Best of the TriVelo Podcast (Favourite Lessons From All Our Guests)

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. To start this week's podcast episode, I just want to talk about you, the listener and our audience. Our audience has been growing and getting bigger and bigger and we are so thankful for that. So I just want to say thanks to you, the listener, for listening every week to the podcast. Podcast. We hope we are providing valuable and insightful information to help you train smarter and race faster. And we get some unbelievable messages of feedback. We get people messaging us on Instagram or Facebook or even emailing us with either gratitude for the podcast, just sharing what they found valuable, sharing when they find a guest really valuable. And we get some really touching messages, which we absolutely appreciate. And I just wanted to say the best thing you can do as a listener for us if you like this podcast, is to either share it with someone that you know, share it with a friend who would also enjoy it and leave a five star review on Apple podcasts or any of the podcast apps that you get. If you leave a five star review and a comment, we would absolutely love and appreciate that that is the best way you can pay us back if you enjoy the episode. So getting into today's episode, we were chatting about the fact that our audience is getting bigger and bigger and we're getting a lot of listeners and we're speaking about the fact that we've had a lot of really good guests on this show and we wanted to review some of the best lessons we've had from guests on the show so far. For any new listeners that might not have heard those episodes, you can go back and listen to them after this. But we wanted to go through and just touch on some of the best lessons we've learned. Yeah. Over the last year and a bit of doing the podcast. And really every time we do a podcast with a guest, we tend to get some really valuable lessons because we do a new one every single week. You can forget what was really valuable about some of those episodes. So we wanted to touch on some of the best lessons and explore them again and use them just as a reminder. So we're going to get into that in today's episode. But firstly, our normal segment, which has become a really key part of the podcast, is the Gratitudes. And we ask you to ask yourself, what are you grateful for? And we've just found this a really positive and powerful way to get yourself in a good frame of mind when things might not be going your way throughout the week. So dad, welcome to the episode. What are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jordan. And I'm excited for today's podcast because I think it's really going to be fun and, and just a reminder to everybody how, how many people we've had over the journey of some 80 odd podcasts have had invaluable advice and yeah, that's going to be. I'm really looking forward to that. So my gratitude is just got reminded with one of one of my mates crashed this morning on his, on his bike ride and, and you know, the inconvenience of having a crash and you know, the seriousness of some crashes is, and other crashes are quite minor and you know, it's not a matter of if you're going to crash, it's when really. And you want to get the limits your losses on whenever you do crash. And so I'm grateful that we do spend the majority of our time injury free. And it's only when something goes wrong where you just get reminded again of far out. You know, you forget how good a run you're getting until you don't get a run and then all of a sudden your world turns and it goes in a different direction for four weeks or eight or you know, if it's serious, it's six months or a year. And I'm just grateful that, you know, we've had a period where, you know, things are going along okay. But I feel for the people who are injured or sick.

Yeah, definitely. And we do say this gratitude a lot when it comes up. But it is important to remember that every time you can train and you are healthy and you've got no problems to be grateful for it. And that's kind of why we asked the question in the first place. My one is one I've done before as well. But I actually am really grateful for the people in the city of Melbourne and the state of Victoria. Victoria because these lockdowns are tough, they're not fun for anyone and the rate of compliance is just really impressive to see and it's actually kind of special to see how millions of people all do the right thing by the community and stick by the rules because it really is a self governed thing. You know, the police can't check everyone and there are people in the minority not doing the right thing, but they're such in a small minority that it's because millions of people are doing the right thing. You know, the lockdowns are working. So yeah, I'm just grateful that a whole community can come together and actually do that. It's for me I think that's quite special.

It's a good one.

Moving into the next section, what has caught your attention? Dad, what's caught your attention recently?

Yes, and just following on that theme of, you know, the era, the period we are in in the world at the moment for the triathletes of Australia, yet another Ironman has been postponed or cancelled or moved. And the Port Mac, it was already moved from May to September and now it's cancelled.

It's the fourth time it's been moved. Yes.

So I really. It's caught my attention because obviously there's people have done a lot of preparation for their A race and it's really disappointing for them. And yeah, I feel for them. They've sacrificed a lot for this event. Not only in terms of finances but in terms of time and energy and effort. But then there's the hotel bookings, airfares, everything that goes with it, the cost of the event. And some people can't do another event later on down the track, but others can. But that's what's caught my attention and I just wanted to reach out to those people and say for every negative there's a positive and you've got to look at it that way and it gives you another opportunity to select another race down the track, another A race and you'll have more time to prepare. You've learned a lot in the preparation for this one. It's kind of six, still six weeks away so you know, it's. It's not the end of the world. You know, you still. There will be other races, so. So for some people it's actually a good thing because they're a little bit under prepared. But for those who are really ready and are training the house down are in form, that's a tough one. But yeah, it's not all doom and gloom. There will be other races.

Yeah, that's really a good point. What's caught my attention is quite simply the biggest event going on right now. It's the Olympics. Watching the opening ceremony reminded me of how special the event is and how much of a significant occasion it is worldwide. And I got really excited watching the opening ceremony and I'm really excited for the next two weeks to see the top athletes from around the world in a range of different sports all come together to compete in their event. You know that they've put in potentially four years of hard work for, you know, if you think five years. Yeah, sorry, five years because of the extended year. You know, if you think about Port Mac being cancelled, or how about the Olympics being cancelled last year and moved a year later, something that you prepared four years for has now been moved a year back. Yeah. I just think it's really special, you know, to see. See all the countries in the opening ceremony, see 205 countries, I think, represented at the Olympic Games, and so many different cultures. And it's really just. Especially with the year we've had to see all cultures of the world come together and convene in one area. It's just, for me, I think it's pretty special and I'm really excited to see the top athletes perform at that level.

It still amazes me that during a pandemic, the world's never seen anything like it. We're still managing to do the tour of France, we're still managing to do the Olympics. It's just incredible that life's still going on in certain sections of people's lives. And for other people, it's the worst period of their life in history. So it is kind of a funny thing, isn't it, that we're able to do sport yet there's people dying. So, you know, I'm a little bit torn on that one.

Sports, one of the things that can bring everyone together, though, you know?

Yes. Yeah. And I think in misery, you need happiness, you know, and if it creates joy and entertainment for people who are struggling, it's a good thing.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've had a lot of Melbourne mates talk about the fact that, you know, it's easy to do a lockdown when there's Olympics on, because you can. You get to watch sport race. Last year in Melbourne's lockdown, there was no sport on because Worldwide Sport was cancelled. So, yeah, that's a big positive.

Good point.

Yeah. And I was, to be honest, I was training inspired this morning, just thinking about the Olympics. I had a bit more energy to give, I think, just even thinking about it. So I just think. Yeah, with that regard, it's quite special. Moving into the topic of the Today, the meat of the episode, what everyone wants to get into, we're going to go through, pick some of the key guests we've had on the podcast and pick some of our favorite lessons. So we'll start way back with one of the more special guests we've had on the podcast. I mean, they're all special to us. But this guy, we were so excited that he agreed to come on the podcast, and that is the Paris Roubaix winner, Australian cycling legend Matt Heyman. So, dad, what was your best lesson from Matty Heyman when he came on the podcast?

Yeah, we've kicked off with number one being. Yeah, the Paris Roubaix race is one of the iconic races in cycling. It's probably the. I put it up there at the top 1, 2, or 3 with the world title, you know, the winner of the Tour de France and Paris Roubaix is probably my three favorite races.

Or forgetting Flanders. But. Yes.

Yeah, and Flanders is next. But. But yeah, it's. It's just something unique about that race and finishing the velodrome, the. And all of that stuff, and it's one of those ones that all riders want to win, and for an Aussie like Matty Hayman to win it, and the way that transpired from crashing, breaking his collarbone, jumping on Zwift, training the house down in the garage on his Swift, not going outdoors, not getting the races that he needed to do into his normal program, but just doing, you know, literally six weeks of Zwift training, that in itself was quite incredible to. You would be questioning yourself when you're in the race. You know, have I done enough preparation? But the layers of years of his racing experience and fitness, it was probably a good thing that he didn't train so hard, and he was probably a lot fresher for this particular race. And the way he raced was. Was just. He did everything well. Even when he made a mistake, he covered his mistake and got back. And for those who don't remember that race, he ended up coming into the velodrome, which I happened to be in the velodrome that year, which was pretty special. And I was watching that race live, and he came in with Tom Boonen, who is about to break the record for the most Paris Roubaix wins. He's in the. The velodrome with, you know, the guy who's odds on to win, and he beats him, you know, and the look on Tom Boonen's face when they finished and crossed the line was like, what just happened to me? I just got done by someone who I shouldn't have lost to. And the whole story. And Matt's such a humble person, and the way he was on our podcast was so open with, you know, inspirational almost with the tips he was giving us and that, you know, you know, the stories and the things he talked about were, you know, every time you get an opportunity, you've got to take it. And it's a theme, theme that we talk about a lot.

It really puts Zwift on the map, didn't it? Kind of the fact that indoor training can allow you to perform at the absolute top level. So pretty special in that regard. My biggest point was. Biggest point. But one of the best lessons I thought that he said, which is a little bit unique, that because when we spoke to him, the lockdown was really just starting and he really spoke about how even the pros don't sacrifice the balance with their families. And one of the messages coming from the Green Edge team now Team Bike Exchange to all their riders was, you know, have some balance in your life. You know, there's a lot going along, there's a lot going on in the world right now. You need to not just make cycling the number one thing, you need to have balance with other things in life. And we talk about that a lot with the age grouper that, you know, triathlon or cycling can't rule your world. But even the pros need balance to perform well. So that was one of the biggest lessons, lessons I took. Next guest we had on was Dr. Mitch Anderson, who we really dived, dove into a lot of things that he's done in his career. Elite Ironman athlete, but mainly he broke the 12 and 24 hour world record which I think just recently got broken. I think the 24 hour world record just got broken last week, which is coincidental. The guy rode over a thousand kilometers, I think. I don't know if it's verified, but yeah, a thousand kilometers in 24 hours. But Dr. Mitch talking about that was, it was a two part episode because it was so jaw dropping. So dad, what was your biggest lesson from Dr. Mitch?

Yes, and what an inspiring character Mitch is to do what he's done in his life and not just for those, those world record rides and his Ironman, but you know, you know, the way he, he trained as a, as a professional triathlete while at the same time studying to be, you know, a doctor. And all the things that he put on hold and tried to get a balance in his life. And I still vividly remember watching him finish the 12 hour ride. He was doing it in a circuit down in the city around South Melbourne. And seeing him get off his bike, crawl off his bike and slump in a seat, but knowing that he'd broken the world record, the, the satisfaction on his face, but the sheer agony on his face of what he just put himself through was really a little bit shocked. I was a bit shocked at. I knew that it was a difficult thing that he just achieved to ride at that speed. I think we wrote 42Ks an hour for 12 hours. I can do that for five minutes, maybe. And what he would have had to go through for 12 hours to achieve that performance and what it took out of him, his face, to me, was it said a lot of it said a lot about the last 12 hours. And the determination, I suppose, that he shows was inspiring, obviously, the preparation and everything. But on the race day, it's okay to do all your preparation, but you've still got to perform on that day. And he did not flinch. His ability to focus and. And. And get his mind right to ride at that steady state, for steady state, that incredibly high standard of power and speed for 12 hours was. And then he went on and did 24 hours, which, you know, it must have taken a lot out of him. And, you know, I know talking to him later that he said it took, you know, months for him to really feel like he got his body back. He really. He amazingly pushed himself so far beyond what he thought he could. He could do. That, to me, was inspiring.

Yeah, that was one of my biggest takeaways from him, was just how far you really can push your body. And he just pushed it to its absolute extreme. But he could only do that with proper preparation. You know, he couldn't have gone to that extreme without the meticulous preparation and disciplined training that he did, and also mentally, the confidence he had in himself to really give it his all. And it takes a special combination of all those things to push your body that far. But that really shocked me, just how well prepared he was, how confident he was in his own ability and how he still had to execute on the day, but he just gave it absolutely everything. And, yeah, to see how far he pushed his body was quite absurd, to be honest. Yeah. The next guest to go through was the expert swimming coach from Effortless Swimming, Brenton Ford. We're good friends with Brendan. He's part of the tribalo business as well. Well, we get a lot of our athletes to use his expert coaching, and we've had him on the podcast, and he gave some great tips for all swimmers out there trying to improve swimming. So what was your best takeaway from Brenton when he came on the podcast?

Very simple. You can. Swimming is a different type of event. It is a lot to do with skill acquisition, and that was the biggest takeaway for me. No matter how fit you get as a swimmer, you will Improve to a point. But unless you're willing to change your technique, you're not going to improve where you could as a runner or rider. The harder you train as a runner and rider, the better you'll get. So the big takeaway for me is swimming is quite different. You can flog yourself in the water and probably get one or two seconds faster over a period of time. But if you're willing to think about the skill of the, of the technique of swimming and improve that, you could possibly get 10 to 20 seconds improvement. And that's the biggest takeaway for me from that whole podcast.

Yeah, it's really shows how much technique matters in swimming compared to cycling and running. It matters in all three disciplines, but much more so in swimming.

Yep, exactly.

And mine is very similar to that. My biggest lesson was the fact that, uh, technique is so important. But, you know, Brenton really highlighted the fact that you only need minor tweaks to drastically improve your swimming. You know, he said he gave examples of such minor tweaks he'd made to people's techniques that took off 10 seconds of their per 100 meter pace. So that is just really, it's really optimistic for people to hear that because if you're a poor swimmer, you can change that and improve just with minor tweaks.

Perfect practice. That, that was one of the things that really came out of it. The example would be if you're a golfer and you hook the ball, you know, and you go to the driving range and spend eight hours practicing and don't change the fact that you keep hooking when you go to play, you're still going to hook. And you know, that's the thing that swimming has. If you don't change something about your stroke, you're still going to swim the same time.

Yeah, spot on. Our next guest we've actually had on a couple of times and we plan to have on a couple of more times is Dr. Harry, our nutrition expert expert. And he's come on because he helps endurance athletes with malnutrition, both in terms of losing weight to be able to perform better, but also endurance fueling and getting your body to learn how to fuel itself better and be better adapted in endurance events. So, I mean, I could list 100 points that we've learned from Harry which have been super valuable and nutrition is always such a valuable topic because it's quite hard to get right. So what is your biggest lesson you think you've learned from Dr. Harry?

And because I've gone through the process with him, it was so obvious to me that if I got my body to the right shape and weight and fuel, if I did all those things right, I got free watts. It was just a game changer. Instead of being 73 kilo, I was 68 and carrying an extra 5 kilo on some of the climbs is very disadvantage, disadvantageous. And to do it as a lighter rider and still push the same watts was huge game changer. And. And so if you're willing to do something about that, you know, you're pretty much getting free watts. And, and that was just one of the many things that, that I, that I actually put into practice for myself. And I always talk about balancing things and making sure you're not extreme and you've got to be very careful when we talk about weight and losing weight, and it's important that you maintain a balance and get the right fuel and understand what are the correct nutritional pathways that you should be following. And starvation is not one of them. You know, you can't perform. It's like putting petrol into a car, you know, without that it doesn't go. So same with food, if you know you've got to put the right fuel into your body to get a better outcome.

Absolutely. My biggest lesson from Dr. Harry was actually just how he talked about, you know, our mindset as a society with food, and he kind of just said, I'm not going to put this as delicately as he might have, that we actually just need to toughen up a bit when it comes to food. You know, a lot of us are, you know, I find myself sometimes, you know, it's almost like you're addicted to sugars or sweet foods or a bit of junk food. And, you know, if there's a nice big pizza in front of you, you just can't help but devour it. And it's actually kind of poisonous to not have control of that sometimes, or to feel like you're not in control of what you're putting in your body. And. And he just talked about a bit of mental toughness when it comes to food and actually taking back control and not being at the mercy of eating without control. That was a really, really big point for me. And that's definitely a tough area to talk about, because if you go too far one way, it's not just about control. There. There is definitely problems in the world, especially recently in Australia, they're talking about a real problem in eating disorders. So it's not a very simple topic, but what you can control. I think Harry's point Was, yeah, you should control. So that was. That was my biggest point.

Yeah, the consequences of your selections.

That.

That's kind of what I think he was trying to say. We all make decisions and, you know, there are consequences with whatever decision you make if you choose. Let's face it, we are a society that's addicted to sugar. And that's just been the way it is since, you know, the seventies, since sugar, bec. Such an important part of our lifestyle. So, you know, you can still make those decisions yourself. The choices you make, there are consequences to those choices. So that's the way that I try and justify it in my mind. Well, you know, at this particular point of my week or day, I'm better off doing this choice rather than the one that I want to do. And that's totally in your control. And that's, I think, the important thing to toughen up from what you were saying about it. It's really helpful to think of it that way where, you know, sure, there's all these selections to choose, but there are consequences with this, with your selection.

Absolutely. One of my next guests, the marathon running legend of Australia, Steve Moneghetti. We loved having Steve on. He had some great stories, some great wisdom, some funny stories and some really great lessons. So what was your biggest lesson? From. From Mona's.

Yeah, I really enjoyed chatting to Mona, and what you see is what you get. He's so willing to spend time discussing anything for as long as you want. I really got that. That's a takeaway for me that such a humble human being and really wanting to help others on their journeys, as, you know. And he's, you know, he epitomizes that. But the one thing that, that really stood out to me was when we delved into his. His history of. Of racing at the highest level. World championships, Olympics, Commonwealth Games and local Ballarat sea races. That, you know, he was consistent and, and, you know, boringly consistent, as he put it. And that was his cornerstone of, of what made him such a. Such a relentlessly successful athlete who very rarely failed. You know, you look at his career, he performed when it counted. He won things that mattered because he had this consistency that you know, always having his fitness simmering under that line so he could step up, step his training up to reach the goal, a race that he was, you know, preparing for. And we talk about that a lot, you know, being consistent, keeping your form just under the line and then when you need it, jumping up to really, you know, be a force to be reckoned with in in that, that race that really matters.

I can tell you trained hard this morning because you've got what we call the runner's cough, or in your case, the cycling cough after a hard session. I agree. He's the boring consistency he had for 20 years allowed him just to perform at the highest level for so long. And on that theme, my biggest takeaway was how consistently he raced and he touched on then how he would often do, you know, Ballarat sea races, cross country races in his hometown. And he just so often used the Saturday races in the cross country season as part of his training program. And sometimes when we're really hardcore in a training program, we're probably not racing enough. And we have learned this from the pros before that. The pro cyclists, when it's racing season, they barely train hard. They'll do their pro race on a Wednesday, pro race on a Saturday, and then in between, train easy. And so you can really use B and C races to your advantage and do them consistently to help get yourself informed. One of the next. Was there something you want to say on monitors?

No, I think you summarized it really well.

Good. One of the next guests we had was SBS commentator and ex pro cyclist Dave McKenzie. And again, great chat today, if he's obviously good on camera because he does it for a living. Um, and some of his stories about his pro days and SBS days were really fun to listen to.

Yeah, he had, he had such a quality as a presenter. He came across in the podcast, he was very smooth. And yeah, he's not only was a great cyclist, but he's a really good commentator and he knows his stuff and love listening to him on the Tour de France and anything where he commentates because his insights were exceptional and he understands, you know, he's been a winner at a, a Grand Tour. And the biggest thing that, the biggest lesson, I think was, you know, having confidence in your own ability. Pardon me? Having confidence in your own ability and then backing yourself in that is, that is one of the big things that he really hit home with, I think, you know, you may only get an opportunity once in a Grand Tour, like we talked about with Ben o' Connor and with the other Australian from Harry, Harry Sweeney. You know, you may not get many opportunities and, and the way he, he really just, you know, took off from, from the biggest group of professional cyclists, you know, in the Giro, and, and one solo was outstanding and, and backing his, backing himself in and, and knowing that he's just as good as everybody else and, you know, a young Aussie can, can just mix it with, you know, some of the, you know, some of the best riders in history and, and ride away solo and, and take your chance and, and, you know, have confidence in your ability. That was the big thing that I got from that.

Yeah. And on his Giro stage win, it was such an awesome story. And if you haven't heard it, go listen to the podcast episode. But my big takeaway from him was not being intimidated by your opponents, by the stage, by the event, and kind of what you're saying, have belief in your own ability. But he really spoke about how one of the big dogs of the peloton, Cipollini, was trying to control things and trying to intimidate them and not let anyone attack. And he went for it. And yeah, obviously you can come up against really tough opponents, but don't let them beat you mentally before the start line. You know, he could have just shied away and listened to him and not taking that chance, and he would never have been a Giro d' Italia stage winner, you know, And I actually just watched a video on Lucy Charles Barkley, because the pto, professional triathlete organization Collins cup is coming up next month, and all the top triathletes from around the world are racing against each other in this Collins cup format. And Lucy Charles Barkley, she's very confident. She's got a really healthy ego. It's not an arrogant ego, it's really healthy ego. And she said, sometimes I turn up to races and I know I've got these girls before races even started, you know, and she's quite an intimidating figure. She's an absolute gun athlete. She's quite tall as well. And so you can imagine that some of these girls go line up next to her. She's, I think she's over 6 foot, and she would just be a really towering, menacing figure. And yeah, they lose the battle before it's even started. And Dave McKenzie was a perfect example of doing the opposite of that and not letting your opponents get in your head or the, the stage or the event get in your head.

Yeah, really great points. And on, you know, to continue that point, there was, you know, the peloton was written a lot different to what it's, what it rides like now. And there were, you know, guys controlling the peloton, and I know teams control the peloton now, but there were individuals who decided, and it wasn't such a team thing then, you know, there were, you know, five or six really strong willed characters such as Cipollini, who would, you Know, almost stand over tactics of saying no, you know, you're not allowed to do that, you know, and Dave certainly, you know, had been yelled at in the stage and just ignored it and you know, the rest is history. And I think that's a really good point that, you know, your own focus should be on what you can control and not be, you know, not be influenced or intimidated by others around you.

Yep. One of our next guests was Olympian Dave McNeil and he's actually competing at the Tokyo Olympics. He's competed twice in the 10,000 meters and at Tokyo he's competing in the 5,000 meters. And he gave quite a Zen, stoic, Buddhist kind of interview, didn't he? Where it was, it was a lot about mindset, but again, took a lot from him.

Yeah. And at the time he hadn't been selected for Tokyo. It was I think a week before or two weeks out. And the good news is he got selected and he is in Tokyo ready to race. And we really look, I'm looking forward to seeing how he goes. So what did I take out of him? I, I definitely as he has, he's got an older, you know, he's an older athlete as a, as a 5,000, 10,000 meter runner compared to the guys he's competing against now. And he has managed himself so well taking into consideration what his capabilities are as an older athlete. And he's changed his program and managed himself so much better than just following the same routine that got him such success. And I really took that away that you just can't perform the same as you are as a 20 year old, as a 35 year old in terms of training. And look, I experienced that this week myself by doing a session last night and then trying to back up 12 hours later this morning. I really struggled and you know, 30 years ago that would have been okay, but you know, as a 60 year old it's actually not okay to do that. And no wonder. I struggled and I just forgot that, you know, I need to manage myself better than that. And that's the thing that I got from Dave was, you know, age is no barrier as long as you manage yourself better. And he's proven it. You know, he qualified against, you know, the best runners in Australia and he's at a world level and just through intelligent management.

Yep, spot on. One of the biggest things I took from Dave was just a reminder of how much mindset affects performance. Not just racing performance, but training performance and how it can affect how consistently you're able to train, you know, he really spoke about managing his stress levels, managing his training and race and performance anxiety, and he just gave the example which a lot of people listening absolutely loved. We had a few funny or cheeky comments from Tribalo athletes where he spoke about how he allows himself to enjoy beer quite frequently now, whereas most professional athletes would go a year without drinking or two years without drinking in preparation for the Olympics. And yeah, a lot of our athletes took that as an excuse to drink as much beer as possible. But, but I really loved just that example of how he's. He's used that the last couple of years to really relax and it's actually allowed him to perform better.

A lot we can take away from that, isn't it? Being a relaxed athlete and, and having the confidence in yourself. Pack yourself in and. Yeah, that's a great takeaway.

One of the earliest guests we had on the show was a big favorite of ours, and that was absolute gun, ex pro cyclist, still a gun age group, master cyclist, really good friend of the Tribala community. And that is Tim Jamison. And again, took a lot from him. He had some great stories. But what did you take from one of your, your great mates, Tim Jamison?

Yeah, well, well, Tim is a really good friend of mine and he makes me laugh because he knows how I love data and how important it is, and he loves absolutely taking the piss out of the fact that he doesn't use any data and yet he wins countless races. And I love that about Tim. And if you get a chance, listen to that podcast because it really delves into, no matter how fit you are, if you don't have the ability to race tactically, then you're never going to win any bike races. So you need the two key things. You need to be a tactician and you need to have the fitness. And even he proved that some races he wasn't that fit, but he was so incredibly clever as a bike rider that he would win.

And so tough.

Yeah, mentally tough. And he would, you know, you've experienced sitting side by side with him, not saying much, and the power is slowly ramping up as each 100 meter goes past. And not saying anything, not giving an inch, not losing a millimeter on the wheel beside you. And that's the sort of little mind games he would play, you know, And I just love the way he goes about it. And he loves his bike riding and he, you know, he loves to ride his bike. That's the thing that stands out to me, is whether he was racing or not, he just would, you know, go out for a five or six hour ride by himself and just, you know, totally love the experience. And the fact that he races and does well is an added bonus. But it was a reminder that, yes, you need to prepare properly. Yes, you need to have, have all the information at your disposal, but if you don't understand how to race, it doesn't matter, you won't be successful.

Yeah, he's a real crack up sometimes. This isn't my biggest takeaway, but two things stand out from him that just make me laugh every time. And after a ride he'll say to you, algeria, I think I got a power record today. I got 14 watts. Because he has no reference, because he's never looked at power, so he has no reference of whether he should be at 150 or 300 or so. He just says random numbers like 12 and it always cracks me up. And then, and also what you said about his love for cycling, he says, you could not pay me to ride indoors on Zwift. He said, if I'm not going to ride outdoors, I'm not riding. And it goes totally against a lot of our principles. At Trivelo, we're so much about data, so much about power, training indoors is so good for you. But he's totally opposite and we love that. Yeah.

And look, he calls the power meter a watometer, which even makes me laugh. And he says his little bit of cord, that I just know where to plug it into the wall so I can't ride Zwift. So one day we'll get him on it.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I don't want him on our swift races because he's too good. And this is my, this is my key takeaway from him, is that he's ruthlessly competitive when he, when he's, when it's time to race, when it's, when he's got a goal, whether it's a race or race further ahead, he's the most competitive person you'll ever meet. And he, he told the story of not just how competitive he was as a pro, but a couple of years ago when the World Masters champs was held in Perth and he decided he was going to have a crack and he ended up winning. And he just spoke about the fact that once he decided he was going to race it, he said, did I miss a six hour ride every single weekend or both days on the weekend for 12 or 16 weeks leading into that? No. No matter what the weather was, no matter how cold it was in the middle of winter in Victoria, he Turned up every weekend and got that ride done. And that was just an example of how committed he was to putting himself in the best shape. And he's not, he's not just accidentally fit. Yeah, that was my big takeaway. Yeah.

And as funny as he is as a character, the serious side, because I was with him in Perth when he performed and it was one of the special days to be around him, seeing him win that race. And I knew the preparation he had done done and he had trained the house down and he left no stone unturned. And, you know, as jovial and as jockey joke that he makes about it all, you know, that was the side that got him, got him the result and, and his ability to implement the tactics in that race. And he won the sprint, the bunch sprint, by 20 meters. And that's pretty unusual to win a bunch sprint by that much. I mean, he's an incredible sprinter, he's an incredible bike rider, but, but, but his tactician methods were, were just spot on. He knew the body language of all the other riders who was strong, who to be, where to position himself when you know what the timing was for the sprint and what he needed to do. And execution was brilliant.

Yeah. Another good friend, we had it on the podcast was Julian Painter, a really good friend of the Travelo community. One of your good friends, dad. And he's also an ex Olympian, which is a pretty special title to have went to the olympics for the 5,000 meters. And he's a little bit of opposite personality to Tim, but that's probably one of the best takeaways I had from him.

Most definitely Jordan. And we couldn't have two opposites, I don't think. And you know, it's great they're talking about Julian now because the Olympics are starting and Jules was at the 96 Atlanta Games and as a track runner, and here he is as an age grouper on the bike. You know, he won the national title at Ballarat in the time trial and road race just recently this year as a 50 odd year old. And his preparation and professionalism is outstanding. Whether he was an Olympian or whether he's an everyday cyclist, he leaves no stone unturned. And he's a very humble, successful athlete. But watching him go about his daily routine is something that we could all learn from his attention to detail and having himself organized at the start of the week. You know, I delivered the program to him and he's already worked out, you know, what time he's doing it, where he's doing it, and who he's doing it with and he's worked everything else around it. And yeah, I just, you know, watching him at races and getting there early and giving himself enough time and, you know, and really doing all the 1 percenters and, you know, focusing on his diet and his nutrition, you know, he contacted Dr. Harry, you know, and you know, he's done the strength and conditioning program. Every single thing that we put in front of him. There's no question. And he's asking the next question, is there anything else I should be doing? And that comes across in his results. He's an awesome competitor.

Yeah. One of my things from him is pretty similar. It's the fact that how level he is constantly. You know, you talk a lot about not being extreme in things and his personality is the opposite of extreme. It's just balanced in every aspect of what he does. And whether it's competing at the Olympics or competing at the national title or like you said, just doing a training session, whether he's talking about how he was at the Olympics or he's talking about a race, he's always just constantly level. And you think sometimes that to be a gun athlete you need to have a bit of an ego. You need to have a bit of a loose wire in you to give you that ruthless kind of competitive advantage. But you also talk about the fact that distance runners always have this kind of calm collectedness about them. And he exemplifies that, I think. And yeah, no matter what, what's happening, he's cool, calm and collected and he's very level in how he goes about everything. And I think we can actually learn a lot from that and apply that.

I think, Jord, when you're an endurance athlete or, you know, I'm not talking about the short, sharp events that you could do, power events. When you've trained for such long periods, you, you get a calmness of, I've done the work, I've really trained hard. You remind yourself all the time that, you know, you did do a six hour ride as a triathlete or as a cyclist and you did do some hard, high intensity sessions and you have this inner belief that you' done the, done the work. And you don't need to say anything. You know, it's, it's in your mind that you are confident that you're well prepared and that is the next step for people who are listening. Then you know you are doing a lot of good things, a lot of things right. And then back yourself in. Have the self belief, do the Dave McKenzie back yourself and take on the world as a solo breakaway and see what happens. And it might just turn out very successful for you. And Jules epitomizes that, that you know, an inner self belief of backing himself in. And if someone's better than you on the day, so what, you know, you've done everything right.

Yeah. The next guest we had was Dave Ross, who is a our local bike expert. We got him on to talk all things bike equipment and how to get the most out of your bike equipment. And it just reinforces some points we talk about a lot in this podcast. The fact that you can't understate how important your equipment is because apart from running or swimming or less so in swimming, because you can have a wetsuit which can change things, but running, it's mostly just your body and your shoes, whereas the bike, you've got this whole machine that you're trying to work with.

Imagine you are prevented from achieving your goals because of a mechanical malfunction. And not just that point that, that you know, something that you didn't take attention to, pay attention to, get, get sorted, cost you, you know, a master's age group world championship or the race that you've trained for a year for because you, you know, you really didn't look after your equipment. But also getting yourself in the right position so that you can ride as effectively and as fast as possible is also important. So having the right equipment but having yourself using the equipment correctly, they're all things that are completely different to preparing yourself from a physical side of you. As a fitness based program, you can be as fit as possible, but if you have a mechanical issue and don't win, the fitness means nothing. If you're sitting in a poor position and you're doing yourself out at 3 or 4 kilometers per hour because you haven't set yourself up properly, doesn't matter how fit you are, you're still not going to get the success or outcome that you want. And it was great to hear Rossy talk about things you can do in terms of body pitch position on your bike and the equipment you're using. And, you know, don't let that hold you back. That's the lesson that I've, you know, get the stuff right so that, you know, you can't say that I would have gone better had I had a better bike or I should have got a bike fit or, you know, I should have put better tyres on and I got a puncture. You know, you just don't want to hear those stories. You Know, at least as a runner, you know, even if your shoes malfunction, you can still kind of run. But. But as a. As a cyclist, you know, and as a triathlete, you need your bike. As a cyclist, you need your bike. And, you know, you've got to pay attention to these things and, and make sure that's not the inhibitor to your success.

Yeah. And look, for me, the biggest takeaway was just we talk about 1 percenters, and if you look at every little aspect on the bike, there's almost 20 or more little 1 percenters that you can improve with regards to your bike that will help your performance. And all these little potential gains add up to.

Yeah.

Drastically affect your performance. And I used to have the belief that, you know, I'm not a bike mechanic, I don't need to learn about that stuff. I'll leave it to the experts, I'll leave it to the bike mechanics. But, you know, Ross, you really reinforces the point that it's worth you taking the time to learn about your own bike, learn about your own position, because you need to look at your own. Your own setup, you need to look at your own seat height, you know, your length of position from your seat to your handlebars, you know, your crank length, what pedals using, what wheels you're choosing, what tyres you're choosing, the gear ratios you're having. Just all these little things are actually worth taking the time to learn about, because once you do, you can have confidence in your setup that you're getting the most out of yourself.

Yeah. And then applying it to what is the course I'm on. And that determines a lot about the equipment selection, you know, disc wheel, non disc wheel, the wind, the amount of hills, you know, the gear selection, as you said, determined by the course that you're going to race on. So equipment and position, you know, in relation to the course. So that was another point that he. He really, you know, we did delve into a lot and that was a really good podcast.

Last two guests. We want to touch on with some real key points that we got out of them. And this, the second Last one was Dr. Jordan Moncrief, who really came in to talk about the body and how to get the most out of your body. He's a osteopath and movement coach and we actually got some of the most feedback from this episode because the way he speaks about the body is quite different to what you've probably heard before from conventional physios or body coaches out there, or personal trainers. But his approach makes a lot of sense, and the proof is in the pudding with the type of athletes that he's worked and helped.

Yeah, just as we were talking about Rossi with bike equipment, if you use the same analogy as your body as a piece of equipment, if you don't look after your body and get it in the best shape possible, then you're not going to get to the start line. And what am I mean by that? You know, the minute you disregard the feelings that you're having in your body is the minute you're going to be injured. And if you're not looking after that and keeping it, you know, finely tuned with the right. The right activation, the functionality of how the body is supposed to function in any given day, whether you're a runner, swimmer, or a rider, you really need to be looking at out for that aspect and doing the work that's required. And, you know, my own example of chronic back, you know, and hip arthritis, and yet with his, you know, strength and conditioning program, that has been part of my life, you know, since the early 90s with another guy similar to Jordan, you know, Dr. Jim, and, you know, know, those things have enabled me to keep participating. And if you're injured, you don't get to the start line and it becomes all futile. So, you know, you need to be doing these things to prevent yourself from not competing. And I can't emphasize that enough.

Yeah, spot on. You always talk about that. One of the biggest challenges in triathlon is just getting to the start line, and, you know, you want to give yourself the best chance of that. And honestly, every time I talk to Jordi, I get a profound lesson in how to look at the body. So the whole podcast for me was just another example of looking at the body in a different way. But, you know, he talks about the natural process of how babies are supposed to move, and the more examples I see of the movements he's demonstrating and the more I look at, you know, we've got. I've got a new niece, your. Your granddaughter, and I just look at her postures and movements, and she just does the movements that he's trying to get us to do so perfectly and so accurately. I just struggle to do them. And, you know, I was trying to get back to that efficiency, and it's really quite powerful when you look at a baby, especially between 4 months and 12 months, and how they move and sit and crawl and everything is just so efficient. Yeah, it's really profound.

Yeah. And we talk about, you know, getting the right nutrition, getting the right equipment and just making sure that you're looking after your body so that it doesn't break down and giving it the best opportunity to function properly. And, yeah, it's amazing watching. Watching a baby grow up in the last year. They have no strength of muscle yet. They can sit, crawl, and stand within 12 months, and they haven't done any weight training, but they understand how to get around and how to have great posture, and they're the things that we can learn a lot from, especially from what we talked about with Joint.

Absolutely. And one of the last guests we wanted to touch on was a recent guest, which was a family member of Travello, Shauna Donnelly. And this was actually quite a tough episode to record and release, but we had a conversation, all three of us, about doing a podcast together because her story was just too valuable to share. And it was, yeah, as. As you'd find in the episode if you listen to it, quite tough, quite emotionally draining. But I just think the lessons that she talks about are some of the most valuable things you'll ever hear in life. And that can't be understated.

Yes, you're spot on, Jordan. It was a difficult one. I did struggle through that one. And, you know, emotion is an amazing thing, and I think it's. It can be very positive. And I really wanted to get across to the listeners that, you know, perspective in life, there is always going to be someone who's better off than you and someone who's worse off than you.

You.

And you've just got to really. It is a hard thing to do. We are so in our own world a lot where things don't seem to be going well, and they, in real terms, aren't probably going well. But if you bring perspective to everything, there's always someone worse off. And that might not help you at the time, but it is something that I think has really helped me. And listening to Shauna's journey, no matter what I was going through, it paled into insignificance. And she wasn't there to say, you know, I'm worse off than anybody else. That wasn't the purpose. But the purpose was that, you know, no matter how bad she felt, there was someone worse than her, and that she wasn't going to just sit down and say, oh, is me. You know, what a bad hand I've been dealt with. I can still live a full life, and I can make the most of the opportunities that are going to be put in front of me. From this particular point on, from when she first Got told the bad news and she did that. She's demonstrated that getting perspective first and understanding where you sit and making the most of every opportunity was really the message that I hope that everybody got and that, you know, there are people worse off than you, but it doesn't make you feel that much better at the time. But it's certainly, you know, it makes you feel insignificant at times when you're complaining about stuff that really is irrelevant to. Is it making you have a worse experience each day? Probably not, you know, but, you know, when you're dealt a hand like, you know, you may not live for another year. Yeah, that's kind of a real perspective sentence, isn't it, that, you know, we're not sure what's going to happen next.

Yeah, Yep. I totally agree with the perspective point. One of the other stories she told, which was just such an amazing lesson, I think, was, I think this applies to anyone that's trying to come back from an injury, anyone that's trying to start a training program from scratch, anyone that's starting at the beginning level in anything in life, whether you're losing weight or on some sort of journey. Her incredible patient discipline. The story she told of when she was learning to run again, how each time she went to run, she would go 10 more meters at a time. You know, it's just such painstakingly slow progress. And she had the patience and the discipline to do that. And most people would choose not to do that because you think, well, it's so slow, what's the point? I'll never get there. I'd rather just go and do two minutes and I'll add an extra five minutes here. But the ironic thing is that she got her way to run 10 and 15 and 17k runs faster than anyone else that tried to go from 0 to 5k or 0 to 7k. All those people that didn't want to do 10 meters at a time are still at that level where they might be running 2k or 4k or they're not running consistently. Whereas she went that slow and she got there faster. It's like the classic Tortoise and Hare analogy come to life. I just found that remarkable.

Yeah, it's a great point you made. And she was painstakingly patient. I couldn't believe, you know, the way she went about it was, yeah, what do I have to do?

Right?

I'm going to do that and nothing more and nothing less. And we're all too keen to get to the end of the journey too quick without doing the yards that count and and the preparation is the key to making sure that you bring your whole mind and body along the journey rather than trying to skip phases. It's like reading a book and going to the middle chapters without seeing the introduction, you just don't understand what's happening. You've missed intricate parts and therefore the outcome becomes unsure. Whereas if you've just done everything right from the beginning, you are going to be sure by the time you get to to the end point that you've, you know you're ready to perform.

That's a good way to finish. I think your voice won't be able to handle much more for this podcast. Thank you very much for listening. We hope you enjoyed some of the review and revisiting some of the great lessons we've learned from some of our best podcast guests. Again, if you want to get more lessons from them, go back and listen to the episodes because we enjoyed every single one and they're well worth listening to just to finish off. Just a reminder that if you are enjoying enjoying the podcast, please go and leave us a five star review and a comment on Apple Podcasts or anywhere that you listen to the podcast. It really helps us and it helps other triathletes or cyclists like you find the podcast. So please go and do that if you enjoy the podcast and just to also finish. Exciting news. We do have two of these guests that we just spoke about coming up over the next month on the podcast. We're getting two of the guests that we have spoken to before back on. So that's going to be really exciting to talk to these two guests about their expert topics. That's it for this episode. Thank you very much for listening. We'll see you next time.