Episode 150 - What Leanne has learnt from 18 Ironmans!

What Leanne has learnt from 18 Ironmans!

Are you ready to delve into the mind of an incredible triathlete who's completed 18 Ironman races? Yes, that’s right, eighteen! Leanne, an age-group athlete, has been tackling triathlons for a whopping 30 years. Not only that, but she balances this passion with raising three children and working. Her experience is vast, her knowledge is deep, and today, she's ready to share her wisdom with us. 

One of Leanne’s biggest takeaways has been the importance of flexibility in training and nutrition. While we need to strive for consistency, life is unpredictable, and we need to adapt when things don’t go as planned. She advises you to do whatever you can rather than nothing at all. If you miss a session or have a bad week, don’t stress. Pick up where you left off and keep going. 

Like many athletes do, Leanne was “winging it” with nutrition for many years because she was reluctant to invest in professional guidance. She would often train on an empty stomach, unaware of the impact it had on her performance and recovery. When she joined the Triathlon Nutrition Academy, things made a dramatic improvement. Now, she doesn't just think about fuelling up on race day, but she meticulously plans her nutrition in the days leading up to and following her training sessions.

Links:

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Start working on your nutrition now with my Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course 

It’s for you if you’re a triathlete and you feel like you’ve got your training under control and you’re ready to layer in your nutrition. It's your warmup on the path to becoming a SUPERCHARGED triathlete – woohoo!

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Episode Transcription

Episode 150: What Leanne has learnt from 18 Ironmans!

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

[00:00:00] Taryn: Oh, thank you for joining me, Leanne and helping me take over to episode 150 of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. 

[00:00:29] Leanne: Yay. 

[00:00:31] Taryn: So Leanne is joining me today to, well, we're basically just going to pick her brain and learn from her experiences. She is an age group triathlete that has been doing triathlon for not five, not 10, not 20, not even 25 years.

[00:00:45] Taryn: She's been doing triathlon for 30 years. She did her first one when she was 17 years old, which is just crazy. So it makes her basically 21.

[00:00:54] Leanne: Thank you. Thank you. That's about right by my calculations.

[00:00:57] Taryn: Yep. And in that time, she's done, Eighteen full distance events, like stupid a number of Ironmans and full distance triathlons. Countless 70. 3s you've lost track. Marathons, you've been to worlds five times, three at the Olympic distance, one duathlon and one distance event.

[00:01:19] Taryn: So thankfully Leanne has decided that she's happy to share all of these things with us. She is a legend. She's very open and honest and loves to help and give everyone a leg up. So you did your first full distance event back in 2001 and your most recent one was Kona 2023.

[00:01:36] Taryn: You've had a huge breadth of events in that time span. Your fastest was what? 12 hours. Your longest day in the office was 16 and a half hours. And that was, you know, a race in New Zealand back in 2023, just to qualify, just to, you know, tick a box for Kona and you raced with COVID. Jesus. One of them, I think you said you raced pregnant, even though you didn't know you were pregnant.

[00:02:00] Leanne: Yes, oops.

[00:02:01] Taryn: So not, not, all have gone to plan.

[00:02:05] Leanne: No, it never goes to plan. I think it's only been like, once or twice, that it's all lined up in every situation. Like it's not just the race, it's the injuries and the illnesses and, you know, your family and everything. It's a real, the day of the race is like, ah, I'm here.

[00:02:25] Leanne: There's nothing else I can do. It's, it's actually quite nice to hear that gun go off and then, you know, there's nothing else to, that you can do. So yeah, it's definitely, um, it's hard to get it all right if you want to have a good day.

[00:02:41] Taryn: Yeah. And you've got three kids now as well. So just fitting in the training for an event of that distance is hard enough, let alone, you know, the logistics. I remember if you to actually get to Kona to do the race, the logistics of all the, the things you had to have lined up to have the kids looked after, the guinea pigs fed, make sure the library bag goes to school on the right day and swimming lessons are on this day and all those logistics that go into being a full time mom, as well as trying to do.

[00:03:08] Taryn: Full distance racing. So what are some of the lessons that you've learned over the last 30 years that are maybe some big ticket things that could help somebody maybe looking to prepare for their first full distance or looking to iron out some of the kinks of their full distance racing?

[00:03:25] Leanne: , yeah, I would say like when you're starting out and you decide, Oh, I'm going to do this thing. Yeah. You know, you don't want to buy everything and have everything straight away cause you don't know how you're going to like it or whatever. But definitely. , you need to get good advice from coaching and nutrition and, and just being consistent, like, you know, you might not be able to do exactly what's on the program , because of various reasons, but if you just get out there and do what you can, then it's better than doing nothing.

[00:03:59] Leanne: Like, it's easy to lose a few sessions or have a bad day, you know, what you're eating for, you know, on Monday or Tuesday, and then you're like, Oh, I'll just start again on the weekend or I'll start again on Monday. But no, you just have to salvage what you can. Like today, I, I couldn't go to the squad that I love going to, but I just went and did like 25 minutes and then I came home.

[00:04:23] Leanne: I feel like That sort of ticked the box for the day, even though it wasn't a gold medal. It was like a, you know, just a little tick. So, positive, pos on, I say, pos on. Pos on. Yeah.

[00:04:36] Taryn: are very, you know, high achieving people as triathletes and we feel like if we haven't done everything perfectly, we failed. So really good advice to hear that, you know, progress over perfection, right? Just get out there and do what you can and it's better than sitting on their butt doing nothing.

[00:04:52] Leanne: That's it. , and also it helps to have a community, just finding people that, are doing the same thing or roughly the same thing or, being in those silly Facebook groups about people who was training for that event or there's a good one, pathetic triathletes, but they're starting to get a bit gnarky.

[00:05:10] Leanne: But anyway, um, just having a friend like, one of the things I like to do is convince people to come and do stupid things. So,

[00:05:19] Taryn: Is that why I'm doing this swim at Sunnycoe 70. 3? It's all your fault, Leanne!

[00:05:25] Leanne: sorry. Yeah. So yeah, I love that. I love seeing people have a go. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah.

[00:05:34] Taryn: is the forerunner in this team event. She's like, come on, you can do it. So she's pulled me out of retirement to do this, this damn thing. But we're still gonna beat Kelly, aren't we,

[00:05:42] Taryn: Leanne? 

[00:05:43] Leanne: we're gonna try. Our runner is a, I think our runner's gonna do it for us. Uh, Chris, she's, she's very cute, but she's like deadly. Yep. Go Chris. Woo.

[00:05:55] Taryn: Don't, don't poke the bear.

[00:05:56] Leanne: Yeah.

[00:05:59] Taryn: Okay, so don't spend a heap of money up front. Get out there and train whatever you can do. Any other hot tips you've got for us after doing 18 full distance races?

[00:06:09] Leanne: Um, yeah, just try to be really organized. That really helps. you know, you've got to make an appointment for yourself to, do the training, prepare your meals, , get your sleep even just all those little things. And it helps not to just wake up in the morning and go, Oh, you know, I've got all these things to do.

[00:06:31] Leanne: I'll just slot them in wherever, but if you can , make the routine every week, you're going to do, Get your shopping list done on Saturday and order it on Saturday night. Get the delivery and do all that stuff. I'm not saying I do that all the time, but that would be the ultimate.

[00:06:47] Leanne: , and also, yeah, just knowing what's coming. , so that you don't just drop the ball, from not having everything ready to go. Like, , I know a lot of people are working and they've got kids. So, , I might go out in the morning and not come back till nighttime.

[00:07:03] Leanne: And in that time I've got, you know, swimming, I've got tuck shop. I do actually work. The kids have got this, I've got to be there to pick them up from the bus and all the, all the things. So, I actually work better when there's a lot on. Because if there's not a lot on, I'll just watch TV or do something like that instead of being, I've got to be here, I've got to be there.

[00:07:25] Leanne: So I think you're the same. We sort of thrive on that busyness in a way. Balance.

[00:07:32] Taryn: it make, it forces you to do the things. You know, you have short periods of time and you have to get something done, so there is no time to procrastinate, so you just do 

[00:07:40] Leanne: Yep. I was sitting here waiting for you for 15 minutes and I'm like, What am I going to do? What am I going to do? Ah, I've got 15 minutes!

[00:07:49] Taryn: Leanne. But we won't talk about that.

[00:07:55] Leanne: Yep, I was too scared to leave the desk. I didn't want to miss out.

[00:07:59] Taryn: Ah, FOMO. Massive FOMO.

[00:08:01] Taryn: some really good tips there. And did you do all of your events with a coach training program? Or did you coach yourself through any of them?

[00:08:10] Leanne: so after I had the kids, I had about six years off and then of course you start again and you think you, you can do what you did before, but

[00:08:18] Taryn: No, no. No.

[00:08:20] Leanne: So I thought, I've got to do this a bit more efficiently. And then of course, Facebook worked out that I was looking for someone.

[00:08:26] Leanne: And I went with, , Trivelo Coaching who've been on the podcast a few times and you've been on their podcast. So

[00:08:33] Taryn: Yep, they're 

[00:08:33] Leanne: like, 

[00:08:34] Taryn: of the podcast.

[00:08:35] Leanne: yep. So that, that really, , helped me be consistent. Cause I did my first Ironman when I was, in my 20s. I've actually done one Iron Man in every age group, so I'm going to try to keep that up to the 80 plus age

[00:08:50] Taryn: Yes, it's a great goal.

[00:08:53] Leanne: So yeah, before they brought in the legacy program for the Iron Man, which, , Even if you don't, can't qualify on your time, if you've done a certain amount of Ironman races, you can apply and go into it. , so before that came in, I thought, I'm going to have to qualify when I'm like 80 years old and everyone else has dropped out and I'm still going, but Thankfully the last CEO of Ironman bought in this thing.

[00:09:18] Leanne: So yeah, so that was good. But I digress. Yeah, when I was younger doing the Ironman, you know, everyone would do their long ride on Saturday and everyone would do their run on Sunday. And I just did the same training all the time. So there wasn't any kind of periodization or changes of intensity.

[00:09:37] Leanne: It was just Trying to be consistent with the same effort. And it got me through because of youth. But now youth is not on my side. We need science. We need lots of expensive things. , and just to keep up. But yeah, I was winging it. And definitely winging it in the wrong way with nutrition. So, , I'm an allied health person.

[00:10:02] Leanne: So I know a bit about health and science. But When I joined the Triathlon Nutrition Academy, I was just like, Oh my God, what have I been doing? I've been doing it all wrong. , and I could do better not just in triathlon and training, but also in life. Yay. 

[00:10:20] Taryn: Yeah.

[00:10:21] Taryn: We only met at the end of 2022. So you'd been doing, like, I don't know how you survived 30 years of doing triathlon training to, you know, a big level. Without having any nutrition advice or nutrition support. So, you did 16 full distance races without a race nutrition plan

[00:10:41] Leanne: Pretty much, yeah. like, back in the day, LepinSqueezy. I don't know if you know that. It's, that's the only carb. It was like the original gel and it was like, you know, like a Zoopa Doopa. It was in that sort of plastic, clear plastic thing and it was absolutely

[00:11:00] Leanne: disgusting. I don't even know how much carb or whatever it was in it. But that was the only thing , and Gatorade and water and carb loading. I used to go the day before the race, I'll have two breakfasts. I'll have two lunches and I'll have two dinners. And I just did that the day before. So that's not enough.

[00:11:19] Leanne: Don't we know? I

[00:11:21] Taryn: know that now. why did you decide then after so long to, bite the bullet and go, All right, I'm actually going to invest some time and some finances into getting some nutrition support. Yes.

[00:11:32] Leanne: Well, I guess the same reason why I got the coaching support. I just needed to be focused on what I was doing and efficient with my time and having the thought process sort of taken out of it in a way even though we have learned to think for ourselves Just having that education just it just makes it so much easier to know, you know, I've done this training This is what I need to eat now.

[00:11:57] Leanne: This is what I'm doing tomorrow. So this is what I need to eat the night before I don't even really have to think about it now or worry about it because I just automatically, you know, up what I'm going to eat a bit if I'm going to do this or that and my friend actually sent me your program. Link, , quite a long time before I joined and I was like, eh, I ain't got, I ain't got no time for that.

[00:12:21] Leanne: , and then, I don't know, the universe just kept on hitting me with your face and your podcast and I was like, right, it's a lot, but it's an investment and I've got a lot more out of your program than having a. Bike that's worth that much more than what your program's worth. So, lots of savings, lots of savings.

[00:12:45] Leanne: Yes We've been, I think it

[00:12:49] Taryn: Don't, don't tell your husband. 

[00:12:50] Leanne: when I went back after my hiatus with the kids, I turned up to my first Ironman and I felt like I was riding like a little kid's bike. All the bikes are just the technology, all the things. Everybody had all the stuff. And here's me, I did have a time trial bike, but it was like one of the OG ones.

[00:13:10] Leanne: And I just was like, I think I need to get a new bike. And he was like, yeah, yeah, go on. Probably because he's bought five surfboards in the meantime. So yeah, I was lucky enough to, to get a bike. but You know, you got to ride it. I don't think it, it matters how expensive your bike is. Um, 

[00:13:27] Taryn: No, exactly. You've got to 

[00:13:28] Leanne: when, 

[00:13:28] Taryn: thing over.

[00:13:29] Leanne: That's it.

[00:13:30] Leanne: And often you see people and this is my little thing I say, all the gear, no idea. And 

[00:13:35] Leanne: just, so you've got to, you've got to walk the walk as well.

[00:13:40] Taryn: So we still didn't talk about how much a bike costs, but moving on. So that's 

[00:13:46] Leanne: you always want, you always want the next one. You always want the next one. 

[00:13:49] Taryn: I know, I know the condition of the super bike also. There's so many things. The technology is just getting better and better all the time as well. But yeah, moving on, moving on.

[00:13:58] Leanne: Yep. Yep.

[00:13:59] Taryn: So in the last, what, we're at about two years actually, almost to the day.

[00:14:04] Taryn: What has changed with your nutrition in the last two years then?

[00:14:10] Leanne: , I think just, being aware of, , how much to have and especially like on a training day to get, get your body ready for that session, , depending on what time of the day it is. And so often it's morning, of course, , having, I don't want to give away your secrets of course, but, , just having the adequate fuel to get, get all the systems going, , was a good one for me.

[00:14:37] Taryn: Because you're up early. Like you get up and get it done before the kids are awake type thing. So you've got early starts. What were you doing beforehand? Were you just getting up and training?

[00:14:46] Leanne: Yeah, just getting up and training probably would have I don't know have have a coffee I definitely wouldn't have a meal like a breakfast or anything like that And just get going Which, I don't know, it's okay sometimes to do that, but you've got to think of the big picture, and what that's going to do for you, and how you're going to recover, and yeah, it's all, all the little things add up, so if you, um, start kind of neglect that, you're not going to get the best out of yourself in the future, so, you know, all the fads come and go with the fasting, and the blah blah, but, I think if you, , your body needs fuel and there's no, you can't get around that anyway, or no matter what system you're using, fat or carbs or fairy dust, it's, it's all, yeah, your body needs it.

[00:15:37] Taryn: That's a good point actually. You would have come, full circle with the low carb, high fat thing, like 20 or 30 years ago when it was sexy then, and it's come back around again. What other crazy things have you seen or have you dabbled with, with nutrition? Have you done, you've done, when I first met you, actually, you were a quite low carb athlete.

[00:15:56] Leanne: Yeah. I sort of followed a, , another I signed up with a doctor and this is going back before all the the needles, the Zempik and all that stuff came in. And so this person, , I full disclosure, I signed up for this. I don't, you know, I wasn't coerced or anything, but he prescribes a Zempik.

[00:16:20] Leanne: So saying that. We've completely blown this away now, but performance, like weight and performance are not really related, you know, at this level. And perhaps it is in marathon running or, , mountains, you know, the cyclists and the tour, but not for just normal people. And you know, I signed up for this.

[00:16:43] Leanne: I was like, Oh, okay, this is what we're doing. I'll do it. And of course I lost the weight. My weight went down. But of course I ended up, I was more, I was like a noodle, like I was light and, but I wasn't strong. And I also got, I got a bit unwell and, and that sort of thing. So I should have invested that money on that program, like going to the gym or, you know, strength training.

[00:17:07] Leanne: That would have given me, much more benefit than losing body fat. So, , yeah, I'm not poo pooing anyone that wants to do that, but it was before it all took off and it was sort of like, Oh, this is what's going to happen. This is, this is the edge of performance, but it hasn't gone that way. So I've read a little bit about it in that they're doing it in cycling, but, anyway, I'm just going back to the good old carbs.

[00:17:34] Leanne: I love carbs. Yum. Yeah.

[00:17:39] Taryn: It's, when people start to realize that, You know, the world will sort itself out, but they've just been, you know, they're always like the devil, right? They're always the thing that as soon as somebody wants to drop some body fat, they're like, right, I'm cutting out carbs. It's like, hang on a minute. Let's be smarter than that. Like, let's not do this same shit that we've been doing forever. Actually be smart about the way that you feel your body and what you actually put into it.

[00:18:04] Leanne: And it naturally happens, like, as soon as you start fuelling your body properly, your body says, oh, it's okay to put on a bit of muscle here, or, and it just naturally drops. You don't have to do anything silly or crazy or expensive. your body does its thing. If you're consistent and you're giving it good nutrients and fuel, it's, yeah, it's pretty easy really, I shouldn't say that, but, you know, I've had the change in body composition with the, you know, the hormones and everything, and you just have to accept it , and move on, like, you just gotta do what's good for your health and, , if you're that way inclined for your performance and body shape or body composition, Often they are not what do you call it?

[00:18:49] Taryn: Linked.

[00:18:50] Leanne: That's it. Yep.

[00:18:51] Taryn: Yep. Lighter doesn't mean faster.

[00:18:54] Leanne: No, that's it. So when I first got inspired to do the Ironman, my, I watched on the old VHS video, the Ironman from like 1994 or something. I was like, Oh my God, this is amazing. Look at those women. And they're so strong and, well, and they all look like whippets. They were all tiny and skinny and lean and then you fast forward to now and you look at athletes like Cat Matthews or Flora Duffy.

[00:19:23] Leanne: They're all strong It's just seems to be much more healthy. So 

[00:19:28] Taryn: did you see, did you see Flora Duffy in the Olympics?

[00:19:32] Leanne: she was like strong

[00:19:35] Leanne: I was thinking to her, just, just hang back, just wait for the others. And then she just, yeah, it's hard to know 

[00:19:41] Leanne: what to do. What would I do? 

[00:19:44] Taryn: Yeah. Don't blow your legs up. Just 

[00:19:47] Taryn: wait.

[00:19:48] Taryn: But that's all 

[00:19:48] Taryn: right. 

[00:19:49] Leanne: Yeah.

[00:19:50] Taryn: But yeah, she looks amazing. And if you like, I look, I watched the triathlon in the Olympics with my sports dietitian hat on and I was looking at, you know, their bottle set up on the bike and what they were doing and body composition.

[00:20:01] Taryn: And you're right. We used to be skinny whippets breaking all the time. Like stress injuries is rough. was rife in the sport, and it's taking time to change that. But now it's more about being strong and having good muscle development and having that power and fatigue resistance, which is what we need to be good, robust triathletes.

[00:20:23] Leanne: That's it. Yeah. You've got to go all the way to the end. Yeah. , that's where the strength comes in. Holding. holding your effort until the very end. 

[00:20:33] Taryn: Every foot strike needs to be not fatiguing every time you put your foot down. The longer you can maintain your pace in the run, the better outcome you'll have on race day. 

[00:20:44] Leanne: Yeah,

[00:20:53] Taryn: going in. You had a foot injury, like you just had the worst lead up to an event. probably ever in your whole 30 year history of triathlon, but you finally got there, you know, you did your qualifying race with COVID, right?

[00:21:05] Taryn: We're on the back foot from the beginning, but you, it was the first time that you went and, What did you do to prepare yourself for Kona? Because it is a different kettle of fish. It's very much a hot race. It's humid. We have those conditions here in Australia, but not in the months leading into the event.

[00:21:24] Taryn: We go through winter. , so what sort of things did you do differently to prepare for your very first Kona?

[00:21:32] Leanne: Yeah, well, I did actually sign up to a course about hot racing. all the science aside, it was basically just exposing yourself to heat. At certain times before the actual race and acclimatizing at the place, if you could possibly, which for age group is usually not.

[00:21:53] Leanne: I got there, I think I got there on the Monday and the race was on Saturday, so that was the best I could do. But I, , got in my laundry and I put on the heater and I had planned to get the thermomix going with all the steam, but I got quite unwell in that, you know, essential time of heat prep. and I have, I got a little, it's like a phone box, it's a sauna, I got a little sauna.

[00:22:20] Leanne: And I, I was hanging out in there and, , you know, there's lots of science that shows, how that changes your physiology temporarily and that can help, combat the effects of heat, but also when you're not in hot races, those changes also occur. they're starting to use heat, as an alternative to, , high altitude training, because it sort of has that same temporary effect on your, your physiology.

[00:22:48] Leanne: So that's what I did. , and I don't know if it helped me or not, but I, I come from a hot place originally. , so it's kind of in my, in my bones that when it's hot, it's, it's not too bad for me. It's I'm not from the the heights of Norway. I'm from the desert in Mildura, Victoria. So it's very hot there, very flat.

[00:23:08] Leanne: There's not a healing site. so the heat, , doesn't affect me too much, but yeah, I definitely tried to prepare around the illnesses and the injuries as well. So on the day, it wasn't too bad. I just came good on the day, I think. I just wasn't, trained enough for it.

[00:23:30] Taryn: So would you recommend somebody lining up to do Konar to do some sort of heat? heat training,

[00:23:35] Leanne: Yeah, it's pretty easy to do. Like you just, if you've got one of those indoor trainers, , just do it in the bathroom and , don't turn on a fan. And that, that usually will get you hot enough. in the humidity you can also simulate if you just like boil your kettle or you can even just hop into a hot bath after you've trained for if you jump in there for 15 minutes or something that all has been shown to change the physiology.

[00:24:03] Leanne: So yeah, definitely do it. It doesn't really add anything to your training like time wise. You can just,, maybe half an hour after you know, you would have normally finished, you sit in the sauna or sit in the bath and you get all these benefits. So, , yeah, there's definitely lots of, protocols out there that you could probably get for free, , to do heat prep.

[00:24:25] Taryn: an episode with Avish, the physiologist on preparing for hot race. If you do want to dive into the archives on that one, he had some really good practical tips of all the different types of things that you could try and implement, because you're right, getting to the race environment early is your best bet.

[00:24:41] Taryn: But if you've got, you know, a full time job, you've got family, the cost of being away from home and ACOM and all those types of things all add up really quickly when you're an age group triathlete. So there's always something that you can do. So do you want to go back and do Kona? Like, do you want to give it a nudge, try and get all your, all your ducks in a row and go 

[00:25:02] Taryn: and do it again? 

[00:25:04] Taryn: Yep. 

[00:25:05] Leanne: I would really like to.

[00:25:06] Leanne: I'd like, you know, it is a long day for kids to come and watch something like that, but my kids are getting older now and you know, it would be good for them to see me actually finish. Normally they're in bed because I finish, like, the ones that I've done have been a big struggle and 16 hours and all that stuff.

[00:25:26] Leanne: So it would be fun, fun to do that and my husband's also into surfing, so we can sell it with 

[00:25:33] Leanne: that on the side. Yeah, yeah, so, I definitely want to do it. I definitely want to try and get it much better than what I did last year, because, I'd been dreaming of it for 30 years pretty much, and then it was, it was poo.

[00:25:49] Leanne: So, yeah, go again.

[00:25:51] Leanne: It 

[00:25:51] Taryn: poo. You still did an amazing effort on the day considering everything that you had to deal with heading into that. So many people would have just pulled the pin.

[00:26:00] Taryn: But you're an aggressive mongrel that you're like, nah, damn it, I paid my money, I'm going. 

[00:26:04] Leanne: I couldn't pull out. And I couldn't wait two more years. There was no way I was going to wait two more years. Oh, God, that would have killed me. Yeah, so, I was in, I was invested. There was no going back. Laughter.

[00:26:18] Taryn: now, you know, you know, the things, everything that you need to do to prepare, you've done it before, you know, not to the best of your ability, which is frustrating, but at least you know how to set up your nutrition, how to set up your heat acclimation, all of your training.

[00:26:31] Taryn: Like you can do it. We just got to keep you from being so 

[00:26:35] Leanne: Yeah, yep. I think if I just went and lived in a little bubble, that'd be much 

[00:26:40] Taryn: Yeah, it's not going to happen. You got three little germ breeders

[00:26:44] Leanne: Yeah, oh the germs. 

[00:26:46] Taryn: So what's next for you then, Lily? 

[00:26:49] Leanne: I'm doing some running. I'm doing a trail run um, in Sydney. I just dropped back from 50 Ks to 30 Ks. That's not usually like me, but, just big picture and enjoyment. Like, I'm not fit enough to do 50 and I could do it. But it wouldn't be fun, it wouldn't be nice, so I'm just going to drop back to the 30 and have a nice, nice run around in nature.

[00:27:13] Leanne: yeah, I'm doing that. I'm doing the, I'm going to have a crack at the Melbourne Marathon, so, The last time I ran a marathon was, in about 2006, maybe?

[00:27:25] Leanne: I did the New York Marathon, which was really fun. But yeah, running a marathon, I reckon, is harder than doing an Ironman, so I'm looking forward to just having a go at, running a marathon without all the BS before it . I'm gonna try and go for a pb even though I got my marathon PB when I was about 25 or 26.

[00:27:49] Leanne: I'm like 20 years older now. I reckon I can do it. I reckon I can give it a nudge. It's not that fast, but Four eleven is my PB. Yeah. Yeah, I can get under two hours in a half Ironman distance on that run. So, I reckon if everything goes alright, I could, I could get it. Then I'm gonna do, oh no, I'm gonna do more, the ultimate race, the Sunny Coast 70.

[00:28:18] Leanne: 3 Teen Challenge, throwing down the gauntlet, gonna beat all the incomers from the Triathlon Nutrition Academy it's gonna be the highlight of my year Yeah yeah. That's the thing, like the triathlon community, such a, cool place, and we've made lots of good friends all over the world, so, and we're going to get 

[00:28:43] Taryn: Yep. 

[00:28:44] Leanne: Woo! So, 

[00:28:44] Taryn: Yeah. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone 

[00:28:46] Leanne: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:28:47] Taryn: at that event.

[00:28:49] Leanne: Yeah and hopefully more to come. So yeah it's a good thing to have, a little bit of, , a social thing as well as just trying to beat everybody. 

[00:28:59] Taryn: Well, I've been training for you and it still hurts. I haven't swum for about 10 years and yep, it still hurts, but I still hold that I can beat the Canadians and Americans.

[00:29:09] Leanne: You can do it. You can do it. Just lay it all down on the day. Woo!

[00:29:14] Taryn: Yeah. Funny. And are you going to be doing triathlon for another 30 plus years? Is that the goal to be 80 something and 

[00:29:20] Leanne: I hope so. If you know, I've got that goal of doing the one in every age group. So, in theory, at the moment, I could do, wait, I'm 47 now. If I do one when I'm 54, I could do four. I could wait for seven years and do another one and then I'll still be in that age bracket, but I'm not going to do that.

[00:29:43] Leanne: Um, I feel like if I stop, I won't be able to get going again now. I've got, I've had, I was a basketball player, so I've got this dodgy knee that only goes forward. I can't go sideways. I can only go straight, so I'm just going to ride that into the ground, however long it lasts. So, yeah, I'm very lucky that I can still do what I do.

[00:30:07] Leanne: So I'm like got the gratitude and I'm not going to stop. So, yeah, 

[00:30:12] Taryn: amazing. 

[00:30:13] Leanne: lucky. 

[00:30:14] Taryn: And any last advice for people that are looking at, doing full distance racing because you've done so many and even perhaps like getting through nutrition when you're doing such long distance events.

[00:30:24] Leanne: you just got to break it down into, into baby steps, everything that you're doing. Like you can't just pick up a bike and go for miles and give you got to give yourself time as well.

[00:30:37] Leanne: Okay. I listened to the Trivelo podcast and they often get people come to them and they say oh, I want to do an Ironman in three months like oh It's almost impossible. You've kind of got to give yourself at least a year So it is a long term goal long term commitment So you just sort of have to get your head around that and be patient because it's the long game and as far as nutrition like You definitely have to practice what you're going to do.

[00:31:06] Leanne: Like, , even with all the advice that you've given me, on the day of the Iron Man, I didn't, didn't do right on the bike somehow, because later on I got really sore tummy, and I think that was to do with me being unwell in the lead up and not practicing at the intensity that I was going to be going at.

[00:31:29] Leanne: Not that I'm a high intensity gal, I'm a slow burn, but across all those hours you, have to have faith that your stomach is gonna, , be happy to have all that fuel going in. And I think I overdid it. And I also made a bit of a schoolboy error. I didn't have any water in my front bottle on my bike. And everything else I had. was like concentrated carb so that I didn't have to stop and fill up any bottles. So by the time I was able to get just normal water, it was about 20ks in, so I had to like drink my drinks that I had that were super concentrated carbs.

[00:32:13] Leanne: for hydration and I came undone with that. So you've got to practice and make sure that what you're doing is going to work on the day.

[00:32:22] Taryn: Yep. Good tip. Good tip. any last tips also, because I know that there's probably some mums listening that are like, how the hell do you do it, Leanne? You've got, three kids, you work, you do full distance training. Any advice for the women out there that are like, holy shit, lady, you're

[00:32:39] Leanne: Yeah, well if you can outsource your Anything and everything, that, that's really helpful. So, I have got a friend who comes and does housework for me. She has six hours a week. that six hours would take me ten hours because I would stop and do this and do that So, having support a huge thing. You wouldn't be able to do it without extra help. and you just have to let stuff go as well. Like you've got to learn to say no. Don't worry if that thing's dirty for, you know, three months.

[00:33:16] Leanne: You've got this pile of stuff there. You know, I tried to start up this Instagram page that organized triathlete because I was so unorganized that I couldn't even organize myself to do that. So that fell

[00:33:29] Leanne: by the wayside. yeah, I'd like to pick that up again. But That whole social media thing takes up so much time.

[00:33:36] Leanne: I'm so inefficient at it. But, again, that would be something that you'd have to put into your diary. Like, I'm gonna do my posts now for the week. Like, spend two hours doing that. But,

[00:33:46] Leanne: it was too much. Too much. Something to 

[00:33:49] Taryn: Yep. 

[00:33:49] Leanne: But, it is very difficult and I, you know, I have fought with myself a lot, and I've pulled out of events because it's been too much for the family, and yeah, you just gotta, you just gotta communicate and know where the line is, because it is a very selfish sport, and when you become a parent, I guess you think, oh my god, what did I do before?

[00:34:13] Leanne: I had all this time. and now it feels like how can I do this? But yeah, you've just got to lay it all out on the table and make sure that everyone's on board because if you don't get, you have blow ups pretty quickly. So yeah. 

[00:34:30] Taryn: Yeah. Well, I think you're amazing. What you fit into, you know, 24 hours is amazing. And the things that you achieve, like you're very much a quiet little achiever. I'm not sure if you've picked that up by listening until the end, but she's very much a quiet achiever and you wouldn't know from talking to her that she's done 18 full distance events either.

[00:34:48] Taryn: Pretty much one every year, except for those kid break years,

[00:34:52] Leanne: so I old working holiday. I did two years, um, in the UK. So I kind of did like three a year for two years. And I got to go to all these amazing places and I met all these amazing people. So, if you're single and you don't have a mortgage, I would recommend just getting out of here, getting out of here quick. Yeah. , I did Ironman, I think Ironman Lanzarote, if anyone knows that race, that's a shocker. I was like only one of 50 women in that race. So it's really, um, really come on the sport. Like, you know, I've been in it for a long time and it's been great seeing the, um, evolution of everything, fashion, technology women, mothers.

[00:35:36] Leanne: Yeah. It's, it's such a good sport to be in. So yeah, and I just would like to say I am below average at it. So 50 percent of us have to be below average. So I'm never, I'm never up there. I'm never on the podium, but I'm there so it's been a great thing for me. 

[00:35:54] Taryn: you so much for joining me to talk about your long and prosperous history with the sport of triathlon. I'm excited to see the next 30 years, to be honest. You've done so much without, training and nutrition really dialed in.

[00:36:09] Taryn: You are only just getting started. The last two years you've been pretty sick and pretty injured. So imagine what you can achieve when the body's working properly and you've got your training, right? And you've got all of your beautiful nutrition 

[00:36:22] Leanne: Nutrition is definitely going to be key for that. Oh, a 1. 50 or 2. 50? 1. 50? 2. 50?

[00:36:37] Taryn: And thank you for helping me tick over to 150 episodes to the end. Yes.

[00:36:48] Leanne: , and I listened to them on 1. 25. So that's probably why I talk so fast when I'm on here.

[00:36:55] Taryn: Thank you, legend.

[00:36:57] Leanne: Bye!

 

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!