00:00:00.240 — 00:01:07.040 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Taryn Smith, welcome to the show. You are a 26. You’ve done more things than I think. Myself, my producer, our CEO and everybody else on our team has done. Because at 26, I was thinking about hello Kitty had just come out with a new chain and I was really into it at the time. I mean, I was finishing med school, but still, um, you rode 3000 nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean entirely alone.

Um, I am not even going to the convenience store alone. And, um, you were the first American woman to compete in the world’s toughest row as a solo athlete. There’s a couple of other just extraordinary items here. And most people have stood on the summit of Mount Everest more than anyone has ever rowed across the ocean.

Well, at 26. You are an extraordinary young lady. I cannot wait to see what life has in store for you and actually even what you have in store for life.

00:01:08.400 — 00:01:17.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You’re from Nebraska? Yes. Last time I looked at my geography. There’s no ocean close to Nebraska. Am I missing something?

00:01:18.120 — 00:01:46.840 · Taryn Smith
You’re not. It is the most landlocked state in our country. But my inspiration from for rowing across the ocean didn’t come from growing up with the sport. It came from an article in Vogue. Actually, I read about a team of women that rode from San Francisco to Hawaii, and their story captured me because it was about old school grit and resilience and going out and really pushing yourself.

And so when I read this article, I knew that I had to go and do an ocean myself.

00:01:46.920 — 00:02:03.030 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was it? Um, you know, there’s a million hard things that one could do. And I would say that Nebraska I’ve been there in the winter. It’s cold. It’s gritty. Yeah. What was it about this, that there was just some kind of knowing that that was what you had to do.

00:02:03.710 — 00:02:55.190 · Taryn Smith
I grew up in Nebraska, and then I spent about five years living and working out in Idaho. And so I did start living this very adventurous life, crawling around in the backcountry of the Sawtooth. And I started upping the stakes of my adventures. I loved throwing myself into the deep end. I love being uncomfortable.

I like trying new things and being a beginner. And so I started backpacking and river rafting and doing all of these things that were terrifying to me after having grown up in Nebraska. But I got to a point where I’d run out of outdoor adventures that really intimidated me. And that was until I read this article, and I loved that you’re outside all the time.

I like the resilience aspect. I like that you are in solitude, out in nature, and get to really be at one with the the elements. And I love,

00:02:56.310 — 00:02:59.950 · Taryn Smith
I love big journeys and big voyages and that’s what this felt like.

00:03:00.230 — 00:03:42.830 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It is really unusual if you think about the landscape of your peers. I was once 26, believe it or not, just last year. And um, at 26, I would argue. And again, I’ve been a doctor for for quite a long time. The natural human inclination is not to put yourself in perilous situations. But you you did. You do. It’s exciting for you.

Which means one of two things. You know, there was that guy who was free soloing and he had something going on with his amygdala or does. And then there’s probably this way of becoming that person. What do you think it is for you?

00:03:43.470 — 00:04:28.340 · Taryn Smith
For me, it’s that that uncomfortable feeling, that fear. That’s where all of the growth happens. And so I do think my amygdala is fully functioning. I admire Alex Arnold. I think he’s incredible. I’m very inspired by him, but I do. I did feel a lot of fear throughout this journey and that’s why I wanted to do it.

And so throughout training and throughout the process, I had to remind myself when I was in moments of intense panic and fear, that that was actually my metric of success. That means I was doing the thing that I came to do, which was be uncomfortable and pushed through it. I teach yoga and practice yoga, and I think that’s where I first really learned that part of life is is becoming comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.

00:04:28.780 — 00:05:15.740 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You decide that you’re going to do this, and you and I both agree that you have a fully functioning amygdala. I didn’t know, right? And for those of you who are listening in neuroscience, amygdala is your fear center. And typically they there are certain people, for example, this free solo guy who’s climbing up these I don’t know what you would call them, cliffs with no gear.

And you see it in military operators, I think components of that, that their brain is not wired to have fear the same way. But what you’re saying is that you fully feel the fear, but the connection is different. The idea that it is an invitation forward, as opposed to something that makes you take a step back.

You pick up Vogue. You’re in Idaho. Were you in Idaho?

00:05:15.780 — 00:05:16.140 · Taryn Smith
I was.

00:05:16.140 — 00:05:18.180 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. What were you doing in Idaho?

00:05:18.220 — 00:06:01.140 · Taryn Smith
I was living and working at this little lodge in the Sawtooth, and so it’s called redfish. And it was supposed to just be a summer job. I went there after my sophomore year in college, and I worked at a little store, and I thought, okay, I’ll go for a summer, go spend some time outside and then go to law school.

But I fell in love with the mountains. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. And that job blossomed into this career for me. And so I got to go there in the summer months, play in the mountains, and then in the off season, I could work remotely for them preparing for the next year. And my boss also really believed in big adventures and living boldly.

And so he was okay with me traveling the world as I as I worked for him in the winters. And I

00:06:02.500 — 00:06:09.940 · Taryn Smith
am so grateful for that job and that opportunity. It was the best thing that ever happened to me, and it’s the reason why all of this came together.

00:06:10.340 — 00:06:23.940 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You were open to the idea of having these big adventures, the mountains. It’s also unforgiving. I would I would argue that mountains are are unforgiving. When you read this, had you done anything really hard before?

00:06:24.260 — 00:06:24.700 · Taryn Smith
Um,

00:06:26.100 — 00:06:35.540 · Taryn Smith
other than some some big hikes, I hadn’t done anything that was this crazy. Because it is. It’s outrageous. It’s a pretty.

00:06:35.820 — 00:06:36.780 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You mean, 3000.

00:06:36.900 — 00:06:38.020 · Taryn Smith
Just thing to do?

00:06:38.140 — 00:06:43.100 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. Middle of Atlantic Ocean solo is something that you should think twice about.

00:06:43.500 — 00:07:07.770 · Taryn Smith
But I didn’t. I have no idea why. I think part of it was just this gut feeling, this instinct that it was something I have to do. And I think for projects like this, you do need some sort of internal pull because there is so much doubt and there’s stuff that people project on you. And so I think it’s important to have that, that internal push.

00:07:08.770 — 00:07:14.929 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You make the this decision fully untrained for it. Right. Yeah. What was your

00:07:15.930 — 00:07:22.730 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
first step, the non romantic version of what it took to begin to think about this.

00:07:23.010 — 00:08:13.290 · Taryn Smith
I think that’s the side that isn’t captured on on Instagram. It’s that it took three years to bring this row to life. So the first step was training. I found a coach who was based in London who trained lots of other ocean rowing athletes, and so he did all of my programing and I started rowing on the erg, I started lifting, I had never really lifted before and it became my favorite thing to do.

I love how strong I got through this process, and then I went and actually lived in England and trained there. So I took courses on sea safety and navigation. I learned how to row. That was going to be an important part. And then I lived on my boat at a Marina in Burnham on Crouch, this town where the boats are built, and I rode up and down the river and then out into the North Sea.

And at every stage I

00:08:14.330 — 00:08:20.129 · Taryn Smith
had to be okay with being a beginner and being bad at things. And I think that’s why

00:08:21.610 — 00:08:25.730 · Taryn Smith
I was successful through this project, is that I was willing to be a beginner and willing to fail.

00:08:26.930 — 00:08:27.970 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you have a lot of friends?

00:08:28.010 — 00:08:29.210 · Taryn Smith
I do, you do?

00:08:29.250 — 00:08:36.330 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. The reason I ask is because I wonder if that is easy to relate to others

00:08:37.570 — 00:08:43.530 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
that are perhaps less open minded. Mhm. Um. Than you.

00:08:45.530 — 00:09:16.440 · Taryn Smith
I feel very lucky that my friends, are also ambitious people. A lot of my friends out in Idaho love spending time outside, and they push themselves to do marathons and Iron Man’s, and they travel the world as well. And so I think our adventures do look a little bit different, but I couldn’t have done any of the things I did without my friends and without my community.

They are the ones that got me to the start line. They believed in me every second of the way and I’m really grateful for their support.

00:09:17.120 — 00:09:18.560 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What did you study in college?

00:09:18.960 — 00:09:20.520 · Taryn Smith
Political science and French.

00:09:20.560 — 00:09:23.800 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You did okay. Political science and French. So really close to rowing.

00:09:23.840 — 00:09:25.160 · Taryn Smith
Exactly. A lot of parallels there.

00:09:25.200 — 00:09:26.760 · Speaker 3
A lot of parallels.

00:09:26.880 — 00:09:33.080 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, a lot of parallels. You’re in the mountains. You had never trained before. You were not a collegiate athlete?

00:09:33.320 — 00:09:33.920 · Taryn Smith
Nope.

00:09:34.320 — 00:09:35.760 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
No. What about your parents?

00:09:35.960 — 00:09:42.360 · Taryn Smith
My mom is an elementary music teacher. My dad’s an attorney, but there’s not a lot of athleticism in the family.

00:09:42.400 — 00:09:45.720 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
He’s a pencil athletic, a pencil athletic, human.

00:09:45.760 — 00:09:46.640 · Taryn Smith
Exactly.

00:09:46.720 — 00:09:51.840 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Athletic with his brain. Yes. Um, is he the reason why you want to go into law?

00:09:52.000 — 00:10:07.440 · Taryn Smith
He is. It’s the family trade. I would be the fourth generation of attorneys in our family. And so it’s not something I want to do because I feel forced or pressured to. But it’s something that I take a lot of pride in, and I’ve seen how much it can help people.

00:10:07.480 — 00:10:10.480 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Your dad is a lawyer. You go work in his law. Is it his law firm?

00:10:10.480 — 00:10:12.560 · Taryn Smith
I do work for him right now. You do? Yeah.

00:10:12.600 — 00:10:15.680 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. But you will go back, you think when you do criminal defense.

00:10:15.720 — 00:10:23.800 · Taryn Smith
Oh. I’m not. He actually does, uh, bankruptcy. And so that’s the kind of law I’m practicing or helping with right now. Um, and so I’m not sure where I’ll end up, but.

00:10:23.840 — 00:10:25.240 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Why criminal defense?

00:10:26.080 — 00:10:44.120 · Taryn Smith
I think that the idea that everyone deserves a defense, no matter what they’ve done, is one of the most evolved thoughts we’ve had as a country. I think it it shows that everyone deserves empathy, and that’s why I want to go into it.

00:10:44.960 — 00:10:45.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Give siblings.

00:10:45.960 — 00:10:47.000 · Taryn Smith
I have a younger sister.

00:10:47.000 — 00:10:49.760 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And is she on the long train as well?

00:10:50.000 — 00:11:04.120 · Taryn Smith
We could not be more different. Okay, she is in film into the photography. That’s what she’s studying at university right now. And so I don’t think that we would have been friends if we weren’t siblings. But because we are siblings, we are the closest of friends.

00:11:04.160 — 00:11:07.680 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. And you, I’m imagine, learn a lot from each other.

00:11:07.720 — 00:11:09.160 · Taryn Smith
Absolutely. Yeah.

00:11:09.760 — 00:11:18.840 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You’re in the Sawtooth Mountains reading Vogue, which I didn’t even know that they get Vogue in the Sawtooth Mountains. You read this, you hear about challenge?

00:11:19.880 — 00:11:24.240 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was it on your mind? Was your brain primed for the next thing that you were going to do?

00:11:24.480 — 00:11:55.350 · Taryn Smith
It was I was looking for my my path forward. I just spent a season living in the French Alps. And so I went to Gemini. I wanted to get good at backcountry skiing, and I loved that. I loved my time in the mountains. But when I got back to Idaho, I had also just graduated college and I was thinking about what am I going to do with my life?

And that question was floating around in the back of my mind until I read this article, and it was instant. I knew I had to go.

00:11:55.350 — 00:11:58.510 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Ro d what do you make of that instinct?

00:12:01.510 — 00:12:09.110 · Taryn Smith
It was a calling, and that sounds a little corny or cheesy when I say it out loud, but.

00:12:09.150 — 00:12:09.670 · Speaker 3
Frankly.

00:12:09.670 — 00:12:18.590 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I don’t think it does. I think it’s actually required to do those big things. Again, I’m curious as to to your perspective on that.

00:12:18.630 — 00:12:55.590 · Taryn Smith
Yeah, it was it was an instinct in a way that I’ve never really had before. The only other time I’d felt that strongly about something, it was going and living and working at redfish. I knew that was something I had to do. And the same way that I knew I had to row across the ocean. And I’ve gotten the question, what’s next from a lot of people?

And it’s funny because even though I have these plans, I don’t have that same instinct that I did for these other two things, and I think it’s something that we’re not meant to experience every moment in our life. I think it’s good to have seasons of rest and seasons of reflection.

00:12:56.150 — 00:13:35.950 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
One of the the things that I have seen my friends and myself challenged with a lot is being able to accept that idea of limbo, which is essentially what you’re talking about. Yeah, I just, I, I have to come to understand how you are so evolved at 26, really. And I think the listeners and the viewers, you know, we typically and we’re going to talk about the science of your training.

We’re going to talk about the the strategic discomfort that you put yourself in and what that looks like from nutrition perspective. And rowing on the ERG, which is um, probably and has been one of my favorite tools. I really appreciate that. But there is a level of

00:13:37.910 — 00:13:44.860 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
thought and experience that is so far beyond your age, and I’m sure everyone listening to this is thinking the same thing.

00:13:47.020 — 00:13:49.660 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you think that this is just inherent in your nature?

00:13:50.740 — 00:14:06.620 · Taryn Smith
I think a huge source of inspiration for me has always been my yoga practice. I started from a young age, and hearing that you can learn to be uncomfortable in an uncomfortable situation is

00:14:07.860 — 00:14:45.580 · Taryn Smith
it’s a voice that’s always in the back of my head, and that really influenced my motivation for the role. From the beginning, I wanted it to be a meditation on impermanence and on joy and recognizing that everything passes, everything changes, everything ends, which is actually a wonderful thing. A quote I really latched on to was from Hahn.

Thanks to impermanence, anything is possible. And whenever I feel scared or I doubt myself or I’m going through a period of grief or depression, I think. Thanks to impermanence, anything is possible. This is going to end.

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00:16:22.620 — 00:17:11.209 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I one of my best friends. Her name is Elena Brower. Do you know who that is? She’s a Yogi. She is actually a chaplain now, and she really helps people die. Well, and the idea of impermanence is Is something that I’ve thought a lot about and it’s been quite a struggle. But you’ve been able to take the idea of impermanence and make it positive, which I think is, um, a challenge.

Yeah. Have you been on the other side of impermanence from a negative standpoint, meaning the hard days go. The depression ebbs and flows. And then on the other side of impermanence is you lose a loved one that you never see again. Mhm. Have you experienced the other side of impermanence yet?

00:17:11.689 — 00:17:23.689 · Taryn Smith
I have. When I was training for the row, my grandfather uh who was who. He’s who I want to be when I grow up. He, he passed away and

00:17:25.209 — 00:17:44.850 · Taryn Smith
it’s, it’s such an immense grief for our family because he sailed and he took me out on boats in Nebraska. And so I think my love of boats really comes from him. And I would give every single thing I have in the world to be able to sit on a boat with him and sail. And it’s

00:17:46.650 — 00:18:16.849 · Taryn Smith
so hard because I want to share everything that I did with him. But when I was out on the boat and my hardest moments, I could picture him so vividly sitting there with me, and I would ask for his help or ask for his opinion and just see him so clearly there. And so it’s it is hard. And I think that’s also just a part of life is that life is uncomfortable and it’s hard and it hurts.

Um, and

00:18:18.130 — 00:18:24.650 · Taryn Smith
that’s a lesson I learned through this experience as well. It wasn’t sunshine and rainbows and dolphins all the time. Sometimes life is just hard.

00:18:24.770 — 00:18:28.090 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I would imagine that most of it is hard.

00:18:29.130 — 00:18:36.360 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And you felt him there with you. It’s, um, kind of like your your guiding compass.

00:18:39.160 — 00:18:43.200 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
3000 miles solo. How long did that take?

00:18:43.480 — 00:18:44.640 · Taryn Smith
46 days.

00:18:44.680 — 00:18:45.800 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
How was the weather?

00:18:46.400 — 00:19:12.880 · Taryn Smith
We actually had amazing conditions this year. We had a lovely following breeze. And so the first three weeks of the row, the the weather was perfect. Then around Christmas time, New Year’s, it died down a lot. And so there was no breeze to help push the boat. The boat didn’t have a sail or a motor, but it did drift with the wind.

And so without any sort of breeze, it really was a slog pulling the boat through the water. And then it.

00:19:12.880 — 00:19:13.800 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was like, how does one do.

00:19:13.800 — 00:19:14.440 · Speaker 3
That?

00:19:14.840 — 00:19:15.760 · Taryn Smith
A lot of grit.

00:19:16.080 — 00:19:21.920 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I mean, do you have I don’t know, I know a lot about canoeing, embarrassingly enough, but I know nothing.

00:19:21.920 — 00:19:22.720 · Speaker 3
About.

00:19:23.800 — 00:19:24.560 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Rowing.

00:19:24.600 — 00:20:03.000 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. So it is, uh, face backwards, sliding seat. And so I would be on my seat, have my feet strapped in to these foot straps. And then I would row. And so most of the power from the stroke is actually generated with your legs, not your arms, because those leg muscles are so much bigger. And so in those, those slow days, it was really, really working hard, sweating quite a bit.

And then the weather picked up a lot. We had crazy, insane wind and conditions, and there were times I thought the boat would capsize and it rained every day all the time, which was by far the hardest part and it.

00:20:03.000 — 00:20:04.360 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Just being wet and cold.

00:20:04.600 — 00:20:10.680 · Taryn Smith
Being wet. It was so it just demoralizing to have that much gray and not be able to see the sun.

00:20:11.960 — 00:20:27.880 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay, 48 days now you said the rower. Did you also use the standing ski erg when you were in training, or was it? If we think about your physical training and I also am really curious about your survival skills, because it sounds like you started training on those first.

00:20:28.280 — 00:20:43.280 · Taryn Smith
I did, I first took my course on on sea safety and navigation and first aid at sea. And I could have taken that course later, but I thought I’d like as much time to really soak in those skills as possible.

00:20:44.440 — 00:20:58.240 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Because I want to come back to this, the sea safety. Were you in shape when you started training? I was you were in shape. How did that training look? Because I imagine that you are rowing for how many hours a day?

00:20:58.880 — 00:21:03.960 · Taryn Smith
When I was out at sea. Yeah, at sea. About 12 hours a day. Okay. Yeah.

00:21:04.000 — 00:21:07.040 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
For anyone listening who is complaining about their day job.

00:21:08.120 — 00:21:25.120 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
At least you’re not rowing on the ocean alone. Solo. Um, take me through a little bit about those. That type of training block and how you utilized your coach. What kind of things were you doing to train up for a 48 day row? 48 days?

00:21:25.120 — 00:21:26.880 · Taryn Smith
Yes, yes. For 46.

00:21:26.880 — 00:21:27.520 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
46.

00:21:27.520 — 00:21:28.000 · Speaker 3
46.

00:21:28.040 — 00:22:09.430 · Taryn Smith
I started pretty small, and so Gus would send me workouts in the gym. So I’d start with maybe ten, 15 minute blocks. And I only rode three times a week during training because it’s very easy to get burnt out on on the erg. So he would send me these, these blocks and eventually they got bigger and bigger and bigger.

And so towards the end, I was on the erg for my longest session in the week, maybe 5 or 6 hours. Um, and then I also spent a lot of time lifting and training for the rope was more like injury prevention and mental and building mental resilience than it was actually prepping for that amount of rowing.

00:22:09.550 — 00:22:11.670 · Speaker 3
I actually I love that risk management.

00:22:11.710 — 00:22:17.110 · Taryn Smith
Exactly. Because that’s the most dangerous thing that could happen to me out there was beginning a big injury.

00:22:17.110 — 00:22:19.430 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And so how did you know that?

00:22:19.990 — 00:22:38.510 · Taryn Smith
Just from learning from other rowers, I talked with the community of the sport. It’s a fascinating group of people. There’s people like me that don’t have a huge background in it. Some people did row in college or the Olympics, and then there’s a lot of people that are going through a midlife crisis and pick this.

00:22:38.550 — 00:22:41.430 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Instead of pickleball. They chose rowing.

00:22:41.470 — 00:22:42.070 · Taryn Smith
Exactly.

00:22:42.270 — 00:22:55.270 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
They chose the ocean rope. Um, your coach, how do you start? Very small. Which makes a ton of sense. Yeah. Um, what type of injuries? What risk management were you looking to avoid?

00:22:55.590 — 00:23:04.710 · Taryn Smith
I spent a lot of time building out my core. I think anything that would happen with ribs out there would be really dangerous. And sometimes that happens with with rowing.

00:23:05.150 — 00:23:11.630 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, would that be cost or itis that, you know, when people get inflammation around their ribs, is it the repetitive nature of it?

00:23:11.670 — 00:23:16.350 · Taryn Smith
No, I think so. Yeah. I um, I’m not well versed on on that great thing.

00:23:16.390 — 00:23:18.630 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
About what is gonna go wrong.

00:23:18.670 — 00:23:19.310 · Taryn Smith
Yeah.

00:23:19.470 — 00:23:20.630 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Rowing core.

00:23:20.950 — 00:23:33.220 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. Got very strong with my core, um, built out my leg muscles quite a bit. Um, and did a lot of, uh, pull ups and, like, rows at the gym as well.

00:23:34.100 — 00:23:35.540 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
When you started. How many pull ups?

00:23:36.180 — 00:23:37.020 · Taryn Smith
Uh, none.

00:23:37.140 — 00:23:38.860 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And by the time you were done.

00:23:38.980 — 00:23:41.180 · Taryn Smith
It’s kind of. I can only do two.

00:23:42.220 — 00:23:47.740 · Taryn Smith
My my legs really were the ones that got me across the ocean on my heart. Okay. Yeah. Um.

00:23:48.100 — 00:23:59.260 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Take me through. What? As you were going through this training, you spent a year. You started training a year out or three years out. You said that you took three years to get from point A to point B.

00:23:59.300 — 00:24:10.460 · Taryn Smith
I signed up in 2022. And so that’s when I started preparing for the row. But I really started training in earnest in 2023. So it was two years of pretty intense training.

00:24:11.380 — 00:24:24.060 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
How does that work? Meaning? Um, there’s a row that everyone is doing or take me kind of give me the picture in terms of what I’m looking here is to understand the pressure.

00:24:24.620 — 00:24:25.780 · Taryn Smith
Yes. So.

00:24:27.420 — 00:25:24.140 · Taryn Smith
bringing the row together was in a lot of ways more stressful than the row itself. I had to train at the gym, so I found a coach that was very highly recommended and had a good track record of getting athletes across safely, and also producing athletes that could walk after that felt okay, because it is an immense thing to put your body through.

And so I found Gus connected with him. Then I also had to find a boat. I had to handle all of the logistics and get all of the kits for the boat and people that do this sport. Everyone takes a different path, a different route. Some people work with a coach, some people don’t. Some people have a lot of sailing and nautical experience.

Some people like me are complete beginners and so there’s really no cookie cutter way. And bringing something like this to life. But getting good on safety equipment’s a priority for everyone. And then developing some physical capacity is also key.

00:25:24.380 — 00:25:51.900 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I was doing my research prior to this. And basically your body has done something almost no human bodies do. I mean, how many people do that? You are the first woman to compete in the world’s toughest row as a solo athlete. Um, you had 50 plus days alone at sea. I know that the row is that accurate. I know that the row you had mentioned is 46, but you’re pulling an oar every two seconds.

Is that also accurate?

00:25:52.620 — 00:26:01.740 · Taryn Smith
Yeah, it was a pretty slow rate. Um, and so the row itself, it felt more like walking than it would running. But I was rowing for 12 hours a day.

00:26:01.740 — 00:26:07.940 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
For 12 hours a day. Yeah. Sleep. I have in some of the background that you were sleeping 90 minutes at a time.

00:26:08.220 — 00:26:51.290 · Taryn Smith
I did a little different approach to sleep. So a lot of times with teams, they choose to do two hours on, two hours off. Most people do this as a team of four. There’s always two people on the oars and then you alternate. So everyone’s pretty fresh because I was doing it by myself. I actually decided to row for 12 hours during the day.

I took breaks to eat, do some navigation, call home, and then at night I would rest for 6 to 7 hours. I wasn’t always sleeping during that time, but I was at least resting my body, and I think that’s part of the reason I had such a positive experience is that I did get those longer chunks of rest. Mm.

00:26:52.170 — 00:27:03.050 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. Your Etsy first days, I’m sure there were days that you wanted to quit. Did the quit ever get in there when you were training out for it?

00:27:03.370 — 00:27:05.810 · Taryn Smith
There was never a moment that I

00:27:07.130 — 00:27:32.210 · Taryn Smith
was going to stop. I think there were lots of moments where I thought, this isn’t fun or I’m not enjoying this, or why am I doing this? But even when I asked myself why I never, I, I knew I had to to get to the start line. And then when I was out at sea, even in the toughest weather conditions, I never would have teleported back to land.

I knew that I wanted to get through that.

00:27:32.370 — 00:27:34.570 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Never a moment where I’m throwing in the towel.

00:27:34.610 — 00:27:35.250 · Taryn Smith
Exactly.

00:27:35.290 — 00:27:37.810 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
This weather sucks. It’s raining. It’s still raining.

00:27:39.930 — 00:27:51.690 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you attribute that to your, I’m assuming, meditation practice? I do five years from where you are today. Five years earlier. Could you have been able to do it? Um.

00:27:54.850 — 00:28:02.050 · Taryn Smith
I don’t think so. I don’t think that I wanted I would have wanted to do something like this five years ago. I

00:28:03.290 — 00:28:50.240 · Taryn Smith
think the practice of pushing myself out of my comfort zone is what got me to this point. And so when I was 20, I. I didn’t have the capacity to do something like this, but I could move to Idaho, I could move to the mountains. And that was really scary for me at the time. I moved somewhere where I didn’t know anyone when I went out to Idaho the first time, I.

I knew I had to go, but I was also terrified that no one would want to be friends with me because I’d be the slowest one on hikes and I’d be a hindrance to the group. But everyone was very kind and generous and I, you know, then I started climbing and I was afraid, you know, no one’s going to want to take me climbing.

But people were eager to teach. And so the process of, you know, gradually doing bigger and bigger projects outside is what got me to ocean rowing.

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00:30:15.440 — 00:30:26.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
This was a big project Mhm. Uh, that I would definitely say the moment that you were on the ocean alone, I mean there was no safety boats anything. Mhm.

00:30:27.640 — 00:30:28.720 · Taryn Smith
It’s unsupported.

00:30:28.760 — 00:30:30.040 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Unsupported.

00:30:30.080 — 00:30:37.480 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. So there was a safety team back on land and I called them every couple of days and just to check in, make sure the boat’s okay I’m okay.

00:30:37.520 — 00:30:44.720 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But there was a couple of days. Mhm. Walk us through being on the ocean alone.

00:30:46.480 — 00:30:48.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Perhaps one thing that you could have never predicted.

00:30:49.000 — 00:31:49.670 · Taryn Smith
All of my thoughts became my own. It was amazing to be free from marketing to not look at any advertisements. I just felt so me, I felt like a kid. And I realized that the voice in my head was just my own. I didn’t think about what anyone else expected of me or what anyone else wanted from me. I just thought about who I am as a person, and so I think a lot of my values really distilled throughout the process.

And another thing I didn’t expect was as I’m rowing. If the conditions stayed the same and wind direction stayed the same, then my speed slowed down. That meant that I needed to eat something, because I was the only thing powering this boat across the ocean. And so my relationship to food completely changed because I got to see how what I eat impacts my ability to perform.

00:31:50.110 — 00:31:51.950 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That was surprising for you.

00:31:51.990 — 00:31:57.230 · Taryn Smith
It was because I just never thought about the math of it. And so I think having this kind of outside,

00:31:58.910 — 00:32:16.150 · Taryn Smith
you know, just measure really showed me, um, that relationship, because I think as women especially, we’re fed a lot of, uh, confusing, misleading information about food. And I think that was it was very validating. Just to see what you eat is going to propel you across the ocean.

00:32:16.190 — 00:32:18.790 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And what was that? Take me through your day.

00:32:18.870 — 00:32:21.630 · Taryn Smith
I ate a backpacking meal every day.

00:32:21.830 — 00:32:23.110 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Are you talking about an MRE?

00:32:23.190 — 00:32:27.830 · Taryn Smith
It’s a freeze dried meal. And so I didn’t house. Yeah. A lot.

00:32:28.270 — 00:32:30.310 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was it allowed? Yeah, we’ve got a lot of that.

00:32:30.350 — 00:32:50.910 · Taryn Smith
A lot of mountain houses. And then I had a lot of Nutella, a lot of peanut butter. That was good. And some Snickers was always a happy day when I got some chocolate. Um, part of ocean rowing is just bringing food that’s going to taste good because you need as many calories as possible. And, um, having some treats throughout the day was helpful.

00:32:50.950 — 00:33:04.510 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did you frame. Frame it up for me? Is there a fridge? Is it a Yeti cooler? There’s a bathroom there. You taking? I don’t know. Exercise breaks TV. What? What what does that look like?

00:33:04.630 — 00:33:05.550 · Taryn Smith
Kind of a day in the life.

00:33:05.590 — 00:33:19.060 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Well, a day in the life and the logistics of. How are you mapping out? I’m assuming there’s no aid station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, like a 7-Eleven, where you could find no orange juice or something.

00:33:19.060 — 00:33:21.140 · Taryn Smith
No Uber Eats out there. Um, I.

00:33:21.380 — 00:33:22.820 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Definitely have to tip back.

00:33:23.340 — 00:34:01.900 · Taryn Smith
I brought 85 days worth of supplies and food on my boat, and so I had 4000 calories a day. I packed two backpack, two backpacking meals a day, but I normally ate one. I had a snack pack every day, and so that was full of things like granola bars and crackers and cashews. And I would eat that throughout the day as well.

I normally had my one backpacking meal in the evening, so at sunset I would typically boil some water in a jet boil, pour that in the freeze dried packet, wait a while, and then eat my dinner and watch the sunset over the horizon.

00:34:02.420 — 00:34:04.140 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did you do your own nutrition?

00:34:04.540 — 00:34:23.060 · Taryn Smith
I worked a little bit with body health and so they helped me out and they provided me with a lot of supplements for the row, which was great because my muscles never felt fatigued. There were lots of things that hurt on the boat or hurt me while I was out there, so my backside was in a lot of pain, a lot of chafing.

00:34:23.100 — 00:34:24.580 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Glutes, hamstring.

00:34:24.860 — 00:34:49.220 · Taryn Smith
Muscles. Felt fine. It was. I did not expect that. I felt pretty fresh the whole time though. The first week there was an adjustment period where my core really hurt because I was using it so much. Then my back hurt, then my arms hurt. But after that, you know, training day one was a rowing day, one was prep for day two.

And so I did get a lot stronger throughout the crossing.

00:34:49.379 — 00:34:58.580 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
When you put together your macros, do you remember what your carbohydrate, protein, fat load looked like? Or.

00:34:59.260 — 00:35:07.100 · Taryn Smith
I actually didn’t look at those splits. Uh, for me, the priority was just bringing food that I would want to eat. Because

00:35:08.820 — 00:35:25.100 · Taryn Smith
if you have food and it’s, you know, if you’re not eating it, it’s just wasted. Wasted wait out there. Um, and so I focused more on, on food that I really enjoy over the, the nutritional aspect of it. But the freeze dried meals are pretty nutritious.

00:35:25.140 — 00:35:59.700 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Listen, I, I kid you not, I my dad was visiting from Ecuador. I grew up hiking and camping and doing physically hard terrain challenges with my dad, which was one of the reasons. Number one, you’re extraordinary. And number two, I think being out in the elements, especially now as a young because I did this as a young girl, changes who you are.

But this all is bringing me back to the freeze dried meals. I came out, my dad was visiting from Ecuador. My dad and my husband said that they were going to get and prepare dinner,

00:36:00.860 — 00:36:31.290 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
go to the backyard. There is a nine person tent set up with jet boil and my husband is serving beef stroganoff, the mountain house meals. We have an array of flavors and I will tell you that. Number one, they’re delicious. Number two, depending on what you get, you’re getting about 50g of protein. They have they’re amazing.

And 50 or more grams of carbs. But again, you weren’t tracking your macros so much were you able to bring items that were perishable.

00:36:31.690 — 00:36:34.290 · Taryn Smith
No I wasn’t. Yep. I didn’t have a fridge.

00:36:34.810 — 00:36:45.330 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do not have a fridge. How did you utilize? You said that you worked with Body Health, which I’m a huge supporter of, as you know. What did you utilize?

00:36:45.490 — 00:37:05.250 · Taryn Smith
I took Perfect Amino every day, so I did 2 to 3 servings a day of that. And then I also had the multivitamin and the eliminate tablets. And that was one of my favorite things, because out on a boat in the middle of the ocean is the last place you want to have gut issues. And I’ve never felt better.

00:37:05.770 — 00:37:10.810 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It’s it’s it really is extraordinary. Yeah. Did you always finish your meals?

00:37:11.530 — 00:37:13.690 · Taryn Smith
Normally I did. Yeah, I ate the whole thing.

00:37:13.690 — 00:37:25.730 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
If you didn’t. And there’s a reason why I’m asking. Because this is very high volume training. And also not even training. Just a high volume activity. Hydration is probably key for you.

00:37:25.770 — 00:37:26.330 · Taryn Smith
Yes.

00:37:26.810 — 00:37:35.530 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
As you were having these meals. Um, so you finished each meal? If you didn’t. Did you feel. Did you did it impact your performance? Mhm.

00:37:36.210 — 00:37:37.010 · Taryn Smith
It’s.

00:37:39.210 — 00:38:26.320 · Taryn Smith
That’s a tough question to answer because the week when the weather was the biggest, when there were huge waves, gusts of wind up to 40 miles an hour. Um I didn’t get my jet boil out and I didn’t prepare any of the freeze dried meals because I was worried about spilling hot water on myself. And it was also in such a state of fight or flight that I wasn’t particularly hungry.

And so that week, I ate a lot of peanut butter and Nutella and then crackers. Things I didn’t have to to rehydrate, but I had so much adrenaline because the conditions were insane that I felt pretty energetic during that time. And so it’s tough to compare week to week, because the conditions also really impacted how I felt and what I was doing from a nutrition standpoint.

00:38:26.880 — 00:38:33.199 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Highlight the conditions. Highlight when it changed. There’s usually that moment where

00:38:34.400 — 00:38:39.280 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
there’s a change in direction, not literal change in direction.

00:38:39.400 — 00:38:49.320 · Taryn Smith
So it was about week 5 or 6 and I woke up in the morning. It was completely overcast day and roaming along.

00:38:49.360 — 00:38:49.720 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Where were.

00:38:49.720 — 00:39:14.960 · Taryn Smith
You? I was about three fourths of the way done at this point. Uh, the wind kept building all day and there was one point where a huge wave knocked my boat, so it was facing due south instead of facing due west, which is really dangerous because it means that the boat could capsize at any point. The boat? The wind is coming at the boat from the wrong direction, so I row really hard to get it upand keep rowing.

00:39:15.000 — 00:39:38.760 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But wait. Pause. Unpin. Again, I’ve never been in the ocean in a technically a rowboat is this. But I have seen The Little Mermaid and some of these other movies where the boat is swinging. Yeah. I mean, are we talking about massive swings? What, for the listener or for the viewer? And we’re going to try to find some footage that we can use.

00:39:41.160 — 00:39:43.520 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Paint that picture for me.

00:39:43.640 — 00:39:48.840 · Taryn Smith
The boat is tiny in the ocean. It’s 24ft long, five feet wide.

00:39:48.880 — 00:39:51.280 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
24ft long, five feet wide.

00:39:51.320 — 00:40:44.160 · Taryn Smith
Pretty, pretty small boat. And so I felt every single wave as it hit the boat. Generally there was a following sea, meaning the waves were coming from behind and pushing the boat in the right direction. But this day the waves were coming from every single direction, so it felt like I was really being pushed around, kind of punched around by the water.

And so when that that wave came around and knocked my boat, it was terrifying because I was pointing in the wrong direction, but it was also overcast and I couldn’t see the sun. Now, generally, the sun was my landmark during the day rises in the east. That’s in the west, so it was very helpful to have that while I’m out there in the middle of the ocean.

Have at least something to show me that I’m going in the right direction. But that day I couldn’t see it. And so when I was turned the wrong way, I was so, so, so scared. But I looked at my compass, got it turned around.

00:40:44.200 — 00:40:46.320 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And then you were scared.

00:40:46.360 — 00:40:47.000 · Taryn Smith
I was terrified.

00:40:47.040 — 00:40:49.160 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Scared about what?

00:40:50.120 — 00:40:52.360 · Taryn Smith
I was scared the boat was going to capsize.

00:40:52.480 — 00:40:55.920 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That was what would have happened if if that happened.

00:40:56.200 — 00:41:06.950 · Taryn Smith
The boats designed to sell fright. And so I was always tethered on to the deck of the boat. If it had capsized, I would have been okay, but it’s not something that I wanted to experience.

00:41:06.990 — 00:41:18.870 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Is that true? Is that true? Because do you did you have something that you could call for help? Is there an SOS button or. I mean, what if your phone fell into the ocean? I mean, how?

00:41:19.310 — 00:41:59.830 · Taryn Smith
Yes, we actually do have a device on deck called an Epirb. And so if the boat capsized, that would activate. And then it sends a signal to a satellite, and the satellite pings the Coast Guard, and then the Coast Guard coordinates a search and rescue if I don’t call it off. And so if I if I had capsized, someone would have been alerted, but most likely I would have just kept rowing.

Uh, still a situation I didn’t want to handle. I didn’t want to have to go through that. And then I also just felt very disoriented. I felt a little bit lost for a minute, and there was no one that was going to help me. And I think that was one of the scariest parts as well.

00:41:59.950 — 00:42:04.070 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Vulnerable. Would you say that that was a accurate way to describe that?

00:42:04.110 — 00:42:06.310 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. Vulnerable. Exposed? Yeah.

00:42:06.350 — 00:42:13.670 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Were you strapped in? You were strapped in? Yeah. If you were to capsize, how does that not drown you?

00:42:14.310 — 00:42:25.670 · Taryn Smith
The boat keeps flipping. And so if I capsize, the boat would self. Right. I was always tethered to the deck. And so I would jump back on deck and call off the Epirb and keep rowing.

00:42:25.710 — 00:42:30.990 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. In my mind, I would think it was like a seatbelt, but it’s not. It’s just a.

00:42:30.990 — 00:42:38.310 · Taryn Smith
Tether. It’s just a tether. So I wore a climbing harness and then it was a tether to a jack stay on the deck. That could move back and forth. Mhm.

00:42:39.150 — 00:42:48.230 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You I’m sure didn’t expect conditions to get that way. Had you prepared mentally had you visualized if things didn’t go well.

00:42:48.870 — 00:42:56.310 · Taryn Smith
I did. I spent a lot of time going through crisis ops and imagining the worst case scenarios and how I would react to them.

00:42:56.950 — 00:43:00.180 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did it play out the way that you expected your physiology.

00:43:00.300 — 00:43:02.700 · Taryn Smith
It played out better than I could have expected.

00:43:02.780 — 00:43:03.140 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Tell me.

00:43:03.140 — 00:43:53.900 · Taryn Smith
More. I prepared for the worst things to happen, and I also prepared for the road to be a miserable slog the whole time. And there were moments that were terrifying. But there were also moments that were so much fun. The first three weeks, I didn’t feel like I had to be very tough because I trained really well.

I dedicated my life to getting ready for this crossing, and so by the time I actually got to see, I had a great time. Then the weather did get big, it did get punchy, and I was terrified. But I had run through very specifically in my head. Okay, what happens if, you know, you get a cut and you’re bleeding and you have to cope with that?

How are you going to manage if the boat capsizes? What are you going to do if something breaks? How are you going to handle that? So I went through the worst case scenarios, and while I was out there, I ended up with the best one.

00:43:53.980 — 00:43:59.660 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What about predators? Sharks. Apex. predator apex predators.

00:43:59.700 — 00:44:05.300 · Taryn Smith
So I saw a shark my first morning at sea, and the sharks were actually pretty friendly. It came.

00:44:05.300 — 00:44:07.260 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And said no one ever.

00:44:07.500 — 00:44:47.980 · Taryn Smith
Right? The shark. He was a nice guy. Yeah, you can kind of swim around the boat and then went off. What was terrifying were the marlin. So I’m from Nebraska. I’d never seen a marlin in my life. If you haven’t seen one, they’re these huge fish. They weigh 700, 800, up to 1,000 pounds. And what makes them dangerous for ocean rowing boats is that they have this pointy beak that can pierce a hole in the bottom of our boats.

So I had supplies to fix my boat should that happen, because it’s not unheard of. And there were a couple times a marlin stalked me and I yelled at it. I swore at it. I told it to go away. It didn’t listen. Um, eventually it swam off.

00:44:47.980 — 00:44:51.500 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But are these aggressive? I mean, are they aggressive?

00:44:51.700 — 00:44:54.860 · Taryn Smith
Not particularly. I think they’re more curious than anything else.

00:44:55.660 — 00:45:03.860 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You were less. What I’m hearing you say is that I am watching too many movies and jaws. I shouldn’t be watching that. You were less concerned about the

00:45:05.300 — 00:45:11.460 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
wildlife than you were about the conditions or other elements.

00:45:11.500 — 00:45:19.300 · Taryn Smith
Absolutely. I was far more concerned about what the power of the ocean could do to me than the animals living in it.

00:45:19.340 — 00:45:38.180 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
First three weeks you’re feeling like a rock star. By the time that you had stepped onto the boat, do you just go from the dock to start the starting places? This is the the dock that you then take the anchor off and go. Or was it a was there, you know, a worm upset or something like that?

00:45:38.220 — 00:45:54.700 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. So I did this race called the World’s Toughest Row. And every year about 40 boats leave from La Gomera. And we wrote to Antigua. And so we got there about two weeks before the race start. It was so much fun to get to have this community around this fort, because.

00:45:54.700 — 00:45:55.410 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I didn’t solo.

00:45:55.410 — 00:46:06.610 · Taryn Smith
Though I did it solo, so I did it all by myself. But there were 43 teams this year. Most people choose to do it in a team. I choose how many, though. Most people do four. But there were quite a few pairs this year as well.

00:46:07.530 — 00:46:08.450 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But you.

00:46:08.450 — 00:46:09.410 · Taryn Smith
Were but.

00:46:09.570 — 00:46:11.170 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Myself. Now I’m good.

00:46:11.330 — 00:47:00.530 · Taryn Smith
Um, so originally I actually did try to get on a team. I read this article in Vogue, was inspired, and there were lots of other teams of women at the time that were looking to row the Pacific, and so I reached out to teams of three that were looking for a fourth to take on the Pacific in 2024, and I don’t fault anyone for this.

No one chose me to be on their team because I didn’t have any rowing experience, and I didn’t have any nautical experience, but I’d already made up in my mind that I wanted to row across an ocean. And so I decided to do it myself, which is the best thing that happened to me in this process. Because when I got out there, I realized just how small these boats are and to have to cohabitate with other people for that long would have been unmanageable for me.

I think I would have really

00:47:01.890 — 00:47:12.530 · Taryn Smith
would have really freaked out in a way that I didn’t by myself. What I enjoyed about my row was the solitude and just being able to experience nature by myself.

00:47:12.570 — 00:47:16.370 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That’s a lot of nature to experience. What? Um.

00:47:18.450 — 00:47:27.090 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Had you planned for it? You didn’t have your phone or computer. Were you watching movies? What was the what was the days like?

00:47:27.890 — 00:47:34.170 · Taryn Smith
When I rode during the day, I listened to a lot of music. I’d say about 80% of the time I had music.

00:47:34.210 — 00:47:35.290 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What were you listening to?

00:47:35.330 — 00:48:00.120 · Taryn Smith
Mhm. A little bit of everything. A lot of classical music. Um, a lot of throwbacks to the 2000. So that’s what I normally listen to when it was dark, got some Britney out and I had some Mac Miller towards the end. Um, and then some audiobooks too, a couple audiobooks, a couple podcasts and let’s see what the rest is.

History. I really like history books and so that was a good podcast to listen to.

00:48:00.160 — 00:48:00.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Theme song.

00:48:01.000 — 00:48:02.520 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. Theme song. Mhm.

00:48:03.920 — 00:48:19.920 · Taryn Smith
Probably the middle. That’s a good reminder for me when I was out there. That’s going to be okay. Um, and then I had a phone so I was able to take videos and I sent those videos back to my mom, and she was my social media manager, and she posted them on Instagram for me.

00:48:20.400 — 00:48:22.280 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was she worried about you doing this?

00:48:22.720 — 00:48:33.560 · Taryn Smith
She was. But she handled this entire ordeal with so much grace and so much poise, and she never let her fear impact me.

00:48:33.720 — 00:48:36.560 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Being alone is not easy, at least for

00:48:37.640 — 00:48:48.280 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
myself, for people. I mean, long periods of time. I mean, that’s why they do silent retreats, albeit those are a week long. Not how long were you gone in totality.

00:48:48.760 — 00:48:49.640 · Taryn Smith
From.

00:48:49.640 — 00:48:50.600 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Anyone?

00:48:50.600 — 00:48:56.120 · Taryn Smith
Anyone? It was that 46 days. 46 days. I didn’t see another human being in person in total.

00:48:57.880 — 00:49:07.600 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was there a night that you just. You couldn’t forget moments that you. Because in retrospect, you’re telling the story again with such grace and poise. And

00:49:08.880 — 00:49:21.320 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
there are 46 days of moments which I’m sure some of them were. Again, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but darker than others or even brighter than others.

00:49:22.320 — 00:51:02.470 · Taryn Smith
Yeah, there were moments that were just Technicolor. The sunrises and the sunsets were gorgeous bright pinks and oranges, and the entire sky would fill up with color. There was a day a whale swam underneath my boat, and it took a breath right by me. And it was so gentle. And then it swam off, and dolphins always came and visited me on my hardest days when I was most alone and really needed friends.

Dolphins were there by my side, and there was a little bird that followed me from day one. She came over to my boat. She flew laps around it, would dive into waves, fly back up into the sky, and she just had so much energy that I named her Jo March, the character from Little Women. And so Jo was with me up until my last morning at sea and became, I think, one of my my closest friends in this world.

But there were also moments that were just awful, that were very scary. There were moments when I’d been rained on and my backside really, really hurts from all of the chafing, from rowing for 12 hours a day. And I looked across the horizon and could see that another storm was coming my way. And then it was just never going to end.

And that kind of weather went on for about a week starting around that, that week six time period. And it felt it felt unmanageable. I knew logically it wasn’t. I knew that I was going to be able to make it through, but it felt never ending. And I cried a lot. And I screamed and I cursed. And on those days, I

00:51:04.030 — 00:51:33.150 · Taryn Smith
really relied on support from people back home. I called my parents and they offered me advice, and then I thought about how this might impact people outside of me. There was a class of fifth graders back in Omaha who I talked about the row with beforehand, and then they sent me some letters to bring on the boat, and I sent them messages from C, and I thought, no, they’re watching.

You have to show them that anything’s possible, and you cannot traumatize them by having something bad happen out here. You have to make it to the end.

00:51:33.870 — 00:51:38.670 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What? You said that your parents give you advice. What kind of advice?

00:51:42.150 — 00:51:47.909 · Taryn Smith
Maybe it was less advice and more just them being there to listen And just

00:51:49.030 — 00:51:54.510 · Taryn Smith
absorb what I was telling them and listen to me complain about what was happening.

00:51:54.630 — 00:51:59.870 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did you have a framework for dealing with these thoughts? Mhm.

00:52:01.910 — 00:52:14.070 · Taryn Smith
While I was out there, I didn’t have a particularly structured meditation or yoga practice. I think because I’d built up that practice over so many years. It was pretty strong once I got out there and

00:52:15.430 — 00:52:24.710 · Taryn Smith
rowing every day. That was the meditation. I did some breathwork, so I would do two inhales in one exhale out. That’s one of my favorites.

00:52:24.910 — 00:52:25.910 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you do that now?

00:52:25.990 — 00:52:34.230 · Taryn Smith
All the time. Whenever I’m nervous, I do that a lot of times throughout the day. Actually. It’s a really nice way to calm the nervous system works. It works so well for.

00:52:34.670 — 00:52:36.310 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Central nervous system. Mhm.

00:52:36.510 — 00:52:42.630 · Taryn Smith
And I listened to some, some podcasts and some meditations from Plum Village, a monastery in France.

00:52:43.070 — 00:54:11.860 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
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00:54:12.340 — 00:55:07.580 · Taryn Smith
Mhm. There’s a story from one of the, the men that was a prisoner of war with John McCain, and he said that the guys that were really optimistic that tomorrow’s the day we’re going to get rescued were the ones that didn’t make it. Because every day they thought we’re going to get out, we’re going to get out.

And then every day they were disappointed. And so his his phrase was, we’re not getting home by Christmas. We are going to get out. We’re going to make it through this. But it’s not going to happen by Christmas. And I thought about that a lot. I thought, this is going to end eventually, but it’s not going to be the next second.

It’s not going to be the next minute or next day. It’s going to be a while before I’m back home. And so being a long term optimist, but a short term realist is what got me through that time.

00:55:07.620 — 00:55:10.500 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Would you consider yourself neutral?

00:55:11.580 — 00:55:12.020 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Hmm.

00:55:15.140 — 00:55:18.940 · Taryn Smith
I don’t think I’m neutral. I think

00:55:20.620 — 00:55:22.340 · Taryn Smith
I try to

00:55:23.660 — 00:55:46.930 · Taryn Smith
just accept what’s happening and and my best days. I don’t attach labels to it, but I’m also a human being and definitely get swept up in the currents of life. And so on my best days, I try to just let things happen and recognize I can’t control the weather. I can’t control my conditions, but I can control how I respond to it.

00:55:48.530 — 00:56:23.930 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That is wise. And I’m sure you read the book Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl, and he says that there is space between the stimulus and response. You didn’t have to do this. And you and I were chatting about this idea of strong women, which ultimately, I think leads to conceptually strong people, strong society and our standards.

I’m sure that doing hard things cultivates that. Was there a greater mission? Is there a greater mission for you for all of this?

00:56:23.970 — 00:57:08.210 · Taryn Smith
When I think about the row and when I think about my place in the world, I want to keep my side of the street clean. I like to focus on on what I can control and what I can do, because at the end of the day, I think it’s I can’t control what other people think or do. I can only control what I do and what I contribute to this world and what I bring to the table.

And so that’s where I normally choose to direct my energy. But I hope the residue this journey leaves behind is that I was scared, I was terrified, I was a beginner, I failed a lot and I did it anyway. And I don’t mean to downplay what I did when I say this, but if I can do it, anyone can.

00:57:08.250 — 00:57:14.850 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It’s it really is a beautiful, beautiful message. Would you do it again? Mhm.

00:57:16.130 — 00:57:38.159 · Taryn Smith
I had such a perfect experience while I was out there that I think to try to replicate it would just inevitably be a disappointment. I might do it as a pair because that would be a different kind of adventure and experience for me. But I also think there’s something to be said for having enough. I think we are

00:57:39.960 — 00:57:48.960 · Taryn Smith
sold. The idea that you always need more and always need to do more and push. And I think a huge triumph can be for even just a moment, have enough.

00:57:49.520 — 00:58:08.120 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
This is enough. This, you know, again, you’re settled into a little bit of limbo right now. You’re going to be moving, doing all sorts of things. Yeah. Do you think that this experience exposed any weaknesses for you, that you go, okay, I see this is what I need to work on.

00:58:08.160 — 00:58:30.920 · Taryn Smith
Absolutely. This experience showed me the lengths I will go to to avoid conflict with people. I don’t like disagreeing, especially with the people that I’m closest with. And I struggle to speak up when someone said something that’s bothered me. And that is some work I need to do going forward.

00:58:30.960 — 00:58:34.880 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And did you find that out because you were alone and by yourself?

00:58:35.280 — 00:58:44.960 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. I had a lot of time to reflect on life, on my relationships, on how I conduct myself in the world. And that’s one of the things that popped up. Hmm.

00:58:46.120 — 00:58:49.240 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
How are you going to work on that? I mean, because it’s challenging.

00:58:49.280 — 00:58:55.160 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. Practice. I think I need to practice more practice. Yeah.

00:58:55.760 — 00:59:05.640 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you think that there is a landscape where women. Well, let me ask you this first. Do you think women recognize their own strength?

00:59:05.720 — 00:59:12.720 · Taryn Smith
Absolutely. And I think we’re also capable of so much more. I think

00:59:13.800 — 00:59:39.680 · Taryn Smith
women have infinite strength, in my opinion. And this this experience helped me tap into one side of it. But when I think about what it means to exist as a woman in this world. To me, I’m inspired by my friends that are having kids and then going through that part of life. That’s when when I was tired, I think, well, some of my friends have babies right now, and that’s way more exhausting than anything I’m doing out here.

00:59:40.480 — 00:59:54.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I mean, I would kind of agree, but, uh, but not really, you know? Hard is is all relative at any moment in time. You’ve done a ton of podcasts. Um, are there ideas and components that you wish somebody would ask?

00:59:58.160 — 00:59:58.600 · Taryn Smith
Mhm.

00:59:59.440 — 01:00:17.320 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It could be for, for any. Yeah. It could be in any domain training because I do want to um, definitely go back to training. I want to talk more about that and keeping your body in line because that is very difficult. Yeah. But again, you were on race podcast and that’s probably a lot of survival and mechanics, I’m guessing.

01:00:17.360 — 01:00:26.560 · Taryn Smith
And going out in the outdoors and living with purpose and that kind of stuff as well. There were some bigger themes. That’s a great question. Can we come back to that one? Yeah, because.

01:00:26.560 — 01:00:58.750 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You will be able to reach a different audience with through this podcast. And I want you to really have the floor to be able to think about, Okay, what are the what haven’t I been asked? I have thought a lot about. And I wish that we would get to that because you’ve been asked how you did it. You’ve been asked all the obvious questions.

Right? Those obvious questions totally exist. Um, and then there’s always as a deeply feeling human, which I believe that you are, there’s always this other stuff that that maybe

01:00:59.790 — 01:01:04.670 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
people aren’t asking you that’s just out there. So I just want to put that on the table.

01:01:04.710 — 01:01:12.429 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. One thing has puffed up, and that would be about my journaling prompt, because I did journal throughout this entire thing. And

01:01:14.190 — 01:01:53.470 · Taryn Smith
I think a gratitude practice is amazing. It’s important. And the happiest people I know are the ones that have an active gratitude practice. But in my tough days, when I felt alone or misunderstood, it was sometimes tough to feel grateful for what I was going through, and so I tweaked it a little instead of writing down things that I was grateful for.

I would write down five beautiful things, because even in moments of intense pain, I was still able to recognize that there was beauty around me, and that helped snap me out of some of the bad moods.

01:01:54.550 — 01:01:55.830 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Was it immediate?

01:01:56.070 — 01:01:59.310 · Taryn Smith
It was. That was the quickest way there.

01:01:59.350 — 01:02:39.140 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And I’m sure that you’ve experienced this, that there’s typically a linchpin. And maybe for some people it’s a phrase or a song, but it’s something that it’s very black and white, that it happens it. My husband has a saying, you know, that that just moves someone out of whatever repetitive thought or domain.

Yeah. That one is in. How did you manage your physicality? Being in a position physically in a rowing position, seated where your legs extended? How did you think about the health again? You said that you were chafing. Did you? How did you take care of the organism?

01:02:39.300 — 01:03:12.820 · Taryn Smith
Yes. As I went across the ocean, I spent my off time focusing on mobility. And so when I wasn’t rowing, I did take moments to just stretch, to twist things. It was a lot of back and forth. And so when I got on the oars or got off, I would always take a moment to just physically twist in my chair and kind of wring things out.

I also spent a lot of time focusing on stretching out my fingers, because sometimes when people get to the other side, they have claw hands from gripping the oars for so long and their fingers won’t extend. And so I wanted to avoid that.

01:03:13.020 — 01:03:13.700 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That’s not permanent.

01:03:13.700 — 01:03:20.300 · Taryn Smith
Not permanent, but a couple of weeks they stay like that. And so I wanted to avoid it. And I did by stretching a lot.

01:03:20.340 — 01:03:36.220 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And when you say a lot, were you very disciplined in the amount of time, you know, are you doing five downward dogs, you know, six twists, whatever you call them pretzels.

01:03:36.380 — 01:03:42.220 · Taryn Smith
It’s funny, because I have done this. I did this thing that required a lot of discipline.

01:03:42.300 — 01:03:44.180 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But why are you air quoting that?

01:03:44.180 — 01:03:57.420 · Taryn Smith
Because I don’t think I’m a particularly disciplined person. None of my days looked the same. I didn’t have a a daily routine, and I still don’t. I don’t get up and do 15 minutes of yoga and then a ten minute meditation, and then the cold plunge and then the.

01:03:57.420 — 01:03:58.060 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And then the read.

01:03:58.100 — 01:04:22.459 · Taryn Smith
The X. Exactly. And some people have that and it works really well for them. But for me, I like to go with the flow a little bit. And so instead of forcing myself to do things at certain times, I just knew at some point in the day I need to stretch. At some point in the day, I need to take my supplements. At some point in the day, I’m going to call home, and having a little bit of flexibility in the routine was

01:04:23.820 — 01:04:29.260 · Taryn Smith
freeing for me, because if I’m told to do something, even by myself, that means I don’t want to do it.

01:04:30.340 — 01:04:42.660 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, that. I mean, it’s kind of surprising, right? Then how would you say that you were able to do what you did? If discipline is not your language. How did that how did that work out?

01:04:43.340 — 01:05:06.300 · Taryn Smith
The phrase that really encapsulates this endeavor is for me is send it. Go for it all the time. And so every moment of the day I was sending it, I was going for it. I was doing the things that I needed to do, and I was very regimented about the safety side of things. But as far as maintenance of my body and

01:05:08.180 — 01:05:11.260 · Taryn Smith
the health side of things, I am a little more flexible.

01:05:12.660 — 01:05:15.140 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Sleep. What about sleep?

01:05:15.380 — 01:06:12.409 · Taryn Smith
Sleep was tough, and from the beginning, that’s what I was most nervous about, was the sleep deprivation. I slept pretty well on the boat. There were some times when I. I had hives all over my body from sun exposure and the cabins themselves where I slept, they get very, very damp and soggy. And so when I would lay in there with those hives, really exacerbate the pain and the itchiness.

And there was a two day period where I didn’t sleep. And that led to one of my toughest days. I would just lay there and itch and scratch, and I tried taking Benadryl or putting cortisone cream on it, but nothing helped. And then the more I couldn’t sleep, the more I couldn’t sleep. And it just grew into this, this monster in a way.

And that day, I cried a lot. And that was one of the days when I had the toughest conditions. When my boat almost capsized a few times. The marlin stalked me that day and

01:06:13.450 — 01:06:22.489 · Taryn Smith
I got to the end of the day. I just looked up at the sky and said, I want my mom. And it was terrifying. But

01:06:23.490 — 01:06:37.850 · Taryn Smith
once I reached about 6 or 7 p.m. the wind died down a little bit, and I realized it was one of my most successful days. In a way, I covered more ground than I normally did, and everything worked as it should. Even though I was scared and tired.

01:06:38.130 — 01:06:39.689 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did it make you

01:06:40.690 — 01:06:45.850 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
have this realization that things are going to happen regardless of how you know? In those moments.

01:06:46.090 — 01:06:48.730 · Taryn Smith
Totally things are going to happen and you just have to deal with it.

01:06:48.770 — 01:07:19.490 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Whether you cry like, doesn’t matter. There will be an outcome. Yeah. You know, you go from point A to point B, it’s kind of like pregnancy. Um, some of my friends are pregnant right now, and it can be terrible. It can be terrible, but there’s point A to point B and kind of that space in between. It’s like there’s going to be an outcome.

Yes. And you don’t have to manage the middle or not. It’s still it still happens.

01:07:19.690 — 01:07:20.650 · Taryn Smith
Exactly.

01:07:21.090 — 01:07:24.480 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You weren’t good at sleeping. The damp cabin. I didn’t realize.

01:07:24.520 — 01:07:35.920 · Taryn Smith
That was the worst part. In a way, it just got really hot and damp and those cabins. And so when I would lay there at night, sometimes water would drip on me, which was so annoying. Full feeling.

01:07:36.120 — 01:07:38.440 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did you have a hydration plan?

01:07:39.640 — 01:08:27.359 · Taryn Smith
Yes and no. Again, it was something that I knew I needed to do. Throughout the day, I drank a lot of water and so I had a big Hydro Flask next to me, and I stopped every 20 to 30 minutes to take a big drink of water. And I had some electrolyte mixes as well, but I didn’t track it throughout the day because there’s so much on board to be aware of at all times.

I had to think about what way is the boat pointing? What’s the wind doing? Am I going in the right direction? Is there a ship nearby? Um, am I okay? Do I need to eat anything? Do I need to drink anything? And it’s so much to think about, especially as one person. And so I, I didn’t track that side of things quite as much, but it was just a part of my existence on the boat.

Hmm.

01:08:27.799 — 01:08:30.920 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Does that mean that it was really hard to just empty your mind?

01:08:31.759 — 01:08:32.200 · Taryn Smith
Hmm.

01:08:36.040 — 01:08:39.920 · Taryn Smith
The days that I felt most present, and in a way,

01:08:41.400 — 01:08:55.279 · Taryn Smith
I won’t say empty, but just really, really in tune with what was happening around me were the scariest moments. And so in some ways, those were freeing. From the chatter that normally occupies my brain space, I was really locked in to staying alive.

01:08:55.720 — 01:09:23.759 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, I can imagine that that would hijack your nervous system and your your mind and brain. What? How did you process that? Because what I’m hearing you say is that when things were not life or death, that there’s a lot of noise, and then there is a moment where you have to be singularly focused, and that is the moments in those moments you actually felt the most free.

Yeah.

01:09:24.440 — 01:09:25.759 · Taryn Smith
It was

01:09:26.799 — 01:10:05.240 · Taryn Smith
freeing and it was terrifying. And I think as it was happening, it’s something that I didn’t have the space to process because the next moment I was, I was just as scared. Especially that week when the weather was huge the whole time. There was never a moment where I got to take a sigh of relief. And even after I got off the boat and Antigua, it took me a while to have that experience integrate with who I am.

And as I was doing interviews and podcasts for the first couple of weeks, I told stories and I talked about it, but it was almost like I was giving a book report on someone else’s life instead of talking about my own.

01:10:05.280 — 01:10:20.310 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. Was it just because it was? I don’t know if traumatic was the is the right word, or was it just I mean, it’s a big thing and and it’s big on your body, the physiology. It’s really challenging.

01:10:21.430 — 01:10:22.310 · Taryn Smith
I think.

01:10:24.470 — 01:10:29.510 · Taryn Smith
I don’t know if the word trauma applies, but there were moments that were really distressing and stressful, and I.

01:10:29.590 — 01:10:38.790 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Like I like that reframe because trauma is not the right word. Yeah, but you know, you’ve got this big dopamine push. It’s, you know, after people run ultras or whatever they do.

01:10:39.030 — 01:10:49.510 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. It’s moments when I, at least in a small way, feared for my life. And so I had to I had to let that settle a little bit once I got back.

01:10:49.710 — 01:10:55.470 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Do you know the moment where you were able to go from book report to real lived experience?

01:10:56.190 — 01:11:31.950 · Taryn Smith
It was gradual, and part of it was seeing how I interacted with people, because when I first got back, my brain and my body had adjusted to being on the boat, and I was used to a certain amount of adrenaline in a day and the endorphins. And so when that was gone, I was really irritable and I was grumpy and I was tough to be around, and I would snap at people for no reason.

And then I, I would watch myself behaving in this way, and I had no idea why I was acting like this. And I started to realize it was part of the part of the journey. Part of the process will.

01:11:31.950 — 01:11:34.070 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Tell you, we expect that.

01:11:35.510 — 01:11:45.150 · Taryn Smith
I’d heard about the post Road Blues. It was so much worse than anything on the post road blues. It was a really it was a really challenging time in my life.

01:11:45.190 — 01:12:04.150 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
We again, we see this in in clinical practice is that after someone has accomplished a huge feat that as high as they go, as as low as they’re going to fall, and it mirrors that as intense and exhilarating. At that peak, you will equally feel the dark side.

01:12:04.190 — 01:12:09.350 · Taryn Smith
Yeah, it’s the law, right? For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

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And I remember when people thought I was crazy because I was really concerned about all of these cleaning products. I get it, the essential oils might not clean everything, but on the other hand, I’m not sure that we need these very aggressive cleaning products and typical cleaning products use chemicals that leave synthetic fragrances and other endocrine disruptors as well.

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I mean, again, you weren’t incredibly sore. You were able to get your nutrition. And it sounds like the biggest thing was being able to keep up with the total caloric load. Mm. chose foods that you like. Yeah. It also seemed to freed you from any kind of food cage or noise cage, which I think is really cool.

And, um, is there anything else on that nutrition side that you would have wished you had done differently or better? Maybe you wanted to bring coffee next time. Did you bring instant coffee?

01:14:35.580 — 01:15:15.490 · Taryn Smith
I had coffee and tea. I found that when I was out there, it was such a hassle to make it that I. I never did because I’d have to get the jet boil out and have hot, boiling water, which is one of the most dangerous things I did. And I did it every single day. But at any point, a wave could have knocked over the side of the boat and sloshed hot water on me, and I would have had really severe burns.

And so I didn’t drink coffee. Even though I normally do on land, I would have, I would have brought more Nutella. I ran out about three weeks before I got to land, and that was such a tragic day. That was very disappointing, but I was generally happy with my nutrition plan.

01:15:15.530 — 01:15:25.290 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You. You did well with it. And, um. The drinks. How did you get the water? Did you? Did you utilize some kind of tool to distill it down?

01:15:25.330 — 01:15:38.170 · Taryn Smith
I did, I had a desalinate on board and so I was able to draws in water from the sea, goes through a filtration process. And then I had fresh water. And that’s what I used to drink and make meals and then shower once a week.

01:15:38.210 — 01:15:41.450 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. Any other cool pieces of equipment?

01:15:41.530 — 01:15:52.890 · Taryn Smith
Oh, there’s so much cool kit on board. I had a life raft, and so I would use that if my boat capsized, or if there was a fire or it was in some way uninhabitable.

01:15:53.370 — 01:15:59.330 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um, how was that stored? Was it a rip cord that you pull and then it inflates? Or.

01:15:59.570 — 01:16:33.090 · Taryn Smith
Yes, it was stored in a compartment that was on the deck of the boat. And so that’s part of what helps the boat self. Right, is that the hull is where we store all of this equipment and our food because that’s heavier. It has to stay flipped the right way. So that’s where I stored my life raft. And if I got it out, I’d throw it off the side and then it would self inflate.

I had a Starlink. That’s what I used to send pictures and videos back home and it worked amazing. While I was out there, I had some satellite phones that I used to call home.

01:16:33.130 — 01:16:35.690 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I how did they charge? Is it solar powered?

01:16:35.970 — 01:16:37.730 · Taryn Smith
A solar pallet. So solar powered.

01:16:37.770 — 01:16:40.610 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did that work even when it was overcast?

01:16:40.930 — 01:17:00.530 · Taryn Smith
It did. Part of life on board though was battery management. And so when it was overcast, I was careful not to make too much water because that really draws from the batteries. And I had to be careful about it because people get into trouble when they overextend their batteries and then you’re out of luck.

01:17:00.570 — 01:17:12.080 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And you had mentioned that there has to be a certain weight of the boat. Was that that if you I mean, could you have packed more or did it need to be a certain weight to be able to meet your goal at a certain time.

01:17:12.200 — 01:17:30.040 · Taryn Smith
I had a certain amount of supplies that I was required to bring for the race rules, and so I had to have 85 days worth of food. I had to have things like the life raft in a tool kit and, and all of that safety, safety equipment. I think the boat weighed about 1,000 pounds, um, with everything on it.

01:17:30.080 — 01:17:35.320 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Anything that you wish that you’d had, your favorite pillow, a dehumidifier or something like that.

01:17:35.560 — 01:17:37.040 · Taryn Smith
A dehumidifier would have been amazing.

01:17:37.080 — 01:17:44.600 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I mean, do you realize how many pieces of equipment that you could come up with that would help rowers.

01:17:44.600 — 01:17:45.200 · Taryn Smith
In the future?

01:17:45.200 — 01:17:46.120 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
In the future?

01:17:46.240 — 01:18:27.080 · Taryn Smith
Yes. I think part of part of life on these boats, they’re so small. Less can be more. And so I didn’t bring a lot of extra stuff, because that was going to be weight that I’d have to pull across the Atlantic. I did have a little volleyball that my mom got me, so I had my Wilson on board and purpose on purpose. And then one of the best things I had were these little battery powered fairy lights, and I wrapped them in the stern cabin where I slept.

And so at night, I was able to turn on these fairy lights, and my cabin was really cozy and inviting, and that had an outsized impact on my happiness.

01:18:27.080 — 01:18:30.440 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Cognition. What was the name of your boat, Ellen Z.

01:18:30.440 — 01:18:46.640 · Taryn Smith
And the meanings twofold for us. So it means let’s go in French, which I think really captures the spirit of the endeavor. But my grandparents were also part of a dance club, and it was called allons y. And so when my mom and I were trying to come up with a name for the boat, she thought that one would be fitting.

01:18:46.680 — 01:18:52.040 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It’s so sweet. The anything else that you wish that you had brought?

01:18:52.200 — 01:19:01.080 · Taryn Smith
I was really happy with everything I had, to be honest. I felt like the boat was well stocked. I had all the food I needed. I was happy with my mix of electrolytes, I.

01:19:04.080 — 01:19:13.120 · Taryn Smith
Actually, one thing that I would have done is I would have gone to a place where you can get screen prints done, and I would have had some pictures of family and friends.

01:19:13.120 — 01:19:13.720 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I was wondering.

01:19:13.760 — 01:19:17.440 · Taryn Smith
When I would have put those on the cabin walls. Yes, I would have loved that.

01:19:17.480 — 01:19:28.200 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I was wondering if you had painted it or if you had decorated it because, yeah, not having to rely on tech. What the visual I think is probably could have been really important.

01:19:28.240 — 01:19:45.760 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. Um, I think I would have gotten pictures and put those in my cabins. I did have a boat ramp. And so my boat was wrapped in the names of everyone who supported me and everyone who got me to the start line. And so I did feel very cocoons in love from from people who believed in me.

01:19:45.800 — 01:20:45.390 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It’s so it’s it is just really outstanding. Your next endeavor is going to be it’ll be interesting to see what lever you try to pull and how you try to make it challenging. When you were done with the row, how did you recover your body? What had you lost weight? How did you I mean, again, fight or flight. Not sleeping.

You have high levels of cortisol. You’re also eating a robust amount of calories. You’re assuming you have your carbohydrates, your proteins. It sounds like most of your proteins came from perfect amino because the mountain house foods again, depending on which or the freeze dried foods, depending on what you choose.

I don’t think that their macros have unless you’re really particular. I’m not so sure that they keep up with what I think would be considered ideal in those types of situations. I haven’t seen all of them, but at least the ones that that I’ve seen. How was it on the recovery end?

01:20:45.430 — 01:21:09.670 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. So while I was out there, I didn’t really have an appetite, which surprised me. I thought I was going to be very hungry throughout the day given the amount of work I did, but I just never really felt like eating. When I got back to land. I could not stop eating though. I was so hungry all of the time and I had lost about 15 pounds, which is quite a bit of weight to lose in that amount of time.

01:21:09.710 — 01:21:12.310 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And how much were how much did you weight when you started?

01:21:12.350 — 01:21:16.190 · Taryn Smith
When I started, I was about 175.

01:21:17.070 — 01:21:18.030 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And how tall are you?

01:21:18.070 — 01:21:18.710 · Taryn Smith
Five. Seven.

01:21:18.750 — 01:21:20.190 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Five. Seven. I knew you were tall.

01:21:20.670 — 01:21:21.870 · Taryn Smith
The shoes help! The clogs!

01:21:21.870 — 01:21:27.430 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Were you lost 15 pounds? Were you surprised? Were people like, oh my goodness, you look.

01:21:27.710 — 01:21:35.790 · Taryn Smith
It was noticeable like. Yeah. And because I’d been working out and I had a decent amount of protein, I was able to keep a lot of my muscle. And that’s.

01:21:35.830 — 01:21:40.190 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What. And what happened? You lost 15 pounds and then what was the recovery like?

01:21:40.230 — 01:22:28.780 · Taryn Smith
Yes. The recovery was interesting because I was physically active that whole time, but my heart rate never got up very high. And so when I got back to land, I was actually out of shape and I tried going for runs and I could barely run two miles. And what helped me was actually doing things that I normally wouldn’t do.

So I went to a spin class, and I found that that was a nice way to get back into cardio. Uh, that was also very social, because my whole life I’ve been introverted, and that served me well while I was out on the boat. But when I got back to land, all I wanted was to be around people. And I’m still, I feel more extroverted than I’ve ever been in my entire life, and I want to do things with people all of the time.

So I, I was happy to have a more, more social workout routine.

01:22:28.820 — 01:22:32.580 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
So for all you introverts, it’s entirely that simple.

01:22:32.620 — 01:22:33.860 · Taryn Smith
Just row across.

01:22:34.140 — 01:22:44.860 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
The ocean for 3000 nautical miles in 46 days, and you will be the life of the party. Yes. Fair to say? Yeah. What was your first meal when you got back? I wasn’t even asked that.

01:22:45.060 — 01:22:46.540 · Taryn Smith
I had a gin and tonic.

01:22:46.700 — 01:22:47.900 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You’re like, fuck this shit.

01:22:48.020 — 01:22:49.100 · Taryn Smith
Exactly.

01:22:49.460 — 01:22:56.140 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Just rub my feet. I mean, you probably really needed a pedicure after that. Um. Pizza. Did you have a thing?

01:22:56.180 — 01:23:29.100 · Taryn Smith
I went out my first night back online, so a friend met me in Antigua. She was there with my parents and she took me out to this bar. And it’s up on a hill that overlooks the dockyard and the harbor that I wrote into. Gorgeous night. Gorgeous sunset. She came over with a plate of barbecue chicken, and I just demolished it like a wild animal.

And I did work really hard not to wipe my hands on my dress afterwards, because that’s what I’d done while I was out at sea. So it took a second to readjust to polite society.

01:23:29.380 — 01:23:40.220 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
We were like, yeah. Uh, so you’re having, um, town over for dinner or you guys are going out? The, um, did it push you more into yoga or less?

01:23:41.540 — 01:23:44.780 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Or did it change those fundamental training principles?

01:23:46.100 — 01:23:54.259 · Taryn Smith
I’d say that’s something that’s actually pretty consistent throughout the entire thing is my relationship to yoga. It’s something that

01:23:55.620 — 01:24:08.340 · Taryn Smith
always makes me feel better. And so whenever I’m in a mood or a funk or I’m angry. It’s a cue to me that it’s time to go move my body and be mindful and and and meditate a little bit.

01:24:08.580 — 01:24:10.460 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Are you still rowing? No.

01:24:11.380 — 01:24:12.060 · Taryn Smith
I’m taking a.

01:24:12.060 — 01:24:14.780 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Break from rower. I’m never rowing again.

01:24:14.860 — 01:24:17.300 · Taryn Smith
Yeah. Taking a little hiatus from rowing.

01:24:17.380 — 01:24:20.060 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That that is funny. And are you back to strength training?

01:24:20.100 — 01:24:21.820 · Taryn Smith
I am, yeah, slowly building up.

01:24:21.860 — 01:24:23.340 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What is. What does that look like?

01:24:23.860 — 01:24:36.860 · Taryn Smith
It’s less than I was doing before. I am trying to be gentle with myself because it was two years of pretty intense training. And it was also it was two years were very stressful and all of the logistics side of things too.

01:24:36.900 — 01:24:46.820 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
So which most people don’t realize that there’s a whole other side. It’s the physical training and then the mental organization of probably all of that.

01:24:46.860 — 01:25:03.290 · Taryn Smith
Yes. So when I do go to strength training, I pick a couple exercises I want to do. Maybe I’ll do some squats, maybe I’ll go do a couple pull ups and then you know, do some some arms or some back or something. But it’s it’s a gradual process.

01:25:03.330 — 01:25:05.050 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
It’s. And when did you finish your row?

01:25:05.650 — 01:25:06.930 · Taryn Smith
Uh, January 29th.

01:25:06.970 — 01:25:08.290 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
January 29th.

01:25:09.370 — 01:25:25.410 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Um. February 1st. You were you were out to party, right? That’s it. Um. The training. You’re slowly, gradually getting back into it. Is it just because you feel exhausted from the whole physical experience, the whole deep training experience?

01:25:25.450 — 01:25:45.210 · Taryn Smith
I felt exhausted from the structure of it. Every day. I had mapped out what I was going to do in that day for a workout, and that was perfect and exactly what I needed for that time in my life. And now it’s nice to have a little bit of freedom and flexibility around it. So I did sign up for a marathon. I am back to running.

01:25:45.250 — 01:25:46.370 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
When is your marathon?

01:25:46.370 — 01:25:47.410 · Taryn Smith
That’s in September.

01:25:47.450 — 01:25:48.730 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Okay. And which marathon is it?

01:25:48.770 — 01:25:49.810 · Taryn Smith
The Omaha marathon.

01:25:49.850 — 01:25:50.770 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Omaha. Okay.

01:25:50.810 — 01:26:01.370 · Taryn Smith
So doing that. But then I’m also doing things like tennis lessons and spin and going to fun workout classes with friends and doing bringing some variety into it.

01:26:01.410 — 01:26:08.490 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yeah. I mean, I can imagine after three years of rowing that you would be ready for. Yeah. For something new. Maybe line dancing.

01:26:08.810 — 01:26:09.770 · Taryn Smith
That’s a good idea.

01:26:09.810 — 01:26:21.130 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Uh, we’re doing it this summer. It’s going to be great. Good idea. You are doing somewhat flexible training. Schedule 2 to 3 times a week, would you say? Or are you down to two times a week for resistance training?

01:26:21.370 — 01:26:22.730 · Taryn Smith
Resistance training twice a week.

01:26:22.770 — 01:26:27.930 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Resistance training two times a week. And then the cardiovascular activity. How often are you doing that?

01:26:27.970 — 01:26:35.210 · Taryn Smith
I’m doing three runs a week. One day of flex time. And so that’s either tennis or swimming.

01:26:35.290 — 01:26:40.010 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
What about the mobility and yoga. Are you doing that every day? Almost every day.

01:26:40.050 — 01:26:41.930 · Taryn Smith
Yeah I do a little bit of yoga every day.

01:26:42.370 — 01:26:46.810 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Yoga. Um. Adventure programing. Talk to me about that.

01:26:47.050 — 01:26:47.850 · Taryn Smith
What do you mean?

01:26:47.890 — 01:27:02.840 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Well, I have adventure programing that you were. I don’t know if this is true. So you guys can strike this, but I have a note here to ask you about. I don’t know if you’re planning adventure programing for people that are trying to do any of that stuff.

01:27:02.880 — 01:27:23.800 · Taryn Smith
I have done yoga retreats in the past, and that’s been a really fun avenue to explore the practice, but also community. I love getting to bring together a group of people, do yoga together, share some meals, and then go out and hike and explore the mountains. And so I, I’m going to plan another one. I don’t have anything on the docket right now, but I hope to soon.

01:27:23.840 — 01:27:38.360 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I mean, that’ll be fun. Yeah. So guys, take that out for adventure programing. Um, what about your nutrition? Are you still eating Nutella or have you hit your Nutella quota for your life?

01:27:38.400 — 01:27:48.480 · Taryn Smith
I think I could eat Nutella endlessly. It’s one of my favorite treats, but I have scaled back the amount that I’m consuming because it’s not, uh, it wouldn’t be the healthiest choice now that I’m back on land.

01:27:48.520 — 01:27:53.560 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But there is nothing that you thought to yourself, okay, I’m never eating that again. Mhm.

01:27:55.240 — 01:28:06.200 · Taryn Smith
Just the amount of processed food I was eating. It’s kind of gross to me at this point because I had to go so many days without food. It’s perishable right now that.

01:28:06.200 — 01:28:06.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I’m a vegetable.

01:28:07.000 — 01:28:14.960 · Taryn Smith
No fruits or veggies. So now that I’m back home, I’m focusing a lot on making meals and just enjoying fresh food again.

01:28:15.000 — 01:28:20.280 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Did you ever do your blood work before or after? Yeah, we didn’t notice any changes.

01:28:20.320 — 01:28:24.160 · Taryn Smith
I would love to get the results to you because I don’t have anything memorized, but.

01:28:24.160 — 01:28:36.520 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I would love to see what that looks like. The. And then what about supplementation? Did you remain on a multi? Are you still taking amino acids. How do you think about maintaining supplementation.

01:28:36.600 — 01:28:44.520 · Taryn Smith
Yes and yes I still do. Perfect amino and I still take a multivitamin every day and I take melatonin to sleep.

01:28:44.680 — 01:28:50.160 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I was wondering because you didn’t mention it. Did you bring it with you when you were rowing?

01:28:50.240 — 01:29:16.320 · Taryn Smith
I did, I had Body Health’s Sleep and I used it a couple times, but there were also moments when I was nervous that I’d get into too deep asleep, because if the boat was blown off course, then an alarm would go off, or if there was a boat near me and I needed to respond to that and the alarm would go off. And so I never wanted to really get into deep sleep because there’s too much to worry about.

01:29:16.360 — 01:29:34.960 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
You don’t want to be groggy. And I would also argue that if something were to happen, it would wake you up so intensely that probably tranquilizer wouldn’t even work because you would be like, okay, I’m awake. How did it go? There’s a marlin and a shark and dolphins fighting and pirates, I don’t know. Have you added anything else?

01:29:35.520 — 01:29:36.840 · Taryn Smith
I haven’t changed a whole lot.

01:29:36.840 — 01:29:37.920 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I haven’t changed a whole lot.

01:29:37.960 — 01:29:38.520 · Taryn Smith
Yeah.

01:29:39.560 — 01:29:53.590 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Great program, the Nutella. I’m gonna look at your blood work. I’m just so curious as to what that looked like. And then now, has your weight stabilized? Do you feel like your body is in a good place, it feels less stressed.

01:29:54.630 — 01:30:25.910 · Taryn Smith
I feel so much more relaxed than I did the past two years because as I was training and preparing, there was always more to do and I wouldn’t have changed anything for the world. I learned so much through that process, but that was a season of my life, and I think it’s important to have the next a time of relaxation, in a time of recovery, and to just let this be a moment when things can stabilize and settle down a little bit.

And so I feel like I’m relearning my hunger cues, and.

01:30:26.430 — 01:30:27.430 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That’s an important one.

01:30:27.470 — 01:30:36.390 · Taryn Smith
It is. Yeah. Because after going through something like that, it’s such a huge change to put your body through. And so I’m just letting things settle.

01:30:36.910 — 01:30:42.550 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
How long do you think you’ll let things settle? I’m sure people are, like asking you that. And it must be the most annoying question.

01:30:42.630 — 01:30:56.910 · Taryn Smith
I mean, letting things settle for me is signing up for a marathon and starting to write a book and doing speaking engagement. So I do always like to have a goal in mind? I think that’s my my footholds. That’s how I like to go through life.

01:30:56.950 — 01:31:31.110 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
And would you say it’s also fair to recognize that the physical aspect probably is the most challenging? To I mean, maybe it’s not. Um, from my perspective, it’s easy to pick targets that you can control. And the body is so crazy, it’s you can’t say, okay, well, now my hunger cues are there, and now I’m fully recovered.

I don’t know if you ever have that experience, but the brain and the outstanding goals, that’s one thing. And then what your body does is, is a whole other beast.

01:31:31.510 — 01:31:33.109 · Taryn Smith
It is. And

01:31:34.470 — 01:31:40.309 · Taryn Smith
I think it is easy to pick. Okay, I’m going to do a marathon. I’m going to do a half, I’m going to sign up for this thing. And

01:31:41.310 — 01:31:58.580 · Taryn Smith
for me, it’s easier to show up for exercise than it is to think about the nutrition side of things. The exercise just happens more naturally for me. And so that is an area where I’d like to put more time and attention, because in a way it’s been neglected as I focused on such a physical thing.

01:31:58.780 — 01:32:04.819 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But it’s um. I mean, listen, I think you did an extraordinary job, and

01:32:06.380 — 01:32:14.180 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
I mean, who? No one’s done that before. What is even possible? It’s going to be. Maybe it’ll be an astronaut. I don’t know, maybe.

01:32:14.500 — 01:32:16.300 · Taryn Smith
It’ll be a big jump from poly sci.

01:32:16.300 — 01:32:17.540 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
But, you know.

01:32:17.700 — 01:32:18.660 · Taryn Smith
I always a beginner.

01:32:18.980 — 01:32:30.620 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
That’s right. Always a beginner. I really, really love that. Yeah. 3000 miles, one woman, one boat. And is there a one question that everyone needs to ask themselves?

01:32:31.180 — 01:32:32.220 · Taryn Smith
Why not?

01:32:33.420 — 01:32:39.780 · Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Taryn Smith, you are extraordinary and just an example of doing hard things. Thank you so much.

01:32:39.780 — 01:32:41.420 · Taryn Smith
Thank you so much for having me.