Episode 40: Nutrition for Performance with Issy Watson

Join us as we dive into the inspiring journey of Issy Watson, a hybrid athlete and Guinness World Record holder for the most chest-to-ground burpees in one hour.  

We’ll explore Issy’s foray into a carnivore and animal based diet and the challenges of ultra-running, including training through a foot injury and completing a 50-mile race.

We discuss the importance of personalized nutrition/training strategies and  share tips about training low carb for endurance races.

Connect with Issy:

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/issywatsonn/

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@IssyWatsonFit

Chapters

• 0:28 Optimal Health
• 12:24 Nutrition and Endurance Racing Strategies
• 28:10 Individualized Nutrition and Training Approach
• 37:19 Balancing Strength Training and Endurance Racing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Welcome to the Primal Foundations podcast. I'm your host, Tony Pascola. We will dive into what I believe are the four central foundations you need for a healthy lifestyle Strength, nutrition, movement and recovery. Get ready to unlock your path to optimal health and enjoy the episode. Today's guest is Issy Watson. Issy is a hybrid athlete that follows a carnivore diet to help heal autoimmune issues as well as improve sports performance. Issy is also an endurance athlete and current female Guinness World Record holder for most chest to ground burpees in one hour, with a total of 829 reps. Issy, welcome to the Primal Foundations podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:13

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:15

I told you off air, I'm all down for hard stuff, but what the heck made you even want to go for a Guinness world record, let alone a burpee world record?

Speaker 2: 1:26

Yeah, it's actually funny because I tend to forget about it for some reason because it felt like it was so long ago. And so this was about three. Just over three years ago, during COVID, the area I went to university, there was actually the male and female that had the world record actually the male and female that had the world record. So then I just kind of joked around and I was like, oh, I could probably so beat that. Like I'm so good at burpees, they're easy for me. And then once I moved during the pandemic, I moved to the other side of Canada and I was like, oh, I'm just going to apply on the Guinness world record site. Heard back three months later that I had the opportunity that I could like my application was confirmed. So then I just got to kind of honing in on the burpee specific training and then, come the day to do it, I just went all out and did it.

Speaker 1: 2:34

All gas, no brakes.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Yeah, pretty much Just an hour of up and down, up and down.

Speaker 1: 2:41

Oh man, I know how hard it is to this process because I actually attempted once in my lifetime. Yeah, I applied, I applied. I was going for the Turkish getup, catabalva, turkish getup world record. There was a one-hour one. There's no way I would beat it. I'm too like the people that have the one-hour record they're just so much bigger than me Like it's just I couldn't lift. It's all about volume, weight, over time. And I was like I couldn't lift the. It's all about volume, weight, um, over time. And uh, I was like I saw the 24 hour record. I'm like I can do that. And I met the girl who had the one hour record and she was interested in the 24 hour record. So I was like, oh, I'm going to apply and like it's like a whole process. And then they give you all the camera angles, how you could score it, time, all that things and time all that things. And then in my training I was like, listen, I'm just going to be an absolute unit, I'm going to, I'm going to actually lift a heavier bell than I anticipated, just by the count, and then have more rest in between, so I don't have to go up and down as much but over.

Speaker 1: 3:43

I had hand surgery when I was younger and over time, like I would wake up after I would like, I got up to like a six or seven hour session and then one day I woke up and I couldn't open my hands, especially my right hand. I couldn't feel my hands. I'm like no, something's wrong. And then one of the doctors at the gym I was talking about he's like yo, you're starting to have carpal tunnel. He's like he goes that's too much of a heavy weight you're holding in that hand. It's starting to cause some issues. So I had to, I had to pack it up. Uh, but no, it's a it's a grueling thing to to go through all that and the process. And there's a lot of wait time. I'm thinking like how long did it take for them to actually even give you the record?

Speaker 2: 4:21

Oh yeah, the process is actually insane, like it takes a minimum of three months just for your application to be um viewed and confirmed and then you have to actually plan the day you're going to do it.

Speaker 2: 4:37

So then, after you've done it and recorded everything to the T the way they want it, then it takes at least another three months to become official. But for me the thing was was after the three months exactly, they came back and they said my evidence wasn't good enough, because I was supposed to. What I did was I uploaded my videos to YouTube, whereas you have to upload it to their actual website, and when you think about that, the processing time to upload it to a website is absolutely insane. So we eventually had to cut the video into probably 10 different segments and make sure it stopped and start properly, and then it took another three months because I had to resubmit the evidence. So come the end of that six months to become official, I just happened to wake up one day, look at my phone and there is an email that came up and was like congratulations. So this was like 530 in the morning and I'm just like finally, like you know what took so long? I mean to speed up the process.

Speaker 1: 5:50

You can pay endless amounts of money, but yeah, I think to get a judge it's like $1,300 to just like just to have them there. Yeah, that's insane.

Speaker 2: 6:00

Even more.

Speaker 1: 6:02

I want to talk about. Well, first of all, that's pretty badass of you, so that's awesome. But I want to kind of talk about you know what initially sparked your interest into exploring a carnivore diet, and like what challenges, if any challenges, have you had? Um, shifting from you know just whatever diet that you were before because it seems like you were always athletic, eating for performance and then switching over to carnivore, um, you know, was it a tough transition? Was it smooth?

Speaker 2: 6:30

Yeah, so I actually switched. I mean, I heard about the carnivore diet and I was just kind of procrastinating and I'm like you know what. There's no way I'm too athletic, I can't just remove carbohydrates. That's kind of you know what you've been told and what you've learned as an athlete. But I was just, I suffer from pretty bad colitis. So for the last 10 years, just multiple foods have been upsetting my stomach. So finally I got to the point about three years ago I was just like I've had enough, I can't deal with the pain anymore, I can't deal with the stomach discomfort, inflammation.

Speaker 2: 7:16

So probably January 1st 2022, I was just okay, let's try it, let's actually go animal based. So I removed everything that was considered toxic and just mostly had some fruits, white rice and beef and started trying to add tallow, which I never had before, and immediately, like I just my stomach like cleared. I just felt almost flat and empty all the time and that was probably my system clearing everything out. And then I just continued to feel better. My energy felt better in the gym.

Speaker 2: 8:00

But if I'm being honest, it probably took me close to a year to actually fully adapt and find more energy. But even then, I think because of my autoimmune, it's still the energy's kind of like in waves. And finally, last December I was just still not seeing the progress I really wanted to see Eliminated all fruits, all rice and I was just having a little bit of maple syrup, but probably keeping around 20, 30 grams of carbs. So I was doing that pretty much since December and I feel I feel a lot better. Um, during my workouts I don't crash. I find my energy is pretty stable. I don't have that really powerful kind of in the gym but I almost rather be stable than have really highs and really low, lows.

Speaker 1: 9:02

There's a little bit of a. There's a little bit of a trade off too, and I think, like a, like a Zach bitter who's who, um cycles in carbs and looks at carbs as more of a tool than than like a fuel thing, using it as tool for certain. You know training segments of you know your programming, or I mean there's a lot of people that say that went carnivore, their workouts didn't feel as good, but if they had a little bit fruit right beforehand they did have it like that pop. So, um, you know that that's a common thing. I found the opposite. Like I like to do a lot of stuff fasted. Um, is that something that you've explored? Working out fasted?

Speaker 2: 9:44

Yeah, I do not like doing strength training fasted. I find it just does not work for me. But if I run, like I ran this morning, I didn't have anything before. I just find I can wake up and go right into it without waiting for something to digest. And if I swim in the morning or bike, it's usually just with MCT oil, which isn't considered carnivore. But that's the one thing I've always really enjoyed. It's just kind of a substitute for taking ketones. Do strength training fasted just because I find I can't give it my all.

Speaker 1: 10:25

I can't kind of lose focus a little bit I mean mean, yeah, Do you do the MCT and coffee? Or just take a little bit of MCT like a teaspoon?

Speaker 2: 10:35

Yeah, I usually just um have the MCT oil. Um, I'll probably have coffee maybe three to four times a month if I'm really, really exhausted. But even then it's only just a couple sips cause I can't tolerate a lot of caffeine. But I do notice, when I do have coffee my workouts are better.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Probably in the past 20 years of my life, I don't think there's been very few days I've woken up and not had a cup of coffee or multiple. I'm addicted, but yeah, I love it.

Speaker 2: 11:07

I think I honestly might start adding it a little bit more, just for performance reasons. I used to drink it, but then I just found it upset my stomach, but now I seem to tolerate a little bit better.

Speaker 1: 11:21

I kind of want to talk about your 50 miler. You know, as a, as an ultra athlete, preparing for a 50 miler Like what was the structure of your training and what was your nutrition strategy leading up to racing and on the race day?

Speaker 2: 11:37

yes, this ultra was very unplanned. Um, I was originally going to train for an ironman and then I got this opportunity to run a 50 mile ultra in texas overnight, which we found out two months in advance. So I really only had two months to train for this race. So right away I kind of I still maintain my Ironman stuff, but I just increased my running volume quite a bit, probably too fast, because I didn't really have a choice, and then I immediately found a coach. So then my run was pretty structured and that's when I did start adding in carbs, like you mentioned, zach Bitter, because it's already a hard accomplishment, a hard goal.

Speaker 2: 12:25

I don't really want to make it harder on my body by, you know, just having meat and fat. I want to help my body a little bit with the training and recovery. So I would mostly just consume I'd make my own maple syrup gels, consume that during my runs and then have a little bit more carbs after. But so really during the training I still only had 50 to 75 grams of carbs. Then the week of probably more so three to four days out, that's when I tried to increase more closer to 100.

Speaker 2: 13:03

But even then I just felt like I had a hard time because I don't personally enjoy having carbohydrates. They make me a bit full, a bit more bloated, and I do strongly believe it helps me a lot during the ultra. And so, come a day of the ultra, it was overnight, so I had all day to fuel and prepare for that, and then every 45 minutes, and then every 45 minutes half an hour or so during the race. I would just have either maple syrup, maple candies, which were just maple sugar into a little candy, nothing added, or I would just. I had bags of white rice that I would munch on, so that was about it.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Yeah, that's a crazy endeavor, and you know utilizing what you can. You're like, you're it's like hey, sometimes I have to drop what I really want to do in order to do the thing that I really want to do. So if you're not usually eating tons of white rice or tons of carbohydrates, you know utilizing those as tools to get the job done. Um, but is it true? You broke your foot before or during this race?

Speaker 2: 14:21

Yeah, so about three or four weeks leading up to the race I was having very bad foot and knee pain. So I was getting an x-ray and they said nothing was conclusive. So they ordered me a bone scan which I still have not heard about since May, heard about since may, um, still have not received since may. But um, I seriously could not run. Three weeks leading up to the race I put myself in an air cast because that was the only way I was able to get around. And then finally, the week before the race I was able to get a couple runs in. It was recovering and come race day, about third of the way through the run I it was the same pain. I couldn't even step through on my foot. Then my alternating knee started bothering me. So I was the rest of the run was just shuffling. So it turned out after the fact, after I got an x-ray, it was broken. So I assume it was a stress fracture that wasn't detected on the x-ray and still dealing with the consequences, like three months later.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Oh, oh, that's, that's a rough one, that's a rough one. Uh, would you do another 50 miler?

Speaker 2: 15:45

Oh for sure. Yeah, during the first part of the race that felt really good. I was saying to myself I could really see myself doing this. Then the pain creeped in and I was just frustrated because I'm like, why me Like? Why do I have to be injured all the time? But I'm getting it under control right now, getting a lot of treatment done, so hopefully, once the injuries heal, I can do more ultras and hopefully a hundred mile ultra would be cool that'd be awesome.

Speaker 1: 16:17

That's the one, the one I don't race anymore. I did you know ironman, marathons half hour, all that stuff. And the one, the one I don't race anymore uh, I did you know ironman uh, marathons half hour, all that stuff. And the one race I actually got injured myself. I was training for a 50 miler, the north face endurance challenge, and it was a trail run in chicago.

Speaker 1: 16:32

There's no trails out here, so I got trail shoes and I was going other places to do some running and the shoes didn't agree with me. Like I would do some short runs. I'm like, all right, I'm going to do 13 mile run or whatever. And I did them in these trail shoes and then I literally I got seven miles out and I had to take them off and I had to hold them in my hand and walk barefoot back home. It sucked Like I'm just like man this is, and I like I had pinched nerves up my right leg and I'm like shit. So I ended up doing I'm going down from the 50 to the half marathon. I just did with a buddy, but that's still like the one race. I'm like, ah, I might come out of retirement for um, but with the, the 50 miler. That was like a nick bear thing right. Did his company put it on?

Speaker 2: 17:17

yeah. So that's why, if it was any other ultra, I probably would have just said, no, I'll just not go, I'll rest my foot. But I've been following this guy for the last four or five years and it meant a lot to me. So, no matter what, it wasn't a question whether I was finishing or not, it was just me telling myself just keep moving. And my run sure didn't look like a run, but I was just not stopping the whole time, no matter how painful it was. But I still ended up finishing just under 11 hours. Not the goal I wanted to get, but there was a 15-hour time cap, so I was still pretty happy with it there was a 15 hour time cap, so I was still pretty happy with it.

Speaker 1: 18:06

Yeah, uh, and I think I just like clicked on one of the. When he posted on youtube or something, I think they were saying like, hey, like there's gonna be, was it horses or cattle or something like it. Like, get out the way if you're, if you're running yeah, I didn't expect that either.

Speaker 2: 18:18

at the, the thing was is it was so mysterious we didn't know the location until we checked in the day of the race.

Speaker 1: 18:25

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 18:26

So yeah, I just figured out. It was like a 45-minute drive from where I was staying. It was on some ranch in the middle of Liberty Hill, texas. At the briefing about half an hour before the race, they said there's wild bulls, wild hogs, snakes, um, barbed wire just listing all these hazards and they just basically said if you're not comfortable running, then just don't start the race. But we have no way of controlling this and there's actually currently a wild bull on the loose. So it was. It was pretty raw. It was pretty raw race, but I had, honestly, the best experience of my entire life doing it.

Speaker 1: 19:16

That sounds, sounds so cool. Just make sure everybody's like, okay, just make sure your waivers are signed Head on out, yeah, yeah, and you know, because you're saying you use different things, some carbohydrates, as tools. I think in the one piece of like the narrative that I feel like everybody is getting is like you can't do these races unless you are like a sugar burner. You have to have 100 carbs in the hour. You know, and we're going to talk about some Ironman stuff too, but, like you know what the suggestions that I was seeing, like how much food you should be eating on your bike, to me it's it seems ridiculous of how many carbohydrates that people are consuming over time.

Speaker 1: 20:01

Gut issues, right, all these, the GI distress, and you know, I feel like it is getting more popular of being like a fat adapted athlete using fat as fuel, but it's definitely not the mainstream yet. And there's a lot of companies that are involved with this Gatorade shot blocks, a power jet, whatever they are nowadays. Uh, and you know I always have conversations with people about there's. I mean, they're strapped up. They got they're doing a 5k and they got like they got like 20 little like gel things in their pocket. I go if we can't get to like through a 5k without eating, there's a problem here there's a problem here.

Speaker 2: 20:46

Yeah, and I'm a firm believer like you shouldn't need to fuel during a race if it's anything less than an hour, so anything over an hour that's when, yeah, go have a gel, but anything below that you don't need it.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Yeah, I always go to this quote from Vidya Tortorich. He's like you can't outrun a bad diet and you can't outlift your fork and it just there's a lot of people and nobody talks about it enough. Like, if you look besides the elite, right, let's take the pros and elite out of endurance racing and people that are just like the weekend warrior advocates that want to do this kind of stuff, some of them that are passing the finish line. They did the race but they don't look healthy. Some of them actually go in these endeavors to to lose weight, to whatever. I want to complete this goal, I want to get healthier but then they actually end up gaining weight by the end because they're working out and then they're over consuming during training, the recovery of what they think they need to have or what's prescribed to them. They're eating more than their fill and then after they continue the same eating habits and then they're not racing anymore, so they gain even more weight. And I feel like that is such a trend that is happening with people and nobody wants to acknowledge it, because that goes against the grain of what we should be doing.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Yeah, I went to a workshop and I'm not going to say the name of the gym, but I went to a workshop and they were doing a marathon Chicago marathons coming up in october so they had a bunch of coaches in there that either are doing the marathon themselves or training clients and what they should have to eat. And we all got a bag and we walked in. It was a nice, nice gym, nice presentation. There was a nutritionist there and in our bag and I shit you not there was Pringles, gummy snacks, like these candy gel things. It just was like junk and they were putting on the screen of what we should people should be eating and like she was saying Cheerios have. She was saying making, she called them shower smoothies, where you should be as soon as you wake up, make your smoothie with like this much veggies, this much, like she sees wherever the heck she had, and down it in the shower to get you because you need to keep it like the amount of I'm like I don't even eat that much food. And it was wild and I and this is like she kept saying I'm a nutritionist, I'm a nutritionist or a dietitian or whatever and somebody raised their hand and I was just shutting up because, like I'm not, like this is their thing. I'm gonna shut up and not say a word because I'm like I did a whole iron man on carnivore. I didn't even eat this many carbohydrates. And somebody raised their hand. They're like, hey, I, because people were literally just before. We're saying hey, when I eat, I eat this way, I get bloated. And then her response was like well, how are you eating? Are you eating standing up or sitting down? I was like, okay, so this guy had this question. It was a good question. He goes I've been hearing a lot about people doing their runs fasted because it makes them feel better and it actually helps your performance.

Speaker 1: 23:59

And she just shot him down. She's like no, she goes just mic drop. No, don't do that, that's dangerous, whatever. And I was like pissed. I was like I'm going to raise my hand here. And I was like, hey, I've done a full half Ironman with electrolytes and water. I did a full Ironman with maybe 50 carbs and I go. All of my runs, all my training, most of it was fasted and it was good.

Speaker 1: 24:27

And I'm like I don't think that's fair to just tell somebody that, like, if they want to explore it for themselves, they should be able to, because if they have GI distress from eating. How you're telling them to eat. That's not good for them, so why won't let them them like, figure it out or have this self-expiration? And the answer was well, you know, everybody's different n equals one. I go. What the hell kind of answer is this? Uh, I texted some other carnivore coaches in space. I'm like dude, we got a lot of work to do. Like this is what they're having these people eat in a race. Is is so crazy. Um yeah, sorry I went on a rant, but no, it's okay.

Speaker 2: 25:01

I just the thing that bothers me is just the type of carbohydrates. It's fine if that's what you believe is. You know carbs will make you perform, but why does it come down to Pringles? Why does it come down to Cheerios? If I were to consume carbs while I'm training, I can go out of my way and make maple syrup gels they have so many honey gels nowadays you can have rice cakes, like anything healthier that still is quick to digest. But yet people are resorting to foods that have seed oils and I'm not going to get into seed oils, but like just you could, you could go on tangent but wheat and things that do upset your stomach during those races.

Speaker 1: 26:15

And a lot of. If you look on some of these performance bars or whatever it may be like, it's a laundry list of stuff that I can't even pronounce. It's not even food.

Speaker 2: 26:26

Yeah, whereas you can easily just search up a recipe, make a protein bar, probably with dates, protein powder and coconut, you know it's. It doesn't take that much and if your goal is to be healthy but also perform, it's worth taking just a little bit of extra time to make a healthier alternative.

Speaker 1: 26:50

And now kind of going into I know you're doing you're, you're prepping for an Ironman, you know for the Ironman training. How is that going and what are some things that are going well and what are some challenges right now?

Speaker 2: 27:04

Well, I'll start with. The challenges is that I'm still pretty injured. Both my knees are pretty screwed up from the ultra. I did the ultra in June and it's now mid-September, so just trying to kind of get treatment on that. My foot is not broken anymore, but it's still not where I want to be. I'm able to start running a little bit, but I just find there's a threshold right now in terms of time so I can go out for a bike ride, but max time till my knee or foot really start bothering me is about 90 minutes and my running is not going above 40 minutes.

Speaker 2: 27:46

I am swimming. Swimming's been going well. I've been at it for pretty much a year now in the pool, two to three times a week. I don't have a specific coach right now. I'm just kind of training to maintain until I actually figure out what's wrong with my injuries and what race I'm picking. I have my eyes set on a race in April. It will be the full Ironman. But nutrition wise, um yeah, the last couple months it's been around 20-30 grams of carbs, strictly from molasses, just because there's good potassium content in it which a lot of people don't know it's just the certain type you get, which is blackstrap molasses.

Speaker 2: 28:36

Yeah, so MCT oil is big, because I find that was another thing I used during my ultra was MCT oil because it doesn't need to go down to it, doesn't take long to digest, it just kind of goes straight to your liver and used as fuel. But lately I've been kind of thinking of the idea of adding a little bit more carbs back in, just from maybe a bit more molasses, maple syrup or some white rice, just because sometimes I find my body goes into phases where it feels more tired and I just hate kind of dragging through my workouts. But a lot of times I'll experiment with adding some carbs in max 50 grams, 65. And then if I don't feel good I'll just remove them, and I'm a big fan of just experimenting.

Speaker 2: 29:33

There's no right or wrong. Every individual is different. So a lot of times people that do strict carnivore and they're very against carbohydrates, a lot of them aren't exercising, a lot of them are just still healing from a lot of issues they have. But if you are high level and very active, sometimes you need just a little bit of extra carbs and I also find those carbs stimulate my digestion so I can eat a little bit more. Otherwise, if I'm just eating fat, I'm stuffed and can't really eat enough.

Speaker 1: 30:16

Yeah, that's a great point because there's a ton of people and, again, the carnivore community, all communities, it doesn't matter. There's the dogmatic of you got to do carnivore this way, you have to do the lion diet way. You got beet, red, red meat, salt water, nothing else. Oh, coffee, you lose your carnivore card, like you know, stuff like that. But it really needs to be to the individual. And, again, like you said, a lot of people go to this diet to eliminate things, to help heal. I mean, I was vegan for two years. Really, yeah, oh yeah, way opposite now.

Speaker 1: 30:56

I was vegan for two years and I felt some health benefits at the beginning, mainly like losing body fat and feeling better than the standard American diet. And then I had belferitis in my eyes. I gained all the weight back, my gut was bad, my hair was falling out. I was like this is something's up and for me, some people can do vegan, some people can do vegetarian, completely fine, but for the people that like, hey, this is affecting my life, I have these issues, they go on to the elimination diet and most of them don't go back, but they, because that's the one thing that healed them.

Speaker 1: 31:38

They think that's the end-all, be-all, which isn't the case. Everybody has their own individuality. Some people go carnivore and add the fruit in and they like it and they feel good or feel better. Some people, fruit doesn't agree with them, but that's a good point, because the people that are really super strict on it, yeah, that help them. But again, if you're going to be doing get up and do 50 miles, boss, that's going to need some extra things I use that, yeah, at the end of the day, for certain people it is all about getting enough calories in if they're burning so much.

Speaker 2: 32:13

And the reason I started carnivore, animal based, was to heal certain issues I was having, and now that I feel some of them are healed, that's when I can start adding in foods again. I'm not adding in vegetables, I'm not adding in fruits, it's just more quickly digesting carbs that I use strategically around my workouts. So a lot of people will just go off on you, whether it's on social media. You're doing this wrong, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, I really could care less because it's going in my body. Everyone's different. I don't know why people get on you about how you are doing things, because if you feel good like you don't even know me. Why are you packing?

Speaker 1: 33:07

You don't know me, son.

Speaker 2: 33:08

You don't know me so I mean it's just everybody's different. You got to play around with whatever works for you and how does your?

Speaker 1: 33:19

when you made this switch? Um, I know you said some of the haters on social media, right, but what about, like family friends when you went to this style of eating? Was there some like kind of pushback?

Speaker 2: 33:31

My family didn't do much. I've always made my own food ever since probably high school, just because I like controlling that part. And they know my family knows how long I've been suffering with these issues, especially being trapped together during the pandemic. So full support. They didn't really bat an eye at it. My mom would actually. She goes through phases of trying carnivore, phases of trying carnivore, but even for herself she says I just feel like a little bit better with maybe a little bit of fermented sourdough or sauerkraut fruit before my workouts. People around me whether it's work, they straight up think it's weird. But I know the reasoning behind it, I know the science behind it. So I just kind of bite my lip. Otherwise I know I'm going to go on a full-on rant. So yeah, like I said before, I don't really care what people think of what I eat, especially on social media. If you don't like seeing what I eat, don't follow me. Either way, it doesn't affect me Because if I feel healthy, at the end of the day that's what matters to me.

Speaker 1: 34:53

Absolutely With your, with your training that you're doing now. Um, you know you said getting back into the running, biking. You have, you know, a time limit until you're all healed up and the swims are good. What about your strength training? You know how many days a week are you implementing that and what kind of lifts are you doing? I mean, there's like everybody is a little bit different, like they have different splits or whatever. So what's kind of your methodology right now?

Speaker 2: 35:17

Yeah. So I mean, when I first got into the gym and fitness I probably 10 years ago, eight years ago it was I just loved bodybuilding. It's therapeutic to me. I like seeing the progress. For me it honestly wasn't about looks, I just it was a good stress relief, good time away from school work, just time to myself to be in my own head. So I've always enjoyed bodybuilding and I've done that for the last eight years on top of my endurance training or a sport I was doing.

Speaker 2: 35:52

So I usually lift every day, maybe not two times a day, so probably five days a week. I do more of a quad focus day, more of a hamstring focus day, more of a quad focus day, more of a hamstring focus day, and then typical kind of bodybuilding split. I just kind of go in auto regulate, see how I'm feeling. That day I'll hit shoulders, triceps, biceps, back, like I said. I usually do it on the same days, but if I have to deter off of that because of a swim I have planned and my upper body is a little bit fatigued, I just go off by feel.

Speaker 2: 36:32

Some people in the bodybuilding space might not agree with that, but I'm not competing for a show, I'm just doing it to improve my running, my biking, my swimming, my mental health. And again, it's my body. You know, I know how to listen to it. I just yeah, I don't like when people tell you what to do. So it is my life. I like being in control of my life, so typically five times a day. If it's a leg workout, I will do that in the morning. But if it's a leg workout, I will do that in the morning. But if it's upper body, I like doing that at night, when I'm more fueled and I have my endurance done.

Speaker 1: 37:13

So, yeah, five times a week, right, yeah, Uh, it's. I think it's this smart thing to do. There's a lot of people that get out what they're doing races they get away from the strength training too much and I always say, like, like, strength is like the cup, and if you want to put, you know, the stronger you are, the bigger the cup's going to be. You can fit more endurance, flexibility, resistance, um, you know, resilience into that cup. If you're stronger, Um, but yeah, I see you on the Instagram hanging and banging and you know heavy deadlifts and stuff. So it's, it's awesome that you're. You're still doing some strength training while while training for an Ironman.

Speaker 2: 37:50

Yeah, and I've never slowed down, like there wasn't a time where I, you know, took a month off because I was training for this race. It was almost like oh, a race came up, I'm going to sign up and just add a little bit on top and reduce a little bit of weightlifting. Even when I was training for the ultra, I did weightlifting up until maybe four or five days out, probably four, but at the same time I was injured. So it's all I could do to maintain my fitness. So I mean, I do listen to my body. If something's hurting, I'm not going to push through. Um, people might say that's why you get so injured. If I'm injured, I'm not going to work, I'm not going to exercise that certain part of my body and I'm going to fuel to recover properly. But some people are more prone to injuries than others, unfortunately.

Speaker 1: 38:45

And it's a hybrid piece that hybrid athletes like hey, I can go clip 10, 15 on a run and still go have a good lifting session the next day and be the best of both worlds. And for some of the listeners, you have a youtube channel that's out. Um, what kind of content are you planning on creating for like subscribers and you know what? Do you hope that people you know, if they tune in, gain from it?

Speaker 2: 39:12

yeah, it's been a long time coming. Probably for the last four years I've wanted to start, but I've just been making excuses, I don't know how, I don't know how to edit, and then finally I'm just bought a vlogging camera and let's do this thing. So I've just kind of documenting more of the real side of myself, because people don't people that don't know you don't really know certain sides of you, so I am pretty outgoing. Once you get to know me, I try to be funny. I don't know if it works, but I like documenting my days of training, my days of eating. As somebody who eats different than most people, I just did a recent video of what I used to eat for breakfast when I was younger, so I enjoyed doing that. One brought back a lot of memories, but right now it's more just daily things, and then probably in the future, I'll then probably in the future I'll kind of jazz it up a bit and make more strategic videos.

Speaker 1: 40:27

but yeah, yeah, I mean it's, it's hard, like always. The first step I remember when I like I started mine, my, actually my tag was carnivore athlete. Like that was my. I even had carnivore athletecom at one point. Uh, yeah, and uh, it's going with that.

Speaker 1: 40:40

And then I then I started feeling like I don't really want to be dogmatic of just this is my like carnivores, the end all be all.

Speaker 1: 40:47

And then so I'm like, oh, let me ditch that and that's kind of what I want to like more primal, um aspect, but it's, it's a, it's a little bit of a leap. And then, like, not that, I like I have no idea what'm doing, I'm just posting crap that I think people are going to like and whatever, like you said, hey, like, if you don't like it, like don't subscribe, don't watch, but uh, but no, it's, it's all good stuff. And I think when people see your content, I think because you're doing like the day to day stuff, I think they're resonating with you, you know, and they're they're following you more because, like, oh, this person's like a real person versus you know any somebody that's famous. Like you see something doctored up, okay, okay, whatever, but uh no, I think people are very joining it. And again I came across your page. I was like, oh, she's, she's, she's, badass, I got, I got to talk to this person.

Speaker 2: 41:36

Yeah, and I mean, and I try to put out content that I like to see as well. So and same with social media. I'll follow people that I the content I like to see. So I just try to be myself. I don't want to be like anybody else, I don't want to copy everybody with YouTube and doing day in the life spot. With YouTube and doing day in the life spot. It's something I've wanted to start for so long and I just felt it's almost it's a project for me to do. Sometimes I just I do get bored sometimes when I'm not training, not working. So it's just something to work on for me and it's something I want to see and look back on when I'm a bit older and maybe laugh at myself, just kind of have fun with it.

Speaker 1: 42:28

Yeah, absolutely. And what's coming up? I know the Ironman you said April.

Speaker 2: 42:36

Hopefully, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:37

What location?

Speaker 2: 42:39

It would be the one in Texas, oh cool. It is one of the pro championship races, so it might be a little bit busy. But me, I'm just going in to have fun. But at the same time I know in the back of my mind I want to qualify for age group worlds in Kona. So yeah, I'm going to throw that out there.

Speaker 1: 43:05

Hell yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:07

But yeah, it's just me. I always go in to do something for fun as an experience, but secondary, I'm always no, I'm getting top of my age group, I'm going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's what happened with my first triathlon in August. I just went in with having fun, but I knew there was an age group award. So I was like I'm still going to push hard, no matter what third or second in my age group.

Speaker 2: 43:35

So awesome, awesome, awesome and anything else coming up besides that um, there's a couple local races I might just sign up for fun. Um might get disappointed just because of previous times I've had and injuries that I have now. But just gonna keep chipping away on the training, hopefully find an actual coach or training plan for the Ironman, and between now and then, who knows what I'll do. The burpees have kind of been on my mind again, so who knows if I'll attempt that. I don't know why, but I get these weird thoughts in my head sometimes and tend to listen to them. But if anybody has recommendations of what I should do, just let me know.

Speaker 1: 44:24

Yeah for sure. Well, you know we're going to be rooting for you every step of the way, following your journey and you know I, you know I wish you the best and, um, I'm looking forward to seeing you know, if you're, if you're, able, to, go in April, I'd love to. You know, follow you and, uh, you know, get your bib and we'll make sure that we're tracking you.

Speaker 2: 44:42

Yeah, for sure, appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 44:44

Cool. And then what's? Uh, where can people follow you, your Instagram and your YouTube?

Speaker 2: 44:51

Yeah, so my Instagram is at Izzy Watson, with two N's Um, and then youtube is izzy watson, fit um, and I think that's about all I have. I do have some tiktok, but it's just random everyday things. So I believe that's the same as my instagram account and that's about it. But if anybody ever wants to message me, I'm always open to answering DMs or comments.

Speaker 1: 45:24

Cool, awesome. I'll put all that in the show notes. And again, thanks for coming on, appreciate the time, and thanks for everybody listening to the Primal Foundations podcast. Thank you all for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and share. See you all next time on the Primal Foundations podcast.