Balancing On the Seesaw - The Inspiring Journey of Professional Triathlete Ruth Astle

In this insightful episode of 'The Undiscovered You', host Kimberley Johnston uncovers the remarkable journey of Ruth Astle. As a professional athlete and working in finance, Ruth unveils her personal balancing act, navigating the worlds of sports, work, and life.

Discover the origins of Ruth's path as a triathlete, born from a childhood in Essex teeming with sibling rivalry, sports hobbies, and active pursuits. Understand how a spot offered to her for the London Triathlon sparked her love for swimming, biking and running her way to glory and set the stage for her future successes.

Experience the thrill of Ruth's relentless pursuit of her passion, as she took on increasingly demanding Ironman races. Listen to her compelling narrative of resilience and adaptability, overcoming hurdles including a significant bike crash and intense training conditions.

Hear the heartening account of Ruth's battles to balance her corporate role with her dedication to triathlon training. She highlights valuable lessons in prioritising personal goals and efficiently utilising time in order to pursue her passion and find some semblance of balance.

Finally, learn about Ruth's vision for her future and her reflections on her inspiring journey. This episode is a testament to the indomitable spirit of sports enthusiasts and a guide for anyone wrestling with their work-life-passion balance.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(00:10):
Undiscovered You, a podcast for people who feel like they have so much more
to offer but are somehow stuck where they are.
I'm your host, Kimberly Johnston, and this season we're talking all about balancing on the seesaw.
It's about finding that balance between life and work and life outside of work.
Today I have with me Ruth Estelle, who is 80% of the time a professional triathlete

(00:33):
and 20% of the time is working as a financial institution.
Ruth, thank you for joining us today.
Thanks so much for having me. Well let's just get started from the beginning.
Tell me a little bit about where you grew up, what life was like and how you
ended up getting to be a triathlete. I mean that's huge.
Yeah definitely not something I would have said when I'm younger that's what

(00:58):
I want to be or had any kind of inkling that I might be able to be sort of a
professional athlete yeah I guess I grew up in Essex I'm one of four so there was a very,
healthy competitive vibe between the siblings we were all pretty active I think

(01:19):
you know our parents kind of encouraged us to be outside a lot get involved
in as many sporting hobbies that we We could,
my main sport kind of all through school and uni was hockey.
And I was never particularly good.
Like I definitely didn't have particularly great skills, but I could run around quite a lot.

(01:41):
So I think endurance has probably always been my...
Strength more than anything skill-wise or
speed yeah I think throughout
school and uni really enjoyed having that
sort of competitive element something quite regularly to
have hockey matches to focus on obviously the social element as well and when

(02:04):
I left uni and I started my job with Lloyds on the graduate program on my second
rotation that's when I moved to London and And I was actually working in the
Charity of the Year team at the time.
And they had a couple of spaces left at the London Triathlon.
And they sort of said to me, they're like, do you fancy doing it?

(02:26):
So I think I've been doing a bit of running. I was actually training for the
Berlin Marathon at the time.
Hadn't really been doing anything that serious sporting wise post leaving uni,
but had been keeping fit.
And I thought, yeah, why not? Like,
I know how to swim. That wasn't particularly good, but I know how to.
I'd done like a little bit of bike riding probably like the last couple of years

(02:47):
of uni I had quite a lot of cousins that were really into it so we'd had like
a few family weekends where,
people went riding together like my parents actually moved
up the Lake District and we did a whole family cycle from the
Lake District down to Wales and we got
rained on for three days so it wasn't particularly fun but I'd done like a little

(03:08):
bit of cycling and obviously I was doing doing a fair bit of running so I thought
I'll give it a go really enjoyed it I think just the whole there's something
about that triathlon atmosphere I think partly it's the.
I guess like the equality of it in the like everyone's doing the same thing

(03:28):
like men women the pros the age groupers like you're all on the same course
it's like it feels very inclusive.
But I think also because of that it then also feels really supportive so like
there was definitely a really nice vibe of you know I was saying to people on
the start line this is my first triathlon.

(03:48):
You know the amount of people trying to give tips and kind of say yeah
like just have a little think think about this do this so
like just the whole atmosphere I loved and off
the back of it I was like oh maybe I'll join my local
tri club because I also thought then I can make some
friends but still at that point of London of like
I don't know that many people so that seemed like a good a

(04:11):
good way to kind of meet people and that
was kind of the whole spark that yeah kind
of from from there I started doing some of the local races and
then start hearing about being
able to represent your country and I was like oh my god like
I could you know actually represent GB how
cool is that and it yeah it kind of all

(04:33):
basically spiraled from that getting into the tri club and then finding all
these people that were going off and doing all these you know crazy races that
I thought at the time like especially the idea of doing an Ironman I was like
that's way too far like I'll never do that and then yeah bring on 2017 when I did my first Ironman,
and then got to the point where at the

(04:54):
end of 2019 I was like oh I think I could maybe actually be a pro yeah crazy
journey I think my favorite part of the story is yeah I could swim so you know
why not do a triathlon I can swim Ruth I'm not going to be doing a I try it a lot, just to be clear.
You should give it a go. It's fun. I did one half marathon. I think that's probably my max.

(05:19):
Berlin, you were getting ready to train for a marathon in Berlin.
So was that your first long distance run or what had you done before that? Yeah.
Yeah, that was definitely hard. I must have done a couple of half marathons
up to that point. But yeah, Berlin was the first.
And it's actually still the only standalone marathon that I've done.
Fun fact for everybody.

(05:41):
All the other marathons I've done have been at the end of an Ironman.
So yeah, and I was doing it with my partner at the time and his dad.
Yeah, it was like a kind of fun family-ish outing
to go and do it and in fact it's a very it's
a really good one I think in terms of like things to

(06:01):
do that is a nice sort of holiday as well
as something active I think marathons are usually actually a
really good way of seeing different parts of the
city which might sound a bit you know like you
could obviously just go and walk around but there is also something
really cool about being part of this mass event
with like you know those big

(06:22):
marathons usually have about 20,000 people like pretty
special yeah i'd highly recommend going off
and doing sissy marathons just as a a good
way of sightseeing yeah it's like you can either take a tour bus or you can
run 26 miles totally up to you what you feel like doing yeah let me ask you

(06:42):
do you find the running easy like is it something so you know this was your
first long distance run in terms of over and you did the half marathons did
you find it quite easy to do.
No I don't think marathons are ever easy and I think the training run like run
training is definitely the one that I I'd say struggle with just from an injury

(07:05):
perspective like it's obviously like pretty much the most hard wearing on your
body I think trying to get the balance between,
doing enough to be in your best shape versus not doing too much to get injured.
That's quite challenging but I think on the
other hand running is also the easiest because you
just need a pair of trainers and you can kind of do it anywhere and

(07:27):
and some yeah it's quite and some chafing
gel you cannot run all the chafing gel everywhere yeah
yeah but I think it's definitely
like I yeah I think marathon is
always hard like it is like it's a long way but I
think you can can just like I find if you just break it down into the
different chunks of it then you can I think process

(07:50):
it a bit more in terms of just get through 5k at a
time that seems quite manageable I think there's something really interesting
there to kind of put a parallel and to work is sort of when you have that really
big project or that really big promotion or that really big thing that you're
pushing for it's actually it is hard and it is hard work and yes you probably have the the skills,

(08:11):
you probably have the, you know, the sneakers, as I would say,
or the runners or whatever language you want to use.
And, and actually, you know, breaking it down into those chunk size bites allows
you to get through to the next stage and kind of, instead of seeing it in the
hole, seeing in the chunks, I think psychologically,
that really helps not only in sport, but also in the business world as well.

(08:34):
Yeah, 100%. I think, yeah, I mean,
I found so so many parallels between sort of
sport and work I think it's probably one
of the reasons that I was actually able to go like
to go pro because I think when I set
myself up to go part-time so
at the end of 2019 when I was like right I'm gonna take this step and made like

(08:57):
a part-time role I think my boss at the time appreciated that I needed the sport
to be able to do my work in a good way and I think the kind of the strengths
that you can take from each I think for me,
when I was working full-time and at
that point it was in a very like intense job of like quite long hours quite

(09:21):
intent or quite high level at you know like helping get stuff ready for the
exec committee is I found for me having the mental release of sport super important
but also some of of the other things that I took from,
okay, if I want to get this training session in, but I've also got to be in
the office by seven. So I've got to get up at this time.

(09:42):
And then this is how I've got to organize myself, like all of those little things.
That I took from sport that made me better at my job. I think like my boss could
kind of appreciate that to be like okay I get that actually you're going to
be a better employee from doing some of the sport stuff and some of the skills you bring from that.
And then I think likewise some of the I think like mental resilience,

(10:05):
some of organization, some of
the other I think also some of the kind of stakeholder management as well.
Like there's obviously I think like we'll come on probably to talk about it
a bit more later but negotiating things
with companies to try and get sponsorship agreements some of
that stuff like having the kind of more

(10:26):
corporate background has definitely helped in that so yeah
there's like I've taken a lot of things from both sides and brought them across
to the other which has been super helpful I love that and you know we're going
to be we're talking about balancing on a seesaw and I think one of the things
you You mentioned there that organization piece is probably key when you're
trying to do this, because as you said,

(10:47):
if you've got to be at work, you've got to be at work at a certain time and
you still have to train and there's only 24 hours in a day.
So it's actually, how does that look and how does that feel for you?
Can I just go back? You quit full-time, so you haven't quit your job,
still working there, but you stopped working full-time in 2017?
2019. 2019. Okay. So actually when you were doing the Ironmans.

(11:08):
When you were starting to get into the triathlons when you were
doing all that you were you were doing them simultaneously for quite a while
yeah yeah wow okay so let's
let's kind of go back and then we'll come come back to here so we we've
started the tri clubs we've done the berlin marathon
you've actually you you ended up landing and we
we just did a whole season on playing the cards you were dealt and

(11:29):
i feel like you were dealt this card of like here go run
a triathlon we have a space for it which is so incredible and
so you went and did that triathlon how did you how did you do in that first triathlon
on just out of curiosity I actually can't remember
but I feel like I must have done quite well otherwise I
probably wouldn't have enjoyed it but yeah I
actually don't know okay I think the main thing

(11:50):
was I finished it and I was I
must have been nearer the front than the back otherwise I can't imagine
that I would have come away enjoying it that much but
I think also it was the day when when they
used to do London and it was massive they had a day
that was like all of the age age groupers and some of the pros and then
the next day was all for corporates and we were doing on

(12:12):
the corporate day so I think they might have also had a
bit of a different way of kind
of I don't know not scoring you but I think it didn't feel as much like the
competition as if I'd done it in the day before so that probably also helped
that I was only racing corporate people so yeah as I said I think I must have
done quite well but I actually don't remember and just to be clear because I

(12:33):
have this image of people in suits running along.
It's actually corporate sponsorship as opposed to necessarily people working
in corporates or is it actually everybody just working in corporate?
No, I think it was all corporate places. I think everyone, you know,
I think all of our people were people from Lloyd's doing it.
And I think, you know, then like people from like JP Morgan or,

(12:54):
yeah, so it was all, hence the like, I think there were less super sporty people
because I think most of the like, really serious triathletes would have raced the day before.
That's like the proper age group race. And probably worked at JP Morgan and
Lloyd's as well, because they're all A-type personalities who would have high
power jobs and be doing the triathlon for the weekends.

(13:16):
Yeah. I love it. Okay. So we're doing our first, and what year was that for
your first triathlon? That was 2013.
Okay. So we've started, we've done our first triathlon in 2013.
You've moved from Essex into London, joined the tri clubs in order to kind of make some friends.
Friends you've got the bug and you're seeing that
you might be able to race for GB you're seeing this

(13:38):
might be something that might become professional so tell me
a bit about your story from from 2013 and maybe
up until you sort of did your first Ironman actually
wait I want to ask a question before you do that what's the
difference between a triathlon and an Ironman for those
listeners so Ironman is
just the brand but most people would

(14:00):
have heard of it because it's the a long one so a normal ironman
which might also be referred to as a full distance is
3.8k swim 180k bike and a marathon what most people would refer to as a triathlon
I guess would be like the olympic distance which is the distance that's in the

(14:21):
olympics which is one and a half k swim 40k K bike and a 10 K run,
but there's then all sorts of different distances.
So triathlon generally can just be like any distance.
But yeah iron man is usually what most people would refer to as that like full
distance but iron man is generally just the brand that kind of coined that distance

(14:45):
there are now other brands that also do full distance it like gets basically
gets very complicated but,
an iron man is also a triathlon it's just
the long one basically okay so when we say triathlon what we're referring to
is there's going to be an element of swimming there's going to be an element
of biking and there's going to be an element of running and then there are different
different distances so some people do like mini triathlons which might be like

(15:08):
a 5k you know 20k 5k whatever something like something probably not a 5k swim but.
One lap of the pool a little bike and a
run around the track my kind of triathlon so we've got
we've got different kinds of triathlons the iron man is the big one i know like
in marathons they have like marathon du sable which is like the running through

(15:31):
the desert do you have anything that's It's like the super intense Ironman triathlon
that's like the ultimate one that people are aiming to do.
I think the ultimate Ironman is the one in Hawaii because that's where it started.
And that is the world champs usually, although again, they've now changed it

(15:52):
a little bit. So it's got a bit more complicated.
But generally every year in Hawaii in October, they have the world championship.
You have to qualify for it.
It used to be very hard to get a qualification slot. It's now not as hard because it's so expensive.
So the slots can kind of roll down a bit more and it's basically more of a who

(16:14):
can afford it, which is a different issue.
But yeah, so that I think is the ultimate solution.
Kind of longer distance one and that was
what basically made me do my first Ironman because I'd heard
people at the club talking about Kona and I
was like what is this Kona thing people are talking about
and it is a pretty magical place out there

(16:35):
it's probably not my favorite place to do a triathlon because it's
hot it's humid it's windy it's really
hard but you're like
going to sea for a little swim and you'll just get this big pod
of wild dolphins that swim up to you it's like like it's
a pretty magical place but yeah I'd say that's the kind of that's
probably what most people who start triathlon and

(16:58):
end up doing the full distance like Ironman that's probably what most people
are kind of if they could get to Kona they'd be pretty happy oh I was born in
Hawaii so I agree it's a completely magical place but I was born I was born
in Oahu not on the big island so so a little bit different, but yeah.
Okay. So we are in, we are now, we've gone to 2013. We're headed towards 2017.

(17:22):
Tell me a bit about this buildup towards your first Ironman.
Yeah. So 2014 was when I'd kind of just joined the club, started doing all the
like training sessions they were offering.
And at that time there was like a London league of lots of sprint distance and
Olympic distance triathlons.
And I basically just went and did as many

(17:44):
of them as I I could so I just like I wanted to
race race it was fun and I reckon like
halfway through that year was when I realized
that I might be able to compete for GB but the way that that works is there
are certain races you have to qualify for so the 2014 sort of grand final or

(18:05):
like the championship you basically had to race in 2013 to qualify for it so
I couldn't couldn't qualify for 2014,
but I found the races in 2014 that I had to do to qualify for 2015.
So I managed to qualify both for the duathlon and the triathlon championships in 2015.
So I went out and did those and they were challenging, I would say.

(18:29):
So for someone, as I think, as I said, I can swim. Swimming is not one of my strengths.
I didn't do enough of it as a youngster to actually be quite good.
And at the sort of Olympic distance and sprint distance triathlons.
I think in some ways the swim is more important because if

(18:49):
you lose some of that initial time it's
just there's not enough distance to make it up so yeah
I basically found in 2015 when I
went out to Chicago to do this like the final
yeah I think I probably lost like two three minutes
to the people at the front on the swim and I was
basically like I'm not sure that I'm ever going going to be that good at

(19:10):
this olympic distance stuff so then from
that point I was like maybe I'll look at some of the longer distance ones
there's like also half ironman distance so that's
what I then did in 2016 and I went out and raced again they've got like a half
distance world championship that was out in Australia and like that was all

(19:31):
good but again I was like by this time I'd had more people just talking about
Kona and I was like well I'm obviously just going to to have to try and try and go there.
Like that seems to be like a much bigger deal than the 70.3 world champs.
And I was still at this point finding that actually the longer the race,
probably the better for me because I have more time on the bike.

(19:52):
And the run to kind of catch people up the 2017
first Ironman I decided to
do it in Lanzarote because because I knew
that my ultimate goal was getting to Kona I was
like well if I do it in Lanzarote it's kind of similar like it's
hot windy it's hilly but
if I can do it there then I'll have more confidence

(20:13):
that I can go to Kona and it won't feel as hard
my coach was like that's a really really stupid idea
it's like you should definitely choose an easier one
but I'm quite stubborn so I was like I'm gonna go do Lanzarote and
it was awful like I think I over carbo loaded I was sick in the swim and then

(20:34):
didn't have a great tummy on the bike and the run was literally just get to
every single portal that I could find so it was not not the best first Ironman.
But I got really lucky in the so at
that point and it's still kind of the case now but generally speaking
in the female age groups you have

(20:54):
one slot to the world championship because they're like
limited or like some of the age groups might have
two but generally speaking there was
one slot and I ended up third in my age group but
the lady that had won already had a slot and the
lady that came second decided she didn't want it so the slot rolled to me so
I got my Kona slot like brilliant out that I'm gonna make it and I was also

(21:16):
a bit like well it can't be as bad as this race to be this race to be so miserable
but surely it'll get better so went out to Kona that year,
and had like a pretty decent race I think I ended up third.
Yeah, I was third in my age group and I think I was like the 10th age group overall.

(21:38):
So I was like, okay, that's kind of not too bad for the second Ironman.
And also like, I just want to stop for one second.
You're in Lanzarote, you are like vomiting and getting sick all along and you still finished third.
Like, that's pretty incredible. Yeah, I did all right.

(21:58):
Yeah I think with Ironman if
you basically because I have this conversation with quite old people who
are like I could never do it I think because it's such a long day actually if
you've got the right mentality and you can just keep moving forward you can
actually still do quite well because like I think a lot of people just suffer

(22:20):
from I don't know if you start,
getting into a bad way quite early on in the run or like halfway through the
bike it just seems like such a ridiculously long way i think it just becomes a bit impossible.
Yeah i think going back to the like breaking it down into small chunks for me
when i was doing that i was like just get to the next portaloo that's all you

(22:43):
need to do just get then you can like have a little break so yeah like it paid
off yeah then had like quite a good first,
Kona but that then basically obviously gave me the bug of like I need to come back and I need to win,
and at this point I then started seeing some
professional women in particular because it happens more on the female side

(23:06):
than on on the men that kind of had come from corporate backgrounds or not sporting
backgrounds and had turned pro sort of in their 30s and were doing quite well.
So I guess probably, yeah, 2017 time is when I started thinking,
oh, like that could be an option. Like it could be something I could look at.

(23:29):
And it seemed like quite a good life as
I could travel around to all these cool places just do
some racing spend most of my time outdoors training but
I had in my head I was like I don't think
I can justify to myself going pro
until a I'm in a
like senior enough position at the bank to to

(23:51):
make it easy if i
stepped away to come back in b i
was like i want to be the overall age group
winner in kona because then i'll feel like
i've like justified getting my
pro license and there are also so like there's also
to get your pro license every federation has

(24:13):
slightly different qualifying things you have to do and the british one is quite
it's probably a little bit harder than some of the other ones but one of the
ways you could get it was by winning in Kona so I was a bit like then I would
have like ticked off lots of different things so 2018 went back to Kona.
Won my age group was third overall so I was like I'm still not quite there and

(24:38):
I'd that I must have been a few months into my job the like more intense job
at that point which I was loving as as well.
So I was also like, I want to do this job for more because I'm enjoying it. It's good.
Like I absolutely loved my boss at that point. He was great to work for.
I was like, I'll give it another year and then 2019 will be my hopefully go and win.

(25:00):
And then I can go pro and I can kind of figure out what I'm doing with work after that.
So I did 2019 I went and I won and I was like, right, I can go pro now.
So 2019 you went back to Kona and you won the whole thing. You beat all,
all the females in every age group. You were number one.
Yeah other than the pros obviously the pros are like different race
okay so pros in a different race so and you're going

(25:23):
for your pro license so this is sort of the the last sort
of amateur thing and once you've won and did
you have to win in your did you have to win your age group to get the pro
license or did you have to win win to get the pro license you just had to win
your age group okay so you'd already done that yeah but that wasn't good enough
for you so you needed to go back and win the whole thing to prove it to yourself
yeah okay and just to be clear during During all of this time that you are paying

(25:48):
for all the trips out to Hawaii, you're paying for your own equipment,
you're paying for, you know, anything else that you need your coach,
you talked about a coach, I imagine you had a physio.
So this is like a massive expense that you're having to fund.
Yeah okay and then it still is and it still
is okay all right and then

(26:09):
you're working your job and but at this point you're kind
of how are you transitioning so part of this you know the entire
entire season is about balancing on the seesaw so
it feels like we've had a lot of conversation around what we've been
doing outside of work how many hours a
week do you think you were dedicating to doing triathlons
and preparing for triathlons and all that

(26:31):
I think on average I was
probably training about 15 hours a week and
at that point I was probably working between 50 and 60 hours a week wow so and
a lot of people and so then because the people are often like well how did could
you manage it and actually from a balancing act I don't think I'm the best example because,

(26:58):
all I was doing was working or triathlon I didn't really have any I basically chose.
Training and I had like a couple of the training sessions were social so I guess
they were with the tri club so I was kind of seeing that as my social time but
like I missed quite a lot of family things because I was like I'm training or

(27:19):
I'm racing or I've chosen to go and do this.
I definitely left let my relationship suffer like
I actually ended up getting divorced at the end of 2019 so
I'd also say definitely didn't get that balance right
and I wasn't really getting enough
sleep so yeah I actually coach a
few age group triathletes now and often the conversation is

(27:42):
oh but I need to fit this in and that in and it's like well from
every perspective like both the training and a
work and a general mental health perspective
like sleep is the most important thing I'd much
rather you cut back your training by like
half so you can get more sleep so I
think like I managed what I was doing because it

(28:05):
was for a relatively short amount of time because it
ended up being I guess basically like 18 months
but probably the first six months of that
I wasn't training as hard and I had like
a few ups and downs of like when I was training more
when I was training less I actually also had like
a big bike crash in August of

(28:26):
2019 so I then actually had a like enforced sort
of five four or five weeks of not really training which
I actually think really helped me in high
like it obviously wasn't very pleasant at the time but looking back i think
that probably helped me win because i had like this enforced rest rather than.

(28:47):
Trying to juggle everything yeah i think like i look back at how i was managing stuff and.
Like yeah I was very organized I was very efficient like
I got to a point where I'd have all my stuff
ready and I'd get the alarm going off and I'd be out the
door in like five minutes like I was pretty good at getting myself

(29:08):
up for that but yeah if I talk about the kind of broader
balance from a healthy everything else
perspective yeah it wasn't definitely wasn't
the best and I mean just hearing
your story you it feels like you were very single-minded in this
desire to win in this desire to head towards the
triathlon and Kona very specifically we were very very

(29:31):
single-minded about that and I think often that can happen when
you are passionate when you're driven when you're focused when you want something
and you're and that is your desire and I think it's almost like that little
bit of of an alarm of a warning bell is with that comes the repercussions of
being single-minded and so what's really interesting is you had the bike crash,

(29:54):
which was, you know, this enforced rest,
but it was almost like you needed some kind of a bike crash earlier,
potentially to get you back into that sort of,
that, that position of being able to balance the things that you wanted to out.
But what I want to, what I want to challenge you on here is like,
yes, you, you sacrificed a lot for it, but was, was it worth it in terms of

(30:18):
if you were to go back and do it again,
would you still do the same thing or would you do it differently? Hard question, I know.
That's a really hard question because I think like where I am now.
I probably had to do all that to get here.
And I definitely would say I'm in like a way happier place.

(30:38):
Happier place yeah it's
really it's really hard to know I think I could I
could have died like I don't I guess I don't want
to think I should have gone and done it
differently I think I can look back and
I can take the learnings of like these are
the things that I need to prioritize these are the things that

(30:59):
I know that when I get single-minded I
can let slip or ignore I guess
so I'm obviously set up now in a much better
way of how I've made life much easier to juggle because I've just taken lots
of things out which so I have way more time yeah but I think yeah I think a

(31:22):
lot of it just comes back to having that ability to sit down and work out like
what are your priorities,
like if it is family if it is triathlon if it is work I'm working out the kind of,
if that is your priority how are
you how are you like enabling yourself to focus on that and almost so I think

(31:46):
even if I'd sat down and kind of recognize these are the things that I'm letting
slip you can then kind of ask yourself like am I happy with that like is that
like am am I okay with the fact that I'm just ignoring my relationship,
for example, like, am I okay with that?
Which this, if I, if I was looking at that now and I saw that,
I'd be like, no, I'm not okay with that. So I'm going to change.

(32:08):
But yeah, I think like you said, you know, it's very easy when you have lots
of different commitments to not give yourself the time or space to think about
that and just literally be like, oh, I'm just going to do everything.
Cause I think also the other thing was there was a huge part of me that I.
Enjoyed being super busy and people always being like oh my god how do you juggle

(32:29):
everything and I was like yes I'm like super woman but it's like I'm not like
and you shouldn't you shouldn't be expected to be but I think there's a whole
sort of societal pressure especially on women,
to be able to like juggle everything or to kind of be like oh
you're only really good if you're a mum who's
also working who's also doing all this other stuff and she's

(32:52):
also looks amazing you know like there seems to
be this whole like narrative of like oh she's
doing it all but it's like actually I think in reality very few
people manage to do it all and if they do it's probably
because they've got a really they've probably got
some kind of extra support system that doesn't get talked about
whereas I think like the narrative around it is

(33:14):
like oh like look at her she's amazing like she works and she's like
so there's definitely a big part of me
that also liked that you know coming into work and people being like oh like
what if you like how long have you been up and I'd be like oh I woke up at like
half four and I've already done like a two-hour training session like look at
me I'm so great which is like that's that shouldn't really be celebrated that
much like it's not that healthy yeah like lots of like learnings but I think.

(33:39):
Yeah I don't think I'd go back and change it because I think where I am now
I probably had to go through all of that to get here but there are definitely
lots of things I've taken from that that time to,
make me a healthier and more balanced person going forward.
That is like such a great response because it's not about regrets.
It's about what's the learning we take from it.

(34:00):
And I think there's something that's incredibly poignant about what you said
around that badge of honor of all-nighters, of waking up early,
of getting it all done, of being,
you know, whatever it is that, that whatever this impossible thing that society expects of us.
And I And I think social media just feeds this even more so because,

(34:23):
you know, again, we all know this is the highlight reels.
We all know it's people putting their best face forward, but it does.
It looks like everybody else has it together.
And so you're constantly feeling like I'm the one who's failing,
but actually what's happening behind the scenes there.
I often tell the story about a girl who I knew was about to get divorced.

(34:44):
Her whole relationship was falling apart. part.
And on Instagram, they had just bought a new beach house and they were out there
and dressed in beautiful coordinated clothing and looking perfect.
And look at our new beach house and look how amazing it is. And I'm like,
yeah, but if you could see what was going on behind the curtain.
It's not even remotely what they're projecting out.
And I think so often we to ourselves are so mean to ourselves and so unfair

(35:09):
to ourselves because we're trying to strive for this perfection.
And then we then project that onto other people because we want them to see
us as being perfect as well, just as you just said.
And I just, Ruth, I think there's just so much wisdom in what you just said. And I love the...
Learnings that you've taken and the questions that you're asking.
And I was going to say the issue that happens when you're in that single-mindedness,

(35:33):
when you're in that push, when you're trying to get to whatever that goal is,
is actually don't have that time.
You don't think you have that time to sit and reflect and say,
am I making the right choices here? Are these the priorities I want to have?
I coach people often where I say, you are running full speed down a road.
What's at the end of the road? What are you running towards? and do you

(35:54):
even want that and a lot of times people don't even
take the time to think about you know what
is at the end of this road like what am what am i losing along the
way what am i running past what am i not seeing
what am i not experiencing so i just
i love that thank you so much for sharing a very like very honest reflection
and i i really think that's gonna gonna resonate with

(36:15):
people that are listening so you're in
a state where you're working a lot lot you are
training a lot you are finding some
really good ways to do that as well like let's just bring out
the positives around I love the fact that you said you're able
to get out the door in five minutes like how many of us can do that I can't
get out the door in an hour and a half sometimes it's two hours

(36:37):
it's like it's it's especially with two children
I never get out the door actually I'm just dragging people out the
door but you that whole idea of
being organized and efficient so what were what were some of
the things you did have in place that really helped you yeah I
think my main thing was just getting
everything ready the night before and that was stuff like

(36:58):
making sure like my bag was packed that
was ready anything that I needed to like
to get dressed into was next to the bed ready I
did like a lot of meal prep as well because I was also also trying
to cut down on having to
go out like a lot of the time at work I would
try and not really do like a lunch hour as.

(37:19):
Such it would maybe be like I'd go and swim or run.
Or like something and then I'd be like well I obviously have to have lunch
like ready so I'm then not taking an extra 15-20 minutes to go out and get lunch.
And I was also trying to eat relatively healthy so that also seemed and saved
some money because as you said I was spending a lot of money on triathlons lots

(37:40):
of different things going into that yeah meal preps I did like a huge batch
of that at the weekend and.
I think sometimes if it was training, I would quite often try and have other
people I was meeting to be like, I can't be late because I'm meeting someone.
That's the other side, I think.

(38:00):
If you don't have that pressure, sometimes you can be like, oh,
I'll just take an extra couple of minutes.
And then if I'm going to take an extra couple of minutes in bed,
then it's basically impossible to get out of bed.
I never let myself snooze the alarm. That was like, I cannot do that.
Otherwise, I won't get up. up yeah I think they were the
main ones really and I think just knowing I think
when you've had a couple of successful races that feeling

(38:23):
of crossing the finish line it's kind of like
it's just bottling that up and being like anytime you're having
not a great day or not a great session thinking
back to that and being like I know it's worth it because that feeling
of crossing the finish line having had a good race is like
more than worth it yeah and then
I think I just did other things I

(38:45):
could all right so like one of my main challenges when
I was doing that job was getting time with my boss to actually
go through everything we had to go through so I
was basically his like business manager and because
his whole day was pretty much meetings that was
usually where I had to be in at seven because it'd be like that would be my one gap
of catching him and being able to talk through

(39:07):
the day talk through what we had to do get any feedback on on
stuff that I needed feedback on but yeah we often
also had you know there were some days where that couldn't happen
but I'd be like well I'm going to be on the turbo doing
a session at this time so I'll talk to you while you're getting driven in at
like 6 30 in the morning or whatever it is I remember some people being like
why you like you shouldn't be agreeing to that and I was like oh no I suggested

(39:31):
it because actually it works way better for me than trying to get in so I think
it's also knowing what are some of the things.
That work better for you which might not
necessarily sound like the best but finding ways
of I guess making some of that time
making it fit your time frames

(39:52):
more because I think often as well it's easy
to get sucked into the this is
the norms of how we work whereas I actually think now
probably like post-covid has probably been quite a good quite
a good readjustment of people people actually feeling more
comfortable to ask for more because I think a
lot of the time it's like you might as well ask because the worst that's going

(40:15):
to happen is someone's going to say no you can't you can't work in that way
or we can't do that but I had this whole conversation with people of when I
first went part-time because I basically just created my own job.
I was like what can I do on like one or two days
a week that I won't end up working way more than that so I was like I think

(40:36):
a lot of the roles there's a lot of roles especially in that kind of financial
institutions are pretty difficult to do on reduced hours so I basically just
created a role and I was like this is the role that I think I can do that I
still think adds benefit,
and propose it to my boss and he was like yeah okay and loads
of people were like how did you manage that I was like I just asked like you

(40:59):
just you can only ask and if they say no
they say no but at least you tried and I think
as long as you recognize the flexibility of
trying to make it work both ways I think that's like because it's also the it's
easy to get caught up in your world and be like well this is what's best for
me but then you know if you're working with a team or whatever it's also trying

(41:21):
to think about how does it also work for them so yeah I think there was the.
There was definitely all of this stuff I did to make life easier to get out
the door and minimize time wasted doing stuff.
But then there was also the, from a work perspective, what have I,
what else can I do to make that more efficient?

(41:44):
And yeah, I basically like tried to cut out as much dead time as possible.
Yeah. I love that. And I think that that kind of efficiency.
So we're all, each one of us is given 24 hours in a day.
And the question is, how are you using it? And how much time,
you know, when you say, I don't have time for that question,
how much time are you on social media?
How much time are you watching TV? You know, how much time are you taking doing

(42:05):
whatever it is that you're doing?
And actually, can you use that time better? And are there more efficient ways
to use your time? And sometimes you do.
Sometimes you need to just sit down on the couch and watch TV because you need to decompress.
And there's nothing wrong with that. But if that's part of your schedule every
day and you're feeling like you need more time, that's a great place to find it.
I also love the idea of ask, you know, the worst they can say is no.

(42:28):
And I want to add to that also, then they have an idea of what you want.
And so they can help to make that more of a reality. So even if you'd gone and
said, I want to do this, I'm thinking about this, and they said,
that's not going to work.
We don't have the FTE, we don't have the budget, you know, all the kinds of responses.
Let's work together to find out a solution because they know what you're actually
aiming towards, which is really helpful.

(42:49):
And as you say, you know, the worst they're going to say is no and you
can find you can find other options you can find other ways to
do things so you got your pro
license in 2018 2019 end
of 2019 okay so really great timing
because nothing major happened in 2020 so really
good timing yeah just for the kind of sport where you

(43:12):
need to travel and be with a whole bunch of other people and yeah yeah that's
that's just perfect so 2019 we decide to go pro have you cut your hours way
back then at that point or are you so what's happened where are we now in terms
of the balance between hours.
Yeah, so it was end of 2019. So the Kona race was mid-October and I basically

(43:36):
got back from that and had the initial conversation with my boss to then start
going really part-time in January.
And basically in the meantime, I then had to find my replacement.
Because again, I was like, I appreciate that I need to find someone to replace me.
Yeah, that was like the rest of 2019. And then it was from January 2020 20 that

(44:00):
I went part-time I like initially I went to one day a week but actually quite quickly.
That didn't feel enough I basically spent one
day doing emails catching up on
stuff and never actually getting around to doing any work so
yeah probably like within like three four weeks I
was like this isn't this isn't working but I don't like

(44:21):
because I was finding it frustrating so I'm not managing to do anything so quite
quickly but then went up to two days a week but what was quite quite good as
I had the flexibility to sort of spread that across across the week so yeah
basically it wouldn't have worked from a training perspective just doing two
solid days of work and then nothing,
and actually from a business perspective it was

(44:43):
more helpful to spread it across as well because then like I wasn't
only in for like two days a week I guess I was like
more responsive across the week so it's actually a bit easier from from
both angles so yeah
I basically spent the first first part there's like first three months
in 2020 just training catching

(45:03):
up on sleep I think that's probably the most important thing that
I did those first three months and then yeah COVID
hit actually again it was probably a really good thing for me from my triathlon
career because it just gave me longer to train before racing because I think
one of the things that people also So underestimate from a sport like triathlon,

(45:27):
where it's kind of more endurance based, is actually you sort of need time and
time being consistent to get anywhere.
Yeah, I mean, I was lucky. I actually moved in with Ben, my very new boyfriend
at the time, because he had a sort of endless pool so he could still swim.

(45:50):
And I was basically like, oh, I can't go through any time of not swimming. It was my weakest.
Like I might as well give up on being a professional triathlete if I can't swim
for, like at that point we thought it was maybe going to be like a month.
So I was like, yeah, I'll just come like stay with you for a month.
That then turned into like six months I was like I'm still here but yeah so like 20.

(46:15):
2020 I just I kind of just built the base we actually did like a few little
adventure things of like going off gravel riding and yeah like it was actually I quite enjoyed 2020,
and then we obviously had a few races towards the end
of the year then I started feeling a a little bit more
like a professional triathlete but actually my main sort of

(46:36):
learning in 2020 was also I was
like pretty thankful that I hadn't taken a sabbatical so
that I'd kept some work because like sabbatical had been one of my other options
of of going pro but actually I was like it works quite well the balance of having
something to think about that's not triathlon related because I think otherwise

(46:56):
you get quite insular it can also then I don't know if you get injured,
if you don't have anything else it's quite hard to have any kind of perspective so,
yeah it actually made me think it's good to have something else but yeah like it just,

(47:16):
yeah at the time it didn't feel like great timing with Covid but then I also
think like the good thing of like COVID put everything into perspective really
in many ways I was like well I'm healthy.
I'm doing all the things I like doing I get a bit of bonus racing towards the
end of the year I've still got a job like there were lots of good things so

(47:39):
yeah it kind of worked right in the end,
so use the time for COVID just to really get yourself up to training standards
to be able to So competed at a professional level, started competing at a professional
level from the end of 2020.
And so you're at the end of 2020. Now we're having this conversation,
you know, three years later.

(48:00):
So tell me a little bit about what's happened for you as a professional triathlete.
Yeah, it now feels like the last few years have been like lots has gone on.
Yeah, I think the first...
2021 was probably then more of the year of actually getting to some bigger races

(48:22):
like stuff felt a little bit more back to normal a race in perspective there was still some.
Ups and downs of like various various countries
that got red listed or that you couldn't really go to
but yeah I ended up doing I did
like a couple of Ironman toward the end of the year I'd also

(48:43):
been a little bit injured so I had like a calf injury that took
a while yeah I managed to win my
first professional Ironman which was wow that
was nice that felt huge yeah that
was definitely like a good a good one
yeah so I think like 20 2021 felt
like more the transitional year or I've actually finally had that base I feel

(49:07):
like it's coming through now I feel like I can actually be a bit more competitive
like the couple of races that I did at the end of 2020 I still felt quite far
away from being a competitive pro like I felt like.
I was enjoying it but I was like quite far
behind from being competitive and then 2021 I felt

(49:27):
like okay I'm kind of getting closer to that
point here now and then 2022 we
ended up having they had to delay the world
champs from 2021 to 2022 basically because
of covid so we had one we actually ended
up having two world championships in 2022 but the
one the one in like may that was the early one that was the hanover from 2021

(49:55):
that one actually went really well so i came fifth with that one and i was like
i finally feel like i'm where i want to be like i'm up at like the pointy end it's great it's.
Then the rest of that year was not as great i then had another little niggling injury we then had the,

(50:16):
back to like the normal kona world champs in
october and i just had a terrible day just one of those days where like nothing
felt like it's firing so then didn't feel like that was great but then i did
another race was the end of the year and won that one so like ended 2022 on a on a high note.

(50:38):
And then this year has just been terrible from a, again, basically just been injured like all year.
So I haven't really done much racing until recently, which I then went back
out to Kona for the world champs.
Again, I didn't have like my best day, but I had an all right day and ended

(50:58):
up coming 12th, which considering I basically haven't been able to race all year.
I don't know. I also, see I've kind of had hopes and dreams of I might have
a pretty magical day and somehow end up,
somewhere near the top five but yeah considering the
year that I've had I was like I got the race I actually
had a reasonable day like yeah so

(51:22):
this year's been more challenging but
hopefully over some of the injury stuff
now and yeah hopefully like
set myself up for a bit of a better 2024 and you've
just gotten back from Kona is that right as we're having this conversation okay so
feeling feeling the time time lag as well as
coming off the back of that and having the injuries and all the

(51:43):
rest of it with with the kind of move into pro then so do you actually end up
making money off of races like depending on where you come in do you only make
money if you win do you make money from sponsors like how do you actually make
money as a pro triathlete yeah Yeah, it's challenging.
Yeah, so like you said, there's prize money, which depends on the race.

(52:08):
But like a reasonable size Ironman, you're probably getting paid usually like the top five to eight.
Like you might get somewhere between sort of 10 and 12 grand for winning and
down at the bottom, probably like $500.
That all gets taxed before you get it. So that ends up not being as much.

(52:28):
Much you also have to pay for all the travel all the
accommodation etc so yeah you can imagine that's about
ten thousand dollars in itself yeah if
you're going to hawaii you're basically not making any money
you quite then like through sponsors there's like a couple of different you
can either have like a base sort of cash sponsor agreement but quite often you'll

(52:51):
make more of the money through like podium bonuses again kind of often linked
to performance elements.
Yeah that's probably the main thing but then obviously like again with sponsors.
That is generally like you
can get an agent but doesn't like agents
take 20 so like for me

(53:12):
at the moment I don't have an agent because I don't feel like I'm making
enough money from contracts to make it worth it so
I negotiate all my contracts which is also quite a challenge
part like mainly mainly from a like how
do you value yourself so I think the benefit of
being an agent is you see lots of different contracts so

(53:34):
you get a better idea of like what's the kind of you know
for the person that goes and wins the world championship what are
they getting versus someone who's maybe
just winning other Ironmans whereas like
yeah for me I'm like I don't really see I
obviously don't see any of those contracts I'm like I don't really know
where to pitch myself from a like because

(53:55):
you don't want to undervalue yourself but you also don't want to overvalue yourself
and go in way too high and then be like who do
you think you are yeah that is quite a challenge
but I generally say like there's really not very
much money in triathlon probably like
the top five in the world and making like relatively decent money but it was

(54:17):
making me laugh because I saw something thing from some of like the tennis players
talking about the fact that you can't make a living if you're outside the top
hundred and I was like yeah you're like you can't really make a living.
In triathlon unless you're in the top 10 and even then it's probably not a great
living so yeah it's got a long way to go as a sport I think.

(54:38):
To properly professionalize it and get a bit more money in but yeah it's like
you know that's obviously I'm not doing it for the like I didn't get into triathlon
so I thought this is a great way of making some money yeah I very much made
sure I set up like a little nest egg.
Of like savings before I went part-time I'm
obviously still working yeah I basically

(55:00):
made sure that I wasn't I wanted
to be able to do it in a way where it wasn't like a massive struggle because
yeah I was like I still want to be able to eat like
go out for nice dinners or whatever occasionally so yeah
that's been a challenge but I knew it was going to be so I was like prepared
that side of things yeah I had a mentor told me before I set off and started

(55:22):
my own business she said you need to just set aside one year's salary to have
available to you so that you know if things hit the fan you have the money available
so you're not worried about it because otherwise Otherwise,
you might cash in your chips and just go back to full-time employment.
So it's sort of actually just having that off to the side allows you to be able to stretch that muscle.

(55:42):
We're coming really close to end. But what I want to ask is like, what is next for you?
What happens with Team GB as well? Because I know you were talking about the
distance being better for you and the Iron Man's and the long distances.
Does that have anything to do with Team GB as well? Or is that something that might be coming up?
Can we look for you on Team GB? be? Is there anything we can kind of see you

(56:03):
in if you're going to be doing that? And, you know, also just sort of what's next for you?
Yeah, so I'm going to try and race probably another couple of times this year,
just because I haven't really been able to race.
So hopefully heading off to Mexico in a month for another Ironman.
And then I'll probably do another half after that, depending on how the body pulls up.

(56:24):
And then, yeah, hopefully heading into next year, just kind of be less injured
would be nice and be able to race throughout the year.
Yeah, so Team GB doesn't really exist for long distance.
Distance it's like completely independent team gb is basically for the olympic distance.
So you won't find me there there's like a few weird little nuances to it but

(56:47):
yeah basically nothing to do with team gb but yeah it's like but obviously next
year is olympic year and actually one of the girls that i train with quite a
lot has now dumped her place in the olympics so So, yeah,
hopefully also get out to Paris and be able to watch the Olympics.
Wonderful. Yeah, I thought because when you were talking about how your strength

(57:09):
lies in having the longer distance, I was wondering what then happened with
that pull towards Team GB.
And it sounds like actually it's not your strength and focusing on the Ironmans
and focusing on the longer distance and really being able to pull out what you're
good at, which is the biking and the running.
And then you can make up for the swimming. So I also love that about your story,

(57:29):
Ruth, is that, you know, there are parts of it where actually,
yes, I do do triathlons, but I recognize what I'm good at.
And then you're able to kind of focus on that and just the learnings that you
shared throughout all this and that balance, which, you know,
you didn't maybe necessarily do so well at before,
but actually now you're able to really pull yourself up on, ask yourself the
hard questions and then kind of try and find that rebalance.

(57:52):
So this has been a phenomenal conversation.
Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your story with me and with our audience.
No worries. It's been great. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode.
Join me next time when I speak to a guest about how they are balancing on the proverbial seesaw.
If you're looking for an executive coach, facilitator, or keynote speaker,

(58:13):
or just want to get in touch, check out my website, kljconsulting.co.uk,
or shoot me an email on the the Undiscovered You podcast at gmail.com.
If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support me in putting out more
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(58:35):
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