Episode 24: Solo Go #2--Does anyone know Reggie Miller?!

Hilary Cairns: Welcome back to the Aging Athletic League Podcast. I'm Hillary Cairns, and on this show I talk with athletes, coaches, experts, and everyday competitors about training, performance, resilience, and what it means to continue pushing ourselves over time. Today I'm doing another solo episode, which I'm tentatively thinking I'll do every fifth episode or so. I think that's we're at the fifth one now. after getting decent feedback after the first one. So always welcome additional feedback. after you listen if you stick with this one. So my plan is to give some updates on the podcast. I've got some feedback and questions from listeners. And then lastly I'll give you a bit of an update on myself, which may come up during the course of talking about the other things. But anyway, so welcome back to Aging Athletically. Alright, so some updates on the podcast. Since my last solo episode I'd Four guests. I Claire, the sports dietitian, Wayne, the professional golfer, McKealy, the former pro triathlete who's still competing as a triathlete, and Carl, who the episode that I just released last week, the 98-year-old. And I just I loved all of these conversations and really did end up getting feedback from people on each of the conversations. And I what I appreciate is that different parts of the podcast appeal to different people. So some some people just really loved hearing from McKealy her stories of being a professional triathlete and her evolution. other people were really excited about all of the great information that Claire shared. my interview with Wayne DiFrancesco was different. It was a I think a longer s conversation about a sport that many listeners don't have experience with or maybe can't relate to, but people really enjoyed that conversation and and really learning about him as a human. And then lastly, of course, Carl, which was such an amazing I felt so really honored to be able to have that long discussion with him and his team. So in case it wasn't evident, there were a bunch of people that were in the room with him while we were recording who were helping him with technology. And as he acknowledged his hearing isn't great, so sometimes the questions had to be repeated for him. And anyway, I loved hearing about him and I'm hoping to talk with him soon because he's supposed to have done his 98 mile ride this week. So I'm gonna be checking in with him soon to find out how that went. Hopefully it went it went great. So One of my friends who told me how much they're enjoying the podcast, which I very much appreciated, also said, Well, one of the reasons that I really love your podcast is because there are no commercials. Keep it up. And I'm like, well, yeah, there are no commercials because there are no sponsors, which means that, you know nobody's paying for anything, I'm self-funding all this. I can't I don't have anything to promote. So as much as I appre I like being able to talk without any kind of commercials or sponsorship plugs, it is a a hobby of love and a hobby of money. So at some point I I do think it would be great to get some sponsors. And so it today I'm trying to manifest getting sponsors. So I have on my feed t shirt. Feed me the feed. and I've got a couple of other things that I may pull out. I have a voori top on underneath my feed shirt. I love voori. I don't even know if that's how you say it, but I love that clothing brand. I've got some drinks around myself, the things that I really like to drink, any kind of kombucha. I don't know if kombucha is appeals to older athletes. Protein drinks. I'm really into these Koya protein drinks. I think that's how you say it. that I get at Whole Foods a lot. And I'm looking around. What else do I have surrounding me? have my well, I just I happen to have my creatine sitting here, which is a momentous product, which I believe we normally order it I think through the feed or through Amazon. I'm not sure, but I do think there's a a natural link for supplement companies. So if they're interested in in being a part of this podcast journey, I welcome any and all. Although I would be very careful and not sign up for anything that I didn't truly believe in. So anyway, if you all have d have ideas or contacts, please send them in my direction. Would love to love to do something. And sorry, friend who wants it to be commercial free forever. I'm not sure that I can I don't think I can commit to that unless you want to chip in and pay for a portion of the podcast as well. Okay, let's see. In terms of updates on the podcast, one question that I got is it's related to how I'm kind of organizing the podcast, is how do I get the guests that are on the show? So I get them in a number of different ways. I've gotten them by suggestion. I've had people reach out to me to ask to be on the podcast. I also have a very I don't know what she would call it. I have a relationship with Chat GPT that chat helps me identify people. And I have to say, I don't love my chat relationship because I feel like he, I don't know why I think my chat person is a he. I'm not sure what that's about. But anyway, I feel like it's a he. Anyway, he is very ug. Sycophant sycophantic, is that the right word? I mean, every time I have an idea, he's like, my goodness, that's the best idea ever. That's gonna transform your podcast and your audience. I'm like, well, every idea I have can't be good. So I would appreciate if my my chat thing, if he were a little bit more discerning on my suggestions. But also, he does make a lot of mistakes, which I find very annoying. Like he'll suggest people that. I'm like, I don't think you have the right name or something. but anyway, so I'll point out an error and then he's like, good catch. I'm like, what do you mean? No, I I want like an apology. So I don't know if other people have relationships with their chat person and that's the way they are, but I feel like mine on one side is way too complimentary of any idea I have. They're not all that great. So I know that. I know that. He needs to acknowledge that. And then like A sorry every once in a while, like when you steer me in the wrong direction, or you just say flat out wrong things rather than saying good catch. I'm like, well, I just feel like catching is not supposed to be my job. That that's what that's what my chat person is supposed to be doing. Anyway, so that's how I find that's one way that I identify people, but I do then reach out in various ways. So whether that be Instagram, try to locate an email, try to find them On Facebook, I try a bunch of different ways and I'm not always successful, partially because I'm not great at social media, in case you haven't figured that out. Anyway, I'm not great at it and just what's the best way to find people. what I have started this past week is reaching out to like masters associations. So for example, like the US AT for tennis, I think US United States amateur tennis? Maybe that's what it stands for. Anyway, to see if they have masters athletes that they would recommend. So far I haven't connected with any contacts at the these masters associations, but I'm hopeful that they would have great ideas, that they might know some people's stories and feel like they would be a great fit. So anyway, as I've said numerous times, I'm always open to receiving ideas. And I do have some people in mind that I would really like to have on. So if anybody has any contacts for these, one person that I really want is Reggie Miller. So he's a basketball or was a basketball player, a famous one. He's famous still. In fact he's very, very famous. But I want him on because he's a very competitive biker now. Mountain biker. Lots of long endurance work. And I think it would be fascinating to hear about his transition from basketball to biking. So does anybody know him? If you do, please, just he would be fun and I know I'm small beans, but maybe we'd be become big beans if he comes on. I would like him. I would like Joan Benoit Samuelson, if anyone knows her, can connect me to her. I would really like Bernard Langer, who's a a masters golfer who's still competing at a very high level in his late 60s. Would love to have him on. There are a couple of NFL players that I would like, and I don't actually know they know how to say their names, but I'm really interested in a couple of players who are the the oldest in the league. Morgan Cox I think it's Marquettis Lewis or Mercedes Lewis, Calais Campbell. I'm sorry, I should have looked up how to say these people's names. But I would really love to talk with older people in that physical sport and just found out how they're they've been able to maintain longevity there. I'm really interested in Alana Myers Taylor, who's the Bobsled was in the Olympics in the bobsled. I've tried a bunch of different ways to reach her, haven't been able to do that. Anyway, those are some of my ideas of people that I would love to have on, and I just make a plea if anybody out there has great contacts, let me know or just connect me with them. Alright, so like I said, and also I may switch to every other week episodes as opposed to every week. It is a fair amount of work to put these on. There's recording, there's editing, there's thinking through the social media part, there's finding people, there's setting up the time. Anyway, I'm not complaining because it is all a lot of fun. But I don't want to burn out. So we'll see. I'm gonna post this one and then I do have some other one. I have one already recorded and a couple others that are in the work, so I'm not short on people or time right now, but just anticipating that maybe wanna make sure that I don't burn myself out. Okay. All right, so let me transition now to listener feedback and questions. Every episode at the end I say please send me questions, comments, feedback, and I've gotten some feedback that way. Over the weekend, I put something up on Instagram, and I you know, some people who listen to the podcast or watch on YouTube may also follow Aging Athletically on social media. Some are on social media and seeing it that way and don't listen to the podcast. I don't know how that all that stuff works. Anyway, I put something up on Instagram which basically said, you know, tell me what you're up to, what how you're aging athletically this weekend, or if you have any questions that you want me to respond to in the solo episode. So I wanted to honor my question andor my outreach and share some of the feedback That I got and questions I got. First of all, I got some like this is a PG podcast. Let me just let's just I should have stated that up front. While it's not made for children, it's appropriate for children. And I did get a little of bizarre feedback on my Instagram post. And so just if you know who you are, if you have. A thought that maybe I'm implying something that is not PG, or if you think I've done it indirectly or even directly, you just just check yourself, get your head out of the gutter, because I'm not doing that. Okay, so setting aside that feedback that I got. Let's see, I'm gonna Summarize. I'm not directly quoting, although there there is one that I'm gonna directly quote. One person said that they were really focused on getting more protein and taking recovery seriously over the weekend. And this person is training for a hundred miler, which I think is amazing and something that I don't think I'll ever do. Another person shared that they're lifting, because one of my pictures was about lifting, and they said they were lifting. Another person shared that unrunrelated to the question, but just feedback that they really like hearing different athletes' stories and what motivates. people. So and I do think I asked that of pretty much every guest. Like what is what's motivating you to keep competing? And and it does vary, you know, from health to winning to challenging myself to goal setting, all those things. I I heard that the podcast has motivated one listener to start running again after a long hiatus from running. And so that kind of warmed my soul. Running is awesome. I wish I could be doing it now. We'll get to that in a minute. But man. I do miss running. another person shared that on Saturday night, that they were carbloading for their long run the next day by drinking a lot of beer. And okay, let me be frank and say this was my son, and he is training for a marathon, and I'm sure that he was drinking a lot of beer. I would not recommend that for carbloading, and I did notice that. when I saw his strava the next day that his quote long run didn't turn out to be very long. It was I it was supposed to be twelve. It was eight. I think maybe the beer loading didn't help. So I would not recommend that. Last one that I'm gonna this is a quote is I'm I'm aging athletically by running twenty miles and having what I th what I thought might be the start of a heart attack beforehand. With pain in the middle of my shoulder blades moving to my left arm. Now it's only in my chest. So that might be improvement. Okay, I'm not laughing because I mean it's that sounds serious to me. And I just I think I I didn't need the know that I would need to put a like disclaimer on this, but I am not a doctor. Like I'm nowhere near a doctor. I don't like doctors offices. I don't I don't go I don't frequent doctors. But when you say something to me like you thought you were having a heart attack, I don't know why you're why why are you telling me this? Can you could this person please just head to the doctor? It sounds great. You got your twenty mile or long run in, so that's off that's awesome. Please if you could follow up with me and just let me know how the appointment went, I would appreciate it. Alright, so that was a bunch of feedback that I got. And thank you for those of you who did provide feedback. And I welcome more feedback, of course. Alright, I got some questions. Okay, so I want to make sure and share what the questions were that people asked. Alright, what was in the meal that you posted? Okay, that Yes. So in one of the pictures that I posted it was just a meal that I had, because I said, Are you fueling over the weekend as we all should be fueling? And anyway, it was some kind of sal like it was had salad and rice and olive oil, some chickpeas, and I like this vegan pretend meat by Abbotts that you can buy at Probably most grocery stores. I don't know. I'm trying to get more protein. I think I shared before that I've had to modify my eating a lot. Anyway, that's what I was having. It was very good. Olive oil on everything kind of makes me happy and then like salt and stuff. Which maybe isn't I probably need to back off on that. But anyway, that's what I had. I got a question of which is my favorite type of racing. And I think that meant You do a lot of different types of races, you do running races, you do triathlon, you've done high rocks, what's your favorite? And I s would say triathlon. I think I said high rocks earlier in the year when we first started, but I think now I don't know, I I've been really enjoying training for a triathlon, though again we'll get to what is going on with me, but it's a it's on a little bit of a not hiatus. I don't know. It's been been derailed for a little while. Okay, let's see. When you're recovering from an injury, how do you know when to back off from training and when to power through? hmm. I mean, when I'm recovering from an injury, I'm of the mind, having been through so many injuries in my life, that I try I try not to do things where I know that I'm like it's hurting. If if I'm feeling it, I usually think That that's my body's signal. Now that depends, because if you know, like I know there's certain type of hamstring pain that I can sort of manage, or there's there's obviously just regular pain that happens that is not like injury pain. So in terms of how I know, I guess I'm just trusting the signals that my body's giving me. though I can be stupid at times, for sure. I will acknowledge some stupidity over the years and maybe some stupidity right now. That's ha that's going out with me. I do tend to power through injuries though. Like I figure out something else to do. Which reminds me that in talking with one of my other children, I think maybe all my kids will have to make an appearance at some point, but talking with one of my other children about, you know, he's like, You're an addict. You're you're addicted to working out to training to competing. And and I said, Well, yeah y no, yeah, I mean, yeah, probably. Well, yeah, actually not probably, definitely. It's not the worst addiction that you could have, I don't think. I I think I've got a bit of an addictive personality and I'd rather have this addiction than substance use addiction. So, you know, we pick our poisons, I suppose. Or our poisons get put upon us. But in my effort to to kind of say I'm not an addict. Look, I'm not like I'm not running on this foot pain that I have. I'm not trying to run through potentially breaking my foot. He's like, yeah, so it's sort of like someone told you you can't have you shouldn't have the cocaine anymore. So then you you move over to the meth, which is as an example, how far did you bike this morning? And I was like, I I biked a hundred and four miles. Because because I can. Anyway, so I g I got issues, we all got some kind of issues, but I'm actually really enjoying riding. So again, I'm gonna I'm gonna justify my decisions. Okay, next question. Where do I get my strength workouts? Do I work with a trainer? If not, do I plan them out ahead of time? Okay, where do I get my strength workouts? I just make them up. I mean I I do have certification, the national NASM. So I I I do understand different programming that one c can do for others. I don't necessarily do those things for myself for myself for the single person that I am. And I yeah, I just make it up. So I do focus a lot on shoulder work because I feel like I tax my legs so much with biking, running. that I don't tend to do a ton of heavy lifting with my legs. But I fo but with swimming, I do swim a lot, so that gets some upper body, but it but for high rocks training I've really had to focus on my shoulders. So kettle like kettlebell carries, a lot of overhead press, I think. So I'm holding dumbbells and pushing straight up or holding dumbbells and pushing with my hands turned a different direction, or I guess they're called like Arnold presses. Anyway, long way of saying I make them up because I think about them a lot. My my Instagram social media feeds are filled with ideas. So sometimes I get ideas from other people. I don't have a trainer. I've never really worked on in a on a long term basis with a trainer with a goal in mind. I think it would be great for me. I've just never treated myself to that. Just like I don't ever get massages. I don't ever get like body work. Type stuff done. I do all of the hard training part, and I I'll I'll splurge to pay for expensive races and travel to get to races, but I don't spend much on those other things. I think having a coach would be great. And do I plan them out ahead of time? Not really. I mean, I kind of have I have like my six or seven key upper body exercise that I do. I think I've I've told you all that I'm working on a on a pull-up goal where my goal is to be able to do ten pull ups with a twenty pound dumbbell. I'm making progress, but not not not super fast. I just kind of say okay I'm going to go lift and I know I want to do upper body today. Takes around forty five minutes. But sometimes I'm like, that machine looks kind of cool so I'll try something new. Okay, last question I got is how has menopause changed my training and my fueling? Interesting, the question was, how has it not did it? Like not there's an assumption that it would change training and fueling. And I don't think it has really changed. I do take some hormone replacement that's helping with sleep and sweating at night. But I really didn't notice a lot of change in my my training. I'm aware of protein intake, but I don't know that I don't think that's because I'm fifty five. I think it's just because the world is filled with awareness around that. I think I mean compared to where I was ten years ago, I'm just more focused on proper nutrition or better nutrition or better fueling than I was when I was forty five. But it's not because of menopause. So, not my area of expertise. I think at some point it'd be great to have somebody. Actor, actually, Dr. Stacy Sims is another person I would love to have on the show. If anybody knows her, she's very famous. She could talk to us about menopause and things for us older women who inevitably face that issue. All right. Okay, so updates. On me, let's see. I know I shared last time, which was a month or plus ago, that I had had this pain in my foot and I went to the doctor, the doctor said it was a joint issue and said just sort of go by feel. It didn't feel like the right diagnosis to me. I really thought I had a stress reaction based on having had a stress reaction that turned into a fract stress fracture that turned into a fracture on my other foot. It just the the sharpness of the pain. but the doctor did not order an MRI at the time. I did try running again. It got worse. I was able to get the doctor to prescribe an MRI or get order an MRI. So I got the MRI done and woo-hoo, not so not surprised, surprised. It was it was slash is a stress reaction. So what that means in terms of recovery is I just set my own schedule. The the doctor did not have a lot of insight. It's against sort of like go by feel. I felt like setting a time frame for myself makes the most sense. Also force don't test things out for a while. So six weeks that puts me at I don't know exactly when this will come out, but starting at the beginning the the second week or so of August I'll try running. I haven't really felt much pain and I've been very careful not to do things that cause pain. But I do c I am a little concerned that I may be prolonging things because of how much I'm how much load I'm putting on my my foot. In other words, these like for exit for instance, these really long bike rides that I'm doing, which I'm absolutely loving, and I just actually have really enjoyed the opportunity to focus on biking over running for a while, but I'm pushing a lot with my foot when I'm doing that. I don't feel any pain at all, but I just I'm a little worried that I may be stretching this out a little bit. And yeah, so I've gone through a bunch of different phases of how I feel about the injury. One, I'm you know, concerned that it's a bone injury. I had a bone injury six years ago. you know really trying to check myself on, you know, am I am I getting enough calcium? I've had bone density tests done before, so I'll probably re- and I had just had one done maybe a year ago that showed my bone density was totally fine, but maybe I should redo that. I've I have been able to look back and I can sort of I think f figure out what happened to have the injury happen. So I think it was the combination of a triathlon race with the wrong size bike shoes that put a lot of pressure on the front part of or on my forefoot, I guess. And then doing a very long run the day after the race. And then a hard run the day after the long run. And anyway, I was feeling okay, but I there was something that was going on in my foot a little bit. And I think that was the starting point. And then it just hasn't really resolved since then. So I The phase the other phases I think are just there's definitely some grief that happens when the thing you like the most is taken away. Actually I'm not sure I like running the most, but running is the thread for all the things I really do like. If you like doing high rocks, you gotta like to run. If you like triathlon, it's important to enjoy running 'cause it's a big part of the race. And then of course I like doing running races. So running is the sole part of those races. So that has been challenging to and when it was hurting a lot and you see people I saw people running, I'm like, that looks just like it would hurt. That's a that's an easy phase because you don't really feel like running. But now that I don't have pain in my foot, when I see people running, I get a little envious or they don't realize how good they have it. And I've all I've also I've made all these deals with my deals with myself that There's no way this can ever happen again because I I'm not gonna do A, B, C, and D. Please just let me if you just let me be able to run, I'll even take six miles. I was gonna say like 15 miles, but right now just I want to be able to just comfortably be able to get back to running and run like six miles regularly. Okay? That's my plea body. Ideally I have so. Okay. I've also been doing just random workouts and that and what I don't like that part about being injured is things just feel very random. Cause I my I'm usually training for something, even though it might not be I I I don't necessarily have the exact thing that I'm training for. So say I'm training for a triathlon. I might not have signed up for one, but I know I'm gonna do them. Or I'm gonna do I n I know I wanna do a 5k. I haven't figured out when it is, but Without having those in my mind, it's just my my training has felt very haphazard and out all over the place. And I don't love that. I like to have a little bit more orders of things, even though I'm kind of a mess at times. I'm supposed to do supposed to mean I've signed up for, I've paid for, I have a partner for. Supposed to be doing HyRox doubles and HyROX singles at the Pro Waits in September eighty. in DC, so just a couple of weeks away and my partner Kristen, I'm hopeful I got d give me two weeks to try. We we we actually feel like based on the numbers we've seen that we could be aiming for the world record in our age group. but obviously if I can't run, I'm not gonna be a very good partner there. So fingers crossed on that. I really also would like to be able to do an end-of-year triathlon. So fingers crossed that I'm gonna be able to get these run my run body to come back to me. If not, if I really can't run, I'm gonna have to find something else. If anybody has ideas, like I'll I don't know, I'll do a time trial bike race, I'll do an indoor rowing competition, I'll a long swim. I mean it's not I can do anything. That's not true. My my skill set is limited right now, but I would I just would need something else to aim for. So let's see. I think that's it for my for for my updates. If any i if anyone has I don't know, some special way to magically make a stress reaction go away in the next ten days, send it to me. I have done, what do you call it? Bow, I can't remember, it was some kind of very painful. shockwave therapy. I did that. That did was very uncomfortable. And then I've just been, you know, staying off of it. Alright, those are my updates. And yeah, let me know if you want me to continue with these solo episodes. I've got some great people lined up for the next for the next couple of episodes. I've got one great one already recorded. I'm still really enjoying this and, you know, appreciate y'all following along. Thanks for listening to Aging Athletically. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, give it some stars, and share it with a friend, training partner, or anyone who might enjoy hearing stories from athletes who continue to challenge themselves as they get older or from experts who help us train smarter. You can find Aging Athletically on Instagram and YouTube, and I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message there or email agingathletically at gmail.com with feedback, guest ideas, or topics you'd like me to explore. Thanks again for joining me. Until next time, keep training, keep challenging yourself, and keep aging athletically.