Accountability Corner
Embark on an adventure with Darren, Morgan, and Chris, the dynamic trio steering the ship at "Accountability Corner." As passionate OCR enthusiasts, they're on a mission to share their expertise and enthusiasm for obstacle course racing with the world. From sharing insider tips on overcoming training plateaus to demystifying the complexities of race registration and gear selection, no stone is left unturned. Whether you're a seasoned competitor hungry for fresh perspectives or a newcomer eager to dip your toes into the muddy waters of OCR, these hosts are here to guide you every step of the way. Join them as they peel back the curtain on the electrifying world of OCR, revealing stories of triumph, camaraderie, and boundless adventure.
Don't miss out – tune in and discover why OCR is capturing hearts and minds around the globe!
Accountability Corner
#40: How to Stay Motivated: Balancing Work, Life and Obstacle Course Racing Training
What if the festive season didn't have to derail your obstacle course racing training? Join Morgan, Chris, and Darren in this special 40th episode of the Accountability Corner as we confront the unique challenges of staying motivated during the holidays. With Chris in search of inspiration and Morgan sharing positive vibes from Sheffield, we tackle the real-world struggle of balancing social obligations and dwindling daylight against the backdrop of no imminent races. Discover strategies to keep yourself accountable while still enjoying the season’s gatherings and festivities.
Listen as we dive into the importance of rest and adjusting training schedules to prevent burnout. We debunk the myth that a busy work schedule means non-stop training, stressing the value of micro-adjustments and well-timed breaks. Our conversation sheds light on how to set and focus on specific goals without overloading yourself, and why taking a step back can sometimes be the key to moving forward in your fitness journey. We share insights on the fine line between using fitness tracking devices as helpful guides versus letting them dictate every decision, and how to avoid the holiday trap of overtraining that can sap your motivation for the new year.
Finally, we explore the power of shaking up your environment and routine to maintain motivation and accountability in training. Whether it's joining a new club, relocating, or simply rethinking your race calendar, these shifts can rejuvenate your workouts. We also discuss the realities of aging as athletes, and how to integrate necessary recovery into your training. With a focus on consistency and planning, especially during the holiday period, we share personal experiences and future plans, offering a motivational boost to keep your athletic performance in check.
Welcome to the Accountability Corner, where we talk about everything obstacle course racing, from staying disciplined in training, affording the sport, signing up for your first race and, more importantly, how the sport is growing around the world, with your hosts Morgan Maxwell, chris Shipley and Darren.
Speaker 2:Martin. Okay, let's get this underway. Did you know this is episode 40? This is our 40th birthday.
Speaker 1:It's almost my age, Almost. How old are you Ships? Well, when this podcast comes out, I'll be two weeks away from 38. No, a week away from 38, or two weeks.
Speaker 2:Nearly the 40th Big party. You're getting old. I know Nearly the 40th Big party happening with that.
Speaker 1:You're getting old.
Speaker 3:I know I still look young, do you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, in what light? In the young light.
Speaker 3:No light. Yeah, dark how are you both Not?
Speaker 1:too bad, mo's gingery again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm really ginger in this. It's definitely this light.
Speaker 2:Super ginger. How is Sheffield Mo Any positive? Bring the positivity of Sheffield Positivity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is Christmassy. I went for a run the other day through the Christmas lights Nice, that was quite festive, it's Christmassy. I went for a run the other day through the Christmas lights.
Speaker 3:Nice, that was quite festive. It's cold, but yes, that's about it. Training's going well. I've had to take well. Yesterday I had some calf issues going on. So Wednesday's my rest day anyway. But I think I'm going to take another rest day tomorrow, just to kind of not rush straight into training and see if that's all good, because it's the time of year where we can do that and it doesn't really matter too much but yeah, that is true yeah, I've seen some uh Instagram posts you're posting up about, uh you going out in the wilderness yeah, I've been out in the peaks, out on the trails, climbing up waterfalls.
Speaker 3:I've been doing all sorts.
Speaker 2:Sounds good, Right? Well, Ships, tell me about your training, and I suppose you can then intro what we're going to talk about today. It's been awful.
Speaker 1:Why has it been awful? My melatonin's low because of the darkness, uh, I feel like it's the end of the year. I've got no motivation. I've got no, no, no go in me and it's just been. It's hit a flop. It's hit a flop. So I need to get back on to training. I need motivation okay.
Speaker 2:So I'm feeling the same as you a little, maybe I feel, maybe I'm in, maybe I'm in between, maybe we've got a good, we've got a good selection of minds today for this episode and also help listeners out there that might be in a different, um, different place in their training as they approach christmas ships. You wanted to talk about how to stay accountable over christmas, didn't you?
Speaker 1:in the previous episode and the one where you you pinned me off. Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.
Speaker 2:You completely messed me over, changed it up we're back on, so I guess this episode title, however, chat chat gbt wants to help us out with it. It will be something around lines of staying accountable over christmas and how to how to maintain focus and momentum towards your training goals even when you don't have anything coming up and feeling like poo yeah, I just want to get back to it.
Speaker 2:I want motivation, I need our therapy session okay, well, we're what we're going to try and do that today, and so I want everyone listening to this. If you're feeling like you need that motivational talk or you need a hype man which is what Mo's going to do for us, because he's feeling sprightly I'm the hype.
Speaker 1:Mo's the positivity yeah.
Speaker 3:That's rare as well. That's when you know you're at an all-time low.
Speaker 2:You've really, like, messed this up somewhere. It is difficult over um, over this period. It's actually difficult just in general for everyone. Like you're invited out to socialize. There's loads of things going on that might mess up with your routine. If you're a routine person, that's a very difficult time of year, especially you ships, ships so many different things may be messing up your routine, but we shouldn't be negative towards those because they're seeing family and everyone socialising a bit more, which can be difficult to say yes or no to as well, can't it?
Speaker 1:I've got a list as long as my arm. What Not a Christmas list? I've got a list of things that my arm what not a Christmas list? I've got a list of things that have been getting in the way of everything that as long as my arm okay, well, we can go through that.
Speaker 2:How do you guys um, how do you guys feel about this time, this time of year?
Speaker 3:well, normally for training, training wise, I hate it because it starts to get dark. You start to like, like you say, people want more from you, so you want to socialize with friends a little bit more, go out a little bit more, drink a little bit more, and also there's no racing. So you've got no nothing there to kind of keep you on track. It's like, well, I'm not racing for a few months so I can afford to be a bit lazy yeah, complacency.
Speaker 2:Complacency creeps in, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, what's happening with you ships? Why are you feeling like? Is it? Is it disruption to your routine, or is it just yourself?
Speaker 1:a bit of everything. I'm busy at work, I'm not so much busy at home, but there's just lots of things getting on, things and then, like my like the motivation. I think because it's been the end of the year, everything I really cared about it's finished now and there's a big gap between now and the next race and it's just hard to find that that I've got something coming up. I've got something I need to train for, because at the moment it doesn't feel like I've got anything to train for and it's just. It's just, yeah, quiet on the western front yeah, that's quite difficult.
Speaker 2:we have, obviously people listen to this, we, we have our training block, so we actually do have very specific training plans that we follow quite religiously. We'll try to, and so within those blocks there will be, there will be milestones that we need to hit, whether that's a time trial or a lift, we need to do or well, for OCR athletes it tends to be um hitting a time trial of a pace or a course that we might have done which can be replicable, replicable, rep. Can't find the word Replicable, replicable and that we can do over and over again. See how we're improving, mo. What's your? What milestone are you currently trying to hit? What are you trying? What are you? What are you heading towards? What's, what's your purpose at the minute, mo? Because you've got the motivation. Tell us why you're motivated. Is it a purpose?
Speaker 3:Well, for me it's just building on my running and at the minute I just want to basically become as quick as I can be. But I think I've kind of lucked out a little bit by moving away this time of year. I've joined a new running club and now I'm running with people constantly. And I I've joined a new running club and now I'm running with people constantly and I've got kind of motivation from them, if you like, because they keep me a little bit more accountable to training and just staying on it and you want to impress them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I also don't like being the slowest, so it kind of pisses me off when people are running away from me, so I'm motivated to try and catch them and beat them basically.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. So the takeaway from that is that something new and a new environment has given you a bit of a new lease of life, of motivation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really shifted everything. I don't even think last year, even through the season, I was this motivated.
Speaker 2:I'm probably more motivated than I've been the last two years yeah, and that's difficult for us because usually that's probably why I'm feeling a bit demotivated, not demot, not completely demotivated, but I'm feeling like it's the same again. I don't know, I don't have to describe it be it trying to be an obstacle course racing athlete and you're absolutely focused on the sport and you're not distracted by high rocks, you're not distracted by fitness racing, I'm not distracted by anything can be, can feel like the same thing every year. I don't.
Speaker 3:It doesn't mix up that much, does it yeah, I think that's where I was at as well, like I was getting to that point where it's like same environment, same kind of training, like cycles if you like, because we get to this point of year and it's almost normally like a bit of a down time and then you get back into it and then it's not really till summer and you get the championship race. It's starting to pop through that you, you feel ready to go, whereas this year I've changed my complete environment, so it's like, oh, this is so exciting, I'm exploring new trails, I'm running with new people, making friends. So, yeah, it's different.
Speaker 2:Not best friends? You've got your best friends here.
Speaker 1:You don't need any more friends. Yeah, you don't need any more.
Speaker 3:They're more like rivals. If you like R need any more, yeah, you don't need anymore.
Speaker 2:They're more like rivals if you like, adding more rivals to the list. That's good. That's good for people to hear that um, maybe a change of environment, um might actually give them a bit of lease of motivation that they might need over christmas, and I suppose that's why people join different running groups joined, even joining the new gym might be quite good just something different, because you might feel getting judged by other people at a different gym and you want to impress them like you're trying to impress all your running mates rivals, rivals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the way I used to do it, which isn't probably the best way because it hits your bank account, but it's buy things. That used to be my way. If I was in a bit of a rut, I'd start buying things and that would kind of kick me up the ass because I would get excited about them like trainers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, buy a new pair of trainers and you feel like you need to perform in them, like you're gonna let down the trainer.
Speaker 3:It's gonna judge you if you don't perform in that trainer.
Speaker 2:I love that ship. So what about what's your milestones? What's your purpose right now? What about what's your milestones? What's your purpose right now? What's really really putting you on track or Off track, Off track, yeah, no, go on. What's your aim? What are you aiming for at the minute?
Speaker 1:Well, it'll be just getting back to the program that seems to be working for me in the past. I just need to get back on that. But I'm just so busy at the moment. That's just the only thing. I haven't been this busy at work in ages and that's just getting in the way because I feel like, oh, I just need to and I think I've just been tired. So I think the year's just been long and I'm just tired. I haven't been tired for a while. Tired Ment, I'm just tired.
Speaker 2:I haven't been tired for a while. Tired Mentally tired, physically tired, both.
Speaker 1:Physically tired, I don't get mentally tired. It's hard to get mentally tired when you haven't got much mental capacity.
Speaker 2:If you're busy at work, yeah, and you're on nearly every single OCR podcast known to man, you're definitely burning the candle at both ends, aren't you? Well, you'd think that, but yeah, Maybe this is a bit of an intervention for you, then, maybe not trying to motivate our listeners. Motivate Shipley.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, but I think it's getting back to it. I mean, today's been a day when I've actually felt a little bit more rested. So I think, the case of like, when it comes to this time of year, I think that break's really essential because it takes it's been a long year, so I think having a break is needed, although having a break doesn't come that easy. I think it's been forced upon me a little bit, which is because I've just felt so tired and I just need to get that, that rest out the way and that feeling like, right, I'm rested, I'm revitalized, I'm refreshed, I can go back into a new block, and I think that's what's going to give me the motivation to go, because I'm quite motivated anyway. So as soon as I get that feeling like I can train again, I think think I'll be on it. It's just tired man.
Speaker 2:So listeners thinking that tiredness, busyness is distracting you. Do you think you should be changing your perspective towards training and maybe adapting it slightly to be just quicker, shorter sessions or actually just not doing any until you feel like you want to get back to them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's just been the way, because I haven't done anything since. Hang on, I haven't. I haven't run, I haven't lifted although I have been busy at work, which is like a workout. I haven't done any additional exercise and I think that's. I think that's just getting there now. Now I might be in a, might be getting close to a point where I can just start doing a little something.
Speaker 2:You're feeling itchy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am getting that itchy feeling Before hanging on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, go on. Did you have a break at the end of the season or did you just carry on straight to hang on?
Speaker 1:Well, I had a few niggle breaks. Do you know the niggle break where? You want to train. They are not breaks.
Speaker 2:They are not breaks. It's like when we tell ourselves as athletes, it's like when you're off for a cold for a week, it's like, oh, I had a deload week. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Your body was recovering with an illness that is not recovery from or a deload week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so technically, no, no, I didn't, and I think that's what it is, I think, and I don't want to keep drilling this one in, but I have been so busy lately at work. You've been busy, I've been busy, man, busy, busy.
Speaker 2:Help people understand that if they're busy at work, what should they be doing then at this period? Should they just be enjoying that business and having the rest, or should you make micro adjustments to your training plan?
Speaker 1:Well, you should make micro adjustments to your training plan.
Speaker 3:Do you think, though, that actually you're probably you've earned a rest. I feel like, yeah, you're getting to the point where you even two weeks off could be quite nice for you yeah, I probably, I probably do deserve a rest it's a shame this weekend you got a half marathon.
Speaker 3:I think, because, that's the thing that a lot of people miss out, though, is they think they just need to keep training all year round, whereas I I'm a big believer in you need to take at least seven days, if not 10 days, off. One, even if it's once a year, twice a year, ideally, to be honest, but once a year, I think a whole week off, maybe even two, can be very beneficial yeah, it takes a little bit longer for me, so to do nothing is a long time, and I don't ever get to do nothing, like you christmas do it.
Speaker 2:maybe that's that's the message we're trying to tell people that are in a situation like you where a bit overworked, under rested and actually to be accountable over Christmas you actually need to stop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take that stop.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But that doesn't necessarily mean going out and getting binged up. Binged up, that's not the word. Is it Banged up? No, getting binged up, binged up, that's not the word. Is it banged up? You don't want to get banged?
Speaker 3:up.
Speaker 2:No, you don't get that, no it doesn't mean it doesn't mean drinking and eating crap, but it does mean. It does mean like letting, letting loose a little bit, like not being as restrictive to your diet and and you're drinking. It means relaxing, bringing down the cortisol, making sure that you're feeling relaxed, energized, and then getting that itchy, feeling like, oh, I feel like I'm getting fat or I feel like I'm getting unfit. Oh, I want to go back to running. How long has it been? Oh, it's been 10 days.
Speaker 2:Perfect, I will get back to running tomorrow yeah, is that what you need to do, I think that's what I need to do after theips.
Speaker 1:I think that's what I need to do After the half marathon have a rest After the half marathon, yeah. I'll be back to training.
Speaker 3:Yeah, That'll motivate you, yeah.
Speaker 2:See, you're in a position where you've overworked. I think Ships you definitely have overworked. You've been hanging on, hadn't had a break. You've had niggle breaks they, but they don't, they don't count, they aren't breaks. Yeah, um, but I I've obviously had a. I had a major rest, so I had like nearly three, four weeks off, and now I'm coming back into it and it's it's just hard coming back in after rest towards christmas when usually you rest at christmas. And then it's like hard coming back in after rest towards Christmas, when usually you rest at Christmas. And then what do I do over Christmas? Then? Do I ramp up training while I usually rest? So that motivation.
Speaker 1:You want a break before a break. You had a break before a break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So it's a bit of a strange situation and it's also building that purpose in that saying towards like, what are you training towards? What's the goals? Especially when we always say it that we're trying to be athletes and we're trying to really be specific in obstacle course racing, it's really difficult to to nail down what your target is, especially when at the minute, I don't know if you guys feel like ocr is just not, not, not got an end to the season anymore, has it? It's just in you.
Speaker 1:There's another race In you. Yeah, another world championship, another world championship 100-meter race Book, this Book that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, distraction.
Speaker 1:Do this?
Speaker 2:do that. The noise has never been as bad as it has been at the minute for for entering, trying to get you to enter races, yeah, so how'd you stay? How'd you stay specific in that? How'd you stay motivated when you feel like you should be doing this, should be doing that?
Speaker 1:Discipline.
Speaker 3:Discipline. Yeah, see, I'm trying to just turn off to it. I think that's what's also keeping me motivated is like I know I haven't really planned my season yet, which actually probably isn't as motivating as it could be, but I'm just going to do one race at a time, so all I'm thinking of right now is the British champs and tartan warrior. It's just like I know they're my first race, so I'm just going to focus on that, make sure I'm ready for that, and then I'll move on to the next one once that's done, rather than trying to think, oh there's this in this year, this in this, oh, I need to be good for this. No, just one race at a time and just see what happens that sounded positive it did.
Speaker 1:It sounded good who is this guy? He's bringing all the positives.
Speaker 3:I'm ready, I am guy. He's bringing all the positive. I'm I'm, I'm ready, I am ready most of the answers I know he's.
Speaker 1:He's moved out, he's living on his own, he's, he's, he's evolved.
Speaker 2:Go on and let's let's direct our questions towards mo, since he's got all the answers today, mo, apart from obviously switching off your phone and ignoring it, which you probably do anyway and I do that a lot, but we've noticed, yeah how, how?
Speaker 2:for a person like me uh, you know, you know me very well I would be seeing even like the 100 meters this weekend, weekend and thinking, oh, I should be there, or even though I can never do 100 meter course, I'm getting distracted by that and it's distracting in my head in my training. How do you, how are you staying focused on tartan warrior only?
Speaker 3:exactly kind of what we just said about switching your phone off. I just try not to like look at any of anything that's going on. Try not to look at the results. Obviously, I'll be still interested, like spartan world champs they just had and I was getting a bit of fomo about that watching the live feed and stuff, thinking, oh, this is, this is cool and be cool to be there, even like, hang on, that's a race I'd love to be at, but it just it wasn't meant to be this year, so you just almost got to be like, oh well, I'm not gonna look and, yeah, focus on what's next. I'm very good at switching them sort of things off, though, which I think something. You get very stuck in to what everyone else is doing and kind of you get so excited about it and motivated by things like that, whereas, yeah, it just doesn't really do it for me yeah, I get.
Speaker 2:I get externally motivated by excitement around me, like and that's difficult because I can't be involved in all of that excitement, because if I was, then I wouldn't be doing my training justice, because I wouldn't be focusing on one thing in a training block. I'll be doing everything and then just hoping that I can perform randomly. But this is also the other thing. Why should we not be doing that? We're not professional athletes. We're not going to get paid for Tartan Warrior. Should we not just be doing random things that fill our cup?
Speaker 1:Well, we can do if that fills our cup well, that's the other thing as well.
Speaker 3:It depends on kind of what you want. I, with the British Championships, 3k British Championships being announced at Tartan Warrior, it's kind of like I want to get my get back, I want to be number one on that again. So that motivates me, whereas if it was just Tartan Warrior it might not be motivating me the same way because I wouldn't be really that bothered. So I guess it's find what you want and if you decide, oh, high rocks, actually this is looking fun, I want to give this a try. Use that as your motivation to get you through the winter and go and give one a go.
Speaker 1:So we need to reassess our goals and then see which goals that we want to do at the moment in time time or see if that doing a goal. If we want to do something that's going to change our end goal, then maybe doing something that fills our cup isn't going to be the right thing to do. Maybe we should be like, oh well, my end goal is more important than filling my cup. Maybe I don't need to fill my cup. I just need to think about filling my bottle to finish my end goal.
Speaker 2:I think I think I followed that yeah no, I think.
Speaker 3:I think also the main. I think we always get so sucked into long-term goals like I want to do this in a year's time, or I want to be at this level and, but I think actually just at this time of year's time. Or I want to be at this level and, but I think actually just at this time of year, focusing on some of the smaller stuff. If there was something that bothered you this year in your season, just try and figure out kind of how you can train for that work on that and then use it almost like a small time goal and until that's done then you can move on to your next one and stay motivated that way having some stepping stones.
Speaker 2:Instead of being driven by events, be driven by your self-assessed weaknesses that you want to focus on in your training yeah, exactly that like that.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's just. Do you know, I keep saying it's just so hard because, from as an ocr athlete, we're just so available to do any sport and so that's why it feels like you can, you can go off and do any sport of a little bit of training and do well at the sport. That's that. That's the thing that always stops me, though, like I get distracted and want to do every sport, but I want to, I want, I want to be in like the elite 15, like I want to be, I want to be top of the sport, and I guess that's. You need to have goals, you need to understand what's going to fill your cup, but they need to be realistic at the same time, don't they?
Speaker 2:If, yes, we are available, we have the greatest base. I'd say we have an amazing base as OCR athletes. Don't we for any to be available to go be specific in most sports? Hell, yeah, yeah, actually it. Don't we for any to be available to go be specific in most sports? Hell, yeah, yeah, actually. It's actually quite a good point. Like any, is there any sport that would struggle us as I say that, oh, we haven't got a good base for that?
Speaker 1:fitness wise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've got everything maybe like something really specific, like sumo wrestling or no, I reckon we'd be good at that in our weight class even that well, I guess the number one thing that actually gives us access to most sports is we build quite big engines, but we can also do it compromised I did um randomly a few months well, it was quite a long time ago now, but but I told you guys, I randomly did some grappling not grappling with my brother on jiu-jitsu, and even that, like we're just, obviously I got absolutely smashed and pinned so many times, but just the feedback there was that we're just so available, like we have strength, we have an engine, we're strong, we have everything.
Speaker 2:So I don't know where I'm going with this. Is that I get distracted with my goals over christmas because there's just so many events that chat around for next year and it's not defined what I'm doing, that I always think, oh, I could go do that sport, I could go do this sport. It's it's hard, isn't it? It's hard when you want to be an specifically an ocr athlete. It's not hard if you just want to do everything and stay fit and available.
Speaker 1:You guys don't get distracted like that, I'm guessing well, I'm older, I've been around the block a bit, but you haven't done loads of fitness, races and different sports, though, have you? No, no, but I'm also. Well, I stick to one thing, I think once I'm in, I'm in yeah, yeah, I, I get driven by winning, and that's, that's the problem.
Speaker 3:So I look at that problem I look at other sports and I'm like, well, I'm not going to win that. So what's the point? I'm not driven necessarily. I would do any sport as long as I was the best. It doesn't really matter what it is. I think if OCR went tomorrow, I'd find the next best thing that I could actually be competitive at.
Speaker 1:I think, as soon as that goes, that's where my drive goes you know, I I worry a little bit that I get obsessed too early. It's too easy as well, so I try and avoid other things because I know I'll get obsessed. Do you know, I almost took up spearfishing once, bought all the gear, bought all the stuff. I bought a wetsuit, I bought a speargun, I bought everything. And then I realised I don't actually live anywhere near where there's spearfishing and I never even went. But I was ready for it so you could be a spearfisher, I could be, to be fair, that helps.
Speaker 3:OCR if you're doing a Spartan there you go that is funny, we do get.
Speaker 2:We do get obsessed. I think that's the only reason that we stayed in the sport as long as we have as well, because we're obsessed with obstacle course racing. We've even done an episode on it. Listeners, if you go back, obsession yeah, it was a good one yeah. So what's keeping us accountable, mo go on. What's keeping you accountable over christmas?
Speaker 3:just staying, switching off, not getting distracted, and in a new environment yeah, I think the new environment has definitely helped me a lot and also you guys have more distractions. Now I've come away from kind of all my friends and family, so actually it's probably gone the other way. My distractions have been limited because I'm kind of a bit isolated up here, whereas if I was around my family and around friends and stuff, you're getting invited to more things and there's more like family, christmas, things on, or so actually it's probably been nice because it's almost I'm almost in hibernation mode a little bit. Um, but yeah, I think accountable you just. I also don't think you need to focus too much in this time of year. You need to just keep ticking over I'm. I'm not that like asked about my diet or anything right now, that's all going to wait until the new year. I'm just kind keep ticking over I'm. I'm not that like asked about my diet or anything right now, that's all gonna wait until the new year. I'm just kind of eating what I want.
Speaker 3:Basically shouldn't really do that well, it's what keeps me sane, especially this time of year with all the christmas markets and stuff. Chocolate, yeah, um. So I think you just find ways to just keep ticking over. I don't necessarily, unless you've got a race in february or january. I don't think you necessarily need to really, really specific, so you can just kind of do the things that you find fun the good thing about your training and what you mentioned at the minute is that you're because of obstacle course racing.
Speaker 2:you need to focus on quite a lot of modalities of training. You're just focusing on one Just run. I just run.
Speaker 3:In fact, when you talk about blurring out all the noise, everything I'm watching at the minute is running based. I'm not really watching anything OCR based. I'm watching like cross country like based. I'm not really watching anything OCR based. I'm watching like cross-country, like the Liverpool um cross-country they just had. I'm watching Instagram people that are runners. I'm not really paying any attention to OCR and hybrid racing or anything like that, because I just want to focus on OCR, on running.
Speaker 2:I love that you're creating your. You're creating very specific noise, so maybe it's to stay. Keep yourself accountable around christmas.
Speaker 3:You're creating an environment which is, which is, centralized around your goals yeah, that's always how I kind of stay on top of what I'm doing. Once I'm really looking to be doing well at ocr or really in ocr, I'm watching all the old races back. I'm getting really obsessed with just like the nuances of OCR. Same in lockdown. I went for a stage where I really wanted to start like doing a lot more CrossFit style workouts and stuff. So I just to do that. I just watched loads of CrossFit, just basically it became my life for the whole of lockdown and then I strength trained more because I want to do that, because I'm watching people do it like that.
Speaker 2:Control your influence. What's influencing your, influencing around you like ships that if you need, you need to be very um focused on your rest at the minute I'm gonna watch someone resting stretch, someone stretching.
Speaker 1:I could do that, no do you know?
Speaker 2:do you know what you could do? You could start researching different ways to to recover recovery techniques, different stretches, different um nutritional uh changes you can make to your diet for recovery. Like though you could focus more of the conversation in your life around recovery at the minute to keep you accountable towards that yeah because there's so many external factors that mo, you're watching training videos of people running.
Speaker 2:I literally watch the weirdest amount of different um things on video on youtube of like um, strength training, bodybuilding and high rocks. Like all of the all of watching that makes me so distracted in my head.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see I almost I don't do it like I don't say I'm limiting myself to them things, but I don't click on if it's not kind of gearing me to what I want to be obsessed with. Because I'm I can get obsessed about things as well. So if I'm looking at that sort of stuff all the time, I'm going to want to become a bodybuilder. So I'm like, well, I'm just not going to click on. I'll click on to the running related stuff. It's even like social media. I'm not really spending loads of time on loads of social media at the minute, but I'm stalking strava all the time just because I'm watching runners run. So it's like, oh, this guy's done this amount of miles this week and I guess it's probably not that the healthiest way to do it.
Speaker 1:But it definitely keeps me. Oh yeah, it's the best thing to do. Yeah, maybe that's why I'm not motivated, because I haven't been on Strava for a while yeah, you need motivation before a run.
Speaker 3:I'll sit down with a coffee and just stalk Strava and then I'll realise I am just not that great and it'll get me out the door yeah, I think that's what I need to do, actually to get on Strava yeah, it always works for me. If I'm really not feeling like going for a run, go on strava. See what everyone else has done. Today again for me, because I want to win. I'm looking at my competitors and thinking, oh shit, they've ran today, so I can't not. And then it's like it.
Speaker 2:It's strange how our heads work that when we're not motivated, we actually veer away from the things that actually motivate us. Yeah, it's like we don't actually look at it. It's we're such we're such avoiders as humans that we avoid the thing that's actually good for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think sometimes we miss the fact of it's nice to have temptation and do the wrong thing and not be so on top of everything all the time. I think sometimes it's like, oh, it's just so nice to be like not getting up, going for a run, getting home and sitting in front of the tv, cracking open a bottle of wine on a monday evening, ordering a pizza on a tuesday. You know, it's nice to do that and it's just a bit refreshing, I think, at times, because you're so, you're so on top of everything throughout the year most of the time and then, when it comes to that last bit, you're just like, oh yeah, this is nice. Yeah, that is nice, it is nice, it's not.
Speaker 2:We're not. We're not, we're not lying like not exercising.
Speaker 1:Actually, sometimes is really nice not doing anything at all I know you can come home, do your chores and still manage to watch a show in the evening yeah you get so much more time yeah, see, that's why I think after a break you should also dose it in like that's.
Speaker 3:Like I said earlier, I'm not really going all in on my diet right now because I'm just dosing things back in. So once the training's slowly back to where it wants to be, then it's like oh, maybe I won't eat that cake or maybe I, but I think you've got to be slow with it as well. I think that's often where people go wrong the most is they have a two week rest or a week rest and then they go right. I need to get back to training and their first week. They've done a 30 mile week and they've made sure all their macros were like bang on, it's like it's just not realistic, I think no, I agree on that is because then it just becomes horrible again in some ways.
Speaker 1:You know, and you'll get injured. If you start doing 30 mile, 30 mile weeks or 40 mile weeks after a bit of rest, you're going to feel that yeah so, ships, what are you gonna?
Speaker 2:we're gonna do differently. What are you gonna do? What? What you taking from this episode today of us chatting together that we can help you out and also would would help listeners that may be in the same situation as you?
Speaker 1:I think you're gonna, you're teaching, you're telling me, or I'm getting from this to to actually enjoy the rest and, and you know, reflect on everything and think, well, I do deserve a bit of a rest, and then not be so hard on yourself when you do have that rest and know that it's it is it's needed and if you're a person that likes the science, so obviously yourself being shipley with science, yeah, you.
Speaker 2:You could even like research, the science behind rest and what it means like, because you always feel after three days, oh, I've lost everything, I've put on 5 million stone, I'm rubbish, I'm going to be bad at OCR, but it's not. It's like. The only effect you start to see is probably like within two weeks, like anything, within two weeks, rest is fine I'll tell you what you need to do as well, ignore the watch what watch garmin? Yeah, what's it saying to you?
Speaker 1:right now it's saying detraining, but I'm not, I'm probably off, yeah no, I'm not taking it off tells think you
Speaker 3:should take it off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I'm not taking it off. Tells me the time Take it off for two weeks.
Speaker 2:That's what you're going to get for your birthday. Just a standard digital watch that you can replace Analog watch. Yeah, just so you don't have the garmin on telling you. Telling you these things, I do ignore it just eats at your brain.
Speaker 1:It is annoying though, isn't it? You must get it, you must oh yeah it's it. It really does play into your, your mind, your mind. Sometimes it's like, but the watch doesn't control how you actually feel. The science behind the watch isn't pure science.
Speaker 2:Struggle with my whoop. So I got the whoop originally to keep me motivated and keep me accountable.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, you didn't get it originally to keep you motivated. You accidentally got it, didn't you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah accidentally I got the month free trial and then forgot to cancel it, so I have it for a year now as a tester, I did it for Accountability Corner it, so I have it for a year now as a tester.
Speaker 3:I did it for accountability corner.
Speaker 2:It's going to go on the business account it. It makes me accountable, it tells me when I'm available and what and what my recovery is. But you end up trusting these things with your life yeah, they don't take all all life factors into consideration yeah, you should use it as a guideline.
Speaker 3:But the thing I found when I had a whoop is a lot of the times it'd tell me I could train more. And I used to beat myself up because I'm like I should be, I don't feel recovered. But it's telling me I'm really, really recovered. And then you try and train. You're like, no, I shouldn't have trained. That that was stupid. But you've trusted this device that's telling you that you're recovered. So I think it can be very misleading that's a good.
Speaker 2:That's a good point. We're we're all in different boats in terms of motivation over christmas, but the only boat that we haven't talked about is probably something you touched upon there, mo is that there's people that are thinking I've got enough, I've got more free time because not doing as much, I can train more. Like actually doing more training over christmas can be beneficial to build an engine. I've done it in the past. I think all of us have done it, haven't we? We've upped our mileage over the winter to build that base for for going into next year, which is obviously what people, many people, do um, but it can. People can take that too far as well, can't they? And then lose motivation when it comes to the new year. So it's also just being watch out how you're up in your training, what you're putting in is specific to your goals, and can you actually achieve that through your recovery?
Speaker 3:yeah, well, it's like um kind of I said at the beginning of my calf, I think people go the opposite way. So they they start building mileage and building things and go almost all in on a base build or actually a real base build. If you have anything come up like any little niggles or anything you shouldn't, there's no need to train through it, whereas people will go like you say, if they've got more time, they'll start doing more training, then they'll get a little bit more niggles and stuff and then they go. I just need to train through this and get to get to next year fit and it's like well, actually, no, you're just going to get to next year really injured and because you haven't structured your training properly or been willing to take a rest yes, it's like it ships your milestone.
Speaker 2:What's your milestone at the minute you're aiming for, then? Because I think we've kind of established it and I'll correct you if you don't, if you don't say the right one what, what milestone? What Milestone for next year? No, no, at the minute, what are you aiming towards? What's, what's your goal right now? I haven't got a goal, though you do you? You established one Right this second. You have a goal? Yeah, you have a. Have a goal right now, do I?
Speaker 1:Yeah, rest, rest, there is you said earlier that I think I've got to the point where I'm rested no, don't think you are.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I don't believe you. No, I think you just need to enjoy yourself, have time off, feel like you've rested, feel like you're completely ready to go back, I think you. I'm phoning work up tomorrow and quitting yeah, no no, no, that's not what we want everyone to do leave their jobs. Accountability corner told me to rest ships.
Speaker 3:I think what you need to do is take at least the rest of this week off and then next week, when you feel like I'm really ready to go, you then take another day off and then the next day you go?
Speaker 1:And what do I do about this half marathon that Darren made me sign up for?
Speaker 3:It's just a bit of fun.
Speaker 1:Fun, just a bit of fun. I'm wearing my alpha flies Mo.
Speaker 3:That's all right. You can still go fast and be rested.
Speaker 1:It is a shame. It would have been nice to hit it hard, but I'm just gonna take it as it comes change perspectives needs to be changed.
Speaker 2:Like we can't always do, we can't always be our best and we can't always do things we want to do. I absolutely had it in my head when I booked this sub 120 was going to be the case, because I was going to train towards it I'm pretty sure that was your.
Speaker 1:You're talking to me as well, it saying me book it yeah, and it and that was, but things have changed.
Speaker 2:We've, we're going to pivot and just going to see what happens on the day it's going to be a nice long run exactly that is example of being distracted by the noise again why I booked it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was the noise that's what I was really hang on Luckily, because I was moving out and stuff, I gave myself more excuses. But with hang on I was thinking, and one of the reasons I didn't do it is just because, where it is in the season, I was thinking we've had a long year and now I've got to do one more race in November. That means I've got to train, because I don't want to go there and do shit. I want to go there and really try and compete and to carry my season on that long.
Speaker 2:I thought it's not going to work for me. You're right, dan. We haven't really caveated the mindset of the three of us, that we are talking from a perspective of three people that want to, absolutely. We want to win, we want to win at our sport and that is obstacle course racing. So we're not coming from a point of mindset of I want to go on adventures, I want to see the world, I just want to experience races. Yes, we do obviously have experiences, but we're coming from a point of view that we want to win. But well, that's my opinion, that's most already said. That and ships, I know it's you as well, I know you do yeah, I know, I just don't say it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know and I think that's really important for people to understand that that's the mentality of this conversation, because it can seem a bit serious. It can seem oh, why are they just focusing on that one race? Why are they? Why are they trying to define milestones of what they're doing? They should just be relaxing, enjoying life and just using their bodies to enjoy fitness racing or, or a run, or the, or even this weekend it's a half marathon. We should just be happy that we can do a half marathon, but we're just so competitive.
Speaker 1:We just want to get the best out of our bodies yeah, and we know what the best looks like as well.
Speaker 2:That's the difficult thing with us, isn't it?
Speaker 3:we've experienced such a high level of performance from our bodies at certain times that we know what we're capable of, so that expectation is so high yeah yeah, it becomes really hard then to do a race for fun or just for enjoyment, because you're like this just doesn't feel right, it's like I could do so much better every time you just think this could be a race where I do well because I've done well, and this could be the time everybody will know that I am good that's my head yeah, finally people will see me for who I am but we've had experienced that as well and and being touching the pinnacle of what we aim to do, we want to be there all the time.
Speaker 2:It's very hard to understand that actually we're there like one percent of the time. 99 of the time we have to go, like this weekend, do a half marathon and maybe get just near 130 and I know that sounds arrogant, because 130 is a very good half marathon time, but we know full well if we trained hardships, 120, a round about that was it was was achievable I know my watch was telling me yeah it's hard.
Speaker 2:It is hard and the same, like you must be struggling right now. Obviously, you know what your best looks like, but actually no, it's probably that's why you're motivated, because your perspective of your best has been changed by being in the environment where you've got so many different people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm being smacked around all the time. So it's like, even though I'm not very fit right now, so I'm not my best, but my best compared to some of the guys I'm training with at the minute doesn't even compete anyway, so it's almost I'm searching for a new best.
Speaker 1:I think that's what's keeping me a bit A new best.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:There's no better way to stay motivated than finding the new version of the best.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've seen another level when it's like, yeah, that's where I want to be seen another level and it's like, yeah, that's where I want to be.
Speaker 1:You know, like on Dragon Ball Z, where they like go from KO Ken to Super Saiyan. Yeah, yeah, that's what you're doing that's what I'm doing you're like you're going into Super Saiyan and then you're gonna go to like Super Saiyan plus one, super Saiyan, two, super Saiyan, three, super Saiyan God evolving, evolving.
Speaker 2:I love that Searching for a new best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that should be the title.
Speaker 2:How do we search for a new best Mo Give us the answers.
Speaker 3:Join a running club or a move house. Yeah, maybe that's the problem, maybe we.
Speaker 2:We're training ourselves too much.
Speaker 1:I do always find that's a pain. We need to be compared.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I think that's what's keeping more accountable. Being around people, I think like used to, especially when I was down south. Obviously we have rumble, but you're training on your own quite a lot that most of the time, whereas now I'm in a new environment. So when I'm on my own it's exciting because I get to explore somewhere new, but then the other times I'm with people, so it's like it just keeps you so much more motivated.
Speaker 2:Searching for a new best. I like that You've given all the answers today about like change your environment, change things up, but stay very accountable on the goal that you're aiming for. Even if you're going into a new gym, it doesn't mean you change your workout. You do the same workout, but you change your environment to stay motivated to freshen things up put more plates on because you're at a new gym.
Speaker 3:Yeah, get stronger people who are boss yeah, you decide they've got this new machine and you want to try the new machine and you're like get into it, and then you get injured.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 3:My only concern is I don't know how I'm going to be in a few months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's where you could have the problem, because you could come out of this like new motivation, all this, come up to a race and not do very well but I'm well, I'm hoping this just gets me through like the winter, and then when race season hits, my motivation will change anyway because I'll have races lined up.
Speaker 3:So actually I'm hoping this kind of rides me through. I get to kind of march time and I'm like, oh, I'm ready to go ocCR now.
Speaker 1:Well, whatever the outcome, we can do a podcast on it. Yeah yeah, stay tuned.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to go. Mo's going to go from his mentality right now into yours ships where he needs to rest, and then he's going to go into mine because there's so many races and you feel distracted. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I haven't even thought about an OCR season yet.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what my season looks like for OCR it's just so hard to think about it because there's so many different races series. I love it, I'm not complaining. I love that there's so many races around now, but when you're trying to be trying to be this athlete that focuses and wants to be your best, it's hard to pick a race. Now, especially, we're probably going to, we could go to this is another episode. Me and ships are in a very difficult situation in terms of we are now at an age where we we were still, we're still trying to be the best as we possibly can at all levels. But we're also, like we're going into almost like the age group level of, or master's level. It's, it's a very gray area that we're in right now, cause we it's going to we're gonna have to train harder to keep our fitness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, apparently we're declining.
Speaker 2:We will be Biologically. That is a definite that we are declining if we don't give the correct stimulus to the body to increase. But we are going to be battling again. We're fighting a losing battle in some respect. Give the correct stimulus to the body to increase, but we are going to be battling again.
Speaker 3:We're we're fighting a losing battle in some respect it's also recovery yeah yeah take that recovery serious, chris I think you don't recover I think you're that's where you're going to see your decline for 38.
Speaker 2:Get your like what you've done this year. You've given yourself the massive stimulus of training. Enjoy the recovery. You are absolutely going to get everything from it.
Speaker 3:True that Out of all three of us, I think you've been the most consistent, and the fact that you haven't had a rest yet that, to me, is a massive red flag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, red flag red flag.
Speaker 3:Yeah, red flag red flag, and I think your body and your mind's telling you cause also, you're probably the most motivated out of all three of us and for you to be the miserable one. There's a, there's a. There's a big red flag there.
Speaker 2:I think everyone obviously knows, hopefully, listening, listen, listens, knows what ships does for a living. But if you don't ships, you're doing like 20 to 30 000 steps a day anyway with scaffolding and lifting.
Speaker 1:You're not resting anyway I'll tell you what I did the other day. This is this will give you an example. Right, I had two guys come to site from agency who were roid heads, so they was on steroids and they called me an animal and they were tired. And you wasn't tired. No, I wasn't tired, I do. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, rest up. Should we summarise and go around, because I know we're on a strict schedule today? Indeed, have we hit the mark on staying accountable for you ships on the topic over Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we've muddied the waters on everything else. No, have we? No, I think we've been quite conclusive this episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think Mo's done it.
Speaker 2:Mo did it, he did Wow.
Speaker 3:I stirred the ship in the right direction for once.
Speaker 2:Shui. I feel like we can continue this conversation further, but I know we wanted to stay, obviously, stay accountable, nutrition-wise, training-wise. I think we should hit upon more of this topic and go into further detail on it, because I feel like we've discussed, like our, our perspective of it. Let's actually go into detail of different subjects maybe yeah, I agree part of this, yeah I definitely think soon.
Speaker 3:We need to plan our seasons and we should do it live on air.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, I like that. If people want to hear that, let us know um, should we give a shout out to?
Speaker 2:obviously in our previous episode there was a little advert in there. Perfect little advert and we should give a shout out to a few names We've got. Will is now a Patreon.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And we've got Liam Martin. I don't know who Liam Martin is, but thank you, Liam Liam Martin. I definitely heard that who Liam Martin is, but thank you, Liam Liam Martin.
Speaker 3:I definitely heard that name before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe, and also we have sold a T-shirt, just so you know.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Phil, the money's rolling in.
Speaker 2:It is rolling. We're keeping this afloat. Yeah, no, we appreciate it so so much. It's so nice to someone's gonna be wearing one of our t-shirts and we've got people supporting us and maybe there's exclusive contents coming soon, but we don't know there will be. Okay, give us time, mo. You've actually got some, um, new t-shirts coming out, which is going to be good yeah, we've got another one to add.
Speaker 3:So yeah, stay tuned for that cool ships go rest after a half marathon.
Speaker 2:Of course, um mo keep motivating us.
Speaker 3:We need it I'm gonna start sending you like strava reminders. Like, go look at Strava.
Speaker 2:Yeah, send us your intervals. That's what I want to see.
Speaker 3:I'll send you my sessions.
Speaker 1:We should start one of them, accountability corner Strava leaderboards.
Speaker 2:We should actually just have An accountability corner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, accountability corner.
Speaker 3:So you can get the most mileage, each one. That's gonna go really wrong. Right, that's gonna go the other way. No, we're gonna do it right, okay.
Speaker 2:So, listeners, you've got to the end of this podcast, so you'll obviously love us, so I will set up a strava uh leaderboard for accountability corner nice get involved. There we, we go. They're motivation, we're going to get motivated.
Speaker 1:Bring it on, stay accountable.
Speaker 2:Stay accountable out there Right Going to have to go. This was short and sweet, but I feel like it's hit the mark. It's been a good one. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:Christmas-y. Yeah, I like it. All right, we're going to leave you with that.
Speaker 2:Goodbye, all right, goodbye mate. See you later.
