This month I was lucky enough to chat with ultra-runner Lucy Bartholemew. She shared some great insights as to what kind of mindset and preparation you need to run ultra distances (50km +)
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How long have you been involved with ultra-running and how did you get started?
Running began for me as something I did to keep fit for other team sports, I didn't love it and I wasn't very good at the short, fast races but I realised pretty early I wasn't winning these races but I was finishing feeling like I could do it all again and again. I then saw my Dad taking on some big challenges in running and traveling to amazing places plus getting to eat so much food... I was interested! Now I love it; the places, the people and the opportunity to push my limits and inspire others keeps me going. It’s now been 6 years since I started this sport and I wouldn’t change a step I have taken.
You routinely compete at distances in excess of 50km and even up to 100km. As well as this is I assume you spend countless hours on training runs. Do you ever get bored when you’re out on the trails? What do you do to stay focussed and entertained?
I am lucky that I get to run in some amazing places and when I am there racing or training I am so occupied looking around that I don’t even notice the hours slipping by. In a race, there is also the need to look for course markers, make sure you are fuelling and drinking and then appreciating the supporters out on the track. When I am home I don’t live near mountains or trails and sometimes I find the need for a distraction so I turn to music and have my own party on the roads. I think I have a pretty simple mind and because I enjoy it I just want to do it!
Has there been a time in a race when you thought you wouldn’t be able to finish? How did you get through it?
Pretty much every ultra I have done!! It’s common in these long runs to suddenly realise that what you are doing is tough and it is an option to stop if you want to. I am a pretty stubborn person and I feel like when it gets hard and you push through you get the most satisfaction- even if that doesn’t mean a win but just taking that step more then you thought you could. When I have these moments I just break it down; Instead on saying “you have 40km to go” I will say “just get to the next checkpoint, or next tree” making them small and achievable steps helps the mind focus.
What would your advice be to someone who was considering ultra-running as a hobby? Where should they begin and how long would it take to go from couch to 100km runs?
I think building up to 100km takes a lot of time. I can see my Dad rolling his eyes as I write this because from the very beginning I wanted to run 100km and then 100miles before I’d even run my first half marathon. Having experienced this journey I understand the effects that this sort of thing has on your body. I would say you need to tick off the other milestone first; 5k, 10k, 21k, 42k, 50k… running 100km it becomes less about the body and more about the mind; we are built to run but these days we are so use to being comfortable that we don’t want to hurt or feel ‘pain’ and discomfort.
Running must take up a lot of your time. Do you have time for any other hobbies?
I love this question. My family comes together at the end of most days and Dad will ask what we have been up to; my brother will have worked, gone to university, and done a lot of interesting things and then it comes to me and I say “well I trained…and I made a big lunch and….” There is always a long pause haha! I train 2-3 times most days with running sessions, cross training, strength training and stretching so it’s not as much time left as you think! I love to cook and this is a big passion of mine; I am a plant based runner and I love to take time to prepare meals for me and my family and then share (the good ones) with my social media following. I also just finished studying online my personal training certificate so I can coach some athletes!
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To find our more about Lucy's running, training tips, and even some great recipes that she shares head over and check her out on Facebook and Instagram.
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Dr Michelle LaRue
This month I caught up with the fascinating and knowledgable Dr Michelle LaRue. Dr LaRue is a Conservation Biologist and Ecologist.
She has a Ph. D. in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota and has made six trips to Antarctica studying the impact of human activity on penguin and seal colonies.
She studies penguins, seals and cougars and loves coffee and dogs.
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Can you describe a typical day (if there is such a thing) on a research trip to Antarctica?
I did most of my work out of McMurdo Station (US), which is the largest base in Antarctica – it’s like a small town. So a typical day – for example a day of visiting seal colonies on the ground – would start out in the galley for breakfast and picking up field lunches. Then I’d meet with my team and we’d get ready for the cold drive on snow machines – the key is to make sure to time your departure so that you’re not waiting around inside with all your cold-weather gear on because you don’t want to sweat.
We’d trek out to the sea ice right next to station where the snow machines are located, check them all out to make sure they are operational, and then the final “to-do” is to check out with the station. It’s a safety precaution so that the station knows where you are and when to expect you back.
Then the crew, anywhere from 3-7 of us, would make the ~30-40 minute drive by snow machine out to the nearest seal colony. After arrival, we might get off and walk around the colony, counting the seals, taking pictures and notes, and documenting what we see. We’d do this at each colony, stopping for lunch when we need to, warming our toes if a warming hut was available, and then return to the station to enter data.
A typical day can take anywhere from a couple hours to >10 depending on the weather and ice conditions. After warming up, cleaning up, and probably eating dinner, the most popular thing to do is to hit the wine bar to relax, share stories, and talk science. Then you do the same thing all over again the next day.
Was the reality of undertaking research in Antarctica similar to your expectations prior to first going? What did you find most surprising?
The experience of traveling to and doing research in Antarctica was beyond my wildest dreams, truly. I’d been told what to expect (cold, dry, windy, where to find the coffee shop, how to rent ski equipment) but nothing prepared me for the things you can’t learn unless you experience it for yourself: the smell of McMurdo Station, the genuine friendliness of everyone in town, the frustration of learning operations and planning as you go. It was a wild ride and each time I go back I learn something new and re-learn something I should remember!
I think the most surprising thing for me the first time I went to Antarctica was just how warm it was. I arrived on December 11, 2008 (getting into summer) and I remember doing my survival training in sunny, 20 F [-7ºC] weather. When you’re digging trenches, setting up tents, and cutting blocks of ice, 20 F gets to be really warm really quickly.
I've heard that Emperor Penguins live only on sea ice and never on land? If so, how will they respond to sea ice loss – can they just adapt and move onto land?
Emperor penguins do live on sea ice and don’t come on land, with the exception of 2-3 colonies out of the ~50 colonies known. We don’t really know how they will respond to the loss of sea ice but it’s possible they will be forced to relocate to areas farther south – where ice might persist – or they may be able to adapt by coming onto land, in a few cases.
In all likelihood if the sea ice extent continues to decline the way we expect, emperor penguin populations are likely to decline as well.
We hear a lot about climate change and sea ice being lost in the Arctic and Antarctic. Did you witness this first hand, and should we be worried about it?
It’s hard to really witness sea ice loss first hand because it’s a process that takes such a long time – years to decades. But I pay attention to the sea ice data sets that are collected by satellite each year and see how the sea ice is changing, especially on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the Arctic.
I also see how ice shelves in the Antarctic are disintegrating – for example, the Larsen C ice shelf is about to calve off soon. So those are the kinds of things I see and pay attention to and it’s very concerning.
What are some of the things we can do to help protect the Antarctic environment and the animals who call it home?
One of the easiest things we can do is avoid consuming krill oil! Krill are the base of the food web in the Southern Ocean – pretty much all the animals in the Antarctic rely on krill in some way – yet we fish for krill and use it in food supplements and it is also used as food for farmed salmon. So given the potentially competing factors of fishing and climate change in the Southern Ocean, if we can do our best to limit one of those negative effects (fishing for krill) that helps a lot.
I find climate change a harder issue to tackle because it’s such an abstract idea, it’s really hard to see in our day to day lives the changes – but even little things like turning the lights off, eating local food, and carpooling to work can really make a huge difference.
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To find our more about Dr LaRue and her work head over to her website. She also has an interesting Twitter feed and you might want to play #CougarOrNot and test your cougar identification skills.
]]>Jennifer Nini - Eco Warrior Princess
This month I was lucky enough to chat with Jennifer Nini, Founder and Editor of Eco Warrior Princess. We just love her here at HB and were very inspired by our conversation. We hope you enjoy it too.
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Was there a single moment (or series of them) that led you down the path of sustainability? What was it?
I had always been politically active taking part in several protest demonstrations, and used my communication skills to stand up for the voiceless, including the environment. Now in 2008, after studying Fashion Business, my then business partner and I - we were considering starting our own fashion label - travelled to China to visit cut, make, trim workshops and huge garment factories. I saw the less glamorous side of fashion, the part that advertisers, marketers and publicists don’t want you to see. I was shocked and because of my liberal political beliefs and advocacy for social justice, I decided that I didn’t want to take part in the fashion industry as it was.
When my business partner and I returned to Australia we never did get our fashion brand off the ground but what I saw stuck with me and I would tell my fashion story - about the sad piles of garments on the floor, the breaches in quality assurance, the despondent look in the worker’s eyes - to anyone who would care to listen.
In 2009 my new boyfriend Ben (who is now my fiance) encouraged me to start a blog as he felt very strongly that I should share my deep thoughts and viewpoints with the rest of the world. I hesitated at first. But then over a couple of weeks my mother started to encourage me as well. And when we had a friend and her husband over for dinner, a discussion about the current state of Australian politics and The Australian Greens ensued and my friend’s husband asked whether I had ever considered starting a blog. I try to follow my intuition and I saw the signs. I knew then it was something I just had to do. But I didn’t have the courage to do so right away.
Ben’s brother passed away in June 2010 and he was grief stricken. So we made the decision to leave Melbourne so that Ben could be closer to his family, most of whom lived in Queensland. We decided to move to his parents' 2 acre property in rural Queensland, in a town with 300 people.
I decided to start the blog before we left Melbourne. It was August 2010. I called the blog “Ramblings of an Eco Warrior Princess”. ‘Princess’ to signify my sheltered, stylish, life of convenience in Melbourne. ‘Eco Warrior’ to signify my new life living in the country where I would initially be living in a tent (I lived in this tent for 3 months) on his parents' vacant block of rural land.
In September 2010, my journey towards sustainable living officially began.
What is your favourite thing about living ‘off grid’ in rural QLD as opposed to Melbourne?
Being connected to the land and having the ‘space’ to focus on pursuing a ‘slow’ lifestyle that is aligned to my sustainability values. We bought a farm and now I live on a 120-acre rural property surrounded by trees and state forest and I feel more at peace now then I ever did in Melbourne. Being surrounded by nature soothes the soul and when you grow up in the city like I did, you don’t realise how tightly wound up and stressed you are until you leave. I remember thinking, Did I really live like that? No wonder I’m so stressed! The tree change has had this calming effect on me and now that I live here in this magical green wonderland, I couldn’t dream of living anywhere else.
I should also add that my home is completely solar powered so there is no guilt in using electricity as our energy source is completely renewable. I have room to grow my organic veggies and at last count we are growing 40 varieties of fruit, vegetables and nuts. We have about five 20,000 litre water tanks and collect our own rain water - we do not rely on town water at all, and don’t need to worry about fluoride in our water either. As for heating, we collect old wood that litters our property and use the pot belly to heat up our home in winter. We do the same when we want to heat up our water. We just fire up the water heater and it lasts about 3 days and if we want hot water again, we just do this all over again.
What do you miss most about the city life?
I’m a huge foodie and Melbourne’s culinary scene is amazing so that’s what I miss most - dining out and enjoying thoughtfully-prepared delicious food. Living in a rural community, there isn’t much choice outside of your usual pub grub and token Thai, Chinese and Japanese restaurants. I’ve also just turned vegan so the cafe and restaurant choices are even slimmer! Luckily Ben’s family are based in Brisbane and I fly to Melbourne every couple of months (my parents and siblings still live in Melbourne) so I get to indulge pretty regularly.
You wear many hats day to day with Eco Warrior Princess, The Social Copywriter, managing an Off-Grid Permaculture Farm and we’re sure many other activities, we’re wondering if you have time to sleep at all. What is your secret to fitting so much in?
I focus on one task at a time. I am a hopeless multi-tasker, which is actually a good thing because focussing on one thing at a time means I accomplish things more quickly than if I was doing multiple things all half-assed. I have also learned to say no to those tasks/activities/requests that I consider non-essential. I also turn my phone off and close non-essential windows on my laptop when I’m working so I am not tempted to look at social media notifications and messages. I also don’t have access to my emails on my smartphone so that I’m not wasting time checking my inbox (I reckon I used to check it at least 15 times a day before I deleted it).
If anyone out there is wishing they could live a more sustainable lifestyle but isn’t quite sure how to begin, could you offer one or two tips of where to start?
First what I want to point out is that ‘sustainable living’ looks different for everyone. Some people live alone, others live in a shared house, others have children, some live in an apartment, whilst others in the suburbs. Its important to remember that there is no ‘right’ way to live sustainably. The underlying motivation for everyone who embarks on this conscious journey is the same: to minimise environmental impact. Each day provides many opportunities to make a better choices and that’s where I encourage you to start: one decision at a time. So, when you wake up and decide to have a shower, choosing to limit shower time from 10 minutes to 3 minutes to conserve water is an act of sustainability. When you bring a recyclable coffee cup and reject a takeaway coffee cup, you are committing an act of sustainability. When you use your recyclable bag and avoid a single-use disposable plastic bag you are choosing sustainability. When choosing to shop at local farmers markets instead of big chain supermarkets, again you are voting for sustainability. When you begin to understand that we as individuals have the power to create the world as we wish, you begin to understand just how important our decisions are, no matter how small they seem to be. So start there. And if you’re not sure what the better choice is, head over to my blog Eco Warrior Princess or do a quick search and you’ll find the information you need to help you make the most sustainable choice.
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To find our more about Jennifer and all things Eco Warrior Princess please head over to her Website, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Join in the conversation by leaving a comment below!
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