Iron-Mum with Meredith Kessler

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Tribathlon podcast. Finding out how ordinary people do extraordinary things.

Remember what you feel like after the feeling of. Yeah, that you feel great. That's, that's good. You have endorphins and all, but you also have that feeling of accomplishment and finishing what you started. And I'm really big into that as much as possible.

That was Meredith Kessler and this episode is Iron Mum. Welcome back to the triathlon podcast. It's just me again, Charlie Redding, the only host of this episode. No co host today partly because I've been too busy running my financial planning business efficient portfolio to actually get organized. So just haven't actually done anything about a co host and therefore it's just me. And secondly, because actually this guest, it doesn't need a co host. This guest is. There's just so much good content here and so much amazing value from the interview that you don't need a co host, you don't need any extra chat either side. So. After graduation in 2000, Meredith Kessler used her graduation money to purchase her first triathlon bike and entered her first full Ironman just two weeks later. Absolutely bonkers. But from that moment on she seemed to catch the spirit of Iron man competition and she's not looked back. You know, she, she spent several years as an age grouper and then moved on to a pro circuit. And since that time she's completed an astonishing 70 full Ironman races around the US and around the world. She's an 11 time full distance Ironman champion as well as 23 time half distance Ironman champion. So I really wanted to get to know how Meredith raced sometimes like seven or eight Ironmans in a year, which is absolutely incredible. I want to know how she was back racing the full distance just five months after giving birth to her son Mac. How she uses Chi swims in her swim spa to meditate and how she can really maximize that swim spa experience. And also how getting Covid towards the end of last year and then taking the vaccine earlier on this year has impacted her performance because it has had a significant impact on her health, although she couldn't pinpoint as to which one of those it was. So there was loads to chat to Meredith about. There was actually loads more on the list to chat to about that I never got to, because you'll tell from this conversation. She is incredibly passionate about what she does, both from an Iron man point of view but also to towards her husband and her son Mac. So there's definitely some emotion running through this interview, but there is loads of brilliant advice in there too, including a sachet of mustard. But I'll wait for you to hear what that's all about because I know you're going to absolutely love the interview with Meredith Kessler. Today's show is brought to you by Precision Hydration, who help athletes personalise their hydration and their fueling strategies so they can perform at their best. They help some incredible athletes, including former podcast guest EMMA PALLANT BROWN pH, have tested my sweat and given me amazing advice in terms of the electrolyte strategies that I need to take to race at my best. They've also got their quick Clip carb calculator to tell you how you can fuel at the right amount per hour, not just get the electrolytes right. So you can find out all about their online sweat test and their quick card calculator@precision hydration.com and remember, if you use Tribathlon 15, the discount code Tribathlon 15, you can get 15% off your first order. So, Meredith, welcome to the Triad Athlon podcast. Really excited to chat to you this evening and I know we're gonna have loads to talk about. So do you wanna kick things off for those people that don't know that much about you? Do you wanna tell us a bit about how you got into Ironman and triathlon and your journey in the sport so far?

You got it, Charlie. Thank you so much for having me. First of all, it's a delight to be here and I really appreciate it. Let's see. Let me give it to you straight. So I grew up an athlete. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, in the States and being an athlete, I swam. But I really loved team sports. So field hockey, lacrosse. I did track as well, I think. Yeah, I was a four sport athlete in high school doing track and lacrosse in the spring. So I just love sport. I'd go from one to the other. Ended up getting a scholarship for field hockey at Syracuse University in New York. So I went there, loved it. I wanted to play with a team. I almost swam in college and I decided, no, I really want a team sport for these four years. I loved it. I love being part of a team. Well, I graduated in 2000 and I literally had a midlife crisis at 21 years old. I was like, what am I going to do now? There's no more sport. I mean, of course I was getting an education as well and I'm very thankful for that. But my sporting part of me, which had been my life since I was like 4 years old was like it was going to be empty if I didn't try to fill it. So I was like, great, what's this Ironman thing? I'm gonna give it a try. And I literally plot myself in an Ironman two weeks after I graduated college. Cause I remember I graduated in May and it was like an early June Ironman. It was in Ohio in like Mohican or something like that. So it was a couple hours from Columbus where I lived now. I did that Ironman and I looked back at that Ironman because it wasn't an Ironman branded Iron man, but it was an Ironman distance. A long distance, whatever you want to call it. And it's funny, if you look at my splits, I think my swim was like 55 minutes because I swam all through college. Not for college, but I always kept my Chi swims going, which we'll talk about for sure. Anyway, my point is then my bike was probably no joke, Charlie. Eight hours in running shorts, okay. And then I think I ran like a 3:30 marathon. So my total split was like 12:30 for your first Ironman. Okay, not too bad. But literally I could not walk the next day for many reasons. One, I've never been on a bike, or a tri bike for that matter. I remember I spent my college graduation money to purchase Quintana Roo. I still have it. And it had these arrow bars. And I'm like, what do I do with these things? You know, clipping in and stuff. I had never done any of that. So there's a first for everything. And Ironman's a long day, so it's a good day sometimes to just try a bunch of new things on your first one. And so I guess what I'm saying is I caught the bug from that moment on. Spent nine years as an age grouper. So I was probably doing. I've finished 70. I've toed the line at 75. We can talk about the five that I DNF'd later, three of which are Kona. And I literally just was doing four or five a year. But meaning I do the race on Sunday and then on Monday morning I'd be back at work with my compression socks under my skirt or whatever I was wearing at my banking job. I worked for Royal bank of Canada, so I was nine years races as an age grouper. And then I just was so fortunate to make my hobby my job and now career. And I just remember I took a bird's eye view at my life at that time and I was working whatever, 60 hours at RBC. I was coaching under purple patch at the time, teaching computrainer classes and then trying to be a pro triathlete. So I was working four jobs at the time. The first year I was pro and then I realized, wow, something's got to give. This is like maximizing like and our brand is balance. I like, as you hopefully know about me, it's way more important for me to be remembered as Meredith the mom, the wife, the sister, the friend, the mentor more than Meredith the athlete. So like I was could feel my balance start to slip like meaning there wasn't. I needed time for my friends because that fills my cup and my family and my husband now husband, he wasn't at the time, but point is, yeah, then I took a bird's eye view and I quit that 60 hour work week and I still am very close with my bosses that were there. Like I just, I, I love them so much and they enriched my life yet and I wanted to work hard for them. And so that's why when I left there, that piece was missing. But they're like, Meredith, we'll always keep in touch and hey, if I ever want to go back to banking, I know who to call. But my point is, yeah, that was it then. I was just professional triathlete teaching concentrainer classes and coaching. And then that even got to be too much as you grow in the sport and you maybe do better and better and your priorities for sponsors get more and more and more. Then I think I took another bird's eye view and I dropped the coaching at that time. I've since brought that back. But at the time, for many years I stopped coaching and then I was just teaching computrainer class and pro triathlete. Well, and then I ended up dropping those classes. So you just bird's eye view it and then here I am. I've been a pro now since 09. It's been like I said, my hobby, my job and now career. And at 43 years old, I haven't lost that same bug that I had when I did it at 21 years old. I've had obviously like every triathlete or every human. I've had a ton of ups and a plethora of downs, but it's all about managing adversity and going with the flow. So that's pretty much the story of my triathlon journey. I'm married to my high school sweetheart. My mom was his first grade teacher. His name's Aaron. We've been together since we were 14. We're now 43 and 46 and we have a almost four year old son Mac who is by far the highlight of our day. We love him so much and I pinch him that he's real and he's been at many finish lines with us. So there you have it. Charlie, how was that?

Fantastic. That is an amazing and one incredible career you've had me. To do 70 Ironmans is, well to finish 70 Ironmans to start 75 is even more incredible. But what really stood out to me amongst all of that is you went like when I thought right, I'm going to do my first triathlon I actually thought, well I read Rich Rolls book and I thought right, okay, I'd like the idea of doing an Ironman but I'll put that as my three year goal. I need to do some sprints, then I need to do some Olympics, then I need to do some halves. Why straight to full Ironman.

So Charlie, I missed that memo that you should maybe start with an Olympic maybe then segue to a 70.3 and then really focus on Ironman distance. You know I just ripped that band aid off straight away. Right. I really will call it ignorance to be honest. I just, I wanted to, I wanted to go big. I had been big in sport, you know, not to be like weird. I have a screw loose, there's no doubt. Like I've like, you know, I've been that person that obsessed is the word the lazy used to describe the dedicated and you know, I have seven best friends since we were like four years old and they've always known me as the you know, person. I just love to exercise or train or move or whatever. And so I was that girl in high school running 10 miles around a 16 laps was a mile on an indoor track because my mother wouldn't let me run outside at 5:30 in the morning. So I know that's like obsessive, right? But I loved it, like I genuinely loved it and I feel grateful and don't get me wrong, I have days that you feel low and you know, maybe you don't want to train very few and far between of those. But like I love to do that. So that's what I'm telling you is I think at that point I was you know, in high school. Yeah running 10 miles or swimming 5k before school and then I'd go to field hockey practice at night and you know, love to run there. And I got in trouble for it actually in college, you know, I was getting a Scholarship to play field hockey. And that was my job in college and playing for my education. But like, I remember my coach, I got in trouble for running, like, I don't know, five miles in the morning before practice or something. And I was like, but it's just my warmup. Shouldn't you want us to be like, you know, training hard? And it's funny to talk to those coaches now and be like, oh, now you were just preparing for what you do now as your job. And I'm like, maybe so. But I genuinely loved it. But yeah, I just went right to it, Charlie. I was like, I didn't know any better. And I thought, okay, I think I can do that. But I mean, it was actually delusional to think that. And I even say how far it is now after doing 70 of them. And I'm like, that is so far. Like 2.4 miles. 112 miles on the bike in a marathon. What Inspired me at 21 years old? I just, I think that the lure, the allure of the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment when I did get to the finish line, every finish line, there's a huge, like, feeling. But I think that was it. At 21, I just went straight for.

It because, you know, at that point, 20 odd years ago, Ironman was not, you know, it wasn't a big sport, was it? So, I mean, I think in many ways, so I had to wait until my late 30s to really discover this love of getting up early, exercising and being addicted to the exercise. And actually, I'm very. I'm sitting here thinking, God, wouldn't it have been amazing if I discovered that, you know, as a youngster like you did, you know, can you think of, you know, is it just that your love of all sports or was there something that helped you kind of identify that love for training hard at such an early age?

I think it's, It's. I always talk about these five words. I've had them on my. They're so simple. There's nothing sexy or riveting about them, but it's. Remember what you feel like after. And they're the best words that I have it on my, like, alarm clock. Growing up, literally, I was. I have it on my mirror where I brush my teeth and on my alarm clock. And it just. That's what got me out of bed with gusto, is like, you love to do this. You're tired at first for sure. Like, this isn't great. Would you rather sleep until you have to get up to go to school, but it's also recognizing that privilege of getting to do what we get to do. I'm really big into that because there's a lot of people who'd love to get up at 5am and go for a run. And for some reason or another, they can't, whether it's physically or whatnot. And so I think I knew that. Oddly, I don't know how. I think with my experience with Challenge Athlete foundation as I got older and working with athletes who are literally trying to do what I do without arms and legs, that's pretty cool as well. And so that's very inspirational to me. So I think about that even to the second, even probably this morning, when I. When I was feeling a little tired on a Monday after your harder weekend, per se, I was like, remember what you feel like after the feeling of. Yeah, that you feel great. That's. That's good. You have endorphins and all, but you also have that feeling of accomplishment and finishing what you started. And I'm really big into that as much as possible.

Fantastic. Do you think it's also linked to the fact that you like to get up early to do this? Because I think I read somewhere that Fitbit did some research and they found that there's really two exercise peaks over the course of a day, 6am and 6pm but the people exercise at 6am exercise twice as often as those that exercise at 6pm and it certainly was the kind of light bulb moment for me. Do you think that's also linked to it?

I can see that. Let me tell you my transition from. So when we lived in California almost 20 years and my training partner was Rich Viola, he's the CEO of Everyman Jack, it's a men's grooming company. So he worked all day. He's the CEO of a company. So I would get up, no joke, and train at 4am Like, I run and we do the trainer rides and then we'd run off the bike and he'd be in work by nine and I'd have four hours of training done by nine. Well, I had the luxury that was at that time and my what I told you where I probably only taught classes so I had more time. I could take a nap. Okay. Well, then I had a human. Years later, we moved to Ohio. My 4am days by. I only actually get up at that time very seldomly. If I could just come down on the treadmill maybe and do like a half hour. And then I have this luxury of max in school now. It's all changed with how he's grown up. But yeah, once I feel like you have a human, it's really hard. And also I'm a night owl because that's my time with my husband. We don't really go to bed till midnight. If we watch our show, our Netflix show. Max usually up too. That's why he naps during the day. So like there's all that. But I understand what you just said because yes, I think about this. Like this past Saturday I was up early and I had, I don't know, 7k swim done before I needed to teach caf, which I trainer ride. And I remember thinking like the next day I wasn't even starting my first workout before I had already done all that the day before, you know, and I, but like every day is different. You just learn. You do learn with energy. Like when I wait to do something for too long, my energy lulls a bit and it slows and so. But I think it's keeping that mindset of what I said about remember what you feel like after. Now don't get me wrong, I've been like that and I'd be like, yeah, I remember what I feel like after. Well, I still feel terrible right now. Something's got to give. That's what I call web workouts. Like why even bother? Workouts where you either get to the time that you're supposed to do or honestly you stop and you go and take a hot shower, take a 20 minute nap or do something more or do some work or just do something that is more productive because you know your body best. And the 30 year old Meredith would have pushed harder through and then put myself back in a. Well, the 43 year old Meredith is now like, all right, this is by far a web workout. We've got to just stop what we're doing here. We'll parlay this to another day and we're going to take care of our body now. And sometimes it's like when maximum sleep in and I have the time to get, get the workout in and then it goes south and I'm like, all right, well you know what? I'm going to be productive though. I'm going to go get our groceries, I'm going to do some work on the computer, get back to people and be productive. Or sometimes you just are like, okay, I guess I'm going to pass out for an hour while Max sleeping because that's sometimes what your body needs as a, as an athlete for a living.

I've heard you mention these These web workouts is why even other things before. I've thought about it a few times actually, when you know, you're not feeling in the. So I thought, oh, that's. That's really fascinating advice actually. And I found that useful from listening to podcasts where you've interviewed before of your 11 win. I think it's 11 wins so far, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

11 wins, 23 halves. I have to. Yes, yes.

I never saw. Yeah, 11 falls. Yes, of course. Which of which. Of all of those races. So halves included would be your highlight, do you think?

So halves and fulls included would 100% be in Taupo, New Zealand? Literally. I get teary talking about it because we haven't been able to go the last. We're so fortunate. I mean before we had Mac, we probably went eight times and that's when we lived in San Francisco. Very easy to get there. Mac is only almost four. He was there as a one year old and as a two year old. He didn't get to go obviously last year because of COVID Doubtful we'll get to go this coming February, March, Covid, just because unfortunately we can't do a two week quarantine, you know, with a four year old then four year old. And for an athlete it's hard to do that when you're preparing for an ironman. So my point though is that town is just so special to us. We have like our own Kiwi family that we created over the years because I've done the half there several times and done the full there and just I guess getting a five peep there was huge. And this is a good story. So I was coming back. We were coming back. We didn't have Mac yet. And I was trying to go for a six feet. So six wins in a row in Taupo, New Zealand. And I was so ready to give it a go. And I got third and literally I was so upset. Not because I got third. I was happy for like people who won and my competitors. I don't mean that, but that I let the town down. Right. And I was also. This comes into another part of the story. I was also barfing all over the course and I was like, what's happening here? I don't know what's going on. Like this. I land. It's not like when I land in Kona and you instantly feel like something's gonna go wrong. When I land in Taupo, everything goes right. Like, it's just like. It's like my body is one with that town and the lake and the culture. Well, anyways, turns out, and I found out once we got back to California, I was pregnant with Mac at the time, probably like five weeks. So it was bittersweet. And that's not an excuse. I probably still would have got third with the competitors whether I was pregnant or not. I just mean I was so upset that we didn't win for the town and the town. I realized they could have cared less. I mean, they are just so good to us. Like, we feel so special. The mayor gave us a key to the town of Taupo, you know, like we just feel very at home there. It's like a second home. So by far I thank Ironman for that, to be honest, because I might not ever know about the town of Taupo, New Zealand. It's a small lake town about two hours from Auckland, New Zealand. And I would have never known if they hadn't placed an Ironman there. And I just kept going back every year and I still would if I was able to get in.

Well, I'm sure you'll be back again. My only experience with Tao post so far, although doing the Ironman there is definitely on my bucket list. But my experience of Taupo is I jumped out of an airplane above Taupo Lake when I was about 21 and backpacking. So I remember that. At a pub called the Holy Cow in whether that still exists I have no idea, but. But it is a brilliant part of the world. And do you think there's a reason why you've been so successful in Taupo? Is just the kind of race suit you in a particular way or.

Well, I, you know, I don't like to sound corny or anything, but there's something about the culture and the family there. Sorry. I get emotional on that.

Sorry, tell you time.

Sorry, Charlie. I wish I could tell you I'm even getting my period soon and I'm not. I'm very transparent, as you can tell. I just talk about Taupo and get. I'm so sorry. Sentimental because it's just been so special. And the Turner family especially, they just like let us in and like the hotel there. I stayed at the Prince Motel almost every year I went and they really feel like family. And I think when I land there, I feel I'm pulling it together. I promise. I feel at peace, you know, I feel calm and my chi is intact. I feel like the culture there is up my alley. Like everyone's friendly, everyone's really nice. You go in there and someone. It's A small town, right? So, like, I even go, and I'm only there twice a year, and the amazing clerk in the grocery store will be like, meredith, welcome back. Did you bring your son this year? You know, and it's just. That's so special. And, like, in this world, especially now with this world where we are with COVID just especially in the states with the election and politics and Covid and things that you just don't want to talk about with anybody that's really special, and it's really hard to find. And I just. I guess my tears come from being so grateful that we've had that experience for the past X amount of years. And then probably another half of my tears are that we missed it last year. And again, I'm very grateful you don't want to go back. Like, I'm totally focused on what we did get to have, but I'm hopeful we can experience that even a couple more times in our lifetime. And it's special for my husband, too, which makes me happy because he's a fly fisherman and he gets to do his thing while I get to do my thing. And then once Matt came into the picture, that's what I mean. Like, they're so welcoming. They're like, oh, man, just bring them to this daycare and we can watch them all day. It's like a school. And so Mac, last two times we went, we just dropped him off, and we met the James family, and Aaron James was like, oh, I'll just bring. We'll just take Mac with us, and he'll go with Georgia and they'll just play and they'll go to the trampoline park. And I was like, this does not happen in the world that often. And you feel safe. It feels safe to me. Like, everything's safe and everything's right in this little area. And you go to Topo Bass and you swim, and then you go ride. The one thing I feel at peace, too, is that lake. That lake is just super clear. It's like. It's just. It's a really special place, as you see. It's very important to me. So I know I just lost my marbles, but now everybody knows how special Taupo New Zealand is to me.

Well, that's what I was just going to say. It shows how much it means to you and. And what an amazing place it is. So. Yeah. And it's just brilliant that the place that you love, you've also performed so well. And I'm sure there's not a coincidence there you talk about Mac and you also talk about how you were training originally with crazy, crazy work hours. How do you fit in? I mean, are you the sort of person that stacks in like 35, 40 hours training a week or how do you build your training around a, you know, historically around a big corporate job in the world of banking and now around Mac?

So it's funny that you go through certain chapters of your life, but like with Mac, let's take him when he was a baby, for example. Well, first of all, let's start with. I've actually never done a 30 to 40 hour training, but I think that stems from, you know, I was coached under Matt Dixon for over a decade. We had a. We still do, we have a great relationship. He was, he's known as like the recovery coach, which we laugh about. He's not, it's just, he knew he struggled from just like when you're too tired, like literally he was chronic fatigue. That's what it was. And as a pro himself, and it ruined his career. And he's the first to say that. And then when he started his coaching company, Purple Patch, I was one of his first athletes before he even started the actual company. And I learned so much from him. I met him at the computrainer studio that I actually also taught at eventually and just he knew that I could only give about at that time, 11, 12 hours a week to training and still do six, seven Ironmans, five to seven Ironmans a year. So honestly, Charlie, a lot of my training came from getting the deposit in fitness that I did in an Ironman because I was doing once, one or two every three months, you know, so. But he taught me a lot about that and he, I don't even think to this day he ever trains his athletes over 30 hours. But everyone's so different, right? I have a lot of muscle memory from being that athlete who ran 10 miles before school. So. And he knew all that. And so eventually when I quit the corporate job, I probably squeezed up to maybe 25 hours per week. And now I sit right between 21 and 24. But let me tell you, since to answer, go back to your question honestly, I should stick to halves. I should have stuck to halves a long time ago just because a 20 to 22 hour work week and I genuinely count those are moving hours. Those are like, not just like those are moving hours. So clearly there's a lot more hours that go into it. That 22 say hours doesn't include the other stuff that the drive time to the Pool, all that stuff. Obviously that's just move time. My point of telling you that since we had Mac, if I thought it was hard and this is understandable. So moms that have a say, five month old baby right now and are trying to race, it's hard, trust me. But I thought it was the hardest thing ever then, like nursing Mac in my wetsuit 10 minutes before the gun went off, trying to find a spot to do that that was comfortable for everybody. Like, you know, you didn't want it to be loud for him. So I'd like literally go in a bathroom stall or a porta potty. One time I asked the Ironman where they were like broadcasting if I could go in their little tent just in a quiet area, like all kinds of stuff. And then dealing. There's two folds of the story is Mac wouldn't take a bottle. Also. Just keep that in the back of your mind. And that was, that was hard on me because when I did do a full Ironman when he was four months, almost five months, that was very tough because I was like, is he gonna eat all day? You know, like Aaron, my husband, you can't even give him a bottle. He won't take a bottle. And we can talk about that part in a minute. But when I. So I'm nursing him before going to race, either a full or a half. And that actually was the easiest part of. Cause right now, the phase I'm in now is once they get older and older. So there's two things. When he was five months nursing him, racing, boom. But he didn't move much, right? He laid on the bed, he didn't talk really. Lalala. And then when he was around 9, 10, 11 months, what happened was in almost a year, motherhood accumulated, meaning nursing accumulated, the lack of sleep accumulated. And again, I was 39 when I have him. So now we're talking, I'm 40. Lalala. Okay, well then it got a little harder. I was like, gosh, I really need. And then we really did a hard fight to get him to sleep so that I was getting more than like three hours of sleep at a time, whatever. And look, I've always been someone who, as my friends will say, I can operate on a little amount of sleep. But I think that was the younger Meredith. And now maybe at this time I do realize if I do get more sleep, I will feel better in my job. Well then he became a 2 and 3 year old and had a personality and he had, he like that's really hard now. And also the mom guilt of you want to spend time with him, you know, so, like, my days are very calculated with him. And, you know, I'm not one. I don't put him to bed at 7 o' clock at night. We're not even eating dinner at that time. So, like, my husband works from home. We have it very dialed with, you know, I'm very lucky in my community here. He either goes to school now or he goes to ducks club for a couple hours. But I'm that mom, Charlie. Like today I dropped them off in my helmet with my glasses on, with my cleats on and my full bike get up. Like, people at the school just must be like, who's this freak show? Just like, I drop them off, I have exactly 2 hours and 44 minutes to like slam out a ride and I literally come pick them up with like 30 seconds to spare, like rolling in on my bike like I did today. And that's. That's awesome. That works for me. Or if I'm riding or running, I do the same thing. It's just I get what I can and in that time and then we go have two hours, we go to the park, we go to the pool, we do whatever together, lunch and try to tire him out, by the way.

So that he needs a nap so that you can get your next session in.

Well, and see, you know, normally three to four year olds don't nap or some. But he does because he also stays up late. Because, like for right now, for example, yes, I did get up early to get my run in. I knew I had this podcast, which I love. You just have to plan around work. You're like, all right, I did my run before he woke up. Okay. Which by the way, he regressed. He's now sleeping with me. Just comes down and sleeps with me. It's fine. At least he sleeps. It's not like he did sleep with me in the first two years of his life because it's the only way anyone slept in the house. I call my husband the king because he's just up in the guest room. And I'm like, you need to get sleep so you can focus. Kids need their mom sometimes, so this is what we do. But my point is, yes, if he sleeps 2:30 to 5, and he will, because he goes to bed at midnight, I'll get in a session or two or get my plans done for coaching or sponsor work or podcasts with. With lovely people like you. And so, like, you just plan it out. And then I know when he wakes up. We're going back to the pool to tire him out.

Fantastic. So it's all about optimizing that time, isn't it? And that's really brilliant. What am I right in saying? That you did your first Ironman post giving birth at six months after giving birth to Mac. Is that right?

Ironman, Texas. He. He is like, was like four months on the nose. Almost five. Sorry. He was like a day past. He was five months. We're just right at five months. Yeah.

That's absolutely astonishing. How did you. Firstly, what was that experience like? And secondly, how did you think. How do you. I mean, was it just kind of that muscle memory kicking back in or, you know, how did you get yourself in a position where you could do that?

I'm laughing because, honestly, Charlie, I'm gonna tell you, I look at myself now, trainers, I really don't know. Like, it's baby doping. It's free. Like, there's some. It's legal. There's something that happens those first, because then it left me. Let me tell you, it's still not around. But no, when I remember because just to give a little color to the audiences, I had Mac via a C section, emergency C section at like 41 and a half weeks after, like, 24 hours of labor, only to find out I was never going to have. I was always going to have to have a C section. Unfortunately, they didn't know that prior because I would have just scheduled that. Anyway, my point is that that really hurt my pelvic floor. Understandably so. And, you know, so I'm 39. I birth them in November. I want to do a full. And you know, I want to do a full Ironman here in April. And I could not run. So my doctor was really liberal, and as you can probably imagine about me, I did want to get back to it. Now there's a pause on that. I also did wanted to be smart because I knew I had learned from a lot of my peers that had just had babies and went right back to it. And if they were nursing, you can easily get a stress fracture in your sacrum a lot of the times because a, you're leaning over and nursing. And if you choose that route, you may not, and that's okay, too. But you also. So you're losing a lot of calcium, Your bones are extra sensitive and vulnerable. And so I was mindful of that. And then, I don't want to say I got lucky, but I could not run for like 11 weeks. I really, truly, like, I would try and I tried at eight weeks. Well, here is the path, Charlie. My doctor was like, yeah, you can swim at two weeks. Even I. Or you can swim after 10 days after having him. So even me, of all of these people in this equation, like the doctor was super liberal. I just had this baby cut out of my belly. I have this big scar and stitches still. And he's like, yeah, you can swim at 10 days. And I was like, I got to 10 days. So excited. And then I was like, there is no way I can swim right now. I still wasn't there. So we did a lot of walking now at two week mark. So it was only four days later. I put a pool buoy in and I did swim and it felt amazing. But it didn't feel like you could not swim fast at all. It was just to like get the chi swimming of the water. Okay. Four weeks out after having Mac, I got on my trainer. That felt okay. Tried to run at eight weeks. That was a no go, no chance. Tried to run. Like, I remember I had to call my husband at even at 10 or 11 weeks, I had to call him to come pick me up. I was like two miles out and I was like, I can't, I'm so sorry. Can you come pick me up now? Think I only have four more weeks and I'm racing a full ironman. Okay, how do you go from no running to running? And honestly, Charlie, I look back at that now and I think I ran a 3:13 at Texas and I came off the bike and second. Yeah. And then I think I came fifth. Sixth maybe. It was a, it was a North American championship and I was like. Or I ran into second. I was there. And then I was also freaking out because like I just said, my son wasn't eating normal food yet would only nurse. And I've shared this story before, so it's very open about it. My friend Hillary Bisque, fellow pro, she's now retired, she had a two month old at the time and she nursed Mac, which I call it ignorant. I didn't know that was even like not allowed or a thing. Like she was like, oh Mary, I can nurse them. She had told me before the race, I'm going to be there cheering on athletes, I'm bringing baby Hill. I'll just nurse them both. I was like, I'm sorry, I hallucinated. What can you do that? Great. And honestly, it's seven seconds. I remember I posted it on my Instagram because it was a seven second video someone captured and it was me at mile 13 of the run of the marathon. And I had been worried since the second I gave them to Aaron after I had nursed him in my wetsuit earlier. And she goes, mare, I fed Mac. We're all good. And I say, I'm running. And I say, wait, he took your nipple? And she says, yeah, Mare, we're all good. I'm gonna go feed him again. And just like the relief I felt in that seven seconds. And then the second part of me that was like that little, you know what? Like, of course he took her nipple. Won't take a bottle nipple. I mean, it's just insane. And then I think the other part of that was what I just told you earlier, that motherhood accumulated. So here I am at max newly five months. I think I did St. George a week later, and that was a half. So I did a full Ironman. A week later, did a half Ironman. And I was leading. I led off the bike of that St. George half ironman, which is hilarious. I wouldn't be able to do that now if I was in the top shape of my life. But my point is, then I ended up fifth because, like, where you feel the effects of a full Ironman are a week later on a run in St. George, no less. But I was stoked to get fifth. I'd made money in both races. They were championship races. I had a five month old. Life was good. But then motherhood accumulated because that 313 slowed down to my. Because I remember I was trying to qualify for Kona because at that point you needed points and stuff. And I had done two more Ironmans and it was like 3:17, 3:30. I was just like, oh, I think I'm tired. And I remember I was working with Darrell Griffiths from Coda Nutrition, and he's like, Meredith, you have to remember with nursing, it's kind of. It did feel like anything I was inhaling, like, any nutrition on course, it was just like stopping at my chest and not going to my legs. Like everything was just wrong. And so what I'm telling you is I had those new mom hormones going on and adrenaline the first five months of his life, because I. I think we won. Then when he was six months, we. It was June. We won two half Ironmans, Raleigh and Mont Tremblanc. And I was like, man, this is muscle memory. This is. I mean, I was still, of course, training a lot, but that Ironman in Texas, man, I didn't even know if I would be able to finish a marathon or if my, like C section Scar would bust open. Like that's how vulnerable I was going into that race. And then it just shows how resilient the human body can be if we allow it to be. And that was my theme of that.

It is absolutely astonishing. And I was really chuffed with my London marathon time the Sunday before. Just the one that's just gone and that was 3:28. So the fact that you're coming into not doing your marathon in an Ironman not long after childbirth and you're knocking out a 315 is quite astonishing. So. Yeah, it really is.

That's you, by the way. That's awesome.

Thank you. So in terms of you mentioned your chi swims a few times now. I also am the owner of a master spa and when I started using it, funnily enough, I was chatting to Sid about this quite a lot. She's like, oh, they are just mind numbingly boring. And when I started using it, I also found that it's my numbing boring. I think I'm finding my way through that now. But you seem to really value your chi swim. So tell, tell people, tell us what a chi swim is to you and then tell us how you've kind of used that master spa to. To take that to another level.

Sure. So, well, before my very appreciated time with master spa, which I'll get into, I. When I told you I swam 5k before high school, la la and college and everything, those were always cheese ones. So I've been doing this since I was probably 14. And like I said, I'm 43 now, so a lot of years. Right. And they're a way for me, they're like my meditation. I don't know how to say it. Like, you know, you hear people say, which I love, I meditated today. I feel so much better. You know yoga, they're kind of like literally my cheese ones, which I'll explain what they are, are meditation, yoga, relaxation and figuring out my to do list for the day all wrapped in one. And it's literally like a hamster in a cage. I just go up and back, up and back, up and back. I still do it now, but I also can do it in the master spot, which we'll get into. So I will do anywhere from 3 to 8 to 10k. Just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I just. It's just my jam. It's my thing. And some people like to do that on the bike, like just go out and ride for hours. I'm not one of those people. Some people like, to go run for hours. I love to run. I like to run, like, 10 to 15 miles and then a marathon in an Ironman. Perfect. But swimming, that I can do however long, and it just feels good on my body. It's not invasive, and it's my thinking time. Like, I think about a whole litany of things in that hour to two hours or whatever it is, and I feel like it relaxes my mind. It keeps everything in check. And during COVID basically, when Covid first started, I partnered so kindly. I'm so grateful with Master Spa because I literally was going to start having panic attacks because no pools were open and I wasn't getting my cheese wins in Charlie. I was not. And I tried not to sound too stressed when we talked, and I was like, yeah, I would love to be a part. And I told him about my cheese win. And anyway, long story short, we ended up being able to get one pretty quickly. I think Covid really started right in March. I got my Master Spa in April. This is now years later, a year and a half later or whatnot. And I even thought, when I first got in, am I going to be claustrophobic? Like, I can get on a trainer, I can run on a treadmill. So I'm like, surely I can swim in place, right? And at first I was like, whoa, this is a little different, right? Because you're in. You're inside this machine, and then you have these bubbles just blasting at your face. And actually, it was quite lovely. It's even sort of more chi, like, enhancing. Because I also never focus on my form, let me tell you that. Ever. I have the worst. I, by far have the worst form, like, swim form of any professional or any pretty much swimmer out there. And Master Spa has allowed me to kind of. Because you have mirrors at the bottom of the master spa. So I don't really want to look at myself, to be honest, the whole time I'm swimming. But I will say it's helped me, like, kind of work on my form and not do the hook arm as much. So there's that. There's the relaxation of it. When you're done with the tree swim, my family comes in because the back of it's like a hot tub. Now there are negotiations with my husband because if it were up to him, he'd cap it at 100 degrees and such. And I'm like, ooh, I can't really swim in 100 degrees. Can we, like, negotiate?

I have the same negotiations, but with my children, as opposed to my wife. I got in a couple of days ago. We deal with it in degree C and she'd put it up by a couple of degrees. My youngest daughter put it up by a couple of degrees and like it feels like my head's going to explode when I'm swimming.

Yeah. So that's what you have to watch. And as you know, if I swim in the morning and we wanted to get in, we get in as a family. I don't know if you feel this way, but the master sponsor has enriched my life for that reason too. Because everybody works so hard all day like every human does. Your life is so structured and stressful. There's some weeks I don't even talk to my husband. So we rely on that 15, 20, 30, 45 minutes at night just to get in there, put the bubbles on the back. So it's enriched our life a lot in that capacity. But if we, we know we do that and he knows I'm swimming in the morning. We have to like cool it down in the morning and then it has all day to heat back up a little bit.

I suspect you live in a slightly warmer climate than I do, so it cost me a fortune in energy to keep heating it up and cooling it down.

Yeah.

Do you go through. Do you see, do you do it, you know, do you break it up into swim set and you'll do or do you just get in the zone and swim?

Well, sometimes because I do have access to pools. Pools I've always said. And master spa knows this too is. I don't think you're ever going to get fit in a master spa, but I think you can maintain. I'm going. I mean it's so hard because I actually am getting the upgraded one which will go to about. I'll do it in yards but 110 per hundred yard and that will be good. My one now is probably 115, 120 and that's great to do. So like you can. I can swim at the 120 pace all day. That's not really chi. Maybe slow it down to level 18 or level 20. I think it goes to 25 and so. But I feel like it is fun to do when you can get it up as high as you can to do like all right, we're gonna do two minutes on and then you just get out of the current and take like a 10 second break. So yeah, I will do that sometimes where I'm doing, you know, let's do 6 by 2 minutes, 6 by 1 minutes, 6 by 30 seconds. And as I get this newer one that's faster, I'll do that even more so. And I please, I put toys on in there. I put paddles on. Do we band? Paddles, Buoy band. I put fins and paddles on. Like I will do everything. And that's what I do in a pool on my cheese swims. I rotate sometimes I'll do like 5k without any toys and the other 5k with a litany of toys. So toys being pad paddles, band and fins. Yeah.

Fantastic. Because the thing that's really helped me and I started trying to listen to things like I tried to listen to podcasts and books. That was a horrible mistake. Couldn't, Couldn't. Couldn't pick up half what I was listening to. But then a friend of mine that has a business called React Fitness said he was going to record some audio sets. So it's all done to time. So I've got these head. I've got these headsets. But it's then like, right, okay, you're going to swim hard for now. And it. Count me down. And actually that's been really useful because it takes my mind away from the lying there thinking, oh my God, is it only three minutes since I started?

But.

But yeah, I did find it really challenging and to start with. But I also know what you mean because now that I've got. Got my head around it, it is, it is fantastic.

You need your mind. You. Honestly, if I'm not in the right mindset to do it, like where I won't physically be moving forward and stuff, then it's. But if I know I'm just going to do, say 30 minutes, that's no brainer. And by the way, in the master spa, in the pool, I don't have music, but in the master spa, I put on my. I put music in because I'm not flip turning. Right. Yeah, they'll stay in and then it goes by a lot faster. Even though I'm enjoying it, it doesn't need to go by fast enjoying it. But when I, you know, have my beats on. That's good.

No, it is. That's definitely. I've actually even blended these React Fitness sessions with my own music so that I've got. I've got it all going on at the same time.

Right. And then you get out and you're like, oh my gosh, your head's probably like about to explode. All for good reason.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You mentioned earlier that Kona hasn't gone according to plan. Mostly. Why is that. And do you think you're going to crack it at some point?

Yeah, gosh. Kona is definitely my nemesis. And when I started hearing about, you know, Taupo and how I land there and I'm just like, feel at peace. I land in Kona and I'm immediately on edge. And it's a beautiful place. I've spent months there. Honestly, Charlie, I've tried every way. I've gotten there three days before the race, done terrible. I've done, you know, two weeks prior. Meh. I've done, say a month train there, do a camps there in February. Eh? You know, and you know, people remind me, meredith, you got seventh one year. And I was passed by like three people the last mile, by the way. But I remind people that a, two things. A, I was in a coffin already before I, like, even got to the finish line. I was so done. And that B, that performance today, I think I got seventh. I might have this wrong. I think it was 2014, but that performance today wouldn't get me 25th. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, meaning a, the competition has risen. So, like, for me, I'm one of those people that, you know, Kona now changed for there'll be two world championships next year. I'm one of those people that with it being in St. George in May, that, like, is like music to my ears. But I understand the allure of Kona because it's impossible for some people like myself to crack that code, as they say. I wish I could say I know what happens to me out there. I don't. I train in there. And even when I train there, I've had many training days of Goth, Paths of Doom, and I've walked that Queen K more times than I've ever cared to admit. But a lot we've figured out over the years is my. We even went so far as to want to take some water from that bay and like, literally send it to, like, a microbiologist with, like, my blood work and everything just to figure out, because something happens to me when I go into that bay. I go in as one athlete and I come out a completely different athlete. I vomit 12 pounds of salt water, basically on the Queen K. And by the time I get to the run, I am just like, already in a coffin somehow. I got seventh one year. I had done the same thing. I just was able to rally a little bit more that year. But I like that when I said I have DNF'd 3 times in Kona 2 of those times I've passed out. So I was not knowledgeable. My five DNFs, I've passed out in all of them but one. I cracked one. An age grouper ran into me. That was in Kona. And it happens. The wind in Kona is awful. And when you're going one way and I crashed the other two Konas, I passed out and was taken off the field. I DNF'd two other Ironmans and I was taken off the course because I also passed out. Electrolytes. Right. We talked about that a little bit. Is that I've had to learn. I spent my first 20 ironmans kind of going port a potty to port a potty. You figure out your GI issues, you figure out what nutrition works for you. Now I don't even think about GI issues in an Ironman. I haven't for the last, whatever, 50 Ironman. But there's something about saltwater in my body. Like, that's why in Taupo, like any lake swim, St. George is a lake swim. If you look at my history of racing any saltwater swim. I got away with it in Auckland because it was a half and I had a wetsuit on. So there's a lot because we won there a couple times. And I remember being nervous, like trying not to mentally defeat me. Oh, this is salt water. But I think because it was like more protected and I had a wetsuit on and it was only. I'm only in there for 25 minutes and not 50, whatever. And so we have tried. I tried last time I was there. I tried earplugs, I tried a nose plug, I put Vaseline on my skin. I took a Dramamine trying to like. I mean, I've tried every sparkling water and nutrition. I've tried everything. It's just I tried even a mental coach about it. Like, did I ever have PTSD there? Like, no. Kona is beautiful. I've had great training time there. There's nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn't feel when I'm there. And could it be mental? Sure. I don't know. But I'm the first one to say, well, tell me what to do to make it unmental and I'll do it. But I'm telling you it's physical. Something happens to me out there, I don't know how to correct it. I'm going to keep trying away. That said, walking the Queen K so many times and finishing what I started. And I do get teary about this too. Shoot. That triggered me. I Learned a lot about character building. That's really hard to do for anyone who does it. Like you're getting passed by age groupers. And what I love about the sport of triathlon is 99% of everyone who passed me as I'm walking would just, like, say some form of encouragement or really appreciate you finishing today and just not calling it. And hey, listen, I have no disrespect or no opinion if a pro is having a bad day and just doesn't want to deal with what I was doing. I get that. But I guess I felt like when I've been, you know, doing the walk of Kona shame, whatever you want to call it, I just think it's character building. And I do want to finish what I'm start if I can physically move forward and I could physically move forward, even though it felt awful. I was like a zombie. I lose, like one cone. I lost 15 pounds. What? What? You know, that's. That's insane. I look like a skeleton, you know, and then you gain it all back in a day. It's water. It's like food. You know what I mean? But something's not right for me there.

But it's all linked to the swim. Is it? It's the saltwater somehow. Do you get a similar occurrence in salt water elsewhere or do you just tend to avoid saltwater Full island?

I've been fortunate where I can avoid it a lot, but there have been races that we've won in saltwater, but they've all been halfs and they've all been in, like, Eagle man, which is in Maryland and Auckland. What else I've done is Galveston saltwater. Yes, but it's like a murky, protective bay, whereas Kona is just like the ocean and just you're swimming 1.2 miles out and back. And I mean, it's funny, we even did it in practice where I could go do, but nothing like go do a hard swim and then get on the Queen K. But like, just nothing's like race day and like the ups and downs of the water that day. And, you know, I don't want to throw in my towel on it. I mean, shoot, I. I'm like. I'm like a brokenhearted girlfriend in Kona. Like, I just keep running back to keep trying just because I feel like there's. Look, I'd walk the Queen K again if I. If I had to. And by the way, I'm not qualified anyway for October 2022. So the universe will guide the way in that regard. But. But for now, I feel fortunate that we get to do a world championship in May. You know, just. It might be a one off. Just do it in a different place. It's a lake swim and it's a hillier course, which I like. It's a very hard run. That said, remember three Kona DNFs I've had? One of them was, okay, was a full in St. George. So St. George was a full for three years. In 2010, I was second to Heather Wurtel. In 2011, I think. Yes, 2011 is when I passed out at mile 22, meaning I had four miles to go and it was 97 degrees. I also looked like a skeleton. And I had. Now I had lost, like, copious amounts of weight in that race because my electrolytes were off. And I will get to that in a second. And then in 2012, we won St. George full. Okay. So Ben Hoffman and I laugh that we are the reigning champions on that full Ironman. Ten years later, we're gonna be racing it as a foal again. Right? But it's funny. In 2011, when I DNF'd St. George, that was brutal. And then I worked with someone to do Coeur d' Alene six weeks later, and I DNF'd that race as well. That was also in 2012. That's my last DNF for those two. But I had done a sodium preload and I gained 20 pounds of salt, and I had done the sodium preload, thinking it would help with my electrolytes. It was going to be another hot day in Coeur d'. Alene, and I was pulled off the course at mile 70 of the bike because I was like, you know, and like swerving and stuff. And Greg Welch was the commentator at that time, and my parents told me that he was like, okay, there's Meredith Kessler getting out of the water. She looks like the Marshmallow State Puffman. She. My wetsuit ripped. I mean, it was this. This sport is nuts, right? Like, how does that happen? But that was me trying to figure out my electrolytes. Well, okay, maybe that would work in Kona and that salt water. Well, Coeur d' Alene's lake swim, there's so much science around it all. And I. Shoot, call me stupid, because I feel like I'm still trying to figure it out and it just hasn't worked to my advantage yet.

Have you found any. Have you found. So clearly not solved the swim problem of Kona, but have you cracked the Electrolyte problem of kind of running in the heat. What have you done there to correct that?

I feel like for that regard I have probably six, seven years ago I started working with Daryl Griffiths of Coda Nutrition out of Australia. And it used to be formerly called shot. And what needed to happen was I had spent years with a lot of sugar, like so. And by the way, I still use Clif blocks here and there if I want. But six blocks has 200 calories and a lot of sugar. There were some Ironmans. I was doing six packs of block on like say a five hour ride in a race and it just got to be like a lot on your. See, for my, there was no GI distress, but it gets a lot of sugar in your system where your head starts to go nuts, right? So with Koda, he has these electrolyte tabs that that's not your calories, that's your sodium and that's your electrolytes, that's in your bottles, okay? And then my calories come from the gel which don't have the electrolytes, don't have the salt. They just have 100 calories and they provide your sugar hit. And they were clear and they weren't, they didn't stick to my gut. I just felt like we had a good routine. We did a sweat test. He found out how much sodium I'm losing per hour and he really did the math on that. So now I never stray from it. I need 2, 2 ish gels an hour for someone. I'm 130 pounds. I need about 200 to 220 depending on the weather. Calories per hour, sometimes 250, it depends. So I know exactly what I do. I need one bottle of hour with one electrolyte. Like you have to be like that now that Meredith, that 20 year old Meredith. I was just eat drinking Gatorade. Oh, I'll have some of this, I'll have some of that. I didn't know any better but now as I've gotten older, there does need to be some structure in that. Now don't get me wrong, I need coke. I can't no longer eat as I told Darrell, I can no longer eat anything gel wise really. Probably past that 40k mark or maybe 36k mark. I start hammering the coke and Red Bull just to get some calories and sugar hits. I run with a sugar tab in my mouth. I've learned to do that. Those are tr. Mustard packets have been my trick in the past. I wrote that about that in my book. Because I was told this, and I don't know if it's true or not, but by a doctor a long time ago, that mustard provides this neurological message to your brain not to cramp. And it works, man. I grab those mustard packets from the local McDonald's and I stick them in my special needs bag and in my bento box on the bike. And anytime I feel like the inkling of a cramp coming on, I grabbed my mustard packet.

Well, that is a new one on me. I have never heard that before and I will be. I'm not sure I like mustard that much. But if it stops the cramp, then.

Then that's exactly.

That's good. Now, I understand last November you got Covid and then you've obviously subsequently had the COVID vaccine, but you actually had a bit of a reaction to that as well, potentially. So tell me a little bit about your Covid experience and how that's impacting you and your training.

Well, I first want to say Covid is a big buzzkill for everybody, like, not just me. So anything I'm saying has that disclaimer that people are struggling way far worse than I am or I have. So I want to be sure to state that before I continue on that there's people dying from COVID It's awful. They're in the hospital for weeks at a time. So just I say that with grace. For me, my family got Covid last November, so it's almost been a year. Was the reason I didn't race challenge Daytona, which was early December. We got Covid the end of November. Couple reasons. Was a. What stinks about getting Covid is I'm not a luck person. Like, I think we create our own luck. Of course, in an Ironman, you need mechanical luck not to get that flat tire or your Di2 to come off or your saddle to come off, which I have had all those things happen. But really, we create our own luck in life. Okay, most of the time. But getting Covid for most people is super unlucky. You could do everything right. You could have kept your distance, you could have worn your mask. We did all those things. Well, Aaron, my husband and I'm going to bring some humor into this story. He doesn't even leave the house, ok? He works from home, he might go on a walk, whatever. He is focused on his work. So we giggle. Only because I obviously brought it home, right, Because I went to the grocery store, I went to train. We have such a small community here. I never went anywhere. But my. We have Our neighborhood, little country club, I guess it's called. And it has the pool and it has the gym. And I went there and I went to the grocery store and Mac went there. And my little community, we all got it at the same time, like Mac and his friends and their parents. Okay. The moms of that, oddly, were all so sick. Like I was. I don't want to be that sick again. Again. People have it far worse. But the chills, the aches, the sweating, the chills were the worst. And we can talk about this. I was in the middle of a Zwift race series that I was in a good position for the money. And I remember just being in the heat of COVID and I don't know what a dummy. I did race and it worked out for me, but I was. I can't express to you how ill I was, but. So I had Covid. It was. I was very miserable for about two weeks, like a goth vampire trying to manage my human. I was not thankful. But it would have been horrible if Mac and Erin wouldn't have had Covid because I would have had to been segregated from them. And that would emotionally have put me in a dark place because I want to be with my people. So we just did our quarantine in the house, the three of us, because they were both positive. Aaron felt nothing. He was drinking IPAs in the Master spa. He was fine. Okay, so he was good. Thank goodness he didn't feel anything. But he's one of those people that were asymptomatic, right? The reason we laugh is because I got tested probably 10 days after being positive for Covid, thinking there was some glimmer that I could go to Daytona. Now, please keep in mind, I could barely run like 10 minute miles. There was no way I was going to should go to Daytona, but I was actually negative. Okay. And Erin was still positive, so it's just like crazy. So I technically could have flown to Daytona because you needed a negative test. But then I worried, what if I got there and I was positive? You know, because we learned all about COVID You're really, you serve your quarantine and then you're the safest person to be around for a while. You have the antibodies lalala. So I would have been the safest person to be around if I went to Daytona because I was well past my quarantine. But fast forward, I feel like I recovered from having Covid. So I was in a Zwift race pro series. I was feeling good again. I was hitting my Numbers, my marks, I didn't feel anything. And we'll go into this. Anything lung wise at that time, meaning I didn't feel my lungs restricting and all this. Fast forward now it's December, January, February and March. I get the JJ vaccine, which in America, that's the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. It is a one shot. And I was really greedy at the time. I was like, I just want one shot because I'm doing St. George. My age group was allotted in March and I'm doing St. George and I don't want to worry about getting that second shot being too close to St. George. So I go, well, in hindsight, you know, it's always 50, 50, right? But so I get that shot in March and then I go to race St. George a month and a half later. But pause, after I got the vaccine, I literally, it was like it inserted Covid back into me. I went back to the goth vampire. I lost my voice even then for two weeks. That was new because when I had Covid initially, I didn't have the cold. Like, you know, people having a cold and stuff. I didn't have a cold back then. The vaccine, though, it put the COVID back into me. What felt like the chills, the aches for longer than just the day it felt supposed to. But it also brought a huge cold into me, like I couldn't breathe. I lost my voice literally two weeks ago. I couldn't speak. I was Zwift racing because we were all on Discord and no one could hear me, like, when we're talking and for when I'm doing these team races, I mean, it was, it was insane. And then I raced St. George and all the years of racing St. George. And I understand it's at a little bit of altitude, but it's not at like boulder altitude, 6,000ft. It's not like 3,500ft. I'm saying that never bothered me coming from sea level or anything. So that was my first red flag. I get into St. George and I literally, I cannot breathe. My legs or my legs, my lungs just. It was like something was, you know, as athletes, let me rewind without getting too crazy. We know our body best. And like, some could say, oh, man, maybe you're just getting older. True. Okay, that could be. But I'm telling you, I am doing the same numbers, same cases, and if not better than I was when I was 35. But I never felt this kind of constriction in my lungs. Okay. So after St. George, I go to get them checked Out. And my MRI and my CT scan and whatever you want to call it, X rays. It looks like my lungs have been filled in with like colored in of scar tissue. Okay, that's not good. And you've been given this so called restricted airway disease or long, long haul Covid or whatnot. The bully, like me wanting to bulldoze through this was like, okay, well, it surely will go away. Covid's new for everybody. There's not a lot of data. Like, Aaron could have scar tissue all over his lungs, but he's not doing what I'm doing every day, right? So, like, he won't know. I raised Iron Man, Tulsa, same thing. Couldn't breathe. Thought that would be better because it was full so that you don't have to go as hard as you do in a half. No, it was terrible. That was almost a dnf. I somehow got to that finish line and then I raced Boulder. I took some time, got more CT scans. Oh, can you suck the scar tissue out of me, literally at this point? Can you cut me open and take a vacuum and suck it out? Because I can't breathe out there. Like, I have this extreme. And so then I don't get air to my, like, legs and arms and head. Like, I'm just, just a mess. I thought it would be better in Boulder and we laugh about boulders because, yes, Boulder is 6,000ft. So even if you're of altitude, maybe it was. Maybe I felt the altitude mixed with my lungs. Plus on that day, you might have heard there's like this. The smoke came in. So there's all this smoke in the sky. So, okay, call that unlucky, but. So I have not raced since Boulder and no one can really tell me. I work with one of my former athletes who's on the front line in Covid. She's a pulmonary doctor. Her name is Dr. Steph, and she's been helping me through this. Like, we've tried everything. I'm on a legal inhaler. I've tried albuterol, also legal. I really don't know if the inhalers work or do anything. I will know when I'm back in a race again because there's nothing like a race where you can really test yourself. So I'm racing a half marathon, like at the end of a training week this Sunday. And I'm just gonna see at top notch running how that feels. Right. And then I'll do Daytona because there's really no other races I can go to before then. And I'm gonna try it in Daytona and we'll go from there. But I just think that it's. There's such little info about it that I wish some magical person could just be like, oh, you've had Covid almost a year, it'll be gone by then. Or do I have the scar tissue because of the vaccine? Because I had Covid, I just don't. Nobody knows and no one can tell me. And that's the hard part. And I didn't have an MRI or a CT scan after I had Covid to see if the scar tissue was there first. You know what I mean? So I will never know if it was there. But I know my body and I'm not blaming it could be just coincidence that maybe after the vaccine it instead instilled a lot of it just like kind of capitalized or enhanced the COVID that was in me originally. I just don't know. And I'm all for getting the vaccine. I also don't have a set, like if you don't want it, do you? If you want it, do you? And I've talked to peers about it. I would say it's 50, 50 that my peers got the vaccine and that's okay too. It's new. A lot of people don't know about it. Some people want to have kids. They don't know if it's good for that miteli. So again, that's one of the topics, right? That it's the unspoken. But I'm telling you, I have no. Like if I meet someone who hasn't had the vaccine, that's okay, I understand. I want to know more about. Okay, why don't you want it? Like, people judge people too much on that and they don't know their story. So I'm one of those people who doesn't judge on that. That said, if I could do it all over again, I maybe get the two shot Pfizer or Moderna, but. And who knows? Those could have made me not well either. So I guess what I'm saying, Charlie, is at this point I'm just going to time. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. And I always have to tell myself with everything I do well before this happened to us, Meredith, the two most powerful warriors are patience and time. So you just need to keep being patient and you need to keep giving this time. And the lens I've sort of looked through is even though at least I'm focused on what I've gotten to do, having Covid, right, There's people in Hospital beds that have Covid. I've still trained, I still Zwift race. I'm still training 20 to 25 hours a week and living my best life even though it doesn't. I haven't felt like myself for a long time but I've gotten to do that and I'm totally focused on that versus woe is me. I need to retire. Covid ended my career. It's not that I'm going to keep pushing through and hope that's not the case. And like I said, some may say Meredith, you're 43, maybe it's your time. Even my parents probably think that in the back of their head and I'm like no, no, no, no, we're gonna keep on pushing through. Maybe my lungs are just injured. Right? That's the way I'm looking at it. Like they're injured and so I need to just be cognizant and mindful of them.

Brilliant. And I'm sure like you, I'm sure you've got many, many years of racing to come but what will have you thought about what post racing life will be like? What have you got any plans?

Yeah. Well so people have asked me before like what would you do if you weren't a triathlete? And it's funny, I really wanted to be like I love the. I do love coaching, don't get me wrong but what I love the most about coaching is the mental side of it. Ok, the like less about say putting in plans which that's fine too but I mean more about the how do you feel as a human? What's going on in your personal life that is maybe affecting how you are as an athlete or because I know for me if I'm a happy human then I'm a happy athlete And a happy athletes always race better than sad, upset, grieving, just unhappy athletes. And I get that. So I wanted to be a psychologist. So that's what I'm getting at. I really did. Now listen, I'm not going to go back to school in my life right now for X amount of years but I've been like literally researching on getting, you know, trying to become like a life coach and stuff like that. On top of coaching triathletes I also like take the athlete out of it. I also just like helping non triathletes. Non. Oh they work out and such but that's not their focus. They have. I like being a psychologist type life coach person for athletes and non athletes alike. So we have that and just like obviously I Love being a mom too. And we laugh about Aaron. Is that Aaron, you know, Aaron went to Harvard, he graduated from Harvard, he started a finance job and we feel very great job. And again, this is going to trigger me to be emotional again. Charlie, you got me today. He literally worked when I was working and we were both working in the city la la. And then he basically, once I really was settled into prodom, he quit his job and he was like, you don't want to, you know, your agent or whatever. I don't mean to sound like that, but he was my person who managed all the sponsors and he does, he still does any invoicing, any of that, but like so we could travel the world together. I mean that's why we went to Taupo together. He was, you know, he, he was like my person, right? He still is. But like now he, as we've segued at the pointy end of my career, whether that be two more years, five more years, he still, he has went back to work for the past five years now. He always consulted on the side and such but like now I'm sort of start. I have this baton in my hand and I've given that, I've given that to him and he's just, he's an entrepreneur and he's like me. We've both failed many times, but we don't let success get to our head or failures to our heart. But he's doing really well on what they're working on now. And so I really, as his biggest cheerleader, hopes that works out for him. So I have been giving him space for the past. He told me the other day, so I'm going to be pretty unavailable the next two to three years. I mean, he said that jokingly, meaning during the day, like really I pretend he's at an office even though he works from home from 9 to 7, let's say just arbitrarily. And so I. Mac is my. And I want that for him because he's really trying to get that Ironman win, let's just say in my world. And so. And I want that for him, for us. So I do my part with Mac and my side hustles being yes, I'm a pro triathlete, I coach, I've been commentating lately, which I enjoy and I hope I can do that a little bit more. And then we have like little things, whether it's doing extras for your sponsors for additional money and stuff, like there's always side hustles you can do but like once I drop the not gonna race anymore. And I really don't want that to be for a long time. I will just keep on my side hustles because I'm, I want to contribute to the family too. And, and I love doing, helping others and coaching and lifting people. But I might get my life coaching degree, which you can of course do online and stuff and just learn a lot about that side too. So there's that.

Well, that leads me nicely onto a question I ask every guest, which is, and I'm going to ask you this in two ways. Are there any books that you found really valuable and really helpful for you or you find yourself recommending to other people? And I'm going to ask you one in the sense of books relating to triathlon or sport or whatever it is, but maybe one in the, in the, in the field of life coaching and things like that. Is there anything, any books or resources in that field that you found really valuable?

Well, my number one for non triathlon is Glennon Doyle's We Can Do Hard Things. Abby Wambach is her partner. And Abby Wambach played for the U.S. women's Soccer Professional team for years. And I always followed Abby Wambacht. She was just, she was like an older soccer player and she kind of newly retired. Well, she's married to Glennon Doyle and I'm like, who's this Glennon Doyle? Okay, well, Glennon Doyle is a very good writer and she recently wrote a book called We Can Do Hard Things. And it's a riveting book because like any human, you don't realize the world is doing it now. Right? Think about what the world's done with COVID for the past X amount of years. It's like, we can do hard things. And she talks a lot about bringing your mindset into that because when your mindset goes south, it kind of does parlay into an Ironman. If you're upstairs, doesn't match your downstairs, meaning your legs don't match your head, you're never gonna prevail in an Ironman distance and a half Ironman distance, Olympic distance, 13 mile half marathon on the weekend. Like, if you're not, if your whole body isn't in sync, it's really hard to do that. So I know my girlfriends and a lot of people in the world have the thing, you know, we can do hard things. And she and Brene Brown, who is another one to really look out for, which she talks about daring greatly. And that also really hits home. Like, you know, so like she and Glennon Doyle and Brene Brown are two really inspirational women for men and women all over the world. Us yes, they are from America, but also over the world. They're legendary and they talk a lot about mindset and that's been really great to read as an athlete too because it really punches into my athletic life as well.

Brilliant. Thank you. And I have not read, so I've not heard of We Can Do Hard Things. I'm definitely be adding that to my reading list. And I do know of Brene Brown, but I've never read any of her books. I think I've watched her TED Talk before, but fantastic recommendations.

Yes, read that for sure. Charlie.

Thank you very much. And one final question, which I think is Aaron's, one of Aaron's projects. But I understand you're partly involved with Endurance Zone tv, which actually. Okay, it's not a book, but it's from what I've seen it looks like a fantastic resource to absorb all things endurance based. So tell me a little bit about that.

Sure. So no. Right. So. Well, Aaron really like is involved with that and Tim and Rinny and myself, they came to us. Todd Jennings and Fireman Rob. He's the one who's done Iron Man's and his fireman. Literally he's a fireman for a living. Firefighter for a living. But he does his literally ironman's with that 50 pound suit on. It's amazing. Okay, well, he and Todd Jennings started Endurance Zone and this was, gosh, this may would have been two years because we did when it first came on the map, Renny and I did a virtual like real, we called it Real Mothers of Triathlon. And we were both swam in our master spa. We did a trainer ride on Zwift and then we ran on Zwift. It was like a triathlon. And we raised money for Challenge Athlete Foundation. Endurance Zone. That really just got them on into the tri world, like as a sponsor of it. So Rob was commentating the whole thing, which like during it was only maybe three and a half hours, but we were able to raise money for Challenge Athlete. Talk about what Endurance Zone is. And the best way to describe Endurance Zone is it's like a Netflix for endurance sports. Right. So you can go in there and watch any, you know, race that like adventure race or Tough Mudder or this Ironman from this, you know, date or whatever. And it's really cool. And during COVID it was really hitting because people were home and they were interested and so it's still new and it's still very much a work in progress, but I think it can really hit, like, a Netflix type of quality for the athletes of the world, because, like, you can't go on Netflix right now and look up that kind of stuff. But, like, imagine going to a whole app called Endurance Zone, and you want to watch any athletic event. It could be CrossFit from 2010. Okay, that's kind of neat, you know, so, you know, it's. Again, it's a slow process, but I think it'll take in the end. Brilliant.

Well, the bit that I was watching on it today was Dave Scott doing some swim coaching, and you in the master spa actually talking about your chi swims. So the little bit that I dove into today looked really interesting. So, Meredith, it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you. I knew it would be, and it's very much lived up to expectations. I really hope that you make a speedy recovery from all of the COVID trauma that you've had. And I hope the half marathon goes amazingly well at the weekend, and, you know, look forward to seeing you race Taupo again and also cracking Kona.

Thank you, Charlie. And thank you, everyone, for dealing with my emotions and tears. I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much, Charlie.

Thank you, Foreign. I'm sure you'll agree that was a fascinating and also passionate conversation with Meredith. If you want to find out more about Meredith, you can on Instagram and Twitter. She's Bkessler, and her website, meredithkessler.com gives you all of the details that you need about her as well, but just really incredibly passionate about Iron man, about her family. I loved here. I know it really stirred up the emotions, but I loved hearing how important Iron Man Taupo has been to her, and it really shows how this type of racing really gets under the skin of people and how much it means to them. I loved hearing about the chi swims and all of that stuff around using the swim spa, not just to train, not just for sort of essentially meditative benefits, but also for family time, too. So that. That was really, really cool. And who'd have thought mustard, McDonald's sachets of mustard to solve cramp. Really, really interesting. Let's just hope that it's something quirky like that that comes out of the woodwork that means she cracks the Kona race at some point in the next couple of years. So loads of really valuable stuff there. And, of course, she did also reference the power and importance of electrolytes and really how electrolytes have served her well. And and very much endorsing the approach that precision hydration take and with the whole sweat testing and you know, as I've told you in previous interviews, I've gone off and got my sweat tested and now have a precise program to to take with regards to electrolyte and also carbs. So, so really interesting stuff. Oh, and I mentioned in the interview with Meredith the audio swim sets that I found really good for the swim spa, but they also work really well for open water from React Fitness. Then go to React Fitness Swimming and you can download them and try them and get the taste of sessions. So I'll put that in the show notes too. So that's it for this week's episode. I hope to have a guest co host lined up for next one. If you can hear that. I'm a little bit groggy on this episode. Apologies. I'm full of what's being dubbed the worst cold ever. It's not Covid, but it is a pretty grotty cold, so I'm hoping you've managed to avoid that. But if I do sound a bit sniffly and a bit bunged up, that's because I am. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the podcast. If you have enjoyed it, please review it, share it. Best place to do that is on Apple because there is. That's the best way for other people to find it. And in the meantime, keep on training. If you've enjoyed this tribathlon podcast, please do go to Apple Podcast and rate it and review it. It massively helps us to deliver a better podcast. It helps people find it as well. So yeah, go to Apple Podcasts, give us some feedback, give us a rating and a review and please share it with your friends because ultimately that's what allows us to keep delivering more and more of these podcasts. And don't forget to download the tribathlon app for more amazing podcasts, but also to help you train, compete and to build your tribe.