Tianna Bartoletta is one of the best sprinters in the world, and she’s on hand to teach all of us, even the endurance runners, what we can learn from short distance running. Really short.
For most of us, a sprint is less than 20 seconds, which is the distance short enough to reach your top speed completely anaerobically, or without needing oxygen for fuel. Past this point, your lungs scream for oxygen and you will probably not be able to sustain the effort.
Why should long distance runners care about those 20 seconds? Because by tapping into your anaerobic system a couple times a week, you teach yourself to burn that fire just a little hotter, and train your other gears to run a little more smoothly and efficiently.
Tianna also talks about what surprising things endurance runners can learn from long jumpers and yogis, how to frame our body talk in a positive way, how she’s adapted her training as she’s aged, and her gold-medal-winning, world-record-breaking Olympic relay experience. This episode has something for everyone, whether you’re a walker, a sprinter, or an endurance monster!
Tianna is a 35 year-old American sprinter and long jumper. She is a two-time Olympian with three gold medals. She ran the lead leg in the world record setting 4 × 100 m relay team in 2012, handing the baton to Allyson Felix. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won two more golds, first with a personal best to win the long jump then again leading off the winning 4 × 100 m relay team.
In non-Olympic years, Tianna has won the World Championships 3 times and competed as a pusher on the U.S. bobsled team in 2012.
And if all of that weren’t amazing enough, she’s also a registered yoga teacher, writes a blog at tiannabee.com , and her memoir, Survive And Advance, will be released this June!
Questions Tianna is asked:
4:37 This conversation is a little bit delayed because you got a surprise drug test at 7:00 in the morning. Can you talk about that?
5:09 Can you talk about the 60-day transformation that you posted? What happened? I thought you looked great before, but now you’re like a sculpture. It’s amazing. Can you tell me how that happened?
9:01 I remember reading in one of your Instagram threads that you said you were hungry during your 60-day transformation, and that’s not something that we really like to admit. Why did you want to tell people like, “Hey, yes, this is working but to be perfectly honest, I’m hungry?” Why did you want to share that part about it?
11:45 You’ll have to forgive me for asking what might end up being very basic questions, but our listeners mostly are endurance runners. So when somebody says, “I’m going to go run 100,” they’re usually talking about 100 miles not 100 meters, and you are a 100-meter specialist among many of your talents. So I would love to learn more about what it takes to be a good 100m specialist?
13:41 When you say you’re allergic to running long, you obviously don’t just run 100 meters in training and then stop. You do obviously run long. So what’s a long run for you?
17:17 Let’s talk about Stephanie Bruce. One of the bright spots of 2020, an obviously crazy year, is that you two connected, and I would love to hear about that story.
19:39 In 2020, obviously Tokyo was delayed. What was that like for you when you found out the news?
22:12 In both 2012 and 2016, you were a part of the gold-winning 4x100m relay team, in the lead leg position, handing the baton to Allyson Felix. Talk us through that. What makes a good relay team? How does the coach determine the order? How many times do you practice that baton pass?
24:19 What was your favorite moment from those games?
25:19 You are also a gold medalist in the long jump, and I want to talk about the world record there. The American world record and the overall world record, those are very, very old from the ‘80s and ‘90s. What’s it going to take to break it?
29:00 You recently had a meet where you were jumping really, really well, and you registered under the team name AARP. Can you explain that?
30:37 What’s your key to longevity in this sport then? What makes you at your age still able to perform at such a high level?
32: 17 How do you get your ego out of the way when training? How do you tell yourself, “No, it’s okay to step back?”
34:19 Let’s talk about yoga. One stereotype about runners is that they really don’t have to be all that flexible. You are a yogi and you are super flexible. Can you share how yoga physically helps you, and then we get more into the mental side of it?
36:44 You have a book coming out. Tell us about that.
37:57 When does your book come out?
38:10 What do you think long-distance runners can learn from sprinters, jumpers, and yogis?
39:27 How often do you do plyometrics?
40:14 What’s next for you?
Questions I ask everyone:
40:39 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give yourself?
41:04 What is the greatest gift running has given you?
41:17 Where can listeners connect with you?
Quotes by Tianna:
“You realize how much of our eating is just habit and mindless snacking. And so that’s really the biggest transformation is that everything is mindful. Everything I ingest is done with that little pause, like why am I eating this? What is it for? And that’s been the difference and my body has really responded to that.”
“I loved not realizing that we broke the world record. Somebody had to point it out to us in 2012. I just knew we won and we won by a lot.”
“You have to be able to put your ego aside and say, ‘This is what my body needs. Sure, I can see that my rivals and competitors are doing six days a week but I can’t do that.’ And at the end of the day, you have to train the body that you have. That you actually have. Not the one you wish you had; the one you have. And that’s the key.”
Take a Listen on Your Next Run
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