How to Stay Easily Motivated In Quarantine

Hello to all the triathletes and cyclists alike out there listening to another trivelo coaching podcast. We are here today again amongst the craziness of the coronavirus. And we are recording this podcast today on a pretty important topic based on everything that's going on, and that is how to stay motivated in this quarantine period. In some positive news, we are in our new podcast studio setup.

Very exciting, Jord.

Yeah. Which we're excited about. And it's important in these times to look for some positives because unprecedented is the word that is being used a lot at the moment. I think it's the most appropriate word because it is a situation that none of us, no matter how old you are, would have faced, faced something like this before. And so things are changing very rapidly and things are changing hour by hour. And from the perspective of what's happening with the coronavirus, we don't know. We're just getting updates from the government, from what's been reported in the media, which tends to have a more negative view on things. It is worrying. But we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about something that we can control, something that we love, and that is training and exercising and specifically improving ourselves and having a goal and trying to achieve it. That's what we want to talk about today is how can we, amongst this craziness of quarantine, of lockdown, of everything that's happening, how can we focus on what we can control and go about that? So I want to start by asking you, dad, how are you feeling? Because you're looking at this through potentially four different lenses. You're looking through a family and friends care lens where you're worried about those around you. You're looking from a business lens where most businesses have been impacted at the moment. And you're looking from a coaching perspective as to what's the best thing for your athletes and what should they be doing. And you're also looking from a perspective of an athlete yourself, where you're wondering, what should I be doing myself as an athlete? So how are you feeling about all this?

Well, that's a great starting point because the last point impacts almost on the other three. The natural reaction for people when they're.

Under pressure is to come out either.

Fighting or flighting, which is a normal response. You either come out and stand up or you disappear into the corner. So the easy thing for me to do is to forget about myself and my health and my well being and focus on the other three. The Coaching the business and the family, but that will also impact those three.

Aspects of what's happening in my life.

And it's no different to anybody else if I don't look after myself. So that's the first point that I think is crucial in this period of we just don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So really focus on making sure that you're yourself in a good space. And then once you establish that you're okay, then you can deal with the other people around you. So that's my feelings immediately, is I have already put off some training for myself and the minute I go train, I get off the bike and I have instantaneous, clear thoughts on what I should be doing. Because whilst I'm riding, I'm not concentrating on all the issues of the world. I'm concentrating on my little effort that I'm doing and what power I'm riding at. And then when I finish, I've just got this. It's almost like an endorphin release where I'm happy with my performance. I've actually done something for myself and I've just got clear mind, clear thoughts, process. So, yeah, I think that's important.

Absolutely. So given that we've already done a small podcast with a coronavirus update on our thoughts on it, and again, we don't want to make these podcasts just about the coronavirus again, but it is the most pressing thing. But you mentioned just then about knowing that when you look after yourself, that has the most positive impact on everything around you. So what is. And that is similar to what I've heard you telling a lot of clients on the phone already. So what would you say to start off with is the most important thing that you think people need to hear right now?

Yeah, and that's also.

There's a lot of things you could say there, but I've had a really good think about that question. And in times of crisis, the people who hold their nerve are the ones who come out the other end in a better position. And I'm not just talking about training, I'm talking about your family, your business and your wellbeing, health and wellbeing of yourself.

So if, whilst other people are completely going negative and losing their mind, so to speak, if you can concentrate on holding your nerve, keeping focused on the things that matter and disregarding the negativity.

And trying to create positivity, control the.

Things you can control, get rid of the stuff that you can't control in your mind and using that thought process, you will be able to navigate your way through everything that's thrown up at you. So the old saying of, you know, while those around you are losing their mind, you hold your nerve and come out successful at the other end could never be so more important right now.

Yeah, I think I've heard you say that phrase, control what you can control a lot the last week. And it really stands out for me because there is so much that's uncontrollable at the moment. And we're all hoping that we don't get impacted directly through this whole situation. If we do, your health has to take a priority, your family has to take a priority. But what we want to talk about today is, given that's not going to happen, hopefully that doesn't happen. If that doesn't happen, what do we want to do with our training, what do we want to do with ourselves and how do we stay motivated to get through this period?

And that's exactly what we're talking about today. But just before we got a preface that let's put it in perspective. It is hard to understand how looking after your health and wellbeing is going to help you deal with the matters that are occurring around the world. But don't underestimate how valuable your mindset and your physical health will contribute to better decision making. So that's really important for people to understand. So don't let the things, as we said, that you can control, such as I can control whenever I want to.

Train or if I don't want to train.

So that's the first thing I can decide. Am I going to do something that's.

Going to help me stay motivated and focused with dealing with issues that are going to arise every minute, every day? Or am I just going to forget that and just try and battle my way with every decision that I have.

To make with real uncertainty and no clarity? And look, talking about it from purely.

An athletic point of view and forgetting what I've just said about the other perspective, things that are definitely more important, if you just look at it from that point of view. If you could possibly just maintain some consistency throughout this period, whether it be a three week period or a six month period, you are in a far better position at the other end. There is just no denying that fact. And how do you achieve that? And that's the one thing that we talked about and we don't change that from any other year, any other month, any other week. The consistency of your training will allow that to be the best outcome. And this is really Testing your consistency right now. So how can you sabotage your own consistency? Well, a getting sick. And look, let's face it, they're talking about 60 or 70% of the world's population, population possibly having the coronavirus. So the probability is that you may actually well be sick, which will derail your consistency.

That's a little bit out of your control. Of course you can do the correct things, health wise, hand sanitizing, staying your distance from people like you and I are at the moment and making sure that you're doing everything in your power to maintain your health. But the consistency will be derailed by or if you the fact that you get sick. So that's why we talked about last week in the podcast about not pushing the body immune system to the limit.

I want to follow up on that question a bit later, but that you have spoken about again. I've heard you say this a few times, that being consistent is the right choice, but probably the hardest choice at the moment that being accountable to yourself. Why are you saying that?

Because there's so many other things that are going to dominate your thoughts. And if you, as we've always said, plan, prepare, perform. If you have that motto, you can plan that. I am going to train today. Regardless of what happens in the 18 hours that I'm awake or the 16 hours that I've got for the day, I'm going to spend some of that time, whether it's 30 minutes or 15 minutes. And that's planning, planning your day and being prepared to make sure that you can fit it in somewhere. So that will enable a consistency.

So I love that. I love that switch of focus. And we spoke about this last week too. It's a bit of a doom and gloom because all the races are canceled. It could be boring training in hibernation for a while, but we can see it as a blessing in disguise to do something that we don't often get a chance to do. And you gave the perfect reframe. I can't remember exactly what you said earlier today, but it was, it was along the lines of we can't actually as athletes we want to improve and we don't have any races at the moment to aim for, but instead, why don't we just aim to be the best at building our base?

Yeah. So substitute your. Well, most of the athletes we coach, their number one priority is they want to get better at whatever they're doing, whether it's a triathlete, a runner or a cyclist. They just want to get better. Then they're not. They're not engaging in a coaching program.

To stay the same.

So how do we get better? We put goals in front of ourselves normally, whether it's on Saturday, I wanted to be at the front of the bunch for the first time in my life or I don't want to get dropped. That's a goal. Doesn't have to be a race.

Some people have races, some people have just that goal. So you substitute that goal for my. A goal is to be consistent to build this base.

And that's what I'm determined and motivated.

To do every day. What a great opportunity.

Far out. I can train this base the best.

It'S ever going to be because I'm not going to have an opportunity where there is no opportunity like this again. I can't ride with my buddies because.

There'S the distancing rule.

So bunch rides are out.

I can't go and race because there's no races. So what is my race? What is my goal?

What is my improvement? My improvement is to build this massive base. And we talked about the house base for building a house and the crappy little stumps here and there where you're doing a little bit of base training and most of it's all hard racing and eventually your fitness will fall. Whereas if we have the great base foundation, a massive concrete slab and we can build a solid house, same with building a great big base. We can have a solid preparation for when we want to race and train hard. This is the perfect opportunity because we don't have this opportunity normally because we're putting ourselves under pressure because we've got four weeks till the next event or eight weeks or the triathletes sometimes at 16 weeks and that's not enough for an ironman normally. So now there's no excuse. Our motivation should be totally focused on building the base. I'm a base building rider. That's what I get. I'm getting on my bike almost daily now saying welcome to the base building session. And I'm embracing that in my mind saying, great, I'm going to hold this wattage. It's going to actually suck a bit. But I know the purpose and the goal of it is going to make me a better rider. So I'm still achieving what we asked at the start. Why do we get coached and why do we enlist someone to help us because we want to improve or this is going to improve you. It just doesn't get the accolades that the podium does or beating your mates.

In the bunch does.

You're still going to get that improvement.

You will probably get those accolades in eight months. If you stick through it down the.

Track, they will come back in spades.

Because guess what, the people who lose.

Their minds and don't train during this.

Period, they're going to lose so much fitness. You're going to come out the other end smashing people, because you've maintained this fantastic fitness consistency and you know what a position to be in, whether it's in six months time or whatever, that you're going to be so happy that you've been able to keep the planning and the preparation the way you want it.

And how have you found the response been so far to this message?

Yeah, it's a good question, is I should have actually written down who I thought was going to answer and the phone calls and the texting and I can predict some people's personalities, those who step up and those who are kind of a little bit more timid and need direction. And it's really been interesting to see some unbelievable positive responses that it's been, you know, people are on board and then the people who are unsure, once I explain what their opportunity they have right now, the focus and their tone is like, oh, right now I get it. Because people will perform better when they understand the purpose and the goal of everything we try to do.

If you know that, then it's easy to make decisions.

And that is your rule generally is no matter what you're training for, you need to have a well defined goal, a well defined purpose and a well defined outcome. Clear goal, purpose and outcome. And that couldn't be more true at the moment.

Yeah.

And just because it isn't something that's got a label to it, then people don't think it has value. But as long as you understand what we're doing right now because of what's happened. We wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't the situation and the environment we live in right now. So it's a. Yeah, I keep saying opportunity. You take the injured person, you know, they've had a bike crash or they've torn their Achilles as a runner or their shoulder's done from swimming, they would kill to be training because the thing that they love doing is taken away from them. Nothing's been taken away from us. We still have an option to decide to train with consistency or decide to lose our minds and just bury our heads.

And I know that all too well. I've had two reasonably brutal injuries in the last eight or nine years that put me out and One was an ankle about eight or nine years ago and one was a knee three or four years ago. And in both instances I remember kicking myself when I was on the couch and I couldn't move, I couldn't train, and saying, I just cannot wait to be as fit as possible again. And you just, in those periods you don't take any, any training or your health for granted. You know, you, you just say to yourself, I can't wait to do long runs, I can't wait to just be at that peak fitness level and you get there from base building.

And you should be thinking, I can't wait to get on my bike or get my runners on to be a base builder trainer. I can't wait. This is my goal, this is gonna make me so much better. And we, no one's, we're not injured. And unless you're sick, there's no reason that you can't actually plan your day so that it fits a session in. And you know, for people who wanna come up with excuses, they're already looking for excuses not to train. So this has nothing to do with it. So if you don't have that motivation, then you know, that's what you need to question yourself for.

There's no doubt in my mind that the high intensity sessions, the races, are the most short term satisfying. They give you the most.

That's why we do it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

But when you, when you have that appreciation and that, that longing to just be at your best, you tend to just naturally love the base building because even though it's a longer term payoff, I know personally, when I'm in those periods, every time I do a longer session, every time I do an endurance training session compared to high intensity, I know that it is just building up that base level and that it's a slow pro progress but a process. But I'm gonna wake up in 12 weeks and suddenly be 10 levels fitter or whatever it is.

Yeah, because you've made that in your mind, you have formulated that opinion that, that the purpose of this session is going to be down the track and you're just ticking each session off because you know by the end of it you'll come out of it with such great strength and endurance that you'll be able to launch off that. So that's the message we're trying to say today is really how do you stay motivated in these, in this time of uncertainty? And you have the control over certain things and this is one of them.

So, so what is your individual, what do you say to yourself at the moment, what's your individual goal, purpose and outcome at the moment?

Clearly for me is the consistency. I, I'm questioning how much time I'm allocating. Definitely if, if I'm trying to get things like podcasts out to people information, it's time consuming more than it would normally be in a, in a normal day's work. But if I haven't got a plan at the start of the day, the training session is going to diminish in time. So my goal and purpose is each day to make sure I'm prepared for what I'm going to do for the day. And it has to fit into my day somewhere. And if that means it's going to be at 9 o' clock at night when I get home, or our office is at home, but when I get into my area to train, then so be it. That's what I will do because I'm motivated, knowing that this is going to help me be so far ahead of the pack when this is over.

You already have a fairly decent base, so how is that motivation for you when you're just going to continue a base building period when you have a good base?

Yep.

And don't underestimate how important the high intensity training and the competition that we do the endurance with intensity sessions and you know, our week is broken down, as all of our athletes know, into, you know, two hard, high intensity sessions midweek, one endurance ride with some intensity on the weekend. And for the triathletes it's, it's, you know, running with all of those endurance goals in mind with one reasonably hard run which's got endurance in it. So we already know that that's, that's what we've been doing to, to build ourselves towards our a goal or race. So now I am totally focused on just building as big a base as I can. I know that I have the ability to do some high intensity here and there because we know that the immune system can cope with it now and then, but we don't want it to be all the time. So really I'm focused on making sure my immune system is going well by exercising, making sure that I'm building my base that's already quite big. And look, I do feel bad for the guys who are in unbelievable form. They're the ones, there's a small minority of guys like that. They're the ones who are actually missing out if you'd say in, in performing at their best, because they are at their best right now. But I say to the other 95%, this is an opportunity for you to catch up. And for me personally, my base is as good as it's ever been. But it can never be, you know, it can never be underestimated how valuable an extended base period can be.

So on that note, 5% of guys that already have a good base are doing some high intensity sessions still. And even people who don't have a big base are still doing that. And so last week we spoke about high intensity. There's studies showing that high intensity increases your risk to sickness because your immune system function is lowered. We are very aware, and we spoke about this last week, that there are studies contradicting that. But the point isn't which study is correct or not, because you can find evidence both ways. What is the point?

Well, from a coaching point of view.

All the people I've been coaching for years, and I've been doing this since the early 80s as a coach of kids and athletes. And in my opinion, the person who's on the edge and pushes themselves to that fine line, whether there's a coronavirus around or not, they will get sick because they're on the edge. Our immune system, when we train that hard, and some people of coaching are that motivated that they train too hard and they end up getting sick. And that repeats itself. And there's athletes out there I coach before the coronavirus happened, were getting sick three or four times in the last 12 weeks because they were on the edge and not listening to their bodies and not recovering.

So this is a great opportunity to.

Not actually push yourself with the intensity so that you can actually stay healthy.

As long as possible. The minute you are unhealthy, then your consistency is actually going to be drained, which is going to be the disappointing part about this period.

But some people probably still can afford to do one moderately intense exercise session.

Oh, I've got no doubt whatsoever.

And we are going to program in this next period, not just base period training, we're going to have people doing some intensity and that is going to be in our program for sure. But we just want to pull it back a bit at the start, just to set the scene and then like everything we do, plan it out so that over a period of time we can introduce the intensity slowly so the body can actually cope and adapt. With such big volumes of base training, it is very tiring. In a different way. It's not testing your immune system from high exposure to heart rate. It's more just the endurance factor that can run you down.

Absolutely. So what are some of the other 1 percenters that people can focus on? Given that we're going to be spending a lot more time at home in lockdown, you probably have more time to train. You're not rushing through your session. So what can you do based on.

That if you're in that position where you do have more time available to you?

Certainly the sessions that I've, that we've.

Prepared, you and I have prepared, they.

Are based around people working 40 hours a week. So they have limited time. The first thing you can do is add more time to your warm up and more time to your cooldown in that session. So if the session's an hour and nine minutes, you can make that an hour and 30 by adding warm up and cool down at that power number in the warm up and cool down, not extending the main set. And we've talked about that many times in other podcasts. So that's one thing you can do when you get off the bike after you've done a session, whether you're indoor and, you know, pretty soon we might all be indoor, who knows what's going to happen? We might not be able to ride outside. If that's the case, get off your.

Bike, grab a towel, get on the floor, start doing some stretching. Stretching when you're warm is a great thing to do, especially to try to avoid stretching when you're cold where the, the muscles and bones are a little bit creaky. And we really want to do it when you're warm and there's blood flow and you've got more opportunity to gently take your time stretching, going through all quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors. There's so many things you can do and it doesn't have to be a scripted. I should be doing this. Look, at this point in time, anything you do when you get off the bike is going to be a bonus. There's an opportunity to do some basic core work while you're warm. You know, you don't need equipment you can use, you know, push ups, sit ups, chin up bar dips. You can use the back of a chair for dips. You can do hip bridges on the floor.

Any body weight resistance, any bike.

Yeah, anything you can think of. Side planks, front planks, you know, we've just rattled off six or seven things you can do that haven't really involved any piece of equipment except a chair and maybe, you know, a chin up bar. So there's lots of little one percentage that you can do. You can also start to Cook better because you're in your home environment, so your nutrition should instantly be better rather than being in the office situation where you have no facilities for cooking. You're in control now of your, of your nutrition. You've got more opportunities to sleep because you're not rushing to and from work and sitting in the car or commuting on the train for two and three hours a day. So you will have more time. So, you know, we've always talked about the 1 percenters. You know, you can self massage, you can do stretching, you can do core, you can eat better, you can get better sleep, you can drink more because it's there. You know, you're not under as much pressure because you may not be working. So there's a whole lot of things that you can actually introduce back into your program and take time to plan it. That's something you can do while you've got this time.

Absolutely. I know that with all the negativity around being able to train and exercise and then put some energy into trying to eat better, trying to stretch and do some extra work, definitely helps. Definitely keeps you a little bit sane. More sane. And it's almost a relief from everything that's happening. And that's kind of what we have to use it. Yes.

Yep. Yep.

And look, I don't think the foam roller is something I didn't actually talk about then. You know, you can just do self massage with the foam roller and you know, that's something that people don't have time for and now you do. So there's no excuse to, to be organized. So what we're saying is just be more organized than you ever were before and make sure you plan your day out so that it fits with all the things that are going to help you have a better outcome for each day and certainly exercising. And all of the evidence we've been told from all of the health experts is that it is not good to sit still. It is better to maintain some consistency in your exercise plan and we're providing it for you.

Yeah. Awesome. So I think based off all that, there is plenty enough reason to be motivated in your goals. It is not, there is no reason why you should feel like there isn't something to achieve. It's just something that we wouldn't normally give ourselves the time to do because we want to do the fun stuff and race and that kind of.

Yeah. And don't, don't forget this will finish soon. So you've. Don't think narrow, think big picture. The event might be November world titles in New Zealand that you've qualified for. It might be the Melbourne Triathlon in November. Well, what a great opportunity now to get all that base in, in March.

April, May, and, you know, a little bit of intensity being trickled into your program. So by the time you get to June, July, August, you're ready for the next phase of your program. With this massive base, you're going to be in a better position. So it's actually forced people to do the program properly rather than rushing it. So think big picture. This is the process we have to go through now, and that's the purpose. And that should be motivation enough that, you know, well, this is just normal process for what we're trying to achieve, and there's no way around it. We don't have another choice about going outside of these parameters because we know that that's actually risking your health. So we need to take all the precautions we can stay healthy and stay with the consistency. That's my motivation.

That's a perfect summary. So given all that we've just explained pretty much our entire mindset around this issue, what would you say to someone that says, I know I should be motivated and I should do this, but the stresses of everything outside are just becoming too much? What do you say to that person that just feels like it's a bit overwhelming.

Yeah. And look, we've definitely had texts already today with, with that. And, you know, from a coaching point of view, I have to deal with everybody differently, and some people react differently to different motivation. And the people I know that need a kick up the backside to say, what are you talking about? You know, deal with this and everything else will improve, and that's one way of doing it. But for some people, that is so difficult. So we have to be very careful with people's mental health and put it in perspective. And if people can't see what we're trying to give outcomes for, then that's okay as well. Everybody needs to do what's right for themselves in this situation. And that's really what we are about. We are here to help people, whether it's a normal situation or whether it's this situation. Our goal is to help you navigate yourself so that you can improve you as a person and as a human being, both physically and mentally. So don't underestimate the value that physical health has on your mental stability. And that's our criteria. That's all we're interested in, is making sure that we're getting the message out to everybody that these are good things to do that you can control and you will get a better outcome if you think about it logically like this. Like I said at the very beginning, those who lose their minds compared to those who keep their minds together and rise above the situation will have the best outcome at the end.

I think that's a perfect way to finish and I think that is our goal from Trivolo is to keep putting out as much information as possible that we think can help. We want to keep doing podcasts and help setting programs that are going to keep people motivated, keep people interested and really get through this period. That's our goal as a company and we're going to be doing a few good things to try and help facilitate that. We going to against your biggest nightmares, dad. We're going to jump on Zwift and potentially do some group rides on there just to get some social interaction while we're locked down.

Yep. So when we're talking about a week, we're going to do group ride.

Okay.

Because that is one of the things that is wrong with Zwift is everybody rides a group ride five days a week, which is the whole bane of our existence, is to prevent people repeating the same sessions day after day and therefore they stay the same. So we could use this forum to our advantage and if I can just get up to speed with the technical.

Side of it, for anybody out there.

Can help me get this companion Zwift going and we could all meet on a Saturday and have some fun racing against each other on virtual racing and no cheating on your FTP or your weight. So I've heard. So looking forward to getting one of those going each week. And I'm serious is if anybody actually knows how I go about getting us able to meet up at a certain time on a Saturday, then we're all for it.

I'm insulted that I've told you. It's one Google away. I just haven't taken the time to look with you. As soon as I look, we'll get it in a second. Fantastic. But that's it from us. We'll keep sending out as much stuff as we can. We just want to really stay as close as we can as a community to make sure everyone's getting through this as best as possible and yeah, really achieve the goals we want to and see if we can.

Everybody out there, keep your minds alert and all will be good.

Perfect. Well, thanks very much for listening. We'll see you on the next episode.