Fast Talk Femmes is a new podcast series from Fast Talk Laboratories that’s all about the female endurance athlete.
Hosts Julie Young and Dede Barry have assembled some of the world’s leading experts on women in sports like Dr. Dana Lis, Jennifer Sygo, Dr. Emily Kraus, and Catherine Cram.
The Fast Talk Femmes podcast will cover topics like performance, nutrition, youth athletic development, and training throughout pregnancy.
This series will uncover information you might not find anywhere else, so listen in to be empowered with the latest science-based knowledge and expertise for female athletes and coaches.
Tune in to find out more about:
- How women can train differently than men to perform at a higher level
- Get advice from female coaches on how to maximize coaching female athletes
- Learn more about the unique nutritional needs of female endurance athletes
- Gain a better understanding of hormonal fluctuations and how they affect training and performance
Subscribe for episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts!
Episode Transcript
Trevor Connor 00:00
Hi. This is Trevor Connor, founder of Fast Talk Labs.
EK 00:07
And I’m Emma-Kate Lidbury, Content Strategist here at Fast Talk Labs.
Trevor Connor 00:11
And this is not an episode of Fast Talk. So what are we here for Emma-Kate?
EK 00:15
This is us introducing the very first episode of Fast Talk Femmes, a podcast for women, and all about female cycling and performance.
Trevor Connor 00:25
So this show is going to be hosted by Julie Young and Dede Barry, who are two former pro cyclists who knew each other on the US national team.
EK 00:33
Yeah, and obviously, they are no longer competing. They were at their peak in the 1990s and early 2000s. But they’ve continued to work in the cycling endurance sports space. And with the increase in the number of women who are cycling and getting involved in endurance sports, we thought it was a great time to launch a show that addresses issues specific to the nuts and bolts of female performance.
Trevor Connor 00:52
So let’s tell you a little bit about our hosts. I will start with Julie Young, who certainly started with an academic career at UCLA but discovered cycling and raced for 12 years. She was considered one of the top stage racers over in Europe. Since then, she’s done everything—gravel, cyclocross, mountain bike racing. I think she’s even done a few runs, some XTERRA, and she’s won a couple of national championships. So she is an experienced athlete, but now runs Julie Young Training where she coaches athletes of all levels.
EK 01:24
Yeah, and she has a master’s in sports science and human performance. And she runs the Kaiser Sports Medicine Endurance Lab where I know she loves to do a bunch of testing, physiological testing and bike fitting and gait analysis, that kind of thing. And she’s busy—she’s also completing a graduate degree in performance nutrition. So yeah, Julie’s got her fingers in a lot of pies, and so we’re very privileged to have her as one of our co-hosts.
Trevor Connor 01:46
She might just know a little bit about the sport.
EK 01:49
Yeah, I think so. And Dede too, right. So she started out as a junior national team speed skater. And then, like so many people, she was introduced to cycling as a form of cross training. And it turned out she was pretty good at it, right?
Trevor Connor 02:01
Yeah. Well, she won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She’s medaled at World Championships, World Cups, National Championships, Pan Am Games. So she was a top-level cyclist.
EK 02:12
And she’s got some smarts off the bike, too. She has an International MBA. She’s currently living up in Toronto, Canada, where she co-leads the Mariposa Bicycles business, a custom bike business.
Trevor Connor 02:23
Yeah, that might be my favorite part of her, she’s become Canadian.
EK 02:27
So yeah, they’ve competed together professionally, they know each other well, you can tell from their dialogue and their conversations with these experts that they have a high level of experience as both athletes and coaches. They have that deep in-the-field experience of racing and training. So we’re excited to listen to them as they dive into some of these topics with some leading experts in their respective fields.
Trevor Connor 02:47
We couldn’t be happier to bring them into the Fast Talk Labs family. I think they’re gonna add a ton and I really think that this is a podcast that needed to happen, and we couldn’t be more excited to host it.
EK 02:57
For sure. So yeah, we hope you enjoy the show.
Julie Young 03:02
Hi, I’m Julie Young.
Dede Barry 03:03
And I’m Dede Barry.
Julie Young 03:05
Welcome to the Fast Talk Femmes Podcast. Our motivation behind launching this podcast is to provide female endurance athletes with scientifically backed ideas and information to help them maximize their performance and have a positive experience in endurance sport.
Dede Barry 03:20
With the growth in female participation in sport as seen by near parity at the Olympic Games with a female participation rate of 45% in Beijing and 48%. In Japan, female athletes and coaches of female athletes are more eager than ever to have access to female-based research studies to inform their decision-making on training. The issue now is this push for female-based research studies is in its infancy, and many experts in the field contend that some of the existing studies lack quality, and the results are often questionable. At this point, it’s impossible to provide conclusive guidance based solely on research. However, it’s positive that the conversation has started, Julie and I want to add to that conversation by seeking out some of the most outstanding experts in sports science and practice in order that they can share their findings and experiences with our listeners.
Julie Young 04:16
You know, Dede, it doesn’t make sense to wait for science to get up to speed as often practice and formed science. What we really hope to achieve in this podcast is to equip and empower the individual listener with the best information and tools in order that they can make the most informed decisions for themselves.
Dede Barry 04:35
Most of our generation of female cyclists were trained like men, which had both positive and negative effects. It pushed us and made us fit. But I believe there were certain aspects of our physiology that were often overlooked, which could have further enhanced our performance if tuned properly. Now, there’s a lot more information out there. We’re looking forward to picking the brains of experts we trust on unpacking the unique issues that female endurance athletes face, such as menstrual hormone fluctuations and how it affects performance, nutritional and supplemental needs. And our goal is to provide some actionable advice to our listeners so that they can maximize their performance.
Julie Young 05:14
What Dede and I hope to do is to seek out the best evidence information and couple that with our experience as elite athletes, endurance coaches and sports scientists, in my opinion training cannot be based entirely on one’s athletic experience. But at the same time, training cannot be based solely on science and research. Good training needs to be a delicate blend of applying the science and experience.
Dede Barry 05:39
I’m excited to partner with Julie on this series. As when I look back on my cycling career, some of the best moments were those spent training and racing with Julie. Julie’s a cyclist and a person for whom I’ve always had a deep level of respect. We studied the sport together and I’ve always enjoyed bouncing ideas with her. We share a deep passion for the sport and a deep love for movement. Sport has been part of our daily life and lifestyle since we were little kids.
Julie Young 06:04
Thanks, Dede. I feel the same. Based on my athletic experience. I feel sport is such a powerful way to develop confidence and command which spills over into every walk of life. I think sport can be an especially powerful confidence builder for females of all ages.
Dede Barry 06:21
I agree. Sport is a great venue for continual self challenge and growth and a way to learn about oneself.
Julie Young 06:27
In this podcast, we have no motive, commercial or otherwise, other than equipping and empowering listeners with good usable tools to better inform their training decisions to get more out of their finite training time and feel that gratifying sense of accomplishment in achieving their goals. But the beauty of sport is probably more and what we learn about ourselves as we work toward our athletic goals. Finally, I personally love the opportunity to learn and look forward to taking a deeper dive into these subjects and issues.
Dede Barry 06:57
We’ll be launching the Fast Talk Femmes podcast on January 10th, 2023. Please join the conversation where we will explore a wide range of topics including nutrition, menstruation and performance, mindset, athlete development pathways strength and conditioning, optimizing mental and physical health, and pre and postnatal training and exercise. We’re looking forward to conversations with top scientists and leaders on these topics!
