Nuanced. - 115. JP Siou: Pushing Physical and Mental Limits in the Spartan Death Race!

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Imagine being pushed to your absolute physical and mental limits, only to discover you're capable of so much more than you ever thought possible. That's precisely the challenge our guest, personal trainer, nutrition coach, and mindset mentor JP Siou, is preparing to face in the upcoming Spartan Death Race!Listen as JP shares his inspiring story of transitioning from culinary arts to computer science and ultimately finding his true passion in the world of fitness. We explore his transformation from "super lazy" to a dedicated fitness professional and the importance of building trust and creating a safe space for clients to reach their full potential. Discover the incredible power of physical training in building resilience and how people often surprise themselves with their inner strength.Dive into the world of endurance racing as JP discusses his preparation for the upcoming Death Race, using David Goggins' philosophy to "callous his mind" and keep pushing forward. Learn how his experience is inspiring others to challenge themselves, overcome adversity, and unlock their inner greatness!Send us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

It's the Bigger Than Me podcast with your host, Aaron P. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the Bigger Than Me podcast. As always, please share these episodes with your friends, your peers, your community. That's how we get the word out. My guest today is doing a death race. He will be competing over a long period of time until 90% of people who are competing in this quit. I dive into the topics of pivoting throughout your life, being willing to chase what's meaningful rather than what's expedient and how to improve yourself and improve others along

the way. He is now a personal trainer, mental trainer, and he supports people in reaching their full potential and recognizing what they have within them. I believe that people have greatness within them that just needs to be discovered, and so does he. It's such a pleasure to sit down with my guest today, J.P. Sue. It is such a pleasure to sit down with you today. Would you mind giving listeners a brief introduction of yourself a little bit about your background and the event that you have coming up. Sure. I'm JPC. I'm a personal trainer and nutrition coach and lifestyle coach and mindset coach. I coach a lot of different little pieces of the puzzle from Abbotsford, BC. I'm a 48-year-old

father of two and my wife is a really big supporter of me, so I have to mention her too. I'm a Freyna. And what I've got coming up in only three weeks, which is really kind of scaring the crap out of me, is the death race. So the Spartan death race, it's a pretty crazy event. Normally people are training specifically for this type of event for like a year, maybe more. And just through some lucky, I guess you would call it, circumstance I've ended up getting accepted into the death race with about three or four weeks notice. So I'm going to be tackling that

in Vermont at the Joe Descenae. He's the CEO of Spartan race. It's at his farm in Vermont. So what is entailing? We're going to dive into a little bit about your background, but just to get listeners really excited, what goes into this race? What do you expect it? Well, I mean, the event is basically about trying to make people quit. There is no set distance or, or time that the race goes for, it just goes until 90% of the people that have started have quit. So that's why, you know, if you ever go on the website, it says only 10% of people have ever finished it.

That's why, because they go until there's only 10% left. Races have gone as long as three days in the past, usually with no sleep at that point or very little sleep. You have to be pretty self-sufficient the whole time. Like you have to bring all your own food and all that kind of stuff to sustain you through the three days. And it's just a mix of different challenges, some physical, some mental tasks,

some that are like even kind of socially embarrassing sort of things. Like you gotta go up and sometimes, you know, perform something in front of, you know, the other competitors or other people while you're fatigued, like, you know, sleep deprived, hungry, tired, sore. So basically they just try and mess with your head throughout the entire thing and push you to the limit physically. Why are you doing this?

What is driven this decision to participate in something that sounds so harrowing? Like I always tell my coaching clients that they need to do the things that make them uncomfortable if they want to grow and improve. And, you know, I'm basically trying to go way outside my comfort zone. Like I don't do things by half measures when it comes to that kind of thing. so this was something like I originally it's kind of as I said stumbled into it a little bit so originally how I ended up going to Vermont not signed up for the death race was because I'm a Spartan certified coach they had invited us to a workshop at this military college in Vermont

on resilience and and like tactical conditioning that kind of stuff and that just sounded interesting to me. And at the end of that invite, it said, oh, and if you're interested, you can come and sample the first six hours of the death race. And I was like, oh, that'd be cool. Like, I'll never get an opportunity to do that again. So signed up for that. And then they're supposed to send you like a gear list of the stuff that you need to bring. So I was waiting for that to come. And then like a week, a week ago or thereabouts, they finally sent it. And at the end of that email, then it said, and by the way, if you, if you're at all interested in running the whole death race, let me know the email from the race director. So I was like, okay, I don't know why.

I kind of almost without any real consideration made that decision. It was just like, there's an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. So, you know, I emailed back and said for sure, I'd be interested. And so then, you know, on three in a bit weeks notice, I'm now going into a crazy event that's way beyond anything endurance-wise that I've ever done before. What do you think is the benefit of facing these kind of challenges? You tell your clients to face discomfort and look at that. Why? Really, like, and it's a bit cliche when you talk with a lot of people in kind of the self-improvement realm or that kind of thing where they say you've got to get comfortable being uncomfortable and that we've gotten too comfortable as people in modern living

because we have everything that we need especially you know we're really privileged you know where we live that you know we don't have to deal with you know famine we don't have to deal with really extreme weather although you know the floods and stuff last year were a bit of an exception and wildfires and stuff can be pretty bad lately but um you know our modern lives are so easy that i think it really messes with your head like you you don't you don't appreciate the things that you have as much when it's easy so in order to get that appreciation back you have to challenge yourselves in in ways that are kind of a little out of the ordinary right and find things where you push yourself, you know, mentally, physically, emotionally, so that you can

really get a sense of who you are inside. So for me, that kind of started with my first Spartan race back in 2015, where, again, I'd been telling my clients all along, like, I had lots of people that were coming in training with me from, like, you know, running backgrounds and stuff. And I was more a strength and explosive power kind of guy, and they were all complaining that, you know, the stuff that I was doing was, you know, not necessary or uncomfortable for them. And I said, like, you got to do the stuff that you suck at in order to grow and improve. And I realized I was being a total hypocrite because I didn't do any endurance stuff. So I kind of just Googled, you know, what's the crappiest endurance thing I can find to do? And at the time, it happened

to be a Spartan beast at Sunpeaks. So I jumped into that, again, with basically no preparation, no idea what I was getting myself into. And I went through a lot of physical suffering on that race. Like about 45 minutes in, my legs just started seizing. So I was fighting that for about six hours on the mountain every couple minutes having to stop and will my legs to keep moving forward. and experiencing that and realizing that you can suffer so much and still keep moving forward and still keep your shit together, right? Like not just completely lose your mind and break down because that happens to people

when you put them under a lot of physical strain. They'll have complete emotional breakdown. Like there were people sitting on the side of the mountain crying, like literally in tears. and I've seen that with every Spartan race that I've done since where I come across people on the race and they're giving up and then I always says because I'm a coach my coaching brain kicks in and I try and get them going again even if it's someone I don't know but that reaching that breaking point through

there was a there was a quote that's a term that someone used it's recreational hardship, they called it. So finding hard things to do physically gets you to that point of real struggle and suffering that we don't have in our daily lives anymore. It's a convenient but uncomfortable vehicle to approach those limits and then discover what that does to your brain and your mindset. I think it's important because there's this feeling that like the world isn't as hard as it used to be. And I think that that comes with a lack of self-respect that you give yourself, a lack of confidence that you have for yourself because you don't know what you're capable of. And previously, within my indigenous culture, we would have traveled from Alaska all the

way down to California. And that would have taken a long period of time. But there was no measure for what was an unreasonable amount of time to have to travel. Because that was the norm. And within our norms, we don't get to test ourselves in these ways. So we don't know what we're capable of and you see this a lot in the gym in this kind of safe environment people say this is my max yeah and they don't know because they don't push themselves and when things start to get hard they kind of pull back and go I don't want to hurt myself I don't want to push myself too hard that we don't recognize ourselves as strong capable individuals the same way we used to totally yeah they're because we're our modern lives we're always seeking comfort you know

it's hot outside turn on the air conditioning right like you know I've got to go I got on a long trip like I've got to go to the grocery store like forget long trips like my grocery store is literally like a two minute drive from my house or a five minute walk so you know most of the time in the past I would have been like okay I'll jump in the car and drive right and us leaning on the modern conveniences does really take away from the full experience of being being human and, you know, finding what we're truly capable of, like you said. You didn't start here, though. Yeah.

Many people look at individuals like yourself entering a race like this and go, oh, well, like, I don't have the time for that. I work a nine to five. I'm not doing a race like this. I've got kids. I've got family. I've got work. This is untenable for someone in my circumstance. And you're a unique case because this isn't your background.

Can we start perhaps with your culinary background and your original kind of plan for the future? Yeah. So, well, like, it took me a long time to even get to that plan, which then has changed. But like, you know, growing up like lots of kids, you know, I wanted to do stuff that people think is crazy. I wanted to be a race car driver. I wanted to be whatever, right? And, you know, I struggled to find some direction. And then at one point, thanks to my stepdad, who has passed away a few years ago, I was staying with my mom. my stepdad trying to get myself sorted out and, you know, upgrade school and stuff and then try to go to university at the time I was thinking I'd go and go and get a business degree. And while I was staying with them, I was cooking all the time. And my stepdad's like, you know, you obviously enjoy this. You're really good at it. Like, why don't you go into culinary? So I ended up going to culinary school. I'll start in culinary school. And, you know, I worked in restaurants. on and off throughout kind of my finding myself kind of time before that. And I did actually

really enjoy being in the kitchen. So, you know, I had professional culinary training. My intention was to, you know, be a professional chef going forward. And then towards the end of culinary school, which I didn't end up finishing because of some mental health struggles I had at the time. after that I met my wife and you know I was still then working in restaurants and and stuff and shift work working in restaurants with combined with the shift work that she does that didn't really work schedule wise and she was like okay well if we're going to be together you're going to find something else to do because we're never going to see each other so then I went from culinary to I was kind of a computer nerd growing up so

I had pretty strong computer skills. So I found a company that made, you know, a touchscreen systems for restaurants. And I got a job working there and support in IT. Before we go too far into that realm, I just want to ask about the experience with food because it's another one where you took the hard path. For most people today, McDonald's, subway,

the fast food restaurants, in part run their life. They do not develop a cuisine. a meal. They don't look at what blends nicely together. We don't have these same traditions that we used to when we're making a Thanksgiving dinner that we go outside of the turkey stuffing mashed potatoes. We have cultural staples that are a little bit predictable, boring, not unique. What is it like to look at food through a different lens than the average person? I think I was really fortunate growing up because both my mom and my mom and my dad were really into food and having a bit more of a diverse culinary background.

My dad's from a little island in the Indian Ocean called Mauritius, and we're like Chinese descent on his side, but the population there is mostly South Asian, about 80%. So I grew up with all kinds of like big flavors in my life where like most of my time growing up as a kid, I was in Calgary, which is about as, about as bland and like, you know, plain old steak and potatoes kind of mindset as you can get. So we were pretty weird, you know, amongst my friends and everything for the stuff that we ate at home. So I had lots of exposure to those kind of, you know, flavor experiences and different cuisines growing up. And, you know, like having experienced that stuff young, then really gave me an appreciation for more variety.

and you know the color on the plate all that kind of stuff so it's yeah like and not to say that i don't still you know enjoy like a McDonald's cheeseburger or something right um you know I'll still go for the for those kind of things sometimes but um because you know the convenience but also the predictability yeah right um but you know I still love cooking um favorite dish to make Oh, that's a tough one. What is your staple where people are looking forward to it? Like, if I'm making a meal that, like, lots of family will end up showing up for, if I make curry, like, I do a lamb curry, which is done kind of the traditional Mauritian style, like how I learned from just watching my dad and my aunts and uncles cook it. No one ever showed me how to cook it.

I kind of had to figure it out on my own when I got older. but that's probably the number one request if like any family member is like, you know, can you make me dinner for my birthday? It's going to be a curry dinner. But other than that, I really enjoy cooking Italian food because Italian food just highlights the ingredients so much because like the professional culinary training with like French cooking, things are super complex. You do so many different things to kind of introduce little elements of flavor where really good Italian food is like, you know, a really good tomato, a few other things, and that's it.

Like you have like four components to a dish. And you just bring out, you know, the flavors of those four things without super complex processes. So I like that. You know, it's kind of a weird combination like that and Indian food. Like those are kind of my two staples that I go back and forth between. that, yeah. What is one thing you think people are making wrong on a day-to-day basis or something that stands out to you where you're like, this is the norm?

Yeah. I think of rice. I didn't know you were supposed to sew rice for a very long time. What is something that stands out to you that some people are doing wrong or could do better? The biggest thing I see people doing badly is cooking chicken, like chicken breast because it's like a staple for so many people. It doesn't have to be like all dry and woody and tasteless, like, right? like people either cook the hell out of it or like it's super bland like it's not complicated um that

you know if you just season it just salt and pepper cook it properly it can be absolutely delicious what is the cooking it properly how long are you leaving in the oven or are you still topping it uh so for me what i like to do is with like what they call pan roasting so um i do like a pre-salt the chicken about like half an hour or so before cooking um so that the salt can kind of draw down into the meat. And then just pepper it. And then I pan-sear it in like a stainless steel pan for about three minutes on the first side. Oh, I should say before that, preheat the oven 400 because I finish it in the oven. So sear it on the first side for three minutes, flip it over and then put it straight in the oven. And then cooks for maybe, depending on the size of the chicken breast,

like another 18 to 22 minutes or thereabouts. And it comes out perfect, like nice and juicy, lots of flavor. It's really simple. So not $4.50 in the oven for 20 minutes untouched. No. And like you, I mean, people do that. Yeah. And I've been trying to experiment with like other ways to kind of make it a little simpler for some people. I've got like a lot of clients that I work with on nutrition who are like singles living at home and they don't want to like run the whole oven and cook like eight chicken breasts for themselves at a time. So I've been trying to do stuff with like the air

fire and stuff lately and kind of modifying that same process but using the air fire to finish it instead of the oven and that can work too but yeah not 25 minutes my wife cooks it'll be like half an hour it'll be like you could shred it they had to be like little sawdust coming up yeah so then you move into IT which is a completely different realm yeah what is it like to adapt to these new environments and what was it like to head into IT um it was Because working at the company was called Squirrel that did the touchscreen systems, working there, it was a lot of ex-restraught people when I went into the support department. So you kind of have a lot of like-minded people. I was actually kind of weird among that group because I had so much computer background.

And I think that's what helped me progress through the company so quickly. but the people were they were all restaurant people there were people that had been servers that had been whatever so it wasn't that hard to transition really it was just kind of combining something I already had a talent for with you know an industry that I had a passion for right so like I totally understood the struggles of you know the customers when they were calling in about troubles they were having with their POS system because I had been there like as server. So, you know, I could empathize with them, but then I had the technical knowledge to actually help them, right? And then you move into IT for a law firm. Yeah. So my office, when I worked

for Squirrel, was in Vancouver and we ended up buying a house out in Abbotsford. And this was like back pre the new Portman Bridge days even. So the commute got really bad. If I didn't hit the Portman Bridge like at one minute to 6 a.m. If I got there, Just before six, it'd be like 45 minutes from home to the office. If I got there at like five after six, I'd be in traffic for an hour and a half. So three hours of driving back and forth for, you know, a regular eight-hour workday just wasn't working out. So I ended up, you know, looking for a job closer to home. And fortunately at the time, the law firm where I eventually got hired was looking for their first ever in-house IT person.

And they ended up hiring me. and then I only planned to do that for like five years, and I ended up there for 13 and a half years in the end. Was it challenging to go from different or different mindsets, almost different passions? Or was it easy because it's fresh to keep that excitement for your work? Well, one thing that I, and I kind of forgot about this when we were talking before we started the interview, one thing that I did when I worked at Squirrel as I ended up transitioning into a training role there and teaching the new hires on the on the help desk and then at one point later on I ended up transition to training client sites so I discovered that I had this talent for kind of teaching people stuff they didn't know about and teaching highly technical or highly specific things to

non-technical, non-skilled people. So when I went into the IT role with the law firm, that was actually one of the things that I was really good at, I think, there was teaching the staff how to use the technology effectively. And so that was a common theme that kind of carried through with both of those. And then I think having had, that as a strength also kind of led me to what I do now because then I discovered, you know, a passion for physical fitness and training people on that.

And that same ability to break down technical concepts kind of translated well into breaking down movement. So how did you get started in training? You talked a little bit about how you were not the person going to the gym every day. Yeah. When you started, how did you get started in? personal fitness so like like in high school i ran track i did pretty okay despite being super lazy and not training at all like not practicing like i showed up to practices

every now and then but i just you know had really luck on my side that i went through my growth spurts every track season so i got faster and faster without having to put in any work um then from high school until like the age of 30 i basically did nothing um got really out of shape And, you know, at 30 years old, you know, when I had just started at the law firm, going up the two flights of stairs to get to the second floor, I was out of breath. What was that experience like? Because I think a lot of people are in that boat and carry that and then want to hide it away. It's a shame feeling rather than a motive.

Yeah. You know, it sneaks up on you. Like, I didn't really think of myself as being really unfit. But, you know, I found myself wondering a lot of times when I got to the top of the stairs. I'm like, why am I breathing so hard? And then I met a guy, he was an articling student at the law firm at the time from England. And him and I just really hit it off, you know, because my British background, my mom's from England. You know, we had similar taste of music and all that stuff.

And then, you know, he just happened to mention one day, you know, oh, I, you know, I train martial arts. Are you interested in martial arts? And I'm also a bit of a martial arts movie nerd, like total Bruce Lee fan. And, you know, I thought, hey, yeah, that sounds cool. I'll come train with you sometime. And he kicked my ass. Like the first 10 minutes, and it's not like he's like 10 years younger than me or anything. And he didn't look like a really physically imposing kind of guy.

He's a year younger than me. And within the first 10 minutes, I was like literally on the floor wanting to puke my guts out. Oh, my gosh. And that was the realization for me of how big a difference there was between where I was, you know, with my own fitness and where I could be. So. Did that excite you? Or was it intimidating?

What was that experience to look at that in that moment and go where I could be? Yeah. I think fortunately because him and I, like we, if I just showed up off the street and went in and trained with him, not knowing him in the first place and had that experience, that probably would have been more off-putting than inspiring, right? But because him and I had gotten to know each other and, you know, despite how you would think with martial arts training that you're kind of like going hard at each other and stuff, that it would be like a scary or you'd feel, you know, physically threatened or whatever,

I didn't have that fear with it. So I just could experience it and realize that, hey, this is, you know, he's showing me what's possible. And he's not like some superhuman, like, you know, because I knew his background. He, you know, he wasn't, he'd only been really going down that road for, you know, 10, 15 years maybe before that. So, and before that, he was, you know, a nerdy kid who loved comic books, right? Like, so he totally showed me the possibilities. So in that instance, it was inspiring because I didn't just get thrown into the fire without some background, right? And I kind of take that and apply it when I, when I have new people starting in the gym, for example.

And, you know, like you go to some places and they'll just try and. crush you right away and like throw all kinds of hard shit at you and um that stuff doesn't have to be right up front right and the people that that train with me i've got everything from like high school rugby players to seniors in their 70s and 80s that train with me and they all like you know they all started at a much lower point than where they are um because they've you know you build that trust and that safety in the beginning. So they feel safe pushing themselves and expressing themselves physically

through what they can do. And now, like, some of the people that push the hardest are the people you wouldn't expect because they feel safe that they can do that. So that kind of is what I got with that first experience with my martial arts teacher, Suki. Even though it really did, like, I'm not joking.

I was like on the ground gasping in 10 minutes. I still, I felt safe. But I was like, holy shit. Like I could be so much better. Right. Right.

So what made you take that transition away from IT and start to take steps in this new direction? Yeah. So that first experience train with Suki kind of highlighted, you know, that I wasn't, wasn't where I wanted to be physically. At the same time, we found out that my wife was pregnant with our,

our first daughter. And, you know, I realized I didn't want to be that dad sitting on the sidelines not able to play with his kids because I was too out of shape. So, um, I went and got a personal trainer, um, you know, that happened that there was a, a great facility across the street from the office. So, you know, two days a week, I would go over there straight after work and go and work with the trainer. And, you know, I've had such a good experience there, you know, exploring my own limits, learning, you know, a bit more about movement and stuff, which I also learned a lot about movement from my martial arts teacher. And then I took, so I was, I was a client at the gym for, say, a year, year and a half. And I started to get really interested.

in kind of different training approaches than what we were doing there and started to take my own interest in nutrition. So I took six months off of training with my trainer there and just trained by myself in my garage and developed a passion for, like a real passion and enthusiasm for both the nutrition and the training side.

So then at the end of that six months or so, I went and talked to my former trainer at the gym, who is the owner of the facility. And I said, like, you know, like, I think I'm really interested in doing this as a career. Like, how do I get started? And he just said, well, like, we already know you and we like you. So why don't you come and, you know, you can shadow with, you know, our trainers and kind of learn on the job. And you can come work with us. So it was, you know, a really kind offer from him.

And, you know, I got in there and then instead of going there two days a week to go and work out with a trainer, I was going in there two nights a week after work to work with clients and did that for a couple of years, part-time working there, started coaching some people on nutrition as well through my interest in nutrition through a group called Precision Nutrition. And then had a, you know, a small group, five or six clients that I worked with on the nutrition stuff there. And just as a kind of extra motivator for those people, I had started up some small group training because there was some extra space that the gym wasn't using downstairs. And we trained as a group on Saturdays and then, you know, talk to nutrition stuff either before or after. And then the facility went through a bit of a transition and they weren't going to have that space available anymore. So then my boss said like, you know, sorry, you won't be able to run. the group sessions. And my clients, that group of five or six people were, um, had enjoyed

the group training so much. They were just like, you know, if you find somewhere, um, to keep training us as a group, we'll go with you. And, you know, I didn't want to go and just like steal clients from my, from my employer. So I went and talked to talk to my boss there. And he was awesome. He was super supportive. And, uh, you know, he totally gave me his blessing to do it. And for those people to go with me. And that's how I got my start in my garage in the middle of January of 2012. It was like minus 10 and I'm like cleaning the floor. I mopped the floor and then it froze solid. So I had to mop it again and dry it with a towel to be able to run training. So then, you know, I kept doing that alongside my full-time IT job for another six and a half

years trying to build the business to the point where I could make the transition. And then in August of 2018, I went full time. What was that? Was that intimidating? You're a person who's experienced pivots throughout, and that can be intimidating for so many people. What was it like to make that transition? It was scary, for sure.

But, you know, as much as I enjoyed working with a lot of the people that I worked with at the office. in the law firm, like, IT works not the most rewarding field, right? Like, especially if you're in-house support, like, people are only going to come and talk to you when they're having problems. People are, like, pissed off and angry. And then, you know, when you're doing your job well and everything's running smoothly, they think you're unnecessary.

They're like, oh, we don't have any problems. We don't need an IT guy. Right? So I was constantly having, like, both of those kind of messages bombarded at me from day to day where, like, oh, you're useless. We don't need you to, oh, God, everything. everything's your fault or, holy crap, everything's on fire, like, come and, come and fix it, right? So the level of stress for the reward in that career versus the amount of, not monetary reward,

but just the intangibles, the satisfaction that I got from helping people and seeing people progress and seeing their mindset kind of evolve around how strong they could be and how, you know, and seeing them build confidence in not just in their physical movement but from developing physically and developing that confidence you could see that they became more confident more capable more self-assured people overall and that was just so such an awesome thing for me that I wanted to do it full time so I was working towards it for a couple of years um you know did finally in like 2017, I think, I started taking the marketing side of it a bit more seriously to try and bring in more people so that I could get the client base to where I'd be able

to go full-time. And it wouldn't be such a huge hit. But it was still a pretty big drop in income. Like my combined income between the gym and the office, when I left the office, I lost like two-thirds of my income. Yeah. But at that point, I was confident, cocky. I don't know. Like, I thought, okay, no problem because of the trajectory that we had been on that got me to that point. I thought, okay, it'll take me a year, year and a half, maybe, like two years tops to get to where I'm making more than I was combined anyway. And then, of course, you know, like that was late 2018 or in the fall of 2018, you know, a year and a half later, COVID hit and like things really took a bad turn at that point. You know, like we were shut down for three months

straight at the beginning of COVID from March till June, completely closed, couldn't run the business at all. So it's tough, like making a pivot like that and then having that, and then having that happen right away, like, I was definitely second-guessing it a lot of times during those first few months of COVID where I was like, man, like, if I was still at the office, like, we'd still be making money. Like, there'd still be, you know, I wouldn't have as much uncertainty. But then, you know, as I reflected on it, I was like, you know what? Like, fuck that, right? Like, I don't know if I'm allowed to swear. But, like, I was like, you know, if I was there, if I was still doing IT work during COVID with, like, everyone trying to go to working from home and all that stuff and dealing with all that kind of panic and stress, I was like, you know, sure I'd be making money, but like I wouldn't have the same reward from the work that I had.

I'd have way more stress. So in the end, I was in a much better place. And my client base at the time was awesome. Like they all, every single person that we went into that shutdown with came back. The second we were allowed to open, they were like, okay, I'm back. We just had like one person who, you know, her husband was going through cancer treatment. So she had to kind of just stay away because he was immunocompromised. But aside from that, all of our established clients stuck with us.

and they were awesome. They, like, people, you know, emailing me, texting me during that shutdown, say, sorry, just saying, like, keep going, right? I'm wondering about what it's like to see people push themselves in this way, because it's not something we always see. If we see somebody in the hallway at their workplace, we don't see how they approach adversity, how they approach it when they're out of energy and they're exhausted. and you get to see that in a deeper way than the average person, what do you see from that perspective and what stops people from continuing?

Well, we, yeah, like, you're right that, you know, on a day-to-day basis, you don't see people going through the kind of struggle that, you know, they would reaching actual failure in a workout where it's not just that they can't physically do it, their mind is telling they can't do it, right?

When people hit that, you know, point of their brain saying they can't do something in real life, lots of times you don't see it. Like, that's people, you know, who are, you know, depressed and, you know, suffering with mental illness and that, and outwardly they look fine, right? And yeah, it's it's like I said, like the physical training is a vehicle for building that resiliency under lots and lots of stress. And you would like lots of people think it's just about, you know, performing well in the gym or it's about the physical.

But it's really about getting to that level of struggle and that. you know, your brain telling you, you can't do it or you're, you know, like under real physical threat. And that almost fight or flight response, like we're getting, we get very, very close to where people get into like full fire or flight, especially in like our more intense conditioning workouts where like, you know, someone who's, who's, I wouldn't say weak, weak minded, but someone who hasn't had the practice of building up that resilience would, like, literally try and flee. They're like, okay, I'm done. I'm out of here. I can't do it anymore. You know, and what they get to do in that environment and like, and we're not unique in this, right?

Like there's other, you know, really good trainers and facilities where they will, they will take you right to that limit and they're watching you and they know you're getting to that limit. and then they let you get there safely, right? That's the difference is that in that controlled environment, we create a safe feeling like I had with my martial arts instructor that first day, that you can go all out, experience that, and realize, hey, I'm okay. So then when you're in your day-to-day life and like stress is ramping up And you're getting that same fight or flight kind of response from like a stressful phone call with a supplier if you're, you know, in business or stuff like that. And you've been there in a different way.

You've been there in the physical exertion way, but your body experiences it the same, right? So you know how better to deal with that fight or flight response. Do you find people more admirable or are you surprised by people when you get to see them tested? Is it common for you to be able to tell who's going to be someone who quits early on when you first meet them? Do you have like suspicions? Are those suspicions correct? I don't know that there haven't been a lot of people that have surprised me that much. but I think that's because like I feel like everyone's got that in them right I'm more surprised

when people don't have it um you know especially people that come in and seem to be really high performers or come in with uh you know some really aggressive stated goals and then blow up spectacularly like I can remember one person that I had um few years back she came in with a super aggressive goal of like performing certain body weight movements they're too esoteric to really explain but like people don't just just usually pull that out of a hat like they want to be able to do like what they call a flag where you're you know basically supporting your whole body weight sideways from a post but that was one of her things but she absolutely crumbled. Like, in the first, like, first time that we, we even started to push a little bit,

um, her, her, her, it was like a toddler kind of mentality. She literally threw a tantrum, um, in the gym. It was one of the only clients I've ever fired. Um, I was like, okay, you're clearly not actually really ready to, to work to what you want to do. And, like, I gave her lots of opportunity to try and try and get there. So that instance where she had like the full on tantrum was about like a month into working with her. And it was just kind of that same pattern through the whole time. And I tried because I thought it was a really cool goal that she was working towards. But yeah, she just wasn't ready.

Way more often than that, I see people coming in with really low confidence. you know, where they're constantly talking shit about themselves, about, you know, oh, I'm, I'm weak. Like, oh, yeah, well, you know, my upper body's so weak. I can't, I can't, I might knock it over with my hand. I'm a hand talker. Yeah, like, they always talk themselves down. And it's getting people like that to realize how, how strong they are and what they're capable of. And seeing that transition from, you know, oh, I'm just a, you know, I'm just just to stay at home mom. I'm just a whatever. And, you know, seeing them realize that they are really an athlete. And we all are. Yeah. Right.

We all have that capability. It's just finding, finding the way to express yourself physically. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I'm curious, what made you want to dive into this Spartan race and what brought you down that pathway? Yeah.

Because it's one thing to start to train your body and to appreciate your body, admire it for what it's capable of. It's a whole other thing to say, I'm going to see what its cap is, what its limits are. And I'm going to find out what my mind's limits are. And heading into this Spartan race, are you more worried about your mental or your physical? The death race, you mean? Yeah. So, like, I've talked to a couple of friends of mine. One friend of mine is quite an accomplished ultra runner locally.

And it was funny, I just got a message from him because I had reached out to him on Messenger like a day or so ago and said, hey, like, I'm going to three weeks. I've got to go from where I'm at now to being able to last 48 hours or more on the death race. do you have any advice and he said and I think he's right it's all mental right there's no way you can you can really adequately physically prepare yourself to suffer for 72 hours straight like unless you've got tons of time on your hands to go and you know try and do that recreationally by yourself which I don't know why you would but yeah I'm expecting, sorry, I'm expecting, expecting it to be mentally a lot harder than physically. It's not going to be easy physically, obviously, because like you got to keep moving for 72 hours, you know, fatigued, sleep deprived, hungry, sore, whatever.

And they do put you through some pretty grueling physical stuff. But that was one thing that that first Spartan race back in 2015, also taught me is that like even when you feel like you're done physically you still have more right and I'm sure like you've you know read stuff like you know David Goggins

like Goggins Gagins is awesome he's like Cameron Haynes yeah right but I think the thing that's that's different for me is

I'm I am like Goggins always says he's not special he's still he's pretty damn special if you see the things that he's able to accomplish and you know I'm I'm not your prototypical endurance athlete you look at you know the typical ultra runner is going to be someone like you know 510ish maybe 140 pounds can run all day I'm five six on 200 pounds like I am not built for this stuff right but I'm I'm durable um I'm And I can suffer. I know I can suffer and keep moving forward. And that's what that first Spartan race taught me. And that's what I've, like, most of the time when I run my Spartan races since, I'm always running with a group and I'm supporting people and helping them. But then I do some events where I go on my own. I was trying to push myself and hit my own limits.

And that's what this is for me, is exploring those limits. It's going to be back. to the original question, it's definitely going to be more of a mental struggle, and that's what my buddy Kevin messaged me. So it's all going to be your mind, right? You can keep pushing forward way beyond where you think you've got nothing left. So that's really what I'm going to focus on, I think, over this next three weeks, more than anything else, is just trying to, you know, like David Godin says, callous your mind, right? Build that toughness in me so that I'm not going to quit.

And I know I won't. I'm not someone who quits when stuff gets hard. I'll quit if I'm injured. Like, I'm not an idiot. I'm not going to, you know, like, well, I mean, I ran a couple trail races with sprained ankles and I broke my ankle, my first ever trail race and walked on it for half a kilometer to get to where the ambulance could get me. But that was not.

not among my smartest decisions. So, you know, with me, as long as I'm physically capable, like, not injured of moving forward, then I can't see myself quitting. They say a solid why can withstand anyhow. Yeah. What is your why heading into this? Really, it's to just to show that, like, we're all capable of, of, of, more than we think.

And if an average-ish kind of guy like me, like amongst my group of clients, they think I'm crazy, obviously. And, you know, because of the stuff I do, like I try and lead by example. So my, you know, my level of fitness and conditioning is near the top of our group. There's a few people that can outdo me.

But like if you look at the realm of people that I'm going up against in the death race, I'm probably going to be among the least qualified in terms of my resume of accomplishments physically. So I'm going in as a pretty average dude. You know, there are people that have run it. They're older than me, but, you know, I'd say probably median age is probably going to be in the 30s

and I'm, you know, pushing 50. So, you know, if an average middle-aged, you know, father of two and, you know, full-time job, not professional athlete guy can get through this and do well, then why couldn't someone else? How can people connect with you? How can people follow your story, your race, what you have coming up? Well, there's our website, www. www.btg Fitness.com on Facebook. If you just search BTG Fitness on Facebook, you'll find a Facebook page, Instagram, the BTG underscore CoachJP. I post a lot of trail race pictures.

They all look the same because it's always the lookout. I'd let you over what we're looking out. But that's usually how you can get a good sense of what we're doing. I'm really excited about this. I think voices like yours who are saying that anybody can do this and anybody can achieve great things that that's within all of us is so important because we don't hear that message enough. And I think so often our own doubts stand in the way of us achieving that potential and

reaching that and testing ourselves. So I really commend you for being willing to do this to inspire other people to go test themselves and try and reach their potential. Thanks a lot, man.