Kayti Simonson - Lawyer & Hyrox Hybrid Athlete - Episode #216

Kayti Simonson is a lawyer and hybrid athlete out of Alberta, Canada. Kayti shares her experiences navigating the competitive world of athletics alongside academic pursuits, shedding light on the pressures of societal timelines and the importance of aligning actions with goals.

Beyond personal growth, Kayti shares her perspectives on fostering community, tackling contentious issues, and the intersection of athletic prowess with intellectual engagement. From hosting a vibrant book club on Instagram to addressing controversial topics like gender inclusivity in sports, our conversation is both thought-provoking and inspiring.

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Other episodes you might enjoy:
World Strongest Man Mitchell Hooper,  Taylor Learmont (Little "T" Fitness), Bruce Boudreau (Vancouver Canucks), Rhonda Rajsich (Most Decorated US Racquetball player), Zach Bitter (Ultra Marathon Runner), Zion Clark (Netflix docuseries), Jana Webb (Founder of JOGA), Ben Johns (#1 Pickleball Player in the World)

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

I think that the biggest thing for me is holding and maintaining my discipline. I mean, discipline is everything, it's absolutely everything. You need to not think in terms of instant gratification, and I think that that's what screws up Pretty much anybody who's trying to achieve anything, whether it's professionally, athletically, just growth, whatever. You need to have your discipline locked in and you can't be doing anything in terms of instant gratification, because as soon as you start thinking short term or maybe this little thing doesn't matter, maybe this won't matter then you just start building habits that actually deflect away from what you're trying to achieve. Everything has to be working towards, whatever your goals are. If it's not actually contributing to your short term or long term goals in a positive way, why are you doing it?

Speaker 2: 0:54

You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history World's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the athletes podcast, where high performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go, folks. This is the 216th episode of the athletes podcast featuring Katie Simonson. Welcome back to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Thanks for tuning in being a subscriber being a part of the athlete agreement that we have. If you don't know already, we put out this content on a weekly basis. We feature incredible athletes like Katie every single week so that you folks can listen, learn and be inspired by these incredible individuals. I'm a little fired up today because I got some perfect sports supplements going through my body right now. If you folks didn't know, the athletes podcast is powered by perfect sports. The electricity of 100,000 plus people in a stadium is unmatched. Phoenix and I, during our trip from Toronto to LA, stopped at a Mizzou game Georgia vs Mizzou family weekend.

Speaker 2: 2:12

We couldn't find a hotel within an hour of the stadium. It was a six hour drive. We got there sound on the 50 yard line. This NTWA game for both of us hands down the craziest experience we've ever had. Could not believe what was there is from an energy perspective. Now, that was as a fan with no affinity to either team. You as a student participating. What the heck are those pregame events like?

Speaker 1: 2:38

All I can equate it to is when you're there. My thought is that this is what it must feel like to be radioactive Like you. Just you're vibrating. The energy is unparalleled. I've tried to explain it to people, especially people in Canada who have never been, and it's absolutely impossible to do it justice. You're just hovering, but it's incredible. Oh my God, I miss it dearly, have you?

Speaker 2: 3:05

felt that similar energy competing in high rocks. Now, obviously, you competed as well in CrossFit. Does it get to that same level or is it different?

Speaker 1: 3:15

It's so different, I think, competing as an individual, you kind of have that energy within you and you're channeling that into your race, but you can't compare to 100,000 people losing their minds over a football game all collectively. If high rocks ever has 100,000 people watching a race in one stadium, maybe, but I don't think it's at that point yet who's the male?

Speaker 2: 3:43

is it Hunter McIntyre? Sheriff, you see, the biceps win races, guy. Yes, yeah, that's right High rocks, because when did high rocks come on the scene? It's only been. It's newer compared to like a CrossFit right. Crossfit's got a couple decades under its belt. What spurred the high rocks Is that from the Spartan races. Do you have a bit of the backstory or the insights on that?

Speaker 1: 4:06

A little Don't quote me on any of this because I'm not positive but I think high rocks stemmed from wanting to create a standardized race that is accessible to everybody worldwide but also can still be done at an elite level, because there's two different divisions there's normal and there's prune. So I think that they wanted to create something that could happen everywhere but was still challenging and was something able that everyone can come and do, because the skill level to do it is not high. It's very simple movements that everybody predominantly everybody can do. So the accessibility is so easy, which is really fantastic, but if you really want to push yourself, the difficulty is outrageous.

Speaker 2: 4:57

From your perspective, having competed in a variety of sports over your time? Does high rocks pro take the cake?

Speaker 1: 5:09

I think about this a lot actually because I was a 400 hurtler and the 400 hurdles, in my opinion, is the hardest race out there. Like, you have to be a straight up masochist to love the 400 hurdles, but that race at a top level takes less than a minute. This race at the top level takes an hour. So they're just. They're such a different level of difficulty. I'd say that they're probably equally as hard, but just different.

Speaker 2: 5:39

So I'm curious. I got to dive into your backstory as an athlete because, obviously, going from hurdles to high rocks to crossfit, everything in between, were you doing everything as a child as well that allowed you to build up these transferable skills? What was your upbringing like?

Speaker 1: 5:56

So I didn't discover sports until I was about 14. I grew up playing in the mountains, clundries, juggler gym, all of that stuff. But it wasn't until junior high that I actually discovered what sports were Like. I was into six year old playing soccer. I couldn't even comprehend that.

Speaker 1: 6:15

And then I got to junior high and discovered kind of organized sports and I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. So I tried out for everything and I was like, oh my God, why do I suck at everything? And I was so uncoordinated and I remember being so frustrated because I wanted to be awesome and I was terrible. And then I learned very quickly that if you put work into something, you get what you put in back out, which was really cool. So I started making those efforts to developing skills, developing coordination, and things took off really quickly for me, which was very exciting. So come high school I was nationally ranked in track. I was captain of all of my high school teams, except for golf, because I didn't play golf and I just I played everything volleyball, basketball, badminton, soccer, like you name it.

Speaker 2: 7:09

Why didn't you play golf?

Speaker 1: 7:12

Uh, one, I had no idea how to get into golf. Two, I was such a little ball of energy that the thought of having to do something slow paced, that had no contact and I wasn't sprinting, just had no appeal.

Speaker 2: 7:28

That's a fair, fair reason. How'd you get into hurdles?

Speaker 1: 7:34

Oh God, um, I think my track coach initially was like OK, cool, you're very fast, but your hundredth speed is not. It just wasn't where it needed to be to be an 8 hundred meter hurdler or just hundred meter sprinters. So I transitioned into the 400 and then my coach was like, okay, let's try some 400 hurdles, because who doesn't want to try the 400 hurdles? And then after one race I was like, oh, this is disgusting, we for sure need to move forward with this.

Speaker 2: 8:06

So are you seeking out that? Typically is that just something you've always been doing is seeking out those quote unquote sucking things that you find in life that you want to go do more of.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Yes.

Speaker 2: 8:19

Okay, and that is that like opening challenge you. Is that the law degree as well?

Speaker 1: 8:25

Okay, so I've learned to be a lawyer since I was 13. That was always the plan and that actually I feel like kind of screwed up my athletic career in some ways, because I've always had this plan to be a lawyer and I love being a lawyer. I'm so stoked that I've followed through on that. But because that was always such a fixture in my mind, I feel like I didn't put the emphasis on my athletics to become a professional athlete and trackers soccer in a way that I in hindsight could have, because law school wasn't going anywhere. I could have waited, but in my mind it was like you can't wait, so that actually I think his spirit was causing me to compete the way I am now.

Speaker 2: 9:15

That touches on a really interesting point, because I think society pushes athletes, young adults C and 2A. Hey, if by the age of 16, 17, 18, you're not on track to become the professional level, you should start looking at something else, because you know your time's ticking. You got to get a job, you got to find your career, which I fell victim to. It sounds like you did. I, like you know growing up would have. If I knew what I knew now, I would not have stopped competing as hard as I did at the age of 17, 18, put it that way, I'm fully okay and have come to terms with that. But for those listening, this is someone now competing at a professional level. Still, that's wishing that you could go back and change that, Am I right?

Speaker 1: 10:01

Oh yeah, hindsight is 2020. If I knew now or I'm sorry, if I knew then what I knew now, oh my God, I tell myself, just because it could have been different doesn't mean it would have been better. And that's what helps me. No, sleep at night a little bit. But yeah, I had these stupid timelines in my head that were ridiculous, the step from society and other people's opinions. And now I'm 34 and I feel like I'm just about to reach my potential, which is so exciting. And you realize that, even though, especially me, I really forged a traditional path with what I was doing academically, I thought of it professionally, but you literally just need to do whatever you want, just full stop.

Speaker 2: 10:47

do whatever you want. I feel like we get under right there and people would hopefully take action. But that is part of the other half of the equation is that it requires a lot of the doing and most people listening maybe online keyboard warriors, whatever the case may be will struggle with putting that into action. I think that's probably the opposite of what you've had to face throughout your life because it doesn't sound. You've had any difficulty putting things into action. There's specific things that you do to keep yourself accountable or that lead to you seeing success in whatever you put your mind to, whether it turtles, prostitutes, hyraucs, etc.

Speaker 1: 11:27

I think that the biggest thing for me is holding and maintaining my discipline. Now, I mean, discipline is everything, it's absolutely everything. You need to not think in terms of instant gratification, and I think that that's what screws up Pretty much anybody who's trying to achieve anything, whether it's professionally, athletically, growth, whatever. You need to have your discipline locked in and you can't be doing anything in terms of instant gratification, because as soon as you start thinking short term or maybe this little thing doesn't matter, maybe this won't matter then you just start building habits that actually deflect away from what you're trying to achieve, like everything has to be working towards, whatever your goals are. If it's not actually contributing to your short term or long term goals in a positive way, why are you doing it?

Speaker 2: 12:23

Man, I'm getting fired up right now, katie, I can tell you it's conversations like this that keep me excited to coming back on a weekly basis and trying to educate, entertain, inspire that next gen what you just said. There is something that I need to. I think we need to hammer home more on when. What was that inflection point for you? Because I feel like it was at your parents instilling this at a young age. The dedication is that something that you've been able to include on your own, where that's all started.

Speaker 1: 12:58

I think it's twofold. I've been very fortunate that my dad has the most unbelievable discipline I've ever seen in my entire life he has. So he was a detective for 20 years and then he started his own company in a completely unrelated field and he has just hustled and grinded and built something incredible out of nothing and he's never blamed anyone for anything that hasn't worked out. He never blames anything or anything else. It's always full accountability, even if something was out of his control. So that's been really beneficial.

Speaker 1: 13:35

But I actually think the biggest thing is I look at what other people are doing and why they're not achieving their success and I think I'm not going to do that. Clearly that's not working. Like, if you want to do something great, why would you do anything that someone who's not achieving it or striving to achieve it is doing? It just makes absolutely no sense. So I almost am kind of learning from other people's lack of discipline or mistakes or laziness, whatever it is, in order to, I guess, better myself. Because why should I have to learn everything the hard way?

Speaker 2: 14:11

Can you give an example of that without maybe calling out an individual, specifically Sarah Wade?

Speaker 1: 14:17

Okay, if there's someone that wants to achieve something athletically or start a company or whatever, but they have a work hard, play hard attitude, they're never going to achieve what they want to. And even if they're working hard but they're still acting like they're entitled to the play aspect, you're not entitled to anything. You have the privilege of working harder. You want to achieve success in anything. Have a work hard, work harder attitude. That's all there is to it. You don't get the luxury of saying, oh well, I worked kind of harder, I did this or did that, so I can now go play or I can go drink or I can do whatever. That's once again coming back and taking away from everything. You're trying to succeed. If you have paid your dues, your 20 or 30 years deep, you're successful. Sure Like, do your thing. But until you've achieved that, what planet are you on that? You think you're entitled to have balance. You want to be successful. You don't have the right to balance.

Speaker 2: 15:30

Yeah, the big balance where it has been thrown out there in 2024, maybe over the past couple of years around how we approach, and I think after COVID people were like, oh, balance, we got to make sure we get come back to balance and remember about family relationships. Those are definitely important things to prioritize, but I think Michael Jordan probably wasn't balanced in his approach to get to where he can now.

Speaker 2: 15:57

I don't think Serena Williams was balanced when she was trying to become the greatest tennis arguably athlete ever. I don't know, extraordinary things require extraordinary efforts. That's what I try and remind myself of and I think you messaged that. Similarly, what were their inspirations that motivated you growing up? Athletes that you looked up to?

Speaker 1: 16:23

Sort of, but not really like. I take pieces from athletes that I thought were really amazing. Like Alipson, Felix is unbelievable. She went to the Olympics how many times? Last time she was 37, she still meddled, Like the woman's incredible. Michael Jordan, of course, is just unbelievable. Athletes doing incredible things always motivates me, even if it's just a piece of their career. I think honestly I'm going to say it again my biggest motivator was my dad. He built something out of nothing and never complained. He just worked so hard constantly and it taught me that there's no excuses. You do what you have to do and sometimes it's going to suck, but it's going to pay off and don't blame anyone for anything, because there's absolutely no point to it. Just figure it out and adjust.

Speaker 2: 17:19

I'm trying to think because if I was to bring that same kind of mentality, energy, at times I can be looked at as a hard-o, a hard-ass like you're too cutthroat, whatever, insert any adjective you want. Do you face that? As a lawyer, are you accustomed to people thinking that? I'm curious how you've been able to maybe build up some thick skin to be able to just say, hey, this is me, this is who I am, and like it or not.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Okay, I think and this is where, to me, balance comes into play so no matter what you put forward to the world, with who you're trying to present yourself as, someone's not going to like it. It doesn't matter what you do, someone's not going to like it. So I figure you may as well be your absolute authentic self and put that forward, because then people that resonate with you are going to find you and be attracted to your energy and your mindset, and then you can build a really great support system and friendships and everything around you, which is fantastic, rather than being like oh I think this is what people want to see or want here, so I'll put that forward. But then you have the inner turmoil of not being real to yourself and then you're trying to keep up a facade which sounds exhausting. So on one hand, I'm kind of like, if you don't like it, like that's cool, because I'm fortunate that there's people that are. There's people that I don't like, and that's cool too, like it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 18:49

But on the other token, with respect to kind of that cutthroat mentality, I think that you can have that, but you also have to be willing to have the other side of you and be willing to show the other side of you, which requires just as much courage, and that's the willingness to be vulnerable and to say hey, today was really hard, or this is really hard, or I'm struggling with this. And while you have to be brave to be yourself, you also have to be brave to show that you're human and that it's not always just cutthroat. Simple, I've got it on lock, no worries, nothing phases me. That's absolutely not true. So you kind of weigh it out, I guess.

Speaker 2: 19:29

Yeah, no, no, no, 100%. I think one of the things that ties nicely to this point is you brought up like the necessity of mindfulness before we started recording, and like how emotional maturity is a necessity to achieve success as an athlete or really in any aspect of life.

Speaker 1: 19:48

Yeah, I think that that's something that I've really been focusing on a lot in the last year, but really the last few months, because I've realized that without emotional maturity you're not going to be able to really navigate or handle all of the super fun curveballs that are thrown at you. So like if you are someone whose nervous system just is not regulated and like of curveballs thrown and you like just your anxiety goes through the roof or you're just wired for sound, that's going to be really difficult to navigate challenges and then level up your game right. So you need to figure out how to kind of come from a place of calm and to respond rather than react. Also, developing that emotional maturity where you're not reactive, where you're not letting your ego dictate your actions that I think is paramount to achieving any kind of success.

Speaker 2: 20:44

Are you familiar with Alex Formosi? I'm not.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Should I be?

Speaker 2: 20:48

No, I mean, I just could have. I would have assumed that, based on some of the things that you said, you were familiar. He has a very similar approach, manner to which he speaks, more of a stoic kind of says it like it is no need for sugar on the or no need for any fluff, put it that way. So I just thought you might be familiar with some of his work, but I am pretty sure you are familiar with or you became familiar regarding the athletes podcast, in which manner I wanna have you share kind of your story of how you found out about the athletes podcast, why you reached out, because I think it's an interesting point, because I've been enjoying this conversation and you reaching out and I wanna highlight kind of for listeners how, first of all, that you sourced it out and kind of what made you wanna share your story.

Speaker 1: 21:36

So, as usual, the wonderful, wonderful Instagram. Yeah, one of your clips came up, which was interesting because I can't believe that I hadn't heard of your podcast. And then I'm looking through and I'm like, oh my God, I've heard of these athletes. This is so cool. Oh, these conversations are so great, this is so interesting, it's so stimulating. So I was like, well, cool, now I'm a fan. That's fantastic. And listening to some of the conversations you've had and kind of how you approach things, I figured this would be a really great person to talk to. With respect to kind of my journey and people that might have similar thoughts or be trying to achieve similar things, and because I appreciate how you approach things, I figured it would go hand in hand really nicely.

Speaker 2: 22:23

I completely agree. I mean, you're in the same path. You've got your own book club. I see there you're crushing it on social as well. Can you share what that process has been like and how you've been able to align with other like-minded individuals?

Speaker 1: 22:35

So okay, oh God, instagram. So Instagram is my only social media. I'm not a big social media person. I have nothing against influencers, or if that's how you wanna generate anything like that is cool, do your thing. It's just not for me, mostly because I don't have time. But I love my book clubs so much, it brings me so much joy. So how it started is I just started posting book reviews for absolutely no reason, not of the thought that anyone would actually care about my book reviews. But I just started getting feedback of saying, hey, I love this book, or hey, I'm gonna go read this now, or hey, what are you reading next? Oh, you should start a book club. And one day I was like, oh my God, okay, I'm getting kind of an influx of this, let's start a book club. So now I have a book club via Instagram where the first of every month, I pick one or two books for all of us to collectively read, and it just it's taken off, it's wild.

Speaker 2: 23:42

I love it. It's something that's needed out there. The yard of reading is lost and people don't do enough of it. I feel like, as a lawyer, you probably get your fair share, but it's good that you're spreading the wealth and making sure everyone consumes it. What's been maybe your biggest learning, and do you have aspirations of building it out like Reese Witherspoon did and selling it for billions of dollars? Sure, oh my God.

Speaker 1: 24:08

Okay, what she did was absolutely incredible and kind of genius Ready. Honestly, I'm just astounded that anyone even cares to be a part of my book club. Like that's still mind blowing to me. So no, I have given no thought to that. Mostly I'm just stoked that I get to read and that other people are now reading more because of it, which is really really cool. It's building this community, like there's a second level to book club if you want to be a part of it, and that's where we myself and whoever each picks a book for the other person, you write a notice to why you should pick that book and then you ship it to wherever. So I'm now shipping books all over the world, which is really really cool. But beyond that, I think one step at a time. So I'll let you know if I decide to incorporate my book club.

Speaker 2: 24:59

I love it. Are you an audiobook gal at all, or strictly reading? Both Okay, absolutely, both Okay, 50-50, or what's the preferred method of consuming content?

Speaker 1: 25:10

70% hard copy, 30% audio.

Speaker 2: 25:13

Ever do that while you're training?

Speaker 1: 25:16

Oh my God, yes, when I have workouts that are an hour to an hour and a half long, first off, like, I don't care how motivated and zoned in you are, you're 40 minutes into a workout you're like, dear God, I'm still doing this. So I listen to audiobooks all the time.

Speaker 2: 25:32

And then what is a day in the life? You mentioned it, the fact that you don't really have time necessarily to be the quote unquote social media influencer. But what does your day to day breakdown look like to be able to compete at a professional level as well as having your own kind of duties as a lawyer?

Speaker 1: 25:53

So I'm very intentional with my time. My time and my energy are very valuable, as I think everyone should approach their time and energy. So I'm not. I'll straight up. I'm not fucking around wasting my time with anything. I'm training often twice a day. If, yeah, twice a day, probably three or four times a week. I work in between those sessions, which is really nice. I don't have to sit in front of a computer for eight or 10 hours a day. But I work in the evenings a lot in order to balance that timing. I work on the weekends a lot in order to balance that time. Like everything is dialed in. But if you want to be successful like that's how it goes you don't get to mess around and just play or waste time frivolously.

Speaker 2: 26:44

The way I heard it mentioned now a couple of times is like seasons of life, and it sounds like you're in a season where you're going gung ho. You've got to put in the time, the effort. Maybe not get your eight, nine plus hours of sleep per night. Maybe I'm saying that incorrectly, but this is a season where you've got to put in a little bit more effort. And maybe there's a season afterwards, or 24, 36 months down the road, where there is a bit more time and a quote on cool balance but correct me if I'm wrong what does that look like from a nutrition training and then like recovery standpoint? Are you getting eight hours of sleep? How are you able to function two workouts a day? People can't do a nine to five and then work out afterwards.

Speaker 2: 27:25

So I think maybe you could share some insights there on how to maybe get that motivation up there.

Speaker 1: 27:31

Yeah, and you're right, there's definitely ebbs and flows, especially when I'm outside of competition season. But a minute Nutrition, once again, pretty dialed in. You don't compete well when you're putting shit in your body Supplements. I swear to God, I live off magnesium, every type of magnesium, like I pop that like candy. Vitamin D, creatine, vitamin C, like I those are kind of my go tos. Otherwise, yeah, I actually do try and sleep eight hours a night Like that. Recovery is so paramount. If I get less than seven, I am like ordinary. Yeah, it's not great.

Speaker 2: 28:12

I'm the same. We had my move score right now. Actually, I can see I was woken up 26 times last night Thanks to the dog Rose. I know, I know this is the downside. I've heard I was reading Peter Atea's outlive. I believe the name.

Speaker 1: 28:28

I have that on my table.

Speaker 2: 28:29

Nice. There you go. I don't know whether he references I'm about halfway through. I don't know whether your references is in that book, but I've heard sleep optimizers definitely say that your animals do not support your sleep by any stretch of the imagination, but they make for great cuddles. So I mean, what are you going to do, right?

Speaker 1: 28:50

Yeah, I'm. I actually went through many years as like I wouldn't I'm not qualified to say this but pretty much an insomniac Like I had. I was horrendous sleeper. I'm still not a great sleeper, so that's something that I'm like consistently trying to work on. But my little cat is so cute and she sleeps right beside me and she just purrs. So when I wake up and she's purring, I'm like, oh, that's nice. Okay, I guess waking up wasn't so terrible.

Speaker 2: 29:16

What'd you do to change your sleep? You said magnesium, but like have you started mouth taping?

Speaker 1: 29:22

So when I read breath by James Nester, I was like, oh shit, this is wild. And in just realizing that cognitively I didn't need to mouth tape. I was just like, oh nope, we're good, we close, we're done. And that it's pretty much been like full steam ahead with that for me.

Speaker 2: 29:42

So at night you have no issues keeping your mouth closed, because I'm like I'll be the first to admit I can't do it unless I take my mouth shut, like no, none whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 29:51

My brain I read that, I learned about it my brain was like oh nope, can't leave your mouth open anymore when you're sleeping, You're done. Even when I'm working out, I try and breathe through my nose as much as possible. So, yeah, no, I just kind of like flip that switch.

Speaker 2: 30:06

Even those long zone to cardio sessions. I love trying to do that just strictly nasal breathing. I know it's hard, you build up a sweat, it's difficult, but it's so worth it and your body performs better Once you hit that certain threshold. I don't know the science, I'm not a doctor, not the first to admit, but like hey, I know that at the end of the day, like that book has changed my life, sounds like it changed yours, you hear that that's perfect.

Speaker 2: 30:31

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Speaker 2: 30:49

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Speaker 2: 31:11

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Speaker 1: 31:54

I, oh gosh, what holds people back from achieving their goals? I think that the biggest thing is not having your priorities in order, even though you may think they're in order. Again it comes back to that work hard, play hard thing. I think, honestly, I think self sabotage is a really big issue In society nowadays.

Speaker 1: 32:21

I mean, like I said before, instant gratification, but I think what I've observed from so many people over the years is they have these goals, which are really great goals, but it's almost like they're scared to achieve them, like they're scared to take that step off the cliff, that leap of faith to really immerse themselves in, and it's almost like, if you don't really try, then if it doesn't work out, you have a slew of excuses, right, but if you put yourself all in and it doesn't work out, then it's like, oh, what was the reason? What brought? I don't know, maybe it just I wasn't good enough, or like this or like that. And I feel like, with people that have all these goals, that aren't achieving them, they're actually, more often than not, in their own way, whether they're making excuses or they're not being honest with themselves about a multitude of things. That's to me, more often than not, what's holding someone back from achieving anything?

Speaker 2: 33:25

I always like to highlight the good and the bad on this show because I think it's important for people to realize, young athletes to know that, hey, like the NHL, the NFL, the MLB, crossfit, high Rocked Pro, there's highlights and lowlights involved for everyone and it's not all sunshine and rainbows all the time. The other thing that we were talking about before this conversation started was some old PGA tour story news that went on. I don't know if you're familiar, I know we talked about it briefly, but we did have a recent LPGA winner come on the show. This has been sent to me probably five or 10 times by some previous guests on the show, tyler Johnson in particular, amongst others, that highlighted the fact that a male golfer won an LPGA women's tour tournament and may become the first transgender to win a spot on the LPGA tour. I thought, given your experience, knowledge, wisdom within the space, that it might be interesting to take your opinion on that and where you see there being maybe a solution, all saying, or where there's maybe issues that could be arising.

Speaker 1: 34:36

To me, whatever, whoever you believe yourself to be, that's cool, do you? It's all good there. But from a physiological standpoint, men and women just aren't the same. We just aren't. That's cool. I think that that's a good thing. What I love about men is that they're not women. What I love about women is that they're not men. I think it's actually a good thing that we're different, but physiologically, for the most part, men are stronger and faster. They just are. That's cool. That's just science.

Speaker 1: 35:17

It just is what it is. Guys, when you have someone that is atomically male competing in women's sports, I actually, almost, from a legal perspective, look at it like it is breaching the fair playwrights of women, because there's nothing fair about competing against a dude. It just isn't. When you look at it from a greater, more step back perspective, how then are women supposed to achieve anything within a physical, comparative athletic field? When you're now competing against men, you're almost telling women you're not good enough because now we have men coming in to do what you're supposed to be doing.

Speaker 1: 36:09

If me, as a teenage girl, is trying to get an athletic scholarship to the US which US sports, like we talked about, are a huge industry. They make billions of dollars and I realize that's predominantly men's basketball and football teams. But as a female athlete, you're trying to get these scholarships. There's money involved. Now you are no longer able to do that because some dude who's not able to compete with the men is now trying to compete with the women and then taking your spot. How is that even remotely just?

Speaker 2: 36:42

I just figured I'd let the power of the pause kick in there for a second. Have people kind of realize what's happening. A man has moved one step closer to making his way to the ladies professional golf association tour. That headline alone should be a little scary. Ailey Davidson won the NXXT women's classic in Orlando, florida. We'll put some highlights, linked in the show notes below. I just figured that, Katie. Thank you. I appreciate you providing a little bit of insight.

Speaker 2: 37:13

It's scary for me to think about because I just imagined if I had a daughter competing there and what that would be like for her to go up against a guy who's been literally on steroids for the past 20 years. Yes, compared to her. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. I'm not in that position. I'm not a female, so I can't speak to what it's like. I've seen April Hutchinson sorry who's a female powerlifter out in Ontario London I believe in particular, who's been a huge advocate for women's sports, powerlifting, protecting that agency. I'll also link to her stuff because I think it's important in the show notes. But either way, I appreciate you being able to articulate in such an intelligent fashion because it's just kind of facts at this point right, I don't know where else where the sport goes. How do we stop this, or what is something that we should be doing in the meantime to be maybe educating people on this?

Speaker 1: 38:12

My understanding is that a lot of international organizations are actually mandating that biological men are not allowed to compete in the women's sport, whatever sport. I think that that's been taking place quite a bit. I think that certain states, for the NCAA level, are also following through on the same thing. I mean just like, okay, let's say you have two female MMA fighters and you have a biological male, come in and be like I identify as a woman, I want to fight. That dude is going to clobber any woman and it's going to be so dangerous. When I equate it like swimming or running, you know that there's a difference, obviously, but when you see a female getting her ass kicked by a dude, it just kind of really highlights the significance of that difference.

Speaker 1: 39:06

Then you're like how is this even remotely reasonable?

Speaker 2: 39:11

Right, even like Davidson competed as a man until 2015 on an NCAA school, like playing division golf, and then gender reassignment. Then Pierce Morgan, which is where April Hutchinson was on as well. He was denounced on ex-Pierce Morgan as another shameful force. So, anyways, I'll let other people dive into that. I just thought you were a perfect person to be able to bring this up with, maybe highlight, hopefully address some of these issues, one of the things that we do. I'm the co-founder of a female athlete agency as well, so we highlight, try and bring, shine light on some of these young athletes that deserve the attention. For you, as someone who's gone through decades in sport, what's that been like? Trying to acquire sponsors, brands, work with individuals on a kind of promotional level to be able to have some type of financial reimbursement, because I know high rocks ain't paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for their winning races, put it that way.

Speaker 1: 40:13

It can definitely be challenging. It's actually something I'm constantly working on is trying to find sponsors to help, support and fund competing, because it is super expensive and for every hour that I dedicate to training and competing, that's an hour I'm taking away from work and making an income. So, yeah, as a woman, I don't like to say that, oh, there's a huge inequality. But you look at men's sports and they're just funded so well and I get it. That's how sports started. It didn't start with female gladiators, right? So I appreciate that to an extent.

Speaker 1: 40:52

But, yeah, it's definitely challenging trying to be like, nope, I'm an athlete, I'm pursuing this and finding funding that isn't then or isn't originally allocated to something else, especially doing higher rocks, which is so obscure to so many people. It's gaining so much traction. Over 100,000 people competed last year. It's getting much bigger, especially if you're in this world, but so many people still haven't heard of it. So when you reach out and you say, hey, I'm seeking a sponsorship for this, this is what I'm doing, this is what level I've achieved, whatever they're like wait, what's high rocks? And you're like, okay, let's start from step one.

Speaker 2: 41:34

So you're throwing rocks high in the air.

Speaker 1: 41:37

Exactly.

Speaker 2: 41:40

I'm glad we were able to bring you on today to highlight the sport. I think maybe what might be interesting is to outline what an ideal high rock to work out might look like for someone if they're looking to get into the sport. Compete into one of their races that are happening this year. I know they're spreading out all across North America so maybe you can share, shed some light on what and one of your favorite workouts.

Speaker 1: 42:04

Oh God, okay, first off, you're going to run a lot. You're going to be doing so much running. So if someone was like I want a taste of high rocks, I would go out and do 10 rounds of 500 meter run and in between every single run, I would put a sled push, I would put rowing, I would put a skier, I would put a farmer's carry, I would put burpees, I would put wall balls. I mean, honestly, I'd just take the actual race and condense it, cut everything in half, and then you can get a pretty good taste of that really awesome acid in your mouth after you finish.

Speaker 2: 42:46

Do you think that's the ideal way to train? I'm curious. From a physiological standpoint I've been focused, talked with a lot of maybe hypertrophy bodybuilding, maybe not as much on the cardiovascular standpoint. Like when you combine the two you have a crossfit kind of effect. Have you noticed? It's similar to any other sports that you've done in the past where you see a direct crossover.

Speaker 1: 43:14

I think the most similar I see is actually to track training. My volume as a track athlete was lower because I was a 400-hurtler and this race is a total of eight kilometers of running. So the volume is higher for sure. But how I approach it is I'll have a few very hard days of very difficult, high volume training. But my easy days are stupid easy, Like I'll have a four-hour, four-hour cumulative of training on, let's say, Tuesday, Wednesday I'm going to have a Zod1 5K. So my hard days, stupid hard, my easy days, stupid easy. And that's allowing me to recover properly, which is really cool. Plus I'm actually getting that mental break. So when I go into those hard sessions I'm actually more stoked for them because I'm ready, I feel good, I'm ready to really work hard and push myself, and on the easy days I don't have to think at all, which is wonderful.

Speaker 2: 44:21

Yeah, it makes the act of actually doing it simpler, as crazy as that sounds, it's the amount of mental exhaustion that occurs after training and maybe not having as much fuel at your disposal because you're trying to make weight and all these different variables. Like people underestimate how much not having to make decisions can make an impact on your life.

Speaker 1: 44:42

Oh my God, it's incredible, Like seriously incredible.

Speaker 2: 44:45

Yeah, if you know, you know for sure. I always like to give a little space at the end of these conversations for people to highlight anything specific they have going on. I do want to make sure that we realize, or have you explain, how the heck you signed up for a high rocks two weeks before you actually competed in it? But outside of that, is there anything else you want to bring forward to people's attention? Make sure that the athletes podcast listeners know of, aware about, maybe, where you want to direct them to.

Speaker 1: 45:12

Before we wrap up with our last question, as always, I think that, honestly, the biggest message I'd want to give to anyone is there is never too late a point that you can choose to do anything with yourself or your life. You can literally change anything you want at any point. You just need to start and then follow through and, if you need help, ask for help. Oh my God, ask for help, please. We do not have to do everything ourselves, contrary to the stigma that is out there for so many people thinking that, no, I have to bear the brunt of everything. No, no, no, just ask for help. It's okay, it's cool. I promise it'll be worth it. Retweet.

Speaker 2: 45:56

I think that more people need to be aware of that. Where can people find your book club? How can I be joining this? I've got like 17 audible credits I need to use, so tell me what I should be downloading and let me let's get into it. Where am I going?

Speaker 1: 46:10

Okay, so my Instagram is k-a-y-t-i-s-i. Yeah, that's my Instagram. That's where I post book club. I will post at the first day of every month what the books for the coming month are. I also post the reviews for previous months plus anything else that I've read, and then I always ask for suggestions. If anyone wants to have a book be suggested for book club which is really great and then if you want to be part of like elevated book club, then also just message me and we can start sending books back and forth to each other, which is also so fun.

Speaker 2: 46:46

I guess we're really going. Hey, let's give you this opportunity. What's the moonshot? What's the goal for 2024? For Katie Simon Sin specifically? You have anything that you want to throw out there, put it out, manifest, Make sure we hold you to it, hold you accountable for it.

Speaker 1: 47:03

Yeah, I'm a isolate 15 at Worlds for Hierarchs. That's definitely the goal and also keep working on my legal trajectory, like my law career, because I definitely kind of put that on the back burner a bit. So I'd like to, you know, generate that a little bit more and, I think, honestly work on becoming more mindful, more self-aware and figuring out how I can positively influence people around me.

Speaker 2: 47:32

Love it. I can't thank you enough, katie, for reaching out, coming on the athletes podcast today. It's been a pleasure. I think people are going to take so much from this conversation 55 minutes in length. It's been a doozy. K-a-y-t-i-s-i for Instagram. That's where book club, that's where you can find Katie. Thank you so much. Hey can't wait to follow along your journey. You're going to be crushing it. We'll see you on the Hierarchs podium soon enough, hey.

Speaker 1: 47:58

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 47:59

Look forward to it. Thanks again, so much.

Speaker 1: 48:01

Thanks, Dave.

Speaker 2: 48:02

Katie's also going to be starting the athlete book club. If you folks haven't noticed, I've been reading more and it's something that we're starting March 1st. So, depending on when you're listening to this episode, a couple days after it drops, our book club is starting. Message the athletes podcast, Katie or myself on Instagram. We'll get back to you. This is going to be a wicked group. We're going to start creating more community events so that people like yourself can engage, interact and have some fun with people like ourselves. You know that's what we're here for on the athletes podcast. Hope you enjoy this show. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Bye.