It was episode 1231, five tips to speed up your metabolism. And the response to that episode was absolutely huge. Some of the biggest response we've had to a podcast all year. A lot of you reached out with DMs and questions and feedback. So MetPro on the back of this has joined us as a show sponsor. If you missed that episode, I'll link it in the show notes down below. Now, if you're watching this, you already train smart. You've dialed in your workouts, your power numbers, maybe even your recovery protocols. You're tracking intervals. You're watching your training stress score, paying attention to your sleep. But here's the thing that most athletes still overlook in my experience, their metabolism. And that's where MetPro comes in. MetPro is performance coaching platform designed to help athletes optimize their metabolism for peak performance. Because no matter how good your training plan is, if your body isn't fueling, recovering, and adapting efficiently, you're leaving performance on the table. MetPro coaches analyze your unique metabolic profile, how your body processes fuel under stress, and it uses that data to build personalized nutrition and training strategy that evolves as your training load and goals change. For cyclists, that means fueling smarter on hard days and recovering between sessions and more consistency across long training blocks. Right now, Roadmand Cycling listeners can get a complimentary metabolic profiling assessment plus a one-on-one consultation with a MetPro coach. Just go to www.metpro.co/roman. That's me tpo.co m. I'm going to leave that link in the description down below. The more patterns your brain recognizes, the faster and more automatic your physical response becomes, and this is the key, the faster your response becomes, the less your amydala needs to worry about intervening because that prefrontal cortex is handling absolutely everything. And this is your brain's fear off switch. As I said at the outset, it's not one thing, it's a threshold. Once your pattern library is rich enough and varied enough, the prefrontal cortex has enough data to override the amydala's alarm system and descending shifts from this terror where I'm white knuckling it to that vincenzo neebly flow. I always think of this like music and I'm going down. That's the flow. That's what we're looking to get to. So the question is how do you build that library? All right, let's get really practical for a second because I want to give you a genuine framework that you can go and implement to build this skill set. The first part, and this might sound obvious, but what's that expression? Common sense isn't that common. It's the equipment audit. Before you work on a single corner, you need to eliminate rational fears. Because here's the thing, some of the fear you feel descending, it's completely justified. If your brake pads are worn, if your tires are dodgy, if your bike hasn't been serviced in like 18 months, your amydala has a right to be screaming at you. Mental performance coach Neil Edge, who runs a specific four-week program for athletes who fear descending, says his very first step is always a thorough bike check. Brakes, tires, headset, wheel truness. You can't build confidence on top of legitimate mechanical fears or concerns. So, step one is make sure your equipment deserves your trust. The second step is what we call the single descent protocol. This comes directly from what every high-speed sport does and it's been validated by coaches across multiple disciplines. You pick just one descent one. Pick a descent you can access regularly close to your home. Ideally one with a mix of corner types, some open sweepers, maybe a tight hairpin, some straits in between. And I want you to ride it repeatedly. The first few times you ride it, ride it conservatively. Break early. Take wide lines, nothing too aggressive. Stay well within your comfort zone. You're not trying to go fast. You're letting your brain catalog the road, the surface, the camber, where the drainage gullies are, where the gravel collects. Each repetition, your brain is literally building a richer map of that specific environment. And this is identical to what racing drivers do when they don't know a track and they're trying to learn it for the first time. The initial laps, if you even watch like the best in the world, Max Versstappen, the initial laps aren't about speed. They're about building what researchers call survey knowledge. And that's a detailed spatial map that the brain can then reference at higher speeds. Only after many laps do they start to push the limits. And here's the motorsport principle that you should steal directly.