Skip to main content

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. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I am Strong

Tug of war with the boys  We began our second session - this time talking about "strength" in the harsh heat of the afternoon on Friday. We started with a brilliant demonstration of strength. We bought 3 yards of rope and  set up a tug-of-war. We started with two strong boys against each other, and then added  more and more people but only on one side. The game made everyone laugh and led to lots  of different teams: kids vs adults, girls vs boys etc. Andy began the session by stating "on our own we may not be strong, but together as a  team, we can be strong." this was a clear way to communicate a strong message of the  importance of unity. Then we explained that being strong is not only about having big muscles. Strength can  be on the inside as well as on the outside, and being strong means making good decisions. Andy used the example of two coke bottles. He took one and shook it very hard, then put another unshaken bottle next to ...

The One VS The Many

Caitlin's personal thoughts   With just over one week under my belt after Uganda, I have finally had a chance to process and put into words some of my personal feelings on the trip.    These are just my own quiet thoughts, and do not necessarily reflect the views of LMF.   This trip I had the absolute privelage of leading a team of people, most of whom  had never been to Africa before. Even though it was my third trip, many times I felt as though I was experiencing things for the first time right there with them. The age old issues of  Africa came up once again for me. The main theme I found I wrestled with was the tension of helping one or helping many.    At the clinic dedication, a lady grabbed me and led me through crowds of people to her sick grandson.  I couldn't understand what she was saying, and no one was around to translate, but I could make out  the word "malaria" and he didn't look healthy. I had actually s...

Settling In...

It’s hard to believe but it has already been a whole week since I arrived in Uganda! It’s only now that I feel as though I’ve finally started to settle in and begun getting my bearings for this place back again. Sticking to tradition, I’ve done nothing half-heartedly and have literally thrown myself in headfirst and learnt a few useful lessons along the way. Below are a few I thought I would share. Lesson one: the pace of life here is not the same. On my second day in Lira I quickly learnt that as much as I would like to try, I cannot operate at the same speed or the same intensity as I do at home. In Sydney, I’m used to being busy and constantly on the go and often find myself feeling inefficient at times when I have nothing to do or no one to see. Over here however, everything is done at a sloooooowwwww and leisuuuuuurelyyyy pace and your daily activity is somewhat limited. So goodbye efficiency, hello frustration! On this particular day, the sun was beating down from about 9am s...