Mat Lock:
Alethea Boon, welcome back to The Unleashing Potential Podcast. It’s a pleasure to have you here again.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, good to be back, thanks.
Mat Lock:
Not at all. And today what I’d like to talk about is the fact that superhumans are human too. And I know many of us look at yourself and many other athletes and go, “Wow,” the pro athletes, and go, “Wow, incredible strength, stamina, and skills.” But at the end of the day, you are human too. And we find ourselves, certainly in the C-19 pandemic, as we talked about last time, and we talked a little bit about your routines and how you’re dealing with that and getting through that.
But firstly, maybe if you could set the scene for those who maybe have been living under a rock and are not familiar with you, just tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of your family and athletic background, please.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, sure. So a bit of my background, I was a gymnast from a really, really young age, from about nine. And I competed in gymnastics, all the way to collegiate gymnastics in America, until, I think, 2004. After 2004, I had retired from gymnastics and was just an everyday person, studied, exercised on and off, and then I got a wee bit bored of that. I did full ill in 2010 and after that incident, I had bilateral pulmonary embolism, after that incident, it actually sparked me to see what I could get out of my body, even after that.
Alethea Boon:
So I started working towards half marathons, and I ran a few hours, and then I got bored of running and I Googled, “different way to get fit”, and hence the CrossFit journey.
Alethea Boon:
So I joined CrossFit in 2013, at CrossFit Active, and since then I’ve been going to the games since 2014. I had to take a year off to compete in the Commonwealth games, weightlifting. So that was my other sport.
Mat Lock:
Of course you did.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah. And so yeah, I’ve just been training in CrossFit and just trying to keep fit and healthy since then.
Mat Lock:
That’s awesome, and congratulations for everything so far, because it’s an amazing journey you’ve been on. And, actually, I didn’t realise that you’d been doing the half marathon thing and got bored of it and looked for something new. I didn’t know that. But I guess it’s a luxury you have as a professional athlete, being able to train eight to 10 hours every day, and doing nothing else for living. Correct?
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, I wish I had eight to 10 hours to train and recover and do all of that. But no, no, the entire time I’ve actually been working full time at my full time job, working in property. And like everyone else, I’ve got to balance my schedule, balance training, and making sure that I still have enough energy to give 100% of everything that I do. So I wish I could train a lot, I wish I could have the time to recover, but I don’t, but I was able to manage and make do with the time that I did. So I go through the same challenges that everyone else does too. And also with the levels of motivation, I mean after a whole days of work, it’s really hard to actually just pick up your bag and go to the gym. But I found that if you actually just do it, just put your shoes on, and just go, you find the momentum and you just keep going from there.
Mat Lock:
Sure. And certainly, even on the days when it’s tough, I know I’m always glad I’d done it afterward. I didn’t necessarily look forward to it, but I’m glad I did it. And you get the endorphins flushed, the guilt’s gone, because if you skip it you’re going to feel guilty. But nonetheless, so you’re working Monday to Friday full time, correct?
Alethea Boon:
Yep. Monday to Friday, full-time hours. And then I train around those hours.
Mat Lock:
Right. So do you tend to train in the mornings or in the evenings or both?
Alethea Boon:
Normally, just in the evenings. If I’m training for a competition, I’ll start training in the morning. But my priority is my bread and butter, which is working, and I want to make sure that when I’m at work I can give 100% of my effort. I mean, I hate to go into negotiations feeling tired and groggy, so I’ve got to give 100% there, and doing that actually allows me to switch off in the evening, and then I can give 100% to my training session.
Mat Lock:
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So okay, so you’re training mostly in the evenings, other than if you’re leading into a comp. And how many evenings a week is that or the weekends, are they different? Pretty sure you don’t have to work.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah. So because weekends are free, I generally push a lot of the training to the weekends. So during the week, Monday to Friday, I’ll train four days out of those, and it’ll be evenings from 6:30 PM or 7:00 PM to whatever time it takes me to finish, which is probably around 8:30 PM, 9:00 PM, maybe a little bit longer if I’m chatting with everyone.
Mat Lock:
Surely not.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah. But in the weekends, I make the most of the time. It’s the time where you get to go outdoors and bike, swim, run, and just enjoy being outdoors.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And so, with the current self-isolation, and you mentioned in our last chat that you and Lima are somehow reconnecting because you’re having more time together than normal. That makes more sense than ever now, because you’re either at work or training, normally.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, absolutely. And we literally turned our dining room table into our office, so we’re sitting right opposite each other. But it’s good, because when it’s time to work out, we’re both holding each other accountable. We’re like, “Okay, computers off, let’s go.”
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Fantastic, fantastic. And I guess training’s only one part of the story, right? I mean you’ve got work, you’ve got training, but you mentioned, already, recovery, obviously really important. And of course nutrition, food. How do you juggle all of that?
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, so I am a bit of a creature of habit. I do like routine and discipline, and I think that if you actually plan and schedule everything out, like I do. My meal plan is through RP Strength, and I actually use an app in which my meal times and what I’m eating is scheduled out, so it’s easy to follow. And I do the same with my training and my work schedule. So everything’s routined, everything’s diarized, and it just keeps me that little bit more accountable during the week. And in the weekend, I’ll have one day where it’s a little bit more relaxed.
Mat Lock:
Sure. And with RP, just to dive into that rabbit hole, do you have a personalised programme from them or are you using the app? Like I would be, let’s say?
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, so originally I started off using the personalised programme with Nick Shaw, and it was amazing. It definitely was a game-changer in terms of performance. The education you learn from that one on one coaching, it helps when you transfer over to the app. So for me, I’m actually just on maintenance right now, and I’ve learned so much previously and what I need to eat and when I need to eat, that it’s easy for me to just use the app, and the reminders actually keep me accountable to eat as well.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, sure. No, interesting. And yourself and Lima are aligned? There’s not two meals being cooked or you tend to eat the same things?
Alethea Boon:
I think …
Mat Lock:
That was a stupid question, if Lima’s there, I’m sorry Lima. It’s not a loaded question.
Alethea Boon:
Lima’s a bit more free-spirited on what he eats and drinks. I think there’s a good balance between us, is that he’s a bit more relaxed, I’m very intense in the way I approach things, so it does make a good balance for both of us.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, sure. So you’ve found somewhere in the middle.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, we’re definitely in the middle.
Mat Lock:
And you mentioned just a few minutes ago, about, I guess, having that focus, you’re very deliberate with your training, depending on, obviously, whether you’ve got a comp coming up or not. But what motivates you to … When you go to the gym, that was the link for me, was even if you don’t really feel like it, but your shoes on, go and do it anyway. I mean that could be misconstrued as a very easy throwaway line, which I know it isn’t, with yourself. What do you tell yourself, when you … Big day at work, maybe the normal stresses. You mentioned negotiations, that’s stressful, that’s a lot of cerebral firepower required, often it can be exhausting.
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, absolutely.
Mat Lock:
But when you’re sitting on the fence a bit, thinking, “I don’t really want to go to the gym, it’s eight o’clock already,” what is it that motivates you to do that? What’s the conversation you have with yourself?
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, so I wouldn’t say … There’s nothing that actually motivates me, per se. It’s not so much motivation. It’s more so just I think, “Okay, show up.” I break it down little by little. I say, “Show up, put your shoes on, start your first exercise.” If you break it down into bite size chunks, then you keep that momentum going, you tick off one box, you keep ticking off another box, and next thing you know you’re done. And you can walk away feeling so much prouder of what you’ve done.
Alethea Boon:
It’s also thinking about the bigger picture. If you keep taking those little boxes, you’ll get to where you need to be later on. So like I said before, it’s staying accountable to your future self. You’re not always going to feel motivated, but if you show up and get the work done, later down the track, you will want 100% be grateful for what you did back then. You’re just not going to see it today, but you will see it down the track.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. No, I think that’s great advice, and a great perspective to have. Now, before we started recording, we did touch on the fact that you have, again, qualified for the CrossFit games this year. You and your team. The team name is … ?
Alethea Boon:
The team name is Star Strength Black, and it consists of myself, Christy Bishop, who’s actually a nurse on the front line at the moment. And then we’ve got [Jodi Gardner 00:10:03], another Kiwi, and Reese Mitchell, who was actually a Teens games athlete back in the day.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Awesome. So two out of the four, this would be their first games year, correct?
Alethea Boon:
Yeah, two out of the four, it’s their first games, and they’ve worked super, super hard. So we’re just waiting to see what’s going to happen.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean it’s interesting, I was chatting with a couple of other athletes recently who are going to the games, about how they’re handling the uncertainty of well will that go ahead or not? Because of course, we’re now in April, so I guess from May onwards those athletes will be super focused, 12 week lead into the games. And with the current uncertainty, I wonder, how do you handle that? Where’s your mind-set at with that?
Alethea Boon:
For my mind-set, it’s still business as usual. I still train every day. It’s my non-negotiable. And every transition that I go into, I always bank on giving 100% of what I’ve got for that day. I may feel absolute rubbish, but I’m still going to give my best effort for every little piece that I do. It doesn’t have to be high volume, but it has to be quality, and that’s how I’ve approached my training since I started CrossFit. And it’s still how I approach it now. And then I think bigger picture, it’s not so much just about the games, it is still training for everyday life. And I will train like this regardless of whether the games are on or not.
Alethea Boon:
And I think for the team as well, we’re all in the same boat, we think the same way. I think we work together the same way, and a good thing that Luke Starr’s done with us, is that we actually check in with each other every week. Sunday night, 7:00 PM, we’re still checking in with each other, and it’s keeping everyone’s spirits up regardless of what happens. We’re still a team. We still made it. We still qualified for the CrossFit games in 2020. Whether it goes ahead, not sure, but still, it’s still an achievement.
Mat Lock:
Oh, it’s a huge achievement, absolutely. And of course, like you, fingers crossed that it will go ahead. Hopefully, the pandemic can be under control sufficiently where it’s all relaxed a little and events like that can go ahead. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t, and I guess everyone will find a way to handle that.
Alethea Boon:
Exactly. Life still goes on. This is just a small thing in the game of life. We train for life, so we’ll still carry on regardless.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, that’s exactly … I love that, that we train for life. That’s exactly right. I mean, I enjoy competing, but I have to say for me it’s more about the routine, the daily routine, the daily grind, almost. The training, the camaraderie.
Alethea Boon:
Absolutely. Trading, pushing your body to the limits, it trains this more than it trains the body. It keeps me sharp for work, it keeps me sharp for everyday life, and I’m sure it does a lot for everyone else too.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, Alethea, I think that’s probably all we’ve got time for today. Again, thank you so much for sharing so many of your insights and allowing us into your lounge room, your dining room or-
Alethea Boon:
My dining room/office.
Mat Lock:
That’s the whole thing with Zoom, right? You’ve allowed us into your home. Thank you for that.
Alethea Boon:
Thank you for having me. It’s always great chatting, Mat.
Mat Lock:
Absolutely. And if people wanted to reach out and connect with you, maybe have some questions or just want to share a funny video with you, how would they do that?
Alethea Boon:
Oh, I do love funny videos. Yeah, absolutely. Just reach out to me on Facebook. It’s Alethea_Boon. Either Facebook or on Instagram. Same thing.
Mat Lock:
That’s awesome. And we’ll keep fingers crossed that the CrossFit games go ahead, but we know that it’s not the be-all and end-all.
Alethea Boon:
Not the end-all, be-all, yeah.
Mat Lock:
Lovely spirit as always, Alethea, thank you very much.
Alethea Boon:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. Stay safe, everyone. Look after yourselves and stay connected with everyone.
