Recoveryinterview

3 HABITS OF EFFECTIVE CYCLISTS | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

with Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

36:30·6 March 2025

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DR HEATHER MCGEE

Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

PROFILE →

Dr Heather McGee studies the part of training nobody can do for you: the behaviour. Her research on habit formation reframes the amateur's real problem — it's rarely a lack of the right plan, it's the failure to repeat it. The three habits of effective cyclists she's discussed on the podcast are less about physiology than about building systems that survive a busy life: consistency over intensity, identity over motivation, and structuring the environment so the right choice is the easy one. It's the psychology that turns a good plan into actual fitness.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Dr Heather McGee: change isn't an information gap, it's an implementation gap. Everyone knows the ingredients (sleep more, eat better, train consistently). Almost nobody has the method.
The sourdough analogy: the same four ingredients in different hands produce wildly different bread. The recipe is the method, not the inputs. Most cyclists obsess over inputs and ignore method.
Future-present bias: we assume our future self will be as motivated as we are right now when we sign up. They won't be. That's why repetition-to-habit beats willpower-driven discipline.
Willpower is a muscle. Train it once a week with rest and it gets stronger. Hammer it daily and it can't lift a teacup. New Year's resolutions throw the kitchen sink at willpower and burn out by mid-February.
The dopamine-of-starting trap: we get high on the moment of buying the program. The reality of doing the reps is always less satisfying than the vision. The work is in tolerating that gap, not finding a better program.

TOPICS

CYCLING NUTRITION

Dr Heather McGee is a behavioral change psychologist who's spent 20 years studying why people can't execute on the things they already know they should do. It's not an information gap. It's an implementation gap. And there's a specific set of habits that separates cyclists who actually change from the ones who just consume more content about changing.

Key Takeaways

The research McGee references on long-term weight management found that people who kept the weight off for 5-10 years had done one thing differently from those who regained it. They stopped saying 'I'm eating healthy' and started saying 'I'm a healthy eater.' That identity shift is the mechanism. If you see yourself as an athlete who got out of shape, you train like an athlete getting back to form. If you see yourself as someone trying to lose weight, you behave like someone white-knuckling their way through a diet. The first thing to sort out is which one of those you actually are.

On habit formation, McGee cites a dental hygiene study where the group told to floss one tooth a night outperformed the group told to floss every night. The one-tooth group showed up consistently and usually kept going once they started. McGee calls this the minimum viable habit, and she puts the threshold at 70% confidence. If your most exhausted, depleted self wouldn't do it next week, scale it down until they would. For cyclists working with a coach, this is the thing most people get wrong at the start. They commit to four 90-minute sessions a week in January. By March they're doing none. One ride, whatever length you'll actually do, builds the repetition that forms a habit. You can always do more once you've shown up.

Dr Heather McGee, behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation, identifies an 'implementation gap' as the primary barrier to behavior change: people know what to do (sleep, hydration, nutrition) but cannot execute consistently. A study on long-term weight management maintainers versus regainers found that individuals who maintained clinically significant weight loss for 5-10 years had undergone an identity shift, describing themselves as 'a healthy eater' rather than 'someone eating healthy.' A dental hygiene study cited by McGee found that participants instructed to floss one tooth nightly achieved better dental hygiene outcomes at 3-6 month follow-up than those instructed to floss every tooth nightly, demonstrating the efficacy of minimum viable habit targets. McGee uses a 1-100 self-efficacy scale and recommends a 70% confidence threshold as the minimum viable habit benchmark. Environmental design research shows that keeping M&Ms six feet from a desk versus on the desk results in 500 fewer calories consumed per month, illustrating how proximity drives habitual behavior independent of willpower.

If the identity piece connects with you, the episode on eliminating toxic thoughts covers the mental side of this in more depth. And if you're trying to build better recovery habits specifically, the five things Pogacar always does after a ride is worth your time.

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

EXPERT
Behavioural change failure in cycling and fitness contexts is structurally an implementation gap rather than an information gap — Dr McGee argues most amateurs already know the ingredients (sleep, nutrition, training consistency) but lack the method to convert knowledge into sustained action.
Source: Dr Heather McGee, behavioural change psychologist
STUDY
Future-present bias systematically causes individuals to overestimate their future motivation when starting new programmes — making willpower-dependent change strategies structurally less reliable than habit-based or environment-design approaches.
Source: Dr Heather McGee, citing behavioural science research
EXPERT
Willpower behaves like a muscle — overuse without rest produces depletion, while structured deployment with recovery produces compounding strength over time, making moderate consistent application more effective than maximum-effort attempts at change.
Source: Dr Heather McGee, on the Roadman Cycling Podcast
STUDY
Habit formation requires sufficient repetitions to make behaviour automatic before motivation begins to wane — relying on motivation alone after the initial enthusiasm fades is a primary cause of programme abandonment in fitness and cycling training.
Source: Dr Heather McGee, citing habit-formation research

KEY QUOTES

“It's not an information Gap it's an implementation Gap that we tend to have it's like taking that stuff and put it into action we're all very good and we love to find out the ingredients but it's turning those attentions into actions or as I like to say that information into implementation that's the part where we fall down.”
Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

“We did a study on long-term weight management maintainers versus regainers so people that were able to maintain their weight for like 5 10 years after losing a clinically significant amount of weight versus those that maintained it for a while and then regained and what we found was that those that were most successful long term were the ones that had changed their identity.”
Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

“If you're relying on motivation you're not going to get very far because willpower is fickle. Willpower is like a muscle right if I went to the gym for the next seven days and just train my right bicep by the time I get to disa next week I wouldn't even be able to pick up a cup of tea.”
Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT9 SECTIONS

Chasing the behavior change Holy Grail

Hey everybody welcome back to the roban podcast today's guest is Dr Herer McGee did you ever have a habit that you wish you could change you're looking to lose a little bit of weight you're looking to instigate a new fitness regime stick to that training plan that's what today's podcast is all about it's how to defeat habits that aren't self-serving create habit change and establish lasting positive habits in your life Welcome to the robman podcast Dr header McGee header welcome to the show hi thanks for having me I'm excited to be here behavioral change is the it's like what was that movie Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail it feels like it's something we're all chasing it's the Holy Grail if we can just figure out this elusive behavioral change everything in my life will be good what's are starting with the inverse of it like what's our inability to change Behavior what's that rooted in I think this such a great question um and you've just got me thinking of Indiana Jones but um I uh do you know what it is like I think it's the fact that we're chasing that Holy Grail I think that's the problem like we think that everything is going to be in one particular outcome like we're all looking for one particular result and just like the one day that like you you know we're just one more longevity supplement or a Forbes article or ice path away from you know unlocking a whole new us at some stage and we just think you know we always focus on those ingredients of change I feel you know we always think okay let's focus on you know the latest Trend or whatever is going to kind of unlock that Holy Grail for us rather than actually looking at what I like to call the method in the recipe for you know long-term Health well-being productivity you know like cuz Anthony let's be real here okay when we think about high performance let's say cuz a lot of your listeners will be people that are you know optimizing for high performance um you know how many of us don't know that we need to for high performance drink more water get more sleep eat more vegetables have less alcohol less sugar you know manage our stress better you know it's not an information Gap it's an implementation Gap that we tend to have it's like taking that stuff and put it into action we're all very good and we love to find out the ingredients I what those are the things I call the ingredients that change but it's turning those attentions into actions or as I like to say that information into implementation that's the part where we fall down it's kind of that Journey or that process to get to that Holy Grail is what we tend to miss we tend to be really excited is wider like I think the cap is is getting wider and wider and wider I just finished like a two-hour podcast about artificial intelligence and it's like everyone has Einstein in their pocket right now like we can access the greatest Minds in sports physiology nutrition but it's that implementation part that's so so vital yeah and the thing is we keep consuming the information and not trying on the implementation and like you know we need to learn how to I always I kind of compare it to something that I got into during Co which was uh chying to bake Sido bread I don't know if everyone was on that b did anyone else resonate with that um I actually did this incredible course um by the dely the the firehouse Bakery in Cork in hair Island it was amazing that's what sparked it all for me so anyway during Co so Saro bread exceptionally simple in terms of ingredients so water like a bit of mother Sido culture starter um and flour and a bit of salt like incredibly simple like four ingredients grand um but the results can be so different depending on what method you use so like you know I compared to like the Great British B off you know there's a SE there's one of the rounds where they give them just the ingredients and then people have to make up the method and that's what we're doing with ourselves we're just looking at the ingredients rather than looking at what quantities do I need those ingredients in you know am I willing to delay gratification do I have patience you know am I going to need the dough with enough energy to get it to the right place or is it too much and it's going to go flat am I going to learn from that experience and am I going to you know tweak around with different elements you know am I going to be able to bounce back as I've had to by many many many Sido failures until I get

Why motivation always fades

To the semblance of success um which is barely success but you know that's what we need in our Behavior change Journey that's what we need to do in terms of experimentation we need to actually stop trying to get things perfect and actually look at where are things going wrong what's working what's not working for us tweaking the recipe to really understand and create you know that ultimately that method for Success the reality is a dim down version of The Vision we had and so I wonder by that I mean like let me expand that cuz that was very cryptic uh I did I was like hm I'm not that intelligent to understand what that means so by that I mean is like is the the the process at the start of information like if I buy I don't know take a simple example lad wants a sixpack for his summer holidays yeah and you buy the 16 we sixpack program like we all know how to get a six-pack eat less do more situps exercise more yeah but when you buy the product or you to get the information first time there's a there's a hope there's a vision of a future you and the reality never lives up to that utopian Vision you build at the outset so I'm almost like are we addicted to the dopamine of starting something but then the dopamine wains off in the process of actually chasing and doing the hard work doing the Reps to get the thing we started out to get yeah we're all pretty much delusioned like we the problem is there's this kind of future present bias um in Behavioral Science and basically you know we think that our future self is going to be as motivated as dedicated as our current self and we always start out on a behavior change Journey with like the maximum motivation and the problem is motivation just starts to wne the longer we get into that journey and that's why we want to have enough repetitions to make things habitual because as soon as Mo motivation wains we want a habit to increase and but unfortunately you know I would say if you're relying on motivation you're not going to get very far because willpower is fickle um you know I I say willp is like a muscle right if I went to the gym for the next seven days and just train my right bicep by the time I get to disa next week I wouldn't even be able to pick up a cup of tea but if I went you know once a week for the next seven weeks you know give myself the rest of recovery I needed you know I get stronger over time but the problem is when it comes to change we throw everything on the kitchen sink at it you know New Year's comes around and we're like right I'm going to eat less sugar I'm going to go for you know 90 minute Cycles like four times a week I'm going to like take this supplement I'm going to be nice to my other half I'm going to save all this money like I'm going to put my phone in a different room like we pile on things and actually it's a concept in Psychology known as gold ution the more we add in the more we take away from the focal goal we're giving ourselves too much to do and we're relying on the fact that we'll be as motivated as we are right now in the future so what's the alternative the alternative is actually to look at your context to look at your environment and actually not rely on your unreliable willpower but instead something I like to say is rely on your skill power and what do I mean by skill power I mean things like your self-awareness your self-management understanding what works for you understanding emotionally what drives your behaviors what drives those good habits what drives those bad habits what's your intrinsic motivation which I can speak to if you're interested in like uncovering that and understanding how that can drive you towards you know your ultimate goals um I know what you like do you know so many people pursue habit change because they seen someone else do it or they think it's something that they should do rather than actually something that they want to do or they think they're going to enjoy in the long term or it's going to bring them joy in their life um so that's the really important part is that we actually stop focusing on motivate step away from motivation don't rely on motivation instead rely on actually building those skills into our lives but is it step away from it or is it understand that it's fickle and it only works at the start like the hardest part of pushing a car is getting a bit of momentum once you get it up to

Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation

Speed it you know it's quite easy to keep pushing it but overcoming that initial inertia requires a lot of effort can we use understand that motivation is high at the start and then WS off and so then I guess the question becomes how do we transition from motivation to more sustainable habits yeah good question and the thing is unfortunately like there'll always be times in our habit change Journey or in our Behavior change Journey that motivation will rain so you know there'll always be those times when it'll dip and so um and there'll always be times when it's up as well so understanding I suppose like you mentioned there like the roller coaster of of it is important First Step the second step is actually yeah not relying on it too much um and how do you do that well you can actually look at I think if we go very much Back to Basics it's about actually not the quantity of motivation but the quality of motivation that's what's really important so you know there's two types of motivation there's intrinsic motivation and that's motivation that you cultivate because you love the thing that you're doing so it's it comes from a beautiful Latin word um it translates in Latin into the word inward which means Goods for the soul so essentially it's like you know pursuing that goal lights you up it makes you feel alive it's part of who you are you know you just you know it's just your essence in essence like an extrinsic motivation is you're doing something for someone else for the scales for Point finish time on a race for your doctor uh for your spouse for social media you're doing it for a reward other than you so you're not actually finding the engagement in the activity or whatever you're trying to do rewarding in itself you're actually trying to do it for some extrinsic or external reward and I call them that slippy motivation and I call intrinsic motivation sticky motivation and so what we're trying to do is understand how do we cultivate more of that sticky motivation and the very first question to ask yourself is if you're going to pursue any goal if you're trying any change is to ask yourself why is it important for me to create this change and I know it sounds so basic like I know that it sounds stupid but it's like people don't understand what the change contributes to your life and if you don't understand what it contributes to your life what is the point in engaging with it in the first place you know if you don't understand what this gives me back if you don't understand like how this is going to light you up or get you closer to who you want to be in Life or aligns with your values you know ultimately you know what is the point of pursuing this goal and I think if you can ask yourself why and I say you know maybe five or six times I was thinking about my niece earlier you know she's always asked me but why why the computers work this way why do you need to send email but why she gets me down to the final light I'm like oh Jesus I actually don't know if I have an answer for that why um but you know if we be annoying and keep asking ourselves but why but why but why we tend to get down to that core intrinsic motivation so instead have been like oh will I cycle to you know impress my mates on straa it becomes you know I just love the feeling when I get home from a cycle like I just feel like a different person or I love that sense of challenge of being around others or I love that sense of Freedom when I'm up in the mountains you know or I love you know the gang of us that all go out together and we have just have such a laugh you know I love who I become when I do that sport like that's all intrinsic motivation it's not about the numbers it's not about anyone else you use the lovely expression there it's part of who we are and I think that's very powerful like you'll occasionally have a friend who's a smoker or something they'll quit the [ __ ] for New Year they on their New Year resolution I'll say to them in February how you getting on they like still off the [ __ ] but you know once a smoker are always a smoker their identity is I am a smoker I'm a smoker who's quit smoking it's not I'm somebody who doesn't smoke and as you were speaking there I was thinking back to a period of my life I was a full-time cyclist for a few years chasing the dream of you know making a you know a lucrative living

Becoming an athlete again

From being a pro cyclist and I came back to Ireland and I started a few businesses my health wasn't not my health wasn't super I just took my eye off the ball in terms of Fitness started slowly creeping on weight and then I had a moment where I just looked at myself I was like wow like I I'm actually not that fit anymore I'm not that healthy I'm not like a catw bike rider anymore I don't have any of the you know outward appearance of a cat one bike rer I don't have veins in my legs I can't do this power for 20 minutes I'm not a cat one bike rer but I still seeing myself as an athlete so when I got back into training I didn't see myself as a fat dude who's starting a weight loss journey I see myself as an athlete who's getting back into training and it was like if you think about the characteristics you would associate with an athlete they're very different to the characteristics you associate to a fat dude who's trying to lose a bit of weight because athletes show up regardless athletes don't need instant feedback athletes are continue a course of action with almost no positive reinforcement Loop athletes train regardless of the weather athletes get their kit ready tonight before athletes you know hang out with other athletes athletes research this stuff in their spare time and it was just by seeing myself as an athlete that I was able to step back into being an athlete again but I wonder for somebody out there who's never seen themselves as an athlete like the smoker can I change my identity yeah great question and actually it was one of the findings that we did so we did a a study um on long-term weight management maintainers versus regainers so people that were able to maintain their weight for like 5 10 years um after losing a signif a clinically significant amount of weight versus those that maintained it for a while and then regained and what we found was that those that were most successful long term were the ones that had changed their identity they have then decided that that now I am now someone who eats healthy that's part of who I am I'm not engaging in healthy eating I'm someone who is a healthy eater and it's this shift in identity that's so important an and I think there's a famous habits writer I'm sure you've heard him James Clear he always says that each action is a vote for the person that you wish to become and you know I think it's a lovely way of thinking about it you know like I want to become an athlete okay how do athletes act you know can I start following athletes online do I have any friends that are athletes can I copy and paste the methodologies that they're doing and adopt them for me can I spend more time with the type of people that I want to become how do I actually create this social and emotional contagion within my life that actually rubs off of me and influences me you know um we have a child minder at the moment and she said to me this morning she was like Heather it's so funny since I've started working with you like I've started eating healthier and you know I've got all these ideas for healthy snacks and everything and I was like yeah because once you see something manifest in real life you know you realize it's possible and it's not necessarily just a superum that can achieve it and so it's really about I think taking that IDE aidea of identity and deciding who is the person that I wish to become and actually not boxing yourself in because that person is technically a non-smoker because they aren't smoking anymore and so actually becoming that person and acting like that person hanging around with non-smokers using that fer around I am a non-smoker and taking actions that are consistent with the type of person that you want to be that kind of thing can actually really fast track your long-term success how do we differentiate that from kind of Pop Culture fake it till I make it yeah good question well it's the why it's actually understanding like you know how is being healthy contributing to my life cuz if you can understand how actually being that type of person makes a positive contribution to who you are how you live every day then it's going to have a massive impact so for example I worked with socially deprived communities um that had long-term conditions in the UK and we always talked about you know why do you want to um you know get active and they would say oh because you know my doctor told me la la but after time actually you know some and some of them would say I want to

Finding your deeper why

Do 10,000 steps a day on my fitness tracker and he would say but why again and keep asking them and you know as soon as they kind of clocked actually to know what I want to be able to play with my grand kids or I want to be able to walk to the bus stop and get the bus some of these people had chronic Lo conditions I want to be able to you know walk around the supermarket uned I want to be as soon as they started to think about the contribution it made to them it was was n about doing it for other people or faking it anymore it was actually like oh hold on a second I'm actually doing this for me and I can see the benefits that come about for me and I think that's really important is actually that you can see the benefits that it's going to give you immediately and long term because we do need a little bit of a quick win as well as you know that long-term goal cuz like you know it's not helpful to say to people well this will prevent you know cardiac disease in 20 30 years it's not real enough for people at that stage you know it has to be well like actually this is going to make you more focused at work this is going to make you perform better on the bike this is actually going to make you more of a leader right now today and people want that like instant gratification as well as understanding the benefits that it'll have for the long term Roan whether you're a weekend warrior or a world hor Rider the right tools can make all the difference enter 4 eyes Precision three plus power meter the latest Innovation from 4i designed to help you reach Peak Performance the Precision tree plus power met is a compact yet powerful unit it weighs just 9 G and it's packed with features that set it apart including integration with apples fine mind Network giving you the Peace of Mind by letting you track your param meter wherever it is plus you've got up to 800 hours of battery life we all know that accuracy is key and for o delivers a groundbreaking plus or minus 1% accuracy thanks to their unique 3D strain gauge technology for those seeking even more data the Precision 3+ Pro power meter offers dual-sided power meter metrics giving you detailed insights into pedaling efficiency torque Effectiveness and left right balance for eyes offers versatile product options to suit your needs choose from R ready parameters with pre-installed units on Shimano cranks or up for factory installed parameter where you send in your crank set for a custom installation ready to elevate your cycling game Trust foro is precision Tre plus parameter Precision performance and peace of mind all in one learn more by visiting for iii.com that's for iii.com I'm going to put that in the description down below and you know in those vulnerable moments we stick with weight loss because I think that's something so many people identify with especially cyclists who are always just you know hungry to get rid of those last 2 three kilog like in the moment in those vulnerable moments where I think they've shown like links between sleep deprivation or not even deprivation but like an impaired night sleep and and teing baby exactly so you're quite likely to reach for the multiusers or the Doritos this evening but maybe they don't eating those doesn't align with your goal in that moment where you're about to make a bad decision is there like a you know this idea of neuroplasticity can we develop a pathway that links back that action to undermining our ultimate goal of who we see ourselves or you know is there basically I'm trying to again is there a trick or a hack to get around or stop us uh going for that mou pleasure yeah and do you know what like there is and there isn't because and that's such an annoying answer like but like in the moment sometimes you are too sleep deprived or too hormonal or you know too emotional to be able to actually use your kind of rational brain um and you're just using your impulses system um but they have found in studies that people actually that have created a mantra around their goals and going back to what you said Anthony about um actually people that have created an identity if you repeat that before you make a decision it actually helps you slow down and pause and actually decide is this something that's consistent with who I wish to be you know is this a vote for the identity of who I wish to become there's another step then before that which is you know if you want to change your habits change your world then you need to create an environment that's going to be

Engineering your environment for habits

Supportive of that so you know you know that you're susceptible when you're tired to given into temptation so what can you do when you're less tired to actually engineer your environment to make it more likely that you'll sck physical blockages yeah like so like a primary example is like people say oh jeez like you know I tend to I get bored at work or you know I've got a tough project that I've got to engage with and so what do I do I pop out my phone go on social media like it eases that feeling of boredom you know um and they don't get on they don't get on with what they want to do and I always say to them well first of all like is your phone in eyeline yes is it on your desk is it reachable okay well that's the first thing let's start to create friction between those unhelpful habits and where you are now like they've even shown in studies that people who kept M&M's on their desk versus six feet away um at the they ate like 500 calories less a month um um the ones that kept them six feet away than those that actually had it on their desk because it was in proximity we're going to reach for everything that's in proximity and then the same goes for your actually your home screen on your phone you know what are the apps that you see when you open up your phone home screen like are they supportive of your goals like if you're trying to be more productive if you're trying to focus more or say you're just trying to read more this year or meditate more are the notifications you're seeing you know supportive of that are you know they of like is it your Kindle reminders is your meditation reminders or is it Social Media stuff that's going to take you off task um and so there's a lot to be said for you know if you can change your environment then you can change your habits um James Clear again he talks about like our living rooms are set up you know to help us watch TV but if we're trying to actually not watch TV so much in the evening you know do we move the TV away do we put a book where the remote is you know and the same goes then for food they say ey line is by line you know if we can open our fridge and there's the carrot sticks and hummus staring Us in the face instead of the leftover chocolate cake from the weekend you know it's going to be much more likely that we're going to engage with the carrots and the homus because they're right there in front of us so you know if you really care about your long-term health and this is one of the things they've shown time and time again in studies that those that have the most willpower are those that use it least because they engineer their environment to be supportive of where they want to go and what their goals are it's an interesting idea is adding or removing friction depending on what you're trying to do like McDonald's does this super well and I've seen studies on how they engineered the environment of McDonald's to add friction to support their business goals they don't want you like Starbucks sitting down there on your laptop all day spending one Euro on a burger so if you go into McDonald's it's kind of uncomfortably bright in there the music's uncomfortably loud the seats are just down uncomfortable nothing about the McDonald's experience chill it's all horrible knackers fighting each other nothing is Chill about it so it's all like get out of here but it's interesting listening to you talking about the power of friction where it's adding friction to if I want to build a habit of not using my phone while I'm reading and getting distracted every page I'm picking up going on Instagram maybe I just lock my phone in a drawer in the other room now I have to physically walk to the other room to get the phone so I've added a little bit of friction but then you've interestingly used it the other way as well if somebody's trying to develop a habit like going out in the bike it's could be okay is your bike set up and ready to go is your kiss laid out is your water bottles filled have we removed all the friction that's going to stop us from doing this POS I like to say like you want to make your habits almost and this is not a word so forgive me but trip over aable like you literally have to trip over your bike to get out your door in the morning you know and it's just so easy cuz it's like you've just made it the default Choice what's the theory

The giggle test for tiny goals

On I see a lot of clients behind the podcast we have a cycling coaching company and like you're saying motivation is high when people reach out they're typically at a point of Maximum motivation like I'm ready to get a coach I'm ready to be the type of person I always thought I could be so they reach out and they have these huge lofty goals massive training availability and one of my things is I always saying to them okay that's all amazing like that sets the destination as to where we're going but like let's try chunk this down now into go find your cycling shoes that's your goal tomorrow find cycling shoes put a battery in your heart rate monitor like trying to make it the smallest possible thing to give them a little bit of momentum is there the or have you seen papers on this idea of creating positive momentum within a habit yeah and um I kind of actually summarized the theory into one question which is like does it pass the giggle test um and what I mean by that is is your goal laughably small um because there's huge amount of um research on you know those smaller goals help us gain momentum they help a opening release there's a Cascade effect a compounding and cumulative effect that actually over time then you know it's actually the pursuit of the goals you know the achievement that we get from those tiny little pieces that actually all adds up and that's what keeps us engaged and what I mean by does a pass the gagle test is is it so like such a joke it's so small to start with like there's a really interesting study where they looked at Dental habits and they measured people's uh dental hygiene at Baseline and then they measured it at um follow follow up in three 3 to six months and what they did was they got them to start two flossing habits and they got one group to just go out floss your teeth every night and we'll measure dental hygiene again in um six months and and they got the second group just to go out and floss one tooth and you know one tooth felt like a bit of a joke but actually when they followed up when they followed up the groups it was the one to group that actually had the best dental hygiene scores and that's because they didn't give themselves a mountain to climb and the thing is we're flossing it's just about getting started like you know like so many habits like once they started and they put in that initial effort to actually just kind of you know do the first tooth they thought oh [ __ ] it I'm here anyway I might as well do another couple like and then they kind of got a sense of geez I'm really achieving something here actually I'm just going to keep going um and that's like what's really important I've seen the same at meditation you know heads space have done this really well where they've made meditation you know we always think it has to be like 10 or 20 minutes but they've made two or three minutes or even one minute breathing exercises because it's actually just too hard for some of us to actually get our heads around doing those 10 minutes so actually by breaking it down into bite-sized chunks they're just making it so much more achievable and the thing is once you start start with the one minute you're showing up to the meditation party you might as well like you know keep going um it's I I always say I like to kind of phrase it like you want to set your minimum viable habit and that's just like what your most exhausted depleted self could do so to know what that is you can ask yourself okay what's my goal okay in a week from now is my most exhausted and depleted self still going to be carrying that out and you can scale that on the scale of 1 to 100 and if you're at least 70% confident that you're going to still carry it out ask yourself what's it going to take to go to 100 and if you're less than 70% confident that you'll be still able to carry out that goal for the next week then how do you make it easier so less time less intensity less frequency whatever you can do to actually make it more achievable just scale your goal it's a concept in Psychology known as um self-efficacy so we need to have the confidence in our competence to be able to actually carry something out but if we make our goals so small that they're laughable actually it's much more likely will engage with them and ultimately it's context dependent repetition that forms a habit so if you do the same thing in the same circumstances and of times

Minimum viable habits and showing up

It becomes a habit and that's what we're optimizing for we're optimizing for the consistency and people can always do more once they've shown up but we've set that minimum viable habit so at least you're feeling positive about how far you've gotten hey everybody let's take a quick break to talk about the bike I'll be riding this season reap I've been lucky enough to ride all the top brands in the world over the past few years but these reap bikes they're not the same and I'll tell you why Reap is the first company I've seen that isn't chasing sales Targets on the mass Market they're chasing something very rare Perfection every bike they make it's crafted in the UK Factory and it's not about slapping a ma in Britain label on a bike from a Chinese Factory it's about control from the first sketch to the final build they're handson ensuring that every detail is dialed in that's very rare in an outsourced world of mass production what sets them apart is innovation While others pump out the same old designs reaps pushing boundaries they're not following Trends they're setting Trends think precision and performance like an F1 car for the road absolutely no compromises and it shows and you can feel it when you ride the bikes these bikes are built for Riders who demand the best whether they're chasing podiums or just want a machine that feels like an extension of your body a piece of art it's not hype it's substance write a reap for yourself and you're riding something crafted with intent so if you're serious about cycling check them out it's reap bikes.com I absolutely love my one and I couldn't recommend it highly enough back to the show and am I the only one who has like a schizophrenic conversation with myself around this stuff like I remember when I was fulltime on the bike and I'd look at my training plan for the day and I might have to do 5 hours and then I'd open the court and it's pour and rain and two Dees so i' be like no way I'm doing five hours not a hope I'm doing 5 hours in that W yeah I like all right just get your kit on you're not going to training like just get your kit on and have a coffee in your kit it's like all right well I I can get my kit on I'm not going to training but I'm going to get my kit on it's like cool cool right and you're sitting there drinking coffee and my kid like you're after getting kit you may as well go out and do 10 minutes 10 minutes is no one frows to ever in 10 minutes like you can do 10 minutes like I'll do 10 minutes I'm def I'm not the 5 hours we'll do 10 minutes and this conversation will continue on and on and on can you put my mind at rest am I the only one no I love schic voice no and I think you've got a really good guidance system there like as in that voice is saying to you like just try a little bit let's try it on let's see how it goes it's going back to the you know the S her or something though and it just have one little bit no one got a dick that one here but yeah but it it shows that actually this could work for helpful habits as well as unhelpful habits you know um but yeah and often people I I work on a running app over in Canada it's called nun to run and it's brilliant it's all about getting people engaged in running um that perhaps haven't had a previous history of getting engaged in running and it's all about actually just trying to help people get one step in front of the other and exactly like you say you know and sometimes and people will say this and I've seen it in the comments on the app like people have said Jesus when I got to like I only said I was going to do 15 minutes but I got to 15 minutes and then I just felt like I'm just going to push it a little bit go on let's keep going and I'd say same for you you know once you got out in the rain you probably felt like an absolute champ and once you kind of got it an error two hours under your belt you're like oh well actually I'm flying now you know and it almost you're getting like this kind of kick out of the fact that you're proving yourself wrong um and you're defying against yourself and that's all it is it's just kind of asking yourself what's the best Next Step not saying I have to go out and do the whole thing immediately it's like okay I've got the coffee what happens next okay I've got

Self-compassion over self-criticism

This what happens next and sometimes you'll just say you know what that's enough for me today and that's not the definition of the rest of your habit for the rest of your life and that's the thing we have to remember that our habits flow flexibly so there are times in our lives where we're not going to be able to do things to 110% and there are other times when we can and it all just depends on our circumstance what's going on with us you know like I've got a teething child at the moment I'm not getting as much steep as normal I'm giving myself a bit of Grace a bit of self-compassion in that I'm not you know beating myself up about it because I understand and luckily I'm you know I spent you know the last 20 years as payral sign so I understand this but I think one of the important most important things is to be that compassionate coach rather than a Critic because actually the criticism doesn't release the dope mean so actually when you're critiquing yourself and you're pushing yourself in that negative way you're actually creating a negative feedback loop where you're primary and your Primal brain thinks oh this isn't something good to do because I'm creating all these stress hormones around this and actually I don't want to engage with that whereas actually you want to encourage yourself because it actually releases those positive hormones where I feel good this is something I want to engage with time and time again one last question for you header so we've jumped around and you've given us some very helpful strategies but if somebody has a habit they're looking to change now they're looking to install a new positive habit what's the very first thing you would do I would ask them does it bring your joy like and and you know this is this bit of a silly question but like I think Joy is so important in terms of long-term change like is it something that is going to bring them joy in their life and and again we can go back to intrinsic motivation and say well what's the contribution it's going to make to my life why is it important to me does it align with who I am or who I wish to be and then you can just ask yourself is it going to be fun and if it if you don't think it's going to be fun but you think it's quite important then how can you make it fun how can you lay on fun into the Habit so is it about like going cycling with a group of Mates is it about listening to certain music is it about you know going to really cool cafes and having coffees like you know what is the way that you can actually layer on fun into it like you know or someone that you get joy someone who gets Joy from data like from being able to see your starts being able to see the feedback like I think the really important thing is to start with joy and I often get people you know when they're thinking about creating any change in their life life is to start with a joy list you know what are the elements of this that bring you Joy and you know how can then you can design more joy into it because ultimately Joy is sticky yeah I think that's a super place to start thank you so much for your time I know you have a mut duties amongst other things that are pulling your attention so thanks so much for the time thank you so much thanks ABY if you enjoyed this conversation please click up here there's another video I know that you're absolutely going to love click over here and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss many of our amazing upcoming guests

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why do cyclists struggle to stick to training habits?+

Most cyclists already know what they should be doing, so the problem is rarely a lack of information. Dr. Heather McKee explains that motivation naturally decays over time, which means relying on it as your primary driver will always lead to inconsistency. The fix is building habits through environmental design and repetition rather than waiting to feel motivated.

What is goal dilution and how does it affect cycling performance?+

Goal dilution happens when you stack too many new commitments at once, typically around New Year, which spreads your focus too thin for any single habit to take hold. Dr. Heather McKee warns that this is one of the most common reasons cyclists fail to improve their behaviour long term. She recommends identifying the one behaviour that will make the biggest difference and concentrating on that first.

How do you build habits that actually stick for cyclists?+

Dr. Heather McKee recommends developing "skill power" rather than relying on willpower, which means designing your environment to make the desired behaviour easier to repeat consistently. Habit formation is a skill that improves with practice, and repetition in a stable context is what eventually makes a behaviour automatic. Small, specific implementation intentions, such as deciding exactly when and where you will train, produce significantly better results than vague goals.

Is motivation enough to improve as a cyclist?+

Motivation alone is not a reliable foundation for improvement because it fluctuates and will inevitably drop, especially during harder training blocks or busy life periods. Dr. Heather McKee's position is that lasting change is an implementation problem, not a motivation problem. Building systems and habits that function even when motivation is low is what separates consistent cyclists from those who repeatedly restart their training.

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Key Takeaways

KEY QUOTES

“It's not an information Gap it's an implementation Gap that we tend to have it's like taking that stuff and put it into action we're all very good and we love to find out the ingredients but it's turning those attentions into actions or as I like to say that information into implementation that's the part where we fall down.”
Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

“We did a study on long-term weight management maintainers versus regainers so people that were able to maintain their weight for like 5 10 years after losing a clinically significant amount of weight versus those that maintained it for a while and then regained and what we found was that those that were most successful long term were the ones that had changed their identity.”
Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

“If you're relying on motivation you're not going to get very far because willpower is fickle. Willpower is like a muscle right if I went to the gym for the next seven days and just train my right bicep by the time I get to disa next week I wouldn't even be able to pick up a cup of tea.”
Dr Heather McGee — Behavioral change psychologist and researcher specializing in habit formation and long-term health behavior modification

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why do cyclists struggle to stick to training habits?+

What is goal dilution and how does it affect cycling performance?+

How do you build habits that actually stick for cyclists?+

Is motivation enough to improve as a cyclist?+

3 HABITS OF EFFECTIVE CYCLISTS | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

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3 HABITS OF EFFECTIVE CYCLISTS | ROADMAN CYCLING PODCAST

Key Takeaways

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

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