[00:00:00] I think it must be much harder, like when you’re in that latter half and everyone’s catching you and passing you back. I think it’s never a fun place to be. I know I’ve been in that position in many CrossFit workouts where let’s say this actually happened to me in 2019. I was competing over in Shanghai and the workout was like, I think it was like a 30-calorie assault bike sprint into like it was just a final workout. So it was a really, really fast workout. Like you maybe you have 3 minutes to finish the workout or 2 minutes it goes really quick and you do the sprint and then you have a double overhead walking lunge down the main way into like the finish line with the crowd. And I knew that the double overhead walking lunge is not a good movement for me because my overhead mobility is lacking.
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Jesse: [00:01:29] Welcome to the Smart Athlete Podcast. I’m your host, Jesse Funk. My guest today is a former Canadian national team and world tour snowboarder. I think unless I’ve forgotten somebody. So if I have, I’m sorry, but I think she’s the first snowboarder on the podcast. So as long-time listeners know, I’m not really super deep into winter sports, so I always like having winter sport athletes on because they can tell me about things I have no idea about. She’s a current competitive CrossFit athlete. She’s the host of All In With Nathalie Allport. You can find her on YouTube, on Twitter, on Instagram all @natalieallport. If it wasn’t evident who we’re talking to today. Welcome to the show, Natalie Allport.
Natalie: [00:02:16] Thanks for having me.
Jesse: [00:02:17] Yeah, thanks for joining me. Thanks for the reschedule. I know this happens sometimes with some guests and I would like to say thank you. You know, everybody’s busy with their own lives trying to get all the things done, especially people like you and me. Like, obviously we both have podcasts, spend lots of time training, doing all the things and just we only have 24 hours in the day. So getting everything done sometimes is difficult when you’re trying to get a lot accomplished. So I really appreciate you being flexible with your time and being able to hang out with me here for the next 45 minutes to an hour or so.
Natalie: [00:02:55] Oh, yeah. No, my pleasure. It’s always fun to talk shop with other athletes.
Jesse: [00:02:59] So the topic of conversation of the hour is the New York Marathon. As we’re recording this now, it has not run it yet, but by the time that it’s come out, so you’ve already run it, we’ll know how she did. So I guess what I’d like to do is maybe a visualization exercise. And since as of publishing, this will you’ll already have run it. I want you to give me a race recap. What happened? How did you feel? How did it go? And just get that out in the universe?
Natalie: [00:03:36] You know what? It’s funny because if you ask me about any of my other like, if you ask me, run across the competition or when I was snowboarding, asked me about across the competition, I think my answer to that would be so results-based like I’m visualizing, I got this placement, I landed this run, whatever. And literally my goal for this is just to have fun. So —
Jesse: [00:03:54] Yeah.
Natalie: [00:03:55] Yeah. So that’s, that’s really about it. Like, I’m hoping I’m going to be like the weather’s, I’m hoping the weather is good. I’m going to be enjoying the views and join the crowd, also listening to some good music and then also, yeah, pushing it a little bit. I know it’s obviously there’s going to be points where it’s going to hurt because 42.2 is still a lot of kilometers no matter how fast you’re running it.
[00:04:15] So I definitely know that there’ll be points where I’m going to have to just mentally push myself, like in anything and push through that wall and be like, okay, keep going, keep up your pace. So that’s my goal. I think in the sport of CrossFit, I tend to or I used to tend to, I’m trying to break free of this, start out way too hot.
[00:04:36] So I’m literally going to try to start off the opposite. I’m going to start off chillin’, we’re warming up, we’re going good, and then hopefully I’ll just gradually increase my pace from there. So that’s also my goal is just to be smart and not start off way too hot. Then all of a sudden I hit a wall and I’m walking or limping or just not able to keep up anymore.
Jesse: [00:04:58] It’s a very, if you don’t mind me saying, it’s a very seasoned athlete mover, definitely seasoned distance athlete move is making sure you don’t start off too strong. And it’s so easy to fall into it, especially if you’re like, whatever it is, if you’re I’m not sure what the KM pace would be. So say I was running a marathon and I’m like, “Oh, I want to run seven-minute pace”, submitted my pace.
[00:05:24] You don’t necessarily want to start off at seven minute pace. Maybe you to start off at 730 and then by the end you’re cruising like 630 like. It’s so easy to, especially at the beginning, because there’s just a wave of people and everybody’s going and there’s all the excitement and people are cheering and it’s easy to get caught up in that.
[00:05:44] And then you could end up blowing up because you burnt things too early instead of like allowing your body and all your systems to get going. Despite if you do warm up, which obviously is great, but just it’s a long endeavor, like it’s going to be a day. It’s going to take some time from start to finish. So I’m glad to hear both that and that you’re looking to have fun.
[00:06:09] I know I always had my best races in college when I like just, you know, you got I’m sure you have time goals, right? But then you kind of throw that out the window in some sense and just go, let’s just have a good time. Like there’s I find there’s a levity to a race when you’re like that, like that mile didn’t go the way I wanted, but like, I’m still having a good time. And then things kind of come together.
Natalie: [00:06:36] Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think also because it’s not my main sport, it’s like, okay, so the result doesn’t matter as much. I just want to cross that finish line. And it’s my first marathon. It might be my only marathon, who knows? So I think people keep telling me they’re like, “Oh, you’re going have so much fun, you’re going to want to do it again.” But it was hard to manage all the training with my normal sport training.
[00:06:58] You know, I really had to let my CrossFit kind of take a bit of a hit, more of a hit than I would have liked. Well, well, doing the 12 weeks of training. But yeah, I think it’ll be good. It’ll be good. It’ll be good fun. Yeah. Like you said with you mentioned a time goal, I, I honestly I keep getting asked that and I’m like I don’t really have one because I don’t know exactly what it’s going to be.
[00:07:19] You know, I haven’t run that distance before. I don’t have I’m sure if I did, I would want to beat my previous time because that’s who I am. But not having won it, just like, okay, I’m just going to try to be smart, not kick off and be like everyone around me because I know kind of the where I’m starting in the heats and like the pace, the bunnies and stuff that are running at the same time and they’re going to be running probably faster than what I’m thinking.
[00:07:45] I’m going to be getting just based off what my training runs were like. So I’m like, I got to let them just go out and like, that’ll be okay because I don’t want to just try to keep up. And then, you know, halfway through I’m walking. So yeah.
Jesse: [00:08:00] I mean, the biggest mental lift to me. Excuse me. In a distance race is letting those people go. And there are some people that you let go that you’re never going to see again. It’s just how it is. But you let people go. You get into your own groove. And then by halfway through the race, you start reeling people in.
[00:08:24] And then that’s a nice motivation where you start like chomping people up as they start falling off because they went out too hard and, you know, like at that point, “oh, that like that discipline to hold myself back at the beginning has led into this position where I feel good and I’m starting to pass people”, which helps you hold or pick up a pace like as you go on and things get more tired, your legs get heavier.
[00:08:51] All those things, it’s a mental boogie instead of a weight, as if in the opposite direction. If you were the person that went out too hard and now people are all passing you like that’s that’s harder to stay in it if you have a hard time staying in your own zone, if you’ve got to pick between the two.
Natalie: [00:09:12] Yeah, for sure. I think it must be much harder, like when you’re in that latter half and everyone’s catching you and passing you back. I think it’s never a fun place to be. I know I’ve been in that position in many CrossFit workouts where, let’s say this actually happened to me in 2019. I was competing over in Shanghai and the workout was like, I think it was like a 30-calorie assault bike sprint into like it was just a final workout.
[00:09:35] So it was a really, really fast workout. Like maybe you have 3 minutes to finish the workout or 2 minutes it goes really quick and you do the sprint and then you have a double overhead walking lunge down the main way into like the finish line with the crowd.
[00:09:48] And I knew that the double overhead walking lunge is not a good movement for me because my overhead mobility is lacking. And I also knew that the assault bike is a really good like machine for me. So I went out and it wasn’t like necessarily that I went out too hot. I think probably a lot of people watching, not knowing what my strengths and weaknesses were probably assumed that, but I was off the bike like a good ten, 20 seconds ahead of everybody.
[00:10:12] Like I sprinted fast, but I was feeling good. But everyone caught me on that double overhead walking lunge, not because I went out too fast, but because I knew it was just my weakness. And it does not feel good when you are in the lead. The crowd is cheering and everyone’s catching up. So yeah, I think just for the goal of having fun and enjoying it, definitely choosing that strategy of going out a little bit slower, holding back and catching people I think will be more fun.
[00:10:38] And I even think back to cross-country running races when I was a kid and like having that same mentality where I usually went up to hot and then there was the times where I didn’t care. Whereas like I have a hockey game later, I’m not going to push myself. I’m just going to like, you know, chill, hang out, talk with my friends while I’m running. And then all of a sudden you get that competitive kick. You start, okay, no, now I’m bored. I want to start passing people and then ending up having, like, better finishes. And the times that you just went out hot from the gate.
Jesse: [00:11:05] So I think I mean, I have to ask is why? Like, why are you doing this? I mean, you got I mean, CrossFit itself has plenty of variety in it. There’s lots of work to be put in to be good at it. You know, why go, “hey, let’s go do a marathon” like it’s been the time or the diversion. I mean, I know you’ve done a lot of different sports, which we’ll talk about some of those videos and stuff you’ve done with YouTube, with the different pros. But where did the idea or the genesis of “let’s go make a diversion to do a marathon” come from?
Natalie: [00:11:47] Yeah, to be honest, it wasn’t necessarily my idea, but it actually came from all the way back to last year where so I have been dealing with a shoulder injury since 2019. And then with the pandemic and everything, it kind of slowed down the recovery process. And then I had a setback just over a year and a half ago that kind of had to restart the rehab process.
[00:12:08] So I’ve been out of competition for a little bit. And, you know, even with my shoulder, I wasn’t really able to even work on my strength that much because I couldn’t really deadlift because it was pulling on my shoulder. I couldn’t really squat. So I was like, okay, what can I work on? And one of the things that I’ve always disliked is running, you know, as a snowboarder, running is, is a high-impact sport. And I didn’t want to add extra stress to my joints in the off-season.
[00:12:33] So I always just did like low lower impact activity. I mean, of course, I was always with my brother and friends, like running around and doing games and jumping off things and skateboarding and whatever. But yeah, I was like, I don’t really just I don’t have any inclination to run. I just don’t enjoy it. Growing up, playing other sports, hockey and so forth, running is kind of a punishment.
[00:12:53] It’s like they’ll run some sprints and do this. So I just had a negative mindset about running. And then in CrossFit it was always strength stuff is my strength. I was more like a bigger athlete, strength, power, that type of stuff, like fast explosive stuff. And I think that’s just kind of how I’m wired. I’m much more fast, rich muscle fibers than I am slow twitch. It’s very easy for me to gain strength and to green gain power and stuff.
[00:13:16] But yeah, building my endurance has always been something that just takes a really long time and then running. And so it’s like, that’s actually something that I can work on. And I also don’t like having it in my mind of believing that I can never be a good runner. And people looking at me saying like, “Oh, like you’re just never going to be a good runner because you’re built clearly you carry a lot of muscle mass, you’re built for more of these strength stuff.”
[00:13:38] So I think it was last August of 2021 that I started doing a running challenge where I just ran every day. And one of the things that I did was I didn’t care about my distance, I didn’t care about my pace.
[00:13:51] And the idea was that I was such an obsessive athlete over everything I did. I have the perfect program. I was so all or nothing. It was like, I don’t want to train today unless I have the perfect program because I’m wasting my energy expenditure on something that might not be this perfect.
[00:14:06] But then I realized that was just another excuse not to actually just work on my running. And what was really holding me back was that I don’t enjoy it. So why — so that I’m not committing to actually, like following a program or doing something. So I spent that whole month just I would go out for a jog if I was feeling anxious. I would just run one kilometer with my dog.
[00:14:25] Some days I would run a little further, five kilometers. Some days I’ll do hill sprints and by the end I started to actually start enjoying it. I changed that, that kind of negative self-belief. And then from there I started following more of like a CrossFit-specific track workout program where I was running, you know, three or four times a week at the track, doing a lot of hard lactic threshold sessions, a lot of hard intervals, started making a lot of progress, took a lot of time off my mile.
[00:14:52] And then I started thinking of this goal where I wanted to run a sub six minute mile and then squat 300lbs afterwards. So I know on the male side in CrossFit there was a guy who did a sub five minute mile and then a 500lbs squat. So I wanted to try to build up to what is the, the equivalent for that on the women’s side and kind of show people that you can still be really, really strong and also have that other quality. So how can you train for those two things like as a hybrid athlete?
[00:15:18] So I started working towards that, documenting that. And then yeah, then I had a sponsor who came up to me literally 13, 12, 12, 13 weeks ago, and we’re like, “Hey, do you want to run the New York City marathon?” Like we want to sponsor you to create content around it to come and be our runner? And I was like, “That seems crazy. Let me think about it.” It wasn’t an immediate yes, because I didn’t know how it would align with now that my shoulders better, I’m starting to ramp up the CrossFit train and hopefully get back to competition. So like, can I sacrifice that time? And then I thought about it. I was thinking like when I’m like eight years old, I’m looking back.
[00:15:57] It will be a cool story to say I ran a marathon on top of all these other things that I’m doing and just I think, you know, if there’s any marathon to do. The New York City Marathon seems like an amazing one. I love the city of New York. I think this might be my ninth trip down to New York.
[00:16:14] So the stars kind of aligned. I did take like a week to think about it just because I didn’t know if I could manage the training and changing. And for sure, I definitely feel like my CrossFit has taken a little bit of a hit as I didn’t make that decision, but it was like a sacrifice I was willing to make because I think it’s going to be so fun and I think it’s just a really cool challenge to put myself through.
[00:16:32] And I’ve learned a lot about myself over the last 12 weeks. So yeah, that’s kind of how it all came about. It was partially through just me trying to challenge that belief of running and then the whole idea of a marathon. I just did not ever have that in mind and then got presented with the opportunity and I was like, that sounds like a perfect challenge.
Jesse: [00:16:50] So for you, the listener. If you ever see my running show on YouTube channel, if you’re on the YouTube channel, you’re watching the video version, or whether you’re just listening to the audio version. I did a video a while ago about people asking, can you do a marathon in two months and you’re three months of training? So for you, the listener, I would say understand that now is exceptionally good shape, number one.
[00:17:18] But also, if you’re going to take on a challenge like a marathon in three months or two months or whatever it is, I don’t personally advocate that as a long-term sustainable plan like the mileage will typically like. If you were going to say, just start from zero, do a marathon in three months and then just keep rolling. Likely you’re going to break.
Natalie: [00:17:41] Yeah, that’s —
Jesse: [00:17:42] Sometimes you can do challenges like that in the short term, but just like because of the mileage ramp, your body can deal with it for a little while and then typically you’ll fall off a cliff and something’s going to break. So I just like to put that out there because I know people like to take on challenges and then sometimes people will go, I love the marathon, let’s keep it going.
[00:18:02] And then they end up in this spiral where they get broken. They’re like, “Well, I was able to do it in three months”, like, “What’s the problem now?” And so anyway, so I want to put that out there because I know. I don’t know you, but based on the things I’ve seen about your history and your kind of versatility as an athlete, there is, I think, a quality in somebody that’s trained in so many different disciplines.
[00:18:29] It just has such good general fitness, much easier to get away with these kind of short term challenges without ending up in like this total injury zone. So for you, the listener, I just want to stress that point that like, yes, it can be done, but you do have to have like your own gut check on where your own personal fitness journey is as to whether you should take on that kind of challenge.
Natalie: [00:18:54] 100% It was funny because I was thinking about this today. I was thinking that if someone had told me, like if they approached me and said, “We have a challenge for you, run a marathon tomorrow”, I would have been like, okay, like, I feel like I could have done it. Like, even though I had only run like 15 kilometers as a long run ever before.
[00:19:11] Before that, I think I could have done it. I just like even last year I did 100-kilometer cross-country ski in a day, like nonstop. And the longest I had ski before that was like a ten kilometer ski. So I know, like, yeah, for sure. Like my body is used to a very high training volume. So I think that’s a big part of it over years and years and years of gradual buildup.
[00:19:30] So for me, that’s why I’m actually like more I’m not I think I’m more proud of this past 12 weeks versus the actual whatever the happens at the marathon. Because, for example, if I had just done, let’s say, a challenge and said, I’m just going to run a marathon tomorrow, what is actually to be proud of, like it’s just like, okay, cool. Like, like I never put in the work to actually train for it.
[00:19:51] It was just that based on my genetics, my past training load and other things it happen to be that I could like just push through on one day. So for me is like pushing through for 12 weeks of actually going out, running on days. I didn’t want to run and like building up the mileage and doing that stuff.
[00:20:10] That was like the hard part. But yeah, for sure. I know. Like even last year I had people who were like messaging me like, “Why are you running every single day? That’s not good.” And I was like. I was like, listen, like this amount of trading volume is so low compared to what I’m used to. And for sure, because running is a different discipline. I have to build up like I have to manage like is my feet hurting?
[00:20:30] I know when I ran 26, my foot was like killing me and I was because I just came back from Europe and my mileage took a hit. And then I came back and just jumped into a long run. So there’s definitely things that I had to manage. But overall, for sure, like my quads, my calves, all those things could recover pretty quickly. It was more just managing the feet and different things like that.
[00:20:50] And so, yeah, if you’re listening, don’t just if you go from no running at all or even like me, like only having ever run 15 kilometers, like also think about what was your past training volume and different things because you definitely want to build things up over time. Like I think over this past 12 weeks, my training volume time has actually decreased because I’ve been doing longer runs and then okay, like I can’t do across the session today because I need to skip this versus there is there are times in my life I was like training CrossFit six plus hours a day and I’m not running 6 hours a day. So.
Jesse: [00:21:24] Right. It’s different to I mean, it’s I haven’t done a ton of CrossFit. I lift a little bit, but I wouldn’t qualify that as the same kind of thing you do. But it’s just the stress load that you put on your body is different with different kinds of activities. Like the thing I relate to because I have that triathlon background is like you can basically get in the pool and go hard almost every day because it doesn’t have that impact that running has.
[00:21:51] So conversely, because running has such impact on your body and it uses so many of your muscle groups, you can’t go hard as many days like it’s an 80:20 approach. So it really depends on what the sport is, what the..
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
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