Keegan and Company

Adam Wood was barely recruited out of high school in Utah. He reached out to the coach at BYU anyway, was given a time to run, and spent the summer betting on himself until he walked on to the team and earned a scholarship. These days he races marathons and makes running videos, and his wife, Mica, is a marathoner too. In April a panic attack at home turned his life upside down for a month, and he was diagnosed with panic disorder. We sat down in Chicago three days before the marathon, where he was chasing a time under 2:16 to qualify for the US Olympic Trials. I'm grateful he talked about all of it this openly.
In this episode Adam and I discuss going from not getting recruited to chasing an Olympic Trials qualifier. What he does in a race when it hurts, and what he does when he loses focus. Pacing Mica through her first marathon. The anxiety that came with walking on. The panic attack in April, and getting his life back on track. A voice memo question from his wife Mica. A line he picked up about the two kinds of suffering. And the promise he made himself while he was in the thick of it.
This episode touches on panic attacks, anxiety and mental health. If anything it brings up for you, Lifeline is 13 11 14.
Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan
If you enjoyed this you will also enjoy these
#184 Alexi Pappas: How to Become Fearless & Why Shortcuts Are Poison: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
An Olympic distance runner on the dip after her Games, and learning what mental health really was.
#50 Tamika Upton: Newcastle Knights, Coping Strategies for Anxiety & Personal Preparation: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Tamika on the panic attacks she didn't have a name for at first.
#157 The Psychology of Rumination | Why We Get Stuck on Negative Thoughts (& How to Break Free): Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
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Cam Bostock spent his teens inside. He was homeschooled, played video games all day and had social anxiety that followed him into his twenties. At about 19 he decided to change it: he got rid of the computer, started saying yes to invitations, and made himself walk up to strangers, which he says was the most terrifying thing he had ever done. A mate took him on three nights on the Bibbulmun Track and he was hooked. In 2020 COVID took his job and his apartment in Tokyo, so he went all in on filming hikes and didn't make any money for three years. Last year he set the unsupported record on the 1000 kilometre Bibbulmun. A bit over a week before we spoke he went back for the self-supported one, and at midnight on day one, 95 kilometres in, he stacked it five times on Mount Hallowell in the rain. He walked ten kilometres the next morning, then called it.

In this episode Cam and I discuss that morning, the phone call to his wife Karis before he decided, and why a bloke who a couple of years ago would have dogged it out pulled the pin instead. We talk about why he started a podcast when he reckoned he was no good at holding a conversation. Then Dan and Emma, the two hikers he met on day one of the Pacific Crest Trail and walked 139 days with, and what suffering alongside strangers does to a friendship. I get his advice for anyone who has never slept outside,What his wife, Karis says to him on the phone when an attempt is falling apart, and what he leans on when he's out there alone.
Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan
For more just like this:
#176 Jacqui Bell: Youngest Person to Run an Ultra on Every Continent: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
The mate who introduced Cam and me.
#131 Geoff Wilson: A Life of Adventure: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Geoff telling the Antarctica storm story himself, which I don't do justice in this episode.
#169 The Psychology of Green & Blue Spaces w/ Dr Megan Lee | Why Nature Changes Your Brain: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Listen and subscribe:
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Apple Podcasts
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Four days after our baby was born, I ran my version of the Sydney Marathon. It took me over four hours. Three weeks later I lined up in Berlin to run a sub 3:30. The only difference was how much I cared about the outcome.
In this episode I get into why the effort we're willing to give changes from one race to the next. Jack Brehm and motivational intensity theory. Three weeks away from my family. Oliver Foran on doing it for something bigger than himself. Fear, and proving it to yourself. The shallow end and the deep end of the pool. What happened at 33 kilometres. A mate's line about wanting and paying. And a mountain you might not need to climb to the top of.
Part one, The Wall Is In Your Head, and part two, Lowering the Effort, are both out now.
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks to DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show.
Start with parts one and two:
Why do we Quit? (Part 1) #209 Psychological Impacts on Physical Performance: The Wall Is In Your Head: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Why do we Quit? (Part 2) #213 Psychological Impacts on Physical Performance: Lowering the Effort: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
For more just like this:
#189 Oliver Foran: Mount Everest World Record (Sea Level to Summit), Losing his Mum 16 & Finding His Why: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#165 The Psychology of Finding your Why?: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
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Letty Mortensen was a late bloomer. He turned pro by sending Rusty photo after photo for free until they put him on the team. Then he had a big injury three years running: his shoulder, a fractured tibia, and a hamstring torn off the bone. He was just getting back in the water when a board hit him in the temple and gave him a concussion, in the lead up to a boat trip through a military zone between Russia and Japan. He went anyway and had the adventure of a lifetime!

In this episode Letty and I discuss that trip to the Kuril Islands, a 1200 kilometre chain of volcanic islands that Russia and Japan still fight over, the two locals who started surfing because of Travis Rice, and what it’s like trusting your life to a captain who had never run a surf charter. We talk about the day his hamstring came off the bone, the first thing that went through his head, and how you show a sponsor your value when you can’t surf. Then the concussion: the hour and a half he kept surfing after it, what happened at the butcher’s, the headaches that came back every time he trained, and everyone having an opinion on what he should do. We compare it with my own concussions from footy, and get into the fear of getting hurt again, why he has given up some of his airs, and going all in with no plan B.
Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
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#124 Mark Mathews: Recreate the Fear · Apple · YouTube Letty names Mark twice in this episode, both times as the person who made him think differently about being scared of big waves.
#168 World Champion Surfer Molly Picklum: How I Stopped Letting Fear Make My Decisions · Apple · YouTube The same question from the other end of the sport: what happens when you stop letting fear pick for you.
#76 India Robinson: World Surf League, Burnout & Concussions · Apple · YouTube For the concussion stretch in the back half: another surfer on how little the sport knows about heads.
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Most of us already have something we reach for when a session gets hard. Music, a mate beside us, the odd swear word. I wanted to know which of them hold up in the research, and why. This is part two of a three part series on why we quit.
In this episode I get into how to make the same effort feel lighter, and why none of it is a shortcut. The study that sorted songs by beats per minute. Music against podcasts in sprint intervals. Smiling through pain, and someone in a sausage outfit. What my footy coaches used to say to me every pre-season, and whether that voice is baggage or something real. A 2020 study on anger and fear before a run. Swearing and a bucket of ice water. And an Oxford rowing crew who did the same session together and alone.
Part one, The Wall Is In Your Head, is out now. Part three, next week, is Raising the Willingness.
The studies I mention: Terry et al. (2020), Effects of music in exercise and sport: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin Patania et al. (2020), The Psychophysiological Effects of Different Tempo Music on Endurance Versus High-Intensity Performances. Frontiers in Psychology Stork, Karageorghis & Martin Ginis (2019), Let's Go: Psychological, psychophysical, and physiological effects of music during sprint interval exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise Blanchfield et al. (2014), Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Giles et al. (2020), When Anger Motivates: Approach States Selectively Influence Running Performance. Frontiers in Psychology Stephens, Atkins & Kingston (2009), Swearing as a response to pain. NeuroReport Stephens, Spierer & Katehis (2018), Effect of swearing on strength and power performance. Psychology of Sport and Exercise Cohen et al. (2010), Rowers' high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds. Biology Letters
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks to DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show.
Start with part one:
Why do we Quit? (Part 1) #209 Psychological Impacts on Physical Performance: The Wall Is In Your Head: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
For more just like this:
The Psychology of Smiling Through Pain | Episode 181: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listening to your shoes hit the ground in a pack comes from Andy.
#172 Rob Dalto: Losing Dad, 38 Marathons & Building the Bronx Burners: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The Bronx Burners is the run club Rob co-founded in New York.
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.