Author: Eric Deeter

Speaking notes:

Most people like to know what to expect. They don’t like change. They don’t like surprises.

The appeal of fast food franchises is they are all the same.

McDonalds in Tucumcari, NM has the same food as New York City.

How would you feel if you woke up one day and discovered that every McDonalds in the world was now vegan? And every one has a different menu.

Vegans: every option you had in your city was now a BBQ.

Now imagine that everything in your world turned upside down. Not just food choices, but everything about your life.

If you’re an ultramarathon runner, you will have a huge advantage over the rest of the world.

You have the mindset to adapt to changes and overcome challenges.

I remember when I first saw The Matrix. I watched it 3x.

It was one of the turning points in my journey to be where I am today.

I was like Neo – living in the Matrix with the feeling that something about reality was off-kilter.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have someone pull me out and download new programs into my head.

It took decades of work (trial and error) for me to change.

I still like a routine. I like to know what to expect from life.

But, as I talked about last week, It’s easy to have life throw you a curve.

Our car broke down. It probably needs a new engine.

The dealer said 2 weeks before they can even look at it.

We have to rely on our Ford Expedition – work vehicle.

This is only a minor curve-ball.

Sometimes you go through circumstances that turn your whole life upside down.

You feel like those in the Matrix who suddenly get unplugged.

At least Neo had a clue that things weren’t what they seem.

This is why I talk about the ultramarathon mindset. Listen to people here who push themselves to extreme.

Physical and emotional exhaustion – and then rain, heat, equipment failure, nutrition or hydration problems.

Mindset is what gets you through.

Train your mind like you train your body.

When things go wrong. When your plan falls apart. Thats when you need to keep yourself together. If you fall apart, you’re in deep trouble.

Running long distances will help you with your mindset.

But train your mind separate from running.

Also, you can train your mind to be resilient without running.

Ultramarathon mindset is for life as well as running.

Ultramindsetpodcast.run

 Knowing the signs for when to take a DNF

Today’s Guest: Andy Moskal

Andy Moskal is willing to push hard to find his limits. But he’s also willing to pull the plug when things aren’t going right in a race. His hundred-mile attempt at the Yeti 100 had him looking at a sub-eighteen-hour time and in 5th place overall. But around 50 miles in he was facing the symptoms of  rhabdomyolysis. He decided to pull the plug and survive to race another day.

Information:

Andy was a police officer.

He was in the Special Operations Division.

He did martial arts, played soccer.

He competed as a Cat 1 cyclist.

He was on the SWAT team and was one of the team’s snipers.

He started out running on the roads.

He had an injury to his posterior tibial tendon and had a very long recovery.

Andy does not like road racing.

He ran a road race and ended up qualifying for Boston.

Things we discussed:

How he started running; when he went to a bike store and ended up talking to the owner.

In 2019 he signed up for his first marathon but it was canceled and starting in 2020 the only races they were doing were Ultras, so he skipped the marathon and got right into the ultramarathons.

We talked about Andy’s race nutrition.

The importance of listening to your own body and being willing to pull the plug when there is a risk to your health.

Bridge questions:

What is your must-have piece of gear? An elastic utility belt to hold his phone and gels. And a foot pod to get an accurate reading for power.

The strangest thing you have ever seen while running? A bobcat in the suburbs.

The phrase that sums up his life philosophy?  He says that something he thinks about a lot is the Western States documentary that in an interview he said he was not going to quit and that always stayed with him in the back of his head for life in general, that he has to keep pushing and trust that he will succeed.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-moskal-57b186149/

https://www.instagram.com/andymoskal/

Speaking Notes

The best weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. ~William James

The Creator gave us the complete, unchallengeable right of prerogative over the one thing, and only thing we own, our mind. ~Napoleon Hill

Your ability to choose what thoughts you think is a superpower.

When you run an ultramarathon, managing your thoughts is as important as the condition of your body.

One thing is certain when you run an ultramarathon: things won’t go according to your plan.

Something will happen you have to deal with. Out of your control. Or a mistake.

Your thoughts and the story you tell yourself will either help you or hurt you.

Choosing what thoughts you want to think is difficult on good days. But when your plans to to hell, that’s when you need this superpower.

Brenda and I just got home from a great vacation in the Texas Hill Country.

We toured wineries. We hiked. We read books and rested. We sat in the hot tub. It was a good vacation.

The drive home is a little over 12 hours.

We were 60 miles from home and the warning light came on and the engine lost power.

We were at an exit ramp so I turned off the car and coasted.

I was able to make it to a gas station parking lot.

It was obvious that we weren’t going to drive any farther.

We called a tow service to get us and our car home.

This was not according to our plan!

We were feeling good about the fun we had.

We were thinking about what we had to do when we got home.

Now we have to deal with a broken car that might need a new motor.

This could have ruined all our good memories of our time in Texas.

But I told Brenda how good it was that we broke down so close to home. 

We were in a town with a tow service rather than a lonely highway in Oklahoma or Texas.

We started talking about how we will manage with just one vehicle.

We chose to think about how to handle this problem rather than curse the circumstances.

You can’t control circumstances.

You can manage one thing: your thoughts.

You get to choose what you think about. You get to choose what you focus on.

Ep 120 – Lauren Ammon – Train your mind like you train your body.

Mile 73 isn’t the time to figure out how to choose your thoughts.

When your car breaks down, is not the time to figure out how to choose your thoughts.

Train your mind. Choose your mindset.

That’s what I do as a mindset coach.

You train. You practice. Just like training your body.

Ultramindsetpodcast.run – free conversation.

Competitive drive will only get you so far.

Today’s Guest: Lauren Ammon

Some people are born for music, others art. Lauren was born for sports. Her athletic career started at five when she swam her first race. Nearly 20 years later she retired as team captain from a D1 swimming program. This foundation as a successful student athlete set the tone for high achievement as an HR leader in the professional world. Though success and promotions kept coming her way, something was missing. 

In November 2019, Lauren received her professional coaching certification from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). She launched her own practice dedicated to leadership development and individual coaching. Despite quick success in this space, something was still missing. 

She now specializes in working with current and former athletes and all ages and levels to master the mental part of the game and perform at their highest in all of life’s competitions. Being an athlete is much more than the number of wins and losses. Athletes win by showing up every day for themselves (and their teams) and working to grow and develop in the face of adversity. It’s about mastering their minds to face their most challenging moments and reaching their full potential physically and mentally.

Lauren’s practice exists to show athletes they deserve an outlet to be heard, seen, and supported mentally and emotionally at the same level they are physically. Working with her to remove the mental blocks that keep athletes from performing at their peak, shows them their abilities and talents are rooted in what the sport allows them to accomplish and who they become vs. the awards they collect.

Leading with high energy, grit, and unwavering commitment to what she’s set her mind on, Lauren’s spark is unique and infectious. She uses this distinctive combination to connect with athletes in a way that deepens their understanding and acceptance of exactly who they’re meant to be to perform at their best every single time. Her motto, “make it happen” drives her unabashed belief that athletes already have everything they need to succeed at whatever they want, it’s simply a matter of removing the mental clutter that blocks them from seeing their full potential. 

Information:

She has a long career as an athlete but started as an H5.

She has two sisters who are swimmers and she started swimming when she was 6 years old.

She always wanted to swim in college and earned a scholarship to Eastern Michigan University.

She graduated as a high school state champion in Kentucky.

She earned her master’s degree in Human Resources but it wasn’t really what she wanted so she went on to get her professional coaching certification from the number one program in the US.

She started to have a harder road in swimming when she hit puberty and started to understand more things about being competitive and not just doing it for fun.

At one point in her career she began to feel exhausted from the heavy emotions.

At one point in her life, after retiring from swimming, she realized that there was also a place for people who wanted to help athletes with their mental health.

Things we discussed:

When at the 2020 Olympics Michael Phelps came and said that competing at this level is really overwhelming and that we just want someone to talk to, we just want someone to listen to us and allow us to be vulnerable. This comment brought her to tears.

We talked about when she was on the team and at 16 years old she thought someone was holding her back from reaching her full potential and it was really her own mindset.

The concept that energy attracts energy.

Growing up with the fear of disappointing parents even though parents don’t push us.

We talked about when she retired from swimming and the thoughts she had, how she felt she had to leave this stage of her life behind.

Bridge questions:

What is the biggest mistake athletes make? Believing that performance is tied to their identity.

What is the strangest thing you have seen in your training or in your life? It was once when she was training with her sister and they passed by a car where there was a person and there was a really bad smell and they thought about calling 911 because they thought the person was dead but when they came back the person wasn’t there so they were alive.

Word or phrase that sums up your philosophy of life: You are stronger than you think, you are braver than you give yourself credit for and you are worthy of achieving everything you want in this life.

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Speaking Notes

Pro 18:21 

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

You may have heard the expression in English: you will eat your words.

Meaning: You’re going to regret saying what you just said.

Truth: What you say . . . the words you use, have power. Proverbs: Death or Life.

Are you paying attention to what you say?

Scientific studies have shown that women speak more than men.

20K words vs. 7K words

Study in UK that a protein (Foxp2) in the brain might be responsible for this.

The amount of words isn’t what I want to talk about.

We have to use words to function in the world.

The quantity of our words doesn’t matter as much as the quality.

Proverbs: Words have the power to carry death or to bring life.

Clarification: This doesn’t apply to all our words.

Paper or plastic?

For dine in or carry out?

Please pass the sale.

And most business interactions are neutral as well. 

Maybe the endless meetings will bore you to death.

But when you’re talking about yourself or others, those are the words that have power.

Talking about yourself:

Pay attention to any words that come after I AM.

You create and reinforce your identity by the words you say about yourself.

For most people, their self-talk is negative.

As a result, their I AM talk is negative too.

I AM:

Not good at math, working out, eating what I should.

An introvert.

Clumsy

Such an idiot

Getting old and can’t remember things.

Feeling sick. I might have Covid.

What you say about yourself will grow stronger.

Talking about other people:

Your words and thoughts about others have power.

Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) demonstration

Talking about problems:

What you focus your mind and attention on will get stronger.

We have a natural drive to tell other people about problems we’re facing.

It feels like “sharing the load” will help us feel better.

Reality – you’re making the problem bigger

If you pay attention to how you feel after these conversations – you can feel that hope for something better has died a bit more.

Solution: You have power over what you think and what you say.

1. Keep in mind the power of your words
2. Pay attention to the words you’re thinking
3. Pay attention to the words you say

The mindset for peak performance

Today’s Guest: Alex Wisch

Alex is a competitive peak performance coach and mental health activist, he works on optimizing health, fitness and work productivity, he also works on overcoming mental barriers and creative strategies to achieve the impossible. He struggled with major depression for many years until he decided to take control of his situation and change his lifestyle. Using his personal experience he created Fitness for Mental Health to educate and improve mental health.

Information:

In high school he played a lot of sports, including martial arts.

He participated in the men’s urbanathlon in New York where they had to climb 55 flights of stairs and overcome some obstacles and came in with the second best time.

We talked about the state of mind that is the flow

We talked about the fact that he had depression to the level that day-to-day functioning was very difficult for him.

Advantages of the flow mentality.

Group flow, how it works in a soccer team.

Differences between flow state and meditation

Trey’s rhythms, cognitive breaks.

Techniques to control anxiety

Things we discussed:

In his biography, he mentions that he had a drive to succeed from an early age.

In his first ultra he thought he was in last place and he was not. 

We talked about perfectionism and where that came from.

How he discovered the flow mentality.

The hardest mile of the race: the second.

Alex is training for the 24-hour vertical climbing world record.

Bridge questions:

The must-have piece of gear for your sport is shorts and the right sunglasses.

The strangest thing he has ever seen in a training session or race was someone who violated safety protocols and put himself in a very dangerous situation.

The word that defines his life philosophy is persistence.

Donate to Alex’s 2022 Challenge

Flanders Fields website

Connect with Alex

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http://www.wischfit.com/

http://www.alexwisch.com/

Speaking notes

When you decide you want more from your life, you will face resistance.

Your mind and body both work hard to keep you in your comfort zone.

How do you know when you’re stuck?

When you know what you want more for your life.

When you know what you should do.

But you can’t seem to do it. (Inner resistance)

There are two beliefs that your subconscious uses like a kill switch to keep you stuck.

Last week talked about first one: feeling powerless

This week talk about second: “I don’t deserve it!”

From the time you’re born until about age 6, your mind is in a state similar to hypnosis.

This allows you to learn skills like crawling, walking, and talking very quickly.

Your subconscious mind is absorbing massive amounts of information.

But there is a downside to this.

Quote from Dr. Bruce Lipton:

By observing the behavioral patterns of people in their immediate environment—primarily parents, siblings, and relatives—children learn to distinguish acceptable and unacceptable social behaviors. It’s important to realize that perceptions acquired before the age of six become the fundamental subconscious programs that shape the character of an individual’s life.

You form views about the world and your role in it based on the stories you tell yourself about what the people you live with say and do.

You get a mixed bag. 

Skills that teach you how to survive in the world and society.

You form opinions about yourself and your worth as a person.

This is your first tier of LIMITING BELIEFS

“I don’t deserve to have what I want.”

The second tier of LIMITING BELIEFS usually form as you become “socialized.”

School: 

Teachers – authority figures who judge your worth – grades & comments about your behavior.

Coaches – authority figures who judge your physical abilities and ambition.

Peers – judge everything about you and assign you a place in the “tribe.”

The feedback you get from these sources blend with your first tier beliefs and you create beliefs about what you can and can’t have in life and who you are “supposed” to be.

My limiting belief: 

1. God only wanted you to have “just enough.”
2. My duty as a Xan was to discover and follow God’s will.
3. God’s will was a narrow path that didn’t allow for me to want something for myself.

Stuck in my subconscious from first and second tier beliefs.

If you grew up in church, you may be familiar

How to get unstuck:

1. Think different thoughts
2. Link thoughts to emotions
3. Create a picture of what you want . . . who you want to be

Ultramindsetpodcast.run

 Mindset to honor the past and change the future

Today’s Guest: Verna Volker

Verna was a second-grade teacher, but now she works full time at the organization she formed called Native Women Running. I met Verna at the Hawk 26.5/50/100 race where I volunteered. In this episode, we talk about the challenges she went through in the Hawk race. There was cold and rain. But she overcame the challenges because she always tries to be prepared for the worst. We talked about how the race brought her good experiences and how she is training her training for the next race. She told us that she likes races where she has a long time limit because otherwise, the pressure to go faster makes you likely to be careless and take a serious fall. She started running as a way to honor her best friend who passed away. But it wasn’t until she and her family moved to Minneapolis that she started running consistenly. She talked about the connection she feels with her deceased family members. She imagines them watching and cheering her on. It helps her to keep going in her races. Finding no representation in the trail running world for native women, she took it upon herself to give them visibility. That is her passion, to inspire native women to run and give them a place to be recognized.

Information:

• Verna’s trainer’s tips for her career.
• About how Navajos grow up running but Verna’s family is the exception.
• Verna’s mentality to keep running, running in honor of other people.
• On running mantras and mental and spiritual motivation.
• ”Slow and steady wins the race”.
• Native women who run.

Things we discussed:

• Verna’s next race is the Javelena Jundred. She did the 100K last year so she is familiar with the course and the challenges she will face.
• She ran in the desert and it was harder than she thought it would be.
• The Ultra mentality and the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the races.
• What it was like to start running for her, when she ran her first half marathon and her first marathon.
• Representation of native women in the running world.
• Sponsorships she has available.

Bridge questions:

What is your must-have gear? Her hydration pack.

The strangest thing she’s seen when she’s been running is glowing eyes in the dark that she hasn’t been able to figure out what they are.

The word that describes her life philosophy is Resilience.

https://www.facebook.com/VerNezMom

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Native women running Instagram

https://www.nativewomenrunning.com/