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What Does It Take To Be An Olympian?
Mason Finley • 2021-10-05
Dylan Carnahan:Welcome to the Simple Questions Podcast. I'm your host, Dylan Carnahan. That was Wildfire by the band Mad Libby. Wildfire is off of their newest album, High Roller. Mad Libby combines the swagger of rock, the ferocity of punk, and big riffs. Mad Libby has rock and roll up against a wall. You can find information about events and music at madlibby.com, madlibby.com. The question for this episode is what does it take to be an Olympian? A few things that you'll learn in this episode are the stress with competing at such a high level, a window into an Olympic training regimen, and the amount of commitment it takes to become an Olympian. Our guest for this episode was born in Kansas City, Missouri, is a two-time Olympian competing in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, has won a gold medal in the 2020 Olympic Trials, was a bronze medalist in the 2017 World Championship, making him the first US male to medal in discus at the World Championship since 1999, and the third US male to medal in discus at the World Championship ever. An all-American in shot put in discus at the University of Kansas, and lastly, a two-time gold medalist at the Pan American Junior Athletics Championship. I introduce to you Mason Finley. What I can tell you is, out of all the guests I've had so far, you're easily the one I would like to upset the least. I would not want to make an enemy out of you in any way, shape or form.
Mason Finley:Yeah, I'm pretty large, you know. It helps though, helps in the event.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it certainly does, I can imagine. And you know, that is a factor, but I guess what I'm curious is, how did you get started in discus?
Mason Finley:Yeah, well, my dad, through the discus, he threw at Wyandotte High School. And I remember I was messing around in his closet and he has this box of metals from when he went to college. He went to the University of Wyoming. And I found his box of metals in his disk, and I had no idea what it was. And he was like, oh, yeah, I forgot I did that. And he started me probably when I was about, I would say 11 or 12 years old. We were just throwing in the yard. He made these two little McDonald's, like, plastic frisbees. And he filled them up with sand and taped them together. And that was my first disk for, like, a year. And yeah, we just threw a lot. It was just like father-son fishing time, you know. And we, yeah, that's how I got started, just throwing with my dad.
Dylan Carnahan:Really? Just with some, just makeshift discus right there.
Mason Finley:Yeah. Yeah. He wanted to, we're just messing around, because I grew up in a small town in Colorado, Salida. And yeah, there's lots of outdoorsy stuff to do, but it is a small town. And so, yeah, we just throw in was just something that common interest that he and I shared. And yeah, we blew it up. It was awesome.
Dylan Carnahan:How did you transition from, say, this 11-year-old kid doing that to performing in college to ultimately becoming an Olympian?
Mason Finley:Yeah, there was a lot of shifts, a lot of changes. But yeah, so I did all the other sports, too. I think, yeah, there's like 74 kids in my class, so we could do all the sports we wanted, you know, try everything out. But we always checked in with the disc, like, at least once a week, like on the weekend, and then all spring and summer is, like, dedicated to, you know, five times a day training even at a younger age. And let's see, in high school, I won one state, my sophomore, junior, senior year, and got the national record in the discus with like 236 feet. And, you know, that put me, gave me a lot of looks at colleges. So I eventually picked the University of Kansas, and I got runner up at NCAAs like four times. Very frustrating. But I got my distance up high enough to where I felt like I was on the cusp of I could maybe do this professionally. So I went out to the Olympic Training Center for six months and then came back to Lawrence. And in 2016, I won the Olympic Trials, making my first Olympic team.
Dylan Carnahan:That's throughout kind of that course. How, as far as professionally speaking, how did you know you could become an Olympian? Kind of what was that moment?
Mason Finley:Well, there's, you know, with track and field, it's like numbers, distances, times, you know, so you can see where you're at really pretty easily just by looking at the results. And then there's the Olympic standard to get into the meet, and that can be a time or a distance. And so in 2016, it was 65 meters, and I had hit that mark three times that season. So I was feeling pretty good that I could make the team, not that I could, you know, win, get a gold at the Olympics, but just to make it, you know, was a really big deal in 16. And I had the difference just being experienced really, you know, just going to these meets and perfecting the craft. And I think that, yeah, the Olympic trials when I was able to actually like settle down and get the winning throw there. Yeah, I don't know. It was a great feeling. Yeah, I don't know. Just the difference that it takes. I don't know. Like I said, I think you just grow up and you just get used to failing so many times that you finally get it all to come together.
Dylan Carnahan:When you say settling, what are you kind of referring to?
Mason Finley:Well, it's easy when you want to throw far. You want to give everything you got and blast it, but that never works in the disc. It doesn't like rigid or violent movements. It has to be really smooth, really long. As you know, being a thrower, it's got to all come through your hips. Your arms are just like a string. You can't have it tense. And it's hard because this is like a five pound implement basically for 4.4. And you're trying to throw it like 220 feet. So it takes a lot of maturity to go out there and like, I'm going to do this based on the footwork, the movement, the technical aspects. But at the end of the day, distance is what wins. So you'll see a lot of people blasting it still, even adults.
Dylan Carnahan:It seems like the pressure of those events has to be immense.
Mason Finley:Yeah, I would say Olympic Games and World Championships, the pressure is pretty crazy because especially with the Olympics, you get one in every four year or one time every four years, sometimes five years. And yeah, it just feels like you put all this work into this one moment. And on top of that, it's like such a big deal. Like I'm used to going through my whole year where it's like, you might have your family and friends come to the meets, you know. And so going from like kind of almost feels like field day at, you know, elementary school a lot of the year. And then all of a sudden, you get like this giant stadium with like, typically there's fans. There wasn't any in Tokyo, but you know, I remember 16, the stadium was just almost shaking because they were doing the men's 100 at the same time. So Usain Bolt was there and like, man, that stadium was packed. It was just a really, really cool experience.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it sounds like it. What other professional events had you competed in leading up to that point, these Olympic Games?
Mason Finley:Oh, these Olympic Games? Yeah. So 2016, I was, made my first Olympic team. 2017, I was at World Championships and got the bronze medal. Let's see, 2019, I was at World Championships in Doha, Qatar. And then, yeah, this year was Tokyo Olympics.
Dylan Carnahan:How do those other events compare to the Olympics?
Mason Finley:World Championships is like the same competition as Olympic Games. At least in track and field, we do everything the same. And the only difference is the other sports aren't there, so it's just track. But it's the same competition, you know, I don't know. A lot of us see, like, worlds and Olympic medals kind of being interchangeable. The only difference, worlds happens every two years, Olympics happens every four.
Dylan Carnahan:Okay. Now, in preparation for these events, how much time did you spend training? A lot.
Mason Finley:I mean, that's what I've been doing full time since 2017, I think, or 16, maybe. And so my schedule is pretty, pretty consistent throughout the year. We go six week cycles, so a certain lift, plyometrics, and technical practices. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I lift in the afternoon. In the morning, I throw. And so we'll do different things, like throw heavy discs, throw lighter discs, and throw different implements, like a heavy shot put or med balls into the wall. So we'll change that up. And then Tuesday, Thursdays is drills in the morning, like footwork stuff, and then plyometrics in the afternoon. So like jumping, sprints, quick feet, things like that.
Dylan Carnahan:And how long, how many hours a day do you think that takes up?
Mason Finley:I would say if I do like with everything, like rehab, two practices a day, it can be between four and six hours a day usually.
Dylan Carnahan:Wow, that's a lot. And it sounds like you have various types, different types of training that you do throughout that time.
Mason Finley:Yeah, yeah. And so like right now we're taking this month off. But then when we start back up, it'll be like really, really heavy weights. And like kind of longer Plyo sessions. And then by the end, like let's say World Championships next year, by that time, it'll be like I'm not looking to break down my body at championship time. And so like, practice will be shorter. We're looking for quality over quantity. And yeah, so it's really nice when you get to that point, this practice start being a little kinder.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, you're more focused on the outcome as opposed to the training.
Mason Finley:Yeah. So it is fun. I mean, if I had to do the same thing every day, it kind of feels the same thing, you know, because it's just one move. It's not really like a game. It's just like, you have to perform this almost dance kind of a thing. And yeah, so it's nice at least that the cycles and things change so I can, you know, be like excited to be a practice.
Dylan Carnahan:Break up them on monotony a little bit there.
Mason Finley:Yeah, definitely.
Dylan Carnahan:For the uninitiated, what kind of weightlifting workouts are you doing?
Mason Finley:You know, it's your core lifts are pretty basic. Everybody, everybody does, you know, squat bench, clean snatch, the Olympic lifts. Then we get into some weird stuff like sports specific. We do deep flies, which is like, we put the bench on like two boxes and get way up and let the, let the whatever you're doing flies with like go all the way back behind you and just trying to keep flexibility. And that's what's tough to be a big guy and having to like maintain some sort of flexibility. And so we work on that stuff. There's like a lot of spinning stuff, as you can imagine, you know, doing twists, like really getting your core strong so you can hold those positions. And then, yeah, lifting wise, it's mainly just those four main lifts and then a lot of like kind of almost like dancer lifts. Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Now, how much weight are we talking here? Like on if we're talking like power clean or like back squat, how much how much are we talking here?
Mason Finley:Let's see. In the back squat last year, I think I got somewhere around 650 pounds, which is pretty decent. There's a lot of like, like shoplifters are like crazy strong, man. I don't know if you've seen any videos, but if you look up like Joe Kovacs and his squat videos, it's like I think this guy's done like 700 pounds for 10 reps. Like it's just yeah, it's pretty crazy. So a lot of big guys in my world and yeah, lifted bigger weights than I.
Dylan Carnahan:That you'd mentioned kind of earlier, like you know, those other lifts or exercise you do kind of focusing on flexibility. How much of a challenge is it like you mentioned to maintain flexibility with someone with your stature and strength?
Mason Finley:It's not too bad when you have, I've just set a lot of time aside to make sure I continuously work on that, you know, whether it just be like just certain stretches at the end of practices. And I mean, I've been doing it for yeah, since like 2000 professionally since like 2015. So yeah, it's just something I've got to continuously work on. But yeah, I mean, I think naturally just because of all the weights that I'm lifting, my body wants to be tight, but you just have to kind of compete, combat against that.
Dylan Carnahan:That what you mentioned plyometric as plyometrics as well as a part of your training routine.
Mason Finley:Mm hmm. Yeah. And so like that's another that's usually the harder practices, you know, big, big dude. And I don't run and jump very well. So I've I used to blow up the weight room really hard. Like I used to be really big. Actually, when in college, I came into college at like 340 and I left college at like 440. So I got the freshman for a freshman 100 pounds. And yeah, so I was getting really big in the weight room, but I couldn't move like I couldn't spend very fast. It was very slow, very, very stiff. And so when we started doing more plyos and I got my jumps and sprints up and the body weight started coming back down, got down to like 330 pounds. So that was nice, nice relief on my knees. And then that's where my distance started getting into, where I could like compete against top athletes in the world is when I started getting better at the stuff I sucked at.
Dylan Carnahan:What impact does weight have on an athlete?
Mason Finley:It's, everyone's kind of different, right? And so that's one of the things I really love about the disc is, of course, you know, I think I have like a 7'2 wingspan and all of that stuff definitely helps. But you have to find your own speed, your own movement, you know, that kind of gives your body everything, every chance it has to throw far, I guess. And so I've seen guys that are like 6'2, I'm 6'8, but in the ring, they are fast, like way faster than I could ever be, you know. And so there's different things that your body will let you do or that you can do to get the maximum distance out. And you just, everyone's got to figure that out for themselves. But it's, that's one of the things I love about the disc.
Dylan Carnahan:It sounds like everyone has a different way to optimize themselves.
Mason Finley:Yeah, yeah, because I hear, you know, I was a theater major. So people were like, yeah, it's physics. And I was like, well, I don't know math. So I got for, but it is, I understand that. Yeah, it's physics, the height of the person, the weight, you know, like, you know, people keep saying like, mass moves mass. And I was like, well, there is a point where your mask is too big, where it doesn't move itself anymore. So yeah, so yeah, some stuff you got to figure out yourself.
Dylan Carnahan:What, because a little counterintuitive, right? Yes.
Mason Finley:Yeah, you went too big.
Dylan Carnahan:What, you know, you talk about specifically weight, but what were some other kind of things that you had to optimize in order to get to that, you know, caliber?
Mason Finley:Dealing with injuries is a, still is a big one. And it's like every year I got something, it seems like. And remember, my first major injury was, I was a sophomore in college and I got a herniated disc. And now I have like three of them. And so figuring out what your, what like the ceiling is for your body, because I did that in squats, of course. And so it's like, well, you know, I guess that's where my limit is, you know. And so like, I like to work safely, like close to it, but I'm not going to go past that anymore. I feel like there's a point in lifting, or in training in general, where it's like you get to a point, that's where you should stop. But it's hard to figure out what that is, especially when you're young, you know, and you want to see what you can do. And so figuring out those, those like points of, if I go over it, then that's actually a bad thing. And that's just helped me, you know, for the longevity of my career, being able to bounce back from stuff like that.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it sounds like that would be a real challenge to self-regulate, you know, your injury, especially you bring up herniated discs, like that's, that's no small thing.
Mason Finley:Oh, back pain sucks. Yeah, no fun. And so it's been cool, though. Yeah, I've met a really lot of great physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and I get my basements like a recovery room, like he's got foam rollers, Stereogun, like Norma Tech Boots, all this stuff. And yeah, I really got into it. And actually, I'm starting massage therapy school this fall, just because of all the injuries I've had. And I think I can help people, you know, with that kind of stuff. So it'd be cool.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. And you have to incorporate all these chiropractors and therapists into your training routines as well.
Mason Finley:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Have to. I won't make it through the week.
Dylan Carnahan:What... What other injuries have you, you know, had to fight through? I mean, just the back pain, I could see as, you know, as an athlete, that's really debilitating. What other kind of things have you kind of run into?
Mason Finley:A lot of very common, like, injuries for discus throwers, like his joint stuff. So whether it be weight room or just the amount of time that we've, like, done the same movement. So, like, ankles, knees, hips for big guys spinning around and back. Those are, like, the big ones. I've been lucky. It's not had much knee issues. I do have some hip stuff. Because, I don't know, if you go look at, like, a throw and you, like, slow it down, that first move, I mean, we're pivoting that left foot, like, we're facing this way. We're pivoting that left foot, like, back there. So after a while, that hip kind of says, like, okay, man, what are we doing here? And, like, wants to give it up. But other common stuff is just, like, you know, you get that stretch in your chest, and so a lot of people have, like, peck tears. I've been pretty good with that. It's just been, yeah, like, ankle injuries. I have a lot of those. Yeah, there's always injuries coming in your season. I want everyone to know that. So, yeah, it's best to kind of get ahead of it, finally, kind of figure out what your body's saying. Like, in the morning, sometimes, like, my back will be, oh, sorry, hold on.
Dylan Carnahan:No, you're good.
Mason Finley:So my back will be, like, really stiff, and I'm like, well, you know, today, I'm not going to squat a lot of weight, you know, and just kind of figuring that stuff out for yourself, and everybody's different. So, yeah, just being able to understand that, like, you're going to adapt and you're going to figure it out.
Dylan Carnahan:For these injuries, what's more common to have them crop up, say, in training or actually when competing?
Mason Finley:I think it's pretty rare when you're competing. I've seen it. I've seen people get hurt, you know, like slip and fall, but I don't see a lot of, I don't know, like those kinds of injuries, because I think it's like through, most of our injuries are through overuse. And so at a meet, we get six throws, but at practice we'll take, you know, I take about 40 throws at practice, but I've heard people taking like, like over 100 throws. And I did that when I was young, but...
Dylan Carnahan:Quality over quantity now?
Mason Finley:Yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah. And so I think that's mostly the reason why. But yeah, I've seen some crazy stuff at meets. I've seen a guy throw and then is like, Peck just started bruising out like real bad and so he tore his Peck. I've seen that once. But yeah, like there's just been mostly at practices.
Dylan Carnahan:You're telling me. So you got six throws in the competition. And the preparation for that is you're throwing 40.
Mason Finley:Typically, for me, yeah, definitely. And so that's yeah, it's a good thing to bring up. Yeah, because it's kind of off balance, it seems. But yeah, so most of our practices, like everybody's doing something wrong. Like I've never had a throw where I was just like, oh, I did everything that I possibly could, you know. And so we spend a lot of time not even working on like setting up, like this is the meat, you know, it's like, no, we've got to break these like really minuscule movements because usually we're just looking for like a one, two or like 3% increase on the other guy. And so, I mean, my wife is a high school throws coach and I help her out. So I coach at Mill Valley. And yeah, you know, when I'm talking to her about the sort of stuff that I'm working on with coach, you know, she's just like, God, this is just so she's like, it almost seems like it doesn't matter. I'm like, I know. And it really is hard to feel to, you know, when you're spinning as fast as you can. And so that's why I would say there's so many throws, you know, at practices. But that's why I like when we get towards championship season, we really cut the number down, you know, it comes closer and closer.
Dylan Carnahan:And and so those throws are meant to get the movement pattern down or are they to build arm strength?
Mason Finley:Well, there's different things that we will do throughout the year. Right. And so we don't have so much like arm strength. Like I said, like the arm is basically like a strain. It's like when I get it, when I get the momentum going, and I don't want to ever like flex, so I don't want to actually feel my arm like kind of pump up because that it's going to make it slower and like speed beats, like whatever power you can produce, you know, if like I'm moving fast, and I just transfer, I just give it to what I produce, you know, it's going to it's going to zip. But as the second I start, you know, kind of trying to arm it, it's just it slows down like crazy. And so there is like what my coach calls throwing strength though. So it's just the ability to like hold the weight without breaking the technique is what he calls throwing strength. So in the fall, we'll throw like heavy discs. So I throw a two kilogram in practice and we'll throw like a 2.5, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it makes a huge difference. It takes off probably about 40 feet in your throw. So it's like a pretty big deal. And I'll or 20 feet. But yeah, and so we'll do that for I would say like arm strength or what I would call throwing strength. And then we'll do certain implements for speed, certain implements to like work on like the orbit. So like when we start, we'll start like wind up up high. And as it goes, it kind of drops. And when it comes to the middle goes up and then drops again and then goes like flat out really fast. So there's yeah, there's all kinds of really like tedious things you can work on. And you can figure that out on what you need to and yeah, I mean, it never ends.
Dylan Carnahan:So that when you what what's probably the hardest technical aspect of throwing.
Mason Finley:That's interesting. It definitely changes throughout the year. I would say right now, my toughest technical challenge is when I land. So like you're spinning, you're on one foot, and then you land. And my right foot comes up slightly before my left foot. And I would like I don't even know if you can tell if you just watch it like full speed. But I slow these down and it makes it hurts when I see it. My right foot just comes off and my left foot still on the ground. I hate looking at it. But yeah, I'd say that's my technical, the toughest challenge for me.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, that it's interesting. You know, you talk about kind of the training, the differential, the weights of this. Because I know for baseball, there's an overload, under load training. We're like, we're not dealing with the same weight here, but like a five baseball is five ounces. You throw a seven ounce baseball or a three ounce baseball, you know, and it's that fluidity you're trying to feel as well, you know, and I do it does resonate kind of that like you just want to go bang it or throw it right. Yeah, you can if you can feel it in your shoulder pretty good, you might not be doing it right.
Mason Finley:That's exactly right. Like if you feel like you did something aggressive that was wrong.
Dylan Carnahan:It should that that inherent transfer to the ball or the disk is that's that's what you're looking for that fluidity if you're very conscious of that action. That's usually you've lost some force there and you've put it into you say your elbow or you know, your front leg or something like that.
Mason Finley:Yeah, and it is very like just that consciousness is really tough to just overcome that especially at like games or meets. Because I feel like it's there's a fine line between that kind of unconscious muscle memory movement and like being lazy, right? For me, I think that's like it's like I don't want to think about it. I don't want to like put too much to make me tense up. But then this kind of gets lackadaisical and that's like its own rabbit hole of problems.
Dylan Carnahan:So yeah, you almost want to be comfortable in a way, but you don't want to be so much actively saying like thinking that you get rattled. That's what I say. Get mentally rattled over things. You know, you want to be like so nitpicky thinking about orientation of things. You know, you can you can get as in depth as possible in your own head.
Mason Finley:Mm hmm. Yeah, it's like it's definitely it's I don't know. It's definitely like hitting like a dartboard, right? You're getting that trying to get that bullseye of a little bit of everything and not too much of anything.
Dylan Carnahan:You you bring up kind of your retarded kind of the mental aspect to a certain degree. What are some ways that you mentally prepare?
Mason Finley:I've actually started seeing a sports psychologist in 2020 and he's giving me a lot. It's been really cool, just like breathing techniques. If I'm getting like too much adrenaline and I mean, or too pumped up, there's just like these four, like four count in, seven count out. That's just like a little physical thing to like do immediately to help you calm or maintain what you're trying to do. Other mental stuff is I don't know. There's just like phrases that you can kind of say. We've worked with that a little bit like at practices. I don't really like I don't know. It doesn't really affect with me too much. But just dealing with that stuff of how to not kind of be overwhelmed with like like the things that we're talking about, like, okay, I need to be relaxed, but I have to have my energy up. But you know, and so there's just so many things like you said that you can think about, and it kind of takes you away from the competition. Dealing with things like burnout, like I've been throwing since I've been 12, like I'm almost 12 or 11. So yeah, I've almost got 20 years in this of the same movement, you know, and yeah, I feel like it's, for as long as I've been doing it, it almost feels like a wave, like comes in waves of like, oh, I'm really like, kind of down on myself. And then it will just kind of pick back up. And I'm like right back where I was dealing with like those kind of mental drops.
Dylan Carnahan:How do you deal with those lulz? You bring up the amount of time spent training and competing and everything in between. How do you find the will to reinvest, ready back up?
Mason Finley:Yeah, it used to be harder, but I've done it so much, I just know that it's going to be over. I'm like, wow, oh, this thing again, you know? And so, yeah, I know that it will come back, but this too shall pass. Another really kind of, I guess, in the end, I just really love throwing. I got into disc golf over the pandemic, and I could always go out and throw discs. I don't know why, just frisbees, whatever. And so I don't feel like it's one of those things where I have to be like Rocky Balboa and drink the eggs and get up in the morning and go and force myself to do this. I truly do love it, and I think that's probably what makes it doable or easier to just keep reinvesting and just like, yeah, it didn't work out, let's just keep going. And I think that's just because, yeah, it's what I love.
Dylan Carnahan:It makes it easier if you have a passion for it.
Mason Finley:Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:You can kind of tap back into that ever, ever so now, and you kind of refine that, even though you may have lost it, back squatting with three herniated discs and...
Mason Finley:Yeah, I think it's because the fun part of the disc is the dance. It is the movement and figuring out how, like whether it be rhythm, position or intensity, like there's always something that you can work on to make the disc go further in the end. But depending on what wind you have, you can catch a flight. And so that's always fascinating. I mean, it's interesting enough to show up to practice every day.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Now, throughout this whole thing, there have been a couple of things that have come up that I think would lead, such as time, health, but what sacrifices have you made in order to compete?
Mason Finley:Sacrifices, man, I don't know. I mean, I guess there's been things, I don't really see me sacrifice is just kind of like, well, that's my path, you know, I'm doing this thing. So I've been pretty like, I've had the horse blinders on since probably, since I knew I wanted to become Olympian in high school. So I'm just trying to think like, like I was a theater major and I wanted to go to Canada and like do the sci-fi thing. That's where they film most of their stuff. I wanted to be like monsters, aliens and a bunch of makeup, you know, and so I guess I could call that a sacrifice. I didn't do it. I just don't, I don't know. I just see like this is what I got to do to get the goal done, you know. And so I would say the sacrifice, the more like obvious sacrifices just like partying and doing things that would like negatively affect my training. I don't really see those sacrifices either because I enjoy training more than I would that kind of stuff.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Yeah. Now that, you know, brings up kind of something I don't think we've touched on. What kind of diet do you have to adhere to throughout the process?
Mason Finley:Well, as I mentioned before, I got like went up 100 pounds, came down like 110 pounds. So I've had a lot of diets. The one that I'm on right now is my favorite. It works. I really enjoy it. But it's like high meat or high protein, lower fat than I expected, and like medium carb basically. And so like it's just like four eggs, six ounces of some sort of like lean meat, and then nuts for breakfast. For like a lunch, it'll be a veggie, a lot of meat and potatoes. And then dinner is like another potato, different type of potato, meat and veggie. And that's helped me the most is I'm really sensitive to carbs and like processed sugar. I blow up. It's like a science experiment. It's hilarious. And so replacing those with potatoes for some reason, it just doesn't stick to me. And so it's nice to finally have something that consistently works.
Dylan Carnahan:So you're telling me if I were to go and open up your fridge right now, I might see like a ton of Tupperware containers or what's going on?
Mason Finley:I did that for a bit. The meal prep. Yeah, I did that for a bit. I can't. I'm not as consistent. I find it easier just to have like the crate of eggs and like, you know, I buy like three packs of bacon at a time or we got a lot of deli meat, you know, and then just like bags of salad or like, you know, those pre-made bags of salad or like different green beans, stuff like that. And then yogurts, milks or dairy products. And then I got into smoking meats. So I've got, yeah, just different different things in the freezer ready to go.
Dylan Carnahan:What kind of other diets, I guess, had you tried to adhere to or gone?
Mason Finley:First weird diet that I did. Well, not weird, just different, not usual, not usual. And so it was a raw vegan diet where it was like, yes, you can't cook anything. It's got to be like, it's got to be vegetables or fruit. And you can only eat like one of one thing. So there would be like breakfasts where I would have like 15 bananas, just like that would be it. And that lasted for about three weeks. But I was like dedicated to that. That wouldn't suck though. I tried a juice diet. That lasted two days and then steak immediately. Yeah, just I tried all of it. Yeah, I just wanted to see what works and nothing was consistent until basically it's just like a produce and yeah, stay away from packaged items, really.
Dylan Carnahan:I gotta ask, if there's 15 bananas for breakfast, what the hell's lunch?
Mason Finley:There would be like, yeah, it would have like three heads of romaine lettuce. I would just squeeze it and roll it up tight and just like chomp down on it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was a weird diet. Lost some weight.
Dylan Carnahan:It sounds kind of kind of fun, but I'm just like picturing the just 15 bananas. Like, God, I know. How long does it take you to eat?
Mason Finley:It was, I mean, it took time just because I don't know. Like, have you ever been on like Banana 8? And you're looking at seven more bananas there. And yeah, like, you know, 40 minutes has gone by, your jaw hurts, you know? Yeah, it takes a lot.
Dylan Carnahan:It's a little disheartening at that point. Yeah.
Mason Finley:Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Wow. We got through it. That's pretty crazy. What, you know, we've we've talked a little bit about, you know, sacrifices earlier. I think throughout kind of your whole experience as an athlete, what would you say would is your biggest obstacle? Hmm, interesting.
Mason Finley:I feel like that's a moving target too. Well, it has been. Currently, biggest obstacle is, you know what, it's turned into flights. It's flying. I don't fit on the plane. And I used to try, you know, younger Mason would like, I got to go over to Europe and like, they don't pay for like business class or first class, you know, so six, eight, three hundred, whatever. And yeah, just I'm starting to get hurt on the planes now just from being like crammed in there, depending on the how long the flight is. But like, yeah, typically, like domestically, I'm OK. But, yeah, there's just something about, yeah, like like when I go over to Europe to compete on not like Olympics or championship season, but it's just like a regular meet like those are like nine hour flights and I got to compete like the next day that I planned. And yeah, that's getting difficult. I would say I would say that that's right now.
Dylan Carnahan:What and so is it just the sheer amount of time just sitting stationary?
Mason Finley:Well, like, like my knees go into like the seat ahead of me. And so I've got like one of those neck pillows wrapped around one knee and I wrap a blanket around the other one. And so you stuck like that. And then just where like the armrests are, they like pinch my hips. And so like I get like my SI joint gets like thrown out of place. It's like becoming a problem. But every time I have like one of these problems, I check in with like chiropractors and VTs and they've always got something that you can do to kind of like if I can like stand up on the plane, then I can do like stretches and stuff like that and try to stay healthy.
Dylan Carnahan:It sounds like that's a tough ordeal to based upon the immediacy of performance. You know, like you're coming in and then it's like, all right, I'm stiff tomorrow at 8 a.m. Yeah.
Mason Finley:Well, that's what happened this year at trials. I flew out to Oregon and it was the second day out there and I practiced and something went wrong. I don't know what happened with my hip, but then like it like kind of shifted and then, you know, that messed up my whole spine and I couldn't throw. And I was out at trials for like 14 days or like somewhat like close to two weeks. And I couldn't throw for like probably 10 days. I was just sitting out there. I was like really afraid. I was like, dang, I don't know if I can actually do this. It's weird not being able to compete and made a really great chiropractor out there. And he got me back and within like, yeah, with like no time to spare. I only had, I think, three practices before I went into that meet. It was very stressful.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it certainly sounds like it. You know, especially you're trying to compete, right? That's what you're there for.
Mason Finley:Yeah, exactly. But it happens.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah.
Mason Finley:You're just going to have stuff all the time.
Dylan Carnahan:What advice would you have for someone that wants to do what you're doing?
Mason Finley:Um, let's see. There's a few things, I guess. I think it's really important, for me, it was at least to just remember like the love of the sport. For me, I remember kind of shifting to college, and now we're talking about like points for the team, you know, so we can win, and there's medals. And then it got to the point where I was becoming a professional thrower and worrying about money, and you got to, you know, everybody does. But I feel like a lot of that stuff kind of took me down, not the path I wanted to go on, and just remembering like, this is a sport, it's supposed to be fun, you know, I don't need to stress myself, you know, live and die on this. You know, I'm going to do my best, and that's all I can do, you know, let the universe take care of the rest and just do what you love. Yeah, and that's helped quite a bit.
Dylan Carnahan:There's a lot of things that you have to do as an athlete that indirectly help you, right? Training, the diet and all that. And it can be hard to kind of you kind of disassociate from what you're actually doing it all for, you know, at a certain point. And yeah, that can serve as a challenge, you know, when you're when you're eating 15 bananas and you're looking down the barrel of six more, it can be hard to kind of think I'm just, you know, I'm trying to throw something.
Mason Finley:Yes. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. At the same time, I think you do have to have, especially in like track and field, you have to have this sort of personality where like, I don't know. I guess I would say I've been into like weight rooms when like football players are lifting and the coaches are right up on them. You know, they're like telling them what they exactly need to do. And that's just not the case. Like it's on you and track. Like you got to be the one excited about trying different diets or different training, different rehab. And yeah, I would say that would be some advice too, is if you want to do this, like you really have to be the type of person that likes to experiment and doesn't like you got to take a chance. Like this might not work out. Like, you know, 15 bananas might not be a good idea, but I got to try it, you know. So you're going to kind of have to have that personality.
Dylan Carnahan:But there's a level of autonomy there and self-regulation.
Mason Finley:Yeah, yeah, no, that's huge. Yeah. Because like I said, you know, you don't really have a lot of like trainers. I mean, of course you have your coach and, you know, he or she is like super crucial. And after that, though, like the support staff of like dietitians, stuff like that, you got to figure that out for yourself or like go get people to help you.
Dylan Carnahan:You have to seek out that information or seek out people you can include in your support system.
Mason Finley:Yeah, yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, Mason, this has been awesome to hear from you and all your experiences. Where can people learn more about you?
Mason Finley:You know, I'm firing up social media a little bit better. I'm not good, but I'm being forced to now. So check out Facebook or Instagram. The name is Mayfin Picks. You know, I will hopefully have more content for people to check out pretty soon.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, it was a pleasure, Mason.
Mason Finley:Yeah. Thank you.
Dylan Carnahan:That wraps up our conversation with Mason Finley. We talked about the difficulty of overcoming injuries, various types of training such as weightlifting, plyometrics, and stretching, and the sheer amount of time you have to dedicate to an activity. Follow Mason on Facebook by simply searching his name, and on Instagram by using the handle at mayfinpix Check out Mad Libby. Their music is on Apple, and you can find information at madlibby.com. And lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the Simple Questions Podcast on your preferred platform so you get a notification for every new episode once it's out. Speaking of new episodes, the next episode is currently being edited and will be released on the first Tuesday of October. I'm going to try and be a little more consistent for now on and release on the first Tuesday of every month. So look forward to that new episode once it is out. Thank you for listening, and remember, keep asking questions.