The Rich Roll Podcast - Chris Hauth: Tactics For The Quarantined Athlete (+ Mishka!)

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

Coronavirus has canceled more than just school, work, and social outings. It’s also canceled sports. The Olympics. And even that race you've been training for -- gone. The world has huge problems right now. To lament your cancelled marathon, ultra or Ironman is feels tone deaf; insensitive to the countless people across the world currently suffering in unimaginable ways. And yet for the athlete, the disappointment is still real. It's not shameful to experience the emotions that accompany a let down. Just don't linger there. In this precarious moment, we can't afford to dwell on a future that will no longer be. And events beyond our control. Instead, let us pull focus on creative solutions for maintaining our enthusiasm for fitness. Strategies to engage with our physical selves. And tactics to ensure adherence to a daily routine with staying power. To dive deeper into the hows and whys of staying fit during quarantine, I'm joined today by Chris Hauth -- my friend and trusted sensei of of all matters strength and endurance. A two-time Olympian, former professional triathlete, Ironman champion, Age Group Ironman World Champion, and accomplished ultra-athlete, Chris is one of the world’s most respected endurance coaches — and the star act in my recurring Coach's Corner edition of the podcast. A remarkable coach and lifelong athlete, Chris has honed his craft unlike any other sports professional I have ever met. But my favorite thing about Chris is his attitude. A fount of soothing positivity, he values experience and fun over podiums. This is a conversation about adapting our fitness routines to quarantine. How to maintain healthy home habits in this hectic time. How to reimagine goals. And craft personal adventures in lieu of canceled races. Finally, Chris provides copious tangible takeaways to stay sane for those whose training life has been turned upside down. And for something new & different: An appetizer to precede today's main course, we also briefly check in with the RRP's favorite lap dog Mishka Shubaly. To get a little taste for his flavor of quarantine. To celebrate the 7th anniversary of our bromance. And because my self-deprecating, gravelly voiced brother from another mother has a new must-listen Audible Original called Cold Turkey: How To Quit Drinking By Not Drinking. May these exchanges lift your spirits in this bizarre moment we are collectively experiencing. Peace + Plants, Rich

The athlete's mindset is the awareness to stay in the moment and do the best you can do at the task at hand, whatever that task is. build upon that versus deteriorate in any way. And not even from a virus standpoint and the concerns with that, but also just because this time requires so much extra energy and everything we're doing from homeschooling to everybody being in the house and patients and so forth. I mean, me with four kids here at home, you know, and so they're being healthy, getting enough sleep, eating well, and having some sort of physical outlet every day makes a huge difference on having the patience and perspective for them because it's difficult for them currently too. We only control us and how we present ourselves to the world. And part of that is this, whether it's family, whether that's work, whether that's our loved ones, whether that's our body and how we go about our day and carry ourselves as that

beacon of strength and support and outward love to others. That's Chris Hout. And this is The Rich Roll Podcast. the rich roll podcast greetings fellow life forms plotting our way through this parallel universe we call pandemic how you guys doing how are up? Well, coronavirus has canceled a lot of things, but it's more than just school, work, and social outings. It's also canceled mic drop races. Now listen, the world's got big problems. Lots of people are suffering right now in unimaginable ways. So it does come off as a bit insensitive to cry over spilt milk like your marathon, your ultra, your Ironman, or even the Olympics getting postponed.

That said, if you are an athlete, the disappointment is still real, very real. And I think it's okay to lament that an important goal you set for yourself has simply vanished from the landscape for a minute but we cannot linger on the past or a future that will no longer be or on things that are simply out of our ability to control the focus needs to shift to creative solutions for maintaining our enthusiasm for fitness in these unusual times and strategies and tactics for developing creative routines

that keep us engaged with our physical selves. I've been getting a lot of questions from all of you about how to accomplish this, how to sustain, maintain some engagement with our health and our fitness. So I decided to enlist my sensei of all matters strength and endurance, Chris Hout, to share his expert perspective

in this latest upteenth installment of Coach's Corner. Briefly, for those unfamiliar, Chris is a two-time Olympian, a former professional triathlete, Ironman champion, age group Ironman world champion, and one of the world's most respected endurance and ultra endurance coaches. He also happens to be my coach, as well as a very good friend. It's a great conversation that I think is going to leave you reinvigorated to push forward in your athletic journey. But first.

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treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem. A problem I'm now happy and proud to share has been solved by the people at recovery.com, who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions,

and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you.

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From our legendary 500th episode or his many past appearances on the show. For those brand new to the RRP, Mishka is my stubbornly sober, self-deprecating, gravelly voiced, sometime runner, singer-songwriter, master storyteller, and sage of the written word with a slew of best-selling Kindle singles to his name.

And Mishka's got a new Audible original coming out May 1st entitled, Cold Turkey, How to Quit Drinking by Not Drinking. So I called him up. I did that to celebrate the seventh anniversary of our bromance. And just because I wanted to get a little taste for his flavor of quarantine. Let's do it. All right, man.

So you hit me up the other day asking once again to come back on the podcast. You've been on the podcast a million times. You were just on the podcast. I basically was like, come on, bro. But you got this new book coming out. And then you hit me with this heartfelt seven-year bromance-iversary post the other day. And I was like, that was by accident,

man. I got to let you come back on for a few minutes. I went back through my old Gmail shit and I found, I was like, Oh my God, it was just, it was, it's like on Sunday, you know?

So, uh, I, I, I'm sorry, man. My, you know,

my, my, my gooey tender heart. It just got the best of me. Well, I'm glad to be talking to you. You're always welcome here. And it feels like just yesterday, I knocked on the door of that dilapidated Greenpoint hovel that you called an apartment and met you for the first time.

Walking up that staircase, the stacks of guitars everywhere and uh you know some kind of roommate i think was there at the same time lots of pizza boxes it was a disaster and now what are you doing now you got like a truck jacked up on cinder blocks what's happening yeah i was it's funny listening to you talk i was just looking around at the stacks of guitars and uh man we've we've come so far you have man now you just you just read it's called a geographic you just took all of that from greenpoint and relocated it to phoenix where wherever you go there there you are right exactly man but you got a house you've come a long way and uh i'm proud to be your friend for seven years i'm i'm growing up as slowly as possible man yeah okay well all of those instagram posts that used

to be pictures of guitars that you were fixing seems to have now pivoted to old trucks and irreparable vehicles from a bygone era i just i just love damage that's that's the quote that's the quote that is the title of this podcast i just love damage dude i close call today man because i was doing another podcast my a buddy of mine and i fired up this old 78 dots and that's been in the yard and then uh i just looked out and it was we broke a hose and it was leaking antifreeze and i have my little damaged cat here too and uh fortunately i put her in the house otherwise we would be having a very different conversation right now i don't know whether i should be depressed hearing that story or

entertained well i mean look at it this way like i found my ideal pokemon you know like i found I don't know whether I should be depressed hearing that story or entertained. Well, I mean, look at it this way. Like I found my ideal Pokemon, you know, like I found a cat that loves to drink things that will kill her. Okay. I like how you transition your fixation. I mean, it was a mouse for a while and now you got this cat. You're like, you have a soft spot for strays because i think on some level you're a bit of a stray yourself the uh just you know incremental upgrades from you know from a mouse to uh yeah to a special needs cat right dude when you meet her

you will you will flip she's just like she's just a little noodle and like she can't walk straight she always her head's always cocked to one side like you owe her money perfect you're horrible so how is the uh how is the sequestration the lockdown in this era of covid treating you well it's not radically different from my normal day-to-day life, which makes me think that I should make some changes if we ever emerge from our current darkness. That's a sentiment I share. Yeah. I mean, I think we agree that the most powerful medication is human contact, at least for mental ailments. I miss my people dearly

you know and like my friend robin you know she and i went for a hike the other day you know being careful to observe social distancing and staying you know apart and then at the end of our hike like we just looked at each other mournfully because like i'm a hugger you know and i hug her when i see her and i hug her at the end of the hikes and that's like and i i miss hugs dude i i'm not gonna lie do you think we're ever gonna get back to hugging and shaking hands i mean if i'm just putting my own life at risk yes i will absolutely hug you know it's just my mom i'm worried about, you know? Yeah. I think we're all worried about the elders that we have in our life right now. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get a visual on the daily dietary protocol for you.

I'm envisioning a lot of, like, cans of beans half-eaten spread around your kitchen. So far, so good today, man. the uh so far so good today man i had uh i had coffee and an apple and oatmeal for breakfast and uh and uh my girlfriend's just unpacking groceries now i saw you know bag or a thing of kale hanging out of one of the bags you know uh you know a couple cans of seltzer not perfect but um but a radical improvement. Do you remember the shit that I used to eat, dude? Yeah, I do very well. No, I'm doing well.

That is good. That's progress, man. But I'm going to chalk that up to you having a girlfriend. Just no quarter. No quarter. Well, you're healthy. You're getting some running in. you're fixing old trucks and guitars you're leaning into the sequestration it's all good man i think you're i think you're going to be fine and the occasion for this is twofold like i said to celebrate

uh seven years of being your friend i celebrate you thank you you've brought a lot into my life and i appreciate you and i love you very much the second being this new audible original that you sprung on me the other day like hey man i got this this new thing coming out like why we didn't even talk about this the last time you were on the podcast cold turkey how to quit drinking by not drinking and now i haven't listened to this yet. It's coming out on the 1st, right? Yeah, May 1st. May 1st.

I have a feeling I'm not going to like this book. You know, I am really looking forward to you not liking this book because I honestly, I do think that people really benefit by you and I having sustained, thoughtful, considerate disagreements recorded. You know, and I know we're both deeply invested in thesis, antithesis, synthesis. You know, that is how you get to the higher plane. So you were in my head the whole time that I was writing this, man. And I was writing it and I was thinking, Rich is going to fucking hate this.

The basic thesis, I take it, is that you can quit drinking without any help from any other human being and just relying on your own personal resolve. Is that, is that the sense that I'm getting from this cover art that I'm looking out of a smashed beer can? Well, that's part one. And part two is where I cop to making it way, having made it way harder for myself than I had to,

you know, that, um, but this is what we rely on you for. We, we want you to do that that's part of your charm it's funny man i i used to be the alcohol stuntman and now i'm the no alcohol stuntman you know i'm still uh yeah still still pushing the boundaries but um but yeah you know i mean i i

did it the hard way and that proves that it can be done even the hard way. And then I do, you know, so I'm, I'm just saying that the possibility is there, you know, that there's a million different ways to quit drinking and every single way that leads to you quitting drinking and staying, staying sober works. It's, it's real. Right. Um, and, um, but yeah, I, I mean, I do, I do, um, critique myself and say that there are a lot of ways in which I made it harder for myself. You know, one of, two of the things I talk about are nutrition and community. You know, you might be, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Well, listen, you know, I got sober in, in, in a treatment center and Alcoholics Anonymous. That's the path that I've chosen. I've seen that path benefit the lives of countless thousands of people over the years. But I don't begrudge people finding other ways to get sober. I don't have any judgment on that. It's obviously worked for you. I'm not sure I would recommend your path, but I do look forward to reading this book. And I'm curious why you decided to go with it being audible only. Like, why didn't you write

it also? Why is it only an audio book? The, um, it remains to be seen if, if we can get it together, we may publish a, you know, a book version, um, longer, you know, sort of like an expanded version of the audio book, the one of the things that I've learned, and part of this is on you, man, is that people really respond to hearing my story in my voice, you know, that, and I'm sure that like, you've noticed this too, like, there'll be times where I'm texting somebody or emailing somebody, and I can't tell if like, if they got joke or if i missed the joke or if they're mad at me or if they're not mad at me but to hear uh to hear something like this in somebody's own voice i think there's a whole different level of um communication and um specificity um that people

hear and that people understand. And part of that is from being on the podcast and seeing the way that people respond to us bickering in public. Well, there is something curiously and confoundingly appealing about your gravelly voiced drawl that seems to draw people into your life and all its drama. that seems to draw people into your life and all its drama. I have a, like this, the whole plague sort of meltdown here happened when I was like halfway through getting a crown done on one of my teeth.

And it's, I feel like it's starting to go bad. And I just talked to a dentist and he was like, oh, well, you should, you know, gargle with this bleach solution. And I was like, bro, I've been waiting my whole life for this. All right, man. Well, I told you I'd give you 10 minutes. That's a pretty good place to put a pin in it. But I do want to say that my heart goes out to anybody right now in this bizarre moment that we find ourselves in, who is in the early throes of attempting sobriety, it's got to be really difficult to be stuck at home trying to, you know, grapple with your inner demons and stay

away from substances. You know, I did it by virtue of community. You touched on community. Even though you, you know, kind of have this self-reliant narrative, you did say the community is really important to you. And I think it's important to anybody who's getting sober. So I do encourage everybody to check out this book if this is the only community that you can find when you're trying to get sober while you're stuck at home. And make use of the virtual communities that we all have to not keep your demons private and secret yeah it's um it is free for the month of may through audible and yeah and that was that was really important to me was that it just sort of go out to everybody and anybody who needs it for this month of may. And, um, and I will rich, I will back up

exactly what you said. And, you know, to those people out there who are suffering in early sobriety and you feel like you're totally alone, know that rich and I are both thinking about you. We're sending love, support, positive vibes, whatever you want to call it, where you're, you're in our heads heads you're in our hearts we're thinking about you yeah and as i've said many times before my dms are open on twitter and instagram uh if anybody is is struggling with an addiction problem i it's very difficult for me to respond to everybody but i always do my best to try to communicate and have a dialogue with anybody who's going through that right now so feel free to reach out to me in that way. Myself as well. All right, man, the book is Cold Turkey. It's

available on Audible, which is also Amazon. And I checked, we're recording this on Monday. It wasn't up yet. So it's going to be a little bit before it actually appears on the website. Is it the 30th that's going to be visible? I think it's April 30th or May 1st. I'm not sure which, but yeah, it'll be up shortly. All right, man. Well, I look forward to giving it a listen. And I love you, brother.

Thanks for coming. Rich, I love you, man. Seven years. I can't believe it. Let's do seven more. One of these days, we're actually going to go for a run. I know, I know. All right, man. All right, peace out until I can see you in person next time

and you drop by the studio, all right? Peace out, brother. Later. That was fun, right? I love that guy. Given that we are now resorting more and more to remote recording, maybe I'll do more short

check-in segments in the future. Let me know what you guys think. Okay, so expertise aside, my favorite thing about Chris and the reason he is here with us today is really his attitude. He's just so grounded and positive, setting aside his amazing expertise. And I like the fact that he values fun as much as standing on a podium. So today we're going to talk about how to adapt our workouts to quarantine, how to keep up healthy habits in the home in this hectic time, and how to create our own goals and

personal adventures in lieu of canceled races. It's a pretty lighthearted conversation. I think it's going to bring you some good perspective, along with tangible things that you can do now to stay sane if your workout or training life has been turned upside down by virtue of coronavirus. May this exchange lift your spirits and leave you inspired to push forward in your athletic journey during these times. So this is me and Chris Held.

Well, it's going, right? Aren't we all sort of just going, observing day by day, seeing how this unfolds? Yeah. No frame of reference to which to compare this to. That's for sure. For any of us. That's for sure. Yeah. No frame of reference to which to compare this to. That's for sure. For any of us. That's for sure. Yeah. I would say that you and I are in a privileged situation in that we're still both able to

do what we do professionally. And also, and we talked about this previously, my day-to-day life is not that dramatically changed. I know yours isn't all that. I mean, we can't go to the pool and there's trails we can't go to and the like, but we both work from home. We have our kids at home. You know, my family is safe and healthy and I know that yours is as well. So we have that to be grateful for. But that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people out there suffering in a myriad of different ways. And I want to be sensitive to that as we kind of discuss the perils of what it means to be an athlete in this unique moment. to the twilight zone right like it's a show that none of our kids know but when we were younger it's just sort of this weird moment in time where everything sort of stops and we're living in a parallel universe it seems like and i've been calling it to my athletes and the people i talk

to as stoppage time it's like that extra time on a soccer game where you're like how did they make up extra time on the 90 minutes for a soccer game? We're all in timeout. Yeah. So it's just like stoppage time. And that's actually the unique thing that I keep talking to so many about is how do we want to kick out of this, right? It is, there's so many negative aspects to what's happening and there's a lot of pain and a lot of hurt in the world. And of course, tragedy and numerous, numerous tragedies. But for us, as we are working our way through this, it's also a daily process of how do we want to kick out of this? How do we want to contribute? Who do we want to be on the other side of this? Not just as athletes, but as human

beings. How do we want to remember this, this side of this? Not just as athletes, but as human beings. How do we want to remember this, this experience? Was it meaningful? Did we help? Did we have an impact? Did we give energy to others or did we just sit in our own energy these months? For what it's worth right now, we're six, eight weeks in. It's months. it's worth right now. We're six, eight weeks in. It's months. And so that's the important thing for me that I always remind people of, not only of fitness and who we want to be as an athlete on

the other side, but also just as human beings. Yeah. I mean, I think through the lens of what it means to be an athlete in this moment. The athlete mantra is and always has been process over results, the journey over the destination. It's not about race results. It's about showing up day in and day out. And now with races removed, calendars canceled, I mean, today was supposed to be the Boston Marathon.

It's a moment where we're all really being compelled to put this philosophy to the test, a moment where athletes manage setback and disappointment and obstacles and everything that is being thrown in our direction right now, whether you're an athlete or not, and the capacity that we have to leverage it to become better, not just as athletes, but as people. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I mean, for those that had the had the Boston Marathon today, right, would have had it and then had it circled on their schedule for such a long time. I've said to my athletes that would have done Boston, if you look back on the experience of

training for this one day, the cumulative little experiences that you had in training and the things you overcame and the sacrifices you made and the joy you had in it is way more than just one day will deliver. Then these next three, four, five hours in the event will deliver. It's the last six, eight months of cumulative micro experiences, joy, smiles, pain, difficulty, hardship, sacrifice, discipline, resilience. That is what accumulates way more than just one day. Sure, the emotions are magnified in this day because it's event day, it's race day, it's competition, it's the energy of others in the crowd. But if you think back, would you trade your fitness and your strength and the experiences and

the joy and the overcoming of the last six, eight, nine, 10 months to get ready for this for just one day? Probably not if you look at it truly as a human, right? And that's the part that's so fascinating to me that once people start looking back, especially athletes start looking back and going, huh, actually, yes, here I am at event day, but the last eight, nine, 10 months, of course, we want to see it to fruition and see what we're capable of. And we still can do that. Those haven't gone anywhere. It might not be today.

It might be in six months or eight months or in a year. But the cumulative experiences of what this has been has shaped us so much more than what one day can ever deliver. Yeah, it sounds pithy and trite to say, you know, it's not about the race. It is disappointing if you've put a lot of energy and time and a lot of imagination and visioning into, you know, what it would be like to run the Boston Marathon, for example. So it's okay to have some level of disappointment that you can't participate in that, but you need to reboot quickly and recognize that, in truth, it is about what you put into it. I mean, you're somebody who's been an athlete your entire life. I mean, I don't even know if you could count the number of races and events that you've participated in.

But I'd be willing to bet my life that when you reflect back upon everything that brought you to today, those moments of crossing finish lines or participating in exciting events are just the tiniest fraction of what you appreciate about everything that you've put into becoming the person that you are today. Yes, it's all about the experience, right? I said the other day, it's I'd rather have the small payouts versus the lump sum payout, right?

It's all those days and experiences and friendships and tears and difficulties and laughs and camaraderie in my training years along the way that have created me, that have created the personality I am too, and how I live today and how I coach. If I only went by the super type A competitive events that I've done, man, I'd be a robot. Well, I might be partial robot, which may be a complaint I have. You have your robotic aspects of your character, although I would say that you've grown tremendously in the period of time that I've known you. Yeah. But that being said, it is the accumulation of all the daily payouts. I call it daily payouts, right? And that's one thing in this time that I try to remember for

myself as well, because, you know, my events and the things I was getting ready for are also not going to happen. And I've completely had to shift what I do for training and how I train. I love swimming in the pool and I love my friends and my master's group and the camaraderie. And we had a big event planned for this summer, as in swimming across Lake Tahoe. And that's not going to happen right now. I can't even get in the pool. Some are swimming in the bay and so forth.

But man, I just can't do that every day in cold water at all odd hours, putting wetsuits on and sharks and the whole thing. I'm too much of a wimp for that. But that being said, it's like, well, wait a moment. What do I enjoy about this? And what is the athlete's mindset in this? And that is showing up every day, figuring out how I'm going to be better tomorrow than I am today, being prepared, being healthy, being fit, eating well, the proper prep for it in order to absorb that workout, which takes no talent. You don't have to be an

elite athlete to be that. We've talked about this on podcasts and then executing and then feeling good about that. And especially in this time, what I love about this is it's something for you each day and it allows you to have more energy to give to others. By doing something for ourselves, we can sort of take a exhale, a deep breath and go, all right, I took care of myself. It's not selfish because you have more energy to give to others, more patience, more understanding, more perspective when you have that opportunity

to do some training like an athlete for yourself every day. The athlete mindset is also about building resilience and becoming efficient in your discipline and building the capacity to endure, face and overcome obstacles. And of course, these are life lessons. And I think these are skill sets that are required of us now in a way that we couldn't have predicted. And I think recognizing that innate capacity that the athlete has, connecting with that go out and do what we like to do is just another opportunity to build resilience in a different way that will make you ultimately a more mindful and present and and resilient athlete to be able to handle like this kind of challenge is different from getting a flat tire in an iron

man or something like that but nonetheless it's an obstacle right and so we haven't we can ply that capacity that we have or we can test ourselves or use it as a way of reflecting more deeply upon the you know the blind spots that we still have in the work that remains to be done. For sure. And it's a daily habit, right? All those little failures, micro failures during the day, or in our training weeks, or that flat tire, or how we deal with adversity. Those are habits that we've seen and worked through and created and seen and worked through again. And that prepares us for the bigger ones like this current environment. And again, we have the ability because of those daily habits and our familiarity with being persistent and disciplined and resilient, like you say, to stand as sort of beacons in this current environment. Not that we're better than anybody. It's more just that we stand with our consistency and our willingness to show up every day as people who can contribute, contribute outwardly to others and helping and focusing on that as well. fathom a moment in time where thousands of people are going to descend upon a starting line somewhere to participate in an event where people are going to be sweating all over each other. I

presume at some point we will achieve some level of stasis where that's possible. But right now, I don't know how long it's going to be before something like that will be permissible. So I'm interested in how your athletes are dealing with that right now. I know you're doing these periodic Zoom calls and you've been putting out podcasts on this subject matter. Yeah, I mean, for us, it's more a question of being ready for when those opportunities arise, right? So that's in the training, that's in our mindset, that's in our nutrition, that's in our sleep and our recovery, all the modes that we sort of call training, right? But it's also how will I kick out of this armed with more tools in my toolbox because of the things I had to do in this time that make me a more complete athlete

for when that time comes, right? So the strength work that we're doing, and we're sort of confined to the home and using, you know, backpacks with weights in them and doing step-ups instead of running because the trails might be closed and doing new creative type of things that we're noticing strength from and integrity from in our body that then we hopefully can integrate on the other side when things loosen up a little bit and we're able to do all three or four of the activities that we usually do to also have this as part of our toolbox.

And again, to make us a more complete athlete. The second piece there too, is that I've told my athletes in a lot of our conversations is be ready for a second half of the year or maybe early next year, 2021, where a lot of events will open up and the race directors will be desperate to offer because they're a small business, right? And they're going to want to get out there and offer their services, in this case, their events. And many people, A, haven't been able to train

or homeschooling or family or lockdown and so forth, as well as your ability to be ready on a whim's notice or within a few weeks notice to say, man, that's an event I would have always have loved to have done. And now they're giving me an opportunity to do it. Others might be busy with work or can't afford to travel or any of those things. So that's secondly, an opportunity that might arise, that can arise, that I feel will arise for many events and so forth, to be ready for that, to take this once in a lifetime circumstance and turn it into an opportunity. So we want to kick out of it like that, as well as be ready for it. And for the canceled events, it's more a question of,

not a question of when it will happen, but how it will happen to us. Will we still be the athletes we said we would be? Yeah, it is a unique moment as well by dint of the fact that when you're looking at runners and triathletes, traditionally not huge fans of strength work and the little kind of stretching and the recovery kind of protocols, those all fall by the wayside, especially with the time-crunched athlete. They're like, I need to get my volume in. I got to get my run in, my ride in, whatever it is. Now, because a lot of that is being stripped away, there is an opening to refocus and prioritize some of those things that ultimately make you a more bulletproof athlete long-term. You know, the step-ups and the, you know, I've got a weighted vest and, you know, doing those kinds of things that, you know, I just know speaking for me personally, like those always come last when they should come first. And now we have an opportunity to put them first,

which will make you more resilient and, you know, injury-proof and things that serve you over the long haul. We have a sense of urgency usually with our training as we're getting ready for an event. We have a date marked on the calendar in the future, and we have a certain amount of time to get ready for it. And if we were all super disciplined and prepared, we would start very far out and methodically and healthy build towards that event. But that's not the life and the reality any of us live, right? We have jobs, we have families, we have other things. So of course, as the event approaches, whether it's six months away or three months, there's a sense of urgency towards that event. But now in this

window to work on technique, to work on footwork, have somebody videotape you or use your phone to get some insight on what you look like and how you're landing in your running stride or how you're cycling on a trainer and your setup and your position, all things that you usually wouldn't mess with because you have an event. Again, an opportunity to come out of this as a better athlete. You can go back to the regular training you were doing, maybe not even include any of the strength or core chassis integrity work, but you could be better technique wise. You could be a better cyclist, have a higher cadence, lighter on your feet, running, less heel strike, all those things. You add all that up, it makes a big difference for when you increase the volume again and

increase those hours that you're doing that new technique. And quickly, you will notice you are faster, stronger, better, smarter from this window, this stoppage time. If social media is any indication of anything, and it is certainly an unreliable source of, you know, for a lot of things, but what I've noticed just kind of, you know, observing other people's behavior, it seems to divide between people who are just letting everything go and, you know, kind of slinking into the couch and others who are just letting everything go and, you know, kind of slinking into the couch. And others who are so out of their minds right now that they're concocting crazy fitness challenges to keep them engaged, like the other end of the polarity.

Which, you know, I'm kind of divided on, on the one hand, like I applaud the creativity that goes into trying to come up with some kind of wacky thing to do to excite people and keep yourself engaged with your fitness. But I also think this is not the moment to be wearing yourself out unnecessarily because we need our immune systems to be functioning optimally at the moment. Absolutely. But that's not sexy, right? Like doing the kind of little things and the stuff that normally you wouldn't pay attention to that are important, but don't necessarily trend on Instagram. Oh, for sure. I mean, all those challenges,

I was laughing the other day because it's a little bit short-termism, right? Like, great, you've done that now. What are you gonna do in three, four, five months from now when you're still stuck or or six weeks from now? You're going to I wouldn't want anybody to be burnt out or have an injury because that would just magnify the current situation. Can you imagine now you have the desire and the time and the ability to train or work on your craft and you're injured and can't. That would make it even worse.

And so you are totally right with trying to avoid injury and staying healthy and staying strong and getting the proper recovery. And that's another thing you can work on in this time. For example, just writing down or in the morning or in the evening after the day, journaling an aspect of how did I take care of my strength today? How did I take care of my training modality today,

my sleep, my recovery, my nutrition? You go through those five things, right, and say good, good, could be better, and so forth. You do that for the next six weeks. Your mindset and how you go about training and what you look for versus just fatigue on how you go to bed at night will change dramatically because you'll recognize

all the little tweaks and inputs that are part of being a true wholesome, holistic athlete that takes into all those things into account, right? Yeah, I mean, thinking of my own relationship to fitness and training, I don't need a lot of external motivation. I look forward to it. I enjoy it. It's often the highlight of my day to be able to go out and be in nature and focus on the breath and, you know, do what we do.

But I also am aware that that's not the case for a lot of people. There's a certain subset of people that need that external motivation in the form of a goal. And that's typically a race, right? Setting a date on the calendar, having something to work towards that gets people out of bed and engaged in a way that they wouldn't

otherwise. So short of that, with our inability to be able to do that right now, like what are you telling your athletes who might be struggling with that motivation to stay on it and kind of maintain that quiet daily discipline? Well, we have what we call self curated events, right? So if you are interested in doing something, there's so many ideas for yourself to be completed out there and or successfully done. I had a guy in New York, he's stuck, not really able to get out on trails. And so in a few months, he turns 44. And he's an ultra runner, but he's never run a 10K under his age. And so he's going to try to run a 10K when we're doing speed work and shorter stuff and more explosive stuff and strength work in order for him to run a 10K in under 44 minutes. So there's different things.

Run your age, right? In this case, he's 44 and he's doing a 10K. there's different things run your age right in this case he's 44 and he's doing a 10k but there's others in other parts of the country who are going to go out and for their 42nd birthday run 42 miles or 42 kilometers or with their family they're doing um what you and i talked about a few months ago with riding or running or getting through every street in their town, either on a mountain bike or running or hiking or walking. I mean, it's phenomenal. But the ideas that people are coming up with in this time, like you even mentioned earlier, yes, you don't have to be super type A and focused on what you can do and break a treadmill world record, but you can, versus the other end of the spectrum sitting on the couch

and sort of falling into the creases, which is fine on some days too. But there's a healthy spot in between with family, in many cases, to take on this new time, this again, stoppage time of sort of looking around you and going, I have plenty of events I can do. There's beautiful opportunities that might open up. So let's say this loosens up a little bit in a few weeks or even a few months, and then it's groups of 10 or less, right? Which I think is going to be the next sort of, all right, smaller groups of 10 or less. So let's say if that's an opportunity to say with your friends to go on a hike or take a long run together or do a sort of self-curated Ironman or triathlon together.

I have an athlete, he's running his first marathon. He can't do it anywhere on the roads, so he's gonna do it at the track. Not everybody's thing, right? But it's still something that he can put his time in and compare it to others and achieve something. And that's the great thing about all the watches today, right? And Strava, and it is up there.

It is a valid, real time, real number. And there's your competitive juices right there too, right? So again, self-curated and some creative ideas that allow you to swing both legs out of bed in the morning and are excited to do nothing major. You don't have to work out three, four hours a day because there's definitely those right now too, that they have a lot of time on their hands and all they want to do is train. But just so that you get in your healthy hour, hour and a half, 45 minutes a day, and you're progressing towards

something where you can see the benefits of your discipline, consistency, resilience, and hard work. What does it look like for you right now? I mean, I know the trails are closed up there. Are you able to get out on your bike? What is the outside version of your daily routine look like? The outside version is currently, yes, a lot of cycling. But a lot of the roads that you're familiar with that I ride up here are closed, like Mount Tam's closed, all the pipe gates are down so that you can't even ride your bike up there. So it is on the regular roads and it is sort of Groundhog Day riding out the same road every day just to get to West Marin and so on.

But I can't complain because it's beautiful cycling once you're out there and there's a lot of choices. There's a lot of home gym work that I'm doing because I'm writing the routines and plans and ideas and trying to mix a bunch of concepts together for athletes that are stuck in New York City or in LA or in Atlanta or New Orleans that really can't get out. Like they really do need to stay in their house and for them to sort of get a good hour in where they're getting some sort of muscular endurance work in as well. So I'm testing and playing with a lot of those ideas. So it's a lot of strength.

It's a lot of cycling. It's stretch cords for swimming. I put a big stretch cords video out there in order to help people sort of get their mechanics right with that. But, and then a little bit of running, but again, the trails are closed and, you know, I've been dealing with a little bit of a hamstring issue for the last few weeks, ever since Attillo, the race we did in March, which was basically the last event in the world before everything got

shut down. Little did we know. Exactly. Exactly. A funny side note on that is I got sick about six, eight days after that, like really sick. I had a stomach bug of some sort, but at first the onset was fever lethargic um you know not enough of a fever to really like knock me down but i was like gosh i feel awful and i was like great if we just spent you know three days on catalina with 500 athletes from around the world and i'm the guy that walks into marin it shuts down the schools because i have have, I was like, Oh no, my kids were all just looking at me like, really dad, really? You're going to be the guy. But luckily, you know, your patient zero for Marin. Exactly. But luckily within 24 hours, it was gone. I was very sick, but, um, luckily it was not that, but that being said, um, Attila was basically our last event.

And so since then I've been sort of nursing and being smart with my running. Cause again, I don't, I think this will take a lot longer than we believe to really get out there and run again. I want to be smart and save that for the future, this summer, the weather turning for us in California and being able to run the trails or run out on the roads and not be hampered by an injury. So I'm focusing on strength and cycling right now. Yeah. It is interesting that all the trails are closed. They, you know, they're, they're closed down here as well. And I understand the logic of closing down the larger parks,

Mount Tam or Malibu Creek State Park, Runyon Canyon, like some of the more heavily trafficked trails around Los Angeles. But right out my backyard are dozens of trails that nobody ever goes on. And I'm sort of confounded by not being able to use them. And then I run on the road and i'm encountering all these people and car it just seems way more unsafe to be on the road than to be completely alone on the trail i understand like if you get hurt on a trail and then yeah they have to medevac you out or something like that you're putting a strain on the health care system so i get it and i respect that but you know i'm having my own interior kind of like battle of frustration with that right now

as well as possessiveness right like our trails especially in those two three weekends in marin you're like where are all these people coming right that was the initial thing suddenly i'd go out on these trails where i don't see anybody and there'd be just countless people out all of a sudden yeah i'm like where have you been the whole time exactly so there's a little bit of that but it's also what i learned about when i was in alaska this summer is that um i think it's like of all the national parks and state parks most 99 of people never make it further than a mile from the parking lot so wherever wherever they're parking, right? So even for your trails, they're hiking a, maybe a mile or a mile and a half in and a mile and a half out. So where we run, which is

further than a mile and a half in it's desolate, it's still empty, but that's why in a lot of respects, they're closing them too, because of that massive influx of people who are then using the trails. And all they see is all these people not social distancing or almost impossible social distance in that confined space leaving and that's sort of what's happening five miles into the trail or 10 miles is you know there's probably wildlife going crazy right now just yeah going finally we get our our neighborhood back right yeah it's it's uh it's interesting how you know i i fluctuate in my opinions about what i should you know i could sneak into this trail and no one would know and it's like i can't do it you know yeah yeah no it's and it's hard because knowing the the trails

as well as we do and all of the miles that we could go, not just for training purposes, but truly just be away from people to actually physically distance properly. But again, we can't apply our knowledge because one wrong is a wrong, right? You can't just head out there. So with us in Marin though, I will correct that

is you can still use the trails here it's just you can't drive your car to the trailhead oh wow i still can go out my door and run the mountain all the way to stinson and back but i'm not allowed to drive and park at the trailhead park there yeah so that's interesting that limits it for a lot of people because now you're a mile or two away from the trailhead now how far are you going to go in and so it's it's emptied it out a little bit yeah for sure that's different all the trailheads around here are are taped off with yellow police tape yeah we don't have that even these tiny obscure ones yeah we do not have that so yeah that's difference But it gives us an opportunity again

to try different things, right? Like I have athletes doing things on the road that they would have never done or at the track. Like one of the things that my athletes have commented on is that, well, because the schools are closed, the conflict with the track that you're not allowed to be on the track during school hours is no longer there.

So we get tracks to our advantage now. We can do speed work and leg turnover and drills and strides and high knees and, you know, all the little track drills that you would do that you would never have access to. So it's this opposite opportunity. The track at the local high school near my house is closed off. Oh, okay. We're not even allowed to get into that. Oh, wow. Do you have any athletes who are, you know, in a more

complete lockdown situation, like people in New York or people that can't leave their, you know, people in Spain that can't leave their apartments at all and don't have a treadmill or anything? For sure. I definitely have some international athletes where they're really, really stuck to their building. They can go out on the street, but it's only limited hours. And Manila, for example, I have an athlete. And so he's in a parking garage doing his running and hill repeats and so forth.

And then he goes, his building's right next, in his own parking garage, right? So then I'll go back up to his apartment and he says it's a little surreal sweating in the same place where in two hours from now i'm gonna be sitting and having dinner yeah but it is what it is right same as new york i mean it's so hard in new york right now for my athletes i mean a you have to be covered facial covering right for um for the virus but also you know how much social distancing physical distancing can you do when you're running and that's why those new york times articles are so accurate about okay running in new york city you need 15 20 feet for a cough or you know

somebody spitting um so what do you what are you going to do? Then you're dodging a lot of space if you're going 15 to 20 feet around people while you're running pretty significantly good speeds. It's very complicated. But again, we're really making up for it with a fair amount of whether it's jump rope or step ups or leaps and lunges and doing a lot of routines where we're just going through each exercise with no stopping. So it's just these circuits in order just to keep that sort of endurance mode going, keep the heart rate elevated, keep you challenged, different muscle groups, and do that for 30, 40, 50 minutes, what I call grinds.

And you've seen on your training plan too. It's what I call grinds. And you've seen on your training plan too. And just sort of, at least you're getting sort of that steady recruitment of muscular fatigue and creating muscular endurance. Lindsey Krauss, who writes about running and other things for the New York Times, she's been on the podcast.

She posted on Instagram the other day, like she's out running in the streets with a mask on. And she said something to the effect of, if we just call it altitude training, these masks, we'd probably get wider adoption. It's a branding thing. Yes, it's a marketing thing. If the message were, you run with these things,

you increase your VO2 max by 7%, everybody would have it. Right, exactly. So I thought that was clever. For sure. But, I mean, we see the same thing cycling too, right? And it becomes complicated. Like cycling, you think you can ride with other people, but you really can't because it's ingrained in us so much that, you know, you're not paying attention and you turn your head and for lack of a better description, you blow a snot rocket, right? Or something like that. And next thing you know, you're like, oh, right. Like you just, you have to be so careful.

And I think a lot of that is going to keep us sort of on alert for many, many months, even on the other side of this, like, oh, was I really being sanitary there? Was I really being smart there? And so the whole approach to how we do fitness and training in a larger group is going to have some repercussions here mentally and culturally as well down the road. Our endurance solo locked in our head lifestyle might become quite popular. Right. solo locked in our head lifestyle might become quite popular right yeah i've been out riding my bike and the social distancing parameters when you're riding up behind somebody i mean you have to have a very wide berth because for the very reasons you just stated like that person expectorates in a certain way that aerosolizes and then, and you're behind that.

I mean, you know, I, and I see, you know, there's a lot of cycling in my area and I see group rides out. People in packs riding together. And I think, what are you doing? I don't understand. I'll, I'll like, you know, either just pull over and let the person get way ahead or I'll go as far around them and try to pass them as quickly as possible. And I'm thinking, this is so strange that this is what's going through my mind and this is a reality that we're in, but it is.

And then I think, should I even be on a bike at all out here? Yeah, I've gone through the same, I've gone through the same, that same question. Should I even be on a bike, especially on the busy days, like a Saturday or Sunday? Because- Yeah, weekends I think are off. Yeah yeah i'm definitely not a germaphobe but i get a little freaked out not a little i definitely my eyes i'm paying close attention to where the

next cyclist is in front of me and behind me because i don't want to be the guy in front of them um and not think and just do something stupid or cough or something. Cause it goes so far when we're on our bikes. And then as well as I don't want to be behind somebody that out of fairness to them, they're not, maybe they don't even know that I'm there. And so it's definitely has to be empty roads currently. And again, the important thing for all of us is that we want to just stay healthy and get through this with the energy and the strength that we currently have and hopefully can build upon that versus deteriorate in any way. And not even from a virus standpoint and the concerns with that, but also just because this time requires so much extra energy in everything we're doing, from homeschooling to everybody being in the house

and patients and so forth. I mean, me with four kids here at home, and all of them teenagers, you can just imagine how they're all staring at me going, you got to be kidding me. We're so sick and tired of you. And so they're being healthy, getting enough sleep, eating well, and having some sort of physical outlet every day makes a huge difference on having the patience and perspective for them because it's difficult for them currently too. entire thing so far for myself and my wife has been trying to navigate our 16-year-old daughter who's really struggling. It's been very traumatic and difficult for her. And, you know, I thought I knew a few things about parenting and this is really putting it to the test. And I just know that left to my own devices, if I'm not taking care of myself, that I'm going to misstep in how I'm, you know, parenting her. And so it's important and, you know, I guess on some level mandatory that I'm training and doing what I need to do to be as fit mentally and as emotionally as possible as much as physically. as emotionally as possible, as much as physically. And I think the thing I keep reflecting back upon is, you know, and this is something that you've talked about, is where, you know, what do I want

to, who do I want to be when this is done? You know, at some point this will lift and we will adopt some new form of normal, but nonetheless, we will emerge back into our lives. Do I want to reflect back on this as something that I survived or endured? Or do I want to look back on it and say, you know, I really leveraged this to think more deeply about who I want to be, what I want to express, the kind of person, you know, I want to be in the world. And I think despite the cacophony of distractions and parenting and living in close quarters and all of that, there still is, I would imagine for almost everybody, more opportunity for quietude and reflection. And with that, you know, the ability to develop greater clarity about what it is that you want to do and be. And I think training plays a large part in that, but also understanding, you know, the opportunity that's built into this for all of us. And I say that again, in total sensitivity to, you know, people that are having a really hard time right

now, jobs are being lost and people are being furloughed. And there are plenty of people, healthcare workers and supply chain workers who are out, you know, don't have the luxury of being sequestered and are out, you know, taking care of business for the betterment of all of us. And my heart goes out to all of those people. You know. I'm not one of those, so I can sympathize, but I don't want to say that I can empathize because I'm not walking in your shoes. It's incredibly difficult and stressful. And yet, I think there is this unprecedented moment where we need to identify the opportunity and attack that and find a way to leverage it so that we can emerge better rather than weakened from this experience.

For sure. For sure. I mean, and also it's going to be of memory for all of us, regardless how it hit us, whether in a positive way, in a negative way. That's the unique thing about this. It hit the brakes on the entire world. And we're all going to all remember this forever. Our teenagers, our younger children, us as adults, 20 somethings, 30 somethings. Everybody has been impacted by this. Everybody's going to remember

this time, right? And people have been saying it's our 9-11 moment or this and that, but it has hit so many more spectrums of society. And there's a lot of ways we don't control, we don't know how it hits everybody. So all we know is how it hits us. Doesn't mean we don't have empathy and care and respect for those who are working through this and healthcare workers and those who've been hit by tragedy or those who are losing their jobs and so forth, but it hits every one of us individually. And so what are we going to do with it? and that's what we said earlier is how do we want to kick out of this but also how do we make it memorable and and it's going to be memorable either way so if that is going to be memorable either way how do we want it to be memorable in a positive

meaningful caring thoughtful family sharing joyous way for others's not. It's not going to be that. But we don't control that. And it's like, you know, I was reminded of that Viktor Frankl quote, right? If you can't change or control the external circumstances, change yourself or, you know, your own internal circumstances. And that's one of those, this is one of those times that we are, we only control us and how we present ourselves to the world. And part of that is this, whether it's family, whether that's work,

whether that's our loved ones, whether that's our body and how we go about our day and carry ourselves as that beacon of strength and support and outward love to others. Yeah, I can think of only a handful of other moments in my life where the world sort of stopped. There's 9-11, there's when Princess Diana died,

there's the OJ, there's certain things like that, but this is uniquely different from all of those in that it is global and is impacting all of us. And there's never been an instance in which we had to stay home and couldn't go about our day. Yeah. And I think with that, it gives this experience a certain quality that I think has the power to unite us. There's a commonality of experience that we're all sharing right now. But I fear the divisiveness that I see. environment out there that if we're not really paying attention to ourselves and, you know, focusing on our priorities and really striving to be that beacon that one could succumb to.

And so there's these opposing forces of the kind of unifying aspect of this that can be uplifting terrifying um aspect of this that can be uplifting versus this destructive you know force of negativity that i see out there as well for sure i mean we watched as a joke not as a joke but with with intention but it was funny we watched groundhog day the other day the bill murray movie and it was weird because i've watched that a few times but i never really took the message as clearly as it was as when i watched it this time with regards to how he was just being indifferent about everything right and just like smoking and doing all kinds of getting drunk and being a jerk but then once he started paying attention to the lives around him and caring and giving, he found fulfillment in that repetition, right? He found love that finally broke the loop, but fulfillment,

despite the day continuing, he was fine with it because he was giving and he was focused on externally helping others versus just focusing on what on what he get out of a daily day repeating itself over and over again but anyway i mean it's bill murray i mean you can only get so much message but i thought it was interesting because here we are we're living a very similar groundhog day like i i don't know how many times over the last few weeks i've said like what day is it i'm not even they all feel the same right right with kids home, there's no sort of weekend versus day. But as soon as the process takes over, like we were saying earlier, and knowing what we need to execute on every day, whether work, whether family, whether training, whatever it is, there's sort of a fulfillment in that repetition that I've come to enjoy actually these last 10 to 14 days of,

all right, accepting this is the process currently, and I'm going to make the best in the present moment of this process. It's really the only way, acceptance. Yep. You know, railing against what is will only lead to resentment and frustration. Yeah. So to embrace what's happening and shift your perspective and look at it as, you know, I think it helps to understand that everybody's going through it. You haven't been, you know, singled out for this experience is helpful. But the only way to find peace is through acceptance. For sure. For sure. And it is also with regards to like you were talking about being sort of

stuck with this lack of compass and direction currently as we pull back to the training aspect and the athlete aspect. But the athlete's mindset is exactly that, like you said, But the athlete's mindset is exactly that. Like you said, the awareness to stay in the moment and do the best you can do at the task at hand, whatever that task is, right? If it's currently with my family or currently at work or currently in this process of training or currently, you know, going on a hike and noticing nature around us like that that's all we can focus on and that's the best place to focus on in the current moment in the present moment yeah have you had any athletes that are just completely unraveling yes yes absolutely i mean don't get me wrong i'm probably busier than ever currently just because so many are at home and a have more time to train or be a lot more ideas exactly a lot more emails a lot more phone calls i'm also taking this this time, like I was talking earlier, but going everybody's going over everybody's running form and cycling form and stretch cord form or those that can open water swim. And they're all sending me videos. So I'm going through that. other end of the spectrum that are completely unmotivated. And they just, it's like, all right, well, I know I can get to a certain level of fitness again. And I it come to get back to par and get to where you want to get to versus staying somewhat close to par and then just increasing the effort,

the training, the fitness, that piece that you want to get to, to your event. Doubling up on that is a lot. I mean, that's going to take a serious long amount of time if you take the next four months completely off and do nothing. So that's another thing to keep in mind. There's a basic maintenance level that our body can be just a few weeks removed from getting back to basically par fitness, being pretty fit, but not perfectly primed for an event. And that's sort of where we want to bubble right now, perfectly primed for an event. And that's sort of where we want to bubble right now, just below the surface of, okay, I'm maintaining a healthy body that it is strong enough and healthy enough in order to then up the training when that urgency, when that time comes again.

The other thing that other athletes have noticed, Rich, is that those that are completely over-trained and keep adding stuff, they're realizing by doing less, how much better they're sleeping, how much better they're feeling. They're coming out of that fog. That's interesting. They're coming out of that fog of fatigue for the first time going, wow, I didn't even really realize how tired I actually was. I'm like, right. There you go. Yeah. That's great. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. I think it's worth mentioning also that if you are one of those people who just can't summon up any motivation right now, or this crisis is hitting you in a very acute way, that that's okay too. I think there's this sense like, oh, everybody, you know, you go on Instagram and everybody's

doing these crazy challenges and you feel bad if you're not doing that. Like if you're, if you're, you know, not feeling it, it's okay to accept that in yourself and just try to figure out what it is that, that, that you can do and not try to hold yourself to some standard that you set prior to what is occurring right now. Remember, you are still an athlete based off of your mindset and what you're learning and what you're recovering and how you're eating. You don't have to put all five pieces of being an athlete into every day in order to call yourself an athlete or live the life of an athlete. Getting good sleep, taking care of yourself,

good nutrition can be plenty and that you're growing and learning just from that. The mindset is all about as an athlete, what am I doing to take care of myself? And if currently that means doing no training, but focusing on sleep and learning more and reading more or spending more time with family and investing yourself in other areas, so be it. You're still an athlete. You still have the mindset of an athlete because you're thinking like one and you're applying yourself like one. I've had a couple conversations with some Olympians and prospective Olympians, and it's been interesting to gauge how they're navigating the fact that the Olympics are not happening for another year. I mean, can you imagine? No, I can't. Yeah, it's like as a two-time Olympian yourself,

As a two-time Olympian yourself, you know better than anyone what's required of yourself to prepare for something like that. Your entire life is about that. Yes. And then to be told it's not happening for another year or we're not going to even select the team until next year, it's potentially career ending and devastating. And what's been cool is to talk to a few people and to see the kind of, you know, not nonchalance, but the positivity, like, okay, well, that's part of the training. Like I trained for this, like, we'll just, you know, I'll meet that. I'll meet that obligation when I'm forced to. I'll meet that obligation when I'm forced to. Yeah.

Compartmentalizing is something Olympians do better than I know anybody. Right. And what can we learn from that? Yeah. I mean, it is, like you said, staying in the moment and doing the best at the current task at hand to your abilities. You don't control more than that at any point in time. You might give yourself a story that you're in control of more than that, but you're not.

And I still feel for those guys though and girls because there's so much that's happening there and with regards to their one opportunity, maybe their one window putting off law school or medical school or graduate school because you're going to give it that shot now you have to make that decision for another year or not or you're on the back end of your career and you just missed it at the last olympics and now you're progressing just fine but you're getting to the back end of your age there's so much there's it's

like the tentacles of this go forever on how it impacts so many different lives and people, you know, from families to children to all these things to incomes. It's crazy how big that machine is. And everybody has a story, right? I can't get caught up thinking about it because whenever I talk to Emily about it and we just sit there and my brain starts moving in that direction, it starts hitting me from so many different directions of all the ways this impacts these Olympians. It's devastating in a lot of aspects, but they don't think of it like that. Just like you said, it's like, I only can do the best next workout. That's all I can think of. And that's how they've been thinking all their lives.

So it's a simple, it stays within that simple process for them. How do I prepare myself for the next best possible workout with recovery, with sleep, with proper nutrition, and then go execute that and layer upon layer upon layer. And when the day comes, I know that I've done everything I needed to do to be ready for it. Beyond that, there's nothing I can do. Yeah. Control the controllables. You know, the person who self-destructs when faced with an obstacle like this is not the person

that is the person who's going to the Olympics. You know, I mean, these people are Jedi masters when it comes to facing and managing obstacles. This perhaps being, you know, one of the largest that athletes are collectively facing, but the ones that will prevail, I think, are the ones who have the firmest and most positive mindset yes to manage it sure and then the question will be is another olympics three years away right that becomes the next question right yeah exactly then do you have an opportunity to get two olympics in three years

and that's no one knows you're done that's exactly and there you could you could be i went to two olympics and it was in a matter of like you know two and a half years right yeah like you're done that's exactly and there you could you could be i went to two olympics and it was in a matter of like you know two and a half years right yeah like you're done i think it's the uncertainty is the is the most maddening aspect of it like once you say okay this is when it's going to be you can start to plan and wrap your head around it but not knowing creates a paralysis that that i think is you know potentially more difficult to deal with than than anything else yeah and then your current training right so then now you can't even execute properly let's say you are a swimmer you don't know when what the window is well but also let's say you're an olympic swimmer right now and you are just getting ready for trials this summer

and now you can't even swim so you can't even do the task that is your sport on a daily basis. So that talk about taking away all the control that you, the one controllable that you had was, all right, go to the pool, execute my workout and feel good about that. Well, currently you can't even do that. So, I mean, there's definitely many other stories like that, but we, we, you and I can relate best to the swimming aspect and just doing that every day and waking up and going, my simple task that I've done all my life twice a day or been, my day's been revolved around is gone. Right. And, and also I was so close to achieving my lifelong dream and so forth. But I mean, it's the same with how many college athletes are and finishing up their senior year at NCAAs and so forth. But I mean, it's the same with how many college athletes are and

finishing up their senior year at NCAAs and so forth. And it's across the board, how many levels this hits. I mean, here we talk about, well, our pools closed for master swimming, or we can't go on our trails. But I think the stories beyond this are a lot more. It was interesting that it took quite a long time before they pulled the plug on the Olympics. I was just thinking, these swimmers, the pools are closed all over the world. They can't train. Like, they're supposed to, are you going to call this Olympics or not? Like, they can't even prepare right now.

Well, there was that equalizing factor of that, though, right? If they're all not swimming. Right, I guess. It was sort of- What would that look like? Everybody shows up, they haven't trained at all. Partially, but we're talking a minuscule little group that we're talking about right now, you and I and what we can relate to.

Just think of the enormity in so many other sports and so many industries that are reliant on the olympics i mean it's such a huge thing that touches so many people's lives that aren't even athletes all the yeah all the support systems with it and the sponsors so it's just i think they they they were just struggling with how do you pull the plug on something like this? Yeah. And so. Yeah. Interesting times. Well,

I want to round this out with two last minute things. The first is we should probably recap Otillo a little bit. We can give a shout out to Michael and, and, and Mott's. Yep. We were both there, although we didn't even see each other,

which was a crime. Yeah, it was. We both were able to experience the island and that race. It was pretty cool. Yes, and it was pretty magical to sort of have, now in hindsight, again, it was an experience that you look back on and you go, wow, that was a window of time that now became

a lot more meaningful because of everything stopped since then yeah so a unique place um what a challenging great event those hills and that course at first i was a little skeptical when i was like how are you gonna just do this by swimming from one beach to the other but it really was magical beautiful the water was crystal clear crazy um it was crazy and you're a few miles from la and i'm not saying that la is the dirtiest water but it's also not that clear as it was not even close like i i was just thinking oh this is what los angeles must have been like 200 years ago yeah you know so the cove the coves, the coves were beautiful. The runs were beautiful. The views were beautiful.

It was really hard though. I mean, it was a very challenging course. From my perspective, the downhills really beat you up, but that's exactly the way Mott's and Mike want it, right? Michael's just sort of laughing going, okay, if you think anybody can do an Attillo, or like he always says in the intro is like, this is not Ironman. It's constant refrain. Yes.

And so within the first half mile, that race going straight uphill that nobody can run. And many people are in all fours sort of working their way up. I was like, all right, well, you, you took the anything is possible mantra and threw it out the window right there. But great event, great job by them. By way of background for people that are listening who aren't familiar, Otillo is a series of multi-sport races that involve swimming and running. They're in locations throughout Europe. And the one in Catalina was Otillo's first North American race. So Chris and I wanted to go and participate and support. We had been teammates. You do this in teams of two. We were teammates in Sweden a couple

of years ago. You do the whole thing in a wetsuit and you're running shoes, you're running trails, you're jumping in the water, you're climbing on rocks and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And I too was thinking, well, how is this going to go when it's just one island, you're not going island to island. And I had teamed up with my buddy, Mark, who works with you as well. And he had a family conflict at the last minute. So we were unable to participate in the longer race that you competed in. And we did the shorter race the day before, which was in the moment that that happened, I was somewhat disappointed and thinking, this is why, you know, I do this stuff myself and I don't have to rely on anyone else.

But then I got my ass handed to me. It was, even though I did the shorter one, which still took two hours, it wasn't like a tiny race, it was still a two hour race. It was really hard. And I thought, man, it's a good thing I didn't do the full one

because I would have really gotten strung out on that. The hills were crazy, but the swims were unbelievable. The water temperature was perfect. The hills were crazy, but the swims were unbelievable. The water temperature was perfect. The clarity in the water was amazing. And as always, those guys put on an incredible experience. And it was great to see so many people having that experience for the first time. And also conversely, to see so many Europeans coming to America to experience it. For sure. It definitely had an international flavor,

but it still had their Otillo flavor that Michael and Mats put on. And it just, it was done really well. And I felt like I was in Europe for a little bit there, just the way the vibe of it. And they put it on this Island that is definitely unique. Catalina is definitely a unique spot stopped in time. So you're not in Avalon. You're in the other little uh two harbors area which is much less traveled it's a very different version

of catalina than one might expect or what what you would imagine if you've been to avalon for sure and and beautiful though i mean the sailboats and the views and the color of the water, I mean, definitely felt like you were somewhere else versus off the coast of California. Yeah, the biggest difference other than, you know, there wasn't downpouring rain and freezing temperatures like we had in Sweden was that you really did have to run in this one. Like in Sweden, it was so technical

for so much of the course and this it was it was legitimate trail running and and much less technical for sure but also a lot steeper running yeah harder fire roads and trails that you don't have in the european ones as much as at least the one that we've experienced i shouldn't say all all the Europeans, but we haven't done that. But the trails here were definitely challenging. I mean, I was quite surprised how hard it was. Yeah. All right. Well, let's round this thing out. Maybe leave us with a few quick shots of inspiration and wisdom for the athlete who's listening right now, who is stuck in their house and trying to find some semblance of sanity in their relationship to their fitness. Yeah. I mean, there's still many things that you can do from home. And as we talked about with

regards to the different exercises of step-ups and jump rope and stretch cords, I mean, you can be a pretty complete athlete, whether it's triathlete or running athlete or endurance athlete in your home with all the tools available these days. But the other thing is to keep in mind, as they say, willpower is mastering the tension of not getting what you want in the moment. And what willpower do you want to show in order to get something for a future outcome, whatever that might be? And so constantly reminding yourself, how do I wanna kick out of this? Who do I wanna be? Not as a big picture perspective person,

but what kind of athlete do I wanna be kicking out of this? And what do I wanna integrate that I can learn currently in my home with the smaller exercises or the step-ups or running with the step-ups with a vest or doing the staircase in your building a variety of times. There's so many different exercises and types of training you could do. And as we said earlier, don't overlook the fact that just because you're not training, there's other modalities of being an athlete that you can be

very successful in and learning skills and techniques that you will have on the other side of this to integrate once the events start ramping back up again and things start loosening back up again. And you can be the athlete that you like to be in every day, right? We all have that athlete within us. How do we let it come out and shine and come forward? And so connecting with that, I think is very important in this time. Awesome. Dropping the truth bombs as always. I love it. I appreciate you. You mentioned that you had put up, you're putting up some content or some videos like stretch cord exercises and things like that. Is there a place where people

can go and enjoy some of that? Yeah. As I put in a variety of videos for this, for stretch cords on the AIM coaching website. And then also in there I have stretch cord workouts. So you don't necessarily for swimmers listening and for open water swimmers and triathletes, you don't necessarily just want to do a bunch of poles. There's ways to go about a stretch cord workout that it mimics your swim stroke very closely. Just for a second here, Rich, what's interesting, and you can relate as a swimmer, you know how many strokes you do per length. And so per arm, let's say that's eight strokes. Let's say you do 16 strokes or 14 strokes per length. So seven per arm. Well, you can start counting. So that's 28 per hundred. So if you do 28 poles on a stretch cord with per arm, well, you can start counting. So that's, um, 28 per a hundred. So if

you do 28 poles on a stretch cord with an arm, that's a hundred. And so you can start building a swim practice around the same concept. And it's interesting with the Garmin watches or the Coros watches that we wear, um, these days, it does your stroke count for you. And so you just look that up, you do your poles and quickly in an hour, you realize you swam almost the same amount that you did. It's crazy. And then throw in that it's resistance-based. So you're building strength whilst doing the swimming motion. And so there's a little bit more rest that you need and other fatigue.

But let's say you mix in jump rope in between in the rest. Or you do some core work. Now you just did an amazing hour and 15 minutes. You helped your swimming. You were technically sound because if you watch that video, you can see the importance on some of these pointers and you walk away going, that was an amazing workout. And I did it in a square footage of eight. So, um, little things to keep in mind again, so that you can come out of this armed with more knowledge to apply however you want to apply it for the athlete you want to be. So yeah, that's on the website. And then I also put a bunch of cycling intervals up there every week so that you can log in and just see. I put all the last years of cycling intervals

out there for free so that in case you're bored by any type of Zwift riding or so on and you just wanna do something with a specific focus, it's all on the website. That's great. If you're a swimmer and you don't have stretch cords, definitely pick up a pair. It's a must-have.

Most swimming apparel manufacturers make a version of that or you can just purchase surgical tubing on the internet off amazon and make your own which is what we used to do back in college even if you're not a swimmer it's just a great very simple thing to improve your lats your shoulders there's all kinds of exercises that you can do with it and you don't have to buy like a full weight set and you can bring it wherever you go. It doesn't weigh anything either. So a great little tool for people who are looking to do something a little bit different. All right, man. Well, thanks so much. This was great. Of course. I appreciate it. AIMPcoaching.com at AIMP coach on all the social media platforms.

This is like your 300th appearance on the podcast and there will be many more to come. I'm sure. Meanwhile, you're doing your weekly word podcast. The zoom calls are just for your athletes though, right? Those aren't open to the public. Yep. And the podcast, I just try to, again, keep everybody motivated, keep them focused. And as I was saying to you earlier today,

I want most people, most people, putting a little air quotes around that, to not think about how long this current situation will take. Instead, I want them thinking of how far can I grow or how far can I take this in this time instead. Wisdom as always. All right, well, next time I see you, hopefully we'll be out in nature

doing something fun together. Exactly, finally. I hope, you know, at some point. All right, appreciate it. Thanks, man. Talk to you soon. What a gem that guy is. I love him so much.

If you vibed with Chris and his words hit home with you, I suggest you check out his previous appearances on the show. He was on episode 21, 256, 297, 309. How about 313, 329, 377, 415, and 437. I suggest you also hit up Chris's podcast, The Weekly Word Podcast. To learn more about Chris, visit the episode page on my website at richroll.com, and you can visit him at aimpcoaching.com.

You can also find him on Twitter and Instagram at aimpcoach. If you'd like to support the work we do here on the show, subscribe, rate, and comment on it on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on YouTube. Share the show or your favorite episodes with friends or on social media and you can support us on patreon at richroll.com forward slash donate thanks to everybody who helped put on today's show jason camiolo for audio engineering production show notes and interstitial music blake curtis and margo lubin they typically video the podcast but this one was remote. So no video.

Jessica Miranda for graphics, Allie Rogers for portraits, DK for advertiser relationships and theme music as always by Tyler Pyatt, Trapper Pyatt and Hari Mathis. Thanks for the love you guys. See you back here in a couple of days with another amazing episode.

Until then, stay safe, remain engaged with your friends and your family members. Try to move that body, find creative ways to engage with your fitness and I family members try to move that body find creative ways to engage with your fitness and i will see you back here soon till then peace plants Thank you.