Fitter as You Age with Carolee Walker

Carolee Belkin Walker is currently Chief of Staff in the office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She's a career professional at the Department with previous assignments as a congressional advisor in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, the Deputy Director of the state.gov website, and a consular affairs officer and chief serving on crisis task forces such as the earthquake in Haiti and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Since 2014, Carolee has enjoyed a successful side hustle as a freelance wellness and fitness writer for such publications as the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Women's Running, and others. She's the author of her memoir Getting My Bounce Back and she's currently writing her second book, Keeping My Bounce in Spite of What I'm Facing. She started running in her late 50s in order to lose weight, but soon she began to embrace the overall health benefits of running, and most importantly the mental benefits. As a marathon and triathlon finisher, Carolee is a proud member of the back of the pack. She maintains that participating in these events can play a major role in keeping fit and healthy as you age as they help you set good habits and teach you mindfulness skills that can have a positive impact on every aspect of your life. It has in hers. Questions Carolee is asked: 2:42 How are things at the moment in Washington D.C. with all that's going on? 4:23 How important is running right now? 6:20 We were first introduced when you interviewed me for an article in the Washington Post about slowing down your runs so you can eventually run faster. Can you tell me what you learned overall from researching that article? 9:29 You started running later in life. Can you tell me about why you started to run and how it's evolved? 11:50 Are people taking this situation as an opportunity to start or restart running? 15:12 You've written a book called "Getting My Bounce Back" and are currently working on "Keeping My Bounce." Can you talk about the core messages in those books and how they relate to age and running? 20:47 What is the relationship between running and yoga? 26:24 What are the most important lessons you've learned about health, running, and aging? 30:29 How important is surrounding yourself with supportive people? 33:57 What advice would you give yourself back when you started running? 34:24 What is the best gift running has given you? 31:43 How can people connect with you? Quotes by Carolee: "When you're running slow, you're really developing the energy system that you need for the long haul. And the more you can develop that system, the better you can do overall." "Especially now with Covid-19, this is the perfect time to become part of an online running community or online training." "Doing some planks, maybe one plank on all sides, if possible; two sides and then in the center before you go for a runcan sort of activate your core which can hold you up a little higher so you're not putting pressure on your back." "The fact is, even in a perfect situation… you might tweak something, but you don't want to throw in the towel, so if I have a labral tear on my hip… then I will go swimming in the pool or I'll do something else. There is no scenario where you should not be moving around." Take a Listen on Your Next Run! Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: Run To The Top Winners Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page Book: Getting My Bounce Back by Carolee Belkin Walker Follow Carolee on: www.caroleewalker.com Instagram Twitter Facebook LinkedIn We really hope you've enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!