My Back 40

Wait!! Look, I know this dude has a golf club in his hand instead of a Jones bar, but what you are about to listen to, will not only introduce to you another awesome podcast, but also change you’re thinking about the way you train.

Brad Kearns is an author, podcast host, professional speedgolfer, Masters high jumper, and former professional triathlete. Between the years of 1986 - 1995 Brad earned himself a name at the top of the international triathlon circuit, winning 31 events. He self published the books Breakthrough Triathlon Training, How Lance Does It and How Tiger Does It and since 2008, has worked with Mark Sisson to create the Primal Blueprint, a series of books, courses and resources that help humans live lives full of meaning and vitality.

When I stumbled upon the Get Over Yourself podcast, now known as the B.RAD podcast (found on your favourite listening platform), I was a fan instantly. The information he shares, shatters our old ways of thinking about training, health, nutrition and wellness. Brad speaks with experts in their fields to get to the bottom of the workings of our physiology in a way that, I think is super relevant, given all the misinformation that exists on the internet today. Brad also shares years of wisdom and lessons learned along the way that I think will truly resonate with professional and amateur athletes alike, regardless of age and their chosen discipline.

It was such an honour to be able to connect with Brad and hear about his life and experiences and I’m so excited to share this with you. Brad is a “tell it like it is” kind of dude and wants people to spend more time thinking about they way they treat their bodies in order to live long and happy lives. Please visit his website www.bradkearns.com to learn more.

Save 25% at Dynamic Cyclist when you use the promo code MB40 at checkout.

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Thanks to Rebound Cycle for supporting me!

This week on the podcast I bring you a conversation with my coach, Ryan Draper from Cycling 101.

I never really thought I would need a coach, but I feel like as I get older, having someone knowledgable to guide my athletic lifestyle is an investment in longevity. Especially when you have goals in mind. And if you’re thinking you don’t have time to train with a coach, that’s not the case.

There has been a lot of chat in my podcast rotations lately about how athletes are just training too much at efforts not conducive to making fitness gains. They aren’t fully recovering between workouts and inevitably get sick or injured. That’s where Ryan and Cycling-101 are different.

Admittedly, Ryan says that he isn’t really a militant type of coach. Instead, he prefers to train his athletes more intuitively. By combining an HRV tracking wearable like a Whoop, with a training program that fits into an athletes lifestyle, Ryan is able to guide his athletes to not only be fitter, but to be the best version of themselves. Workouts are guided by the athletes actual recovery to maximize fitness gains.

Ryan and I catch up often and from time to time we’ll record one of our conversations to share with you. We’ll cover topics such as nutrition, lifestyle changes that can lead to healthier recovery, issues I might be having as well as successes and breakthroughs I’ve experienced during my training journey.

There are some great nuggets of information in the episode so I hope you enjoy it.

Promo Codes: Cycling 101 - 101VIP20 to save 20% on a bike fit or consultation. Dynamic Cyclist - MB40 to save 25% off their programs. Whoop https://join.whoop.com/#/666FDF

JaBig @jabig was born in Rwanda. His family, looking for a better life, moved to South Africa and then decided to Immigrate to Canada 18 years ago.

Now, this Montreal based DJ is living his best life mixing tunes and riding bikes. JaBig’s YouTube channel, with almost 400,000 subscribers, features his DEEP & DOPE DJ mixes which are mostly recordings of his live sets.

in 2016, as a personal challenge, he decided to ride his fixed gear road bike across Canada… in the winter. The short video, Escape, put together by MEC, shows JaBig riding the ice roads in northern Canada and demonstrates some of the challenges he had tackling this great and vast country in the winter.

Last August, JaBig cycled across Canada, for the second time, to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief, a global charity that distributes bicycles to front line health care workers and schoolchildren in rural Africa. He was just 5 months into a round the globe tour, riding for the same cause, when the pandemic struck. At the recommendation of the Canadian Government he decided to return home.

In this episode, we chat about the importance of following your own path and living the life that you choose, the simplicity of life on the bike as well as some of the highlights from his journeys. JaBig also discusses the privilege we have here in the west to be able to recreate on bicycles whereas, in other parts of the world, they can mean the all the difference in a person’s quality of life. It’s a way for people to get to work, to school and to the market in order to make a living, which is why World Bicycle Relief is such an important organization.

Keep the rubber side down…

When I first started dipping my feet into the world of bikepacking, my searches for gear information on the internet led me to this guy, Darwin Rakestraw aka Darwin Onthetrail - Long Distance Hiker, Creator, Human Powered Adventure Machine.

The crossover between thru-hiking and bikepacking is pretty short and since I was looking for gear recommendations from experienced hikers and bikepackers alike, Darwin’s YouTube channel became a wealth of information for me and I made many of my gear choices based on the information he provided.

As much as he enjoys hiking and backpacking, cycling has always been his one true love and a huge part of his life enabling him to loose more than 100 lbs. Cycling also became a catalyst for him racing triathlons for 8 years.

He created his YouTube channel to inspire others to get outside and push their limits but found that there just wasn’t a lot of interest in the bikepacking videos he put out there. 2021 will change that.

As you’ll hear in this episode, Darwin is making a shift and has decided to devote more time to bikepacking and is going to get back into bikepacking events in 2021. Recently he posted a great short film of a bikepacking trip of the Sky Island Odyssey “a journey through the vast borderlands of the Wild West, featuring a diverse network of dirt, rocky, and sandy roads that traverse the ever-changing landscapes characteristic of the Sky Islands bio region in the Sonoran Desert.”

This was such a great conversation. We chatted about the importance of getting outside and moving in nature, the difficulty some people experience when returning to real life from their adventures, the importance of creativity in our lives as well as other topics.

Save 25% at Dynamic Cyclist when you use the promo code MB40 at checkout.

Save 20% off a bike fit or a consultation at Cycling 101 when you use the code 101VIP20 at checkout.

Thanks to Rebound Cycle for supporting me!

On December 29th, Chris Bruckner got the official call from Guinness that named him the new world record holder for the fastest time to cycle across Canada. The ride took place on July 13th, 2019 so I can’t imagine the anxiety of having to wait that long to find out. Chris completed the 5,747km ride in 13 days, three hours and 49 minutes, taking the record by merely 3 hours.

Chris has always been a cyclist and has raced bikes for years and though he has some experience racing longer events, riding across Canada as fast as possible would be a new challenge for this paramedic living in Inuvik in the North West Territories.

As you’ll hear, Chris put it all out there and covered huge daily mileage to attain his goal suffering severe nerve damage from the extended days on the hoods - Something all endurance athletes are familiar with. Although this was a supported effort, logistics and the work of maintaining a positive mindset weighed hard on him and he was grateful for the support from his family and team.

As a paramedic, Chris’ concern for the mental health of all front line healthcare workers was top of mind, so he raced for a cause and raised $5,000 for the Canadian Mental Health Association. Chris is also working hard to build up the cycling community in Northern Canada and wants to see more people on bikes.

I really enjoyed chatting with and getting to know Chris and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

In 2018, Bill took a train from Kansas city to Sante Fe, then rode the GDMBR to Banff using some old Adventure Cycling Association maps and hand written cue sheets. Now, rewind 17 years before when Bill weighed 435lbs. Those are two different people and the story of how he got to where he is today is inspirational.

Bill knew he had to change his life to save it, so he started an endurance journey of his own and began to transform himself. He changed his diet, got rid of his car and began to slowly shape his day to day around eating well and moving more

Despite suffering from anxiety, depression, a long list of physical injuries, and an arterial fibrillation diagnosis, he persevered and built a better life for himself. in 2004 he became a yoga instructor during which he learned breathing techniques to help him rein in his anxiety. And as his health and fitness improved, he also starting cycling farther and began bikepacking.

Now, Bill want to share his love of bikepacking and teaches folks in Kansas City about how to bikepack responsibly and also how to live car-free. He shares the importance of being outside and grounded and regularly teaches yoga outside to give people a double dose of stress relief. This year he wrote his first book, “Bikepacking School- What They don’t tell you in the guidebooks”, and he has more books coming. He’s also planning to race the TD this year so hopefully I will see him there.

I really enjoyed this conversation and Bill’s journey was so inspirational. I wanted to give him a lot of space so he could really share his story. Needless to say, he made my job very easy.

Thanks for listening.

This past summer, on the Lost Elephant Ultra Race, I had the privilege of spending some time riding bikes with Harry Tudor and Moe Nadeau. No stranger to riding bikes, this young couple decided to tackle their first bikepacking race by jumping in with both feet. The Lost Elephant Jumbo route takes riders on an arduous jaunt around the East Kootenays. With just over 500km and nearly 9000m of ascent, this dynamic duo picked quite the track for their first foray into the world of bikepack endurance racing.

They stuck together and finished in 2 days 15 hours. These two were fast and determined and for their first event, they crushed it!! What’s more is that Moe is the first woman to complete the Jumbo.

Harry went on to ITT the BC Epic 1000 Westbound, later in the summer, and now holds the single speed record with a time of 3 days 11 hours 32 minutes!

Generally, in these events, I tend to be alone most of the time and honestly, I kind of prefer it that way. That said, I really enjoyed the time spent with these two. I recall riding along together and watching them as they rode ahead of me. They both possessed a very playful nature and really had a good time together on their bikes. It was definitely a nice reprieve from the alone time and I totally enjoyed sharing stories and connecting with them.

I have always maintained that the best part of these events are the people. The tribe of bikepackers are a pretty close knit and I believe this is what continues to draw more people back to test their mettle again and again. Harry and Moe exemplify this with their positive, laid back attitudes and a rich sense of adventure. It was a pleasure chatting and I hope you enjoy listening in.

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This week on the podcast, I speak with Keith Morical. On June 14th 2020, Keith started his Guinness World Record breaking attempt of riding to each of the 48 contiguous states on his bike. On July 16th, he arrived in Kittery, Maine breaking the record by 12 days. His final time? 31:22:29. A staggering ride of 11,400km / 7,075mi and 64,600m / 212,000ft of climbing. Keith is no stranger to competing in endurance events. In 2019 he took 2nd in the Trans AM Bike Race finishing in 19:11:53, a full day ahead of Omar Di Felice.

“Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. All things just are. We can make them what we want”

As soon as Keith learned to ride a bike at the age of 5, cycling has been a deeply ingrained part of his life. Drawn by the freedom provided by the worlds most noble machine, he had no idea just how far the bicycle would take him.

At a young age, Keith struggled with dyslexia and knew intrinsically that he had to work to improve himself. This philosophy became a deeply meaningful career and he made “Self improvement for him self and others” his life’s purpose.

His company, Actualiz, wants to help businesses and individuals understand their purpose and start living it. Keith lives his philosophy and vision and wants others to do the same.

Part of the project includes a mini documentary “Riding to Inspire - Bicycling 48 States in a Month!” created by Jeremy Rubier and Kyle Miller of Miller Visual.

This is a very inspirational conversation and I so enjoyed speaking with Keith. It was an honour connecting with him and I hope that you find as many takeaways in this conversation as I did.

I’ve been wanting to have a chat with this dude for a while now and we finally were able to connect. Those of you who are even mildly interested in the Tour Divide, a self supported race that takes riders 4,400 km down the continental divide and has them climbing the equivalent of Mt. Everest 7 times (nearly 61,000m), will know who this man is.

In 2015, Josh Kato had the fastest time and finished this track in 14:11:37. Like other riders, he has returned again and again to challenge himself on this amazing route. While racing in 2019, a series of events occurred that would profoundly shake things up for Josh forcing him to scratch.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress-induced cardiomyopathy can strike even healthy individuals. In general terms, it is caused by extreme cardiovascular stress. Those who followed the race that year will remember how Sofiane Sehili and Josh were burning the track up. While a number of riders hunkered down at Brush Mountain Lodge due to very extreme weather, Josh was one the riders who persevered and pressed on. To say that he left everything out there would be an understatement.

Josh grew up in the mountains in Washington and spends most of his time exploring with his wife Val and his superstar dog, Winston. As a nurse, he has been working the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic and for that we owe him and all the other medical professionals our gratitude.

It was such an honour to connect with Josh to get to know his story. He’s a great story teller and there are some great tales from the trail in this conversation. If there is one thing I took away from this chat, as I get ready for my own crack at the Divide, It’s to have fun! This goes for any of you too. Ride bikes, have fun and your journey will be a success no matter what the outcome. Oh, fun fact! I also learned that you can break your fibula and still ride 800 miles. What a bad ass!!

This week it’s my pleasure to bring you a conversation with Sarah Hornby of Bikepack Canada.

Bikepack Canada was formed in 2016 by Sarah’s late husband, Ryan Correy, as a way to bring the Canadian bikepacking community together. To offer a place where people could find information about this exploding activity called, Bikepacking.

Ryan passed away on April 27th, 2018 after an intense nine month fight against colon cancer. The community was devastated about the loss of this amazing husband, friend and athlete. Ryan’s positive energy and passion for the things he poured his energy into was palpable, which is why he was able to build such a uniquely close knit group of cyclists, like he did with Bikepack Canada.

Since Ryan’s death, nothing will stitch together the last couple of years of Sarah’s better than the short film, Choosing to Live. This film, produced and Directed by Jeff Bartlet of Jeff Bartlet Media and Matthew Clark of Stirl and Rae Media Haus, is a story off reconnection and healing.

“The idea or riding the routes in his guide book really resonated with me as a way to connect with Ryan through his very last project.”

In this episode we chat about about her recent projects and how much they helped her to heal. We also chat about Bikepack Canada’s plans moving forward and what we can expect to see!

I really enjoyed catching up with Sarah, and I hope you enjoy this chat. I‘m grateful to her. I think everyone in the Canadian bikepacking community is. Personally, I am so grateful that she gave me the opportunity of hosting the Bikepack Canada podcast. This not only allowed me to connect with all of you but was a healing process of my own. Thank you, Sarah, and thanks for listening.