The WHY behind BeRad The Podcast

Shit is getting real. The first episode of BeRad The Podcast is LIVE. 

In this episode, Des and I explore what it means to be good at something and what she thinks sets her apart from her competitors when it counts. It turned out to be drastically different from what I believe makes me tick, but I realize that difference is probably what makes her so consistent. 

For whatever reason, my racing and training have always been highly emotionally driven. I make my decisions on what to race and where to train based on what is calling to me. Every fiber in my being will feel a pull towards a race or to my coach's frustration, a particular run I just HAVE to do. In the past, I wasn’t able to say no, and I called it passion. But untamed, passion burned me up and spat me out. 

In talking to Des, I realized that passion could ignite the fire, but professionalism is what keeps it burning. Since coming back from the burnout I experienced over the last few years, I have tried to find that balance between passion, which can sometimes manifest in obsessiveness and neuroticism. Without trying, Des strikes that balance and calls it simply being pragmatic: which is, in her words, the key to her success. 

This is why I wanted to start this podcast. To examine what makes the great, great. Des Linden is inarguably and consistently one of the greatest athletes of our time, and she attributes it all to a slow burn of professionalism. 

With the first podcast behind us and a few more in the bank, I am left wondering what sort of consistencies I might see among the highly successful and how it might differ from my mindset. Just in the first episode alone, I am blown away by the difference in Desʻs perspective, and yet I realize that maybe my hot passion is part of the reason my career has had more wild downs than successes. When you burn hot, you will burn up.

Stay tuned for our next guest as I continue my learning, and please forgive these first few episodes for being a little outdated. I couldnʻt help but jump on the opportunity to interview anyone I could while in Chamonix, which turns into the trail-running mecca in those last weeks of August. 

I will be here every other Wednesday. Please share, and subscribe on your account, your mom's account, and your grandmaʻs account. Spread the word far and wide and please let me know if you like what I am doing here! 

Peace and love, 

Cat