How to Train Alone or On A Ship: Why Alison Hayden’s Story Inspires Us, EP 268

In this compelling interview, Allison Hayden, a 53 year old multi-national champion swimmer with the St. Pete Masters, shares her journey and triumphs as a versatile athlete excelling in multiple disciplines. Known for her prowess in the 200 butterfly and middle-distance freestyle, Allison dives into her unique training regimen, discussing the mental challenges of training alone in the Maine winter and her approach to maintaining motivation.

Allison’s swimming story is as multifaceted as her strokes. From her college career at UNC Wilmington, where she studied marine biology and trained alongside future Olympic coach Todd DeSorbo, to her post-college transition as a professional triathlete and open-water swimmer, she has consistently pushed boundaries. A defining chapter of her journey includes swimming with a college club team at age 34 while coaching and training alongside younger athletes, proving age is no barrier to high performance. Her passion for open-water swimming shines, with her favorite event being the 10K, a challenge she embraces for its mental and physical demands.

Top 5 Questions Answered in the Interview

1. How do you win a high-point award at a meet?
   
   
2. What’s the secret to training alone and staying motivated?
   
   
3. Is it possible to train effectively in unconventional settings, like a small pool or alone at sea on a ship?
   
   
4. How can a swimmer transition between sports or stages of life and maintain peak performance?
   
   
5. What draws swimmers to open water events, and why is the 10K Allison’s favorite?
   
   

Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.

You can learn more about the Host and Founder of Champions Mojo at www.KellyPalace.com

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

All right, I'm doing an on-deck interview with Allison Hayden of the St Pete Masters and Allison and I have been swimming in the same LMSC for many years and I've always admired her swimming. She can swim basically anything, but is especially known for being a 200 flyer. Great middle distance freestyler. She's a multiple-time national champion. So we are in North Charleston at the Short Course Meters meet in December of 2024. So, allison, how was your meet? It was pretty good.

Speaker 2 0:31

considering swimming eight events in two days, a lot of them back-to-back, with like five minutes rest, I'm happy with what I could do.

Speaker 1 0:41

Yeah, every time I looked up, you were swimming, which I did not do eight events, but I I've heard a rumor you're going to get high point, uh, which my husband is getting high point too. So, you people who did eight events, that's a lot. So, um, talk to us about how you're training right now, um, in this part of the season, and what, what might be up for you for 2025?.

Speaker 2 1:12

Well, training's kind of hard right now as I I summer up in Maine and, being December, for some odd reason, I'm still up in Maine and training up there is pretty much by myself and it's a mental battle day to day. But I I've been swimming since I was four years old so I'm pretty used to the mental game of swimming and I like to push myself and I know how to do it. I look forward to getting back to Florida so I can draft off some people, get my mind to rest.

Speaker 1 1:41

Yeah, mark, and I call that getting on the conveyor belt when you have a group to swim with, but talk to us about winning the battle of training alone. So this would be great. A lot of our listeners do have to train alone. So how do you motivate yourself, and how many times a week and how much yardage? Because I think training alone is something that a lot of masters run into, but it's just hard to kind of execute yeah, well, I generally shoot for the feeling I get after the workout.

Speaker 2 2:10

You know the endorphins, just feeling proud that you got in, etc. It does take me about five to ten minutes to get in. I sit there and wonder why I'm doing this. I have to remind myself and more or less when I get through the warm-up I'm all right and, being an experienced swimmer, I know what I need to do. My butterfly is a little bit off now and I know exactly why. Because I haven't been doing a lot of butterfly and once I get in that groove and several repetitions of doing 50's butterfly on a pretty hard interval, that makes a good 200 fly Training wise. I try and hit it 5 times a week, about 4,000 yards. I'm very fortunate I have a pool that is not used very much. I always have my own lane.

Speaker 1 3:14

That is one of the beauties of training alone, when I say I train alone, I am alone. Like the whole pool to yourself. Yeah, I love it. So you talk about your experience. I love knowing that you did swim in college at the University of Wilmington yeah University of Wilmington. University of North Carolina at Wilmington. University of North Carolina at Wilmington Sorry, you swam at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and you've had a brush with greatness, like Todd DeSorbo was your fellow coach, because you were. Was this, tell us tell?

Speaker 2 3:49

us your connection to that. He was actually a fellow swimmer behind me a couple years, but okay, so Todd's a little younger than you but he was a fellow swimmer behind you so um yeah, I just seen that name when he became like the Olympic coach. I'm like, wow, isn't that that's. That's special that that was my friend in college many years ago yeah, that's really cool.

Speaker 1 4:12

So UNC Wilmington is a. It's a smaller school but has a lot of great pedigree. I mean, a lot of great coaches come out of it and um, you, obviously, you know, are one of their legends. I've heard, that's what I've heard, but what?

Speaker 2 4:32

was your transition like from college swimmer to master swimmer? Well, after college I became a professional triathlete. I found a passion for open water swimming and it was a lot easier for me. So I fell into that realm of like doing triathlons and I think was about 18 years and never really did any master swimming until that career was done. Then I had a second college career at age 34, 35. Whoa, tell us about that.

Speaker 2 5:08

So one of my best friends, Kyle Sage, he was my triathlon coach. He began a program at St Leo College which is just north of Tampa, and to become a college team you have to start as a club team and I was living in the area we were neighbors because he was my triathlon coach and I was basically like, what's next? And he's like, he asked me to cook, he goes, just come be a swimmer on the team and that was kind of a second college career. I was after the triathlon training I'm like, oh, swimming, swimming's a lot easier. I don't have to bike, I don't have to run and I was doing these insane workouts, just going in, doing repeat thousands day in, day out With the college team.

Speaker 2 5:57

There is a few very talented people that could keep.

Speaker 1 6:01

How old were you at this point?

Speaker 2 6:03

34.

Speaker 1 6:03

34. So was it you were swimming with the college club team or the? Did you have any NCAA eligibility left, or what was the oh?

Speaker 2 6:13

no, no eligibility left. I burnt that out at Wilmington. I was basically helping them coach and I'd just get in the water and swim.

Speaker 1 6:23

And when you swam with those college kids did it kind of amp your swimming up it did.

Speaker 2 6:28

It made me realize, like after doing triathlon and I'm just like that was a very difficult sport, very difficult time of life, very competitive and it's hard to put into words, but uh, that that college, second college career fueled me up. I was back doing my college times.

Speaker 1 6:55

Wow, yeah, that's crazy. And in college, what were your best events?

Speaker 2 7:00

500,000 mile at championship meets Nice.

Speaker 1 7:05

Okay, so you went to UNC Wilmington to study marine biology, right yeah, and then tell us about where that education took you and your career.

Speaker 2 7:15

I graduated, ended up working a few years down in the Everglades National Park. After that, I got involved in the environmental field, working with marine mammals, took a job with the oil company working with compliance, which was interesting because this was after my triathlon career, when I became a triathlete. I was a triathlete, that's all I did. So working with the oil company, I worked on a ship, I was out at sea for one month and I was on land for one month.

Speaker 1 7:55

Wow.

Speaker 2 7:56

So that was a very different lifestyle. I did that for about eight years and it just kind of like I felt off kilter, like I have my work friends and I come on land and I'm like, what do I do? It was hard to keep up relationships and friendships and swimming-wise. We did have a little tiny pool on the ship and I used to tie myself up and just Do a resistance band Swim for hours on end.

Speaker 1 8:30

No way you had a little pool on the ship and you swam on a resistance course.

Speaker 2 8:35

And I worked very long days 12 to 14 hour days and at least two to three times a day when I was having stress relief, I'd just go get in the pool, strap the band on. That is so cool and there was a weight room and I really I got pretty buff. Yeah, you're still pretty buff If I wasn't working. I was working out and eating a lot.

Speaker 1 9:05

Okay, so how did you end up at St Pete Masters and tell us about that?

Speaker 2 9:12

Well, right after after college, I did an internship with the state of Florida, which is right there by North Shore Pool, where the St Pete Masters are, and I would go swim at lunchtime and I just met all these amazing people and just like, eventually I think it was 2020, I'm like I want to get back into Masters. So I moved down there. I knew it was a good community from triathlon and from the swimming during that time.

Speaker 1 9:46

You moved back down there from where.

Speaker 2 9:50

I was in New Jersey. That's a whole other story. Okay, okay, that's where my boyfriend's from. So I was in New Jersey. That's a whole other story. Okay, okay, that's where my boyfriend's from. So I was up there Because with my job I could live anywhere.

Speaker 1 10:04

So I did a lot of moving around. That's nice, take advantage of that. So you also did a lot of recent open water swimming with St Pete right, I mean, you know, in the last 10 years.

Speaker 2 10:14

Yes, I pretty much. I wanna say it was like 2014,. I started trying my hand out in open water swimming again and got a little fanatic. I was going all over everywhere and I found the 10K. That's my event.

Speaker 1 10:34

I enjoy it. Wait 10K in open water is your event.

Speaker 2 10:40

If I have to pick an event, that's the event I'd pick. I'm pretty good at it. It gives me time to think and I don't know I enjoy it.

Speaker 1 10:53

See, my husband, mark, does a lot of recruiting of people that he thinks I should interview, so he came home from this meet yesterday morning. He's like you need to interview Allison Hayden. She swam a 10K in an hour and 36 minutes. And Zena and I'm like wait, wait, what? So tell us about your fastest 10K, and was it really an hour and 36 minutes? Because we were like maybe it was a down river fast swim which wouldn't be unheard of.

Speaker 2 11:19

That's a little bit off. I would say it was. It's my best. 10k is about two hours and 17 minutes. That's still very fast If you know open water swimming. The Olympians are the one man prior, about two hours a little bit under. Yeah to 1.50.

Speaker 1 11:34

Thanks, mark for the compliment. Yeah, thanks Mark. Yeah, no, mark, yeah, but yeah, that's really great. So what was your favorite?

Speaker 2 11:43

10K that you've done. I've been going back and doing this one in barbados for about the last seven years. Well, there were. There was a hiatus after covid, like a year or two, but yeah, I go back every year that I can. There's a group called the jersey girls and group called the Jersey Girls and it started about, I'd say, like five or six people and we've grown to about 36 approximately people.

Speaker 1 12:15

Nice, individual. Okay, sounds like they're getting ready to give you your high point award. We're wrapping up the meet here. We got the guy in the background on the and uh. So thank you so much for spending the time with me me and look forward to seeing you around. Congratulations on all you've done, thank you.