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Q & A With Eloise Wellings


In the lead up to Mother's Day this week, we wanted to showcase our very own super-mum Eloise Wellings.

Eloise is a professional athlete. She juggles training, is a mother to an energetic toddler, and still finds the time to inspire the vision and passion behind Love Mercy.

Today we get a sneak peak into her daily life, and how she manages to pack it all in!



1. Tell us what goes into a typical training day for an Olympic runner.
My alarm goes off at 5.25am and I'll get up and do some stretching and have a coffee. I'm normally out the door for training at 6am. Depending on what is scheduled for that day, I will run anywhere between 7km and 24km in the morning and then usually a second run in the evening and a gym session somewhere in between. Generally I run anywhere from 15-27km per day and spend about 4 hours in the gym per week. I try and use my home gym whilst Indi, my 2 year old daughter is asleep in the middle of the day. I usually crash out at about 10.30pm after winding down watching TV with my husband.

2. Can you give us an idea what your diet is like?
I eat a lot of fresh food, fruit, vegetables, lots of whole grains and carbohydrate rich foods that keeps me going and sustained during training. I have a muesli sugar free meal before and after training in the morning, it's the perfect pre and post training meal and packed with nuts, seeds, oats and coconut. 

3. What advice or top tips would you give to amateur runners?
Join a running group like RunLab because running is so much easier and more fun when you have people to run with. RunLabs interval training, drills and running specific technique coaching will also help you improve your running out of sight. It's one of my favourite things – helping people run in a better way. 

4. How do you juggle training, work and family life?
I have to be pretty organised.  I get up early to train in order to make sure I'm home on time for my husband to go to work. I'll do some work for Love Mercy and sponsorship commitments like blogs and RunLab coaching work whilst Indi is asleep during the day then when she wakes up I’ll try and organise something nice for us to do in the afternoons. I get my second session done when Jony, my husband, gets home from work. They're long days but I wouldn't have it any other way!

 
5. What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?
I have always loved running. The feeling it brings is like no other – it is so freeing and refreshing. I used to run for myself, but now I know that I run for a bigger reason. After meeting my Ugandan friend Julius Achon in Portland, USA in 2006, my running career changed forever. I no longer run for myself. Now, I run to bring awareness to the situation facing so many in northern Uganda. There are so many hard working mums living in poverty after 20 years of civil war, who are ready and waiting for the chance to change their lives and the lives of their family. When I run I think about these women and I pray for their situations, I find that this time spent running is where I renew and refresh the vision for Love Mercy. These days, I run for Love Mercy. 

Eloise's other joy is sharing her journey with others in order to inspire them to overcome their obstacles. Eloise frequently speaks at local high school on topics ranging from motivation, body image, social media, and resilience. For more information visit her website. 

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