Roadman today I want to talk about how to get back on track if you've…
Roadman today I want to talk about how to get back on track if you've fallen off the horse. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our long changes? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Robyn, welcome back to another roadman cycling podcast. Today, I want to speak to you about getting back on track. This could be back on track with anything. A diet, a habits, artistic pursuit, a language, a training plan. Just how do you get back on track? If you've had like a lot of positive momentum and then boom, stopped in your tracks and you want to get started again. If that's you, you need to keep listening to today's podcast. Before we jump into it, Rob Man, let me remind you about Patreon. Patreon is how we fund the podcast, so please head on over there. There's an ongoing cost with the podcast from time that goes into it, to research, to host and to reach out to show guests, to paying all those expenses. At the moment, the podcast, it's still not break even, although we're into our one-year anniversary at the moment, but we're still not at breakeven point but we're getting there thanks to the kind folks over on patreon so if you can spare the price of a beer once a month i would ask you to head on over to patreon.com forward slash antony underscore watch and you can contribute the price of a point of beer once a month to keep the show on the road here the link for that is in the boil roadman i had an instagram message at DM as the kids say from a follower who's a long time follower and I do try and get back to all my Instagram messages So it's roadman.soyglin over on Instagram if you don't follow me I'm sort of semi-active. I wouldn't say I'm the most active man in the world on it But I do try and get back to all my DMs there even if I'm a little bit slow depending on the you know podcast to go out that we could have a you know A big backlog of messages, but I'll try and get back to them all So this guy reached out and he said basically I was on a roll, everything was gone well and he was talking about training and diet and then he lost his streak and there he feels like stuck in a row. How does he get back his groove? Well I've spoke about this on the podcast before it's like you know the man who shall not be named Mr. Lance Armstrong in the move podcast, he speaks about Mr. Momentum and he calls him Mr. M and it's like you know Mr. M has moved the dress. That was a real bad American accent. Apologies for that. I'll never do that again. Mr. M has moved the dress but there's something to be said for that. Once Mr. M moves the dress, once momentum is not in your corner it's gone somewhere else. So like by that I mean you know if you're on a roll with doy-ish momentum is in your corner. Good habits are feeding into good habits, you're starting to see gains, you're getting motivation from that because you look in the mirror and you've lost a bit of weight, you jump on the scales, the numbers down, but then you have one bad day and the momentum's gone the other way. The momentum is with the bad habit now. The momentum is with the eating biscuits, the momentum is with the drinking beers. Now it's easy to keep drinking beers night after night, you're developing that new habit and the longer you go with it, the stronger the momentum is in that direction. you need something to offset that momentum again to get back into groove. And this can be with anything guys, this can be with diet, this can be with training because training is one I've suffered with through the years where I've been on really good roles and I've been knocking down, sticking in my today's plan sessions five, six days a week and then all of a sudden I just hit a patch where the momentum is gone.
Could be a hobby, it could be a morning routine
But it could be a hobby, it could be a morning routine. I speak all the time about the importance of morning routines, But you know, like you, I'm very imperfect. At times I will fall off the wagon and my morning routine will fall apart. And there's one concept I've actually spoke about on the podcast before which I found super helpful. I got into meditating a lot more this year. I've dabbled with it for a number of years. But I've got into it a lot more this year and started to understand the theory as well as the practice. And Sam Harris is somebody who had strongly advocated you listening to his apt-awaking up is brilliant. But he has this idea called start again. And this is the idea. I've actually covered this in a full podcast that you can be down in the gym and you can be having, you know, you've 90 minutes allocated for your workout and you're 60 minutes in and it's a shit session. You're flicking on your phone, you're talking to people, you're distracted, you're not getting anything done. But then you just, you get control of your thoughts, you get control of your actions and you say, I'm gonna start again. Just because of how to shit 60 minutes doesn't mean the next 30 minutes can't be the best 30 minute workout I've ever had. I try and use this all the time now. Just start again. So I've got up and I've had a crappy morning, stuff wasn't going to plan, I missed one meeting. Just everything you could go wrong goes wrong in the morning and it's 1 o'clock and you just get a hold of your thoughts and say start again. It's 1 o'clock, the day is not real. I can still make this my most productive day ever. four or five biscuits in, start again. Just go, well, from now on, I can make this a very clean eating period of time for me. Six biscuits isn't the same as 26 biscuits. You get to start again. So there's a couple of things that really help that Sam Harris was just a boy away. But there's a couple of things that really helped me with this idea of starting again. And this was the advice I reached out and a little voicemail to the follower on Instagram. expect at the very start that you will get knocked off track because when you will get knocked off track whether it's in eating, whether it's training, whether it's morning routines, you're not gonna have perfection for the rest of your life there's gonna be periods where you're gonna fall off the horse, it's gonna be for whatever reason life is gonna troll something at you and it's gonna knock your schedule off-caleter and you're gonna miss the session but expect it and plan for it because progress it's not linear if you think about learning a language if you think about achieving a perfect physique or attaining a really high threshold power. You're going to have periods of huge progression, then you're going to have plateaus and you're even going to have dips. You're going to have periods where you get sick, you're going to have periods where you get injured, you're going to have periods of rapid acceleration and you're going to have periods of three, four weeks where nothing happens, you just plateau. The important thing is always to just keep stumbling forward, keep stumbling forward. A second one that you can use, which is a great idea, and I got this one from Tim Ferris in a talk I heard I'm giving, is the idea of having accountability partner, and he gave this anecdote about a friend of his, and any time you didn't go to the, there were accountability partners for working out in the gym, and any time you didn't go to the gym, you had to give your body one dollar. It's just something small, it's a gesture, but that accountability partner works super well, and I have training partners. Training weeks are just so much more on point when you have a training partner whether it's an S&C session Whether it's a session out on the road have a training partner have someone that keeps you accountable and make sure you're not just going through the motions The next one that I've used so many times and I find this a brilliant habit is just get started It doesn't have to be huge if you have a You know you've seven days of podcasts to do do, just do one, just get started.
If you have, you know, four hours of language lessons, just do one…
If you have, you know, four hours of language lessons, just do one little lesson, 15 minutes, get started. For me, the application of this in cycling is, and I used to use this one a lot of time when I was pro and it's kind of nearly down to the Sean Kelly saying of if it's raining, you look out the window, get into your kit, go training anyway. And then when you come back, you can debate it in your head in the side where it was a good idea or not to go training and it's that idea of delaying taught about an action that you know is necessary so it's all amazing those actions but what I actually like to do is break it into small chunks and I just say to myself okay I'm in a bit of a bad look with trying at the moment I'm going training today and then my mind starts fighting me or you're not going to try today motivation's not there yada yada and how I fight back with this is I go Okay, I'm just gonna put my kit on. That's not daunting. Changing clothes into my kit. That is not daunting. So I just go, I'm gonna put my kit on and then I go, right, I'm just gonna have a coffee in my case at the kitchen table. And then I go, you know what, I'm in my kit. Fuck it. I'm gonna ride outside. I'll do 15 minutes outside. And I promise you, you never do 15 minutes outside. You don't, it doesn't have to be a four-hour session that's hanging over you and hanging over you. or I can't get motivated for four hours, just get motivated to get into your kit. And you know what, I've probably opened the kind of worms here, but send me pictures. If that's you, send me a picture in your kitchen, drinking your espresso in your kit. There's never been a day where I've put my kit on, sat down on the hat and espresso on my kitchen table. No matter how bad the weather, I'm taught, you know what, I'm getting changed back into my clothes because you're building that momentum and it's starting to come with you. is going in positive direction instead of the negative direction. Roadman, I think there are some very tangible ways to get back on track if you're stuck in a little bit of a road. They always helped me. I know they helped the Instagram follower who DM'd me because he got back to me. So I hope they're helpful for you too. And I'm going to chat to you again tomorrow, roadman. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a It's a challenge called a 14 day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you the leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guess walk out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans regardless of what your level is. There's a master's beginner advanced. There's meal plans shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmancycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio that roadmancycling.com slash 14 day.