6 Rules for 2021

This episode of the Get Fast podcast is brought to you by Trivalo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. You are joined as always, by your host, Australian Ironman champion, Jared Donnelly. And I am Jordan Donnelly. And first of all, welcome back to a brand new year of the podcast. Welcome to 2021. At the end of last year, we spoke about, we finished off the year by speaking about the biggest lessons that we learned. If you haven't listened to that podcast, go back and listen now. We spoke about some of the biggest lessons that helped us get through the year and move into this year. And today we are discussing our rules for 2021. Six rules for 2021. How we want our athletes to be approaching 2021 and what you can do to make it a more successful year. But firstly, dad, we are recording this on your birthday, so happy birthday.

Thanks, Jord.

I'm sure a lot of listeners will be saying happy birthday as well.

Feels good to be 70 finally.

How was your break and how are you feeling for the start of the year?

Oh, oh, I'm so excited. It's a great period of the year, January, besides being my birthday, I just love the holiday period, the build up to Christmas and the notion that you have more time to do things you want to do, whether it's relax, read, catch up on stuff that you haven't had a chance to all year because you're so busy and focus a little bit on your fitness. And hopefully if people took the lessons going into our podcast into the holidays, they should come out of the other side of it in great shape.

So let's talk about that. And that's how we want to start off the podcast. As always, we ask what's been catching your attention? What's caught your attention over this holiday period? Expand on that point.

Well, that leads in as a segue beautifully, because there's been a percentage, as I would have expected, who didn't heed the advice and have ended up catching up with their mates day after day after day and writing the same sessions day after day. And that's okay for a period, but you will eventually get so fatigued that there's no differentiation between hard, easy and endurance. So that's really the thing that's grabbed my attention is there's still a percentage of people who just don't heed the advice. And it's always the same. 90% of the people do it really well. And it just frustrates me that 10% of the people Just ignore it, or I'm not sure what they're doing and it's the old excuse, but. Yeah, but I just caught up with a mate I hadn't seen for ages, and he wanted to do this session. But the easy thing is to say, I'm getting coached. Are you getting coached? Why don't you do my session and then tomorrow we can do your session. That might be harder. When I'm ready to do a hard session, it's so easy to have a discussion with someone who's actually just randomly picking days where they're gonna ride hard or easy, which, when they're on holidays, they generally just ride hard every day. And we really warned against that. And I suppose that's the thing that's just caught my attention, albeit frustrating, but that's what happens every year. And I don't know how to change it. I don't know how many podcasts we have to do to get that message across, but you have to have a difference between what you're doing each day. And we did say you can ride longer, but it's gotta be at the zone that we want, which is the easier zone.

So what's the problem with doing that and people going down that path? Why is it such a problem for you?

Because it just slows your progress. It doesn't enhance it. That's the problem. I see progression, and then during this period, I see people getting tired. So when they start the year exhausted, and I already see people asking, I need a. I need some days off.

They've overtrained.

They've overtrained. And that's where I get really frustrated, is not only have you asked me, should I be doing more, I've given you the answer, but you've actually done the same sessions repeatedly without having any variation, and now you're exhausted and, you know, this is the time when you're supposed to, coming into the year, really, you know, progressively improving and, and ready to embrace, which is how I feel. You know, I'm really excited about my fitness level and, and where it's going to go. I'm not exhausted. I'm. I'm ready to do the hard sessions when they're. When they're there. I can't wait for Saturday's bunch ride where I can really ride with endurance and some intensity because I've managed the week properly.

And so on the opposite spectrum, something else we've been talking about is heart rate. And a lot of the athletes that you've seen progressing really well. One of the major things you've seen is that their heart rate has dropped for the same sessions. So you're seeing athletes complete the same sessions, the same power numbers, but with a heart rate 5 beats lower.

Yeah, some great examples, even some FTP tests where some athletes have recorded similar power or improved fractionally, yet their heart rate's way down, which shows the fitness level is, is, you know, is substantially better. And as we know, the heart's a muscle, and the more you're training that muscle, the more it can beat the blood out of. Out of it, each beat. So therefore, you're needing less beats to do the same activity. So. And that's something that's caught your attention, isn't it? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, talking about heart rate has caught my attention a lot for all these factors. And as we've said a lot on the podcast, a lot of varying factors influence heart rate. And we were just talking off air about how much stress affects it. And, you know, maybe over this period, people are less stressed because they're on holidays, and that contributes to having a lower heart rate as well as increased fitness. It could be a wide range of things, but I was recently looking into heart rate as well and resting heart rate, and I was shocked. I was looking at the maths of how many times your heart beats per day, and I was shocked at the maths of this and how much a slight difference in resting heart rate influences the amount of beats per day that your heart does. And the reason it shocked me as well is because I think cardiovascular disease is listed as worldwide, the number one killer in the world, various forms of cardiovascular disease. And so our heart is such an important muscle and organ to keep healthy. And the maths was something like if you have a resting heart rate of 50, which is really quite fit, your heart will beat approximately 70,000 times per day, whereas if you have a resting heart rate of 75, which isn't skyrocketing.

High, the average resting heart rate worldwide is 72.

Yeah, yeah, that's 110,000 beats per day. So that's a whopping 40,000 beats per day difference. And so that just really shocked me.

Going over a week, over a month.

Yeah, over a year, over your lifetime, you know, so the longevity of the heart muscle really, it can be a little bit frightening. And I don't, I didn't want to fall into the trap myself of fear mongering myself, but it just did shock me. And then I thought, well, what if, you know people who are really fit, they're exercising so much that it evens out, you know, because you're spending so much time at high intensity. And so I worked out the maths on that. But if you're spending two hours at heart rate of 160, it only adds another 12,000 beats per minute, beats per day, something like that. So you're still 30,000 less than the person at 75. And that's at 75, if you are more unhealthy or carrying a little bit more weight and your resting heart rate is 85 or 90, it's going to be an extra 10, 20,000 beats per day. And so for me, that was just a really good reminder of heart health and why it's a good goal to get fitter and stay healthy and get that resting heart rate down. I'm not a doctor, so I don't know if that's exactly what the goal should be, but it was just a bit of a reminder for me. But there, it ties into this stress factor as well, that our heart rate isn't just high or low due to fitness, it can be higher or lower in any given day or week due to stress due to external factors. So that really just made me think, looking at all the maths on that.

Yeah. And look, as a 20 year old and a 30 year old, you know, it's almost insignificant in your thought process. But when you get to 50, 60, 70, those 30 years between 30 and 60, your heart could have pretty much had double the life that it should have had. And no wonder people get a heart attack at 50, 60, 70, because it's actually worked twice as hard as someone who's fit and healthy with a heart that's beating 20 to 30 beats per minute lower each day. So, so what do you expect? Your heart, you know, and you're unfit as well, you're carrying extra weight probably to have a higher heart rate. Um, so it is, it is astounding how you can be so much more in charge of your eventual lifespan by just simply being fit and healthy from an early age all the way through. And of course there's things like hereditary stress, you know, that hereditary you have no control over. You know, we have a history. My dad died of a heart attack. So, you know, that's foremost in my mind is to stay healthy and fit is. I don't want to. You died at 67. It's, it's something, you know, that, that you just think, well, I've only got five more years of my life left if that, if I'm following the history of my, my parent. So that's that's something that really has become very obvious to me as I've reached my 50s and 60s, how important it is that I stay fit and healthy and, and that I have a heart rate that is reasonably low so that I'm not wearing it out.

I would love to, when we get either Dr. Mitch or Dr. Harry back on the podcast, to ask them these sorts of questions about the heart as well. I'd love to get more information on that. I think we'll do that this year. But on that note, talking about heart rate and let's go through the rules for 2021. We have six rules for 2021 we want to discuss, and this is what we want our athletes to think about and we want you to think about as well too help you have a better year. And rule number one is, and we spoke about this at the end of last year, but I know there's some, some part of this mindset that you really want to get through for 2021. And rule one is be prepared to be adaptive. But what's the mindset that you want to come from this?

Well, in March last year, when the whole world kind of came to a grinding halt, we did do a couple of podcasts about you have two choices. Like, lots of things will disappear in front of your eyes, such as events, races, the ability to train properly, and the confusion of a worldwide pandemic. And you had two choices, whether you wanted to stay the course or just abandon it and just try and concentrate on survival without worrying about fitness and health. So. So at the end of that, we had people who really stayed the course and came out of it in such a better position, and those who didn't, who are really behind the eight ball as a level of fitness compared to what they had been at before, so the two distinct groups of people. So now that the virus is still hanging around, there is still the opportunity for races to become available. And they are becoming available. But that could change again. And we've already learned the lesson once. Can we not make the same mistake? For those who did choose plan B, which was there's no races, so why should I train as compared to plan A? Well, I have the right mindset. I want to stay healthy and fit. We're just talking about heart rate for an example. Why would you want to stay healthy and fit? Well, there's thousands of reasons as compared to losing the plot and letting it all go, apart from the fact that how hard is it to get it back? You know, anybody who's done Pre season training will attest to the question they have in their brain is why did I not do something in the interim? So being adaptive and being prepared to change tack instantly is, is a rule that I want people to have in their minds. Things could change at any minute and if you're not making the most of what you're doing at the moment, then you might not have an opportunity. We might have a 5k radius. Again, who would know? I mean, England and America, you know, they're pretty much shut down again. Well, America's not even bothering, but England's trying to. And, and they've gone back to, you know, it's January and, and we said in March. Oh, you know, everything will be back to normal in November, December. Well, back to normal. No, you know, the whole of UK is shut down in January that they're talking now. We could be okay by December of 2021. That's a whole another year of, of so. So while we can make the most of the opportunities, but be adaptive and be prepared to adjust and change the goalposts.

Perfect. Leading us into point number two, which is with your ability to react the way you want, control the controllables.

Yeah. And I think it comes back to the mindset again. We can think about things in any way we like and that will determine what we do. If we have a poor outlook, our performances or our daily journey will reflect that. But if we're trying to set standards and set a plan in place, our daily routine will reflect that as well. You know, you choose the pathway. We've talked about this so much. You're in charge. Your mental approach has such an important influence on everything that happens in day by day, hour by hour of your journey through life. So, you know, no one's forcing you to do anything each day and you can do nothing each day if you particularly choose to. And there's people who choose that route or there's people who are extreme and try to fit a whole year into one day. So controlling the controllables is more about, well, what have I got control over here? I've got control over the activities that I want to do. The amount of time I spend reading in the garden, working on a project, training, if it's holiday mode, relaxing, there's so many choices you have that you can control. And then there's the things that you can't control, like the weather. You have no control over the weather. The state of the coronavirus, you have no control over that. Whether the race you're planning to do is on or off, you have no control over that. So don't worry about those things. Just keep concentrating on your journey, the day by day, step by step, things that you have a decision you can make. I'm going to train today. I'm going to rest today. I'm going to eat well today. I'm going to get good sleep. I'm going to get good recovery. I'm going to do some reading. You have control over all those things. You make those decisions and they're the things you should be focusing on, not spending your day. Oh, what happens if there's no race and talking about it with other people and just harping on the negatives? Just try to get that focus mindset the other way and, boy, what a more relaxing day you'll have if you know that this is my plan for today. And something might go wrong with one of those plans. Point number one, be adaptable with it and adjust and change and you'll have a pleasant experience. Rather than the question most people say when they greet each other is, hey, how you going, Jordan? It's not really a question you want an answer to and people have got the wrong mindset. They'll answer that question. Not very well, Jord. Things are going bad. I got stuck at the border. I didn't, you know, I couldn't. All the negative excuses. Whereas the person who's in control of their day will go, great. All good. How about you? You know, if you want to start talking about the negatives, you're already in the wrong mindset, I feel. So that's a good test for me, is if I have to hesitate when someone says to me, how you going? And I've got to consciously say, yeah, yeah, good. Even though I'm not going that well. That's, that's a, you know, it's an interesting one because I'm already. My mindset is talking about things I can't control, whereas I should be just talking about. Yep, got a great day planned. Hopefully I can get some training done, you know, go out for lunch or whatever, you know, meeting some family. I'm going to try and read a book. You know, they're the things that you, you're. You're totally in charge with.

Yeah, I would challenge that as well because I really like that mindset of controlling the controllables and, yeah. Focusing your energy on, on the stuff that you can actually change. Because what happens if you focus all your energy on what the government's going to do about. About COVID or about the weather? You just it's just futile. We're wasting energy on something that is going to have no, you can't change anything. But on that same note, there's a fine line between focusing on parts of the day that are going to help you and avoiding things that aren't going well. So we would never want anyone to just say things are great when they're not. If they're avoiding the problem, you can't just put on a happy face and pretend it's all fine.

Definitely not. And we're going to talk about that.

I read a great article over the new year by this guy who actually surveyed a lot of people about how their 2020 was. And he had such a wide range of responses from best year of their life to worst year of their life. And one of the themes that came up was talking about this kind of mindset, controlling the controllables and where you decide to put your energy in focus. And he used an example for the answers he got. He used an example from the Nazi camps in Germany in World War II, how the people that survived. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that the optimists actually did the worst because they kept thinking that it'll be fine, it'll be fine. And then when it kept not being fine, you're in the worst conditions possible in those Nazi camps. You could not get anything worse as a human. And yeah, the optimists who kept thinking it was all fine would crumble because it just, it kept every day not being fine and they couldn't handle it. Whereas the more realists who. And their piece of advice is hope for the best, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, did the best because obviously they wanted to get out and survive, but they were prepared for the worst. They were prepared for the fact that each day was going to be the same, it wasn't going to get better. And. And that was a more realistic approach. And it was the same thing with the COVID pandemic last year. You saw the people who were too optimistic about it and thought, oh, it'll be fine tomorrow, eventually crumbled because it just never came. You know, it was just relentless. Whereas if you accepted the fact that it was probably not going to get better anytime soon, you hoped it would, and when it did, it was great. Again, you're not being pessimistic about it. I found that really powerful to read about and reflect on from last year and re ties in with this controller controllable.

I think it's a really good point and I've always said for everything bad that happens to me or you or in the world, there is something good that can come out of it. You've just got to find it. And it's really hard to find a positive out of a negative. And I don't. I really dislike the over the top positive person where they're just absolutely talking through their bum about how good things are and it's fake. You know, I'm not saying that in what I was saying before. You know, I'm saying in my mind. You know, I don't want to burden this person with my negativity. That's what I'm trying to say.

Yeah.

So it, it instantly sparks in my mind. Things aren't that good, are they? When they say, how you going? And I go, geez, things aren't that good. But I'm gonna say, it's okay, I'm fine. But it's really made me think about, geez, I need to actually fix up some of the things that aren't going so well because it's actually worrying me. And when that does that, it starts to create stress. And then that has such an effect on your day to day living. You can't live with stress day to day because you will crumble. But looking backwards, it's easy in hindsight all the time. There are so many positives that come from bad experiences, but it's hard find them in the middle of the jungle when everything's going crazy around you, people have lost the plot around you. Where's the positive in this that I'm supposed to be finding? But if you, if you just stay calm and, and think about things that you know well, the people who actually chose to keep training properly, well, what they had, they had a science experiment going on in their house for three months where they just stayed on the indoor trainer if they were cyclists, or on the treadmill if they were runners or ran within a 5k radius of their house for one hour a day, you know, they, they only had that opportunity. So because they had small windows of opportunity, they, they took those because that's all they had. Whereas if you have the whole 24 hours to yourself, you end up missing those opportunities. So yeah, there's a lot to that. The positive outlook is important, but it has to be real.

And it's important to remember that. We are talking about this mostly in a training context. We're talking about this podcast. It's how to get better as a triathlete and cyclist. But it's funny how it always ends up being a bit more about life in general because it's reflective.

Jord. You know, I've had many people tell me that, you know, if you put the same planning, you know, you look at some of the best cricketers or tennis players in the world, Djokovic, or, you know, his planning and preparation and attention to detail. When you see Nadal move his drink bottle, you know, when he's sitting down in between, you know, he's got the right drink at the right time and he's so regimented in his planning. You see people like that, you know, that's extreme behavior, but that's what it means to them to make sure they're getting the right outcome.

So that takes us to point number three, which is goal setting is still extremely important.

Yeah. And people probably bored with the fact that we keep pushing goal setting. But I do know there are very few people in the world who can sustain a program without actually working towards something. And good on them. If you can do that, that's really fantastic. And there are people who can. And their goal might not be a particular event or race, but it's just to remain healthy and fit. And I think they're probably going to be more successful than the people who've got races and goals because they've got an intrinsic understanding of what motivates them. And I was talking about. My training is based around longevity of my health due to my parents, you know, dying. So. So I put races in front of myself so that it makes me get out and train because I'm so competitive, I don't want to get on the start line under prepared. So put a race in front of me. It's going to make me train, which in turn is going to make me stay healthy and fit, which is the actual primary goal of what I'm doing, not the race.

Yeah. And one thing you always remind everyone is that it doesn't have to be an event. And like you just said, an event helps you, but for some people, other go will keep them going.

Yeah, yeah. And you've just got to find the why. Why am I getting out of bed again at 5:30? Just remind myself, oh, yeah, it's for that reason. So the why is so important. And so rather than saying goal setting, you want to sort of change it to, you know, why am I doing it and what do I have to do to get there? And once you understand why you're doing it, it's easy to get out of bed, it's easy to go training, you know, as I always Say the hardest part is putting your socks on. Once you've got your socks on, you're on your way to train. So really the goal setting, it's always there, it's a means to an end. It helps you motivate yourself because you don't want to be under prepared. It's like having a test at school. You know, you don't want to skip into the exam and you haven't done any study and, and there's no worse feeling than on exam day and you walk in there going, I know nothing. I know 50% of the course and I'll get 50% of the result. There's no way I want to get on the start line 50% prepared because I'm probably going to spend half the race by myself if I'm in a cycling race or walking if I'm in a triathlon.

So rule number four is one goal that you must set and this is what we think. So goal setting is important as well. Number three, rule number four, one goal that you must set and it needs to be self improvement. And that comes down to not comparing yourself to others.

Yeah, and I think this is a hard one for people because we're such competitive beasts that we're, we're always comparing where we are in our, in our group, in our age group, in our little community group training or on Strava or on Koms, you know, we're always comparing. You should be doing all of that but with yourself and using other people as goal setting targets. I want to be as fit as example in our group, someone who's leading our group. Julian Painter at the moment, I want to be at his level. So how do I go about that? I've got to concentrate on my improvement. Not just looking at what he's done, but each day trying to think, what can I do to get myself 1% better than I was last week and then another percent better than I was next week. These are the things that you should be thinking about and looking back where you've come from as to where you are now and where you want to go to. That's a motivator for me. Looking at data about obviously all athletes I coach is fantastic. But if I do it to myself, it's such a motivator to me going, well, I know there's some rides around the Dandenong, such as the 1 in 20 or the wall or Perrins Creek. They're just examples of local hills where I know what I've done from 2012 to 2020 Strava's got every single ride that I've ever done. So I know what's the top five, top 10, top 20. So they're comparisons of where I've been before and then putting myself up against it and almost pinning a number against yourself. Today I'm going to do a PB effort in the Dandenongs. I'm going to go to the 1 in 20, which I did probably four weeks ago. There was happened to be a race which was a great opportunity to put myself on the line, which I love to test myself, whether it's against others or primarily. I just want to see where I was compared to what I'd done for the last eight years. And I did my third fastest time in eight years and I hadn't done that time for four years. So it's a great feeling that, oh, far out. I'm at a level that's in the top couple of percent of the 250 rides that I've done on the 1 in 20.

Being really aware of where you've come.

From, being really aware of where you come from and where you're at now and in between what's happened.

It's funny that it's one of the most common things you have to do as a coach is to remind people where they've come from. Probably a part you didn't expect to do as a coach, but you're constantly reminding people from where they've come from because in the last FTP test they might have gone up 1 watt. And sometimes people are disappointed and they call you and you say you were 60 watts lower six months ago. You know, yeah, of course you're going to slow down at some point, but know where you've come from and always remember that so that you can. You don't get caught up in just the now and exactly what's happening now.

Yep. And on that point, I can see people in the bunch improving if I'm riding with them or if I can see someone who's just in their bunch ride. And I can see that previous six months they've got dropped in this particular bunch and now they're keeping up. Well, that's a definite example of the bunch generally doesn't get any slower or faster. It generally stays the same. That's the problem with bunch riding. But for you in the bunch of, if you're moving up the bunch and being able to hang on, that's self improvement. So the goal of self improvement, comparing yourself with others is not what we're trying to Push here. But comparing yourself with yourself in that bunch ride, where was I before? Where am I now? Sure, there's people still smashing you in the bunch ride. And that's the thing that I want people to stop focusing on is I'm still not the best in that bunch. Well, you'll never be the best in that bunch. You've just got to try and improve till you get to a point where it might take seven years before you. You know, I had an example of one of the guys who goes on holidays up to port, Port Stevens. And you know, when he first joined us, he was at the back of that bunch. Now he, he's too good for that bunch in two years. And the, you know, how, how the mindset of that has changed for him. You know, he needs to move to a bunch that's harder or do harder efforts in that bunch somehow to get the most out of that ride. But it's, you know, it's an example of someone saying, oh, I don't think I'm, I'm improving that much, but look where you were. So it's always good to look back and then to look forwards. Yeah.

To summarize, it's, I mean, focusing on self improvement, you'll end up being bitter and compared to everyone else everywhere anyway. But if you're just focusing yourself, you don't need to worry about that comparison because that comparison will cause more stress more often.

Yes. And I do have examples of people who have improved out of sight in the bunch. And the first thing they say when I contact them is, how'd you go with the bunch today? Ah, they still smash me, but I didn't get dropped today. That's not what they're saying. I'm saying, did you get dropped? No, I didn't, but they've thought about it wrong. Yeah, that's an improvement.

Yeah, good. Rule number five is get the basics right. So in a perfect world, we want to do the 1 percenters, we want to do the extras. We've spoken about this, but I think you really want to put the focus on people to make sure you're getting the fundamentals right first.

Yeah. And I've always encouraged people to do the 1 percenters, and we've had a whole podcast on 1 percenters, and they are so important. And you yourself have even used the example of in your running program. I can't actually do my running program properly unless I concentrate on my structural core training so that I can run with no possibility of pain or injury. So getting the basics right. If that's part of your routine for the week, you need to not miss that 1 percenter. But what I'm also trying to get the message across is don't do all the 1 percenters and miss the basic program. So, oh yeah, I did my strength, I did my stretching, I did my foam massage, but I only did three out of the eight sessions. But I got all the 1 percenters in. So you've missed the point there. You need to do the basic program first and then add the 1 percenters. And in your case, as an extreme outlier, you can't run without doing that 1 percenter. So you need to, that's part of your program. So, so I'm finding people are not able to do the basic program and then trying to add other stuff in. Let's just get the basics right first and then once you've got that under control for 28 days becomes a habit, then the body can adapt and adjust to the next thing that you want to throw at it, which is, you know, three days a week doing some strength and conditioning, you know, foam rolling each, each day, after each effort. You know, they're all things that are important. But, but if you're going to do half the program, but you've, you've nailed the 1 percenters, you're not actually going to be better off. You, you, you're going to actually go backwards. So don't do the 1 percenters at, @ the expense of the program is what I'm trying to say. So get the basics right first, then add the other stuff because you can.

Start to overwhelm yourself and make it too complicated and then, yeah, it just feels like you've got too much to do and then you don't do anything. When really you just need to get the basics right first and the other stuff can come.

Yeah, and we've said so many times, you know, if I've only got 40 minutes and your program says an hour and 15, do a five minute warm up, a 40 minute hard effort and get off the bike with no warm down, rather than saying, I can't do an hour 15, I'm not going to do it at all. That's an example of someone who's not understood about getting the basics right. You can find 20 minutes to do something. There is no excuse you're going to waste 20 minutes getting ready for bed, go to bed 20 minutes later and do 20 minutes of some sort of activity. There is no excuse in. We're awake for probably 12 to 14 hours a day. So 20 minutes out of that time, from start to finish, there's got to be a time where you can fit in something. It's going to be more beneficial for you anyway. You'll be better functioning throughout the day if you can actually do some release activity because you go away from the desk and go back to the desk refreshed. There's so much evidence telling us that that's the fact.

Yep, yep. That takes us to ties in with rule number six, which you're really big on this and I think you really want to get this message across to people is be more balanced.

Yep. And, oh boy, you know, the Christmas experience is the extreme example, isn't it? The overeating, the indulge, the extreme indulgence, which is terrific, as long as it's not going to happen for two or three weeks during that period, because you're just going to undo everything you've done the whole year. You've gone into Christmas weighing 80 kilo and you come out of Christmas weighing 84. Very disappointing because you've worked the whole year to get from 84 to 80, and then within the space of three or four weeks, you just let yourself go again. So have fun at Christmas. We've always said that, have fun at New Year, have fun on your holidays, but don't forget to get the balance right. You know, have a beer or two, have a wine or two, it's fine. I'm not saying for people to abstain, you know, but you don't have to have 50 or five, you know, just have one or two and make sure you're doing it in conjunction with some activity and you're not overeating. So the balance is just not in terms of nutrition, it's in terms of your program that you're just not saying, okay, I'm going to do 20 hours of training in the next week, seven days, you know, and, and the Rapha 500 is one of those things that really frustrates me because it's a competition to see who can ride the most kilometers in five days. So you're meant to ride 500k in five days, but I think the record something like 3500k in five days, which is just you're spending pretty much five days of eight to ten hours on the, on the bike each day, which I just think is a really dangerous thing to do.

So extreme.

It is too extreme and, you know, you want to avoid that, that extremeness. So the balance thing is, you know, we say all last year, you know, if you're going to be extreme. Guess what? It's unsustainable and you'll fail.

It's especially prevalent with New Year's resolutions, isn't it, where you set extreme New Year's resolutions and it just sets up the year wrong when you should be aiming for more balance.

Yeah, I just, I love the fact that people have stopped and thought about, I want to change something in my life that's a really positive step. But don't go to the extreme. You know, change something that that's worrying you, but set it up so that it's manageable. And don't set yourself up for failure because that's actually worse. You might as well not have had a New Year's resolution and kept going with what you were doing because you're actually going to have a really negative outcome. Yeah.

When you say, I'm not gonna, I'm just gonna cut out all this junk food for the entire year or you know, it's just not moderation. You're probably most likely going to eat something, some sort of junk food for the year. So have a more moderate goal.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, you can set rules in that. You can, you know, call it what you like. Okay. Every 13th day I'm gonna have a cheat day where I'm allowed to eat whatever I like and drink whatever I like. And that's my rule. So subconsciously you're creating an opportunity for you to have an outlet and therefore you don't need to muck up the other 12 days and you can live nice, balanced, healthy lifestyle and have an extreme day one day. I don't mean extreme as to eat and drink yourself silly, but just to, you know, it's great to form a habit and we know that, you know, 21, 28 days of consistency creates a habit. And you know, once you've done that, then it's okay to be relaxed and enjoy the moments that are important. It doesn't have to have moments, enjoyment, doesn't have to have alcohol in it. But if that's what you do and you like to do, then it should have alcohol in it, you know, enjoying a moment. You don't have to over overindulge in eating, but if that's what you like to do and something you've stopped yourself from doing, then enjoy that, that day. That would be, that's an example of having balance where you know, you're just not making it where you're going to fail.

Yep, yep. That's a good way to finish off and we actually had a bonus rule, so we said six rules, but there's actually a seventh. And this really ties in with almost everything we've said, but especially that last point of, you know, if this is something that you like doing, do it. So this rule is don't do things that you don't want to do this year.

Yeah. And I think that's the thing that I've really come to understand a little bit more. It's one of the things I've learned, and I love it when I learn something new each day or each year. And I'm disappointed if I don't learn something when I wake up every day. As, you know, the stuff I'm learning from the younger generation in terms of technology, it's brilliant. If I learn something more about how to do a spreadsheet better, it's a win. But certainly what we're talking about here is if you've selected something that you're not enjoying, you won't be successful at it. So my advice is to not do it. So don't just go through the motions. You must have a passion for what you're selecting to do. And I'm talking about if you want to do a coached program towards an event and you are passionate about it, you will do well. You will have the right program, you'll have the right balance, you'll have all the help you need to get to that race day. But if you're sitting in a. In a bar or a cafe or a pub and everybody in the group's doing that, I'm using Three Peaks as an example just to give people an idea of what I'm saying here. Yeah, yeah, let's do that. And you're going in your own mind. I don't know. But everybody's doing it, so I might as well do it as well. And. And you sign up for that, but instantly you haven't got the passion or the desire, really. You're just doing it for the wrong reason. The why is wrong. The why is because everybody else is doing it. That's not a reason. You've got to have your own motivation. So if you're doing it for the wrong why, you will instantly fail. It will become a chore and you'll hate it, and pretty much you'll give up. And you possibly won't go back to doing the sport that you actually enjoyed. Whether it's cycling or triathlon or swimming or running. It doesn't matter if it becomes. The minute it becomes a chore, there's a difference between training hard and training with a choreography. You know, I know, geez, this session's hard, but I know why. Because it's going to get me on the journey of improvement to my race day. But, geez, I hate doing this session. It's not even that hard. I hate doing it. That's a chore, and I shouldn't be doing it. The minute I start thinking like that, it's over, and I should stop doing what I'm doing and come up with some other plan, because you're just going to be a misery to yourself and everybody around you.

I think athletes are often shocked when they call you, and this has happened a lot over the years, where they don't want to tell, you know, Coach Jared that they're not. They're not motivated anymore. They don't want to do the race. And your first response, I think, shocks a lot of athletes where you say, pull out. Don't do it. You're always the first one to say, absolutely, don't do it. You know, if your heart's not in it and, you know, you really want to let people know that that's okay. If you've. You don't have to go through with an event just because you picked it three or four months ago. If your heart's not in it, if you decide that you don't want to do it, that's okay. I mean, you don't want to pull out for the wrong reasons either, but.

Yeah, and you don't want to be a person who's continually picking a goal and pulling out. You don't want to set that precedence. And, you know, if you're a family man, you've got kids and you've picked a goal, and the kids see you pick a goal, and then they see you start training and they see your planning. And it's a real good example for kids to watch their parents pick a goal. And it's not to win. It's just to go through the process and to achieve something you've set yourself. And, you know, to see you do that and then pull out, it gives a wrong precedence to. To your own mindset because you're forever going to have that. That easy option. If I don't want to do it.

I'll just pull out.

And especially if you see if your kids are watching you, it's just really, you know, so think carefully about what you set yourself is what I would. Rather than getting into that situation, don't put yourself in that situation to begin with. You know, be man Enough or woman enough to say at the table when you're discussing it, I'd love to do that, but there's no way that is, that's a 12 hour event. I'm not ready for that. Maybe in another year I could do that. But you know, do you understand what peaks is? It's four and a half thousand meters of climbing. Has anybody done 1500 meters of climbing in their training in the last year? Yeah, you know, you've got to, you've got to understand the magnitude of the event you've selected. So it is okay to change and pull out and be adaptive, which is what we said in point number one.

Yeah.

And you're, you know, it is big of you to be able to see that it's not working. But don't just pull out and do nothing. Pull out and change your goal.

Yeah, you're more motivated for.

Yeah, something that you can achieve. It's less, you know, what's the word? The standard is so high as an Ironman selection or a Peaks selection. Those two choices, they're not something you can talk about at the bar. It's something you need to discuss with the people who you're living with. You know, your family, your wife, if you have your girlfriend, coach, they're just so big an event that it's just not one of those things that, you know, you can just off the cuff say, yeah, I'm doing that, you know, do a 10k run, that's kind of more in perspective of or a hundred K ride, you know, around the bays probably. You know, and there's so many choices there. You can do 100k, 150, 200, 250. So events like that where it's not, it's not between 10 and 14 hours like an Ironman possibly is or a Three Peaks bike race. So they're the things that I think you just need to understand that if you lose the desire then it's not worth doing it. You need to not do it.

The statement itself sounds a little bit negative, but I think it's a really positive rule. Don't do things you don't want to do this year. I think that really takes weight off people's shoulders. When they hear that, they go, well, I don't have to do things just because I feel like I have to or because of external pressure.

If we have anything we've learned from last year is, you know, you never know what's going to happen next. And we don't. We literally, it's just so in our face, now we actually don't know what's. Whereas before, we thought we knew how the world was going. And so don't spend your time doing stuff that you don't enjoy. So if you're not gonna have the passion or enjoyment, don't waste your time doing that. Find something you're really gonna get into and love. Because guess what? If you've got passion and for it and you love doing it, you will be successful.

That's a great way to finish. And I think if, you know, listening to all these rules, my own personal rule would be for the year, things aren't black and white. And so with every rule you say there's a caveat both ways. You know, this is a rule, but it's not just this. It's also a bit of this. And I think that's. We do get caught up in trying to find answers to things and going, well, Jared says it's this way. But as always, it's not just that. There's a whole other side. There's two sides of every coin. And so for me, when I'm listening to all these principles and rules, that really applies because you can't just blindly go for one side. You need to know both sides.

So true. And I'm forever saying, you know, things don't happen just because of one reason. There's always probably five reasons. I can give you the example. It's always good to give an example of what we're saying. Changed bikes. All of a sudden my back starting to hurt. Is it because I've stopped doing some core work? Is it because the bike position's slightly different? I change shoes, the cleats. It could be one of those five reasons, but I'm not sure what it is. But it certainly frustrated me in the position I'm in. My back sore now than it's been, so. So it's not just one thing. All the time. There is. You've got to get to the bottom of what is. It could be. It could be a little bit of all of those things. You know, it's not a good idea to change shoes and cleat position and bike at the same time. And you need to really take notice of the position you were in on your previous bike, which is a mistake.

And to stop doing your core.

That's right.

Exactly.

Good.

That's a good way to finish off the first podcast of the year. Thank you very much for listening. We've got some awesome guests lined up for 2021, so we can't wait for you to hear our future podcasts. That's it for today. So we'll see you next.