Tune in as I share my personal journey with amenorrhea and how it led me to a newfound appreciation for that time of the month. We'll also discuss sustainable period products like menstrual discs and cups, which can be game-changers for women who love to exercise and run.
Ever wondered about the pros and cons of running every day or the world of ultra marathons? Join us as we explore the growing popularity of my YouTube video on running 10 miles a day for three years, and how ultra marathoning can challenge our mental and physical limits. Plus, discover the unique experience of listening to audiobooks while running these incredible distances and my personal plans for future ultra marathon endeavors.
Tune in as I share my personal journey with amenorrhea and how it led me to a newfound appreciation for that time of the month. We'll also discuss sustainable period products like menstrual discs and cups, which can be game-changers for women who love to exercise and run.
Ever wondered about the pros and cons of running every day or the world of ultra marathons? Join us as we explore the growing popularity of my YouTube video on running 10 miles a day for three years, and how ultra marathoning can challenge our mental and physical limits. Plus, discover the unique experience of listening to audiobooks while running these incredible distances and my personal plans for future ultra marathon endeavors.
Speaker 1:
Today's episode of the Lucy Beatrix podcast, we're covering a couple different topics. We're talking about women's health as far as menstruation, and navigating periods in the context of life and running. We're also talking about whether or not you should run every day, And then we're going to just talk about what it's like to run further than a marathon or an ultra marathon, because these are all topics that are top of mind for me right now. And so, diving right in, the first thing that I really want to talk to you guys about is periods, and this is because, in my 34 years on this planet, i have a lot of interesting perspective on menstruation And that I think that, unlike most women that are, they hate getting their periods. It's just such a pain.
Speaker 1:
I'm someone who loves getting my period. I think it's just such an awesome reflection of where my body is health wise, and this probably stems from not having a period for most of my 20s. I had a menorrhea or no period for probably about a decade, especially during my modeling career, and so now I rejoice when I get my period. I get very excited, thinking that everything is working how it should And it's kind of my biomarker that I'm fueling properly, especially when I'm training really heavy. So if I am running 100 mile weeks when I'm marathon training, getting my period is a really good sign And it's kind of like my little check mark that I'm fueling and recovering and keeping my body stress down, because I think that a lot of my menorrhea had to do with underfueling, not having enough protein or fat and then also being really stressed out from my modeling career. But on this topic of periods which, if you're a dude, maybe you don't want to listen to this, but also if you are curious about this stuff, maybe for your girlfriend or just to know about, like what's going on with us girls I stumbled upon something a few months ago that I want to talk about And that is that I discovered.
Speaker 1:
I discovered and I guess maybe because it's like I was away from having a period for a long time, so to speak that when I came back into the market of menstruation I learned about these different things that are not just your conventional tampon. So tampons which are made from cotton, i believe, that actually physically stay inside your body, are okay. They're better than like a pad or those absorbent underwear, like things or whatever they're called, but they don't always do the job. So there are a couple other things on the market that I didn't realize are out there and are more sustainable and actually work. So I wanted to talk about what each of those things are.
Speaker 1:
The first thing is the menstrual disc. This is like a silicone disc thing that you basically pinch, like this. If you're listening to this, you probably don't see what I'm physically doing. But it's basically like this little, little shallow cup that you pinch and you insert And it sits there for several hours And basically, when you're done, you take it out and empty it out and you can use it over and over again. And this is really cool because I didn't know that something like this existed. But it's actually been a game changer because you can wear it for long periods of time. There isn't this risk of toxic shock syndrome the way there is with tampons that you keep inserted.
Speaker 1:
But the other thing that's very similar to this is the menstrual cup. I think this is called the Kadeva cup. This is not the Kadeva cup brand, but it's. I think people call it that and they know what it is. But this is a little bit more of like a deeper cup thing that you pull out by using this, but this has like a suction effect in it, so it like actually stays in place. Which leads me to why I'm even talking about this, and that is that for sports, it's great. So if you have to be out running for several hours at a time which in the marathon or longer than the marathon is something that we do, and you're on your period, you can use these things. So I guess I'm just kind of doing a little PSA of like, hey, these exist I'm not sponsored or anything by this by this brand. I don't even know what the brand that makes these, but I found them at Target and I've been like experimenting with, like how to use them, and they've been a game changer for my time of the month, and so, yeah, interesting, right, this is the future. I guess, like you know, it's 2023 and people are wearing this stuff silicone, silicone So that's interesting, and so, yeah, i guess.
Speaker 1:
The other thing that I was thinking about was on my YouTube channel. I had this video that's been like kind of getting a lot more hits recently. It's been getting like an extra hundred views a day. It's kind of like gradually building up, and that video is called I ran 10 miles a day for three years and this happened. So I think this video is getting a lot of popularity because there are some other videos that the YouTube analytics have been showing me have been like referring my video to at the end of their videos And I guess, like this is like a little trend of like running every day and these streaks. And when I looked at like what different things people are searching and then finding my video, it's typically people are searching running 10 miles a day or running every day, and so I wanted to talk about what the pros and cons to running every day could be.
Speaker 1:
I did run every day for a very long time, for at least three years, probably longer than that but for the sake of making that video kind of like concise and showing the benefits that I saw from running 10 miles a day for three years, i think I ran. I think it's probably it's probably more than three years, but I know for sure that I did, i did run every day for for three years, but the thing is is that I don't think I would tell anyone to just go start running every single day, but I don't think it's an impossible thing to try to do. And some of my ideas or pointers of what I would suggest to someone who's like I, want to run every day, is to understand that running every day is a really hard thing to do, even as somebody who runs really fast and far distances. Like running every day is a big commitment And you do have to really remodel your life to work around that. But that can be really good because it can kind of be coming trenched into your routine the way it became part of my routine. Just like brushing my teeth, it's just something that I do every day. I feel like my body just starts to crave it because I'm so used to it now.
Speaker 1:
But the thing to remember is if you're going to embark on running every single day, you really have to have to not even like should, but have to understand the different gears and paces. And with that I mean you have to just know and plan that 80% of those miles running every single day of the week, 80% of them should be at an extremely easy pace and no matter how far you're going, just 80% of your total training in a week should be an easy pace and then 20% of that should be at a harder or a little bit more of a more of a I don't know like focused, like workout speed type of an effort. And the reason for this the 80-20 rule is that Using the easy days to kind of insulate those hard efforts, you will both improve your efficiency by just getting used to running at a very relaxed Place because you want to get to a point where you can run just super chill. I understand that when you first start running it always feels hard all the time. I actually really relate to that even just now, getting back into shape, getting ready for my Marathon this fall.
Speaker 1:
I feel like every run is hard, even if the paces are easier and stuff. But this idea that you can run at an easy Relax pace for most of the time and then push it for some of the time, and so that could even look like just doing one hard day a week or the end of two runs a week, doing a Little bit of a harder effort at the second half of your run. But it's so important to have this idea of gears. I didn't totally wrap my head around that when I first got into running, but I think now I think that that should be like the first and foremost most important thing that you think about if you are gonna try to run every day. And I think that the other thing about these streaks and running every day is that they can be Good, but they can also induce stress.
Speaker 1:
And I like the idea of like running the day that you're in, or run the mile You're in on the day that you're in, instead of thinking ahead of like I have to keep running every single day, just run today and then see if you feel like running tomorrow. That's kind of how I approach recovery from Alcoholism or this like this notion that one day at a time, like don't think about where you're gonna be next Christmas or at a wedding in a Few months, think about where you are today and just hit the pillow at the night without drinking. I feel that way with running where it's like just run today And if you don't feel like running tomorrow you don't have to, but maybe you will feel like it and that kind of takes the pressure off and So I kind of like to think about That and so if you're gonna run every day, i don't think there's anything wrong with that, but just make sure that you're doing enough variation in the paces to keep it pretty easy Most of the time, with some hard efforts, to make sure that you're still improving with form and not just doing only easy all the time And not getting too caught up in how far, because, like, while I did 10 miles a day for three years, i would say it's, that's not that's. That's like a pretty extreme approach and I mean I'm I like to go big with everything that I do, but I feel like that's a lot. So if you wanted to do a mile a day, every day, that would still be a lot and really cool. So just start small and, yeah, what if it's even five minutes a day? that could be cool. I'm just setting the stage, laying the bricks down for a really positive routine.
Speaker 1:
So the last thing that I want to talk about is ultra marathons. People are always very curious about ultra and this idea of, like ultra marathoning and stuff, and while I'm still focused on just the marathon right now, i have touched ultra marathon distance stuff in my day. In fact, i think I actually got into running more on the ultra side of things than on the regular side of things and, if you don't know, there's a big difference between, like, regular runners and ultra marathoners and just like how they approach stuff and I find that it's less speed focused and more just sheer endurance. When it comes to ultra marathoning and just how long and like can you just go forever? and that's cool. I think there's a time and a place for that and I definitely have explored with that in my own life.
Speaker 1:
For reference, i've run 76 miles straight on a track just ready set go and did 76 miles on a hot day and that was just. It wasn't about speed, it was about just this head getting inside my head and just like exploring and just taking in like this uncomfortable feeling all day long. But the I've done like 30 mile distance anything longer than a marathon is technically considered an ultra marathon but I've done random 30 milers or like I guess it's. 50 k's is what they're more commonly referred to, as that was just during the pandemic for fun. I had so much time to kill, so I would just be like you know what I feel like running 30 miles today and I would just get out there and just go. And the thing about these ultras is that I really learned the value of slowing down and just going at quote, unquote forever pace and just just staying on my feet and kind of. It's like you kind of get into this like altered state. We're not going too hard, you're not going too easy, because it never feels easy, you're going for so long, but you're just like at that Goldilocks, just right place and I I really like the ultra distance.
Speaker 1:
I think eventually, after I'm done with my marathoning days of like really trying to go after these fast time qualifying marathons and hopefully get to the Olympic trials, i think after I'm done with that stuff, i want to play more with ultra and see what can be done with that. I've always had this idea of like the 24 hour track race which I think USATF holds, and just trying to see how many miles I can run in 24 hours on a track. If I could do 76 and 17 hours, which was a lot of crawling at the end I was so, so on my on my hands and knees I kind of wonder how many miles I could do in a day. I wonder what the record is too, because I feel like, yeah, i'm sure Camille Herron has that record, but but yeah, ultra marathoning it's kind of more of a heady thing and I think it's like, really, it's really cerebral and doesn't take the same kind of specific planning of discipline, just speed work, but it's more just planning on just time and just having so much time.
Speaker 1:
And back when I was trying to run these really heroic distances that are longer than the marathon, i would listen to a lot of audio books, which I've been doing again recently.
Speaker 1:
Now, just that I'm just training normally. But it's kind of a different thing to listen to books while you're running versus music, because I feel like music is very like fires you up and you're just like, yeah, like I'm on the tempo up going fast, but like books, it like forces you to kind of have that. I call it NPR pace because, like, when I listen to NPR, it's the same effect where it just keeps you like in a certain kind of chill where you're not like going to be running five minute miles listening to NPR or an audio book. So, yeah, so that's my hot take on the new world of menstruation products, which I was completely oblivious to running every single day, and ultra marathons and what I think of them, and that's what we've got on deck today. But if you want to find me on Instagram, i'm at Lucie Beatrix L-U-C-I-E-B-E-A-T-R-I-X. And until next time, just be fast, just win.