From Novice to Ultra-Endurance: Amber Searer’s Inspiring Journey

I guess I'm always looking for

that next challenge. Like, I feel like I haven't found something that,

been the one that's like, that's too much.

so when you complete that 354 miles, you're like, well, what can I do now? What's, what's next?

Hello and welcome to the Athletes Compass podcast where we navigate training, fitness and health for everyday athletes. Today we get to talk with an everyday athlete who has taken on some amazing challenges and adventures in her life, Amber Searer, who lives in the Northeast part of Wisconsin. Amber, tell us a bit about yourself and where do you live and what do you do for a living?

Wow. Good for you.

Wow, cool. Well, Paul and I are just coming back from surgery. I've got my knee done here. Paul had his heart done. so we are grateful for your, know, people like yourselves, Amber, in the surgical aspect, but photography is pretty cool too.

no!

Yeah, thank you.

So tell us about your athletic background and what got you in initially into endurance sports.

soon.

So in high school, I actually did not play a lot of sports. I started my freshman year of high school. I did cross country. And I ended the season with three stress fractures in my foot. And I just never went back to it because I got that car and I just wanted to work and pay for that. And it wasn't until after I had kids that I was like, you know, I got to get back into shape.

I think I want to lose a couple pounds here. And my husband too, he wanted to lose some weight and he actually got some spinner balls, I think they were. they're those old workout bike DVDs from his sister. And my husband would sit in the basement when our newborn and he would just sit on a trainer and spin and he started losing weight. And I was like, okay, I think I got to, I'm going to do something. So I had like a old mountain bike from

Lake farm and I would pull my kids in the, in a little trailer, you know, just starting five, 10 miles out at a time. And, yeah, you know, when you hit that first 10 miles, you're like, my gosh, I rode my bike 10 miles pulling kids, you know, like just super cool. And, from there, my sister-in-law, she does a lot of Ironman, triathlons and she kind of like got me into running, doing duathlons with

you know, having a running background a little bit. And, so I really liked them, but my favorite was actually like the bike portion. So, I had watched a Criterium race that was in Nina when Toad used to come there. And, I was like, that is amazing. Like, I want to do that. So I jumped into a Criterium and then the rest was history. Like I just, loved it. I loved the adrenaline rush.

and I started racing criteriums and cycle across for a while. but I think when COVID hit and our road scene kind of died off here in Wisconsin, I was looking for, something new and jumped into gravel and did unbound the 200 mile one, back in, think, 20, 21 or 22.

And, know, 200 miles, that was like amazing. And then it's kind of like, well, what do I do next? What's next? And then it just kind of took off from there.

amazing, like going from five to 10 miles with kids in tow, that's amazing. And then 200 miles, what a journey.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

most proud of, of all the adventures that you've done?

last, spring I finished the unbound XL. So it was 354 miles. it was the South course and it was the year that it had rained and rained and it was so muddy. there is just sections where it was just miles of walking your bike because as soon as you put your bike down in that mud, the mud just collected everywhere and your chain would fall off.

There is so many people with mechanical issues and you like I had to, you know, you have this goal time in your head of like, you know, what time you want to compete this distance in. And I kind of had to like check myself and realize that that goal was probably not obtainable anymore, just with all the walking. And I kind of told myself, you know, it's okay, you're where you're supposed to be.

Yeah.

out here. It's okay if it takes longer. We're just gonna, we're gonna get it done. So I think that was my most proud event.

Yeah, that's awesome.

How long did that take, Amber? That 354 miles of gravel.

How long did it take you?

I believe, like, with all my stops, it was 28 hours.

So tell us how that, like when does that event start? And then, yeah, like are you finishing a night or obviously you're going right through, I'm assuming you don't sleep, you're gonna push right through.

So.

Yep. No. Yeah. So Unbound XL, we start at 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. And then we go through the evening into the night, into the next day when we finish. The 200 mile course, they go out, you know, Saturday. So at one point in the day, you will meet up with that course, but it isn't until like sometimes the last 50 miles. So you're like hoping to see people out there. But most of the time you're by yourself. And I think

You just have to be okay being alone in the dark at night and knowing that you're going to be okay and other people are out there suffering with you. You just can't see them.

Yeah.

No.

were what was helping us. And we had navigators too, right? How do you navigate yourself in pitch black with just, I'm just imagining you've got a really good light system. Like, what's that like?

Okay.

Yeah. So I have, I run a front bar light and then I run a helmet light. a helmet light has, interchangeable batteries. so that, you know, I have a backup battery I carry, and I have a carry a power bank in case my front light would fail. there's so many different lighting systems out there, but this one is, you know, the one that's working for me. Cynthia Carson actually.

I don't know if you guys know her. She has been amazing. She was Cynthia Frazier. She's done so many ultra endurance events and she actually pointed me in the direction of the helmet light by Phoenix and it's awesome. So I just kind of stick it on my helmet. But yeah, it's, it's tricky like because some of the parts, know, for unbound are technical. So it's like,

you riding in that comfort zone of how fast can you go with where you run out of light, where your light is reaching. But yeah, we have, you know, you got your GPS, GPX file on your Garmin and you're just hoping that that navigation is correct at night and that you have service most of the route.

Did you ever go off course because of the complexities of night riding?

I, no, I did not at Unbound. And we also had to carry a Garmin inReach too. So that way the course officials can kind of make sure we're on track and our doubts are still moving. We're okay. They are out there watching us through the night. So it's kind of reassuring, you know, having that too, but no, I was okay for the Garmin Unbound. I have heard of people, yes, navigating off.

Nice.

So I definitely, I can see where that would happen. You you're, tired, you're delusional. And sometimes, you know, and through the town, like the kind of hard to navigate, you know, looking at that little screen.

HMM

Yeah.

So you have a really busy schedule. mean, what does a week of training look like for something like Unbound or whatever you're working on now? Can you walk us through what your training routine looks like?

Yeah. So right now, actually with fall, am, in kind of my off season, on, I don't have any like hard training plans or anything like that in my calendar right now. So, the coach that I was working with, calls it kind of just riding for joy in, finding the pleasure back, you know, in, in enjoying the journey and taking pictures of the changing fall leaves and having fun with friends.

you know, just getting out there and doing some coffee rides and stuff. once December, January hits, I'll start, you know, getting back into training and ramping up, starting with some probably some FTP testing, which I hate. not good at that on the bike. I'm terrible. But yeah, some FTP testing and then working in the VO to work. But

I mean, even in January, I'll start ramping up to 12, 13 hours a week, which it's hard mentally sometimes living in Wisconsin because it's a lot of trainer time. with the winter, I try and get outside sometimes fat biking, but a lot of times I'm inside. I'll do like a Zwift endurance group ride to kind of have something to focus on, but, I'll usually start doing five, six hour rides.

the trainer starting in January, and then February we'll add in more volume. We'll get up to about probably 15 hours a week. And then March will come my first, race. like to do the mid-south race in Oklahoma. so hopefully when you go down there, you can get outside a little bit, start building in more volume. And then I try and get outside by April here in Wisconsin, if weather's allowing, because I'm getting, you know, closer to.

those 18 hour weeks, 20 hour weeks. So I'm going to be entering the Unbound Lottery again this year. So like by April, you know, we're getting that 12 hour endurance ride in, in one day, just to kind of prep for that race. So sometimes it's a little chilly.

Wow, I'm just mind blown like 12 hour ride. That's like that's a lot training for anyone during the week, but just on one go you go like from 6am to 6pm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much or, you know, till nightfall, you know, in April. And it's hard because a lot of times, you know, like, people don't want to ride outside in April for, I mean, nobody really wants to do 12 hours with me. So sometimes I'll have people meet me out for, I'll do like two hours with you or, you know, a chunk in there. But I think last year, I like to make routes.

on roads that I like don't know. So I rode from my house up to Sturgeon Bay. So creating a route that is on new roads kind of keeps it entertaining for myself. Kind of helps with the boredom of it.

Yeah.

Yeah, so with so much training, how do you balance your training with other commitments? have kids and your photography business.

Yeah. So right, right now, like fall is busy time for photography. So it's nice that, you know, my training's low and it works well for me with, the bulk of my training being in spring because photos are typically slower than, so I do have a lot of daytime, freedom to get out when my kids are in school, to ride, which is really nice, but

I usually, if I need to, get up super early in the morning. Like I've gotten up at, you know, riding at 4 a.m. just so I can get like my three hour ride in before I got to send my kiddos off to school. Thankfully they are a little bit older now and self-sufficient. So I have a seventh grader and a sophomore, you know, so I can leave them home alone, but you still got that mom guilt. Like I'm not home. I got to there alone. I got to get home and entertain them or do something with them.

so yeah, just, I usually plan out my week. I'm a planner. So I kind of make sure like my workouts become part of like my schedule. so I don't like wing any part of my week really. It's very structured. and I kind of schedule everything around that. And I look ahead when I have my long rides, too. And if I need to switch something around, I will on training peaks, but otherwise everything's pretty well scheduled for me.

Just trying to keep keeping it all online.

Yeah, sounds pretty familiar with what I do too. Like you always have to check my training plan first before I can say, can I do any social commitments?

Yes. Yup.

Yes, that's exactly how it is.

Sorry, I haven't read that day.

Yeah, but I mean, sometimes when you have goals, that's what you have to do to prioritize it and make time for it.

Yeah, for sure.

Amber, have three coaches here, including a very notable sports scientist. What questions do you have for us? How can we help you?

So when we're talking about zone two work on the bike, do you like to prescribe that by based on heart rate or on power?

We, yeah, heart, absolutely heart rate for sure. Because, yeah, it's, you know, if you did a, if you prescribed with power, say, like, let's just say that your zone two level was 150 watts and you went at 150 watts for the first hour or the second hour, you might be right within that heart rate, that same heart rate zone. But if you're going up to

12 hours like you do Amber, you know, your heart rate may have very much escalated way past your zone two level. And in that case, you'll have a situation where your body is screaming at you because you're stressed. And the purpose of the zone two work is to be for it to be a low stress workout. That's the whole purpose of it is to

Mm-hmm.

allow you to recover from all of the quality work that's around it, right? From back to the classic Steven Seiler polarized training model, you wanna do your hard sessions, screaming hard, and your easy sessions, screaming easy. So because there's so much room for duration in that zone too, you wanna prescribe it using heart rate.

So this is what we do in our platform, Athletica. There's an option on the Garmin Push, for example, you can either push it to power, you can push it to heart rate, or you can let the smart coach choose. And for all of the Zone 2 workouts on Athletica, they get pushed to heart rate on your watch. So you're guided then only by your heart rate. And you'll get an alarm only if you

veer outside of those guardrails in your heart rate. And it'll say, might wanna go a little lower here at the moment, because your heart rate's drifting. then, even if you down regulate your power, say from that 150 marker down to 125, no big deal, but at least the physiological stress is at bay. And we're not gonna be exacerbating any issues that are gonna lead to more stress tomorrow, for example.

because consistency is the most important aspect of your training plan, your training program. And in any time you bin yourself, run the risk of not being able to pick back up tomorrow. So heart rate for zone two.

Yeah, it makes sense. Okay. I've always wondered that that's what I currently train with Zone 2 on is my heart rate. I've had a coach in the past, will not name any names, that did all my Zone 2 on power and I was so burned out that coming season. I was like, man, something's not right here. So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome. you yeah, I mean, it's great. You've you've had that experience that kind of supports the philosophy we're talking about.

Yeah. Yeah. And then I have one more question. So for typical athletes, how many days of rest do you prescribe like completely off the bike during the season? Is it just athlete dependent?

.

It's totally athlete dependent. Yeah, absolutely. So, and it probably aligns with how fit you are. So the fitter you are, again, when we just look to, I know you use TrainingPeaks, Amber. So if you've ever gone onto your performance management system and you're, if you ever looked at the PMC charts, they sort of show your fitness. And like sometimes people chase the fitness numbers, the CTL number.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

So the higher that in theory, the higher that CTL number, I guess the more, the stronger you are in terms of an acute bout of ever kind of affecting you. So in theory, this is why many elite athletes almost never take like a day off in that when they're, when they're building up. like they, you know, some do, but, but many, many don't, they might just do an easy day as opposed to the

the big day, same with like Tour de France riders, right? It's notorious that when they're doing the tour over those 18 days, even in the recovery days, they're still riding a minimum of three hours on the, the, on the off day, right? In their recovery day. so, and this is, so this is just kind of one example, but in the case where we have, we've, you know, you take yourself back to when you were riding five and 10 miles, just coming off the couch.

Well, of course you're to need so much more rest. So very context dependent. I don't believe there's a right answer to that. It just depends who you are, what you need. Again, keeping mindful that you want to place health and recovery as a real priority, because consistency is kind of key. So what do you need to continue to be healthy and consistent in moving?

on a day-to-day basis.

Okay.

I would, I would ask.

Amber, do you track your HRV at all?

I do, yes, through the Garmin.

Okay.

Perfect.

Because that can be a really good way of determining as a tool whether you need a day off to rest.

Okay.

to rest. Okay, yeah, it makes sense. I typically right now, I've been taking one day off a week and I just do usually do Mondays and it's worked really well, almost like more mentally for me, because I don't like to rest. But it's when I can catch up on like other family house things work. I know that like I have a free day. But I usually still take the dog for a walker. I'm doing something like I can't just sit still.

Hehe.

myself.

I love that strategy, Amber. have a number of athletes, some even semi-elite, that do that exact same strategy Monday off for those exact same reasons. It's almost not the physiological effect, but it's almost like the mental effect. It's just, this is my day. I can get caught up on all these serious different things. So I think it's great what you're doing.

Yes.

Yeah. Yep. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, I was going to say and ask, like, how do you feel like you recover best from your big, you know, days like 12 hour? Maybe it's just, you know, like, and then you, I was going to ask you, like, do you have a dog? Do you take the dog out for a walk? Because that's exactly what I do too. just, you know, keep moving my body and it feels good and mentally kind of refreshes it and ready for the day.

Yeah.

Yeah, when I, especially when, know, you have these big events, when you're, you're traveling too, it's nice to come home and you have that one, one or two days off after, especially after a big race, a multi-hour that, you know, you have the day to clean up all your, your gear and then get life back in order. But yeah, the Mondays, I usually take Mondays off as well. know, you know, normally week, weekday basis. And then I.

No, like that's my day catching up. But yeah, walking the dog, keeping the body moving and stretched out.

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm not sure if you've heard of Gordo Byrne, but he's a bit of a legend in the world of endurance training. had him on my podcast, Training Science Podcast, and he actually does like a 5-2 kind of model. So five pretty solid days of training load, but then two days either completely off or mostly off kind of thing. And he finds that really works well too.

So it's kind of like, know, up, up, up, up, up, up, then down, up, up, you know, and it's just, it's a, there's, don't think there's a right way to do it. It's, there's lots of different ways to skin the cat, as we say, but, but I think at the end of the day, you have to find your, your recovery balance. And if you're not paying attention to some way of recovering, you, you tend to, you tend to find out about it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, there's some burnout.

The hard way.

So looking back at your journey from those five to 10 miles with the kids, I'm sure you've faced few challenges. Can you tell us about what kind of challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

from two to six weeks off the bike. So mentally in your head, you're like, I'm losing fitness, I'm off the bike. But thankfully, I felt like the comeback was pretty strong from those. I'm racing like nothing ever happened. I can't tell that my spine is fused. I do cyclocross, running, jumping. I've been in a couple bike crashes with my Fusion. Everything's holding strong.

I might worry the doctors a little bit. I see them in surgery. And I'm like, they always ask, how many miles are you riding? And then, you know, I tell them they're like, my gosh, don't worry, I'm not in, my back is fine.

you

But yeah, and then I had, one pretty bad, bike crash. It was the year that there was a big crash in Raysa Lake. so I went, we went down, think doing 30, 40 miles an hour, 10 miles from the finish. and I think I got somebody's chain ring right in my shin of my leg. And a month later, it just, it was infected and it still hadn't healed. so I had to.

going for surgery for that I had cellulitis up my whole leg. So that one made me a little nervous.

Wow, that sounds painful.

So Amber, you've taken on some really big challenges. know, 360 miles or whatever XL is right now, know, that's, you know, what's your why? Why do you do these things? What motivates you for these long rides?

I love endurance. I like riding through the night. I guess I'm always looking for that next challenge. Like, I feel like I haven't found something that, you know, has like been the one that's like, that's too much. so when you complete that 354 miles, you're like, well, what can I do now? What's, what's next? and I really liked the gravel component.

I think the scenery is like a little better than just riding on the road. So I'm at the point though where I'm like, I don't want one, a race that's so big that I need to sleep. Like I want them all to be where I can ride through and get through, you know, in that 48 hours, hopefully in under at this point, I don't want to do any bike packing yet. Maybe someday. but yeah, I'm just trying to find that next level.

So it's always kind of seeing what you can do, seeing how far you can push yourself.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

That's amazing. I'm curious about your nutrition. What do you carry in your bike during these long adventures?

So that is one thing that I do struggle a little bit with. When I had kids, I was diagnosed with delayed gastric emptying. So my stomach is a bit tricky for these ultra endurance events. You know, when I'm doing my training and it's that solid zone two that you're in, my digestion is fine. Like I can eat anything at the gas station. I usually carry food on me. I'll carry a sandwich.

I'll eat all the junk you get at the gas stations. But when it comes to the race, I think because the starts are so hard and it's usually pretty hot, my stomach will stop digesting through the next couple of hours. So that is one thing I'm still trying to figure out. And it's one thing that is tricky for me.

Yeah. And you know, the gas station attendants like, did you see the crazy that just came through?

you

Yeah, yeah, they're always like, they like they don't really under quite understand! it, but they're like, it's you know, it's one in the morning and they're like, why are you guys riding out here? Like, it's the middle of nowhere. It's dark. And yeah, what are you doing?

Yeah

yeah. You can imagine us in Race Across America doing the same thing. Like I totally, totally know what you're talking about. Yeah. You'd rock into these gas stations at X time at night, right? With all of your kit. You're like, what is going on?

Yeah.

Yeah, like are you normal here? No? Yeah.

Exactly. No, you're massively sleep deprived from how long you stayed up plus what you're doing to yourself. Yeah, it's a funny look, that's for sure. It's not something they see every day. But it's such a problem, the nutrition standpoint. You think of the issue, right? You're trying to fuel yourself to perform. So in theory,

Yes.

Yeah, no.

You kind of need to keep your blood glucose level stable. So in theory, you're trying to have almost all these liquid calories coming in mostly in a carb, sugar, let's be honest, kind of format in gels and electrolyte, carb electrolyte. But when we really start lengthening this out, we're moving past like 24 hours.

bodies, the body's really starting, it's not meant to sort of do that. and you look what you've just ingested and taken on, on within the, the, like the gut compartment, right? Like you've just taken in really sugar and not a lot of fiber and bulk that's meant to kind of be in there alongside, you know, protein content, fat. So yeah, we,

like baked potatoes really kind of became the thing, right? And you'd laden them with bacon bits and sour cream and this, like it just, it tasted so good, right? Like after X number of days, right? Like you're just like, you can't, I can't handle any more gels, right? Like I just, can't, because I can't exist on that for X number of days.

Yeah.

You are now involved in a new adventure with Team One Mile. Can you tell us more about that? How that got started and the ride you just completed?

Yes.

So, George from Broken Spoke was contacted by Mike Campbell. So Mike Campbell, he is originally from Wisconsin. He started Team One Mile. And basically it is a group of, as he calls it, civilians or veterans. And together we are raising money to help children of fallen servicemen and women attend a

counseling camp for about one week. think they said it's $2,600 just to get one child through this camp. So they go to this camp for one week here in Wisconsin to be with other kids that have also lost a parent. And so they can get the help that they need and kind of open up and, you know, it's a big change when you lose a parent. So yeah, we, this year we did six cities, just shy of 700 miles.

and six days riding across around Wisconsin, to raise awareness for it. And, we hit our goal. hit, raised a hundred thousand dollars that we were able to donate to the camp. was very cool. yeah, it was, it's like, we have a group of, we have a team mechanic, kind of like you were talking about. have a full sag, with the mechanic and the nutrition support behind us.

following us through the town and we had about 21 riders, I think, that were with and we were of all different abilities. For some of them, they actually did their first century during this week, which is crazy because you you think they just rode 700 miles this week and for some of them, like this is the first time they ever, you know, rode 100 miles in one time. So it was pretty amazing that they were able to do that.

You know, I mean, I was tired and, know, they came in and didn't have that endurance training. And, but yeah, they did it. And, you know, some people, they did take a break here and there in the, in the sag van, or if they had a mechanical issue, they, they would keep them in the van until they got that bike fixed and then sent them on their way. I had two flat tires, the first day and the second day back to back. So I was like, my gosh, I'm already two flats in here.

time.

like big gash in my tire, we were able to get another tire. was like at first so bummed. like, I don't want to have to be missing out, you know, but we were able to fix it. But yeah, it's a, it's very cool. Two and around Wisconsin like that. Next year it'll be, I think just shy of 700 miles still, but we're going to knock it down to six, five days, I believe. So we're going to do closer to probably 140 miles a day.

But the days are just jam-packed, so you know, you do your ride and then when you get to the town, we're meeting and socializing with the community and the veterans. And we had live music, we had musicians touring with us, so they were playing music there. We had speakers. So you know, by the time we're getting into our hotel at night, it's 839 at night, and then we are literally rolling out the door at 6 a.m. So there's not any downtime.

So it's just kind of like an oiled machine just going and going.

Wow, but you you raised a hundred thousand dollars. That's that's crazy. Congratulations

That is beautiful.

Yes, we did. Yeah, we, we are still collecting two for the camp. So you can just go to team1mile.com or dot org, I believe it is, and make donations. It's very cool. Yeah, see these kids go in the camp.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll leave that in the show notes. People want to donate. That's great.

Yes.

That would be amazing.

what a great conversation. think there's my three is going to start with the first one. We spoke on a lot of different topics, but the first one that comes to mind was the topic of recovery and we kind of danced around it. And I guess we just highlighted its importance in terms of how you get that. It's going to be context sort of specific. It could be

could be a whole lot if you're just starting out, but it could be, and it could be very little if you're right up there. But as a general rule, one to two days that gives you your own me time for the mental recovery was a great take-home point. So consider that in your training. We also spoke a lot about the zone two training and the prescription. And we had both Amber's experience and we had some

you know, some physiological rationale for why you should train your zone two efforts using heart rate to keep the stress under control and over a power or a pace prescription. So that was the second point. And I think I'll leave the best for last because it was really all, this was everything that Amber was really telling us. And it was, you

It was all around her why and the whole aspect of challenge. And that can start when you just want to start moving. And we heard Amber's story about her watching her husband doing his spinergy efforts. And then she wanted to do that as well and challenged herself, moved from five miles, moved to 10 miles, moved to 200 miles. And then now she's doing unbound at 354 miles.

So there is, again, this is within all of us humans, every single one of us listening to it, there's nothing that can't be done. again, I think it was Muhammad Ali actually that said it, was, if the mind can conceive it and the heart believes it, the body can achieve it. I think that was, hopefully that's something we can all take on board.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah, I think with the unbound XL, you know, whatever, what stopped me was just the fear of the amount. And I think what I had a friend that said, you know, like, what, are you afraid of? Like, you're just training more, like you can do this and it is, it's all in your, you know, you just got to believe in it.

That is all for this week. Join us next week on the Athletes Compass podcast. Ask your training questions in the comments or in our social media or on our forum at atheletica.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd appreciate it if you could take a moment to give us a five-star review. For more information or to schedule a consultation with Paul, Marjaana or myself, please check the links in the show notes. For Amber Searer.

Marjaana Rakai and Dr. Paul Laursen. am Paul Warloski and this has been the Athletes Compass podcast. Thanks for listening.