This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I wanted to talk about numbers and data.

In the information and web-based age that we live in, numbers are used in so many ways.  Hours of training, number of miles ridden, number of followers, number of likes, heart rate, power, HRV, number of emails left unanswered in a day, a race time, etc. I'm sure you can think of some ways that numbers are a part of your daily life. It can be really easy to fall into a trap or habit of assigning something as good or bad, as a success or failure based on a number.  Numbers are useful tools to help us measure what we are doing so we can improve and are necessary, but the importance of them can be overemphasized. They can affect our happiness.

I've created a couple of categories to help you (and of course, me) keep some perspective with numbers. The elements are purpose, quality, and comparison.

The first is asking "does looking at this number this much help me fulfill my purpose or my reason for doing this? I'll give you a couple examples in my life.  First is instagram.  Many years ago, I gained a lot of followers relatively quickly but in the last couple of years, the growth of my instagram account has been very slow.  This is a pretty common observation for most people.  I also used to be really focused and even addicted to checking to see how many likes a photo received. Part of it was to see what my audience enjoyed so I could do more of it, but to be honest, some of it was purely driven by ego of "People like me" not "people like my picture" and looking for validation from others.  When things with the platform started to shift and I was getting less followers and less likes on my photos a few years back, I felt bad about myself.   Why didn't people like me as much as they used to?  I realized some of it was out of my control, but I took a step back and asked myself truly WHY I am using social media.  The answer came easily: it helped me contribute to my purpose of wanting to connect with people and be a mentor, a motivator, and get more people out on their bikes.  I had to take a step back and remind myself that I wasn't doing this for likes, so I was going to stop checking them.  I could post something meaningful that could potentially change someone's life and not get thousands of likes.  And on the flip side, people post pictures that get thousands of likes, but aren't changing lives. Which one would I rather have?  There is a difference between "influencer" and "influential" and no doubt, those venn diagram circles overlap.  Each time I felt compelled to check how many followers I had lost or gained, or how many likes I had, I reminded myself that's not why I'm doing it.  It took time to rebuild the habit, but I only actually look at the number of likes or followers once or twice a day now. I'm way more focused on answering DMs, responding to comments, and also using the platform for enjoyment and motivation myself.

The second element is quality, and this can be more related to things like number of hours worked, number of hours spent training, etc. Again, I think it is good to have a goal or a standard to which you want to hold yourself.  However, it's realizing when it starts becoming an unhealthy or obsessive relationship. I would say that I probably struggle with this one more than social media followers!   I'm going to use training hours in a week as an example.  First, try to figure out why you are stuck on a number. For me, it's an identity or imposter issue- I feel like less of an athlete if i don't hit a certain number of hours in a week. I want to train 15 hours a week, but I honestly usu

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

Today's guest is the most impressive Dr. Dave Vago. I first found Dr. Vago in the Ten Percent Happier Meditation app that I use.  In the app, there are several different meditation instructors and courses with educational videos before you get started.  I found a course called "Meditation and the Brain" in the app and I was immediately drawn to it.   I took a deeper look into Dr. Vago and I learned that he is a cognitive neuroscientist and is the research director for the Osher Center of Integrative Medicine at Vanderbuilt University Medical Center.  He also maintains an appointment as a research associate in the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory (FNL) at Harvard.  If you're not impressed yet, he held the position of Senior Research Coordinator for the Mind & Life Institute and is currently a Mind and Life Fellow, supporting the Mind and Life mission by advising on strategy and programs.  He's worked with John Cabot Zinn and even the Dalai Lama.   Some of his work includes studying brain scans of meditators to determine enhanced areas of blood flow and activity.  

His interest in meditation began in his early 20s.  He went to a 10 day silent meditation retreat at the suggestion of his uncle.  His interests in neuroscience and meditation crossed professionally after conducting a study showing that meditation- specifically learning how to regulate attention and emotion helped women with the chronic pain of fibromyalgia. 

Topics Discussed in the Podcast 

• Why Dr. Vago decided to study neuroscience
• discerning and contextualizing mindfulness & meditation
• the science of your brain on meditation & parts of the brain change from meditation
• seeing the Dalai Lama pissed off
• how to manage anger
• does exercise count as meditation?
• flow and meditations
• meditation and sleep
• is there an optimal meditation dosage?

Listen Now

 

 

Resources

• Contemplative Neuroscience
• link to instructors for sports teams
• David Vago's TEDx Talk 
• Ten Percent Happier App
• Dr. Vago's interview on the Ten Percent Happier Podcast
• My Interview with Jeff Warren (a friend of Dr. Vago and also an instructor in Ten Percent Happier) 

Podcast Sponsor!  Kuat Racks

Support the Show

If you would like to support the growth my show, I’d love your contribution on.  Patreon.  The current production of this free show is primarily supported out of my own pocket and a small portion is covered through the donations on Patreon. With my Patreon page, you can donate directly to the show which will help me cover the costs and help it grow! Even 4 bucks a month- the cost of one coffee per month helps a LOT! Thanks, I really appreciate your

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I wanted to share some of my favorite apps.

 

1. Noislii
2. TrainerRoad 
3. Happiness Planner and Five Minute Journal
4. Ten Percent Happier Meditation App 
5. Follow Up.CC for Gmail
6. Toggl
7. Airtable
8. Snapseed
9. Flux

Listen Now

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

It's a miracle that John Joseph McGowan isn't dead or in prison.  He's escaped AR-15 gun shots from cocaine dealers, managed to just miss being arrested while AWOL, and instigated many fights himself while he was a crackhead with a violent streak. It's hard to imagine that a human could have endured so much adversity in his life and even more inspiring, come out the other side helping change peoples' lives for the better.  JJ's early days began with being sexually and physically abused in foster homes as a young child.  He ended up homeless living in burnt out buildings in the streets of New York City selling drugs and committing robberies and acts of violence in the 1970's.  After being incarcerated as a juvenile, he was given the option to spend 4 years in the Navy instead of go to prison.  His drug and alcohol addiction did not end, nor did his fighting habits.  He even was smuggling drugs from Jamaica on his naval ship.  After getting in a fight on his ship, he was arrested, but a tooth infection sent him to the hospital.  During this time, he was able to escape and was AWOL for 15 years.  While AWOL, he dove into punk rock scene in the early 80's after meeting H.R. from the Bad Brains and eventually started a few of his own band- Bloodclot and the legendary Cromags . After a 2 year stint with crack and cocaine and eventually finding his rock bottom, the tides finally began to turn. With a deep interest in philosophy and previous life experiences with Hare Krishnas, he found himself at the temple and committed to getting clean.  Not only did he beat his drug addiction and dealings, but he found Bhakti yoga, a vegan lifestyle, and spirituality that gave him a new sense of purpose: to be of service to others. John Joseph also has completed 10+ Iron Triathlons, still tours with his band, and has written 3 books- The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon, Meat is For Pussies, and The PMA Effect.  Last year, he worked on a program called 30 to Life that provides housing and healing techniques to inmates who have been incarcerated and are now paroled after doing very long prison sentences.

If you like this episode and want more, he has appeared on Joe Rogan, 6x on the Rich Roll Podcast, Plant Proof and so many more. Explicit language warning

Topics Discussed in the Podcast 

• why it's important to do the thing that scares you
• Rich Roll's influence
• how he found Ironman
• from juvenile to the navy to AWOL
• how to deal with fear when people are after you
• how he became a Hare Krishna monk
• how he it rock bottom and quit drugs
• what he stands for these days

 

 

 

Listen Now

 

Resources

• John Joseph's Instagram
• The Evolution of Cro-Magnon
• The PMA Effect
• Meat is for Pussies
• Steven Pressfield's War of Art
• Yoga Sutras
• Science of Self Realization 

Podcast Sponsor! 

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week's episode, I want to talk about a technique I discovered that helps with rumination. You know- when something is bothering you and then you can't stop thinking about it. Or when someone really pisses you off and you can't stop thinking about how angry you are, what you should have said, etc.

I learned this technique in one of the mindfulness meditations I practice, but I use it all the time during my day- I think that's why you practice it in meditation!

It's easiest to learn the technique using meditation before applying it to your life, but you can do it however you like.  To start, put 5 minutes on your timer.  Sit somewhere and start counting your breaths.  It's guaranteed that all sorts of thoughts will start flooding in.  When they do, label the type of thought.

If "what am I having for dinner?" pops up- label it Planning

If "Did remember to turn off the stove?" label it Worry

If "I need to schedule my next haircut" Label it Planning

"My nose itches" Label it Discomfort

"This is so boring, Sonya is crazy"  label it boredom.

"I really suck at this:  Label it Judging.

If it's too much to try to pick a label and you get indecisive, you can simply label the thought as "useful" or "not useful."

I've found this helpful because it helps you release the thought pattern. And if it starts up again, label it and release it.  The experience that provoked me to make labeling the topic of this week's Crush It Monday was my race last weekend.  On the second day (it was a 2 day race), someone took me out. I was going for a  pass (on double track) calling out "on your left" so he knew what side I was passing him. Instead of acting normal, holding his line on the double track and maintaining his pace, he decided he didn't want me to pass. He accelerated hard as I went to pass, came over to the left side trying to block me.  It worked, I crashed really hard. My seatpost got tweaked and I went down so hard I had a big hematoma on my foream, my entire outer quad, knee bleeding, elbow bleeding, road rash on my bike and this was in a decisive moment of the race (there was a girl on my wheel and we were battling for 2nd & 3rd in the stage). Not only was I injured, but I had to take my multi-tool out and fix my bike.  I was full of rage. When I got going again, all I could think was about the audacity of this guy and my mind was whirring faster than my heart rate. While you can use anger to fuel you, I don't like to be angry.  So I used this technique. Each time I started flying off the handle, I'd say "anger."  Anger. Anger. Anger.  It was easier to not continue the story in my head when I just labeled the emotion.  I had to continue to use that technique for several hours after the race each time it came up.  Anger. Anger.

I use it in other situations too, but this was the most intense example I could think of as of recent.  I also use this technique to help me fall asleep.  When the lights go out and my mind starts thinking, planning, judging, worrying, hoping... I just label the thoughts and it helps calm my mind.  I challenge you to give this technique a try this week. I'd love to hear how it worked for you! The hardest part is being aware when you are getting lost in thought and being non-judgemental about it.  But practice makes it easier AND more applicable in intense moments!

I like this article about labeling.

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

I'm super excited about today's guest: Caitlin Landesberg formerly Caitlin Looney.  We aren't sure if we are related but if our interest in business, endurance sports and beer are any indication, then I'd say we are sisters!  I love today's special story because it's one of transparency, inspiration, hard work, and courage. Caitlin is a former college tennis player turned trail runner.  Caitlin was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease rendering her unable to consume gluten. That meant her favorite post-run beers were off the list.  She couldn't find a good tasting gluten free or gluten removed beer, so she took it upon herself to learn how to brew her own beer. Outfitted with a homebrew kit that was a gift from her husband and a can-do attitude, she got started.  What happened next was as she calls it "a happy accident."  Her recipes became wildly popular and in high demand. She founded her company, Sufferfest beer that was beer for athletes. Upon inspection, I found that the beer had delicious twists to like black currant or sodium to help aide recovery.   Another thing you may not know is that Caitlin was one of Strava's first employees and the former Director of Marketing.  Armed with knowledge of how to build a brand and how to build community, she applied what she learned and has created a wildly successful business.

In this episode, you'll learn how she built Sufferfest beer from nothing, how to build community, what is gluten removed beer, some of the interesting rules in the beer industry, how she dealt with setbacks, the acquisition of Sufferfest by Sierra Nevada, the difficult duality of being a mom of very young children and a CEO, and we even talked about pregnant athletes and pregnant career women and what that is like.

Topics Discussed in the Podcast 

• how she built Sufferfest beer from nothing, how to build community
• What is gluten removed beer?
• rules for creating a product in the beer industry
• how she dealt with setbacks
• the acquisition of SufferFest Beer by Sierra Nevada
• duality of being a mom and CEO
• why she felt she had to hide her pregnancy to her early investors
• how Caitlin defines success

Listen Now

 

Resources

• Sufferfest Beer
• Sufferfest Beer on instagram
• Follow Caitlin Landesberg on Instagram
• Caitlin's interview with Outside: How to be a working parent
• Athlete Coalition 

Podcast Sponsor!  Kuat Racks

Support the Show

If you would like to support the growth my show, I’d love your contribution on.  Patreon.  The current production of this free show is primarily supported out of my own pocket and a small portion is covered through the donations on Patreon. With my Patreon page, you can donate directly to the show which will help me cover the costs and help it grow! Even 4 bucks a month- the cost of one coffee per month helps a LOT! Thanks, I really appreciate

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  I originally had a different topic queued up for today's Crush It Monday, but in the middle of my race over the weekend, I realized that the way I think about pain during a race or during an interval workout might be helpful.  It's something I've had to work on. You've probably heard the quote "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."  Of course, that quote extends far past just the discomfort of exercise. So this weekend I did a 2 day mountain bike race in Squamish, BC.  I've been trying to stay more local and go to races I can drive to in order to prevent burnout from too much time on airplanes (and save money). That means that I've been doing races that are shorter than my normal 50-100 mile mountain bike races.  The races I've been doing have been under 3 hours.  I still prefer longer races and my true talent is in the longer races, but I'm proud of how I've been performing at shorter events.  The other caveat with shorter events is that you have to ride harder than you would at say a 5-8 hour race. The pacing is just different and it's a different type of fitness.

That brings me to my point- talking about pain.  I mentioned this during my Cape Epic podcast because endurance racing is also painful, but just in a different way.  So you're racing. You're breathing hard, your legs are on fire, maybe your back hurts, your heart rate is pinned.  You just want to slow down.  But most of the time, our brain tells us to slow down before our body actually needs to.  If you want to learn more about this, check out my podcast episode with Walter Staiano and look up Samuel Marcora's work who both talk about perception of effort and mental fatigue. Tim Noakes also has a slightly parallel theory called the Central Governor Theory.

So it hurts.  The climb is relentless and you want to just slow down.  It happens to everyone.  We all feel this way.  So how do you convince yourself to keep pushing? First, doing intervals in your training where you are going the same pace or harder helps.  The alarm bells that go off when there's bright red pain may be less after some practice actually being in pain.  Next, I think it's important to have a mantra that works for you. My husband likes to think about how when he is hurting, he is making other people around him hurt. I like to think of it as if I'm at my limit, so is everyone around me. I'm not alone.  A mantra I use in hard intervals is "I'm okay. You're okay. Keep pushing. You got this."  In the race over the weekend, I told myself, "It's good that it hurts. I'm lucky I can push this hard.  I can push like this forever, I welcome the pain."  Or a shorter version, "This is good pain."  This brings me to another point- not all pain is created equal. If you are sick or injured, that is NOT good pain to push through.  Try to come up with a mantra that works for you and practice it.

My favorite mantra that not only applies to pain, but also to anything that is hard is, "Don't Wish It Away."  It's easy to wish " would this climb just end?  I wish the finish line was closer!"  Trust me, I especially start thinking this in really long races.  Being in the moment is hard sometimes, especially when it hurts, but trying to find gratitude in that moment can help.  "I signed up for this. I trained for this. I'm lucky to be here.  This is where I get to know myself best.  The views are beautiful.  Look at all these people who are pushing themselves too." Anything you can tell yourself to stop the negative rumination of wishing it away is helpful...and again, it's a practice. It won't always work.  But just being aware when you are doing it can help you en

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

If you're an endurance athlete, you've probably thought about altitude.  I grew up in Albuquerque, NM and lived in Colorado for my 20s. I never thought about altitude training until I did the highest mountain bike race in the world in 2011.  The race was a 10 day race in Nepal called the Yak Attack that topped out at 17,769'.  I admit I still wasn't fully acquainted with the data of training at altitude.  I knew how dangerous the symptoms of acute mountain sickness or altitude sickness could be.  In fact, it was my primary fear for tackling this race and wanting to be the first woman to ever finish.  You can watch my TED Talk about it. 

I started spending a lot of time in BC in 2013 and eventually moved in 2014.  That also meant I moved from living at altitude my entire life to 1,000' where I still live.  Racing in Colorado became a problem- I could only race in third gear.  It was frustrating.  I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about potentially prepping for altitude and used myself as a guinea pig in some hypoxic experiments.  They were only moderately successful. It still didn't really answer my question, "Can you train for altitude?"  

If you're an avid listener of this podcast, then you might have heard my heat training series with Dr. Stephen Cheung in one episode and Luke Way and Stacey Shand in a second follow-up episode.  Today, I sat down with Dr. Cheung for a second time.  This time, we talked about altitude.  

Dr. Cheung is not only one of the world's top authorities on environmental physiology, but he is an avid cyclist himself.  If you want to really geek out, get his textbook "Advanced Environmental Physiology."  Dr. Cheung is a professor at Brock University in the Department of Kinesiology.  He also is an author of a few other books: Cutting-Edge Cycling, and Cycling Science.  If that doesn’t keep him busy enough, he is the Sport Science & Training editor for www.pezcyclingnews.com. In this episode, you'll learn what happens to your body at altitude, if there is an ideal time to get to an event beforehand, the efficacy of altitude tents, if there is any data behind hypoxic training, and what the best configuration for ideal training is in terms of sleeping high and training low.

Topics Discussed in the Podcast 

• what happens to your body at altitude
• variability between individuals
• is there an ideal time to get to an event at altitude beforehand?
• train low, sleep high or train high, sleep high?
• do altitude tents work?
• can you use hypoxic respiratory training for altitude?

Listen Now

 

Resources

• Advanced Environmental Physiology
• Cutting-Edge Cycling
• his book Cycling Science
• Dr. Cheung on Twitter

Podcast Sponsor!  Kuat Racks

Support the Show

If you would like to support the growth my show, I’d love your contribution on.  Patreon. 

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about intensity.  More specifically, I want to talk about a quote I heard.

I can't remember exactly where I heard this quote, but I wrote it down and recently found it.  I think it might have been from a Sharon Salzberg meditation, but I am not sure.

It said, "We count on intensity to feel alive instead of stillness"

Wow.  How many of you can relate to that statement?  I definitely can.  I'm an excitement junkie. I love doing things at a fast pace. I like being busy and having tons of plans and projects but as I have found out on more than one occasion, it can also lead to overwhelm and burnout.  When I heard this quote, it hit home.  I do admit to feeling most alive when I'm out doing and pushing.  My biggest challenge is to slow down. To be still. To avoid filling empty minutes or seconds with something else and to just be.  I've always pushed for more and more because I love the excitement of learning and creating. I like adrenaline. I like pushing myself physically and mentally.  There's a cost to pushing too hard.  I asked myself, "why do I need so much intensity?"  While I don't have the answer, I decided to add in more stillness and see how it felt.  The reality is that the more restorative moments I take during my day, the more calm and at ease I feel.  A morning journal prompt I sometimes answer is "how do I want to feel today?" and a common response has been calm and at ease.  Doing more, achieving more, and being busier was not contributing to feeling calm and at ease.

Last summer, I sat down and wrote out the things that make me feel unhappy, stressed, or overwhelmed.  Next to it, I had a column to mark whether those things were in my control.  Almost all of them were.  And in a column next to that, I wrote down what a potential solution would be.  The answer to 90% of all of my stressors or feelings of overwhelm was the same.  Slow Down. 

In addition to scheduling less this year, saying no a lot more, and deliberately deciding that I will not do as many tasks in one day, I have consciously been adding in more moments to pause and slow down. It doesn't have to be a big thing that's hard to execute.  It's taking a few seconds here and there. You don't have to sit down and meditate (although we all know it's good for us. It's a habit I'm still trying to adopt. I constantly fall off the daily habit).  A meditation teacher would say that someone like me needs to sit down for even MORE time. I'll get there one day I hope.

What are some moments of stillness you can add that contribute to feeling alive?  As I mentioned, it's been helpful to simply add in many small moments during the day and it adds up!  It's looking for those mindful moments that make you feel connected to earth, another person, or even to your body. For me, it's been stopping on bike rides and just staring at or smelling the flowers. It's appreciating nature instead of letting it zoom by because I need to get a loop done on the trail.  It's paying attention to when the dirt changes color, or the striations in the rock.  It's stopping and looking at the sky.  Out and about, it's looking for human connection in moments when a lot of times, we'd zone out in our own thoughts or be on our phone like at the grocery checkout. An example and something I enjoy doing is looking the person in the eyes and asking them about their day and in a conversation where they can't answer on autopilot. I always feel good after I connect with a person.   Other ways I've been adding in stillness are just sitting on m

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.

What secrets are your body trying to tell you? How do you know if you should keep pushing or if you should rest?  If you listen to the podcast where our unifying theme is about high performance living, then I think you'll love today's topic.  It's about measuring strain and recovery.  There's a great deal of research uncovering biomarkers to give insight to your sleep, recovery, and HRV (heart rate variability).  Today's guest is the CEO and Founder of the wildly successful and rapidly expanding company, WHOOP.  His name is Will Ahmed and if you listen to WHOOP Podcast, you're familiar with Will and WHOOP's mission.  Their goal is to unlock human performance by monitoring heart rate 24/7, creating smart algorithms to gauge the stress on your body, prevent overtraining, provide an individualized in depth analysis of sleep, and help contribute to the broader picture of not just athletic performance, but life performance. WHOOP's software uses sleep, HRV, and real time heart rate that is measured 100 times per second to calculate a strain score, a recovery score, and a sleep score.  Strain is not just based on your workouts, but also based on the entire impact of the things you do to reduce stress and the things that cause stress to calculate a score.  For example, meditation contributes to a lower strain score while chasing around your toddler would increase your strain score. With this data, you can change your habits.  They also have the most advanced way to measure sleep, showing how long it took you to fall asleep, how much time you actually spent sleeping, number of disturbances (most are unconscious), and how much time you spent in each sleep cycle.  You are surveyed with the same questions each morning to look for patterns so that the "sleep coach" can give you feedback to improve your sleep.

 

Will is hooking you up:

Use the code LOONEY for 30 bucks off a when you sign up for WHOOP membership, and you get a free strap.

Topics Discussed in the Podcast 

• how Will Ahmed started his company WHOOP
• Personality traits Will looks for to build a business team
• Will Ahmed's approach to scaling WHOOP
• the framework & fundamentals of WHOOP: Strain, Recovery Score, HRV, Sleep
• how to optimize your sleep and sleep better
• importance of slow wave sleep
• What HRV is actually measuring
• how meditation effects strain score & recovery

Listen Now

 

Resources

• WHOOP
• WHOOP Podcast
• Follow Will on Instagram
• WHOOP Podcast with Kate Courtney
• Computer App I mentioned for blue light reduction: Flux 
• Book I mentioned (humble, hungry, smart); The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni 

Podcast Sponsor!  Kuat Racks

Support the Show

If you would like to support the growth my show, I’d lo

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The Grow the Good Podcast is produced by Palm Tree Pod Co.