In today's podcast, I get to chat with the most extreme cyclist on…
In today's podcast, I get to chat with the most extreme cyclist on the planet, Jack Ultra Cyclist. 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 longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman! Roadman, welcome back to another Roadman Cycling Podcast. It's Wednesday, that can only mean wanting, it's time for our guest interview. I've pulled another one out of the hat, he's one of the most likeable guys I've ever talked on the podcast and his story is truly inspirational. someone that you cycled as a tool to pull himself out of the darkest corners you can imagine from addiction to just as we call it in Ireland the black cast of just depression and I speak with him about some of the crazy events he's done including riding the Taiwan KOM challenge four times in a row non-stop, tree a sense of Everest in tree countries in three days, riding 1200 kilometres in 56 hours and recently breaking the world record for the most mileage in a seven day period. His name is Jack Thompson, better known on social media circles as Jack Ultra Cyclist. I'm going to dive into that in two seconds. Before I do, I just want to talk to you about how I fund this podcast. It's true patreon.com. The link is in the bio as always. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. I've just dropped The secret podcast for this month and the secret podcast is my gift to you patreon's people who subscribe and support this podcast and this month in the secret podcast I'm talking about how I'm using DNA testing to get a performance edge and a new drink that I'm taking to burn away fat. It's all in the secret podcast you'll get access as soon as you subscribe to the secret podcast. The idea of the secret podcast is to give a little something back to you for supporting the show. The price of getting access to this and supporting this show, it's the price of a beer once a month. For you, it might seem like a small amount of money, but for us on the show, it's validation we're going the right direction and it means we're going to be around for a long time. I've spoken the last week and I've been harping back to the A1 show that I used to have and why I'm harping back to it is because it seemed like at the time it was going to be around forever. But alas, it's gone and it disappeared because we didn't make it financially sustainable. So that's what I want to do with this podcast. I want a big push to try and make it financially sustainable through Patreon. And you guys are the only ones that can make that happen. Like the guest today, Jack Ultra Cyclist, it's pure fire. If that's not worth the price of a beer once a month, I don't know what it is. I'm going to leave it there guys. And I'm going to introduce you to the legend, the man, the extraordinary endurance machine, Jack Ultra Cyclist. Jack Ultra You're a cyclist. Welcome to the Rogue Man Podcast. Thanks for having me, mate. Jack, what's the crack? How are you? I'm good. I'm here in Joraynerx, getting a little cooler. And yeah, I'm missing my gelatas. Yeah, we were just chatting before we got started there. I loved your own. It's like, I just got this romantic notion of Jorayner back when I started cycling, reading about Armstrong and Mike Barry and all the early US postal guys based themselves there. So as soon as I had any money, I was like, I need to get there. And I just fell in love with the place. Yeah, it's pretty special. I first visited in 2013 for a little training block, and it's changed a lot since then, but yeah, there's something special about the place. Yeah, because it doesn't sound like a Spanish accent you have going on there. No, I'm from Australia. Yeah. I'm very Australian. So how did you make your way up to Jerona from Australia or what's the? Yeah, so it was never actually planned and we finished the, we did basically an Everesting project last year, which I'm sure we'll touch on later in the potty. But we finished up in Andorra, and then we had a film that we wanted to show in Jarona. And so, yeah, came here with my old man who was on the trip and a couple of mates who were there with me. And we got here and showed the film, and I sort of just got this feeling like this is where I had to be, who were just things happening. And I had a dog back home, but I didn't have a partner or anything. And I had a house with a mortgage. So I figured, you know, I could find someone to live in the house. It was a nice little place. And I basically moved to Gerona and see what I could do. And you bring your dog to go. Where's your dog? No, I had to rehome my dog, which was that was the hardest thing about moving. So I had a little bull terrier and I actually rescued him from another family. And so I was really hesitant to let him go and I would have loved to have brought him over here But I think the apartment living here compared to sort of house living in Australia wouldn't have been suitable Yeah, it's hard. I'm living in an apartment with two dogs and Like I'm a girlfriend You got to be honest with two dogs living in an apartment You got to be out running and walking them every day because just don't have to run for it And I think you know who was used to being outdoors So then bringing it here wouldn't have been good.
We found a good family and he's happy I get photos of him Good dad…
So we found a good family and he's happy I get photos of him Good dad Lauren Sandam was kind of my intro to you. He gave you a bit of a shout out in our podcast last week and He was just me off air. I was like what started this Jack ultra cycles. Oh, you need to check this deal now He's fucking crazy So I got the rabbit hole and I think I watched all your videos on your YouTube channel is legit But you've only like four videos, but they're all like epic Yeah, so it sort of started. We did this. We did the first challenge, I guess, in Taiwan. And I just had this idea that I wanted to document it. And I have a mate back in Perth, Toby Bajarovic, who's done some viral YouTube stuff with 2 million hits. And I said to him, what do you be interested in coming in? It's not to do it at the long hair in the first video. Yeah. No, no, that's actually a mate. That's my mate, Zach. Toby doesn't feature in it because he's on the camera. And I said, come along, let's document it. So he came along and produced this like, it's all like, when I look at it, I'm like, holy shit, this is like Hollywood quality. It's properly good. Yeah. Because I doubt that some YouTube stuff as well. And like, I couldn't watch my YouTube stuff after watching your YouTube stuff. Hard thing is it's like to keep that standard is, it puts a bit of pressure on. But no. It's gone. You're going downhill now, mate. I'll tell you now. I see YouTube are you fucked. I'm stuffed. So yeah, I just had this idea, let's document it. So we documented it and it went quite well, got some good views and then from then on, I thought let's document everything. And yeah, every year, which I'll do one or two. So that's been fun. And it's pretty cool that your dad's in the Taiwan KOM. Like your dad's, if anyone hasn't checked out, I'll link it up in the description to this podcast. Your dad's an absolute dude. Yeah. He actually got me back into cycling. So I stopped throughout university and he said, like I had some problems with drugs and spent some time in rehab. And the old man, he said to me when I got out, he said, why don't you jump back on a bike? And I was like, no, I don't want to get on a bike. I'm done with this. And he eventually convinced me. And yeah, growing up, he retired young and he, yeah, he basically rode his bike around the world was a goal when he retired. So we grew up with this crazy dad who's been super supportive of the cycling. It's brilliant, isn't it? Like when you have that, I always talk to a culture that I got through, roadman cycling. And I say to them, the one thing that makes success, it's not like this born in termination to get out train and it's not genetics right now. It's the support structure around you, family, girlfriend, friends, if you're a fight, had an old client and he's like, his missus just did not want some cycling. So he comes back to me, he's like, Okay, I gotta compromise with the miss. I can try in as much as I want, but I need to be back by 7 a.m. I was like, I can't put the verlice at. That's not a compromise, you're screwed. Do you mind, do you wanna touch on the stuff? The sort of, I suppose, the dark days that's all you can rescue you from, or is that a temporary subject? No, for sure, like I'm really open with it, because I think by talking about it, encourage others to talk about it as well. Yeah, look, and I know we've a bunch of listeners because they reach out into the DMs and the kind of tagline I have for this podcast is we use cycling not for performance, we use it for a tool to achieve health, happiness, and longevity. And I think that's why when I see your stuff, I was like, oh, this is such a super guest because it's so lined up with the pain points that our customers and our listeners have. Yeah, now for me cycling is like a drug, it's like we're working on a film at the moment and I just saw a draft of it and I'm talking about it like it's like a form of meditation, It's just essentially all you're doing is left, right, left, right. But for some reason, being outdoors in the sun or the rain or whatever it might be, you just feel good when you come home. It's like I'm just backing off the boy carrier on and I was climbing up in the mountains there like maybe forty-five minutes from my house and I was just out on my own and you could be anywhere in the world. But at that moment, you're entirely present. Like I don't think about the phone bill I need to pay, the rent that's due. I don't think I have the emails that are unanswered. I'm just thinking about pedal stroke, breath, heart rate, pedal stroke, breath, heart rate. Time's down still. Do you concentrate a lot on symmetry? Like it's all I think about on the bike. It's like, am I using the left as much as the right? And for me, that's like the metadata thought side of it. Yeah, you know what? I go through weird phases. I know almost my fatigue level based on the phase I'm going in. Sometimes I'm on sort of a symmetry board. So when I get a little bit more fatigued, start thinking about my breath. And I done a super long ride like two weeks ago, and I was coming home and I was looking at my hands and I could see my hands on the handlebars. And I was like, they don't feel like they're my hands.
I've no attachment to these hands
Like, I've no attachment to these hands. Yeah, I felt like I was a drone shot watching myself cycling. I'm sure with some of your crazy exploits, you've had some weird sensations. I think the final stage of that fatigue is when you're, when you're picturing what you're going to eat when you get home. So how did Taeclin, how was it that tool appalled you out of it? So you were in treatment center for drug addiction. What was your drug of choice? Basically it was party drugs. Like I was just out partying. I studied a degree, a construction management and economics degree. And I was just lucky that at the time in Australia there was construction boom. And so it was young guys studying that basically got full-time jobs while we were still at uni. I was living at home so I basically had a bit of a frivolous income and I ended up partying quite hard. And it all came to a bit of a halt when my parents found everything in my room and it's not a good day. One day and it was all laid out on my bed and I was just like, this is not good. back it was the best thing that could have happened because it basically stopped me. But my dad said to me, unless you stop tonight, basically gave me an ultimatum. Unless you stop tonight, we're going to kick you out of the house and we're going to disown you. Worse to this effect. And for me, like, family's always been really important. And I thought, I just can't afford, you know, not only from a monetary point of view, but just from a support point of view, I try to afford not to have family. And so he actually took me out for dinner that night and gave me like a real hard talking to something that he's never done before. And we went home and we sort of didn't talk at all. It was sort of a little bit tense. And I think it was the following though, maybe a couple of days later and said, look, why don't you come on the bike with me? And I was like, you know, I don't want to go out with you. You've just given me a grilling. You've told me. I feel like a naughty schoolboy. But anyway, you know, after a week or two of him pushing, pushing, pushing, I said, you I'm going to go out with you just to shut you up. And I went out with him on an early morning rope ride with a couple of his mates. And I remember there was a little sprint point near the end of the ride. And I got that bug again inside, because I cycled as a youngster. I got that bug and I really enjoyed being part of the sprint. I thought, this is great. Like, a bit of competitiveness. And I remember going to work that day. And I was already on the website. So looking at secondhand bikes, as I wanted to go and buy, like I was obsessed. And from that point on it's sort of been, yeah, the road I've followed. I've some friends who suffer from addiction as well. And I want to give you a question that a lot of them have spoke to me about. And it's probably a difficult one to answer. What came first? Is it you feeling down and then you use drugs to almost self-medicate and escape that feeling of being down? Or are you taking drugs and then that brings on the feeling of down and then it towards into this repetitive circle. So for me, to be honest, I never felt down when I was taking drugs. Like I was, I didn't have anything really to feel down about, but it was when I stopped taking drugs, I was guess I was living a bit of a high, you know, like I was always sort of high. And then when I stopped taking drugs, like I stopped cold turkey. And when I stopped cold turkey, I think, just coming, I just went way off the deep end. like I was used to living this high. And suddenly I was no longer living this high and withdrawal was a what not. That's when I went really deep and I found, you know, I just can't get out of this hole. Like I didn't want to leave the home. I didn't want to get, I remember my folks actually had to call my boss. And so Jack isn't coming into work. He's not well. And I was lucky that at the time I had an understanding boss. And he said, you look, tell him to take his time. Like, and I went into rehab. And basically when I came out already, I still had a job. So I was super lucky in that regard, but it was, yeah, for me, it was trying to adjust to life without the drugs sent me right off the deep end. Just because I was used to being high. Did you ever, did you suffer from depression and those feelings of being low before you started a jokes or can you remember back that fact? Yeah. So I started like I was initially diagnosed with depression. would have been around 13, so first year high school. And I started taking antidepressants at that time, so I would have been 13 years old. I then went all the way through school, actually doing triathlon. And I found that the triathlon helped to pick up my mood because I always had these mini goals, whether it was swimming or running or riding. So I felt good during these years at school. Then in my final year at school, I gave away the triathlon to sort of concentrate on the studies. and I noticed my mood sort of went off the deep end again. I just didn't feel good about myself. And I then went to university and rather than cycling through university, I was a young man and I wanted it to become like a big man.
Was like, You're not gonna pick off kicks, didn't you
So I was like, You're not gonna pick off kicks, didn't you? Yeah, it goes to the gym and lifts weight and sort of, you know, I was still active. So I was sort of happy again, but then it was the mix of the drugs and yeah, it was just not a healthy mix. I wasn't living a healthy lifestyle. So do you feel cycling now is giving you that dopamine release that you were nearly getting from the priority drugs? Yeah, like, like admittedly, I still take antidepressants. But I like if I go out on a good ride now and I get home, like I'm so content, like I just feel high. Like I love it. Like I eat and then I, well, I'm doing some work on the computer or whether I'm on the couch. Like I feel good. Yeah, I've seen a quote from you. And I just, I talk with everyone frames stuff that like, if we're self-medicating, it has to be a bad thing. But it was like, as I read the quote, it was like, but you can self-medicate on, you know, good food, you can self-medicate on a good routine of sleep of a good routine of exercise. And you were a quote that said, if I can just get time on the bike, I'll feel good again. Yeah, that's not my fix, I need it. Yeah. You're still a junkie. Yeah, I'm a bike junkie. So to go from, okay, I'm gonna go ride with my dad to, I'm gonna go and ride the KOM challenge, which is a pretty epic, I've never ridden it, but I've watched some YouTube videos of dudes who've done it, I've had some friends who've gone over. Like the KOM challenge, it's pretty legit hardcore, it's like a, for a good boy grider, it's a five-hour ascent. To think about doing this four times, like what's going on there is it a bit like local in the head. Yeah, I guess a bit of that. I remember I was sitting in a coffee shop with my mate, Zach, who was, he's actually in the video, the guy with the long hair. And like, I'd been doing like longer distance things because I do have an obsessive personality. So I'd always been trying to push myself. And he said, you know, what can you do? And I said, well, why don't we do that? We were actually thinking about a way that I could try and get like some eyeballs and what I was doing. And we said, well, maybe I should do something at an event. And I think at this time, within the year, it was July or August or something. And it just so happened that the Taiwan KOM was I think in October. So we had a little bit of time to prepare for it. And I'd done the climb the year before as part of just an adventure around Taiwan. So I sort of knew what sort of a beast it was. And I just said to him, well, why don't I go do the KOM four times and do the final one with the actual race? So then I'll arrive having done three and then I'll set off with the race and there'll be like media there. So, you know, maybe that's a good way to get exposure. Like, why not? Did you have an eye on building the brands for anyone that's watching on YouTube. If you're listening on podcast, you're just gonna take my word for it. Jack has his own branded jumper or fleece or whatever at the moment. Your brand is pretty big now. And you know, you're a personality for, you know, want of a better expression in Sowikland at this stage, which is awesome as well because, you know, there's just not that many non-world tour personalities in Saiklin. Even if you think Lauren's 10-name, as I said, was my intro to you, he's doing his ride slow, or ride slow, live slow, ride fast campaign now, and his brand around that. But he was a top 10 in Tour de France, a pretty legit bike rider. But you never got to world tour, but you've built a full career of Saiklin now. like, I don't know if many other people in the world have done that. It's pretty unique. Yeah, I have to pinch myself. Like we were talking just before we started recording and I was saying like, I have to pinch myself that I'm literally riding a bike for a living. It doesn't feel like work for me, but it sort of does in some regards because the cycling, I guess, is one component of what I do. And like, while I love doing the extreme stuff, stuff, that gives me a sense of satisfaction. I guess the other side of it is I actually want to spread a message and that message relates to mental health which I think is something that a lot of people struggle with. So the mix of the mental health and the cycling and showing you can actually cycle really well under crazy things and enjoying things that you enjoy while you suffer. It's a bit of an eye, never some people because I think often depression gets pigeonholed into you're sitting in a dot corner and you don't want to talk to anyone. It doesn't make life a little bit easier. I feel the exact same sometimes because if I wanted to make an easy book, I'd go back to working in law, sitting in an office, solving some other fuckers problems all day long. And you'd pick up a decent paycheck and you'd have all those trimmings of someone that's successful, cars and houses and all that sort of show you. When you're trying to spread a message like I feel like I've seen the power of cycling on friends I've seen an unclients of how it pulls them out of the pressure and how it makes them happy how it gives them extra productivity in their life And you know for that mantra I have for the podcast cyclins the two over health happiness longevity like I believe that and I live it and it almost feels like You're not working like I worked until 11 30 last night and a buddy said to me today like oh what you do last night I was like I just worked and he's like oh you worked all night.
That's like yeah, but I never thought about like that I prefer to…
That's like yeah, but I never thought about like that I prefer to work to put on Netflix because it's fun. Yeah. On the same, I prefer to send an email because it's benefiting, like I can see the good in it rather than, like I never watch Netflix unless I'm with a partner and we're sitting on the couch on a Saturday night. You know, like I never watch it, but I'd much prefer to jump on the net and research something that doesn't feel like work, it's like a hobby. Yeah, and even chatting to you, like I could be in Jerome, I'm not gonna rock up to you in a car. Like it's kind of creepy when you're a grown dude. Walk up to another dude in a cafe. But like you can do that when you're 10 years old, but it doesn't really play when you're in your tortoise. So it's like, but you can connect with people that you look up to and watch on YouTube and you have a lot of common interests with it. And it's like, you know, hopefully I'll get out to Jerona and we'll go bike riding. And then we have some mutual friends as well. And it's like, it's such such a crazy world and way we make a living. And like, I think it, well, for me anyway, you're probably the same, like your definition of success now is probably completely different to what it was back when you were a lawyer. Like for me, like the definition of success of is like the freedom to do what I wanna do when I wanna do it. Like if I wanna go for a ride at 10 a.m., I go for a ride at 10 a.m., and that's like, that's for me is success. But isn't that like, there's almost these tiers of wealth and I see some friends who are at different tiers, when I'm running 200 person companies and I go for a ride with them and they're just stressed or checking emails. Every traffic like the phone is back out. But then I have some friends who are elevated above that that they're the money behind the money that they've sold companies. They're just so happy in themselves. You can go for a ride and you're like, you want to stop for a coffee? They're like, yeah, I got all day to stop for a coffee. I can actually listen to what you're saying without being distracted. That's why I love Lauren's tendons, kind of live slow because for me that's that, you know, if you're cooking, it's not about just get the food cooked as fast as you can. It's actually takes some time to appreciate where the food came from now that it's feeding you, nourishing you, nourishing your family. And it feels like when people are at that level just below the, I've made it where they have the trimmings of success, it's just a road and they're kind of happiness so much. Dooddooddoo! It's time for our intermission folks. It's time in the podcast where we just get to relax, stretch, appreciate the quality of the wisdom bombs that have been dropped down on this podcast and it's all sort of time. Gonna give you a nudge if you've been putting it off to head on over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony. On their score watch, make a small donation for the price of a beer once a month you to get access to the secret podcast where I talk about DNA test, some crazy shit going on there. Okay folks, let's get back to the podcast. Yeah, for sure. And I think, I think one thing COVID's probably taught us is like what you really value. So like just getting outside or you know, for me, we had like, I think it was a two or three month lockdown and the thing I found that I really enjoyed every day was getting up and actually making a coffee. Something that like now is just a medial task or before COVID was a medial task, but that simple joy of putting the coffee on the boiler and getting it, it's funny. That's enjoyment. We always take that for granted. Yeah, I think the lockdown definitely showed people the reordering of priorities where I think it was almost Darwinian where you see in those businesses that had a weakness, just can't survive it, but also humans that have a weakness. If you haven't looked after your health. You know, all of a sudden, it's not cool. I remember a period where it was cool to get five hours sleep. You see entrepreneurs on YouTube gone, I was like, four hours last night. And now you look at them, yeah, you're gonna die. Like this shit is gonna kill you. Yeah. I want to get back to some of these other events, because like, each of these videos, I got like my misses and all last night. And we do YouTube videos on the big screen, the part of T.O. The Everest one, I loved it. So the Everest one was the oil intro and you can explain it. It was three your cents, three days, three gondries. Yeah, so the last year I had a goal that I wanted to, and we'll touch on this afterwards because maybe it leads on nicely. I had an objective around the Tour de France and the funding for that challenge fell through. And so I sort of left with a bit of a blank in the calendar. And I was chatting with a mate in Bhutan of all places. I've taken a couple of guys to Bhutan to ride across Bhutan on gravel bikes. And I said to him, like, what can I do instead? And he said, oh, you should still keep something with the theme of grand tours. And I thought, what about if I did an Everest in Italy, France and Spain? So three Everests in their grand tour countries and I did all three in three days. And then what would happen if I did it on the highest trafficable roads of each of those countries?
Got the Mac out and had a bit of a look and basically worked out what…
So I got the Mac out and had a bit of a look and basically worked out what those three climbs were and yeah, basically Everest and Stelvio then jumped in a car drove to France and Everest and cold El Abineh and then jumped in a car and we actually drove the final of time is in Andorra. So we did put the Envallero, which was an absolute ditch, because it was busy, it was hot, and I was a little bit over it. But yeah, I got the three done in three days. And yeah, that was really cool. The film was a little bit different for that one. It was a little bit more high intensity, less storyline. But I think it works nicely. But you know what's so cool on that it was Yeah, it's a nice story and it's the you started out with a great, you know tree ever street country street is commendable but it's nearly the Story that runs inside that of over common logistical hurdles because they're in three different countries And you often we're in such a complaining culture of oh, you know the kids have me awake all night So the tough day at work you know The quality of your sleep the quality of your nutrition the quality of everything is just so terrible between those three efforts Like I've seen you getting into the back was it like a VW we have to sleep in you have this big camper then and actually like the The water tank fell out of the camper then halfway up still beyond the first day Oh shit, I weren't for a bit of a long haul Yeah, it got through but yeah, we're in this camper then and I was just sleeping in the the man between the climbs, eating Burger King and Roadhouse food, it was just junk. Were you getting any sleep in it? I reckon I was getting maybe two hours, like a night, like, yeah, it was horrendous. And like, you imagine you're up high, it's the middle of summer, you're in the car, you're sweating, like it's filthy. Because when I'm watching that, I'm looking at it and I'm saying, you know what, limits that we impose on ourselves, they're not physical limits, they're mental limits, because physically I know I could go on the right tree every century days mentally. I can't do that. Like it's just it takes something different to be able to go on do that. Yeah, actually I actually forgot but on that challenge my, so whatever reason my phone wouldn't play music. So I didn't listen to any music. I did on the final one because I said to my dad like give me a phone I need music and I ended up listening to his shitty shot. He was crowded out. I was like it's not that bad but I was listening to his music and it was hard not listening to music because that's something I always do on the bike But I love music and house music and so that gets me through but yeah without the music it becomes real hard It's so something that I kind of It struck me as I was watching the Everest and the GP 12,000 where you rode from Girona right across to Portugal a Lot of what you do the gravel ride and the just riding until you basically feel like stopping when I watch a lot of it I get this sense of freedom. But then when I watch the videos, there's so much structure to it. Because it's like you need, you can't stop for a now or you can't stop at a town and go, oh, this is such a cool town. Maybe I'll stop and have a few beers for the night. It's all about timelines, time to, is that something that you feel conflicted about? It's the way I look at it is if anyone that knows me will know like, like probably the two weeks leading up to any event, I'm so stressed like, because I plan everything, I need everything to go the way I planned it because otherwise it won't work because they're generally quite intricate. So I spend so much time on the computer planning things which probably doesn't ever get translated to social media or the videos, that by the time it gets to the actual ride, Like that's my stress relief because I'm like, well, everything is done now. All I have to do is actually ride. And you know, riding a bike is in that, you know, I've just got to ride it for a couple of days. And so. This is such a common team. You see, I was watching, I spoke about this with Corey Williams from Legion and a podcast a few weeks ago. And I'm not sure if you watched Michael Jordan documentary on Netflix. I started it. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cool. But there's one quote in it from Dennis Rodman. And they were talking about the crazy salaries that he was getting. And he's like, you know what, I'll play basketball for free. They pay me for the rest of the bullshit. And it feels like when you talk to anyone that takes events like this, you go, Oh, Roy it from Gerona to Portugal. Like right now I'm good to go. It's the other shit. Yeah. And like it is really like just trying not to get sick because, you know, getting a cold or something with derails, everything or, you know, a small injury while you're doing a big training block. like there's so much you've got to manage. That is what really stresses me. When I actually start, I'm like, well, you know, like this is the holiday. It's a thing. You were saying you still get bouts of depression and bouts of kind of the black hole or the black cart or whatever you want to refer to as. Do you have a way of managing that to make sure it doesn't pop up the week of an event? Yeah, so like on any trip now, that's what actually made it hard this year.
Normally the crew on the trip's always the same
So normally the crew on the trip's always the same. So it's my old man and he becomes basically my mind because I sort of lose it a little bit. And then I have my man, Zach, who's he's always, he's a photographer and he's a good mate. And he's actually living in my place back in, back in Oz, get out of his app. And then I have like one of the mates that's a filmmaker will come and basically shoot it. But this year with COVID, like I had to use a completely new crew and that really worried me because I didn't know how they'd react with no sleep and I didn't know how they'd respond to me being angry with them, having had no sleep. And so, yeah, for me it's about having the support network around you, which I think then translates to normal life, like having that family around you that you can talk to when you are down or the good makes that you can pick up the phone and, you know, talk to or cry to or whatever. Having those people around you keeps me calm in at ease. That's sort of my trip for not going into a dark place come a challenge or an event. That and actually the music. Because I use the music, like I can look, like I have some music that I know if I listen to, like I'll probably cry because it brings back memories of something. And then I have other music like specific house music that I know if I listen to that, like I can just push 150% because I'm like in my element. So you play around with like morning routines or evening routines? Do I, sorry? Have you played around with using a morning routine or an evening routine? With music? No, just in general. So say, like when I took out, I speak to the offer and I was saying like I went on this pretend that I was a really big businessman for a while and then I just sold it all. But I kind of glossed over in between when I sold a cafe to social media company, all these bits. And when I set back up Roadman's Island and decided to get back in to spread this message, I actually took about 12 months and I traveled, travel the world, I've always been good at research and academic and reading. So I kind of reverted to that as well and I started digging into papers, but I started looking for common teams around what makes successful people tick. So what makes top Hollywood A-listers? Why are they so successful when the other people that are equally as talented, maybe just don't push through and the same with athletes and the same in literary circles and academic circles? And one of the teams that I found was really prevalent across all them was the idea of having a structured morning routine. So every morning I get up, the first half hour is the exact same. So I wake up and I do this like red light therapy from June of its awesome. It like simulates the sonrois and gives testosterone, hates, wanes off, sees no effect of disorder, jumping a cold shower, meditate for a little bit, a journal for about five, ten minutes, I have my coffee and then I'll pick up the phone. Because I find if I pick up the phone and I like flick out my email or flick out and what's up. I'm on the defensive already. I'm reacting to someone else rather than starting the day on my terms. But I wonder what something like that I think would work super for like if not all the time but definitely in the lead up to your events. I think it would work awesome. It's funny you say that I think I have a routine that I've never really looked upon as a routine. So it's like if I think of it's like in the morning I get up and I weigh myself And then basically I put the coffee on because I get the joy out of the coffee. It's always a glass of water. Then the coffee on the couch, I'll have the two cups of coffee with some toast with, come on, so it's not as structured as yours, but it's always the same every day. And I've got to be up an hour and a half before I get on the bike, because like you, like I need to wake up, I need to get in the right headspace before I go. So I guess there is a bit of structure there. Yeah, it works out well. Even, you know what I've done the other day, I was kind of like, people throw around like depression, like it's at a destination. But I think all of us have shit days. No matter how good your mental health is, you've good days and you've bad days. Like depression is not this. Oh, I'm depressed today and the switch is flicked and you're just totally fucked. Like, five days where I wake up or I'm just not like everyone sees I do a daily podcast. We're like, oh, this dude's just on it smiley every day. But like, I'm not like, I went back last week and I journaled after just having two pretty shit days back to back. I just wrote a list of things that make me happy. I was like, goofily dancing around the kitchen, listening to music with my girlfriend, like walk on the beach with the dogs, riding my bike, watching stand up comedy, getting into cold water. I just wrote a list that is stuff and I was like, okay, look at my calendar for a week. I'm making sure I'm getting all these things in like as often as possible. Yeah, rocket science, if you do things that make you happy, you will be happy. Yeah, it is true. And it's funny, like the things that you listed there, it wasn't like getting in a fast car and driving at a million miles an hour.
Wasn't like coming home to a six-bed house and you know throwing the…
It wasn't like coming home to a six-bed house and you know throwing the keys on the table. It was like listening to like all simple things that like everyone can do. That's what I thought it's interesting. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? And our friends that like have totally like made it what they've sold our companies and you think that the things that make them happy would be different. But they're not. They're still the exact same things like, you know, make sure you chat to your parents or chat to your family every day. And it's like, well, that costs nothing. Yeah, we're simple beings. What was the hardest? I suppose mentally and physically of the events that you've gone through. The ones on your YouTube channel anyway is the Toy 1. The ones I've watched are the Toy 1KOM where you went to put four times. It evens fucking feel weird. It sounds hard saying this shit. Everest, tree, since. And then you're of the 1200km in 56 hours with 3.5 hours sleep in 56 hours. All of them sound equally shocking. Mr. Astande, that one for you, that's... I think the Everesting one was the hardest. And I think maybe not necessarily because from a challenge point of view, it was the hardest, but just not having proper sleep and proper nutrition. That was hard. I know when we did that final comment, and Dora, that I was really hallucinating pretty bad. And like even the crew, like my dad drove for three days nonstop. like everyone was just out. That's how I asked them. If we could, because no one had a clear mind. That one was real hard. Just a couple of weeks ago, I did a challenge down in Sevilla. So broke the seven day world record. And yeah, tell us about that. Yeah, so I basically, again, 2020, I had this concept around the two differents and it was gonna go ahead. And then with COVID, no one really knew you. If the tour was gonna go ahead, And so yeah, my plan V was I'm gonna try and break the seven day, I'm supported world record. And so yeah, had to find a course that was relatively flat. And I chose to do it in the south of Spain in Sevilla. And yeah, I wanted the existing record was 33 kilometers. What? I just got like a 600k week and I told him I was on fire last week. And so my goal was I wanted to do 3,500 kilometres. So yeah, I got the record 3,505 just to be safe. That was hard, but I don't think it was as hard as the Everest thing because I've learned a lot in that last 12 months about nutrition and all the little things that contribute. So talk to me about nutrition. I know in your forced video, which was Taiwan, your nutrition was pretty rudimentary. and you were slamming the Turkish delights pretty hard. Yeah, that tastes good. My nutrition has definitely improved. The one thing I struggle with though is you can train for six, eight, 10 hours using, you know, tried and trusted sort of nutrition techniques, but when it gets to 70 hours into a 100 hour week, you don't want to wait bars and gels anymore. Like you have these weird cravings, and it's about managing those cravings and having that food on hand. What's an example of a weird craving you would get? Like I would crave chocolate croissants or something like that I wouldn't normally eat or wouldn't normally have a craving for. For the world record, I actually basically survived on peanut M&Ms and the Haribo. Good choice. Good choice. Yeah. Have you played around with ketones and stuff like that? Yeah. I've never tried ketones. Nah. That's the next step. I don't know what I'm up about. I'm sort of interested that I'm interested in that. We'll talk a little bit and I'll give you some resources and stuff I'm using at the moment, playing around with a company called Prove it. I'll send you all some stuff from them. Yeah, the concept is kind of very much, I'm going to have sports scientists in my comments now as soon as I try to explain this. So we've two different fuel tanks. We have our, if you think back to your high school, when you eat carbohydrates to get blocked, broken down as Glue coax stored in the muscles is gloitigen. So that's kind of behind door number one, our first fuel tank. And our cyclists were pretty much trying to rely on that almost exclusively. So we're in the island, Turkish is Harry Bo all day long. But we have a second fuel tank and even the leanest athletes have huge flat reserves. So the idea is if you can produce something called ketones, it's the switch that allows you to dip into these fat reserves. Now the way to get into ketosis to help you use the fuel tank too has typically been super low carbohydrate diet, which is almost impossible for an endurance athlete, like really low below 30 grams of carbs a day. But you can take external ketones from companies like Provert and a bunch of the world all the riders are using them now, even if they are in sponsor bottom. And what this does, it introduces ketones, which allows you to switch in to fuel tank B, the fat-burning, And it preserves those glycogen stores for later in a roid. So you can cruise along and do, like I can do three, four-hour roids without reaching for any snacks. Now, if I bring my intensity... Say again? Do you feel hungry? Like, or does it cut out your appetite as well? Eh, you know what? It's... Yeah, I don't... It's definitely not totally... I don't think it's an appetite suppressant, but I don't feel the need to eat any more than if I was just, like, pottering around the house. the house. Yeah, I got so like, I can totally go from lunchtime on our breakfast time until lunchtime on the bike riding without eating at all.
Don't have four hour ride this morning, like with zero for just water
Like I don't have four hour ride this morning, like with zero for just water. And but for me and the trick for I know a chat to Steve Cummins on the podcast a couple of months ago, and he worked with nutritionist who works at me now. And he really tried to push up the intensity at which he was still able to stay in the fat-burning fuel tank. Because for me, I can ride around at like 200 watts, 230 watts fat-burning. But if I switch and I go riding with someone and they push to pace and I'm riding like 280, all of a sudden now I'm not able to utilize fats and I'm starting to dip into sugar reserves. But for you, it would really mean you don't have to hit the junk as hard if you could figure it out. I became to try it. The only thing that sort of limited me till now is everyone I speak to just says, oh, it's expensive It's really expensive. It's balls expensive Yeah, so if someone's willing to give me key tones that I'd love to try them Look, we're gonna make it happen because I'm paying for these as well So if someone wants to give me and Jackie tons Jack I've heard from buddies he's one buddy in particular, he's on the back of the tandem for me at the moment, Peter Roy, and I'm just going to name and shame him here because it's going to be quite an embarrassing story. So he was talking to me about he raised the race around Ireland, which I'll totally have to get you over for, which is this crazy race for the entire perimeter of Ireland. And I think the record's four or five days or something, but they go obviously true to Neut, but he raced it on the tandem a couple of years ago. And he's never been in a darker place in his life. Like his cock didn't work for like, I think two or three weeks after. Let me just clarify something. When you say he raced it on a tandem, was there any on the back or does he just ride a tandem bike? No, no, he's on the back and he had another buddy of mine on the front. Okay. So he's actually visually impaired. He lost his eyesight. He'll meet him someday when we come over to your own. He's a funny pro. Yeah, he was on the back, but to do it on the front was equally as round. Like he worked as a bike mechanic at the time and after the four days he couldn't use his hands anymore. His fingers wouldn't work. Yeah. What's going on with that? I've got it at the moment actually and they're better, but like I can't control my, I guess my ring fingers and my little fingers. Like I can't bring them together. I think it's just nerve damage like from being on the bars and like my position solid. Like I don't, I'm not putting on my weight on my hands or anything, but I think it's just the fact that you're compressing those nerves for 17 hours a day. They do come back eventually, but it takes some time and little things like doing your shoelaces up is a pain in your ass. Is that the whole job of it or have you experienced worse problems than this, like non-fease? To be honest, I've been pretty good, like I've touched wood, I've never had an injury, like I don't get saddle saws. I'm comfy on the bike. I don't get a sore neck or anything. This is the worst I've experienced is just the hands. I don't want to come back. Did you get a bike fit specifically for this? Or are you just kind of gone up the mountains with a set of Allen keys and figured it out? No, I've had bike fits over the years and I've reached life. Only actually this year I tweaked my position a lot. I lifted the seat up almost three centimeters. Like I was riding a real low for years. And that was through a, through a bike fitted here. And when my power went through the roof, when we did it. But yeah, I think like getting that bike fit right is really important. And also like just, you know, your muscle balance, like actually using your glutes and activating the right muscles is really important when you do start building up those Ks. Jack, I wanna finish two more questions. I remember one of my first cycles, got kitted up, got my race and bike. Didn't really know what I was doing. And I went out and I rode 100k. And I still remember this moment because I was rolling back into my parents house. I was in college at the time. And my next door neighbor seen me coming in. And they're like, oh, do you go for a cycle? And I was like, yeah, I've done 100k. And they were like 100 kilometers. And I was addicted to that shock value of, oh my God, you were out 100 kilometers on a bike? I don't even drive that far. Are you still addicted to that shock value? Yeah, like I love, I get a real endorphin rush when I complete something. What I probably struggle with is I don't enjoy that endorphin rush as much anymore. Like I'm always looking for the next thing and that's something I'm trying to work on. I'm more like I achieved something and I'm like, yeah, but what's next? I never really enjoy it like I should. This time was a little bit different with the world record because I had three weeks off the bike and I really it sunk in, it was nice. But I love that, I love it. I love the feeling of like you've just done something that no one's done before or you know, it's cool. I asked this question to all the guests finishing out the podcast. So you've gone through a lot of kilometers in your life.
I'm sure there's a lot of people that in part their wisdom on your…
I'm sure there's a lot of people that in part their wisdom on your true years. Is there one piece of advice? It can be related to training, diocesan lifestyle that's touched you the most and you'd kind of give that piece of advice back to your younger self if you could. One thing that immediately comes to mind is I'm not, I get a lot of questions on Instagram from people that say, look, I don't really enjoy racing, but like I want to ride my bike for a living. And I think especially relates to like the younger crowd that are listening, you don't necessarily have to race a bike for it to be your job. There's so many other ways you can make a living or enjoy your cycling, and it doesn't necessarily have to be about making money, but if you don't enjoy racing, you don't have to race. You can go and do other things that you can train for and spend time preparing for that will give you just as much, if not more satisfaction. And what I guess I'm saying here is don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to race and you have to compete against other people. Competing against yourself gives you an immense satisfaction, You know, that's for me anyway. So follow that to go with it. I think that's great advice. And it's something that I wish you had given me 10 years ago, because I fell into that as well. And I assumed that when I stopped trying to push up the ladder, and I taught, you know, what, I can't make it a step up, which next step was pro-conte level. And I just didn't think I was going to be able to make it. And I definitely had some years where I completely fell out and love the bike because it's like, oh, I can't progress anymore. So it's done. It's just start. Yeah. I think we will get carried away with comparing ourselves against others, whereas the real comparison is comparing yourself against yourself, because then it's an apples to apples. So if you're improving incrementally, that's great. You don't necessarily have to be pushing six or seven watts a kilo, like what you thought does to be satisfied. I think that's why the gravel movement has been so brilliant in my eyes, because we've shifted from as much as I love going to an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere and kicking shit out of each other for a criterium. We can move to something that's participatory. You know, when I can ride in my buddy who's 15 years old or 20 kilos heavier, that only rides a few hours a week and we can do the same event and we can have the same experiences and we can crack a beer at the end of it and still laugh and share this event together. Yeah, it's fun. So the enjoyment of cycling. Jack, if people want to follow your journey, A, what are you up to next? And then B, where can they follow that journey? Yeah, so they can follow the journey on Instagram, Jack Ultra Cyclist. Next year we have some big plans with Portugal Tourism and Red Bull in April. And then Tour de France is gonna happen. So yeah, there's a bit of a twist in that one, but yeah, something around the Tour de France in 2020. And I can definitely say your Instagram is war to follow. Like I follow some completely shit pages on Instagram. Yours is legit. Thanks a lot, man. It's been a lot of fun chatting. Jack ultra cyclist, thanks for chatting. Thanks, mate. Okay, stop what you're doing. It's Anthony again. I wanna talk to you for one second about the next step in the roadman journey. I'm laying down a challenge for you. It's called the eight week challenge. So for eight weeks, I'm challenging you be the very best version of yourself, whatever that is. For eight weeks, I want to take you under my wing and I want to personally build for you customize China Plan on our analytics platform. This plan is going to be laser focused on your goal and I'm going to navigate around your life, your work, your social commitments so don't worry about what your circumstances are right now. I remember after I took some time out of cycling and I went off and taught a really big business man. I came back and I realized I wanted to get into cycling but I knew after a bit to try it on a loan it actually wasn't making me any fitter. I needed an entire system it needs a 360 overhaul. So for the first time ever I want to share with you this exact system I used to get back in shape. I'm talking stuff like I'm gonna give you my morning routines, the cold therapy I used, the cookbooks and recipes I used and even the motivational audios I listened to get back on track. So right now what I want you to do is pause this audio, go to www.rogemancycling.com forward slash eight week or check out the link in the bio, click that. So one more time it's www.rogemancycling.com forward slash eight week. Chatty also.