Strength Renewed

Jess (00:00.473)
We'll say hi. You'll say hi. Okay.

Mikki Wiiliden (00:00.664)
We'll just start talking, hi. Hi Jess, I keep yawning, I'm so sorry.

Jess (00:05.507)
Hi, Max. It's okay. I keep, I'm yawning for you. I have been yawning for the past week and a half because I just kept thinking to myself, my God, you have been in just completed an ultra, like it's an ultra running event, otherwise known as it's called ultra marathon. Like what do they actually call it again? What's the name?

Mikki Wiiliden (00:27.66)
Yeah, it is. It is a stage race with an ultra marathon. So we ran six days out of seven and for a total distance and just, you know what, I will say I didn't even believe that I could do it myself. yeah, so that in and of itself was just, it seemed like amazing to me. But I think we ran two, well, we did run 264 kilometers.

which is about, is it 170 miles or something like that?

Jess (01:04.408)
I can't even. Okay, 170 miles divided into how many days?

Mikki Wiiliden (01:04.482)
I don't know.

Mikki Wiiliden (01:09.176)
six days.

Jess (01:11.053)
which is you have your calculator open. So that would be what.

Mikki Wiiliden (01:13.39)
I know, I know. yeah, so it was, yeah, it's just shy of a hundred and it's about 174 miles or 172 miles. So we ran a marathon on the day on the first day. We ran 39 kilometers just short of marathon on second day. We ran quite a bit shorter than a marathon, only 28 kilometers on the third day. On the fourth day.

We ran 39 kilometers, but it also had 1900 meters vert, so it was up a mountain. That was my worst day. That was the day where I just got in and I just cried and cried. Like my nervous system, like everything was so hard. And I couldn't figure out, every, all of us were in the same boat. We were like, how are we gonna run 80 kilometers tomorrow if this is how we feel today after all of the other running? But somehow we did it and I had the best day.

Jess (02:04.077)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (02:08.558)
running that 83 kilometers in the end. And then we had a rest day on Friday and then Saturday finished it off with 33 kilometers back to the finish line of the event, which was all sort of around the southern lakes of New Zealand, which is like Queenstown and Wanaka and these just beautiful places out the back country as well. It was such a challenge and both of us

Not only Barry and I, but our friends Lucy and Louise, we all did it. We were all part of the same team. Barry and I ran each day together, but we're all sort of part of the same team. We were intense with people that we initially didn't know, but a couple of them now just feel like best friends, you know? It's like school camp, but the best parts of school camp. we... I know, I know. And we just, was the...

Jess (02:44.366)
Mm.

Jess (02:54.94)
in.

Yeah. Well, you need each other. It's like survival a little bit, you know? Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (03:05.29)
It was one of the best experiences that we've had, which is so great because I was so apprehensive going into it and wasn't sure. And I thought, why did we make this decision to do it? You know, all of those things. And I'm just so pleased.

Jess (03:19.009)
Mm-hmm.

Jess (03:23.889)
I'm still kind of speechless, which you know is hard to do for me. There's only a few things that kind of render me, because I still can't wrap my head around doing a marathon plus every day. I I literally like, I've told you before, I ran one marathon in my life. did the Big Sur marathon. all I remember from that experience was how intense the winds were. The winds were so amazing. not amazing, they were.

Mikki Wiiliden (03:27.12)
Hahaha

Mikki Wiiliden (03:47.853)
Yeah.

Jess (03:51.161)
insane. They made it very difficult to run. And then I also remember thinking that somebody said that there's a hug station at around mile 23. And I'm a pretty touchy feely person. So I was sort of here for it. But then I also thought that's kind of weird. I'm not going to need a hug. know, at mile 23, was like all that that all I all I could like it was like the best hug I've ever had. I got a big thing of Vaseline, put it between my you know, rub myself down with it and basically got myself to the finish line. So all I could think of is

Mikki Wiiliden (04:04.909)
Hahaha

Jess (04:20.697)
that for you, time seven.

Mikki Wiiliden (04:23.778)
Well, it's so interesting what the body can do, but what the mind can do as well, because there were like 70 of us, yeah. And all of us were of varying abilities. We had the really top-notch athletes who were there to win, and we had people who were there to complete it, people walking, walking those distances, amazing. 72-year-olds, we had 19-year-olds, and we were all there just to do it. And I think that really helped.

Jess (04:27.617)
Yeah, yeah, this is definitely a testament to the mind.

Mikki Wiiliden (04:52.5)
me get my head around it because I was sort of like, well, if they can do it. I mean, I'm being a bit weak thinking that I might drop off or drop down to the short course, you know, like that I've made these deals with myself that I wasn't going to complete it. But had I not, I think I would have been so disappointed in myself looking back. So I just never gave myself the option. I'm just like, I'm doing it. the same on that really horrendous day, which was so hard.

Jess (05:04.472)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (05:19.788)
I just did not think about that next day until I had finished and I never gave myself the option of going shorter on that day. And we could have as well.

Jess (05:26.521)
I guess kind of going back just a little bit, I'm curious about people like you who initially pick something. Did this road to ultra-marathons start as, hey, you just really love running, and I think I'm gonna do a half marathon, and I'm gonna run toward that goal. Because I think there's a real, even for runners, I think there's a real different kind of point.

between people that do half marathons or 5Ks and marathons and then ultra marathons. So I'm just curious, like, how did that happen for you? What was the progression there?

Mikki Wiiliden (06:04.704)
Yeah, so I feel like I was always better at long distances when I was younger. Like I wasn't fast enough to do very well in the shorter distances. I tried it for a little bit in my late 20s for the first time. And I just, you know, I missed the boat of being a 14 year old, being able to run really fast. Cause that was not my entry point, despite the fact that I was running when I was 15. I still never did track and field or anything like that. as an

Jess (06:10.958)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (06:32.191)
as an adult and then getting a little bit older, doing a few marathons. It's almost this natural progression to go from a marathon to an ultra marathon, to do something a little bit more adventurous, despite the fact that I love marathons actually. But there's this sort of push to do something, or this pull to do something a bit more adventurous. And a lot of it is the people you meet. Some of my best friends in my life are runners. And it's because we have this shared

Jess (06:45.625)
Mmm.

Mm hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (07:01.386)
experience of what it takes to do it. then of course with Barry, he was a late to life runner. So I think he started running maybe in his late 30s. then, and his friend Lucy, who was actually on in the event, and it was her idea to do the event actually, she encouraged him to do like a trail running event. And then his

Jess (07:13.933)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (07:30.274)
he got the bug to sort of do the 100K and do events of that length. because of Barry, that got me interested because he was always more interested in doing sort of missions. And I love doing missions. Like you go out all day and then you sit down and eat beer and sorry, drink beer and eat chips, you know? But that's why you do it. It is, it is. then bask in the physical weariness of the day, knowing you've had a good day out.

Jess (07:48.665)
That's your goal.

Mikki Wiiliden (07:59.094)
And maybe in part as well, Jess, because a lot of our actual work involves being in front of a computer, you know? And so you're not that physical. And just, and I've mentioned before about how my nervous system really loves movement, like it feels really calm. And so it's, so I feel like that's sort of also aligned with how I like to operate. It's lovely. And yeah.

Jess (08:06.243)
Mm-hmm.

Jess (08:15.501)
Yeah, totally.

Jess (08:25.913)
Well, I just, I'm totally fascinated. read this book years ago about the ultra marathoner Dean Karnazes, who we maybe have heard of and he's super, know, he was, think, you know, he kind of brought a lot of attention to it because he was like sort of the face of North Face for a while. And I think that, and I just remember him.

Mikki Wiiliden (08:40.078)
Mmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (08:44.074)
Yeah, yeah.

Jess (08:49.273)
And he had it wrote a book about it. And I just thought it was so interesting that he literally like was like one day I'm just like forced on moment. I'm just gonna like get up and put my running shoes on I'm just gonna run and I'm gonna see sort of how far like, you know, I can I can go like how far the human body so there's just there's something kind of And then he did I think he read from like there's some ridiculous number the first time and ran through a pair of shoes and he was like, okay, clearly I like this I can do it but there is this like you kind of said there's just like sort of calming effect because I think

Mikki Wiiliden (08:56.075)
Yeah.

Jess (09:19.191)
I think there's a bit of a miss, like all, I mean, my sport the same, but I think there's a little bit of a lack of understanding. I think people that do ultra-marathoners, I'm sure the first thing they say, not your best friends and your crew, but the outside world is kind of like half intrigued and half just sort of probably say to you, can that be healthy? You know what I mean? Like that just seems crazy, but so far, but really I kind of think like there's sort of a...

Mikki Wiiliden (09:40.813)
Mmm.

Mm.

Jess (09:47.987)
primalness about it. It's almost like one of the first things that man did. It's like walk and run. The running part, I sort of get, but there's really something different psychologically, warrior-type mindset. But also just for you, it just sounds like you're part that allows you to kind of go past that point of...

what the majority of the world does, which isn't. You're kind of like an elite, unique class of people that can do this. Their bodies and their minds can run an extensive amount of time.

Mikki Wiiliden (10:27.054)
And I feel like it's much more mental than it is physical because like the training for it is no different from training for a marathon. so, so whether or not it's healthy, it's almost a moot point, it's one week out of a year, you know? So anything short term like that, it's like, it's not no point even having a conversation about whether or not it's healthy because it's...

Jess (10:30.989)
Mm-hmm.

Jess (10:40.493)
Mm-hmm.

Jess (10:48.973)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (10:50.444)
Because you'll hear people in our field say that to do like zone two training isn't necessary or isn't healthy for women and you know, and it, yeah, it's just crazy. Yeah, yeah.

Jess (10:58.249)
gosh, there's so many, that's what I mean. It's like we're just here to like talk about all the things people hear, you know what I mean? And basically just lend a little insight to it. yeah, I think you're, mean, so you just said something interesting. So when you're training for an ultramarine, so even it's one week, I know out of the year, your, but your average mileage in a week would be what?

Mikki Wiiliden (11:20.718)
between 75 and 102 kilometers, but we did have very few weeks. So over the last maybe 12 weeks, we had maybe four weeks that hit above 100. And most of them were more around that sort of 85 to 90, which is as high as certainly high, but a lot of it is hiking as well. Like it's not running on the road. And, you know, it's interesting actually, just because I help out Haley Babcock.

Jess (11:33.113)
Mm-hmm.

Jess (11:36.675)
Hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (11:50.35)
from Hayley Happens Fitness and I'm in her Facebook page and I introduce myself and what I do and someone else is like, I love it, I love marathons too. And everyone tells me after menopause, I have to stop running. And I'm like, that is ridiculous. Like if you feel good and if you get a lot of joy from it, then you just continue to do it. And if your current or your previous running load no longer, you you're unable to do what you used to be able to do, then just.

Jess (12:06.108)
my god, I know.

Jess (12:10.265)
Please.

Mikki Wiiliden (12:20.354)
then just scale it back to what your body can tolerate.

Jess (12:23.577)
I would love if we just went back to, I were talking about primal things. I would love for us to remember since we can talk about this at a later date, but it is amazing to me how quick people are to take on things in narratives that don't belong to them. That can be anything, especially when you talk about, know, pyramids, I'm not supposed to run, supposed to take these hormones, I'm supposed to be on this thing. Well, do you have, what are your symptoms? are you feeling?

Mikki Wiiliden (12:39.875)
yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (12:45.068)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jess (12:50.753)
I think it's a really good point if running feels and you just said it perfectly. In fact, you know what our audience can't see right now is what I see. And when you were describing, yeah, you cried on one of the mountains, but we do that. But it was more for you. like it almost feels the same way is is having a beer in the sun with bears. You know, you're just like, this feels good. And there's something that kind of feels that way for you when you're running. There's just this kind of like.

I always call it like a wash in the body, like a decompression, like just it feels like you are renewing yourself. Just a little bit, right? Am I? Yeah. So this is what I see. But it's interesting because it's not necessarily what I would have thought, right? I sort of thought before we had this conversation, even though we have talked a little bit about it, I haven't really asked you these questions. I kind of just thought you were like,

Mikki Wiiliden (13:21.198)
Mmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (13:27.406)
Yeah, and that is, yeah, totally.

Mikki Wiiliden (13:36.75)
Mmm.

Jess (13:45.943)
I'm a badass, I'm kind of gritty, I'm just going to grit this shit, you know what mean? And just be badassery and run several marathons every week in my training and just do this big insane ultra for one week out of the year. But really, as it would turn out, it actually feels good in your body, which is so great. So yes, long miles can feel good, friends. Newsflash, it doesn't have to just, we talk a ton about all the pounding on the joints or whatever it is, but for some freaking people, this is...

Mikki Wiiliden (14:04.238)
Oh my god, it yeah, it totally does. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess (14:15.735)
this distance and this type of training feels great.

Mikki Wiiliden (14:20.084)
And you know, did a lot, Barry and I ran every day together. We ran the race together. And so there was just something really lovely about knowing that I didn't have to talk to him, he didn't have to talk to me. We sort of could just read each other's moods, figure out how each were feeling so we could sort of bring it, bring what was needed to the run. So when he was having a low patch.

Jess (14:24.035)
Mm-hmm, right.

Jess (14:30.606)
Hmm.

Jess (14:36.662)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (14:43.734)
I was sort of checking up on him and vice versa with me, but there was a bit of that grit and determination. But there was more than a bit, there was a lot of that, but it was in the context of feeling good about being able to achieve it, not like this is a grind, I want it done. It was like, I can't believe I'm out here doing this. Like how amazing is this? And for what it's worth, is not bad for your joints. People say that all of the time and all of the research, all of the research shows difference.

Jess (14:49.753)
Thank you.

Jess (15:01.593)
Mm-hmm.

I mean...

Jess (15:09.113)
Oh my God, well, yes, another. So why do they, why? Okay, yeah, okay. So let's quickly, what'd say?

Mikki Wiiliden (15:15.606)
Running doesn't wear down the joints. Running doesn't wear the joints down. Everyone, like you hear it all the time and it's... Yeah, because there are people who are injured for various reasons and they think that it's the running that's causing... They're like, well, running causes wear and tear on the joints. Whereas what you see, actually, if you look across the board, activity strengthens joints. doesn't like wear them down.

Jess (15:21.559)
Why do we hear this? Why did they come up with this?

Jess (15:34.361)
Thank

Jess (15:41.593)
It's very good. Yes. mean, my sport, no one gets it right. They all want to call it a game. Because it's, because it actually, as I listen to you talk about your, you know, you're an ultra marathoner. hi, Mickey. Gemma's actually a budding kettlebell athlete too. So I think you said something that was really powerful and it's always been one thing that's attracted me to kettlebell sport.

Mikki Wiiliden (15:44.638)
As you must know, because you throw a kettle ball around all the time.

Mikki Wiiliden (15:56.803)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (16:00.92)
Hi, hey Jim.

Yes, I see that.

Jess (16:11.481)
Well, two things really. I love the idea that a seven or eight year old could also be running or competing or kettlebelling with a seven year old, right? Like I love that it spans, you know, that amount of time. Can I talk in your microphone? You can when we're done. I know it's fun. wants to be a singer in addition to a kettlebell athlete. These microphones just look so darn tempting. I get it.

Mikki Wiiliden (16:35.028)
brilliant.

Yeah.

Jess (16:39.885)
bring your guitar over here and just belt it out. I love that piece. I also love, as I'm listening to you talk about ultra-marathoning and kettlebell, I love how misunderstood it is too. Like I love to be able to educate people on what the sport actually is, what people think it is. It's kind of like Instagram versus reality. You know what I mean? Like when they do those like side by sides, this is what it actually is and the people think it is.

Mikki Wiiliden (16:56.259)
Mm.

Mikki Wiiliden (17:05.175)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (17:08.661)
Yeah, yeah.

Jess (17:08.877)
So people, mean, people like for you, they think that you're just basically breaking down your body. You're just crawling. I mean, like all kinds of crazy things. It's not that it's like a beautiful community of all these different age groups who don't train PS also an ultra marathon every week, everybody. You know I mean? Like Mickey isn't doing an ultra marathon training. she does it. This is also good. You're doing it for one week out of the year.

Mikki Wiiliden (17:16.503)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (17:27.572)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jess (17:36.825)
But it's a pretty cool sport. I'm happy that I don't know a lot of people who do it. I was thinking about you a ton and super appreciative that you're healthy and back in that you did it, that you accomplished this goal that you set out to do. But it's kind of fun. We're both in sports that are a little bit rogue.

Mikki Wiiliden (17:51.947)
I know.

Mikki Wiiliden (18:01.09)
Well, how did you get into kettlebells, Jess? Like, what was your entry point?

Jess (18:04.057)
Well, yeah, it's like people ask me this question a lot. you know, I can't say that I was out looking for it. I mean, my background is in more traditional sports. was like a tennis player and I was a gymnast in my early days and I did some travelons and I swam. And so I kind of did more familiar sports to people. And then I had two business partners and we had a gym and it was right around the time that like CrossFit got very, was very popular. And we kind of wanted to have something that

Mikki Wiiliden (18:15.502)
Yes

Jess (18:34.199)
just set us out a little bit apart from that, but still kind of had that kind of greedy different thing about it. But what I really liked is that I wanted something, one thing that CrossFit has always had is that they've had this competition piece to it. So really, you know, I'm an athlete at the end of the day, I like competing. So I really wanted to find something that allowed me to compete in a sport, you know, that you could kind of like,

grow with at all the points in time. And it just happened to be that like at the time I was just wondering, was like, hey, there's really, this is like this sport. I found it. We got kind of trained with sort of the guru of Larry Fedorenko. he, and so it's quite popular at Eastern Europe, know, Eastern Europeans, you know, areas and countries. And so there just wasn't as much here. People just didn't know about it. And so

Mikki Wiiliden (19:23.405)
Mmm.

Jess (19:32.409)
He's like, you know, let's start a all-women's kettlebell sport team, because that's what people do, right? I mean, I was like, what? And so I looked at it, you know, and you see kettlebells now, they're all over the place. I love my kind of claim to fame is like, you know, I was doing this sport when people had no freaking clue what the hell it was. They still don't understand it as a sport, but they definitely understand what a kettlebell is. And it's grown, you know, in popularity.

Mikki Wiiliden (19:54.126)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (19:58.67)
Mm.

Jess (20:01.751)
But yeah, you compete with it on thing. It's a, it looks like a big ass bowling ball with handle on it. The kettlebell sport bells are hollow on the inside. And we just started practicing these techniques that have actually been around and you string up in like four years, you know? And so we learn, we kind of studied what they were doing and that kind of, you know, give or I get, it's the original slash kettlebell sport training. And we, and their moves that are familiar to people that do

Mikki Wiiliden (20:17.166)
Mm.

Jess (20:32.864)
Olympic lifting, so snatching and cleans and jerks and swings. But now we kind of we put it together. It's pretty neat, like with the idea that you do one one side for five minutes and the other side for five minutes. So there's like some level of symmetry. And the idea is that you, you you you work to get a certain number of reps with that size kettlebell based upon your weight class. And then and you have 10 minutes to do it.

Mikki Wiiliden (20:55.459)
Mm-hmm.

Jess (21:02.401)
So it's pretty gnarly in the same way that like to me psychologically running a marathon every day essentially for a week would be this is like my own kind of psychological warfare because I have to keep a 53 pounds in motion until I hit my number which I have not hit yet. I've gotten master of sports which are very you know prestigious and kind of the ultimate in kettlebell sport but there's one

Mikki Wiiliden (21:10.123)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (21:16.994)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jess (21:29.687)
Ranking I have been working on for any years if this tell you anything So I'm trying to get a hundred snatches with a 24 kilogram bell 53 pounds and I have gotten in Competition, I believe I've gotten 88 in practice. I've gotten 98. So that should tell you I've never gotten 100 so Yeah, yeah people have gotten them but not a lot and I should be clear it's not you know, I'm a 58 kg weight class

Mikki Wiiliden (21:36.046)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (21:44.296)
Mm. wow. And has anyone got a hundred? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess (21:58.035)
And so then lifting a bell, you know, that's 53 pounds is intense, you know, but it also but it requires like, like it requires executing forms, but it also requires you to be there's a certain kind of psychological strength that it requires. But what I seriously, you know, can't believe is how strong I am from doing this, how it

Mikki Wiiliden (22:04.106)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (22:08.908)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (22:25.4)
Mm.

Jess (22:26.849)
And for the most part, I mean, probably couldn't run a marathon with you, but cardiovascularly, most things I can do, I can do, you know what I mean? And I truly attribute it to this. it's kind of, I always say it's kind of your kick needed too because it gives you that strength training piece. It gives you obviously the cardiovascular piece and it's pretty efficient in terms of like it's time.

Mikki Wiiliden (22:34.883)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (22:39.426)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (22:53.486)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Jess (22:56.281)
If you don't have as much time, but you want to be able to improve these two avenues of your life, it's pretty great. And then the competition part is just kind of this like cool feature about it because why do we have to stop competing? Just because we're not in college anymore or whatever, whatever, you might want to compete. And I love the fact that I can do that. And I love the fact that my daughter was eight and my mom was 73, could do it with me. So we all could compete with it.

Mikki Wiiliden (23:09.368)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (23:16.279)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (23:22.477)
Yeah.

Jess (23:25.753)
I really appreciate it. It does have a lot of misconceptions though around it, like yours, you know, the whole running, hardening of your joints, and mine is like, oh my God, you're gonna hurt your back and all this stupid shit. which is really not the case. I mean, do you feel it your back? Yeah, because you're strengthening it. You know what I mean? And you're working those muscles. it's not, you know, those things aren't really true. People just like to say them because it makes them feel better and it doesn't really come from any kind of, you know.

Mikki Wiiliden (23:43.318)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jess (23:55.861)
experience or really any science around it.

Mikki Wiiliden (23:56.27)
And you've put together like a freebie for people to sort of give it a go.

Jess (24:04.153)
100 % I've been doing. I've been coaching and training and traveling all around the world competing in this sport and loving it up for probably more years than most people have because I'm super passionate about it. And I finally have created after everybody kind of talking about it, this freebie. So I have a program called Kettlebells and Core that people can do online through True Coach. I'll coach them inside of this app.

Mikki Wiiliden (24:17.197)
Yeah.

Jess (24:32.781)
But the freebie is awesome and I'm launching it right now. I'm sending it into the universe. I'm birthing it. It is my kettlebell baby, right? And I love the fact that people have the opportunity to just kind of just peek into it because yeah, we all are a little fascinated about things and I don't like the idea that we can't try it. I want things to be accessible. I want there to be, and there's a certain sense. mean, it's a little different than your normal sport.

Mikki Wiiliden (24:34.531)
Mmm.

amazing. They're amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Give it a go. Yep.

Jess (25:02.039)
But I think once people know it, there's a badassery feeling around it. they, know, yeah, right? Yeah. I mean, I don't, don't like, we don't like throw them, but we do like, we do move them in all kinds of different, you know, ways. But like, like ultra running, there is something primal about it, right? The kettlebell itself was used in the very first Olympic games. So it's Biscuit Street Cred.

Mikki Wiiliden (25:05.41)
Yeah, I reckon I would totally feel that, like to chuck something like that around, absolutely. Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (25:17.486)
Mmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (25:24.564)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Amazing. Yeah. It's got history.

Jess (25:32.183)
It's been around for a long time. So I, but I do think it's kind of interesting that the parallels between what you do sport wise and what I do sport rise. And although on the surface they might look different, I think there's a lot, you know, I think there's a lot of similarities around around them too. But I do feel kettlebell sport kettlebells in the sport and how I use them can it's there's a real most people.

Mikki Wiiliden (25:40.457)
Mm. Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Jess (25:59.993)
can benefit from them most, right? Of course, there's some, you know, where it's just not the right fit, but it's pretty neat how wide range I can use them in training. I think people like it. It's a lot you can do with one little piece of equipment, huh?

Mikki Wiiliden (26:01.76)
Yeah, yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (26:12.728)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know, I know. I feel like that's quite cost effective for a lot of people, so they don't have to worry about getting 18 different sort of pieces, yeah.

Jess (26:22.565)
my God, you guys, it's so cost effective. It's cost effective for your wallet, but it is equally cost effective for time. And that's one of the most precious commodities of all. But also understand that, know.

Mikki Wiiliden (26:31.15)
Yeah, Yeah. Well, and okay, so how about this then? Because what I, it's interesting, I was seeing something else on social the other day and they were talking about how, you know, we've had the conversation about whether or not you need to lift heavy and what that means. And so you have to do five by fives, you know, five reps of, and do five sets and have two to three minutes each set to recover. And I just thought.

Jess (26:46.649)
Mmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (26:57.368)
That's a lot of time and not a lot of people have time and to your point, you're strong and bad ass and you don't, I mean, I know you lift in the gym, but I don't think that, you don't devote your life to lifting heavy. I mean, you're kettle girl.

Jess (27:02.873)
Hmm.

Jess (27:08.697)
No, I think what you and I continue to do on this podcast, which I feel very passionate and proud of, is that I just think we're talking about all the stuff that's out there and trying to make sense of it. Because information is good, but I just think there's almost too much information. And what's happening is you're information overloading, you're believing that you need to do everything, you're then doing nothing. And then the other thing is that you're not listening to your body. So, know,

Mikki Wiiliden (27:21.742)
Mm.

Mikki Wiiliden (27:33.09)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Jess (27:38.709)
Lifting is important, right? Putting like carrying weight, like being able to lift because in life we have to lift things literally, emotionally and physically. And actually being strong helps with both of those. So yes, I think probably we need to remove ourselves from just doing two and three pounds and pulsing all the time. But I think that...

Mikki Wiiliden (27:40.782)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (27:54.304)
Yeah.

Jess (28:05.089)
I think this whole concept of like, I'm just gonna move some heavy shit and not having any kind of like rhyme or reason as to why you're doing it. You know, it just seems like, well, I heard that this is good. Well, I mean, again, it kind of depends on what you're going for. But I think they hear, people hear it, and then they think body composition, and then they think about probably weight loss or something. I don't know what goes on in their brains, but right. I think that there's this,

Mikki Wiiliden (28:14.158)
Mm.

Mikki Wiiliden (28:19.662)
Mm.

Mikki Wiiliden (28:28.673)
Mm. Mm. Mm.

Jess (28:35.737)
Increasing weight is good, but there's like lots of different ways to you know, there's there's We can talk about this or there's big progressive overload and then there's you know intervals and and so I just don't think that there's like one one thing right, so I think it's just it's I always like combining just a little bit of all of it, but that's also why I probably feel like like

Mikki Wiiliden (28:41.9)
Increase load. Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (28:52.182)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jess (29:03.437)
To me, kettlebell sport is like going to like, I'm a person who doesn't like to go to like a frozen yogurt place or an ice, the Baskin Robbins is a popular ice cream place where it used to be around here. And their big claim to fame was that they had 31 flavors. Don't put me in somewhere where there's 31 flavors. I don't want that. I want like three. Give me your top three best ice creams or frozen yogurts and I'm happy. So kettlebell kind of does that for me. It kind of keeps things like.

Mikki Wiiliden (29:17.112)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jess (29:26.765)
focused, like I kind of know what lifts I'm working on or what I'm training for. And it doesn't, it's not overwhelming, mostly because you're just one piece of equipment, different weights, but the same, the same kettlebell, just different, different weights. Yeah. My God, girl, I got to get you. Cause you're going to, mean, like I said, you'll, have a lot of rest to catch up on. And I imagine that you're doing that. There's a long, long road of recovery in the best way for you, but it's very exciting to say that I know you.

Mikki Wiiliden (29:27.502)
Mm-hmm.

Mikki Wiiliden (29:32.684)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, 100%, 100%, yes. Yeah, yeah, nice one. And I'm yawning because I am spent. It's not going to bed, but yeah.

Jess (29:56.589)
You can, I can say that my dearest, Mix, is an ultra marathoner. And then you can say, my dearest Jess, lifts 53 pounds overhead, 10 minutes, for both a little bit, multiple times. That's right. That's the goal. How's it gonna happen this year? You better hold me to it. I am committing, I'm hoping that it happens by June, that I get to 100. But I am going to get to 100, mother freaking snatches, with a 24 kg, 53 pounds. You heard it here, folks.

Mikki Wiiliden (30:01.517)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (30:06.004)
over her head multiple times, a hundred times. Yes. Yeah. And so we're...

Mikki Wiiliden (30:16.291)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (30:23.98)
Amazing. And I believe in you, Jess. So, what are you grateful for?

Jess (30:26.297)
Thank you. I believe in you. I love that you asked me what I'm grateful for. I am so very grateful that you're back, because I miss you when you're not around. I didn't get to have a conversation with you, and I supremely love them. I'm happy that you found a community of people like-minded, and you guys got to go on this amazing adventure and push kind of the limits of your...

Mikki Wiiliden (30:32.738)
Yeah.

Mikki Wiiliden (30:36.105)
Mmm.

Jess (30:52.343)
your brain and your body and that you conditioned and trained yourself to do something like that. So I am very grateful to that you're back and I'm grateful that you have that opportunity. What are you grateful for?

Mikki Wiiliden (31:02.254)
Thank you Jess. That's exactly what I'm grateful for too, that I was able to not only go out and complete last week but actually feel so great doing it and also feel really blessed that I had it physically and mentally to do it and to do it with Barry and to do it with Lucy and Louise and also meet some amazing people who honestly who were

of all abilities and so, know, it's, yeah. both Barry and I said, and Lucy and Louise said, it was life changing actually. So to have an experience like that, I feel is really special. So yeah, that's what we're grateful for. That's what I'm grateful for.

Jess (31:38.201)
Mm.

Jess (31:45.091)
What do you come back when you say it's life changing? What's one thing that you're taking and kind of implementing into your life right now?

Mikki Wiiliden (31:48.258)
Mm.

Mikki Wiiliden (31:52.288)
Yeah, looking for another event to do. Scaring the planet for another experience. just, yeah, so I like, can't even it's like, we can't believe that we did it. And know the knowledge that we've done something so daunting. It's just, yeah, feels very, feels very big. So yeah.

Jess (31:58.764)
I love it.

Jess (32:10.36)
Yes.

Jess (32:18.039)
It is, I'm gonna hold on to that with you and I'll search. Maybe I'll be part of your next adventure.

Mikki Wiiliden (32:23.503)
Maybe you will. All right, Jess, take care. See you, bye.

Jess (32:26.393)
Bye. Bye, Max.