S8E2 -- UM Australia Athlete in Profile | Erica Riley

What does it take to chase Ultraman while working 12-hour shifts in emergency care? We sit down with Erica Riley—critical care nurse, coach, and multi-time ultradistance triathlete—to unpack the systems, habits, and mindset that make high performance sustainable in a busy life.  From 3 a.m. Zwift rides to meticulous time boxing, she shows exactly how to build consistency without sacrificing your health, your job, or your relationships.

Erica takes us inside the toughest days of lockdown, when PPE, quarantine hotels, and strict radius rules forced radical creativity: ocean swims inside a five-kilometer bubble, stacked run commutes, and eight-hour trainer marathons. That crucible led her to Ultraman and a new goal—to not only finish but compete—under coach Tim Franklin of KOA Sports. We explore the art of crew selection, live-stream storytelling, and keeping a tight bond with the UM Australia Ohana.

Nutrition and strength become Erica’s quiet superpowers. Longtime plant-based, she refined protein intake, embraced whole foods, and saw clear changes in lean mass and visceral fat. Race fuel is simple and effective: Infinite custom blends, salty chips when the gut turns, and a well-timed orange Fanta for mood and carbs. Off the course, her secret weapon is reformer Pilates—45 minutes that deliver strength, mobility, posture, and injury prevention for time-poor athletes who need durability as much as speed.

We also dig into coaching. With Synergy Sports Coaching, Erica builds plans for real people—shift workers, parents, and professionals—using TrainingPeaks as a living diary. She treats sessions like meetings you won’t miss, teaches sleep hygiene around rotating rosters, and helps athletes fit training into life, not the other way around. Along the way, she shares favorite races (hello, Cairns and Nha Trang), a brutal and beautiful lead-in at Alpine Ascent Extreme, and the mindset work that turned perfectionism from procrastination into fuel.

If you want practical tools to train smarter, eat better, and perform under pressure, you’ll find tangible tactics you can use today. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s juggling big goals, and leave a review to help more athletes discover the show.

Contact Erica : @synergysportscoaching on Instagram

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• UM Australia
• Ultra 355 Australia
• KOA Sports Coaching
• The Proof Podcast
• Australian Alpine Ascent Extreme Triathlon
• Happy Thoughts Tri Team
• Training Peaks
• Challenge Nha Trang
• IM Cairns
• IM Busselton
• Infinite Nutrition
• Kenilworth Country Bakery
• UM New Zealand
• King’s Canyon Cruise

Shout outs and mentions in this episode:

• Nestor Alejandro Ochoa Rivera
• Tim Franklin 
• Simon Hill
• Hayley Fry
• Jackson Gash 
• Andrew Trout  
• Simon Cochrane

Transcript

Meet Erica Riley

Erica 0:00

Okay. Oh, ooh. This is hard work, Larry.

Larry 0:06

Do you got anything in that drink to help you get through it?

Erica 0:09

Well, that's another thing you should probably, if you've seen my social media, I've become a little red bull.

Larry 1:15

She has competed in over a dozen half Ironmans and two full Ironmans, as well as podiumed at the Ultra 355 Australia and competed in two full distance 515 UM Australia races. She joins me today from Brisbane as an athlete in profile for the 2026 UM Australia, which is happening in Noosa this coming May. Welcome to the podcast, Eric O'Reilly.

Erica 1:43

Hi, Larry, how are you?

Larry 1:45

I'm well. I'm well. Thank you for joining us and working out the time delay that it takes to get the Australian people on with me here in Vancouver. I appreciate that.

Erica 1:58

No, it's all good. It's it's middle of the day here for us, so it's nice sweat on my on my end.

Life As A Critical Care Nurse

Larry 2:05

Yeah, and and here we're just uh in the evening, so it works out well on this particular hour. It's great. Um so Erica, I've I've been following you on Instagram since last year when you were giving back to the to the Ohana by working as the race medic at UM Australia, and I was doing the live stream for it. And uh since I've been following you, my first question that comes up to you or comes up for you is uh when do you actually clip because or do you click? Because it seems to me that you have at least four full-time jobs, uh, from what I can tell from what you post online. You're a critical care nurse, you train probably, I'm guessing, at least a full-time job, you're doing coaching now, and you also post to social media about the other three on a regular basis. So when do you sleep?

Erica 3:00

That's an excellent question, Larry. Um I do I do sleep, I promise I do sleep, but some days, you know, uh longer than others. Uh, it just comes down to time management techniques, which is actually one of the big things that I try and teach my own athletes. Like time management is key. And once you learn some of those unique skills, it's it can be easy, and it's just about like, you know, anything that is of high priority, you have to allocate time for. So usually by the end of the day, not everything on the to-do list is done. But like you said, my my life is very busy, but the but the key things are done usually when I go to bed at night. So yes, I do sleep.

Larry 3:48

And and I'm I'm guessing you must go to bed fairly early because a lot of your posts start with you at 4 a.m.

Erica 3:56

Yeah, the um the 3 a.m. wake ups is something that I actually haven't really let go of since the second Ultraman, to to be honest with you, um purely because that was just the time I available to me to train around shift work. So it just sort of stuck and now I just enjoy it. Start early, finish early, they say in Queensland.

Larry 4:23

So and with your job, how how does it work out for your shift work? Are you like four days on really long shifts and four days off, or what do you do?

Erica 4:35

So for a very long time, Larry, I was on full-time, uh well, nearly full-time equivalent nursing hours, uh, which sort of works out to three 12-hour shifts per week. So because they're stretched out to 12 hours instead of an eight-hour workday, yeah, you can combine all those hours into three. So whether you do three not 12-hour night shifts on the bounce or three day shifts, you can still utilize the rest of those days off. But I do work a 24-7 rotating roster. So nights, days is good when it's 12s, but if you're working less than that, then it's any time of the day or or evening, really.

Larry 5:21

So yeah. And you you work as an emergency critical care nurse. What exactly is that in comparison to like other nursing?

Erica 5:32

Oh, well, basically, I work uh in emergency and I have done for my entire nursing career. I haven't really worked anywhere else. I've I've dabbled in teaching and a bit of management here and there. But basically, it's you know, I'm either in the recess room accepting category one, category two patients, whether I'm at a trauma hospital or not. I'm triage competent, so I'm the face of the organization when you come to the window and you're you're distressed and and want to see a doctor. Um, so yeah, I just focus on emergency mostly, and my specialty is um advanced life support teaching for other nurses. So I do teach as well. Yeah, so mostly research and triage and in charge. Yeah.

Larry 6:24

Yeah. And so I can understand why living in that world you need an outlet somewhere else. And I I'm guessing that's why you've you've turned to triathlon.

Finding Triathlon As An Outlet

Erica 6:37

Oh, absolutely, Larry. And at the time, so when I first started embracing the sport was about 2015, I would say. Um and I was only, you know, five years into my nursing career at that point. And you sort of see in those high trauma hospitals quite a lot of confronting cases, uh, are very regular with big tertiary centers. And so you the nursing cohort tend to go down, there's like a split in the road. And it's like, how are we coping with what we see every day? And and some folk turn to either leaving critical care and go into easier work, some people um embrace like holidays or travel and that type of thing, partying, and and people, some other people embrace exercise um as an outlet. And so I t I went down that route and I used triathlon as just something else to focus on outside of work. I needed something that was my identity that wasn't like, oh, critical care emergency is my identity. I'm like, no, that's my profession.

Larry 7:55

Right.

Erica 7:56

That's not who I am.

Larry 7:57

Yeah. Um, well, you're saying that you've been in this for for quite a while now, uh, which means that you went through COVID as well as a nurse. And I know down in Australia you had some of the, you know, strictest lockdown rules in the world as far as not being able to leave your own neighborhood. Um in your case, I'm guessing it probably affected you a little bit as well, because I know in your first UM Australia race, you ran your last 5K in PPE in order to honor those frontline healthcare workers. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Lockdowns, PPE, And Discovering Ultraman

Erica 8:34

I did. Um, it was, yeah. Look, let's just say um Melbourne lockdown was one of the toughest things I've ever experienced professionally, uh, for sure. Absolutely. And personally, like I I was in Melbourne at the time and living alone. Um and for the start of it anyway. And you know, I was in hotel quarantine in 2020, and it was it was like there's certain things I can't disclose here, obviously, because of of the government and whatnot with rules, but it was a hard time. And I remember turning around to my colleague in one of the hotels, and I was like, I think this is the hardest thing I've ever done. And she turned around to me and she's like, Well, you do Iron Man's, don't you? That's pretty tough. And I'm like, This is harder than than than Iron Man, I swear to God. And then we had a little bit of a conversation, and she said, Well, you should find something that's harder than Iron Man and show COVID who's boss. And then that's when we put into Google and we found out what Ultraman was. And uh the rest is history, as they say.

Larry 9:50

So yeah, I'm sure many people have Googled what is harder than Iron Man and come up with Ultraman.

Erica 9:58

Yeah. That's pretty much exactly how it happens. So we had all like the masks on our faces and everything when it happened, and we were just sweaty and getting the stuff off, and I'm like, this is the hardest thing I've ever done. And we were just having a tantrum, it was quite funny.

Larry 10:17

Yeah. And and how was it to train during that time? Because I'm assuming you didn't give up your training.

Erica 10:23

Uh no, I didn't. Um, no, I did not. So basically, I was taken under the wing of my coach at the time, who is actually now a fellow competitor for UM26. Um and who's that?

Larry 10:41

Let's drop some name, chair.

Erica 10:44

Yeah, so that's Nestor. Nestor Alejandro Riviera. Oh, yes, my Colombian friend, who I was team captain for. Yes. So I I joined his tri-club during COVID. Um, and that's where we first met. And um so we tried our very best, you know, and I was just I was grateful that I lived in Port Melbourne at the time. So the the bay was actually within my five-kilometer radius bubble, so I could still swim in in Port Phillip Bay without leaving my radius, which was not breaking any rules. Um the indoor trainer, we have become best friends. Um, I think the longest I ever did on that thing was eight and a half hours on the kicker. Um and home strength workouts just virtually through through Zoom with him. And um running, we were allowed to run within our five kilometer radius, but we couldn't exercise for longer than one hour per day. But but however you chose to commute to work for your employment if you were still working was your choice.

Speaker 4 12:08

Right.

Erica 12:10

So then to increase run volume, it was a lot of um maybe not so direct routes to the hospital from home running. So you know, some days I might run three times a day just because we included the commutes because work commutes weren't breaking any lockdown rules.

unknown 12:33

Yeah.

Erica 12:34

So that's the only way we could increase the volume.

Larry 12:37

Um, I I know that you you post a lot of your workouts with videos on Instagram. I've been seeing these as well. Uh just in talking about your workouts. So now you're you're free to do as many workouts as you want. And you seem to do a lot. Uh and you really enjoy Oh, I'm about to say, but no, I'm not.

Erica 12:58

Oh I've gotten lazy in my old age.

Larry 13:04

Um, you really seem to enjoy the reformer Pilates workouts that you do. That seems to be every week. There's there's another video with that. Um I did that one time and I thought it was super hard. Um, why have you made that such an integral part of your training?

Training Through Restrictions And Workarounds

Erica 13:21

It is hard. So reformer Pilates has been an absolute game changer for me as an athlete, and not even, you know, mentally. Mentally, it gives me a beautiful time to zen out. I get it, but it's actually hard work, like when you do it properly. Like it's like it's a strength workout. But at the same time, you know, being triathletes, let alone ultra-athletes, right? Our our time is precious. We have X amount of time dedicated to swim, bike, run. And the the way that I see it is triathlon has more than just three disciplines, and strength and conditioning is is an essential one. But in saying that, injury prevention is key. So reforma Pilates allows you to gain lean mass, get strong, and helps with conditioning and injury prevention within one 45-minute window. So, in terms of longevity in the sport and athletic performance, it it's just so beneficial on so many levels that I even incorporate it for my own athletes now at least two to three times a week if they're willing.

Larry 14:42

Oh, yeah. And and what's your schedule? How many times are you going?

Erica 14:47

More than my coach would like me to.

Larry 14:56

Who's your coach?

Erica 14:57

My coach. So I'm I I think because this is gonna probably be my last rodeo as an ultra-athlete, Larry. Um, I'm gonna be this might this is probably gonna be my last hurrah. Um, I really love and embrace the Australian Ultraman dream team and the crew. Um, and I've I've gone full circle with it now, being an athlete twice myself, and then I was team captain for another athlete, and then I was the medic this year.

Speaker 4 15:31

Right.

Erica 15:31

And just to be to be part of the Ultraman family is just such an honor. So I thought there was no one else who could coach me besides someone within that space. Um, so Tim uh Franklin from Coa Sports is my coach purely for that um ultraman connection that we have together.

Larry 15:51

Yeah. Well, that makes sense. Yeah. Um for people that don't know, Tim has also raced there numerous times. He's the man who ran around the world and uh is now the the voice of UM Australia um when he does all the announcing for the race down there. So he's definitely well connected to that uh thought process and that ohana down there in Australia. And that makes sense that you would go to a coach like that to to keep you tied to the community. Does he bring anything different to to coaching you that you would first of all as a coach be like, I don't know about that, but then maybe you try it out? Or how does that how does that conversation go?

Why Reformer Pilates Changes Performance

Erica 16:38

How does that conversation go? Well, it's a very difficult question to answer. Um, I find it that I so I do have to put my athlete hat on and not my coach hat. So I I need to, you know, and and that's fine because he he knows that I'm ready to to go up a level, I guess, like have a not just finish, but to actually compete in this in this round, uh, which is different from what I've I've done previously. So my last two races were more like just aim to finish, right? Where this time it's I'm I'm gonna go out with with Saw's hammer, just slam. So, you know, I think he he is going to be able to give me that that increased performance that I'm looking for. Okay, and he is with co-sports that are quite uh renowned for the results that they uh that they obtain. So I think that it's a smart move for me as an athlete. But definitely there's there's been some side-eye emoji sent his way about like, really? You am I doing that? And he's like, Yes, just do what I say. And so I'm like, yes well.

Larry 18:04

That's great. That's great. Uh and he's got so much personality that I'm sure he he tells it to you with a lot of love.

Erica 18:12

Um, I'm sure I'm not sure if it's with a lot of love. He just tells me. But no, he he does he said he would take care of me, and I and I and I believed him when he when he said that. So I agreed to take him on as my coach for that reason.

Larry 18:27

Yeah, yeah. Um, I did look up your previous times. Uh you were a 33-18 in 2021 and a 32-39. Uh, so you, you know, you improve by almost an hour, but I'm guessing you have some loftier goals from what you just said. Are you willing to share any of the goals that you have for for this year?

Erica 18:49

So there were a few factors um with my time from last time that I I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say here, but I did crunch the numbers and I did the math um about how much time I actually lost for female health reasons. Um, took a lot of time on my accumulated time. So it yeah, I which I won't have that issue this race. So it'll be interesting to see if the math in my mind is correct. Um I also think that because of Reforma and because my nutrition has totally changed, my whole life has totally changed since the last race. So I've reduced a lot of the stresses. Um my shift work is a bit more balanced, my nutrition's totally different, I'm stronger in terms of my body composition. So I think my aim is just to do a lot better than previously. But um we'd we'd like we'd like a top-end female finish. Nice, nice somewhere in there. Yeah.

Larry 20:04

Get back on the podium like you did at 355.

Erica 20:08

Oh, I didn't want to say the P word.

Larry 20:12

You didn't. You didn't say it. You're good.

Speaker 3 20:16

Yeah, you did. Yeah.

Larry 20:17

Well, you you're talking about your nutrition. Um, obviously, there's two parts to nutrition. There's your your daily nutrition while you're you're training and things like that. And I I are you plant-based? Is that what you are?

Erica 20:30

Yes, I am.

Larry 20:32

Yeah. So tell tell me a little bit about how that goes for your your meal prepping and and how that has changed your ability to, you know, work with your with your daily life stresses and things like that, and and change to plant-based. Uh obviously you feel it's better. Uh, tell me a little bit about that.

Erica 20:53

Yeah, well, I've actually been plant-based since 2011, I'd like to say.

Speaker 4 21:00

All right.

Coaching With The Ultraman Ohana

Erica 21:01

Regardless of whether I'm plant-based or not, it was just nutritional habits, proper macro tracking, the things that every athlete should probably do that I've that I've changed. Um, and it's changed my body composition dramatically. Um so in 12 months, I I lost about three liters of visceral fat. Um, I went from I I gained 2.3 kilos in lean mass, and I reduced um, I lost six kilos altogether, and I lost, oh, this is all just off the top of my head. I think it was like 5.8% total body fat. So I think that for any athlete that would change how they perform in general. Um, but it was just simple things like um eating more whole foods, increasing my protein intake every day, um, just other types of supplements and things like that, like just to help.

Larry 22:10

Right.

Erica 22:10

So I think that that's definitely enhanced my performance as an athlete.

Larry 22:15

I was gonna say, do you have any go-to kind of um websites or something where you get your recipes? Because I know for some people the idea of taking on a plant-based diet is like, I wouldn't know how to prepare the food enough to support me.

Erica 22:32

Yeah. Um, so I initially earlier early on in the piece um referred to a uh um a guy who is quite famous in the podcast space. He was a physio turn to Masters of Nutrition. Um his name's Simon Hill. I'm not sure if you know him. He has a podcast called The Proof.

Larry 22:57

No.

Erica 22:59

Um, okay. So he's a huge advocate for um like nutrition and longevity and that type of uh research.

Speaker 4 23:09

Right.

Erica 23:10

And he has a whole website full of plant-based recipes. He's even redesigned the whole food pyramid and that type of thing. So I just followed a lot of his resources initially, and now it's just become habit, really. I do tend to get quite boring and have the same meals on rotation.

Speaker 4 23:29

Yeah.

Aiming Higher: Goals For UM Australia

Erica 23:29

Um, for example, I've just done my meal prep for the next four days because I'm working four shifts in a row. So I'll be the fridge is full. It's just kind of be the same thing on rotation, day in, day out for the next couple of days. But um, you know, I think that that's just the key. It just stops that type of um. And I think in the in the endurance space too, sometimes you just don't realize how behind the eight ball you are if it's been like a high volume week and you're just constantly just going for whatever. But at least um the meal prep sort of when you have those moments, it's like I'm gonna go for whatever, but in my allocated stash of stuff.

Larry 24:13

Right. Yeah. And and now as you're preparing for UM Australia in May, we are here at the end of November as we record this. It'll be coming out in December. Um, where are you in your in your cycle for preparing for that? Where is your volume at now? Like where will when will you reach your maximum hours in a week? And what will that look like for you as far as swim, bike, run, breakdown, and and and other training? Because you like to do all the other cross training as well.

Erica 24:46

Yes. So I do have a feeling that uh Tim is gonna reduce my allocated Pilates time. Um that's just a given. Um, I've actually, Larry, I've got an extreme iron man triathlon happening here in February.

unknown 25:07

Oh, okay.

Erica 25:08

Um, so I'm training for for that at the moment. And so that's sort of like iron distance kind of volume.

Larry 25:15

Right. What's the name of that one?

Erica 25:17

It's called the um Alpine Ascent Extreme Try in Mount Kosyosko. So um that's sort of like a very cold lake swim, um, all altitude ride up into the ski field in our highest peak here in Australia, like the Kosyosko National Park. And then it's a marathon trail run up to the summit.

Larry 25:40

Okay. Yeah. So have you put in a training peak to prepare for that as well, then?

unknown 25:47

Yeah.

Erica 25:48

Yeah. So that's sort of going to be like my lead-in race. So I have a feeling that my volume will significantly increase in about December. A lot of speed work currently. So yeah, I think I'm hoping it'll get up to about 30 hours a week maximum. As usual, that's what happened my last two. So it should be around 30 is the peak. Um, 17 will be low, around them 20, 20 will be average.

Larry 26:20

And and of the three disciplines, which one do you need to improve your time on the most? And and how much extra focus will you give to that?

Erica 26:27

Oh, swim. Swim. Me and the pool are not friends right now. We will be, we will become close friends over the summer. But right now, she's a mission. She's a mission. So yeah, no, definitely my swim. Like my form is okay, and I and I do strongly believe that Pilates has helped make my so even though I'm not swimming as much as I probably should be, I feel like the strength that I'm getting with Pilates makes those swims easier when I get there, if that makes sense.

Larry 27:02

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And do you know who you'll be bringing for your crew? Do you have any experience coming? Do you have people coming back from previous races?

Plant-Based Nutrition And Body Recomposition

Erica 27:13

Um, so Nesta has always been my team captain. So with him racing, I was just like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? I I rang him when I when I saw the application, I was like, bro, we've been each other's team captain.

Speaker 4 27:31

Like, what are we going to do?

Erica 27:34

Um, so I actually have um asked, and I think this is basically the first announcement of this, but with the the growth of of my business and my coaching um business, I I will need assistance coaches in the not too distant future. Uh so one of my athletes who has just done Iron Man World Champs at Kona, actually, she got there on her very first Iron Man attempt.

Speaker 4 28:08

Oh wow.

Erica 28:09

Um she, yeah, Haley, sweet Haley. Um, she's gonna be my team captain for me.

Larry 28:16

Excellent. And and she has dreams of doing Ultraman herself.

Erica 28:22

I have a feeling she will, yes. Yeah. Um, so she's um gonna team captain this round. Um and it's funny when it was the the morning of the athlete breakfast for the before Ultraman this year had kicked off the first day when all the athletes arrive and they do the course conversation and everything. Um I was standing alongside the auditorium like um hall with the rest of the dream team, and I just looked over across the other side of the room and I messaged Andrew Trout and I said, Buckle up. You better get the van ready. I'm booking you now. And he's like, This race hasn't even started yet, and I'm like, I'm booking you now.

Speaker 4 29:14

Nice.

Erica 29:16

Yeah, so I scored Trouty.

Speaker 4 29:21

That's the way you gotta do it down there, I think.

Erica 29:23

So from Andrew. Oh, absolutely. He is a hot commodity, that man. Yeah, he is like there is a waiting list for Andrew Trout. Oh, yeah. So I booked him nice and early.

Speaker 4 29:36

Excellent.

Erica 29:37

I'll have um Andrew, I'll have Haley and her partner, um, and then a few of my close friends from Brisbane are coming up um to be as part of the crew. And then we have um Nestor's um community club, the Happy Thoughts team. Uh he they're gonna donate some of their members. Between the two of us to assist us.

Larry 30:03

Excellent.

Erica 30:04

Yeah. So we're going to have a whole contingency up there.

Meal Prep, Resources, And Routine

Larry 30:08

That's awesome. Hello, listener. I love getting your feedback and suggestions for the podcast. Keep them coming at 515ultraman at gmail.com. For those that want to help me promote the show, I suggest that you're going to be able to do that. And if you don't mind publishing your thoughts, a free way to support the show is by leaving a five-star rating and review on your podcast app. It's a chance to tell me what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it too. Finally, if you're so inclined, you can show your appreciation for my work by clicking the support button at the bottom of the show notes. To go to my Find Me a Coffee page. Thanks for all of your feedback and support. Now back to the show. Well, when I was looking back at some of your older Instagram postings from 2021 and the material that you were producing, not you, because you were racing, but your crew were producing, uh, it was awesome. And it's the kind of stuff that I want to have in the live stream this year. So one of the things I learned from our live stream was that um asking people to send in a video and then trying to look at it and edit and post and all of that while I'm at the same time directing and commentating and wasn't working. So this year's plan for people that are listening is just going to be to open the Zoom link to all the crews so that they can just join direct in, no sending in videos. They can just click in right into the Zoom with us and we'll put them on air and show what's going on live at the time.

Erica 31:59

That is so good. Yes, that's awesome. Yeah.

Larry 32:02

That's I hope you got some people that are good with the camera again to to take on that role.

Erica 32:08

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. We're gonna have a whole proper like vlog system happening.

Larry 32:18

Now, when we were talking about your your own coaching, let's uh let's get the name out there because maybe some people wanna want to know about this and and contact you.

Erica 32:27

So my business name is called Synergy Sports Coaching at Synergy Sports Coaching all one word. Uh you'll find that in the in in Instagram in the bio. And I really thought long and hard about how and why I'm gonna go into the coaching space. And it was literally from all the Ultraman footage from the past two. It was like all the DM in just like, how do you how do you do this? How do you have time for that? Just people just want and wanting advice. And my um my my now ex-husband actually said to me at the time, he's like, You should be getting paid for that. He's like, Why are you just speaking to us? Because this is all your your like hack secrets. And I'm like, Well, maybe, you know, and I was a bit burnt out from the pandemic as well, to be fair. So I was like, if I can generate something that allows me to just nurse a little bit less, that's something that I'm still passionate about, then I'll give it a no. Um, and it's actually turned out to be quite amazing, actually. Sometimes I just sort of I look into training peaks and I'm just like, I'm like, this is just surreal to me still. I'm just absolutely so grateful for for everyone who's decided to come on board and and and trust me the way that they do. Um, it's been wonderful. It's been a wonderful experience.

Larry 33:55

Yeah. And when you decided to get into the coaching field, then you did you go out and get certifications to to back that up, or are you just going with your your knowledge from being an athlete?

Build Toward Alpine Ascent And UM

Erica 34:06

No, yep, I did. Um, so I got the training peaks certifications and I'm with um, they used to be called Triathlon Australia, but Oz Triathlon, the the coaching courses that they deliver uh as part of um onboarding education and and coach registration because all athletes with with triathlon Australia have to be either um you join as a as a member or you can have a coach membership. So I just started to go down that trajectory. Um and I've done sports nutrition now as well.

Larry 34:45

Excellent. Yeah. And I I kind of liken coaches to teachers in that, you know, all of them have different strengths or different ideas for delivery, different ways of connecting with the athlete. Um, what do you think is your strength and your way of connecting that if people were thinking about, oh, do I want to, you know, see what Erica's all about? What how would you describe yourself to someone who wants to find out about that?

Erica 35:14

I think I sort of describe myself as someone who, you know, I understand that a lot of coaches have all of the kudos behind them and the undeniable proof that they, you know, have had lots of podium finishes and et cetera, et cetera. Um, I think that my proof that it can be done and what Synergy actually stands for is dedicated to the recreational athlete. It's dedicated to the parents who don't know what to do with their time, the spare time that they have. I'm designed for the shift workers who just don't know how to get around proper sleep hygiene for their night shifts, and how do I still train around that? I'm designed for the busy professional. How do I time manage properly? I have an endless to-do list. How can you possibly expect me to do this when I have all these meetings? And it's like, well, let's just take a deep breath. Because the only way that you can succeed as a recreational athlete is the rest of your life has to work in synergy, like wheels in a cog together, or the whole thing will break, and you won't be able to do anything to full capacity. So when I speak to athletes, we use training peaks like a diary. It's your personal assistance, it's not just a place where you data dump a cookie cut a program and say, just do it.

Larry 36:43

Right.

Erica 36:44

It's a place where my athletes can say, Oh, my kids got swimming between four and six. I'm working between two and three, these are my and we time box technique the entire week.

Speaker 4 36:59

Right.

Erica 37:01

To then create that consistency in their training that gives them the results that they're after.

Swim Weakness And Summer Focus

Larry 37:06

And I'm guessing within that, you're you're teaching them to prioritize that training as much as they would the other parts of their lives and get that box on the calendar.

Erica 37:18

Yep, because I in my first and second Ultraman, you know, I it was like I said, pandemic stuff was the first one. I just become a full-time um like stepmom for the first time. I did it was a lot. And so and so I've I've lived it, I feel it, I get the pressure, but let's just do a bit of self-care for the athlete, and you know, you wouldn't need you wouldn't miss a Zoom meeting with your boss.

Speaker 4 37:54

Right.

Erica 37:55

So if you've allocated this time to yourself, that is your meeting that you will not miss for yourself. If your Zwift rides at 4 a.m., that's the meeting time.

Speaker 4 38:06

Right.

Erica 38:08

So we tend to look at it with that type of mindset. And it does take a lot of the athletes a few weeks to get a hold of that concept, but once it's you know, I think I told um one of the other athletes we don't want to try and make your life work around triathlon. Triathlon has to integrate into your pre-existing life, yeah. That's perfect. So, how do we best do that? Yeah, that's it.

Larry 38:37

And and obviously you live that life. We've been talking about all the different things that you do and how it seems like you don't sleep, but you you do get sleep.

Erica 38:46

Um with within that I promise, I promise I sleep.

Larry 38:51

Within that, you you have said that you have an overachiever syndrome still. Um, so you're still working at trying to get as much done as you can from time to time. That's not new, but that's not unique in the 515 world. Uh, but where do you think it comes from for exactly the overachieving? Yeah.

Crew Strategy And Dream Team

Erica 39:13

Um, I I definitely think it comes from definitely my childhood. Um, I had an don't get me wrong, I've had an amazing childhood. Amazing. Uh, but I am a middle child. So it's, you know, forever the the the comparison to your siblings growing up, but and that validation that you need when you've when you do something really well.

Larry 39:43

Right.

Erica 39:44

And it's just that's one of those things that I've taken into adulthood. And to be quite honest with you, even in in my professional life, you know, you can either be that nurse that rocks up and does the bare minimum, or do you want to be that nurse that does everything? That one, that nurse that when people are in trouble, they go, Erica will know what to do. Do you know what I mean? So it's just every little sort of life journey that I've taken, it's stitched itself in there somewhere.

Larry 40:13

Yeah. So it it's it's been a benefit to you throughout your life, despite being something that might be seen as a bit too much. It's you're you're embracing the the benefits of it rather than the the times where it might be more of a challenge.

Erica 40:30

So that yes, and I think until I really started to do a lot of deep work on myself um before my first Iron Man, to be honest, in 2019. So it was pre-pandemic. Um, from 2017 to 2019, I did do quite a lot of therapy. Um, and I learned about my attachment style and and things like that. And I think the overachieving perfectionism was more of a hindrance up until that point. But then when when I did the healing and the inner work, the the perfectionism that ended up being procrastination actually turned into a perfectionism that was enhancing to my life and and allowed my hyper-independence to to be a bit more of a superpower to achieve my goals in racing and in life and and without being a hindrance to me. But I think unless I did that work, it would have ended up just being an endless loop of I'm not going to do anything with my life because I can't do it perfectly. That's sort of where I was stuck.

Speaker 4 41:51

Yeah.

Listener Support And Live Stream Plans

Erica 41:52

Um, so I'd rather not try, rather not do it than if I couldn't have it, if I couldn't do it perfectly or have the optimal result for whatever it was that I did. Um that now I think like like posting content, for example, I don't care if it looks like rubbish, I'm gonna do it. And if you don't want to see it, you don't have to see it. But if you see it still and don't like it, it benefits me. So why would I not do it?

Larry 42:25

Yeah, no, your your content's great.

Erica 42:28

It's a bit more of a healthy, a bit more of a healthy um channel now with the hyperindependence for sure.

Larry 42:34

Right. Yeah, you know, you've been giving us some some great information on coaching and people listening to the podcast, they always want tips, they want ideas, they want, you know, how are you training? What are you doing for nutrition, all that stuff? Where do you rate? What's my next what's my next great race? Um, so one of the things that I would like to find out from you, you've done um quite a bit of 70.3s, two Ironmans, a couple Ultramans. Um, other than the Ultraman, because I know that's everybody's favorite. Um can you tell me it's everyone's favorite? Where where have you raced and and and maybe what's been one of your favorites um that you've done? Not necessarily because it was a great race for you, but you know, hey, this is a great travel race. Go here, check this out.

Erica 43:22

So I have to say, one of my favorite, favorite races I've ever done. Um, I don't know even sure if it exists anymore. Um was it was a challenge event of all things. Um it was challenge Natrang, which is a a city in Vietnam.

Speaker 4 43:40

Yeah.

Erica 43:41

Um, so racing in Vietnam was amazing. The water temperature was 28 degrees. It rained, it was like 100% humidity. It was awesome. But here in in Australia, I I'd have to say the most iconic race, and I would just go back every year if I can, is Iron Man Cans. And it's just iconic.

Larry 44:09

Yeah. That's I I know every Aussie I speak to. They they love that one. And and WA as well, if you know the ones that get out that side.

Erica 44:19

Oh, WA. Yeah, yes, yes, and no. I mean, you wouldn't want to get a flat tire on those roads because the flies will just be all you won't even be able to see to change your tire. You just uh those flies just boom, they're hectic. Um, but the swim is gorgeous in Buckleton. Yeah, it's beautiful.

Launching Synergy Sports Coaching

Larry 44:45

Yeah, yeah. Um I I kind of I jumped over this and I I meant to ask you earlier when we were talking about food as well. What about race nutrition? Where where are you on that? And and what sorts of things are you are you taking that you find will help maybe bump someone up from that iron to ultra if they need it? Or if you're like Simon Cochran, you just I do what I do for Iron Man because I'm on the course for the same amount of time. But for other people, what what kind of nutrition do you employ when you're when you're doing an ultra?

Erica 45:21

Um, so I I have the same concept as as Simon, to be fair. Like I use um a company called Infinite Nutrition, and I have a custom mix made by Infinite, and my concentration of how much I have per bottle can be, you know, either stronger or weaker, depending. Um so I pretty much will do most of the Ultraman weekend with Infinite, um, and then have the occasional solace, which will be changing for this next race for the first time since what I use what I would normally have. Um, and I think everyone loves like the emergency Coca-Cola. I I like Fanta. Oh so my crew always had.

Larry 46:09

What flavor of Fanta are you having?

Erica 46:12

Oh, orange.

Larry 46:13

Orange.

Erica 46:15

Always orange. But I remember like they I was so close to the end for the last one, and they my crew did like a Ferrari pit stop because my stomach was starting to reject the infinite a little bit. I was just like, I think I've I think I'm capped out. And it was just um salty chips and Fanta got me through to the end.

Larry 46:38

Nice. And and then what strategy do you use in the evenings to refuel?

Erica 46:45

Oh, okay. So I basically do all of my meal prep for my crew before I leave, or I tell them exactly what I want them to cook. Um, and it's usually very simple. I have um pasta, um, but usually like a buckwheat pasta. Um, and I make a high protein like bolognese sauce um with something called textured vegetable protein. So it's like intense, like just dehydrated soy basically that you turn into a mince. So it's super easy for the whole crew. You just add water, just rehydrate it and just cook it like normal mince. Um, yeah. And I I try not to actually change my regular diet too much. If I'm not having the pasta, there's also something that I had for my races that Nesta ended up taking into his race when we were team captain for him. Um, and it was something called Erica's donuts, which were literally just like rice cakes with peanut butter and jam.

Larry 47:54

Okay.

Erica 47:55

Just something, just something crunchy, something fatty, something with a bit of sugar, just to put a solid in the belly and then just back onto the infinite after that.

Larry 48:03

So quite a quite a bit different than the donuts you get on the is it the day two course?

Erica 48:09

Yes, like Kennelworth Bakery.

Larry 48:12

Yes.

Erica 48:14

Yes. Nice. They are delicious.

Larry 48:18

All right. So looking ahead now, you you said that this Ultraman Australia is probably gonna be your final hurrah. But then, you know, they did come out and announce this thing called UM New Zealand. Um if you're not racing it, what's gonna be your connection?

Erica 48:41

Well, they're gonna always need a medic.

Larry 48:45

Yeah.

Erica 48:46

Um, or a volunteer of some description. I'll put the cones out.

Larry 48:53

You're gonna be the cone girl.

Certifications And Coaching Philosophy

Erica 48:54

I can be yeah, the cone girl. I can, what else can I do? I can just be the emotional support for the dream team. They'll find a place for me, I'm sure. I am sure that the race directors will have a good purpose for my being there.

Larry 49:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're not you're not walking away from the the UM family, you're sticking with it.

Erica 49:22

Oh, never. They're stuck with me full life.

Larry 49:26

Well, you did move, you did move up to Brisbane just to be around this, right?

Erica 49:31

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Larry 49:39

Although I understand you grew up in Alice Springs, is that correct?

Erica 49:44

Yeah, I was there for a bit. Yeah, yeah. Um, where do we move? Oh, you never, never know unless you go. It's it's something else. Yeah, for sure. Um, no, I loved growing up in Alice Springs. It was definitely life, a life experience that has helped make me who I am. Um you sort of have a bit more of an understanding of what the real world is like. How do you mean when um oh how do I say this politely without ruffling feathers? I think people think of Australia, and there's a quite a lot of the population who live on the East Coast who have been to more overseas countries than to destinations in their own country, if you get what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 50:41

Yep.

Erica 50:42

Like people like to to show the world their beautiful front yard with a picket fence, but they don't want to take a look in their own backyard, some.

Speaker 4 50:52

Yeah.

Erica 50:56

So yeah.

unknown 50:57

Yeah.

Erica 50:58

No, it's beautiful out there, honestly. And it's just you the clearest of skies, just you can see so many stars. It's just one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Larry 51:10

Yeah, yeah. Well, I I did a year teacher exchange in Australia, went all around the country, flew into Alice Springs to go up to Uluru, and uh that is the hottest I've ever been. When I got out of the car at I think it's like National Crater Park or something, there's some giant crater. Got out of the car, the air conditioning was on in the car, got out of the car, and it was like being thrown into an oven.

Erica 51:37

Yep. Yep, absolutely. Bring on the heat.

unknown 51:42

Yeah.

Larry 51:43

Well, that would be an extreme triathlon.

Erica 51:48

Well, there's where do you that they do have a great tri-club there? Actually, there's an amazing tri-club there, and they do this fantastic event, which is one of the best things I've ever done in my life. Um, called the Kings Canyon Cruise. And the Alice Springs Cycling Club like organized support buses. They have like everyone gets a swag, everyone cooks, and you ride from Alice Springs out to King's Canyon over like three days. And then the bus brings you back from the resort back to Alice Springs.

Larry 52:22

Oh, yeah.

Erica 52:22

And you just ride in a Peloton for like all day.

Larry 52:27

I assume that's in the winter.

Erica 52:30

Yes, it is.

Larry 52:33

And you then do you're riding at night? How do you beat the heat?

Erica 52:39

No, it's and maybe this is why I still wake up at 3 a.m., Larry, because it was again one of those things where it's like if you don't want to see any of the parentes or the Gowannas or the snakes, you gotta get out early. Like you're out riding.

'Time Boxing' And Life Integration

Larry 53:00

That's great. Well, uh, Erica, thank you for being my first athlete in profile for UM Australia coming up. Uh, good luck with the rest of your training. And uh let's make sure that we follow you on Instagram. What was your handle again?

Erica 53:16

Oh, they've I've got a fair few, but you can follow me at Synergy Sports Coaching on Insta.

Larry 53:23

All right, we will follow you there and and watch the build up to the to the right.

Erica 53:30

It's gonna be good. It's gonna be a good summer.

Larry 53:34

Awesome. Thank you very much.

Erica 53:37

Thanks, Larry. Bye.