The MicroCast

We have a special guest this week, professional sport climber and coach, Dan Mirsky. Over a twenty plus year career, Dan has not only become one of the best climbers in the world, he’s also become a highly sought after coach with a wealth of knowledge that transcends climbing and sport. But, that journey hasn’t been linear.

In today’s call, Dan talks about a herniated disc injury in his lower lumbar spine and associated nerve pain that he sustained in 2019. The injury ultimately resulted in an open discectomy with laminectomy surgery and a challenging, year-long, non-linear recovery process that had him questioning if he’d ever climb at a high level again. Through our discussion, Dan talks about dealing with navigating uncertainty and shares the valuable insights that played an integral role in his ability to work through the injury and recovery process to achieve new heights in his climbing in the years post-op.

Throughout the call, we touch on specific tools for navigating challenges, the importance of mindfulness and mastery, as well as balancing outcome and process oriented goals. Dan also takes us on a deep dive into coping with failure, recognizing symptoms of burnout and the steps he takes for dealing with those feelings and sensations in order to perpetuate his love and passion for climbing forward long-term. There are so many overlaps and takeaways from this conversation that apply to runners and endurance athletes, but even moreso, they transcend sport completely. I hope you enjoy this call!

If you’re a long time listener of this podcast, please do us a favor and rate and review us

on your preferred listening platform. This helps us continue to build our community and

get more interesting and important conversations out there.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support

in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact us at [email protected]

We have a very special guest this week, microTEAM member and athlete Zena Robinson. Zena joins us today to talk about her experience running, and finishing 100 Millas Sierras Del Bandoleros, a steep 100 miler in the south of Spain. This was a dream race and performance for Zena, and in today’s microCHAT we get into the nuts and bolts of what it took to not only train for the event, but finish it in style! We talk about her background, training, and how we changed her approach to training in the lead up to this race and why that was so impactful for her. During our conversation, we uncovered important insights from the process that have the potential to impact and influence how other athletes train and race, with particular attention to process oriented goals and intuition.

If you’re a long time listener of this podcast, please do us a favor and rate and review us

on your preferred listening platform. This helps us continue to build our community and

get more interesting and important conversations out there.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support

in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact

us at [email protected]

Coach Zoë and I had a wonderful experience at the UTMB Valhöll race in Cordoba, Argentina and this call is all about recapping that experience. From our training through a wet and snowy colorado winter, to our mindsets, process oriented goals and expectations for the race - to how we dealt with challenges and a race that ended up being more technical, hotter and longer than expected, we get into all the good stuff. There are a lot of important insights for athletes on this call, particularly with regard to choosing goals, mindset, flexibility, working through setbacks and personal growth. We landed on our first international podiums out there and this was clearly an exciting experience for us- but what really makes it so special is all the trials we’ve gone through to get to this point. The journey is everything!

If you’re a long time listener of this podcast, please do us a favor and rate and review us

on your preferred listening platform. This helps us continue to build our community and

get more interesting and important conversations out there.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support

in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact

us at [email protected]

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 04/28/2023

Today’s call is all about the habits we see our most successful athletes exhibit in the training process. This isn’t a call about consistency, successful athletes have already laid that groundwork, and it's not about choosing the right goals, successful athletes already understand that process. This is about the small things, the glue that holds everything together and helps perpetuate the process forward through ups and downs, season after season, goal after goal. It’s about getting to the nuts and bolts of what separates athletes who grow continually over time and athletes who don’t. The point here is that we can adopt some of these habits, routines, attitudes, beliefs and ways of being and use them to skill up, to get to the next level. Both in athletics and life!

If you’re a long time listener of this podcast, please do us a favor and rate and review us

on your preferred listening platform. This helps us continue to build our community and

get more interesting and important conversations out there.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support

in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact

us at [email protected]

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 03/24/2023:

-Whole Food Versus Sports Nutrition

If you’re a long time listener of this podcast, please do us a favor and rate and review us

on your preferred listening platform. This helps us continue to build our community and

get more interesting and important conversations out there.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support

in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact

us at [email protected]

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 03/17/2023:

This episode is all about planning for your first ultra, but veterans, don’t stop listening. There are tons of important takeaways that can be applied to athletes at all stages of the process. Our call starts with a focus on pacing, and then moves from topics around fueling, hiking, and working through low moments that will inevitably pop up on race day. In addition, we talk about practical and important parts of the race experience like using aid stations, drop bags, changing shoes, and studying the race map and profile. We finish the call with a brief on making it all about fun. Afterall, fun is the fuel that perpetuates the process forward over years, and truly allows us to find out what we’re really capable of as athletes.

If you’re a long time listener of this podcast, please do us a favor and rate and review us on your preferred listening platform. This helps us continue to build our community and get more interesting and important conversations out there.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact us at [email protected]

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 03/03/2023

This episode is all about beginner runners, but if you aren’t a beginner, don’t stop listening. There are tons of important takeaways that can be applied to athletes at all stages of the process. We start the call by talking about easy runs based on feel versus heart rate, and from there evolve the call to touch on developing habits and routines, incorporating strength training and nutrition focus, as well as developing timelines toward big dream goals.

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support

in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact

us at [email protected]

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 02/24/2023  

We all have a really special guest this week, he’s written a new book called The Big Thing Effect: How to Transform Your Life Forever.  

This book will grab you and inspire you. It will help you unlock parts of you you didn’t know were there, both personally and athletically. Zoë and I have both really enjoyed this book, and I was really intrigued by how so many of the concepts are really applicable to athletes specifically. I think there’s a lot to unpack from listening to our discussion that can uplift us all!  

Today's guest is author, success coach and expert speaker - Jeff Patterson.  

You can follow Jeff on IG @officialjeffpatterson 

And check out his new book here: http://aspensuccesscoaching.com/

As usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact us at [email protected]  

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 02/10/2023:

Today’s call is all exploring the concept of building confidence through a running lens. In this call, we define confidence as our belief in our ability to accomplish something. From here, we identify two types of confidence, extrinsic and intrinsic confidence, and discuss how to build intrinsic confidence through training and specific tools. Many of these tools were mentioned in last week’s mental performance toolset call, so please refer back to that call for tips on developing affirmations, visualization and mental imagery, as well as others. Throughout this call we mention that confidence is a growable skill, it’s not something that just exists or we’re born with. If you don't feel confident in a particular part of your running journey, use that as an opportunity to grow your confidence through the techniques and practices mentioned here.

Think about implementing one new technique into preparation for a workout or long-run, and one new technique into the workout or long-run itself at a time. Develop a sense for what you feel works well for you and what doesn’t through practice and experimentation with the goal of showing up for your next big event feeling more prepared and confident to go the distance.

I hope you enjoy this episode and as usual, if you have any feedback, a question for a future call or are looking for support in your running journey, please visit us on the web at microcosm-coaching.com or contact us at [email protected]