Cycling in Alignment with Colby Pearce

“I think that it can be useful for us to think about moving meditation like a gateway drug, a way to step into a meditative practice. Maybe it will grow and develop into different ways. If you do it for a while, then you might be inspired to explore other paths of meditation. In my experience, working with different clients and different personality types, some athletes will start meditation and immediately dive very deeply into it; they just embrace it. It’s something their soul has been craving or hungers for.

#1) First of all, we’d prefer ideally free to pick flat or mostly flat terrain, terrain that is not obfuscated with a lot of things like stoplights and potholes and people, not a busy bike path. Not a lot of turns, not a lot of rolling hills.

#2.) And the second point that directly stems from that is, no matter where you are in this meditative process, you need to understand that you are responsible for and obligated to always keep a direct awareness of your environment.

Just because you’re zoned out and thinking about your pedal stroke doesn’t give you license to ignore cars that turn in front of you, dogs, cats, ice, sand, potholes, small children, flying objects, whatever else you might encounter on the bike. So we’re here to be aware, you’ve got to accept the fact that during cycling, we need to have our reticular activating system on which is a low-level alert for threat.” – Colby Pearce

This is the Meditation portion of Podcast Episode 21: Meditation on the Bike; uploaded here separately from the full episode for you to utilize with more ease.

Here to unpack the duality of data and intuition in endurance athletics is cycling coach and former pro cyclist, Julie Young. She and Colby unpack some of the struggles they each faced in their earlier racing careers around doping in the sport.

The main focus of this conversation is to understand the helpful and healthy place for data and analysis in your training. Learning to craft your own intuition is something that, when paired with the right amount of data, can lead you to becoming your best athletic self. 

Julie Young: https://julieyoungtraining.com/meet-julie/

The Rider: https://www.amazon.com/Rider-Tim-Krabbé/dp/1582342903

Learn the fundamentals of correct pedaling technique with Fast Talk Laboratories co-founder and Fast Talk podcast host, Chris Case

Greetings and salutations, listeners.

I am so excited for today’s show, the guest is none other than Paul Chek. I have been a student of Paul’s for a few years now, and I am so grateful and honored he has taken time to speak to my audience.

Paul Chek has been an exercise coach for over three and a half decades, but he is much more than someone who can tell you how to do a Swiss Ball crunch. Paul has hundreds of hours of YouTube videos that detail everything from proper relationship to coffee, to numerous strength exercises, to thoughts on mediation and stone stacking, to the history of pornography, and many other topics.

Paul is the founder of the Chek Institute in Encinitas, California where he and his instructors teach classes on Holistic Lifestyle Coaching, Four Quadrant Coaching Mastery, Integrated Movement Science, in addition to numerous other programs. I am currently studying in Paul’s Academy which is a multi-year program that takes the student through every class he teaches and I have found it to add to, expand and challenge my own coaching programs in numerous ways. Paul’s programs are about far more than teaching an athlete to move well; through years of therapy Paul has learned to apply a psycho-spiritual model to coaching in order to more completely serve and heal the client.

Paul has had experience as a member of the US Army boxing team, as a massage therapist, he has repaired weapons systems on Cobra helicopters, introduced the Swiss Ball into the gym, is a former professional triathlete, is a licensed Native American Medicine Practitioner who has led over four hundred shamanic journeys.

Paul Chek & The Chek Institute: https://chekinstitute.com/

Paul Chek Four Quadrant Coaching:

As a proponent of Chek’s methods and philosophy, Colby will walk through the practical applications of each of these for cyclists.

The six principles are:

1. Eating

Water Calculator: https://www.thecalculator.co/health/Water-Calculator-56.html

Breathing:

https://www.thebreathingclass.com/about-dr-belisa/

https://oxygenadvantage.com

Jess Elliott is an experienced strength and conditioning coach working at EXOS, and as an affiliate faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Jess is here to help you understand why it is so important to make time for off-the-bike strength and conditioning work. The low-impact aspect of cycling is advantageous to your body in many ways, but it does have some downsides as well. Ensuring that your body can move in a multi-planar fashion with ease and strength can prevent you from getting injured and will lead you towards being a more well-balanced individual suited for an active lifestyle.

TAG -https://www.tagperformanceco.com/our-leader

DARI – https://www.darimotion.com/about-us

Colby’s DARI Test – https://www.velonews.com/training/training-center-motion-capture-technology-helps-fix-imbalances/

FMS Gray Cook: http://graycook.com/?page_id=150

SFMA: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Selective_Functional_Movement_Assessment_(SFMA)

The fundamentals of cycling are simple; even small children do it. Yet it’s vital that we occasionally revisit the core principles of our favorite sport.

In this episode of Cycling in Alignment, Colby outlines many of the key components of cycling, including the physical characteristics that make for great cyclists.

He also ponders the question: if your body doesn’t match with this description, can you still be a great rider?

Colby also touches upon torque, the pedal stroke, fascial system, physiological testing, FTP, bike fit, and the symmetry of cycling in this broad overview of the sport of cycling.

Travis Brown is an Olympian and a mountain bike Hall of Fame inductee. His road to the Olympic Games was twisty and narrow, and often fraught with obstacles—not unlike a section of Rocky Mountain singletrack.

In today’s episode, listen to his conversation with Colby to hear about how he began his return from a severe leg injury on the bike, even before that leg was weight-bearing.

Brown still works with his long-time sponsor, Trek, developing new bikes and equipment.

He also develops young talent in the sport, including those on Native American reservations, providing bikes to young riders there.

The pair touch upon all of these topics.

Finally, Travis reveals the scare he’s had from skin cancer. As an outdoor enthusiast who spends much time on his bike, he has strong recommendations for protecting yourself while you’re out on the trail.

• Archived page of Travis’ SSWC Tattoo: https://web.archive.org/web/20051115120933/http://www.trekbikes.com/news/news_detail.jsp?articleId=4353&category=hot_news

As an athlete, specifically a cyclist, you know that your diet greatly affects your performance on the bike. Your ability to go hard and long depends to some extent on what you’ve been fueling yourself with. Colby isn’t and doesn’t claim to be a dietitian or nutritionist; that said, this podcast is a collection of his thoughts on wholesome, clean eating.

• https://secure.metabolictypingonline.com/

Jessi Stensland, the creator of FeetFreex, a website designed to help people connect with their healthy, strong feet, and re-establish a connection with nature.

Thanks for coming along with us to experience Jessi’s powerful journey and listen to the lessons she’s discovered along the way.

She has deeply developed her relationship with her body in the years since competing as a professional triathlete, swimming at the Olympic trials, and winning a bronze medal at XTERRA World Championships. Her ideas about shoes and sleep may be new and unusual to you, but pause and consider her enthusiasm, her agility, and her deep connection to her own body.

• Feet Freex: feetfreex.com