Roadman, it's Christmas! Happy Christmas everyone, let's cue that…
Roadman, it's Christmas! Happy Christmas everyone, 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 chances? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh, and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back to a roadman cycling podcast on Christmas Day. It's the first time I've ever podcasted on Christmas Day and I haven't recorded this in advance. It actually is Christmas Day and what are we looking at? We're at 3.30 pm. All I've eaten today is a full Irish fry and an entire box of Ferrero Roshay. So a lot of time on the podcast, it's do as I say, not as I do, because there's not a dietitian in the world, Lea Haydon, who I had on the roadman summit, an amazing dietitian, and I'm sure she will be absolutely mortified if she's seen the amount of calories that I've put down today. So everyone has their Christmas tradition. Some people's Christmas tradition is, you know, we'll walk up to the top of the mountains, the sugar loaf is very promenetary in Ireland, others is jumping the sea. My Christmas tradition is typically going out for a really easy spin on the bike and tipping around some of the pedestrian ice streets and it's the one time of the year where I might actually go for a Strava segment because I go on a pedestrian ice street that's normally like crowded and trung with football 364 days a year but on Christmas day it's been open and you can just hammer it and get some segments and then watch kind of couriers and people trying to die and dodge pedestrians and and beat this for the next 364 days and it's always a lot of fun but I actually haven't got it out yet this year and am I going to go out, I haven't decided I may just don the runners and go for a quick run because dinner time is soon approaching. Roadmimics actually before I go any further on this one, a quick nudge that over on Patreon, that's how we support the podcast. If you want to buy me a beer, a Christmas beer, you can do that over on Patreon and it supports the podcast. patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. But I wanted to drop a little bit of a Christmas message and it's just a message because it's been a tough year for a lot of people and we're gonna get into the kind of reflective podcasts coming up to the new year. So today I want to just kind of set that up a little bit and I want to make a big announcement for some plans I have coming up next week which is going to be epic and involves all you guys out there. So, this is a time of year that's massively commodity driven and material driven. And it's a nice time to sit back because regardless of your financial position, regardless of what material things you've acquired through the year, of what material things you've got today, it's nice to sit back and reflect on what those make us happy because in the moment a lot of these material things, they might make you happy, but it's fleeting and It's not true happiness.
Many of us push our happiness down the line and put this kind of tag…
And so many of us push our happiness down the line and put this kind of tag on it of, I'll be happy when and then insert whatever it is. I'll be happy when I get my Pinarello F10. I'll be happy when I get Sanso car. I'll be happy when I get this house. But happiness in the future is never possible. Happiness is only possible in the present, in this moment, in this right now. It's not possible to have happiness living in the past are in the future, only here in the present. So it's a nice time to take stock of what you have, especially your health. It's a nice time to look back on this year because I know a lot of people in the prevailing narrative over mainstream media over the next week where we start moving into the new year period is gonna be looking back on 2020 with a doom and gloom. But honestly, 2020, I see it as it's been a magnifying glass for a lot of people. And if you were a person who was especially lazy, the lockdown and more time has made you lazier. If you're a person who has bad dietary habits, the lockdown is exposed that further and you're using terms like the COVID stone. If you're somebody who likes to train and likes to exercise, you're coming out of this fit or you're coming out more ripped. If you're someone who likes to read, you're coming out of this smarter. If you're someone who likes to listen to music. You have a better ear for music. It has exposed and magnified our weaknesses and our strengths. Now we're coming into a period where in a non-judgmental way you can look back on that and we can learn from it and make adjustments going forward. I'm never a huge fan of New Year's resolutions and the idea of a fix that at a specific date. I rather like to kind of set the ship for America and that's my North Star and that North Star for me could be, you know, maybe breach in a million podcast downloads and that's my Nordstar. And as I go, I make micro adjustments of course. And so I'm kind of on track for this. I'm kind of not on track for this. And that's what I'll continue to do. That works better for me. But I'll definitely use the time and have a little bit of reflection, which leads me on to why I really wanted to do this podcast today. Because I'm heading off on the 29th to Columbia. I'm heading across there for two weeks. And I'm going to explore Columbia. My Columbian geography is still quite poor. I'm going to put the next week down and research Columbia and it's still little intricacies of the different regions, but I'm heading off to Cartagania for a little bit and then I'm cycling tour around the different coffee districts and finishing off in the Medellin. And Columbia is one of the most beautiful areas on Earth and it's fast becoming an absolute mecha in cycling. So I wanted to get across there, Explore, is it possible, is it a viable alternative for us Europeans going out and using Colombia as a training base?
I'll talk the Lethras, if I pronounce that correctly, if I've spanish…
I'll talk the Lethras, if I pronounce that correctly, if I've spanish her Colombian friends, I'm sure they'll butcher that pronunciation, but I'll throw the Lethras, is the longest climb in the world and I'm going to be tackling that over in Colombia too. So I'm going out to suss out the terrain, I'm going to suss out the culture and Europe, Europe is so done. Now look we all know I talk about your own it a lot I love riding my bike in Toronto for so many reasons but I've never ridden the bike in South America so I'm going out there to explore it of a couple of work bits to do out there and I want to source out if it's somewhere where I can recommend to you to go and ride your bike as we're all looking to expand their borders and look for more cultural experiences and Columbia is stamping itself with the likes of Bigo Berto Oran, Quintana and now Egan Bernal as one of those places which is just a cycling mecca. So I have to go out and check it out. So that is it folks. I will keep you posted in more detail on that. This is a brief flowman boy podcast because it is Christmas. So I will keep you posted on Columbia, plans, itinerary and I'll be podcasting live from out there. The video kit is coming with me so I'm going to be making YouTube videos out there. So really exciting way to finish off this year and start off the new year. Roman, I hope wherever you're listening to this podcast, if my soul listener in Farflong, where was he based in Sudan or Ethiopia? I have some Farflong listeners, I hope in the field when you're doing your bit of ploughing in Ethiopia, which are little antenna, right? Or are you getting this? This is a shocking racial stereo type and I have friends who have girlfriends from Ethiopia and are actually a lot smarter and more tech savvy than I am. So I'm going to stop there. What's the saying when you're in a hole, stop digging. Row men, happy Christmas, have a great day, have a wonderful Christmas and I'm going to chat to you again on Monday. 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 Row Man community. 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 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 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.