Name? Steph Toomer
Where do you live? Salt Lake City, UT
What type of athlete are you? Backpacker
Do you have a day job or are you a professional athlete? A day job. Working for Dexa Body I travel a lot and am able to meet lots of new people. I work with different companies every day and different sports teams.
How long have you been participating in your sport? I’ve been participating for most of my life. I ran cross country in high school and college, then moved on to longer distances and bringing a backpack to camp.
Who are your biggest influences? My mom has always been my biggest influence. She’s supported me through it all and has always encouraged me to do what I love. Whenever I want to travel somewhere to backpack she says “if your wallet allows it and your job is okay with it then why wouldn’t you go” and I live by those words every trip I make.
What is your training regimen? For training I am at the gym every day. I try to be in the mountains as much as I can, but some days it’s just too far or I don’t have enough time. I do a lot of cardio, sometimes with a weighted pack, and a lot of weight lifting. I am in the climbing gym a lot as well.
How do you structure your days? I structure my days around work. I only work 4 days a week but they’re long days and very tiring. If I know it’ll be a long day I plan when I’ll go to the gym and what I’ll do. If it’s my day off I have a hike planned ahead of time.
Can you tell us about your diet? My diet is crucial part of my life for sure. I have to eat enough to be able to keep up with the calories I’m burning. I stick with less processed foods and no fast food. I have always been pretty healthy and try to make healthy choices with anything I’m eating. I don’t track what I eat and I go off of how I’m feeling, which I think is the best way to go about “dieting”.
How do you care for your body and health aside from your sport? I do a lot of yoga to help my body out. I think stretching and calming your mind is super helpful. Making healthy choices is always important to care of your body on the inside and outside. I also make sure I take rest days to recover, especially after long trips.
What was your impression of the PelliTec® Blister Prevention Pad product we sent you? Honestly I never used to get blisters, but after moving to the desert and hiking in the heat, my feet would sweat enough that I’d get blisters in shoes I had worn for years. Applying the PelliTec® pads inside my shoes I was able to plan ahead, which was much easier than waiting for the blisters to show up later. I always hated feeling blisters, putting something sticky over them to cover from getting worse, and then ripping it off later and ending up ripping the blisters off too. With the pads I was able to plan and prevent the blisters that could’ve been.
Would you recommend PelliTec® Blister Prevention Pads to other athletes? I would recommend these to other athletes. They take two seconds to put in your shoes and then you’re done. It’s so much easier than waiting until you feel pain and having to stop what you’re doing in order to fix it.
What I something your followers don’t know about you? Something my followers don’t know is I have a joint disorder, so it’s actually really hard for me to walk or run sometimes. My joints dislocate a lot and I have to go regularly to the doctors to have shots in my joints in order for me to be able to hike and do what I love.
What keeps you motivated when you are faced with challenges? What keeps me motivated is holding on to how I have felt doing a really difficult thing, like going to the Everest base camp. It was hard along the way but finishing is always worth it, I hold on to that feeling so if I’m feeling down or don’t want to do something I remind myself it’ll be worth it.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring athlete? Stick with it. If it makes you happy and keeps your mind healthy then keep at it and work hard. Some people never find something that they’re truly passionate about so if you do find it, don’t let it go.
Keep following Steph’s backpacking journeys on Instagram!
Instagram: stephtoom
