Category: Podcast

The mindset of a 4-day workweek

My guest this week is Joe Sanok who is a Licensed Therapist, Podcast Host, Author, 4-Day Workweek Specialist, TEDx, and Lead Speaker Consultant. His new book, Thursday is the New Friday: How to Work Fewer Hours, Make More Money, and Spend Time Doing What You Want, has just been released, and he tells how he came to be a champion for a 4-day workweek.

When he started his college life, he began to manage his days and chose classes that let him end his week on Thursday. And in his first jobs, he negotiated the same 4-day schedule.  There is growing evidence that by slowing down we can actually get more done with less stress. 

For some of us runners, we’ve had coaches tell us the same. Running most of your miles at an aerobic pace will make you faster on race day. Yes, we need intensity too. But in smaller amounts than most of us practice.

Joe gives us his opinion on what is the mindset we should have to live healthier, both mentally and physically. Slowing down in life allows us to do everything in our lives in a smarter and more productive way.

The 4-day workweek is growing as a trend in some large companies, and even some mid-sized companies are seeing the value of it.

In his new book, Thursday is the New Friday, he says the first step is to start with getting your mindset settled. If you jump right into a productivity book and you don’t even know who you are, it’s really hard to get the results you want. The next part of the book is about why slowing down helps us optimize our brain. And then we get to the third part, which is how to kill it when it’s time to go to work. 

Joe’s latest book goes on sale October 1, 2021 and you can get it at Thursday is the New Friday: How to Work Fewer Hours, Make More Money, and Spend Time Doing What You Want

Instagram: Joe Sanok (@practiceofthepractice)

Twitter: @joesanok

Website: https://joesanok.com/ 

practiceofthepractice.com

Unconventional Start

The Badwater 135 ultramarathon is billed as the toughest footrace in the world. It goes from Death Valley, Nevada, to Mt. Whitney, in California. Sally McRae was first-place, female, this year with a finishing time of 30:48:47.

Sally McRae’s path to being a professional ultramarathon runner was unconventional. As a teenager, she had her hopes set on being a professional soccer player. And the mindset she developed that led her to become a competitive ultramarathon runner started when she was young. 

She was drawn to gymnastics from watching the Olympics. But, when her mother looked into the cost of training, it wasn’t in their budget. When Sally said, “That’s not fair!” Her mother responded, “Complaining won’t do anything. You can try to raise the money yourself.”

So Sally started babysitting, and worked to be the best she could be. Her clients came home to find the house cleaned, dishes done, along with the kids asleep in their beds.

Sally’s mindset practice starts with taking hold of the day with gratitude and prayer. She says this also helps her stay focused on the big picture of what she is working for. 

This mindset served her well in her race at Badwater. She had trained hard, working to adapt her body to the heat and discomfort she knew she would face. She knew she was strong. The challenge that came was her stomach. At only 14 miles into the race she began to have problems keeping food down. But she chose to focus on what was working, her legs felt good, and she kept going. 

Her closing comments about her mindset at Badwater come close to being a super-power. She went into this race with the mindset to feel and experience all the difficulty and struggle. Rather than put on a tough persona to convince others, and herself, that she is better and stronger than any challenge in the race, she accepted the discomfort and pain as part of the experience. And kept going anyway. 

Besides being a professional runner, Sally is a coach, and she is working on a fitness app that combines strength training and mindset training. Connect with her through the links below to find out more.

Connect with Sally:

Website: https://sallymcrae.com/

Instagram: @yellowrunnerFacebook: @yellowrunner

Just what is Adventure Racing? And how challenging is it?

Heather Hart is an exercise physiologist and running coach.  She’s been running the last 15 years, focusing on ultramarthons for the last 5 and jumping into Adventure Racing for the last two.  She knows the mind is stronger than the body because she has pushed her body to the breaking point.  Right now she’s getting ready for the Long Haul 100.  

Adventure Racing is multi sport.  It might include trekking (running), mountain biking, paddling a kayak or canoe or even horseback riding or rock climbing.  The course is NOT marked.  You have to find your way and GPS is not allowed. Teams must find checkpoints.  Sometimes the mode of travel is set and sometimes you can determine what makes the most sense. 

There is a time limit.  You have to get to as many checkpoints as you can in the time limit.  Strategy is key.  Some checkpoints are worth more than others and there is a penalty for checkpoints not reached.  

The challenge of Adventure Racing is facing the unknown. You know where to start, and what equipment you need, but you don’t see a map of the course until the night before or morning of the race.  You have to plot the course using a map and compass.  No pedometers.  You have to count paces to judge distance.  To naviate, you learn to plot your course and sometimes find the locations to plot on the map using coordinates provided by the race director.

Mindset and Running for Mental Health

My guest this week is Ciara Carter. Ciara is a runner, personal trainer, health coach, and podcaster. The mindset for running and mental health is a big part of her podcast. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Look for the Run, Thrive, Survive podcast.

Treadmill got her hooked.

Most of us hate running on a treadmill. In fact, we call it the dread-mill. But Ciara became a runner because of a treadmill. And she says it happened by accident. She hated running when she was in school. She hated it so much that she intentionally overslept to miss PE class when she new the “mile run” was on the schedule. And she chose sports that didn’t require long periods of running. She never considered soccer, but chose basketball and softball.

But after an injury prevented her from playing basketball, she took a spin on her mom’s treadmill as a way to stay in shape. She ended up doing a mile. Then she did it again. Then she ran farther than a mile. Soon she was putting in serious miles. But she didn’t want to run outside. The hills intimidated her.

Running outside.

She soon moved to Florida, where there are no hills. She entered a 10K race–outside. And she fell in love with running. She set a goal to run the Boston marathon, and chose a “Boston-qualifier” as her first ever marathon. And she qualified for Boston in her first ever marathon! But then COVID dashed her hopes.

The mindset to get through hard things.

She says that running got her through some dark times in her life. In the year where she kept saying, “It can’t get any worse, can it?” it was running that kept her holding on when things did keep getting worse. Running the Boston marathon was the one thing that she counted on in 2020 when everything else seemed to be going wrong. The disappointment of losing that chance was hard. And she found it hard to get out the door and keep running.

But she was able to get back the mindset to keep moving forward and has her sites set on new challenges.

As she says in every one of her podcast episodes: “Run your life. Don’t let it run you.”

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Connect with Ciara:

Website: Run Thrive Survive
Instagram
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An Epic Choice for First 100 Mile Ultramarathon

Sarah McMahon is about to run her first 100 mile trail run in a truly epic race. If you’ve read the book, Born to Run, you know about the Tarahumara and the wild and beautiful Copper Canyons of Chihuahua, Mexico. In a few weeks, Sarah will travel to run these challenging and famous trails. The Copper Canyon ultramarathon and shorter distances attract runners from all over the world.

Running 100 miles requires more than mere physical and mental stamina. You have to plan what you will eat, how and when you replenish your electrolytes and water, spare lights, clothes, and shoes. Add the unknown of traveling to a different country in a remote area, and these logistical challenges are formidable.

Sarah started her running journey at age 12, when a friend invited her to join the cross country team. She found out she was good at running and ran all through high school. She received a college scholarship to run for Bradly University, a small college in, Peoria, IL.

She started running trails after college and moving to California. Her first impression was they were too difficult, but she soon embraced the challenge and entered a 50 mile trail ultramarathon. She began asking herself how far she could go. She thinks 100 miles might not be her limit. There are more challenges for ultramarthon runners beyond the 100 mile races.

Besides being an ultramarathon runner, Sarah is also a blogger, and poet.

In this episode she talks about growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, surviving an eating disorder that almost ended her life, and the mindset to look for new challenges.

Her book of poetry, I Like It Cuz It’s Pink is available for sale on Amazon. You can also hear her perform her poetry on YouTube if you search under Sarah McMahon.

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Connect with Sarah:

Blog: The Prosiest
Instagram: @mcmountain
Facebook: Sarah.McMahon.775
Twitter: @the_prosiest_
YouTube: Sarah McMahon
Book: I Like It Because It’s Pink

Ultramarathon Running for Mental Health

Imagine running 21 consecutive ultramarathons, winding your way through every county in Great Britain. This is what Matt Bagwell is planning to do in September, 2021.

Matt Bagwell got the idea to create the Run the Country Ultra as a way to raise funds and awareness for mental health and those struggling with anxiety and depression.

Run the Country Ultra will cover 1050 kilometers and have a total elevation gain 16% more than climbing Everest: a total of 10,232 meters.

Matt is an ultramarathon runner who came to the sport after spending year as a triathlete then running marathons, including Boston, London, and a number of other in Europe. He reached what seemed like a limit to what he could accomplish as a marathon runner. He considered going back to triathlons, then discovered ultramarathons and trail running.

Matt is a performance coach and an Oxygen Advantage Advanced instructor and coach. Breathwork is an important tool to enhance physical and mental performance. But it is not the only mindset tool in his box.

Matt says that it takes a variety of tools to maintain good mental health. He compares it to a Japanese bento box. At times you may use one or two of the tools in your box. But other times you need a different tool.

Breathing properly has huge benefits for both physical and mental health. And with breathwork, Matt uses meditation, connection with nature, running, staying connected with other people, and sometimes, cold water bathing.

His goal is to raise 105,000 pounds ( $140,000) for CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably. CALM is an organization working to stem the tide of suicide in Britain. Matt had a period in his life when he faced severe depression, and running was a big part of what got him through to recovery.

Run the Country Ultra is an event open to runners in Britain who would like to participate. Go to the website and click on “Join a Run.” There is also a virtual run on September 5th for those who don’t live in the UK.

Connect with Matt:

Email: http://matt@lovetolearnto.com

Website: Love to Learn

Website: Run the Country Ultra

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