Importantly ‘Stress’ isn’t always horrible things—sometimes, life just gets too busy or overwhelming in positive directions. Imagine juggling a new promotion at work while planning a wedding and adopting a dog and moving into a new apartment while training for Leadville, for example. All of those things are generally good (one assumes), but all happening at once can be a lot. And something is likely going to have to give. Often, that comes in the form of injury or illness if we don’t catch it early enough.

For some people, the cup metaphor doesn’t quite hit home. After all, if it overflows, is it such a big deal? It’s just water, you can always refill. And you’re not entirely sure what is spilling out, anyway.

So, if you scoff at an overfilled cup and don’t think it’s a big deal, maybe this visual will help. Imagine you’re moving, and all of your belongings—packed into carefully labeled—are piled in the back of a truck. You’re heading for a low bridge that the would have to pass under. On the truck bed, there is a large sofa that has been placed sideways, so that it’s sticking out to either side. At a glance, you think, ‘Oh no, sofa is making it too wide to get through the bridge.’

And so the truck is stopped at the bridge, because of this sofa. This one singular thing.

But once the sofa is turned and the truck starts to head through the bridge, it immediately gets stuck. That’s because in addition to having the sofa sticking out on the sides, the truck was piled so high that it was also much too tall for the little bridge! The driver spent all of this time rearranging the one piece of furniture that had been sticking out to the side, causing the most obvious problem. But in doing that, he completely ignored the fact that even if the sofa was fixed, the truck still wouldn’t fit under the bridge.

When we feel like our moving truck is over-packed (AKA, our cup is overflowing), we tend to fixate on the most obvious, glaring part that we can fix, or at least, obsess about. This is easy, right? It’s the big fight we had with a partner, the huge new stressor at work, the one project that we’re behind on, the injury we’re in the midst of rehabbing. But as we focus on that—the sideways sofa, if you will—we ignore the fact that we also have this huge pile of other stuff that’s causing issues as well. It’s just that those issues aren’t quite as obvious. Those are things like the tiny niggle in the knee, the lower hours of sleep, the small projects that you’re also balancing at work, the school play you’re helping your kids with, et cetera. We can fix the big problem—turn the sofa in the right direction—but the other stuff will still be piled on. The big thing may have overloaded the truck or overfilled the cup, whichever metaphor you prefer, but it could only do so because you were already close to full!

Most of the time, you can’t just unload the truck and leave some stuff on the side of the road, to continue torturing this metaphor. We can’t ditch the pet, the kids, or the job. We can’t just wish for an injury or illness to disappear. Maybe we can get rid of some unnecessary stuff in our lives (boxes off the moving truck, if you will). Maybe we can rearrange things to be more efficient, and to gain back some room. But if we keep trying to drive through that bridge with the truck piled as high as it is now, something is going to get damaged or fall off, and it might be something we don’t want to lose.

This metaphor works for me because (in addition to growing up by a railroad trestle with a 11′ height and watching A LOT of trucks get stuck under it), it’s a bit more tidy than the cup metaphor—I have to confront the various labeled boxes, not just see it as “yep, there’s a lot of stuff.”

In the cup metaphor, it’s all liquid going in and it can be hard to think about what could come out to stop the overflow, and it’s easy to see it all as one mass of overwhelm that’s hard to break into pieces to look at critically. For me, the moving truck piled with boxes and furniture feels more tangible, like I’m able to label each box with what it contains, and move them around like some kind of weird mental Tetris game. It lets me visualize leaving specific things behind, not just pouring out a few tablespoons of ‘something’ from my cup. And when thinking about new projects, it lets me picture adding those boxes to the pile, and assessing how they fit.

So, if the cup metaphor doesn’t seem quite right for you, consider thinking about your whole life in terms of a moving truck going through a tunnel. How high is yours piled? Is there anything you can leave at the curb?

What should we be doing (that we aren’t) that would make you better, regardless of the diagnosis?

Are those daily actions you will need to take once you have your ‘diagnosis’ the same as things you can do right now to see if they make a difference in a couple of months?

Are we delaying positive daily action in favor of chasing a diagnosis?

There’s nothing wrong with getting bloodwork done or talking to a doctor—we recommend it!—but the waiting for a specific diagnosis before making the obvious healthy changes? That’s where it gets a bit silly.

For example…

If you think your problem is your cortisol level and you want it tested … Instead of waiting for the diagnosis, can you start to improve your sleep, diet and have some fun with friends? Avoid intense exercise for a bit. Focus on bringing yourself ‘down’ a bit more often and supply your body with the fuel it needs. Get it tested if you want confirmation, but there’s no reason to wait on sleeping more or cutting back on coffee!

If you are damaging equipment or your body in crashes… It is likely not just bad luck or the fault of your competitors or the organizers. There might be an element of the sport you can work on to get faster and safer out there. Bike Skills training is a thing and it is important for beginner riders right up to the pros. If you can’t bunny hop a cyclocross-barrier, track-stand forever or navigate a pump-track without pedaling, there is some room for practice (it is fun!).

If you are having knee pain… Could you back off the riding for a bit? Start into easy strength training? See a therapist who focuses on movement and who can help you learn movement variety and how to increase your work capacity? Could you check your sleeping and working positions to ensure they aren’t contributing?

If you are low on energy… have you checked your sleep, consumption of iron-building foods and done a triple check of the sugar and processed foods in your diet? Have your tried upping your calories, including those pesky carbs and seeing if you feel better? Remember more fuel = more work capacity = more fitness.

If you are not reaching your cycling goals, have you talked to a coach? Have you checked that you are within the ‘norms’ of training? (i.e. stop doing suffer workouts everyday and work on event specific skills/terrain). Sleep more, eat better, enjoy riding.

These things don’t happen overnight but if you dedicate your daily actions to moving a little closer and getting a little better you can get where you want to go.

Work honestly on the basics consistently.

The key takeaway:

Small changes can sometimes have large, domino effects that we can’t anticipate or foresee. Given enough time, these changes can be meaningful and paradigm-shifting. I am not suggesting you stop drinking coffee, but rather, I am sharing this story of my last month in hopes that you will tinker with small changes in your life to see if something better is possible.

Coffee had become central to my daily routine, many friendships and to my identity as a coffee lover (my twitter profile pic has coffee in it). As May came to an end, the time seemed right to tinker with this apparent touchstone in my daily life and central tenant of my identity. Between two of my biggest coffee-loving friends moving away, the 3-day stomach virus that had me off food/drink for 3 days, and no major events ‘requiring’ caffeine for a month, the time was right to take this out and see what changed. Despite being a coffee lover, I had generally rotated my stimulants and dosages daily (green tea one day, coffee the next, nothing another day). I was able to avoid caffeine and vary dosage with stress (e.g. travel, high training load). I have periodically stopped for days and weeks to ‘come down,’ for convenience or to try for a performance bump. With all that said, these periods without coffee were rarely more than a couple of weeks and seldom without decaf coffee.

Changing habits is tough. Getting started and interrupting the routine is a big part of that. I have had good success changing habits personally by using sickness as the jump-off point. Basically, whenever I get sick, I try to change something (e.g. bedtime, cutting out a certain food etc.). This past month, I turned a stomach virus and 3 days without food/drink into the first 3 days of my coffee abstinence. Like any addict, I insist that coffee doesn’t affect me and that I don’t need it, but if I am honest there was a low-grade energy dip for the first 1-2 weeks followed by the expected, and clichéd, sensations of steady energy, focus and clearing fog (that, or I was recovering from a 7 day stage race and 3 day flu). What I did not expect was how other habits and routines would change with the exclusion of my coffee habit.

I used to think that my coffee habits were part of my routine and that they helped me get my daily work/train/recover routines rolling. I thought that they helped me get out the door and enjoy long drives. I now believe that my coffee prep was actually delaying all these things and taking time from working, training, recovering and fun. I remember when I started drinking coffee, I never prepared it at home. I would have a cup with friends at a coffee shop, on a long ride or at a friend’s house if they had a superb method of preparation and good beans. This slowly transpired into me owning a large percentage of the methods for coffee preparation and making coffee (several times) daily just for myself at home often, when I could have been recovering, relaxing, napping, working, socializing or riding. Somewhere along the line, the original purpose of the coffee, klatching, was lost. Having coffee at home was not accomplishing what I originally started using coffee for.

Interestingly, this past month, without a conscious choice, I fell into a routine of going to bed early (9-10 pm) and waking with the sun (6-6:30 am usually) feeling well-rested and motivated to work. I would do my normal morning routine of HRV testing/meditation, bathroom, maybe start some slow-cooking breakfast and then with a big glass of citrus water with sea salt. I would sit down to my biggest, most daunting task of that day, which I chose the day prior. I would spend 30-75 min on that task (pre-determined time/deadline) and bust it out. Then around 7-7:30 am, I would have a relaxing breakfast before resuming work on the other tasks, which were so much easier. It seemed that coffee was like the first hard-to-move domino that started a chain reaction of positive choices. Being up and getting the big task done, no distraction from emails, coffee prep/cleaning seemed to set the rest of the day into motion. All of the other daily tasks (email, work, train, eat, nap, work, train, eat, house stuff) seemed to fall into place much smoother.

Stopping this month, locking up the coffee-making tools, made me realize that the time spent making/prepping coffee and cleaning a white kitchen could be spent on way more productive things that then domino into bigger and better output and better life experiences. If nothing else, it is simpler, and this lessening of ‘to dos’ is certainly a nice feeling.

As this month away from coffee ends, I celebrated with a glass of decaf espresso while recovering in the Porter Airport Lounge from a somewhat stressful ‘country boy’ journey to the Toronto Island Airport (too many modes of transit/not enough parking on grass). The machine and beans were ok, the price was right, my first ‘business’ flight experience was worth enjoying and I had some good conversation with some ‘fellow’ businessmen, which made the situation a great time to indulge. This was a good afternoon and didn’t dirty my kitchen or take time away from my day/large tasks. While this coffee experience was good, it pales to how good my days have felt after getting a big task done (e.g. this new website), or getting in a ride with a friend, or having time to relax and go for ‘beers on the beach.’ The domino that is coffee just isn’t the life I want. I will still partake when the company, location, beans, and method align, but I don’t see coffee coming back into my life beyond those good times.

Looking for help with changing routines and integrating training into your life?

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Molly and Peter talk about their experience training for Ironman over the last year. They talk about what they liked about the process, hacks, learning and take-a-way skills and tactics you can transfer to whatever big scary event you are training for.

Check out Peter’s Post on BIG CRAZY GOALS on www.smartathlete.ca

And Molly’s top 10 takeaways over on Bicycling.com

Please look at the www.wideanglepodium.com DONAR DRIVE to help support the Consummate Athlete Podcast – any donation will help us keep improving the quality of the show!  (THANK YOU !)

•  http://theoutdooredit.com/a-few-pre-ironman-pieces-of-advice-from-the-homestretch/
• http://theoutdooredit.com/ironman-fueling-some-hard-earned-advice-and-tips/
• http://theoutdooredit.com/ironman-training-beginner-mistakes-tips/

BEST BOOKS FOR TRIATHALON TRAINING 

1) what’s your sport background? Carpenter?
nickname Turbo?!

Featured in Sports Illustrated, Esquire Network
-> started as a carpenter, then started a bike messenger service in 1990
Outside of sport and competition, I’m a pretty regular guy, going to work every day and coming home to my family. In high school, I ran cross-country and track. It wasn’t until I started a bike courier business that I got into cycling. Riding every day quickly got me hooked on adrenaline. I eventually sought out other sources of adrenaline and started competing in endurance races that combine every type of physical activity you can think of. During the Costa Rica Adventure Race, we biked for 20 hours, trekked for 60 and kayaked for 32. Off-season, I train three times a day, usually starting with a 6 a.m. high-intensity bike ride. When I am not training, I also love to take on new adventures as part of Boundless, a reality adventure TV show that I co-founded and host. While I’m obviously competitive, I’ve learned that the journey is more important. Of all the goals and accolades I’ve accomplished, my proudest is starting the Kids for Kenya Toilet Run which supports the building of toilets at schools in Kenya.

2) how did you start Boundless? The jump from two friends adventuring to a TV show is not a small one.

3) What was your favorite adventure/episode – was it the one you were most looking forward to before the show/in planning?

4) craziest moment? is there a method or mindset you use or have found useful during times of emergency or danger?

5) Training for being a ‘consummate athlete’ or to be ‘boundless’ … How can you be ready for these? (ie. ironman without being on the bike for months before?)

5) 3 seasons of a TV is certainly an accomplishment, where do you go from here?
– your back to MTB, is that the favorite?

6) For the 1/2 Ironman in Thailand – what did you learn about triathlon that you wish you knew before?

7) seems like you’ve made more of a dive into the wellness side of fitness now. Has this always been an interest?
-> you mention ‘small things to keep the body happy so it can go forever in one of the episodes’ … what are some of those little things?

8) BOOKS that have influenced you.

DOMS while Cycling

Macro-Nutrients for Athletes

How to Cook Sweet Potatoes