Welcome to the Successful Athletes Podcast, Presented by TrainerRoad, where we interview Successful Athletes to make you a faster cyclist. In this case, a triathlete, because we're joined by an age group world champion, Teresa Harrison, out of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. You just won XTERRA World Championships in your age group in the female 50-54 division. Congrats Teresa! Thank you. It was cool to meet you. I was at the banquet, and then you were walking down from your podium where you got to hold up. I think you even got like
a certificate, which was pretty sweet, and got the lays and everything else. You recognized me. It was awesome. It was good to meet you. Yeah, I actually walked past you because I'm really shy. Then I'm like, oh, I'm pretty sure that's him. I'm going to go say hi. Yeah, that was awesome. It was good to meet you. On a super challenging day, we'll get into that later. Teresa, can you give me some background? Actually, we'll get into more of the race later. Just give me some background on your athletic career, because clearly now in multi-sport, but how long
have you done Trafflon, and did you do other sports before that? Just in high school, I did track. I was a runner track across country. I used to bike to school, on an old road bike. That was about it. Then didn't do anything until my 30s. I got into Trafflon like 18 years ago. Then I became a coach in 2007. I was still competing. Then I
went to my first race in 2011, added adventure racing into my repertoire and did for expedition adventures in the United States in Costa Rica. I did that. That was my first time mountain biking. When I got into that, it's been 10 years since I've been mountain biking.
10 years right there. Best 10 years, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I really enjoyed mountain biking. I do all businesses from Sprint to Ironman, and five Ironmans now. Really enjoy those. What's your Ironman PR? Just for a point of reference for a full distance athletes out there. 1131 is my best. Yeah, and then I've only had one race over 12 hours, and it was in Corde de Laine when we were, I don't know what the Fahrenheit is, but it was plus 45 degrees Celsius.
Oh my gosh, that's like on the bike. It's got to be like 115 degrees. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot. It was the highest dropout rate in Ironman history at that race. And volunteers were like getting sunstroke and yeah, it was. So it was just over 12 hours at race though. Oh my gosh.
I feel in a hot day who's just slogging it out, but brutal. So, so you were just more or less, I assume like, you know, an active person like to do these things, and then you got into trath on that sort of hooking you more adventure racing doing all that. I guess where did your path take you to the point now where you're at Xtera? Let's fill in the gaps in between full distance Ironman and then getting to Xtera.
Yeah, so I've got some much younger male friends. I say much younger. I guess like, they're probably 10, 8 to 10 years younger than me. And, and they were doing road trathalon and and Xtera. And since I was on the mountain bike now, they're just like, yeah, you should do this. So, yeah, so it can more is our local race. So I did that one, and I qualified my very first time.
So I got first in my age group. And that was in 2014. So I came to Maui that year. And then the next year, I got second in Canmore, but the girl first didn't want it. So then I got the roll down and I went again. Yeah. And then, you know, because of personal reasons, I wasn't able to race after that for a while and then COVID hit. So, and then here we are. Yeah.
So I want to talk a little bit about the three different disciplines of so Xtera for those don't know as well off road trathalon, right? So typically swimming in a lake or an ocean or a river. So that in and of itself isn't very different from what you see in like in typical trathlon.
However, in this case, it's an Olympic distance typically the swim is that correct. Yeah. And then, but everything changes after that because then you get on the mountain bike and you ride on trails and then you trail run for the for the run. So you've got roughly somewhere around a 40 K bike and then you've got roughly somewhere around a 10 K run thereafter.
So depending on the course and it's it's a really cool discipline because trail running is very unique mountain biking is very unique to cycling as well. They're very even though it's riding and running. They're two totally different disciplines. So did Xtera. Did it become a favorite of yours over the other forms of trathlon because even this year you did Iron Man, Chattanooga. Do you prefer one or the other?
I prefer Xtera. For a lot of reasons, it's a little more interesting. You're a little closer to nature. And the people are different. Like it's the crowd around you is just more laid back and it's just a better group to be around I find. Yeah. So at world championships, it didn't feel like some sort of like fun run. That's for darn sure. But it was not the same.
I don't want to say something like, oh, yeah, it was definitely not a road race. You go to a local criteria and it feels cutthroat. Right. Whereas if you go to the world championships like Xtera, I did not feel cutthroat. But very serious at that level, but certainly not, you know, elitist, not exclusive, not anything like that at all. Yeah. And when you're in Kona, if you're just on that island during Kona, you feel nerves that world championship, right? Like it's very intense.
Yeah. Whereas Xtera was different. It felt much more inclusive is pretty cool. Yeah, I first time going to one. Although we're all type A, it just seems like in road traffic on everybody's type A plus. Yes. When you go when you go to Iron Man. And then when you go to Xtera, it's like type A minus minus a or something. And everybody's friendly like the pros will stop and chat with you. And because we're on the pre ride. There was a pro from Spain.
And at the aid station at the end of the ride, you're just all chatting and. Yeah, they just very laid back, right? So. Yeah, it's a cool sport for sure. So let's talk about how you trained and prepared for this because you won. And first of all, was winning a surprise to you? Or was that something you knew you could do when you were working toward it? I knew I was going for a podium finish. Okay.
And then I was going to be a COVID year. There was only 11 registered. So I wasn't sure how that was going to work out and beans that I wasn't running at the time. I was so going for a podium finish because I thought I could pull a run together. So. But I didn't realize how well that first place went. And then I was going to be a little after. Yeah. So yeah, I was going for a podium for sure. Awesome. So let's step things back then.
How did you train or when did you start using trainer road? Because you used trainer road to train before this event here. But when did you start using trainer road? It's about two years ago. And although I coach, um, Traffleets, I don't have a coach. So, and I know a lot of coaches have a coach. So this was sort of my half coach because I at least my bike's taken care of and then, um, then I just worry about what I put in for the run and swim and wait. So.
For sure. Yeah. That point, I think when you started, um, you were at around 160 for your FTP, right? Yeah. It wasn't, wasn't huge. So I needed to work on that. And then with bikes, bike focused bike specific training. Now, uh, you're up to the point where you're somewhere around 200 watts, um, with your FTP. So Bravo. Nice job. Fantastic.
It's a huge percentage increase, um, to get with that. So let's talk about, um, before we even get to the plans, um, you mentioned, uh, in, in like a brief story that, because you kind of had a relationship with injuries and then overcoming injuries and overcoming these things. Yeah. Can you take me back to, I guess let's go back to the, to bog and accident that you mentioned and then we can kind of step forward and then that'll bring us to this year.
And the injury was that you battled before this race. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, even before the bog and accident, I think every year, just pushing myself to the limit. It seems like every year, you have a different injury every year and you overcome it. And I never see that injury again. Like I've never repeat an injury in my life. So every year it's new. I'm good and bad.
I become really experienced in what to tell my athletes. So, um, so back in New Year's Eve, uh, 2016, um, we're debugging out at my dad's farm and there's this enormous hill. And when, when I to bog and I get a kind of a running start and then you flop down on your stomach on the toboggan and you just flies fast, you can't. But at the bottom, I don't know if you're familiar with what house swamps are like. Yeah.
And there's kind of like the ground sort of like moves because there's water underneath. So when the cattle walk through it, they create these humps when they walk, they have a depression and these humps. Those freeze in a big huge humps. So the snow was covering it in the toboggan hit one of those and I impacted my stomach.
And so it, it flipped me up in the air and then I landed on my back and I couldn't move. So, um, my husband knew there was something wrong. So he rushed over and then he asked my son to go tell my dad to call. An ambulance and of course, being that my son was like, I don't know, 11 at the time, he didn't really believe that. So he came down and asked and then he went back up and called the ambulance, but. Yeah, they took me to a local small hospital.
They don't have a lot of resources there, but and they did x-rays and there was nothing broken. So they were going to keep me for observation there overnight. And I was still a lot of pain and they, they gave me a lot of fentanyl like the maximum you would give someone. And they still didn't know it was wrong. So Rogers, my husband said, you know, we should get her to a bigger center. And we diagnosis and they said, well, CT scan would show.
You know, what was wrong. So they sent me to red deer and they have one. So they did the scan. And within 30 minutes, they had me in surgery because there was a showed air in the abdomen. So they got me the surgery. And I had a tune. I called toony because in Canada, we have $2 coins. So it's like a silver dollar size for America. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I had a whole about that size in my lower intestine in my bowel, my large intestine.
So it took them a while to find it. I was in surgery for a couple hours. And they removed between eight and 12 inches of of bowel. And they took out the seecom, which is a big part for reabsorption of water and nutrients. So they took that out. So as in the hospital for eight days and I lost 20 pounds. And a lot of that was a lot of muscle. And then two months after that, I couldn't eat a lot of food because it would just go right through.
So I was eating like four or five hundred calories a day for a couple months and just wasting. Yeah. Yeah. So I lost my my legs were just really thin. And then I didn't have a lot of muscle left. So yeah. So then after that, then we hope that has to on that one really quick though. I mean, that has to still affect you, right? And your ability to be able to absorb and process glycogen when you're on the bike and food. Have you had to adjust for that?
No, actually, it's interesting because I've read studies on what the see can removal does. And it was just a study on on mice. So like I'm a lab rat here. But I think my body's adjusted. I think I think it's made adjustments because I find that I'm pretty healthy and I do the regular blood tests to make sure my levels are good. Awesome. Well, good. That's good. So you had that one. When did that happen again? In which year?
So that was New Year's Eve 2016. So going into 2017. And prior to that, my FTP was 200. I mean, out of that, I could barely ride 60 to 80 watts. Like, oh, it was just. Wow. Yeah, I'd get on the bike and I could barely spin that and I'd be exhausted. Starting from scratch, then. Yeah. Yeah. How long between that and then your next race? Oh, I didn't race then until I lost a lot of confidence. And I don't think I even race till 2019 2019 is my first race back.
2019. Wow. So you mentioned the recurring thing with different injuries and everything else that you had. Did you fight injuries? I guess in 2020, 2020 being the COVID year and the throwaway year for a lot of events. But did you fight injuries in the last two years leading up to this race as well? None. I thought I didn't train hard enough to create any injuries. So there you go. No injuries during that period. So what about this year leading into extra worlds?
Did Iron Man, Chatnuka, and did you battle injury that this year leading into that? Well, not until like I was good like all year. I started strong in January, February. And then my mom passed away in March. And then my training took a serious nose dive after that until the end of June. And then started ramping back in July, August, September, no injuries. Everything was good. And then we fly into Chatnuka. And then the next day, I'm feeling something in my shin. And it's sore.
And so I just tape it. I just thought, oh, well, maybe it's a shin splint. And then do the race. It doesn't hurt on the race, but everything else does. Like my hips and glutes and hamstrings. But the day after the race, like it was my tibia was very, very tender. And then when I got back to Canada, they're like, yeah, you have a stress fracture. So you can't be running. Were you doing a lot of running volume before then or a specific type of running that you think caused it?
Or did you nail down the cause? Oh, yeah, it was, yeah, my physiotherapist looked at my training plan. And it was ramped up nice and slow. And so we looked at different reasons. And I was on a calorie-stricted diet for July and August. And I lost 18 pounds. I was fueling all my rides with calories and all my runs with calories. But in between time, I was on a 1750 to 1850 calorie diet. Because I had put on a lot of weight between March and June.
So he said, well, it's probably your calorie restriction that caused your bones not to heal. Because that's the last thing in your body that will take the calories. Like your brain comes first and then your muscles and your heart, your tissue, like everything else needs calories first. And then your bones are last. So I didn't eat enough. Yeah. And that's a common, that's actually a pretty common experience for a lot of endurance athletes. It's easy to undergarish, right?
Yeah. So then from, and Chattanooga was September 26th. And then Xteras December 5th. So I had two months. Cheese. Not running. And then they're like, you can't restrict calories anymore. So then I gained back eight pounds. And I don't know if it hurt me during that race. But, yeah, they're not running. I'm sure hurt my run a bit because it was quite a bit different this year than the last two times I went to Xterra. Sure. Quite a bit slower.
Yeah. Yeah. So leading a dire man, Chattanooga, you were following, at that point, you were following the full distance triplan, right? And mid volume plan. So that was July to September. And then thereafter, you have the injury. And then you're focusing just on bike specific work since you can't run. You can't do that stuff. So instead, you're just focusing on the bike. That's what you did. A blend of the mid volume, sustain power build plan.
And then you jumps up to high volume leading into the event as well. And that sustain power once again, which is interesting because I think a lot of athletes assume, oh, well, Xteras mountain biking. So I should be super surgery unlike the very consistent Iron Man efforts. But in the end, with the duration of the race, and typically the profiles you're dealing with, it is about sustained power, right? Is that why you ended up picking it?
Yeah. And a lot of the workouts were between an hour and two hours. And I knew that bike course would probably be around two hours. And I had a lot of zone two long four to five hour rides previous. And I was really good endurance, but I didn't have good sustained power being Iron Man training. So yeah, that's why I picked that plan. Does it just seemed like, you know, Xterra has a lot of punchy climbs and I'm going to have to hold sweet spot for a really long time.
Yeah, because I can't just punch the whole time. You do that. You won't even be able to run, right? You just have to be able to keep the gas on. And that was good on that course with it because the climb was pretty darn long. Every lap, it was more or less one consistent long. It's sometimes extremely steep climb that you had to deal with. Yeah, the first, the first half of the, did you ride the loop? I did. I did ride the loop.
Yep. Yeah. So the first, third, first half, yeah, a lot of big climbing. And then the second half, there was three, two or three punchy climbs. Yep. After some flowy downhill, a little bit of technical, but a couple more climbs in there. Yeah. Yeah, predominantly your big up and then kind of a big down with a few interruptions. So yeah, smart training with that. Can I ask what if you did any other modifications with the injury that you were dealing with leading into the race?
Or was it just simply cutting out the running time? Did you cut out swimming to or? Yeah. So no, I was swimming three times a week. And I was strength training. I have a strength strength coach twice a week. And what sort of exercises were you doing to help with your leg? Yeah. So he put me on something that just to help the bike doing step ups with a lot of weight and then explosive step ups. So he would do a lot of strength, strength squats.
And then the last few sets were the week came off and then we do explosive. And then a lot of upper body because mountain biking requires upper body as well. And I found that out when I first got on the bike for the first time and my arms were like so sore. Yeah. I need to upper body strength now. So. Yeah, three times a week swimming, two times a week strength. And with the six times a week on the bike, two were outside on the mountain bike.
And then the rest were inside to get good quality intervals in. Yeah. Because I just found that once you go outside, you just you don't have the terrain doesn't allow to have that constant interval that push. You just don't have that same opportunity. So. For sure. So that's a lot of training volume that you were carrying into this. Do you know roughly how many hours per week you were putting in? Gosh. Well, from Ironman, I was doing I run by TSS. Sure. Yeah, that works. Things up.
Yeah. Ironman is doing 700 to 1000 TSS a week. And then when I couldn't run and added two more days a week and cycling. It was still only 400 to 650 TSS a week. But purebuck basically mostly by yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are big weeks. And then you're adding strength training on top of that and you're adding swimming on top of that too. Yeah. So then my physiotherapist, you would let me do anything in October. But in November. I was allowed to do two foot hops.
And then I was allowed to do two foot hops. Like on one in on a spot. I couldn't do one leg at hops yet because it would there was still pain there. So I did two leg at hops and then he gave me calf raises. Every other day. Seated and then a standing with a bent knee. I don't know. Yeah. Why that bent knee made a difference. But yeah. So two different types of calf raises. And he said that should help prepare for the run. And then he said, you know, you can do it.
And then he said, you know, you can do it. So I think it's a little bit of a difference. I think it's a little bit of a difference. But yeah. So were you concerned coming into the event about running? I mean, since that's especially with X, Terra in particular, it tends to be a pretty decisive portion of the race, right? Yeah. I was, I was a little concerned. But the reason why I went six times a week, bite. Because I knew that. Biking can compensate and help train for the run.
And I know that actually often when I went to Atlanta, I learned with a few things. And back to where. Back and. I think back in 14 or 15. I had an SI joint issue. And I couldn't run a lot, so and I only had run once a week. And it was always off the bike, so I was warmed up. And I would do a 5k run with 1k, uh, repeats. And at a hard intensity. 70.3 that year and PB my half marathon with a 128 half marathon. Wow. Nice. Yeah, it was the fastest time I ever had and I barely did any running.
So I knew that if I had a lot of biking going into this and then keeping my calves strengthened and I knew I could maybe crush that run. I don't know if crush it is quite a bit slower as nine minutes and 14 minutes slower than previous X deras in Maui. It's also dumping buckets of rain. So yeah, it's a very different race. And let's talk about that. So you show up to the race and the swell is so big because a huge storm comes in that they cancel the swim.
And instead you find out that you have like roughly like a 3k run and then you get on the bike. So how did you shift your strategy or what were your thoughts knowing that you'd have a 3k run instead of that swim. Right. Well, first I can't swear on. We can't leave it out. We can. Yeah, I was like, first I crap my pants and then. Yeah. Oh, great. How am I going to do this? And I was like super nervous and I was already nervous because of all the the muddy conditions on the bike.
I was worried about your injury like head injury or shoulder and like anything. It was so slippery. So slippery. Very slippery. So I was all worried about that because the pre ride was on Thursday was just beautiful like those perfect conditions and so yeah, so it's a little nervous about putting together two runs and I was just thinking about how I had to pace that. So I didn't destroy the whole race.
So beans that I didn't have a lot of running leading up this. I have a fairer gun. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I warmed up with a fairer gun. And then all the lake muscles and glutes with a fair gun first and then I just did a five minute easy. And then my pace strategy was to not run hard in the first three K. Yeah, we're pacing off of another runner like trying not to. We're just trying to stick with the pack or just stick to your own pace that was slower than that.
Yeah, I actually started at the back. So I was in the last heat because we're old. And I experienced yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or it's in the six feet. And I started right at the back. And you can see me in the exterior video in it just after a minute in the video. I'm at the very back. So I was just going to run my own race. And I just didn't want to. I didn't want to have my breathing. I just wanted to keep it nice and steady. And on the uphill climbs.
If or uphill runs, I guess not climb on the bike. I didn't want to load the quads. And especially on the downhill. I took it very, very slow because I've done my fair share of long business trail running at altres. So I know what downhill running can do to the quads. And it'll just destroy the rest of your day. So on the downhill, just I let everybody pass me like I just took it super easy.
And then so going into the bike, my legs weren't loaded. You know, I mean they weren't like rock solid. So. Yeah, I think that was the best plan because I felt pretty good after that first run. But I think I passed a couple girls my age group just on that run alone. The short run before you got to the bike. Did you do anything to your equipment on the bike portion to prepare for the mud and rain? Well, I was I'd had some maxes high roller to's on. So some pretty meaty tires. Yeah. Yeah.
That's what I like to ride here. But I had some icons I was going to bring. And then I was looking at the weather and then I was looking at the way to my suitcase and I was like, what are the chances I would actually put these on. So I left them at home. So I was thankful that it wasn't good conditions. Yeah. Like that was a stupid mistake I ever made. Not packing those tires. So yeah. So I rode with high roller to's. Yeah.
And they'll seem to grip pretty good. But I did slow down on the corners, the downhill corners with the roof. For sure. So slippery. Yeah. It's ridiculous. Yeah. How do you pace the bike because you've got kind of once again this long climb, but it unulates. And sometimes it's really steep. Sometimes it's flatish, even. How do you pace the bike? Did you you did two laps? So was your goal to go faster on the first lap? Faster on the second lap or how do you break it down?
Well, just from experience, I don't run with power on the mountain bike. And I have a Birmingham watch that just goes by heart rate, but I don't even look at my watch for splits. So on the pre ride on Thursday, we went super easy. A friend of mine. She got second and her age category. Christie. And she got super easy that day. And it took me an hour and nine minutes to do that. And just super slow.
And so I thought, OK, so these are pretty steep these first ones. And I'm just going to be steady. So during the race, just steady on the climbs. I didn't want to have my breathing labored. So I just relied on how I was feeling, how I was breathing. And there was one climb. I couldn't help but get into that. Yeah, fast breathing because it was just so brutal. They're steep. They're over 30% really steep sections. Yeah. OK, yeah, I like it.
Yeah, there was a lot of people that were getting off the bike, but I just stayed on. I just stayed steady and and just try to, you know, keep my rhythm going up the hills and then I passed quite a few people on the uphill. And, and then on the down anytime where it was kind of like a straight, a straight away is when I tried to pick up my pace quite a bit to save, save time. Because I knew I was going to be super cautious on the downhills where there's corners and roots. Sure.
Any time there was like a straightaway or or something that was like there's a spot in the tree where it's kind of kind of low me and it works slippery and had kind of bait. Yeah, they had berms in there. So that was a really fast section. I just tried to punch it harder on the slight uphill, but not too tough. And then on a slight down where there's no technical and then yeah.
So the first, the first split was an hour and 15 minutes, which is quite a bit slower than the pre ride. So I was so muddy though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So and my second split was exactly the same. Wow. Check that out. Yeah. And it got rainier like it was running down the course. Yeah. But I think just because there was less people in front of me.
That is able to maintain the same pace for the second lap as I did the first. Did you feel fresh getting off the bike and into the runner? Did you feel exhausted? I mean, you had that run to kick things off. So that was foreign, but you had had plenty of time training on the bike, leading into that. So I had the run go. Well, I felt fresh, like coming in on the bike, like I felt like I had good energy. My fuel really well. I felt great. But my legs said different.
Not running for a while. And yeah. And then there's just not pill like right away. Yeah, I just steep climb. This felt terrible. Like I felt like I wasn't going anywhere. And just my legs felt really heavy. And I didn't know if that was because the amount of mud in my shoes already or. Yeah. If I was just tired or or because I wasn't running, you know, leading up to it. So.
Yeah, it was a tricky course to on the run because it was so slippery. Did you use like we're using cross country spikes or anything like that in your shoes or did you use standard running shoes? Oh, yeah, on while both on the bike. Because there was a few sections you had to get off. Because you had slip on the roots. But I had really long screws in the front of my bike shoes smart. And I would pass quite a few people when everybody was walking up these hills.
And I'd be like running up the hills with my bike because I had traction. Yeah, that's makes smart. Yeah, but on the run, I used Solomon speed cross and they've got, yeah, pretty deep. Yeah, traction on those. So yeah, they worked really well. And I got the new ones and that just came out and they're a little bit wider. So a little bit wider than the previous speed cross four. And I find it's more stability side to side on those. So yeah, it worked really well on that course.
Did you have a pay school for the run or was it more just, you know, try to kind of hold on to that perception of you felt like what it was a sustainable effort. Yeah, to not die. Yeah, I had no pay school. It was just to run as hard as I could when I could. And on the uphill, not, not go into that like zone six and seven, like even zone five. Yeah, I trained by like the seven zones. Yeah. But try not to dip into that high zone five at any given time.
So in previous years, I was able to run up that last final climb in the run. And this year, I couldn't. Yeah, I just felt like I just couldn't. And you were alone. There was that way for a lot of athletes. Did you know what place you were in on the run? Because like you said, you started in the back of that group within once you got up that I'm sure even on the run. But definitely once you got on the first climb on the bike, it was so mixed. It was really hard to keep track.
Yeah. And I didn't even know how many girls started in my group. So on the first climb on the first loop of the bike, I had passed a couple more. And so I really didn't know if there was more. I just raised. I race almost in fear that someone would catch me or that there was more in front. And I don't know fears the right word, but sure relatable. I understand that. Yeah.
And especially on the run when I was feeling like I was walking on too many up hills that were either slippery or just too steep. I always had that fear like don't walk. I just kept telling myself don't walk unless you absolutely have to because you don't want someone to come up behind you and pass you and go. And then you're like, why did I walk? Yeah, just so you don't want that disappointment. I always race with the mantra of asking myself, am I doing the very best I can do right now.
And so I always question that. And so I just kept running when I could. And then I didn't want to blow up though. So yeah, the last, the last run I ran all the down hills as hard as I could. Yeah, just going for it. Yeah. Yeah. Contrary to the first run. I didn't want to do that. The last run I did. Like any downhill. I just tried to run as hard as I could. Wow, which is tricky and all that rain and mud. Yeah.
Yeah, it was slippery. And you did it. Like what did it mean to win age group world championships for you? I don't know if you've done Xtera worlds before. But what did it feel like to come down into win? A bit mixed. I was really excited. It's like, this is. This is awesome. Like I came here to podium and and then the last part of that run. I was like, I'm here to I'm here to be number one.
And I just kept pushing hard. And if I'm going to, if it's a COVID year, I want to win by as much as I can. I'm just sort of to prove to myself that if there were other women here that maybe they would have slaughtered in behind me as well. So I think I was like 33 minutes ahead of second. Wow. Yeah. But the time gaps were huge that day because those challenging circumstances.
Is it takes a lot to be able to perform in those, you know, it's, it's hard. Yeah. I was, yeah, it was kind of a mixed feelings when he first because again, it's like the field is small. But and my and I didn't. I was able to run my best, but around my best that day and. But I'll take it. Yeah. You're, you're like a lot of endurance athletes that you, you feel conflicted when we achieve something. And it's difficult to give ourselves credit when we achieve something huge like that. It's hard.
Yeah. But allow me to give you credit for what you did. You worked through injury. You did so strategically. You did things that you probably didn't want to do like going to your physio and not being able to, you want to rush right through. Yeah. You went into something that then they threw a huge thing on its head. It's like, hey, you know, the sport you haven't been training for running. Well, guess what now you get to do it twice instead of swimming, which you have been able to work on.
And then you're dealing with crazy rain and you're dealing with like bottlenecks all over the course and slick conditions. So, you know, it's not helpful to always to put. Our circumstances or our results in this context where we try to find reasons why we shouldn't give ourselves credit for it. I think you should absolutely give yourself credit for that.
A challenging year to get there. A challenging year to be able to maintain focus and to do all this, not knowing if the event will go off or not to work through injury. I'm just super impressed Teresa. I'm impressed and inspired way to get it done and just to push through all that adversity and everything else that you have before it. Super impressive. Thanks. Yeah. That's exciting.
Is there advice that you would share to somebody considering this past year, looking ahead and what you've been able to achieve? Is there some meaningful bit of advice that you would like to share with other athletes? Oh, man. I don't know. It's been a crazy year with, you know, death in the family and then. I don't know. It's take take the time you need. Like don't stress about what you have booked on the races. Take the time you need.
And then just get get back at it. Definitely, definitely watch your calories. I mean, the way that the world wants you to feel like instead of the other way. Yeah. I don't know if that that injury sort of snuck up on me. I didn't feel it coming, but I would say be proactive on. Any little niggle you feel, even though like I never really felt that one coming. It would just kind of happen like right away. Yeah, and just be positive and be smart with your training like and do what you can do.
Yeah, that's probably the best I can give. Kind of focus on on your goal and what you need to achieve it and the best way you know how. Awesome. Well, Teresa, thank you. If athletes want to get in touch with you. I don't know if you are on the forum or on Instagram or anything else. But if what's the best way maybe on Facebook? What's the best way to get in touch with you? Oh gosh. I am on Instagram. I think it's under Teresa Riche, because that was my previous name.
And I'm on Facebook as Theresa McClare in Harrison. No, she said, I don't know what I am. We'll put the link below. That way it makes it easy for you. So be in the description on YouTube or the podcast, however you're listening to it. Yeah, I should have wrote that one down. That's all right. Big fail on that. That's right. Well, Teresa, I hope to see you next year at Iron Man or sorry at X-Tera World Championships.
Well done, a chat, Nuga. We didn't even mention that, but you missed out on the podium narrowly by under two minutes. So you were close to that too. Super impressive. Thanks for showing what athletes can do when they stick their mind to things and stick through adversity. And thanks for using Trainor Road to do it. It's very cool. Super inspiring. I love it. Now, if you're listening to this and you want to share your story, you can do so. Just go to trainerroad.com slash SAP.
And I'd love to hear from you and hear how you've used Trainor Road to achieve some level of success. We'll talk to you all next week. Thanks, everybody.