Podcast: Re-Run with Chelsea Sodaro

Mario Fraioli | December 5, 2022

“A lot of us endurance athletes are obsessive and one of the things that makes us good is that we’re able to focus on the very small details of our craft and spend a lot of time concentrating on improving those things. On the flip side, it’s pretty easy to get too bogged down in the weeds and we can have a hard time stepping back and really seeing the big picture of progression, which is something that happens over a long period of time—not something that we can expect to happen in a matter of weeks or months or even like a year or two, and I think that’s something that I’ve got into a little bit of trouble with in the past.”

This week I’m re-running an episode that was recorded over three years ago with Chelsea Sodaro, who recently won the Ironman World Championships in Kona. When this episode originally went live in April of 2019, Chelsea hadn’t done an Ironman yet and she wasn’t even a household name in triathlon at the time. Nor was she a mom, which is a big part of what made her most recent victory so special and impressive.

In this conversation, we talked about how Chelsea got into running—for those of you who don’t know, before she was a champion triathlete, Chelsea was a world-class runner and a two-time national champion on the roads and track—why she transitioned into triathlon, and where she gets her competitive drive from. Chelsea told me how she’s dealt with injury throughout her career and the special relationship she has with Olympian Magdalena Boulet. We also discussed why she felt so alone and empty immediately after winning her first triathlon, the advice she’d give her younger self, and a lot more.

Chelsea Sodaro: Website | Instagram | Twitter

the morning shakeout: Instagram | Twitter

Mario Fraioli: Website | Strava

This episode is brought to you by:

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Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford.