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JESSE: I kind of thinking about too, I know-- I mean, so you're out for like 27 hours and change. VICTORIA: Yeah. JESSE: Maybe not obviously, but I'm going to assume you're eating and like taking in fuel in that time you're not just going straight, right? VICTORIA: For my eating, like very much the same amount of time I put into my actual like paddle training. Because the last thing I want to do is have like GI distress when I was out there, you know what I mean? Or not make it because of something I ate or whatever. So, I practice eating and I like did all the ?? 00:40> into that. So, it was fun for me. But I spent a ton of time...and I actually ate like 7,000 calories, close to 7,000 calories... So, yeah, I was constantly-- I had a support boat. There's two captains a paramedic, videographer and my boyfriend who's a pattler and another guy and they were like feeding, me changing my water pack ?? 01:03>. JESSE: So, I was like, so the boat pulls up alongside you and then like somebody's like holding out a sandwich to your face and you're eating it or like is that logistically what's happening? VICTORIA: I had to paddle towards the boat because it was a catamaran so it didn't really move very quickly. But I'd all over and they would hand me food. Sometimes at first I would try to sit but it was choppy. So, my board kept banging up against the boat. I was like this is ridiculous. So, they would just break the sandwich, I'd stuck it in my pack and then ?? 01:34> and then I take snacks, so I have snacks in my pouch here. I had like a water pouch in the front. And so like every half hour I’d have a little snack and every hour I'd have ?? 01:47>. And then I had in my pack, I had like electrolyte supplements that I use a lot. So, I pretty much had calories coming in a lot, the whole time. JESSE: So, seven...like clicking noises here. I don't know if I can do this in my head. Do you know what your hourly intake was? VICTORIA: It varied. JESSE: Oh yeah, so that's not bad. So, you're taking in like to say 200 to 300, which is pretty normal. VICTORIA: It was probably around 300 an hour. It varied. I mean my main meals, were like peanut butter and jelly. I had ?? 02:28> once or twice. It was actually really good but hard to eat...not very attractive. I had like pasta...out of my mouth, but it tasted good. But then my snacks were like baby food packets of fruit, you know, things like ?? 02:45> or sometimes Oreos. They're good. JESSE: Yeah, I always like kind of surprise-- I mean, I'm more familiar with people fueling for like Ironman, not fueling for a 27 hour adventure, but you know, people eat M&Ms or just like, you know what we normally considered junk food, but it’s just like you just need anything you can get in your body that's not going to cause GI issues or what whatever. VICTORIA: And you know, it's funny because when people heard about what I ate a lot of times people, “Well, couldn't you have eaten X, Y, and Z.” And I'm like am I gonna eat a salad like with avocado out there? Like no, and you have to remember too, the water is moving. So, you just want, and a lot of it's very mental. So, some people can function off calories just from whatever they're drinking, I can't. I need to eat something, or else I always feel hungry. And then it's like, if it's good, like I always got excited when they were like holding me a cookie. So, I mean, of course, the sugar and everything worked as well, but even just the mental game of that like I get a cookie in 20 minutes. So, that was fun too because I mean, I didn't even know they had so many flavored Oreos till I was training for this. So, I was like is great. But I didn't eat all that stuff in my regular diet, but I practiced with it and then ?? 04:09>. JESSE: Yeah. Well, I can imagine just thinking about how down I ?? 04:18>. I've only done races that are a little over four hours long, and just the ups and downs in that time, multiply that by what, six? Little over six times and just how like trepidatious your mind has to get over that time. Whereas like even this, I just imagine the smallest thing would be like little cookie like just it takes your mind off of the task and then you get a little treat. VICTORIA: Exactly, yes. Like yes! And then there was one point in the night where I did have a hard time I wanted to quit. We had a storm for like two hours. And in my head I was like, I am just over ?? 04:55> And well you know, you're not hurt...I didn’t tell the guys...like no, no, so I just kept it to myself. But I remember saying, “Hey, give me some of that Coke.” Like we had some Coca Cola. It was like, give me a swig of coke. And I swear it was so cool. I saw like, I went from like being so pissed off angry to like, okay, we got this, we’re good, only six more hours a dark. Like just from drinking a little bit of like sugar and caffeine. So, it was really cool to see that kind of stuff actually work personally. Cuz you read about it, you hear it but just to see it actually work and like the way I felt changed totally. I was like, okay. That was it. JESSE: Was there anything you did like to keep, I guess I'll say the demons at bay because obviously there's going to be these things that creep in that are like, this is dumb. Like why am I out of the bill in the ocean paddling in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm? Like how did I find myself out here? But like, I mean, aside from the coke, is there any like, did you practice any kind of mental strategy where you're like all right when I started telling myself this is idiotic, I need to remind myself of X, Y, or Z like anything like that? VICTORIA: I mean, I did some yoga, I didn't really do any kind of meditation stuff ?? 06:14> with that. But I had like, personal things that happen throughout my training, like I lost two really close, one was my dog. And then the other one was my...so within that six month period, and I had, I had like, my dog stick around my board and I had ?? 06:30>. Like little stuff like that. And so that kind of motivation kept me going during the hard hard times where I was like, I gotta do this...they would be real proud and things like that. But I'm only a pretty decent self positive...I guess throughout the sports and things. And I didn't have and I didn't have any pain, thankfully, or any cramp at all. So, I didn't have those issues where I was like fighting through ?? 06:59> and things so that might have changed... But the one time with the men...stop because you know, like I was saying I can do this, I don't even need to do it, I know I can make it. Then I was like how do you know you can make it? You're not there yet. You don't know if you can make it. There were like a little bit more positive self-talk thing, but that was pretty much I got... JESSE: I want to switch gears on you a little bit. I think I saw-- So, I didn't see this on your website, but I think I saw this in the note, in kind of information you sent Joe. Are you currently a firefighter? VICTORIA: Yeah, I've been a career firefighter-paramedic for the last ?? 07:40>. So, that's why I kept going to school just because...started young...pretty soon. So, yeah. JESSE: Well, so that’s why I was telling...like we had to reschedule for anybody that's listening or watching on YouTube, we had to reschedule days. Victoria was nice enough to reschedule with me, so we could get this whole conversation in. But I said that you got a lot going on, there's a lot of things to unpack. So, it’s like-- VICTORIA: ?? 08:14> transition stage right now. I’m between leaving there and coming up in February and starting my own thing. And I sold the house and I moved an hour and a half north so I'm in between the two spots right now trying to move my life, and still like everything else. But...good. JESSE: So, it may seem like timeline-wise, you're working full time as a firefighter, going to school and also trying to set a world record all in the same window? VICTORIA: Yeah. But it was weird because it was like yeah, I was training and I was going to school but you know, PhD level is a lot of writing. And I'm ?? 08:53> and I work...I’m a fire inspector now so I got promoted like eight years ago. So, I work Monday to Friday. So, I would train on my lunch mostly in the gym and then after work, I would paddle shorter and then the distance paddles I would do on the weekends. But it's kind of weird like the timing actually worked out pretty good because I was doing all that stuff but it was not normal. It was anything different except for some of my longer paddles were longer, but I trained anyways, you know. And it just so happened that the day or the month I finished my coursework for the PhD before I started my dissertation, was the month that I had a ?? 09:30>. So, I was finishing my coursework, I focused solely on the crossing and right when I got done, I started my dissertation. So, it was like, really cool timing. I don't know, I got lucky. It was definitely a lot to do at once, but I'm used to doing a lot at once, so it wasn't like anything abnormal. But now when I think about it, I'm like ?? 09:55> again, not like that. JESSE: Were you-- I know I'm this way at least growing up, like I wanted to do everything like I had to be busy. Like if I'm not busy, I'm like, I started going out of my mind...take downtime, but I'm just, if I don't have something going on, or a variety of things going on I just get, I don't know if it's dull or bored or anxious or what it is, but are you like that? VICTORIA: I don't know. I don't try to have things going on. They just happen. I just go with them because I’m ?? 10:30> So, I plan to move an hour and a half north of South Florida so I can, like get away from the chaotic mess down there. So, I can kind of chill out more and focus more on what I'm doing with the company and also myself because I really want to like train to see how fast I can get like for real now...work full time because I never have had that ?? 10:56> but then like, the more time I-- So, I was going to try to take off like six months after I leave the fire department to chill and surf and...thing... And then the more I stopped doing stuff like the more stuff comes to do. So, I'm like, oh, like this opportunity came and that opportunity came. Oh gosh, and it's fun you know the stuff is fun so I don't want to turn it down. But then I just wind up getting ?? 11:24>. Like my whole year next year...to like September to December...pretty much. JESSE: You just have like your calendars just like blackout dates the whole way through. VICTORIA: Like where is all this stuff coming from, but it's cool. JESSE: I mean, I guess so you know, when you do unique things and people want your attention or know that you're qualified for things then people kind of come out of the woodwork and find you and say, hey, come do this. VICTORIA: It's fun though, I like it. So, I'm excited. JESSE: Yeah. So, with your new venture, I think I saw-- So, you're working on like, feel free to correct me obviously. You're working on, like high performance nutrition for I’ll say athletic professions, firefighters, police officers, that kind of thing? VICTORIA: Right. Yeah. So, I created a company called Tactical Athlete Nutrition. And basically it's ?? 12:21> for like firefighters. But they obviously you know, there's some companies that focus solely on performance. But there's really...all that do anything nutrition. And just being around the guys and seeing where a lot of the issues are, I really wanted to apply what I've learned from my education, but also being with them and see them and hopefully, I'll be able to help them. But I think it's going to be great. I've had a lot of feedback so far and interest. Just by saying stuff I'm already like, interfering on my six month break. But I'm excited about it. So, we'll see where it goes. I think I want to-- The way I look at it is these guys, and I'm just looking at from the firefighters’ standpoint right now, but it's similar throughout the police and military ?? 13:12> they are like professional athletes...they do need to perform as well. Fortunately, it doesn't happen like that when they get in because they don't have the tools to help them and they don't know. Like an NFL player, they play football professionally, they come on the team to play football. They are like, here you go play. They have nutritionists, they have physical therapists, mental health people, they have all those tools that help them out, and they can perform at their highest. Our guys, unfortunately, they don't. And they don't know and it’s not their job to know. So, I'm trying to change the outlook because the professions they're suffering so much heart attack, cardiovascular disease, they've got a ton of mental health, more and more so like everybody ?? 13:58>. But just in general, and it's all because they don't have the tools. So, I'm just going to try to really push the education and things like that, and get people to realize that these guys need that. They're not signing like, multimillion-dollar deals, they're just public servants trying to help out people like let’s help them too. So, that's where I'm going with it. And it seems to be very well perceived. But yeah. JESSE: So, I really don't know what life and firehouse looks like. I assume that it's a lot of hurry up and wait, and then like waiting for crisis to strike essentially. So, how does, I guess, how does nutrition for those guys, does it differ from athletes? Or is it just trying to apply the similar kind of ideas to them? VICTORIA: Does, sorry, broke up that first part? JESSE: That's okay. So, when you're trying to design like a nutrition plan or food for the guys in a firehouse, is there something special about what they need? Or is it like trying to apply similar principles as you would to like that NFL player on to the fireman? VICTORIA: I think, first of all, it's I want to apply all individual standpoints like individualization for each person, including their after shift stuff. Because obviously, they're not eating right on shift, then ?? 15:33>. But the problem isn't necessarily first what to apply right away. It's what they're doing currently. And when you're-- South Florida's real busy. So, like I come from a fire department that they're not really waiting because they can't wait because they're getting calls left and right, you know what I mean? So, a lot of times they get real hungry and a lot of times they just grab donut or grab junk. And it might be two or three in the morning, and the sleep cycles off, which obviously, effect a whole bunch of other things too. So, supplying them with the education of maybe what not to do, how to exchange it and then get into individualized plans to where they're at individually. Because I don't know like, if you, you follow your own nutrition and everything, I'm sure kind of maybe sometimes-- JESSE: I'm always working on trying to better what I'm doing. But yeah. VICTORIA: A lot of times what I find like with my-- the individual-- I work with some clients now at a company called Paddle Monster, lot of paddle athletes. But when you first just start to point out numbers to them, or where they think they're at ?? 16:49> with myself, it's shocking. Where you think you're at, to perform and where you’re actually at until you actually get like, get it down, kind of and still even then you're kind of wacky sometimes. It's like way off. So, even just getting them at first to realize where we're at why this is happening, things like that, and how we can fix it, that's kind of where I have to start. And then implementing things will be all individual, for each person ?? 17:16>. And I think it also that's why I like to really work one on one with people, I don't do any kind of like, some people sell like, I don't even... like plans that everybody can sign up for, whatever. I...that, I won't do it. I just won't do it. Because I just want to get to know the person, see what they're doing, and everything everyday changes. You know, so if you have a goal, even as an athlete, you're going to eat different on your off days than you are on your, you know, training days, than you are on paper week, than you are, you know. So, it's always changing and I like to-- I'm feeling like that's how I'm getting good results with my athletes now is by just continually seeing-- and people have patterns too so that's good. But that’s why I don't want to have any kind of generalized plan. So, that's what I want to do for them. I think they need it real bad. Go to Part 3 Go to Part 1
