Kepler Challenge ✅ Wowza, what an epic event. Te Anau put on an absolute scorcher which meant the most incredible views along the tops! ⛰ Thank goodness for the tree shelter for most of the final 30km to keep a bit cooler! 🌲🌞 Outcome: totally stoked!😀 I finished feeling great with minimal dehydration which meant my attempt to keep on top of hydration in the hot conditions worked almost perfectly. My strategy from the start was to really hold back in the first 30km of hills, which played mind games on me a bit. Feeling a bit behind and slower on climbs I usually love smashing, I just kept to my plan and trusted in the process that I would feel strong in the final 30km. Reassessing how I felt at half way (iris burn) my legs were still feeling good (phew) and nutrition and hydration was on track. I found my rhythm and kept to a low intensity run from there on, whilst enjoying the planned caffeine hit along the way🤪My strategy worked, as in the final 30km I felt strong and consistent. At the 47km I could certainly start to feel my legs, but knowing my parents would be at Rainbow Reach at the 50km mark got me through. The atmosphere at all the aid stations was contagious and so uplifting! I was buzzing after rainbow reach and enjoyed some words of encouragement to all the runners in the final 10km, all happy we knew we had nearly made it! The final 5km I was tossing up whether a 5km TT to chase a PB or the final 5km of Kepler was harder 😂 I decided they’re similar but in VERY different ways. The final 1km down to the finish line was just epic, having a smidge of gas left I went for it and savoured every second 😀 🏃🏼‍♀️ 🥇Massive congrats to my coach @daniel.c.jones for taking out the win in an UNBELIEVABLE time of 4”37 🔥 Your coaching, expertise, and encouragement over the last 6 months has been next level and you inspire me to be a better runner every single day, thank you so so much!!! Bod is feeling good, but for now I’m going to keep grinning, enjoy a relaxed week or so, and then refocus on some new goals for the year ahead 😎 Will I be back at Kepler in December? Maybe 😝

Here’s to 2022! 💥 Happy new year everyone! I hope you have some epic goals lined up 💪🏻

Do you have an endurance event coming up in the first few months of 2022 and need some carb-rich snack ideas for when you’re on-the-go? 🚴🏊🏻‍♀️🏃🏃🏼‍♀️ I have you sorted! Here’s some ideas to keep your energy levels up and help to hit your individualised hourly carb rate ✅ ☺️ Remember, practise practise practise, including at race intensity! 💥

Last major run in the bag ✅ Yesterday was such an epic adventure exploring the port hills. Conditions were pretty spot on, although quite hot by the end, and the views were just amazing 😍 Favourite part was definitely around and just before the Godley head loop. We managed to tick off 50km and 1,700m of vert ⬆️ both achieving our longest runs ever 🤩 Massive thanks to Arron for being our mobile aid station. He met us multiple spots along the way with Christmas music, bottles ready to refill and surprised us with a few extra treats along the way, including being dressed as Santa🎅🏻 Morale did not lag with such awesome support🙏🏻 Body is feeling good today but excited to have the big one done and have the pressure taken off over the long holiday weekend 🎄Only 3 weeks to Kepler! 😯

THANK YOU all of you incredible people!! Christmas is nearly here! Crazy huh? I just want to acknowledge how much I appreciate each and every one of you who support me, choose to work with me, and wholeheartedly put your trust in me to help you be the best version of yourself💥 Amongst all the science, sports nutrition, food and everything in between, it is the people I get to work alongside, my inspiring clients, that actually is the best part of all. Seeing what you are capable of achieving with some expertise, guidance, and support is so rewarding. The rapport that is built over weeks, months, and years is pretty special too, and one of the reasons I love my work so much. You’re all amazing people and I am so fortunate I get to work with you. Thank you. I am so excited for continued ventures, growth, and epic-ness in 2022. Merry Christmas & best wishes🎄

💧 Sports drink comparison 💧 What do you look for in a sports drink? How do different sports drink sit in your stomach? What sports drink is best for you based on your sport, intensity, duration or sweat rate? Do you lose a lot of sodium and how do you know this? What’s your go to? Hydration is such a fine balance and there’s so many factors that can impact it one day to another. Too little and you can leave yourself dehydrated and performing poorly, too much excessive hydration over a long period (especially plain water) and you risk the other extreme (hyponatremia - rare but it does happen). Confused about your hydration needs and the abundance of sports drinks available? Get in touch with a sports dietitian 👍🏻

Would you guess that the key ingredient in these decadent mousse is avocado? 🥑 Who said eating well had to be boring? I challenge these puds are better than regular mousse and are so easy to make. Simply dark choccy, avo, milk, and a touch of honey 🍯 I might have to work on my evenness of icing sugar sprinkles 😅 someone is going to get a lot, my bad 🙈 Recipe tweaked from @nadialimcooks

Coming 2022….. 🎤 🎧 I am super excited to be in the active planning stages of working towards releasing a podcast early 2022. This is where you can join me to learn about all things science, sports nutrition, running, human physiology and much, much more. You can enjoy listening to these podcasts being reassured information is discussed in a thought-provoking, scientific, evidence-based, interesting, and easy to understand manner so that you have more tools in your nutrition toolbox to be your best self 🧰 Many of you out there will hopefully jump on and have a chat with me on the podcast at some stage, as I share and discuss your specific areas of expertise, experiences, and excellence 🧠 Watch this space 🏃🏼‍♀️ 🎙

Just here for a muddy good time 🤘🏻

Recovery - make sure you smash it as hard as your key training days. It’s where the magic happens 💫 Sleep, good nutrition, and relaxation. It’s ok to not do anything sometimes and just 100% chill (although hustle culture tells us otherwise).

What’s the link? 🤔 Have you heard of hepcidin? It’s a pretty important peptide hormone in our body that manages our iron levels. It is also impacted by exercise (from the inflammatory response) and high doses of iron supplementation. That is, hepcidin increases with increased duration and intensity from exercise for up to 6-hours after. Given hepcidin reduces iron absorption, this is an important consideration in athletes with deficiency, the timing and dosage of iron supplements and how long hepcidin can be elevated for after training sessions in those training multiple times per day.

🚨 Keeping safe running solo 🚨 We are lucky that NZ is a pretty safe country. We don’t have to worry about being attacked by a grizzly bear or being bitten by a poisonous snake when running, but unfortunately no matter where you are in the world, there will always be people who might not have the best intentions. I’m sure many of us (both males and females) have been in a situation when running alone that made us feel super unsafe, uncomfortable, or generally terrified. It’s not fun. As nice as running with friends is, sometimes it’s not always feasible, so we need to make sure when we do run alone that we are safe. Thanks to all of you for so many great suggestions - I certainly have taken a few ideas onboard myself 🙏🏻 I hope sharing these helps some of you out there be a bit safer next time you run too 🏃🏼‍♀️ 🏃🏼‍♂️ A few recent scares have made me reflect on where, what, and how I share on socials. A good reminder to consider your privacy settings and remembering public settings = anyone out there can see it.