Istart relaying to athletes
(25:21):
myself. I think also just not just like,
I was wrong about things, but I was so against being wrong, you
know, having that thought in my head.
I was like, I always want to be right.
I want to, I want to prove to people that I, I do know stuff.
And actually now I, I love someone telling me that I'm
wrong because it's like, oh, that's more stuff that I, I
(25:42):
didn't know before and I'm actually learning now.
And that's been a massive change, you know, going from 1
mindset to another and and beingso open with that is it's been
huge, but good. Yeah.
What are your long term aspirations with just your line
of work? I I want to stay in this field,
you know, I want to ideally staywith precision.
(26:03):
I I, I love working for these guys.
I think the next, but the biggest step for me is I want to
do a PHDI want to do more research.
Yeah, I'd love to, again, focus on another topic area and just
go straight into it and understand so much more.
And ideally it would be in the sports nutrition field.
(26:25):
And I'd, I'd, you know, latch onto something that I could
research into and, and further and help support what we do as a
company ideally and help our athletes beyond that.
I haven't really thought that far, but yeah.
Well, what needs to happen for the PhD to become a reality that
you can start driving towards? I'd love a couple more years to
(26:49):
just be a sport scientist and, and see what there is to learn
because so many people are researching at the moment and
they're all finding different things that haven't been done.
And the more I sit and read papers and work with athletes, I
think like, oh, OK, that could be a cool study.
So more time to to work that outfirst.
And then ultimately it's just something and, and, and getting
(27:09):
the place and doing that. I don't think actually doing a
PhD would be necessary hard to get a hold of.
I just think finding the time ina fairly busy schedule and, and
pausing your professional career, I guess for a little bit
is, is, is a big thing. And I'm so new to it that I'm
pretty reluctant right now to, to just put everything on hold
(27:32):
while I'm still. Yeah, learning.
Yeah, for sure. So what's taking up the most
mental bandwidth for you right now?
General job, you know, day-to-day work.
Staying on task. Yeah, making sure that you meet
the deadlines and within reason and balance everything else you
(27:56):
need to do in your life to sort of stay on top of priorities.
So not just work related priorities, but getting your own
training in and seeing my familyand that kind of thing.
Yeah, how's training going for you?
That's good up and down. You know, as everyone probably
says, you have good sessions, you have bad sessions.
So generally it's good. I mean, I was trying to zoom out
(28:16):
and see where I was, say three months ago.
It's where I am now. So if I did that, it's going
well. Yeah.
What are some of your goals? Like what are you shooting for
right now? I guess previously I've done a
lot of seven point threes in middle distance, triath ones.
I say a lot. I've done a handful.
I am finally going for the big one, finally going to do an Iron
(28:38):
Man this year. So I have that.
In yeah, I've got that in June. That is the the a goal.
Yeah. What Iron Man are you doing?
And yeah, what is going to be like your longest sessions for
in preparation for that, I imagine holding a full time job
and doing that as well as like very difficult.
It's Iron Man les Sables. It's in France and yeah, the the
(29:01):
biggest sessions, I don't know, my, my coach likes to drop a
couple in as hints and he and he's put a couple of long 5 and
a bit our TT rides, which they'll be tough because you
know, you're almost getting to raise distance at that point.
The the training itself, though,I find although it's like
balancing around work and it's when can you fit it in?
It's just I do really love it, so I don't find it that hard to
(29:24):
motivate myself. Not anymore at least.
You know when you get kind of hooked on doing it, it's far
easier than when you're really unfit at the start.
Yeah, yeah. And that's coming up really soon
though. That's like you're going to be
doing your biggest training blocks here in like the next 6
to 8 weeks and then kind of starting to pull back some.
But yeah, I remember when I did my first one, I was so
(29:45):
terrified. But the good news is, after you
do a full haves feel like just the shortest thing ever.
Yeah, I hope so. I do my second goal for this
year as I've got the 7.3 world champs in Malbea in November so.
Yeah, that'll be fun. Would that be your first world
champs? I was in New Zealand in Taupo in
December, so. OK, nice.
(30:07):
Yeah, nice. How did that race go for you?
Yeah, it was good. I was off the back of a pretty
nasty injury, so I was kind of just get round and and have a
good day out. And yeah, I I got 10, so I was
top ten, which was not a bad result for a first.
Yeah, in my age group. Yeah, Congrats.
That's awesome and a world champ.
(30:27):
First, what was your total time?Like it was like 4:50-ish.
Nice. That's really good.
Congratulations. Pretty proud of that, I imagine.
Oh, not not proud enough it sounds like.
I was proud in that I couldn't it couldn't have gone better and
you know, everything in itself went well.
(30:48):
This one went well. The bike went well, the run, the
fueling, like it was the first time I'd actually crushed my
fueling as a, as a, you know, sports scientists, it's hard to
admit that every other time it'sgone wrong, you know, I've been
the same as the athletes I work with and had gut issues or
dehydrate or what, you know, that kind of thing.
I was the first race where I finished and I was like, I could
have done more like that was good, but I don't, I don't cope
(31:11):
well in the heat. So I actually found the heat on
race day super challenging. And that was sort of, you know,
I thought I had like another 15 minutes off my run.
So there's never going to be enough, let's say, but I was
happy on the day. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting
with those hotter races or really any 70.3, I I've often
(31:32):
times for as long as I can remember, have written down the
nutrition plan. And then you get out there and
for whatever reason, the mental cognition just goes downhill
quite a bit, especially halfway through the bike when, you know,
when I'm trying to do like simple math in my head and I'm
realizing this is not working. And then I wonder, man, how did
I get so far behind? I'm a nutrition.
It's so easy to do that and to forget.
And so I yeah, it's just like kind of a thought.
(31:56):
Yeah. So when you are going into this
new year, you're going to be focusing obviously on the Iron
Man. After that, what do you want to
continue to do in terms of sport?
Honestly, just get better. That's it's easy for me in that
(32:17):
as long as I have a goal in mindand this year having a couple of
races in the calendar makes it easier for me to work towards
it. I'm not so good if there's
nothing booked. I'm like, OK, well, I'll get
fair eventually, but just maintaining that fitness and,
and challenging it. And I'd, I'd, I'd love to do
some bike racing. I, I love triathlons and I, I
think they're cool, but doing something that I'm not used to
(32:39):
it. So whether it's like a grab, I
mean, I I don't ride gravel so it would be so weird for me, but
I'd love to try something a bit different.
That would challenge. Me, yeah, and I'd also love to
run a fast marathon, so I've done one marathon for charity,
but I'd love to do 1 like and train for and focus on it so
yeah. Would you ever want to be a
(33:00):
professional? Because I feel like with your
times, if 450 was, you know, a little bit on the slower end for
you. Like, that's a very respectable
time, especially in the women's field.
Top ten your age group, Would you ever want to pursue that?
I think for now I'd like to stayas a good level amateur and, and
(33:20):
being an age group, it gives youa bit less pressure.
And as I said about the stress thing, I I, you know, having pro
in before and something to work towards would be more pressure
and, and stuff I don't need. And I think before that just
accomplishing some big goals of mine as an age group would be
the first thing, like going to Kona, for example.
I'd love to do that with no other pressure than what I put
(33:43):
on myself. I also don't ever want to take
away from how much I love the sport I got into as someone who
just you know, I'd never really done anything endurancy before.
And then I thought like, oh, cool, I'll join the triathlon
cup. Like that sounds fun.
And first it was really hard andthen I realized like I just got
hooked on endurancy stuff. So I think, you know, there's a
(34:05):
big concern of mine if I ever did like that seriously, would I
still enjoy it if I was not forced?
But it becomes less of a choice and more of a, well, I need to
do this to do well in this race.And at the moment I just, I, I,
I love sort of the social aspects and, and not worrying so
much about, OK, I need to sit ona turbo for hours, you know, I
can go and do my ride with my friends and that kind of thing.
(34:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's got to be fun. I think in anything we do in
life, whether it's work or play,if you're not having fun while
doing it, then it's it becomes, yeah, more, more stress added
than stress relieved, 100%. Exactly.
So are you a spiritual person? Not really, no.
(34:47):
And that's just yeah. But I'm no, I don't think so.
Yeah, why do you say no? I don't have an answer for that.
As in I I just don't feel I am. Yeah.
Did you ever grow up with any religious influence or anything
like that? No, my mom tried when I was
(35:09):
younger. She's not that religious.
Her family, her side of the family were.
And I think she spoke about it and sort of mentioned it as
like, if you want to go to church or, you know, that kind
of thing, we could do it. But it was never forced from me
or my brother. It was like, if you want to do
it, we'll embrace that. If if you don't, that's also
fine. And for us, we just, we just
(35:30):
didn't, we just didn't, you know, go with that.
Yeah. Do you think about?
Well, let me ask you this. Are you in a relationship?
Nice. Is it marriage or dating?
It's dating, yeah. Is he the one?
Yeah, I'd say so. That's a hard question.
(35:53):
Yeah, I'd like to think so. Yeah.
What? How long have you been dating if
you don't mind me asking? Only a year.
That's a pretty long time. I feel like after a year is when
you start to really get to know somebody.
Yeah, I feel like we were like best friends within seconds of
knowing each other and and from then it was so easy.
It was just like I could spend my life with this person.
(36:16):
And yeah, that's not changed. Yeah, well, we should invite him
on and just to see what he thinks.
I don't know if he'd say the same.
I'm sure he would. I'm sure he would.
So the reason I asked that is like, as you progress into that
relationship and you build that foundation for maybe, you know,
a, a world after where you're married and you're building a
(36:37):
family. I was going to ask you like if
you have kids, do you think thatyou would ever want to give them
that same choice at like religion or spiritual things or
anything like that or no? I think if it was, you know,
something that friends said or if it was ever a topic, I mean,
for me it was that my friends were going to church and I said
(36:57):
to my mum, like, can I go sometimes?
And I'd, I'd go with them, you know, my parents wouldn't take
me, but I would go with my friends.
And do, you know, like the social stuff that they do for
kids when you're younger? And if my children ever wanted
to do that, I would never, ever be against it.
And I'd let them. You know, it's the same with
eating habits. You know, you let them
relatively pick. You just guide them along the
way. So if it was something they
(37:19):
wanted to do, I'd never stop them.
But I wouldn't necessarily enforce it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Good. Thanks for letting me dive into
that. I know that some of those
questions can be a little bit like, oh, this is kind of weird,
but I appreciate getting to hearyour perspective.
So going into the future, again,going back on, I guess, on the
topic of precision fuel and hydration, as you move forward
(37:40):
and you continue to just be moretenured at this employer, how do
you think that your leadership will change?
Because you said the company's growing and I imagine that
you're working with more people,maybe even having some form of
training or helping people get more involved in the company.
How do you see yourself becomingmore of a leader?
(38:02):
I think so. We have interns at the moment,
they are from the University of Bath.
They have been whether that changes, I'm not sure.
We have a new intern coming in June, July time.
And I think just in that sense, there'll be a leadership role
spread across, you know, our team of sports scientists just
(38:22):
to help develop as a sports scientist.
You know, coming from a student and still being like midway
through your degree, there's a lot to learn and that will take,
you know, some of our time and we'll, we'll share it across as
I'm sure that will be the biggest leadership role.
I guess I have, and I have at the moment with the current
interns in that we've all sort of been immersed in helping them
(38:45):
develop their skills. So they'll come to us with, you
know, I can't do X or I want to learn how to do this.
And we all sort of take interns to just help or if one of us is
more experienced, we, we try andsort of do that with them.
So I don't think there's going to be lots and lots of
leadership opportunities in the,you know, I have someone higher
up than me in sports science andhe is the one that sort of leads
(39:08):
our team. But there are definitely
opportunities where I can take more of a leadership role and
say like, oh, actually I'd quitelike to do this, you know,
whether it's a talk to a bunch of athletes or that kind of
thing. So it's sort of jumping on those
opportunities when they arise. Yeah, Cool, sweet.
Well, good deal. Well, thank you so much for
taking the opportunity to let mejump in and ask all these
(39:30):
questions about your life. Before I close that, do you have
any questions that you want to ask me?
One sure, at the moment in what you're doing, what is the best
thing? You know what?
What is it that you do every single day or most days that
makes you the happiest? That's a good question.
I do a lot of different things. I would say right now it is the
(39:51):
podcast because it gives me the opportunity to meet lots of
different types of people. Yeah, like I've met people I
think as young, probably as like18 or so in the project podium.
I don't know if you're familiar with them, but with USATUSH
Triathlon, they have this elite development program with a bunch
(40:12):
of young guys and got to interview some of them.
So it's always fun talking to the young guys because our young
guys and girls, they don't really have a full grasp on who
they are as an individual. So asking some of the Super deep
questions. Is it usually as profitable?
But it's fun to like poke them alittle bit so they can see just
different ways of viewing thingsthat maybe they haven't
(40:32):
considered before. So seeing them grow.
So that's a fun one. And then I also really enjoy
talking to the much older guys and gals who have just have a
lot more life experience. I consider myself a little bit
more of an old soul, so I like asking the older people those
questions and just hearing abouttheir life experiences and
seeing where I can apply it. But yeah, I mean, it's, you
(40:53):
know, this will be what episode will this be?
This will be episode #137 So after that, you know, it's 137
people that I've gotten to talk to with wide-ranging
experiences. So it's just one of the most
uplifting things that I can do. Yeah.
Yeah, no, that sounds pretty interesting.
(41:13):
I guess getting to talk to so many different people must be
insightful and you get to sort of latch on to what they're
saying, and I guess you do pick up on that and then how you can
apply that to your life. So that's pretty cool.
Yeah, do you? You meet with quite a few people
too as well, right? Because like, that's part of the
job. Yeah, we have a free video
(41:34):
consultation service where we basically offer customers a 20
minute opportunity to pick our brains about film hydration or
anything, you know, within that field.
So doing a couple of those a daymeans that, you know you're
talking to lots and lots of people.
And as you said, you know, some of them are, I think we have
like like 18 as a as a minimum age, but from that age up until
(41:54):
however old, you know, and they're from complete novice to
top level, you know, some of theethics, I'm up with our pros.
So in that you get to chat to somany different people.
And I think I actually love it. You know, it's probably one of
the highlights of my day, getting to talk to different
people because instead of staring at, you know, the work
that you're writing or whatever,you actually get to engage with
someone and and hopefully help them.
(42:17):
Yeah. So Chris and a few other people
on your team, they gave me a link to where people can book
those calls. So I can assume it'd be with you
or a group of people who have access to, I guess that
calendar. But what are what is the
protocol that you would take people through if they were to
book a call with you? Yeah, I think all of us do it
(42:38):
slightly differently. So I guess it depends on who you
get. But for me, I try and let it be
as led by them as possible. You know, they've booked the
call because they have questionsand they want guidance.
And normally I say like, what isit you do?
What sport do you do? Are there any questions that
straight to what you have that you want me to address?
And if they have them, I, I try and get involved in that and,
(43:01):
and let them sort of have a backand forth with me.
You know, if I say something andthey want more on that or
whatever, I, I go into that. Some people just sort of say
like, tell me everything I need to know.
So it is very much dependent on who you get on the day.
And sometimes it feels like I'm just lecturing them about you
need X number of carbs or you need how much fluid.
(43:21):
And yeah, those, those are good in itself.
But I love the ones where peoplehave questions and they say,
like, I've heard that you could do this, you know, will this
affect my performance? And it's like, OK, you know, and
you get to really have a proper chat with them.
But I guess their background andwhat they currently do in, in
sport and, and how best they want help is, is just where I'd
(43:43):
start. And I'd just let it progress
and, you know, give them the 20 minutes and the rest basically
that they need to sort of go on to that.
Yeah. How many people total have you
interviewed as you've been doingthis?
I couldn't count, yeah. It's a 50 ton.
Yeah. I mean, it's a couple a day and
I've been here a year. I wasn't doing them from the
(44:05):
start. You know, I had a couple of
months to train and to see how my colleagues did it and then
understand how I was going to doit.
And, you know, you get observed and that kind of thing to make
sure that we're all giving off the same general information.
But yeah, the way and we do it is a bit different.
So lots of people. Yeah, yeah.
Cool. Well, it'll be fun to hopefully
(44:27):
get some people to sign up with you guys.
I've got that link, so I'll makesure to share the show notes and
stuff. But yeah, thank you so much for
taking the time and let me dive in and ask you all kinds of
questions about who you are. Yeah, of course.
Thank you so much for having me.It's been, it's been so great to
chat. Yeah, thank you so much to Tash
for coming on the podcast and letting me dive into her life
(44:48):
and poke and prod a little bit about the different areas of
experience that she has had. Really appreciate her taking the
time. It means a lot to me.
If you want to meet up with her or anyone at the Precision Fuel
and Hydration for a free 20 minute call where you can get
some guidance and direction. Precision Fuel and Hydration,
again, this is not a paid ad, but they have changed the game
(45:09):
for me in terms of my fueling and hydration strategies and
they can help you guys too. So make sure to check out that
link if you want to get some help there.
Thanks again, Tash for coming on.
If you made to this point the podcast, thank you so much.
Check out the show notes if you want to sign up for the
newsletter and also any of the other stuff that has been
mentioned. If you are listening on YouTube,
if you could like comment, subscribe and leave a comment,
(45:30):
which I already said and turn onthe notification bell that
really helps to continue to growthe podcast.
If you are listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts, if you could
review, like share any, all those things continue to help
grow this podcast and really makes a huge difference and does
help me to continue on in this journey.
So thank you guys so much for being here and we will catch you
(45:51):
in the next one. Peace.
How's it going everyone? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
And in the pod, we're going to be talking with Tash Cooper
Smith. She is a sports scientist over
precision fuel and hydration andshe did her masters and on
endurance fueling and carbohydrate metabolism.
So she definitely fits in with the crew over at Precision Fuel
and Hydration. If you do want to connect with
her, actually check out the shownotes in the description below
(00:25):
where you can have a free 20 minute call with her and be able
to figure out what is the best way for you to fuel and terms of
carbohydrates and electrolytes and fuel.
Excuse me, hydration. Yeah, really great team over
there have helped me a ton. This is not a paid ad, by the
way. I'm just doing this because they
really helped me a ton. And as you guys see, all the
time I drink out of this water bottle.
(00:46):
So anyway, without further ado, I want to introduce you to Tash
Coopersmith. There you go.
But yeah, thank you, Tash. First of all, cool thing to I
guess put a little emphasis on your name.
I've never heard anyone with thename Tash before, so that's is a
cool name. Where?
What's the etymology of this word?
Do you know? It's, I mean, my name's Natasha.
(01:07):
I just don't get called it very often, honestly.
Like, my mom's the only person who calls me Natasha.
So if I hear it, I'm like, oh God, what have I done?
Yeah. So yeah, Tasha was a childhood
nickname that just stuck, I think.
Yeah, cool, cool. So where are you from?
Originally I'm from Buckinghamshire which is sort of
(01:28):
near London in the UK and I moved to Dorset when my parents
moved down here, which is where I'm based now at the position
HQ. Yeah, awesome.
Do you do you like growing up where you grew up?
Was it more of like a country setting or a city setting?
It was kind of a mixture of both.
It was a little town, let's say on the outskirts of London, but
(01:52):
there was so much countryside around it.
So yeah, I was always quite an outdoorsy kid, which I just
loved. And it was nice that I could get
into the city or, you know, go out and and see things without
being miles and miles away. Yeah, kind of like the perfect
happy medium between the two. Yeah.
Do you have siblings? I do, I have a twin brother.
(02:14):
OK, nice. Who was born first in terms of
minutes? I was, and I take so much pride
in that. Yeah.
Yeah. What was it like growing up with
a twin? I think when you're a kid
anything is annoying, so having a sibling is always someone to
fight with. But as we grew up and as we got
(02:34):
older it it was like having a best mate.
It was so much nicer as we like towards, I don't know, 14 years
old. Plus it was just someone to do
something with all the time. And I think we just got closer
and closer because now he's likethe person I would do absolutely
anything with, which is so nice,having someone like.
(02:56):
Yeah. You said you guys or you enjoyed
like the outdoors. Was that something that was
pretty common in terms of the activities growing up as a kid
in your family? Were you guys a very outdoorsy
people? Yeah, I mean, my parents aren't
particularly sporty, not not that outdoorsy, but they never
let us just sit and watch TV allthe time.
(03:17):
It was always like, if it's raining, you're going to go and
walk in the puddles and like jump around and do things like
that. I think it was just an emphasis
on being outside. And because of that, we, we got
into a lot of sports. So we both did things most days
after school and on weekends. And it, instead of it being like
forced upon us, it was, it was always a choice, which was super
(03:38):
nice. And I guess I just carried that
on, you know, throughout the rest of my life.
Just being outside is like the best thing for my head, which is
it's nice living where I do, youknow, and basically on the
coast. Yeah, for sure.
In those younger years, when youstart to have some of these, I
don't know, experiences with sports and whatnot, there's a
(04:01):
lot of lessons to be learned. Do you recall any like key
lessons that you start to learn about yourself during those
earlier years of getting involved with sports?
That's a tricky 1. I think doing sports teaches you
an awful lot, you know, teaches you things from teamwork to just
self worth and how hard you can push yourself and believing in
(04:22):
yourself. I think for me, that's probably
the biggest thing I learned Just, you know, you work hard at
something and even from a kid just playing like tennis with
your friends, you learn to like push yourself and and focus on
being in the moment and, and doing as much as you can and
being the best you can at something.
I definitely took that on from, you know, a very young age up
(04:43):
until now. Yeah, for sure.
So who do you believe that Tash is?
Like who is Tash? That's a good question.
I could give you a million answers because the easiest 1 is
a sports scientist, because that's my that's my job role.
I could say daughter, sister, that kind of thing.
(05:06):
But honestly just tricky. I think at the moment I probably
identify as an athlete, let's say, and yeah, I'm not really
sure I could say much more than that.
Yeah, so athlete, you work, a daughter, a sister.
Those hint at some of the valuesthat you hold closest to you.
(05:28):
But if you were to hold them allup and weigh them, which one
would be the heaviest? Which one takes most of your
mental bandwidth and your time? Time is always going to be the
job. And I, I love what I do for
work. And it's, it's great that it
kind of overlaps with my hobby and, and being an athlete and
doing that kind of thing. But it takes the most time
(05:51):
purely because I'm very passionate about it.
So I'll do everything I can to, you know, get the best out of
what I'm doing daily and I'm giving the people I work with
the best of me. But that being said, family is
massively important to me. So chatting to my family and my
parents, my brother, pretty muchevery day is also very
(06:12):
important. So it's kind of balancing at
all. Yeah, for sure.
Do you do you think that you're more like your mom or more like
your dad? A bit of both.
It's so hard. I I always get told that I'm
like my dad because I look more like him.
We have some of maybe the less favorable characteristics in the
like some of the things that I, you know, how you cope with
(06:34):
stress of your patients, that kind of thing.
Definitely from him. But with my mom, I definitely
get her caring side and and likethe the loving warmth that she
had growing when I was growing up definitely sort of got passed
on to me, let's say. Yeah.
Do you think that you spend moretime in terms of the decisions
and the way that you operate life?
Do you spend more time in your head or in your heart?
(06:59):
Definitely in my head. I think I've been known to
overthink quite a lot of things.I think I end up getting to the
thing I, I, I have in my heart, you know, the thing you actually
want to do as opposed to the thing that your head's telling
you to do. But it takes me a long time to
get to that. Yeah.
What? So let me ask you this question
and maybe this will give a little bit more emphasis to how
(07:21):
your heart operates, but what's an experience that you've had?
It can be any point in your lifethat you would want to live over
again. Wow, Yeah, that's a a big
question. And there's no rush.
You can think about it if you want.
Yeah. Can we circle back on that one?
Yeah, sure. So let me ask you this.
(07:46):
When did you come to the conclusion at like when you
started to grow up, that maybe sports science is something that
you wanted to get into? When I was in secondary school,
so when I was about 1617 and having to decide my A levels, so
I was actually going to study, Iwas surrounded by a lot of
people who want to see medicine and be doctors and dentists and
(08:08):
that kind of thing. And in that I kind of got
swooped up a bit and I thought like, oh, this is the route for
me. This is definitely what I want
to do. And then I thought about it a
bit more and I actually visited University of Birmingham, which
is where I ended up studying. I visited there looking at the
facilities for medicine and I was kind of like, OK, cool, you
know, there wasn't much there. And then I thought, why not just
(08:30):
drop into the sports science department?
And I did. And I got chatting to one of the
lecturers there and everything changed.
I was like, this is for me, thisis what I want to do.
It was like the easiest decisionI've ever made.
You know, I just, I got there and I was like, yeah, I can see
myself being a student here and then actually eventually having
a career in that. And it didn't really change from
(08:52):
there. You know, I, I stuck did my
levels, which were chosen to do medicine.
So they weren't necessarily whatI loved, but I did them, got
through them, got to Birmingham and I just sort of got sucked
into it all. You know, I did my undergrad
there, and so I'm doing researchtrials.
And honestly, I just kind of didthem for fun.
I was like, oh, look, someone needs me to cycle for how long
(09:15):
and take some blood samples. Cool, I'll do that.
You get paid as a student. That's like a massive win.
And I just started asking questions, and I got so hooked
on research and Physiology and how it all correlates to my own
performance and how you can improve performance.
And then I was like, OK, I really want to be a sports
scientist. And yeah, it's not changed since
(09:36):
then. Yeah, wow, that's, that's not
super typical, especially for younger people, for us to have
figured out exactly what we wantto do and just dive right into
it and go full steam ahead. Would you chalk that up to just
you've always kind of known thatyou wanted to get into that
area, or did you have some key mentorships that helped guide
you in that direction and any ofthose things?
(10:00):
I think my childhood and lots ofsports definitely sort of set
that in my mind from a young age.
I was always, you know, any option to I had to do something
active, I would. And then I've always loved
science and I had some really great science teachers when I
was a kid that you know, when you have someone that you just
like and you get on with and it just makes you more interested
(10:21):
in the subjects. I had that across the board.
And then from then I was like, I, I want to learn about human
body. So that's where I thought being
a doctor could work. But then I realized actually, I
just want to do it in sports setting.
I want to do it focusing on on one specific error.
And yeah, it wasn't as easy as Ithink I made it sound.
It was a lot of like, is this right for me?
You know, where am I going to get in life doing a sports
(10:43):
science degree? Because it's quite hard to get
an actual job in, in, in this field.
So it's always in the back of myhead, like, am I doing the right
thing? But ultimately I knew that I was
passionate about it and if you work hard enough about something
you want, you could hopefully get there and, and I was very
fortunate I did. Yeah.
So did you ever have any when she kind of got ingrained into
(11:08):
this pathway? Did you ever have any second
guesses like, oh, maybe I shouldhave gone the other route?
I did when all of my friends were talking about it and, you
know, they were doing their medical degrees and being all
smart and that kind of thing, I thought, have I done the wrong
thing? And there were points in my
undergrad degree where I thought, this is actually quite
straightforward. And I don't mean that because
I'm super clever. I just mean, like, I understood
(11:29):
it because I enjoyed it. And I thought, like, could I
push myself more? And then I just realized that I
loved it. And I only did well because I,
you know, put F into it. And I never thought I've made
the wrong decision. I just thought, how can we make
it better? So yeah, it was kind of up.
Yeah, what, what were you or what are you searching for now?
(11:50):
Like what brings you the most fulfillment in the work that you
do? I think because we work with a
lot of top level athletes and wehelp with the fuel and hydration
strategies for their racing. I think working with someone
who's had maybe a not so perfectstrategy and I'm not not saying
that they will, you know, they come to us and they have no idea
(12:10):
because they all do have an idea.
Otherwise they wouldn't be top level athletes, you know, they
wouldn't get that far without some clue.
But I think it's so rewarding having someone that comes and
it's like I could do with some support.
You then provide that and seeingthem have a good race.
And to me a good race isn't, youknow, top step on a podium.
It's having a a solid race and agood performance where they've
(12:30):
not suffered as a result of fuel, hydration or or something
that we can help with I guess. So your focus is endurance
fueling and carbohydrate metabolism?
I believe that's what you studied in school, correct?
Yeah, I did a research master's in it.
So after my undergrad, I sort ofstuck around for another couple
of years and I did a research project where we looked at, it's
(12:53):
kind of looking at whether or not you could personalize
carbohydrate intake because the recommendations at the moment
are pretty broad. I mean, saying to someone you
need like sixties 90 grams of carbs an hour is it's good, it's
good guidance. But I wanted to know how
specific can we get with that? You know, can can we dial it
into an individual or other trends?
So I did a research study on it.So yeah, yeah.
(13:15):
So what have you learned that most may not know or understand?
In in that field. Or if you have other things too,
yeah, feel free to share those. I just don't think it's as
straightforward as current scientific recommendations are.
You know, I don't think the trends are that obvious.
I don't, I mean, I only had say like 12 participants in my
(13:39):
research study, but they were all different ages, different,
you know, male and female, different body weights,
different heights, all relatively well trained and
mostly triathletes. But I saw no correlation any of
the data with how many carbohydrates each of them could
use individually. So we gave them all the same
(13:59):
amount. We tried to understand, you
know, is, is there a trend that and I found none.
So to me that meant that, you know, if you had 27K males at
the same fitness level, there isno reason that the use of
carbohydrates is the same. And I think it made me take a
bit of a step back and think, OK, so when I give a
(14:21):
recommendation to an athlete, it's not just this is the
science, but it's actually tell me about how you feel.
Tell me about how having this amount makes you feel.
And yeah, I guess Long story short, it's just there's so much
more research that we, as you know, people need to do and as
scientists need to look into before we say that we have the
perfect sort of recommendation. And, and I mean that across the
(14:43):
board, you know, not just with carbs, but with sodium and
caffeine and everything that I do and recommend people, it's
like, hang on, you know, what's worked for you before and, and
try to work that out instead of just being like science says
this. So go and do this.
Yeah. What is your daily task list
look like? I mean, obviously you're working
with athletes and formulating these different strategies for
(15:04):
them, but what all does that entail?
Honestly, it's, it's pretty diverse.
It varies all the time and especially time of year.
You know, early on in the year when race, when athletes aren't
racing, then it's more just a lot of writing.
We're trying to build on the knowledge hub base that we have
as a company and, and get more blogs and articles out there so
(15:27):
that we can share the knowledge that we're all building
individually when we read research papers, but we can
share it to our customers and you know, people reading those.
So at the moment, a lot of my time is spent writing those and,
and working on that. And other than that, I have
calls and chats with my athletes, so the ones that I
work with on what their races are looking like, how I can help
(15:49):
them and support them in their fuel and hydration.
We recently got the performance lab where we do heat
acclamation, heat testing, lactic threshold testing.
So when we have customers or athletes and ambassadors in,
we'll have to run those sessions.
And then we have an awful lot oftravel, you know, as we come
(16:10):
into the spring, in the summer, yeah, we're going to have more
races to attend and, you know, crewing opportunities, that kind
of thing. So yeah, it that's you.
Sorry, I'm like muting myself twice here so I can sneeze.
All good. So how did you get involved with
Precision Fuel and Hydration? Like I, I've talked to a few
(16:32):
other people who've worked there, a couple of the gals that
you probably know and their experience was kind of right out
of university. Was that similar with you?
Yeah, I finished my master's degree earlier last year, and
when I moved down here, I I someone put me in contact with
position. I I heard about the company and
(16:53):
I'd heard of them before. Bless you.
Yeah, I'd heard about them before.
And I thought maybe I'll just drop the message, you know, I'll
see what they're about. Hadn't used their products,
anything like that. Came and actually chatted the
guys. And you know, when you go into a
place and you think like, oh wow, it's a really cool bunch of
people. I just instantly like really got
(17:16):
good vibes from them. Anyways, I went back, finished
the rest of my degree and I emailed them again and I said
like, hi, me again, what are thechances you need a sports
scientist? And it was kind of loud.
We're actually really busy at the moment.
So I thought, OK, I'll give it abit longer.
So I had like 6 months between leaving uni to actually starting
here and I think maybe the annoying persistence that I had
(17:39):
got me the job. But I did study something that
was quite novel. So looking into the carbohydrate
stuff wasn't that common. And I think it got the guys
pretty excited maybe on what I could do.
But it was, it was very informal.
You know, I came in for a few different conversations with,
with Andy and Johnny and the rest of the team and I just
(18:00):
showed a very keen interest in them and yeah, they, they took
me on board. So I was very fortunate that it
was so informal and I want to say easy.
It wasn't easy because I was persistent, but yeah.
Yeah, there's one thing I've learned, especially in the
polycast world of getting peopleon.
It's persistence is definitely key.
Is persistence that value? Is that something that you have
(18:24):
carried with you throughout yourlife?
Is that more of like a nature thing or a nurture thing you
think? I'm not sure it's hard to
describe it as persistence. I think it's just when I want
something, I will do almost everything I can to get it
within reason. And I think this job was
something I was like, I, I thinkI'll excel there and not just
(18:46):
supporting them and and being a good addition to that team.
I actually thought that it wouldbe so good for me as a person
and a sports scientist to, to grow Where I got that from.
I'm not sure. I think it's probably again from
my mom. She always told me as a kid, you
know, if you want it, like make it happen, your your only excuse
is you not trying hard enough ultimately.
(19:08):
So I think I just sort of kept following on with that.
Yeah, you feel like your mom anddad are proud of you.
I'd. Say so yeah, yeah, they they
tell me enough. Good.
And I maybe didn't feel like it when I was younger, especially
when I chose sports science, every medicine that was always
like a, oh, no, what are they going to think?
You know, because sports sciencehas some connotations compared
(19:31):
to being a doctor, for example, that it's that it's not as good.
But now I know where I am that they're kind of like, you know,
they see me go on trips with thecompany and they're like, wow,
OK. She's, she's doing well now.
So yeah, it's nice. So I've had the opportunity,
like I said, to interview you, afew other people that work there
and Andy himself and have intertwined communications with
(19:52):
a number of different people on your team.
I could describe the culture andit's one that I do really enjoy
just from being involved in the manner that I have.
But I'd be curious from your perspective, like what is and
how do you describe the culture of precision fuel hydration?
Yeah, I, it's, that's so easy for me to answer.
And I, I actually had this chat like a month in when I started
(20:15):
last year when Annie and Johnny said how it's going, I said, you
guys make it feel like you're 1 big family.
And I don't think my perceptionschange.
I mean, we've grown as a companysignificantly in the last year.
We've employed more people and, and just, you know, gotten
bigger and, and that's great, but those values have stayed the
same. And I think throughout whenever
(20:37):
they've taken on new people, it's like, will they fit into
the slightly weird culture that we have?
And it, it's not a normal officebased environment.
You know, people feel like they are basically like family and,
and they get on in that way. And it's, it's very open and
it's pretty warm and loving. I mean, it's, it's a weird way
to describe where you work, but yeah, it, it makes you feel so
(21:00):
welcome and, and at home and everyone is so dedicated and
hard working. Like, you know, people want to
be here not just to earn money and then have a job, but
actually because they do love what they do.
And we're all like that, which is lovely.
Yeah. How has it?
How has this opportunity in the job stretched you as an
individual? And what things have you learned
(21:21):
about yourself? I know that I've changed an
awful lot in the last year I came into this.
I don't want to say I thought I knew it all because I really
didn't, but I think I thought I knew more than I did.
And it really opened my eyes to see that there is just so much
out there and, and so many things that you think you might
(21:42):
understand, you actually don't. And being open to that change
and being open to actually beingtold that I was wrong was
something that I ended up welcoming.
And I think my confidence because of that has grown
significantly even with the opportunity to be given.
So to me, traveling and seeing the world is like always tough
(22:02):
on my left side. You know, any opportunity I get
to do that I would take. But then when you do on a scale
where you're actually working atthe same time, it becomes quite
stressful. And I know that I don't cope
with stress that well. And I just let it like build up
usually. So for me, understanding that
and then working out ways to actually just cope with that
because I wasn't going to turn down trips because they made me
(22:25):
stressed out or, you know, exhausted.
It was like, OK, fine, we'll just work out ways to manage it.
It's made me become so much moreconfident in in just who I am
and just being able to talk to someone and having faith in
saying that I actually do know what I'm talking about.
You know, I wouldn't be here if I didn't.
Whereas at the start I was like so nervous and I just feel like,
can someone else do it? So it's really nice having that
(22:48):
and knowing that I've grown. Yeah.
So what are some of the ways that you have coped with that
stress? Because like I have worked on
been on work trips before and you're wanting to do things and
then sleep schedules get all wacky and less sleep means more
stress, which means you got to be even better with time
management. And it's kind of a spiral out of
control if you're not careful. So how, what things do you do to
kind of cope through that? I think in the moment,
(23:10):
especially on those trips, I thebiggest thing for me is
acceptance. So accepting that this is what
it's going to be like for a weekor so.
And it's never like I say it as if it's going to be bad.
I just mean for me, I struggle with that.
So it's accepting that, OK, you're going to be tired and
you're going to have short people and you're probably going
to be grumpy and then those kindof things.
And as soon as I've accepted it in my head, it's like, OK, fine,
(23:34):
you can kind of cope with that. And otherwise it's just if I
need to go for a 10 minute walk and clear my head or go for a
quick jog or, you know, have 5 minutes away from people, that's
normally where I, I recharge most.
Just being on my own and sort ofgathering my thoughts and some
quiet time is, is the easiest thing thing for me.
And I'm going to get back from the trip.
(23:54):
I, you know, spend a few hours on my bike or something like
that and it's like, OK, fine, you know, I, I can cope, get
more sleep and that kind of thing.
But I think embracing being in the moment and accepting that
this is actually a such a cool opportunity.
You're going to be stressed, butit is worth in the long run.
Yeah. No, nothing, nothing good ever
came in in during a time of ease.
(24:18):
You know, I've been told like never, never let a good crisis
go to waste. And I'm not saying that these
trips are necessarily crisis, but anything that puts pressure
has the, I think the potential to either help to grow you if we
attack it from the right angle or completely deflate us.
So it's cool to hear that you'refiguring that out.
So I'm curious to know, you know, you said in the beginning
(24:40):
you didn't know, you didn't know.
So what were some of the things that you were wrong about?
I'm not sure I could tell you a specific thing.
I just think I thought that I'vegot this master's degree in
sports nutrition, you know, I know so much about it.
And then I realized that there'sthis whole side of sports
nutrition with electrolytes and hydration and that kind of
(25:01):
thing. I just, I knew were important.
I just had no idea about them, you know, the specifics to I was
completely oblivious to because it wasn't in the area that I
focused on. So when I got outside of that
and I got, you know, immersed init here, that was something I
was like, OK, wow, that's a lot of information I now need to
sort of digest and process and Istart relaying to athletes
(25:21):
myself. I think also just not just like,
I was wrong about things, but I was so against being wrong, you
know, having that thought in my head.
I was like, I always want to be right.
I want to, I want to prove to people that I, I do know stuff.
And actually now I, I love someone telling me that I'm
wrong because it's like, oh, that's more stuff that I, I
(25:42):
didn't know before and I'm actually learning now.
And that's been a massive change, you know, going from 1
mindset to another and and beingso open with that is it's been
huge, but good. Yeah.
What are your long term aspirations with just your line
of work? I I want to stay in this field,
you know, I want to ideally staywith precision.
(26:03):
I I, I love working for these guys.
I think the next, but the biggest step for me is I want to
do a PHDI want to do more research.
Yeah, I'd love to, again, focus on another topic area and just
go straight into it and understand so much more.
And ideally it would be in the sports nutrition field.
(26:25):
And I'd, I'd, you know, latch onto something that I could
research into and, and further and help support what we do as a
company ideally and help our athletes beyond that.
I haven't really thought that far, but yeah.
Well, what needs to happen for the PhD to become a reality that
you can start driving towards? I'd love a couple more years to
(26:49):
just be a sport scientist and, and see what there is to learn
because so many people are researching at the moment and
they're all finding different things that haven't been done.
And the more I sit and read papers and work with athletes, I
think like, oh, OK, that could be a cool study.
So more time to to work that outfirst.
And then ultimately it's just something and, and, and getting
(27:09):
the place and doing that. I don't think actually doing a
PhD would be necessary hard to get a hold of.
I just think finding the time ina fairly busy schedule and, and
pausing your professional career, I guess for a little bit
is, is, is a big thing. And I'm so new to it that I'm
pretty reluctant right now to, to just put everything on hold
(27:32):
while I'm still. Yeah, learning.
Yeah, for sure. So what's taking up the most
mental bandwidth for you right now?
General job, you know, day-to-day work.
Staying on task. Yeah, making sure that you meet
the deadlines and within reason and balance everything else you
(27:56):
need to do in your life to sort of stay on top of priorities.
So not just work related priorities, but getting your own
training in and seeing my familyand that kind of thing.
Yeah, how's training going for you?
That's good up and down. You know, as everyone probably
says, you have good sessions, you have bad sessions.
So generally it's good. I mean, I was trying to zoom out
(28:16):
and see where I was, say three months ago.
It's where I am now. So if I did that, it's going
well. Yeah.
What are some of your goals? Like what are you shooting for
right now? I guess previously I've done a
lot of seven point threes in middle distance, triath ones.
I say a lot. I've done a handful.
I am finally going for the big one, finally going to do an Iron
(28:38):
Man this year. So I have that.
In yeah, I've got that in June. That is the the a goal.
Yeah. What Iron Man are you doing?
And yeah, what is going to be like your longest sessions for
in preparation for that, I imagine holding a full time job
and doing that as well as like very difficult.
It's Iron Man les Sables. It's in France and yeah, the the
(29:01):
biggest sessions, I don't know, my, my coach likes to drop a
couple in as hints and he and he's put a couple of long 5 and
a bit our TT rides, which they'll be tough because you
know, you're almost getting to raise distance at that point.
The the training itself, though,I find although it's like
balancing around work and it's when can you fit it in?
It's just I do really love it, so I don't find it that hard to
(29:24):
motivate myself. Not anymore at least.
You know when you get kind of hooked on doing it, it's far
easier than when you're really unfit at the start.
Yeah, yeah. And that's coming up really soon
though. That's like you're going to be
doing your biggest training blocks here in like the next 6
to 8 weeks and then kind of starting to pull back some.
But yeah, I remember when I did my first one, I was so
(29:45):
terrified. But the good news is, after you
do a full haves feel like just the shortest thing ever.
Yeah, I hope so. I do my second goal for this
year as I've got the 7.3 world champs in Malbea in November so.
Yeah, that'll be fun. Would that be your first world
champs? I was in New Zealand in Taupo in
December, so. OK, nice.
(30:07):
Yeah, nice. How did that race go for you?
Yeah, it was good. I was off the back of a pretty
nasty injury, so I was kind of just get round and and have a
good day out. And yeah, I I got 10, so I was
top ten, which was not a bad result for a first.
Yeah, in my age group. Yeah, Congrats.
That's awesome and a world champ.
(30:27):
First, what was your total time?Like it was like 4:50-ish.
Nice. That's really good.
Congratulations. Pretty proud of that, I imagine.
Oh, not not proud enough it sounds like.
I was proud in that I couldn't it couldn't have gone better and
you know, everything in itself went well.
(30:48):
This one went well. The bike went well, the run, the
fueling, like it was the first time I'd actually crushed my
fueling as a, as a, you know, sports scientists, it's hard to
admit that every other time it'sgone wrong, you know, I've been
the same as the athletes I work with and had gut issues or
dehydrate or what, you know, that kind of thing.
I was the first race where I finished and I was like, I could
have done more like that was good, but I don't, I don't cope
(31:11):
well in the heat. So I actually found the heat on
race day super challenging. And that was sort of, you know,
I thought I had like another 15 minutes off my run.
So there's never going to be enough, let's say, but I was
happy on the day. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting
with those hotter races or really any 70.3, I I've often
(31:32):
times for as long as I can remember, have written down the
nutrition plan. And then you get out there and
for whatever reason, the mental cognition just goes downhill
quite a bit, especially halfway through the bike when, you know,
when I'm trying to do like simple math in my head and I'm
realizing this is not working. And then I wonder, man, how did
I get so far behind? I'm a nutrition.
It's so easy to do that and to forget.
And so I yeah, it's just like kind of a thought.
(31:56):
Yeah. So when you are going into this
new year, you're going to be focusing obviously on the Iron
Man. After that, what do you want to
continue to do in terms of sport?
Honestly, just get better. That's it's easy for me in that
(32:17):
as long as I have a goal in mindand this year having a couple of
races in the calendar makes it easier for me to work towards
it. I'm not so good if there's
nothing booked. I'm like, OK, well, I'll get
fair eventually, but just maintaining that fitness and,
and challenging it. And I'd, I'd, I'd love to do
some bike racing. I, I love triathlons and I, I
think they're cool, but doing something that I'm not used to
(32:39):
it. So whether it's like a grab, I
mean, I I don't ride gravel so it would be so weird for me, but
I'd love to try something a bit different.
That would challenge. Me, yeah, and I'd also love to
run a fast marathon, so I've done one marathon for charity,
but I'd love to do 1 like and train for and focus on it so
yeah. Would you ever want to be a
(33:00):
professional? Because I feel like with your
times, if 450 was, you know, a little bit on the slower end for
you. Like, that's a very respectable
time, especially in the women's field.
Top ten your age group, Would you ever want to pursue that?
I think for now I'd like to stayas a good level amateur and, and
(33:20):
being an age group, it gives youa bit less pressure.
And as I said about the stress thing, I I, you know, having pro
in before and something to work towards would be more pressure
and, and stuff I don't need. And I think before that just
accomplishing some big goals of mine as an age group would be
the first thing, like going to Kona, for example.
I'd love to do that with no other pressure than what I put
(33:43):
on myself. I also don't ever want to take
away from how much I love the sport I got into as someone who
just you know, I'd never really done anything endurancy before.
And then I thought like, oh, cool, I'll join the triathlon
cup. Like that sounds fun.
And first it was really hard andthen I realized like I just got
hooked on endurancy stuff. So I think, you know, there's a
(34:05):
big concern of mine if I ever did like that seriously, would I
still enjoy it if I was not forced?
But it becomes less of a choice and more of a, well, I need to
do this to do well in this race.And at the moment I just, I, I,
I love sort of the social aspects and, and not worrying so
much about, OK, I need to sit ona turbo for hours, you know, I
can go and do my ride with my friends and that kind of thing.
(34:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's got to be fun. I think in anything we do in
life, whether it's work or play,if you're not having fun while
doing it, then it's it becomes, yeah, more, more stress added
than stress relieved, 100%. Exactly.
So are you a spiritual person? Not really, no.
(34:47):
And that's just yeah. But I'm no, I don't think so.
Yeah, why do you say no? I don't have an answer for that.
As in I I just don't feel I am. Yeah.
Did you ever grow up with any religious influence or anything
like that? No, my mom tried when I was
(35:09):
younger. She's not that religious.
Her family, her side of the family were.
And I think she spoke about it and sort of mentioned it as
like, if you want to go to church or, you know, that kind
of thing, we could do it. But it was never forced from me
or my brother. It was like, if you want to do
it, we'll embrace that. If if you don't, that's also
fine. And for us, we just, we just
(35:30):
didn't, we just didn't, you know, go with that.
Yeah. Do you think about?
Well, let me ask you this. Are you in a relationship?
Nice. Is it marriage or dating?
It's dating, yeah. Is he the one?
Yeah, I'd say so. That's a hard question.
(35:53):
Yeah, I'd like to think so. Yeah.
What? How long have you been dating if
you don't mind me asking? Only a year.
That's a pretty long time. I feel like after a year is when
you start to really get to know somebody.
Yeah, I feel like we were like best friends within seconds of
knowing each other and and from then it was so easy.
It was just like I could spend my life with this person.
(36:16):
And yeah, that's not changed. Yeah, well, we should invite him
on and just to see what he thinks.
I don't know if he'd say the same.
I'm sure he would. I'm sure he would.
So the reason I asked that is like, as you progress into that
relationship and you build that foundation for maybe, you know,
a, a world after where you're married and you're building a
(36:37):
family. I was going to ask you like if
you have kids, do you think thatyou would ever want to give them
that same choice at like religion or spiritual things or
anything like that or no? I think if it was, you know,
something that friends said or if it was ever a topic, I mean,
for me it was that my friends were going to church and I said
(36:57):
to my mum, like, can I go sometimes?
And I'd, I'd go with them, you know, my parents wouldn't take
me, but I would go with my friends.
And do, you know, like the social stuff that they do for
kids when you're younger? And if my children ever wanted
to do that, I would never, ever be against it.
And I'd let them. You know, it's the same with
eating habits. You know, you let them
relatively pick. You just guide them along the
way. So if it was something they
(37:19):
wanted to do, I'd never stop them.
But I wouldn't necessarily enforce it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Good. Thanks for letting me dive into
that. I know that some of those
questions can be a little bit like, oh, this is kind of weird,
but I appreciate getting to hearyour perspective.
So going into the future, again,going back on, I guess, on the
topic of precision fuel and hydration, as you move forward
(37:40):
and you continue to just be moretenured at this employer, how do
you think that your leadership will change?
Because you said the company's growing and I imagine that
you're working with more people,maybe even having some form of
training or helping people get more involved in the company.
How do you see yourself becomingmore of a leader?
(38:02):
I think so. We have interns at the moment,
they are from the University of Bath.
They have been whether that changes, I'm not sure.
We have a new intern coming in June, July time.
And I think just in that sense, there'll be a leadership role
spread across, you know, our team of sports scientists just
(38:22):
to help develop as a sports scientist.
You know, coming from a student and still being like midway
through your degree, there's a lot to learn and that will take,
you know, some of our time and we'll, we'll share it across as
I'm sure that will be the biggest leadership role.
I guess I have, and I have at the moment with the current
interns in that we've all sort of been immersed in helping them
(38:45):
develop their skills. So they'll come to us with, you
know, I can't do X or I want to learn how to do this.
And we all sort of take interns to just help or if one of us is
more experienced, we, we try andsort of do that with them.
So I don't think there's going to be lots and lots of
leadership opportunities in the,you know, I have someone higher
up than me in sports science andhe is the one that sort of leads
(39:08):
our team. But there are definitely
opportunities where I can take more of a leadership role and
say like, oh, actually I'd quitelike to do this, you know,
whether it's a talk to a bunch of athletes or that kind of
thing. So it's sort of jumping on those
opportunities when they arise. Yeah, Cool, sweet.
Well, good deal. Well, thank you so much for
taking the opportunity to let mejump in and ask all these
(39:30):
questions about your life. Before I close that, do you have
any questions that you want to ask me?
One sure, at the moment in what you're doing, what is the best
thing? You know what?
What is it that you do every single day or most days that
makes you the happiest? That's a good question.
I do a lot of different things. I would say right now it is the
(39:51):
podcast because it gives me the opportunity to meet lots of
different types of people. Yeah, like I've met people I
think as young, probably as like18 or so in the project podium.
I don't know if you're familiar with them, but with USATUSH
Triathlon, they have this elite development program with a bunch
(40:12):
of young guys and got to interview some of them.
So it's always fun talking to the young guys because our young
guys and girls, they don't really have a full grasp on who
they are as an individual. So asking some of the Super deep
questions. Is it usually as profitable?
But it's fun to like poke them alittle bit so they can see just
different ways of viewing thingsthat maybe they haven't
(40:32):
considered before. So seeing them grow.
So that's a fun one. And then I also really enjoy
talking to the much older guys and gals who have just have a
lot more life experience. I consider myself a little bit
more of an old soul, so I like asking the older people those
questions and just hearing abouttheir life experiences and
seeing where I can apply it. But yeah, I mean, it's, you
(40:53):
know, this will be what episode will this be?
This will be episode #137 So after that, you know, it's 137
people that I've gotten to talk to with wide-ranging
experiences. So it's just one of the most
uplifting things that I can do. Yeah.
Yeah, no, that sounds pretty interesting.
(41:13):
I guess getting to talk to so many different people must be
insightful and you get to sort of latch on to what they're
saying, and I guess you do pick up on that and then how you can
apply that to your life. So that's pretty cool.
Yeah, do you? You meet with quite a few people
too as well, right? Because like, that's part of the
job. Yeah, we have a free video
(41:34):
consultation service where we basically offer customers a 20
minute opportunity to pick our brains about film hydration or
anything, you know, within that field.
So doing a couple of those a daymeans that, you know you're
talking to lots and lots of people.
And as you said, you know, some of them are, I think we have
like like 18 as a as a minimum age, but from that age up until
(41:54):
however old, you know, and they're from complete novice to
top level, you know, some of theethics, I'm up with our pros.
So in that you get to chat to somany different people.
And I think I actually love it. You know, it's probably one of
the highlights of my day, getting to talk to different
people because instead of staring at, you know, the work
that you're writing or whatever,you actually get to engage with
someone and and hopefully help them.
(42:17):
Yeah. So Chris and a few other people
on your team, they gave me a link to where people can book
those calls. So I can assume it'd be with you
or a group of people who have access to, I guess that
calendar. But what are what is the
protocol that you would take people through if they were to
book a call with you? Yeah, I think all of us do it
(42:38):
slightly differently. So I guess it depends on who you
get. But for me, I try and let it be
as led by them as possible. You know, they've booked the
call because they have questionsand they want guidance.
And normally I say like, what isit you do?
What sport do you do? Are there any questions that
straight to what you have that you want me to address?
And if they have them, I, I try and get involved in that and,
(43:01):
and let them sort of have a backand forth with me.
You know, if I say something andthey want more on that or
whatever, I, I go into that. Some people just sort of say
like, tell me everything I need to know.
So it is very much dependent on who you get on the day.
And sometimes it feels like I'm just lecturing them about you
need X number of carbs or you need how much fluid.
(43:21):
And yeah, those, those are good in itself.
But I love the ones where peoplehave questions and they say,
like, I've heard that you could do this, you know, will this
affect my performance? And it's like, OK, you know, and
you get to really have a proper chat with them.
But I guess their background andwhat they currently do in, in
sport and, and how best they want help is, is just where I'd
(43:43):
start. And I'd just let it progress
and, you know, give them the 20 minutes and the rest basically
that they need to sort of go on to that.
Yeah. How many people total have you
interviewed as you've been doingthis?
I couldn't count, yeah. It's a 50 ton.
Yeah. I mean, it's a couple a day and
I've been here a year. I wasn't doing them from the
(44:05):
start. You know, I had a couple of
months to train and to see how my colleagues did it and then
understand how I was going to doit.
And, you know, you get observed and that kind of thing to make
sure that we're all giving off the same general information.
But yeah, the way and we do it is a bit different.
So lots of people. Yeah, yeah.
Cool. Well, it'll be fun to hopefully
(44:27):
get some people to sign up with you guys.
I've got that link, so I'll makesure to share the show notes and
stuff. But yeah, thank you so much for
taking the time and let me dive in and ask you all kinds of
questions about who you are. Yeah, of course.
Thank you so much for having me.It's been, it's been so great to
chat. Yeah, thank you so much to Tash
for coming on the podcast and letting me dive into her life
(44:48):
and poke and prod a little bit about the different areas of
experience that she has had. Really appreciate her taking the
time. It means a lot to me.
If you want to meet up with her or anyone at the Precision Fuel
and Hydration for a free 20 minute call where you can get
some guidance and direction. Precision Fuel and Hydration,
again, this is not a paid ad, but they have changed the game
(45:09):
for me in terms of my fueling and hydration strategies and
they can help you guys too. So make sure to check out that
link if you want to get some help there.
Thanks again, Tash for coming on.
If you made to this point the podcast, thank you so much.
Check out the show notes if you want to sign up for the
newsletter and also any of the other stuff that has been
mentioned. If you are listening on YouTube,
if you could like comment, subscribe and leave a comment,
(45:30):
which I already said and turn onthe notification bell that
really helps to continue to growthe podcast.
If you are listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts, if you could
review, like share any, all those things continue to help
grow this podcast and really makes a huge difference and does
help me to continue on in this journey.
So thank you guys so much for being here and we will catch you
(45:51):
in the next one. Peace.
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