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The Hoeflinger Podcast
Welcome to the The Hoeflinger Podcast, where Dr. Brian Hoeflinger and Kevin Hoeflinger delve into riveting discussions about life as a neurosurgeon, the world of medicine, healthy living, fitness, and anything else that piques their curiosity. Dr. Brian Hoeflinger, MD, brings his extensive 24 years of experience as a full-time neurosurgeon to educate and inform. Get ready for engaging conversations that will broaden your understanding of the medical realm and beyond!
The Hoeflinger Podcast
#6: Neurosurgeon Shares Triathlon Training & Fitness Journey
In this episode, Dr. Brian Hoeflinger and Kevin Hoeflinger share their triathlon training experiences and overall fitness journeys. We dive into the discipline, focus, and mental acuity necessary for Dr. Hoeflinger's role as a neurosurgeon and how that overlaps with fitness training.
We explore our journeys to becoming triathletes, how we train, the exhilaration of race days, and the deep sense of accomplishment that comes with crossing the finish line. We'll take you through our own experiences of stepping out and embracing the unfamiliar, and how it led to extraordinary personal growth. You'll hear about the importance of setting realistic expectations, pacing yourself, and finding time to relax and destress, all while working towards your objectives. We also share the importance of setting internal, meaningful goals, not just for public recognition, but for the true essence of self-improvement.
Tune in every week for new episodes of The Hoeflinger Podcast with Dr. Brian Hoeflinger and Kevin Hoeflinger.
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All right, welcome back to the Hufflinger podcast. I'm here today with my dad, and today we're gonna talk about our fitness journeys, about triathlon and iron man's. My dad did one in 2017, and I'm doing one in two weeks from tomorrow, when this episode comes out. So yeah, so let's jump right into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for me, I mean, I think the reason I did it was just to challenge myself. You know I was some. My son, brian, had died several years earlier and I wanted to try to do something different that I hadn't done before and challenge myself. So you know, I don't know how you did it, kevin I just started out by doing like you know, walking on treadmill briskly, and then I went to running, like you know, every day a little bit, and then I did a 5K, which is what?
Speaker 2:Three miles, 3.1 miles and then I went to a 10K distance, which is like six miles, and then, you know, gradually, over months, I got a training plan. Then I decided to do a half marathon and I did a half marathon and that went well and I figured God, if I'm almost up to a marathon level, why don't I think about doing something like a triathlon? That sounds really neat. So then I tried to. You know, I kind of trained for a small triathlon and you know, a triathlon includes swimming, biking and running and I did the smallest one there was and I thought it was pretty cool and I said, yeah, I can do this. So then at that point I went on to train for a full marathon, and that was part of my training, for the Ironman was the full marathon and you know, I think for me I just gradually worked my way up to things till I got to the point where I was ready to do the Ironman, but it was a full year of training.
Speaker 1:Did you? Say yeah, you committed like a full year before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a full year. So I think what you have to do, what I did, is you have to just commit, right? I said, when I decided if I did my half marathon, I decided that I'm gonna do an Ironman, and then I just found the Ironman I wanted. I did Ironman Wisconsin, which is one of the more hillier ones. I wanted something challenging and I know I could drive. You know, had my bike on the back of the car on a bike rack. I knew I could drive there and so I committed to it, signed up they're expensive I mean, it was like 1,000 bucks to sign up for that race and so I knew if I signed up, I was gonna commit to doing it and that was half the challenge, right?
Speaker 1:there Also, I think you made a Facebook post when you first decided you were gonna do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause you know you got to put some pressure on yourself. So I made a Facebook post saying that I'm gonna do it, and then you know, if you don't follow through, it kind of makes you look stupid.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I think there's multiple different things and I think that's beyond just fitness but just goals in life the more accountable because you can make excuses with yourself. You make yourself accountable to the public or your friends, or you put in something like a money investment. It's much harder than to back out of it. You kind of force yourself, you trick your mind in a little bit. So I agree, I think the biggest thing is once you like I'm pretty similar in that facet once you I commit to something, I'm gonna, I know I can do it If I just commit to it. You just have to get yourself to that point and remove the friction.
Speaker 2:And I understand, you know, sometimes you say, well, anybody can do it. I mean, I understand some people have physical disabilities that they can't do something like that or they can't run because of their hips or their back, and I understand that. But for a person who is healthy, who physically can do that, then I think the main objective is to commit to it, make the commitment, set aside time and, like when I was doing this I was on, you know, I was full-time neurosurgeon. I was on trauma call. We took trauma call every third day and every third weekend there was three of us in the group and so, no matter what, how busy I was or what time I got home I could get home at you know four o'clock or eight o'clock at night I went ahead and I did my.
Speaker 2:Whatever training I had to do that day, I did it. And on the weekends, you know, if I had to do a long, you know eight hour ride, I would do it. But I think it's one of those things if you, for me, if I didn't get home and do it right away, I wasn't gonna do it. I mean, the minute I got home I had to do it, get out of the way, because I found if I waited around, you don't feel like doing it, so for me that was a big part of it, definitely.
Speaker 1:Do you wanna walk us through like a typical day? That'd be pretty so. What did you? What was just like a typical day, like when you were training, you know, like having multiple surgeries and then anything else? What did you and I can talk about it later what did you do? Did you plan out meals? Did you like you have to have your nutrition and if you're gonna go, try to do a couple hour run or a hard workout, you can't like? So if you did surgery all day, how did you adjust for that? Just what's a typical day like? I think that would be interesting.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you know, just even before I said it. So I think you know I got I actually I think it's a smart idea, if you're gonna do something like that to get a trainer and it wasn't a trainer who came over and trained me. It gave me a plan, gave me a nutritional plan, an exercise plan of what I needed to do every day. So I had it laid out. So in the winter, before you could start running outside, you know we did strength training. She'd have workouts for me every day and I'd do my workouts and I'd really try to get into that diet routine ahead of time before it got to the point where I was super busy and had to be doing all this training. So you have to set a foundation right off the bat and get some kind of how does it work? To build a habit? You almost have to get your habits set in place. Yeah, but then you know.
Speaker 2:So an average day for me would be, say, it's a day I was on call. You know I might have, you know, three to four elective surgeries, sometimes five if they're smaller cases. And you know, typically I'd operate all day till you know five o'clock and then if I was on call and there were consults. Afterwards I have to go see the consult. So sometimes I wouldn't get home till late seven or eight o'clock and it was an office day. Usually office ran till 430 or five o'clock and because I saw a lot of patients every day in office and then same thing if you're on a call, you gotta go back to the hospital and see people. So it it's. There's an occasional day where my trainer said you know, if you can't kill yourself and if you can't do it that day, you just skip it and pick up where you left off. But most days I would go home or whatever I had to do I would do something, just to make sure I did something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even if I couldn't do the full workout.
Speaker 2:Something was better than nothing. Cause the minute you stop doing things, I think it's more likely you're gonna make an excuse the next day to say well, you know, I don't want to describe this like a, like a chain before, and like the longer chain is.
Speaker 1:You put chains together. Each day you do, it becomes stronger. It's hard to the break. You skip one day, then that chain breaks. It's so much easier than to skip the second day. It is so yeah, even because I think sometimes I mean I even I'll do that I'm like, oh, I have to do a three hour run, my body doesn't feel like it. Then it's easy to just say, well, I'm not going to do anything. Well, it's much better to do 30 minutes than to do nothing. Because it's not like people all think. I think who don't train as much or who don't have it raced it's not like you're going to magically do some crazy effort on race day Just pulls like a rabbit out of the hat. You're, you're, it's everything you've put in in training, all the hours you put in training. You're cashing those chips in on race day. So you can't just magically do something that your body's not trained for.
Speaker 2:And I think even I remember on race day we're jumping ahead, I guess. But it's all about your mental thing too. Like I think when you're I know the day that I was doing, I'm thinking, God, can I really do this? You know you start second guessing yourself days before the race, Like, did I train enough? You know, all those days I didn't do as much as I was supposed to. Am I going to be ready? And that's where you have to get into a mental state of confidence that you know you did the training, you did as much as you could, You're ready. And because it can really tear you down and you're going to have to watch out for that when you do yours, because even all this, you know he goes out now for eight or nine hours riding and and running and but I guarantee you the days before you're going to wonder, am I going to be able to do this? I do enough training? You just start second guessing yourself and you can't do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, my thing's always been I was talking to Renee about this but I've always felt like Renee is the trainer I used during the Kavan's user I've always felt that I can do, like when I did my 50 mile race, and never it's weird, Like after the fact you're like it's pretty cool that you've done it, but like before it I was kind of injured like leading up to it. I never felt that I couldn't do it. I know I always know I can just keep going forward. Then it just comes down to time sometimes. But I think when you've done hard things like doing a marathon, before doing that, doing a half ironman, I just know I can keep going. But then it becomes like how you know, you always want to push yourself and get a certain time, so and you just, I mean, the biggest thing I always think about is and I try to think about it as I just hope that I don't get a flat tire on my bike. That would be like the main, that's like the main hope I hope doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:My chain came off. Yeah, yeah, it took me a while to fix it. People really don't stop to help you because everybody's worried about their own race and time, so no one helped me, but thank God I could get it back on, because that would have been the end of that. That was early on.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think to me, if something like that comes up, where I was saying, if it's you, you even had, like you had a really hot race day, didn't you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so so my, so my half ironman. I did a half ironman three months prior. It was in Madison, wisconsin. It was in the upper mid upper nineties that day. Yeah, I think 60% of the field didn't show up or didn't finish that day, that race, and that's incredible. 60% of people didn't show up.
Speaker 1:No. And so if you, if you had this crazy idea and no, I'm not crazy If you had an idea in your head like I need to get this time around, I'm going to be pissed off. Yeah, you have to. You have to throw things like that at the door. Or even if you DNF or your bike gets messed up, you can't worry about that stuff. It's highly disappointing, but you can't control the weather.
Speaker 2:And it's really just about finishing. You have to have a mind side, just need to finish, because this stuff about trying to drive yourself crazy about getting a certain time, it will drive you crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's why I like about the longer distance stuff, like, like, like ultra marathons and track people. You know, people even up to the marathon, they obsess over times and they'll break it into mild times, and all this when everyone's differently, unless you're a world-class athlete or you're an athlete who's doing something very specific. It's so much more important to create a lifestyle of being healthy and going to push yourself mentally and race and physically. Just do what you can not obsess over. There is no time. Who cares?
Speaker 2:And there's always going to be a time. I think there's always going to be a time. Like I remember, I did my first marathon it was a Disney marathon and you always hear about this wall like they say mile 20. So marathon is 26 miles and I always heard about this wall around mile 20 or 22 or 23. You hit this wall where you feel like you can't even finish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and boy was it true. I got the mile like 23 or 24. And it's like all your glucose or your energy glycogen is completely gone in your body and it just feels like you can't move your legs. And I mean I came so close to just stopping and quitting and a lot of people could see did. But that that thing is true and just like everything you're going to, I experienced that in my Ironman. I had done my 2.5 mile swim, then I did my 112 miles of biking. I was like on mile 24 of my marathon and I'm thinking to myself I can't do it. I mean I just I can't do, I'm exhausted, my body won't move, but somehow you got to just dig down and I just, like you, find your second win and then my some of my best miles are my last two miles because I just found this inner strength, you know.
Speaker 1:No, I think, yeah, we're capable of so much more than we know. We just you don't feel like it a lot of times, but I mean, I always think about it as it's just one day and it's just one race. So if you're doing that, just get through the pain, get through the annoyance of it right there, and then I'm always happy. I didn't.
Speaker 1:I just said a marathon PR this past spring, but I just kept telling myself I kind of hit, my legs were getting really heavy, like around mile 15, it was weird, I was not having the best race, but I just wasn't going to stop, I just kept going. And then you keep going, you're saying one more mile, one more mile, and then all of a sudden you're at the end and you're super happy, it's done. You feel a great sense of accomplishment and knowing you can do hard things. What I like about training and other stuff it makes other things in life not as tough. When you know I can go out and do this, I can go out and accomplish this race, it makes some other things you go through not seem as stressful.
Speaker 2:It is true too, because I did the exact same thing. When you think about everything in total and you think of the end, it's overwhelming. It's like me being in surgery all day and I got a surgeon at five consults. Everything's so daunting. But if you break it down, okay, I just need to go another mile. I need to make it to this stop sign. You set little goals, you make that goal and then it keeps you going instead of thinking.
Speaker 1:I think micro goals are critically important because I do that all the time. If I can just get to here, if I can just get to 25%, if I can just get to 50, and I'll say, from anywhere from a six mile to a 30 mile run or a 50 mile run, you can't think about the end because it's too abstract. How are you going to think about when you're doing the Ironman? You're out there for like 14 hours. If you sit there and think about the end, you're doomed. No, I'm doing the swims of triathlons. I'm literally only focused on like it's going to be awesome once I get out of this water. I'm doing that.
Speaker 1:I repeat little mantras to myself all the time when I'm biking or running or swimming, I'm trying to think so. I believe in me. I just keep going. Continuous forward, progress, just little things. I repeat to myself constantly because you can't. Also, during triathlons, you don't have any headphones, which I usually do train with headphones, so it's just you and your thoughts. I know some people always do stuff without, but I listen to podcasts, audio books and music all the time when I train. It's way different during a race. You're just in your own head. If you don't repeat positive things. You're going to let negative things creep in, which are terrible.
Speaker 2:I think just exercising in general triathlons and Ironman obviously it's a way to get really healthy, eat healthy, but also it builds mental toughness in you. It helps you for the rest of your life because it helps you in other aspects of life when times get tough. I mean you become mentally tough and you learn what you can endure. I think it has so many effects on your not your personality, but how strong you are as a person. I mean it really increases your strength as a person.
Speaker 1:Well, I think exercise is one of the number one most important things of where it has bleed over effects it has. If you start exercising, you're just naturally inclined to eat healthier, make better decisions and all these other positive things. You create a habit, exercise a habit out of exercise. You do that every day. You feel better, you have more energy. You'll do other things, I don't know. You sleep better, I think All these other things I know. When I fall out of not exercising as regularly, I feel a little more sluggish. I think that's a huge thing and I think why to keep doing it? I think why people do do that yeah.
Speaker 2:Because, definitely, once you stop doing something like I thought after my Ironman okay, I'm this really conditioned person, I'm never going to get back to where I was before but gradually, if you don't keep it up, you just start doing less and less and that's that much harder to get back into it. So I just did, kevin and I did an Olympic triathlon, which is just a smaller one. It took me a lot of training to get back to that level because I let myself go, got back in the work, got back in the life, stopped exercising. Then it's like recreating the wheel again, which is fine, it is true, but it's not just a little while. It's so hard to get back into it.
Speaker 1:Well, after my 50 mile run, I remember that then COVID hit and then I kind of was on and off and I kept slowing down on training. I was lifting more. Then, when I got back into running, you have to redo everything again. You've lost it, though, just like how it's not hard at all once you've done all that training to go up for a three mile run. It's even for me, just mentally that you're not in the zone anymore. It feels like if you've watched TV or sat on your phone going out for a 30 minute run or a 40 minute run it seems like forever.
Speaker 1:But then I'm like how did I run for 10 and a half hours straight? I always say I think that's the biggest thing for me is once I can get in that zone again of getting through workouts and everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting too. Why can't you sit on the couch and watch TV, and it goes by? Half an hour goes by instantaneously. Or you're on your phone, but if you're exercising or running it's like you can't. You're just counting the seconds and minutes till that half an hour is over. It's really our brains must do something to us, or if you're doing something.
Speaker 1:I remember when I'd sit in class in high school and college. If you're in a class, you're bored. If you're in a boring lecture, oh my God, it feels like. It feels like forever. And then an hour can go by where you're watching a movie or hanging out with friends, in the snap of an instant. So it's funny how our minds work. I always think if you want to prolong your life, you sit there and you just do hard things all the time. Where you want the time to go slower. What's it feel like when you do surgery, dude? Does it feel like, since you're so trained, it goes fast?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you're so focused In surgery. You're so focused that just I mean, before you know it it's over, it can be an hour surgery or a five hour surgery. I mean it's just when you're focused and you're in intense and silent.
Speaker 1:Do you think you ever hear of people talk about flow states?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, flow state is where you're more, much more creative and you're focused, and well, I'll tell you know so people extra, like if you have to be.
Speaker 1:So. There's some people who, like, are like climbers, like rock climbers and stuff. There's this one, they. You have to be so focused on the task that hand that everything else melts away. Or like people in martial arts or you know different things, or this guy who did a solo expedition across Antarctica. You have to be so locked into what you're doing everything else kind of blurs away, do?
Speaker 2:you think that's exactly what's like cuz. I mean you can have, like Accidentally, a nurse will knock something over and if I wasn't in surgery and it happened, that would go like this, you know. But when I'm in surgery I can be right over a nerve of the brain and they can drop something loud and I don't flinch because you're so focused on what you're doing. All the other stuff on the outside world I don't pay attention to. Yeah, because I have to.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like it's a certain I mean that's like a crazy trade to be able to tap into, because I feel like that helps you with other things in your life too. If you can Tap it like because it's hard to tap into that it's when it's when you're like it's easier when you're forced to like someone rock climbing without a guide rope, like that he would in this documentary I watched well, you can't let your wine my, your mind cannot one yeah like there's this other documenting, a free solo one with yeah, there's this other guy too, but um, that it was, he died but he would freeze, so all this other stuff.
Speaker 1:But they talk about it where they they're so focused on that because it's life or death. If they miss a rock, hold they're, they're gonna fall to their death. So I mean, if you miss someone's nerve You're gonna. So you kind of are naturally going to that flow state, but it probably makes time just go by.
Speaker 2:What's interesting too, the the one document of the guy who climbed El Capitan, which is.
Speaker 1:You know somebody.
Speaker 2:It's like a that's right, that's yeah, so he no ropes and it's funny that the few days before that he practiced it, you know he would use ropes and he slipped and fell and without the rope he would have died. But when he did it in actual, without ropes, he was fine. But these guys say that they they envision their death like they played their death over so many times in their mind that they're used to what. They know exactly what will happen when they're gonna die. And he says that takes away the fear because I already know how my death is gonna happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to. If you I mean we're, I mean it's, it's weird. But like you also, you have to imagine if someone, if you're climbing and you're scared of dying, then you're probably gonna make a mistake because you're too nervous.
Speaker 1:So it's a weird thing to think about, but you have to kind of let go of Fear. Yeah, in order. I imagine people who do extreme sports have to have that to people who do like helicopter skiing or Stuff like that. So everyone's I mean everyone's different, I imagine have a little bit of that. You're more inclined to be towards it, but I feel like there's got to be trained over time to, to an extent, one, like with surgery, you can't.
Speaker 2:If I was in so much fear all the time, I couldn't do surgery because you it would paralyze you can't. So you have to be Accepting in your mind that something can happen at any point time, whether it's increased bleeding or a spinal leak or something, and you just have to accept that that can happen and then you know how to get yourself out of it. But if you're so scared of that happening you could never do surgery and you know it just takes away your focus.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't you say, that's why there's such like a medical school and then residency, especially for surgery in your mind. Is so you can just slowly, you live and breathe. That right it becomes and and we're talking about this in the other episode but you, you never have gone really that long before COVID. You have never gone over like a month without doing surgery.
Speaker 2:Oh never because, because you're, and then that's the first time I liked it was that long.
Speaker 1:I don't want, without doing certain never gone, even between residency, to attend the I never got was that during COVID there was like a six week Elective surgeries stoppage, right, so that was 20 20, but I remember him, he was sitting at home and I remember that was such a weird time for you because you're not used to that and even the longest we've ever gone on vacation is like 12 days or yeah, no, never gone to a vacation in my life, so no, that's.
Speaker 1:Another thing is you've never think about that, that you don't think about it like that, but that's a habit. So think if you did that with anything else, if you've never gone that long without it, you would be pretty strong in almost anything.
Speaker 2:And I don't like to go on vacation very long, because the longer you're away than when you come back and so unnerving, like you're just out of sync, like when you're when you're when I'm the busiest, is when I'm the most comfortable because I'm just anything can come in, you're just ready to keep going, you know. And then you stop and you go on vacation for 10 days or 12 days and you come back. It's like now you're out of that routine. You got to get back into it. It takes it takes days to get back into that rhythm of things, at least for surgery, I'm sure it's all kind of things in life or like that.
Speaker 1:Well, no, it's interesting just the overlap there. You don't really think about it with surgery or Fitness. It's just, it's that consistency thing, getting in routines and habits All the way back, probably when you're in college, getting in the habit of study, you know, or getting in the habit. I think habits are so powerful and routines are so powerful because you can, you can tap into that, that side of you, that like unconscious or subconscious side, where you don't have to actively think about it and make it way harder, because if you're consciously thinking about everything, it makes everything way harder to do right? So Because I think too, probably if something happens, you don't have to consciously pause, but you get a brain bleed, you don't have to consciously pause and think for 10 minutes of like each step you need to do. You probably just go into action of what you would need to do to like start Stop. You know I'm saying you, you, your Knowledge base kicks in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's just repetition, right? If you've done something enough times, you don't have to think about you just know what to do. If you haven't done something many times, then you're stopping. You're not sure of yourself, you're guessing. So it is about doing things. Oh, you know, if you're, if you're a pilot, you know you want to fly ten thousand hours, because the guy who's only flown you know hundred hours is probably very unsure of himself a little bit. You know Little nervous guys flown ten thousand hours. You know most anything can come up and they probably have a good idea how to deal with it.
Speaker 1:You know yeah, well, that's Malcolm Gladwell. He's you got a really good book called outliers. He talks about the ten thousand hour rule and he talks about the adult people who are experts, usually have hit ten thousand hours and beyond. And I mean, obviously you've got way beyond this. But I think, yeah, it's not even ten thousand hours necessarily too, but it also just like ten thousand repetitions or just thousands, and just the more repetitions you can get on something, the more.
Speaker 2:If you sit there and Snowboard a hundred times, you're probably gonna be better than someone yeah, who, who's gone like twice but for a long time and I think you have to like For me that I just finished a call, a call week, seven days of trauma call in a row and I think I had 50 or 60 consoles. At least some days it was six consoles, some days it was, you know, 10 or 12. I think yesterday was 12 new consoles. But it's one of those things that you you, as you do more and more of that, then, as stuff comes in, you're not as bent out of shape, you know. I mean, you expect it, you get comfortable with it and it's one of those things that I I don't have to think too much about things and you have to remember to take it one step at a time, like when you can get Overwhelmed so easy when all this life and death stuff comes in, it can just overwhelm you and you just have to remember that.
Speaker 2:You know you're one person, you take it one step at a time and you can only do so much. You do what you can do. You can't, you can't put everyone else's burdens completely on you and say you're gonna cure the world. You know you can do what you can do and I always have to remind myself of that because it can become so overwhelming. You can get what was the word. I'm just really burnout quickly, you know. So yeah, I'm not burnout, you know.
Speaker 1:You just have to be realistic.
Speaker 2:Well, you're not doing anyone any.
Speaker 1:Just you're not helping anything in the world. If you, if you burn yourself out so hard by doing all these things, then then you're useless and I don't even think it's not the physical.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm up a lot at night and stuff. It's not the physical, it's the mental. You get burned out mentally because you put so much Aburden on yourself constantly. You can't, you know, I mean, and that's why you spend a lot of time talking to the families To let them know what the injury is and let them help make the decision. It's not my decision. I mean I can help guide you, but but I have to let the families know as much as they can know About expectations, about outcome, about quality of life afterwards, and then ultimately the family can make a good decision and it's not so much me making a decision just to take somebody to surgery because I want to, you know.
Speaker 1:And there's just something, especially with something like a field, like you're in being a neurosurgeon, is you need to take and anyone Needs to is you can't just always be. I think this is only in last couple decades. People have started realizing this can't be go, go, go all the time. We need, we need, we need sleep, we need rest, we need relaxation. You need like these stuff that de-stresses you so for you might be playing golf right. For other people it's something else spending time with their kids or family. You know I'm saying so. I think the people who get and they're even unhappy is that they just try to do, they do this stuff all the time. They're go, go, go, go go. You know I would take tiered periods of downtime. Then it just doesn't lead to good things, it doesn't lead to a well-rounded life.
Speaker 2:But for you know, I think today's topic was kind of like the triathlon thing, just exercise in general. But for anybody out there who is even thinking of doing, start running or do you know marathon.
Speaker 2:This is your sign, yeah but you should do it because it's, I tell you, never regret it and it's such a feeling of accomplishment when you've done something that you haven't done before and you accomplish it because what were the statistics, kevin? Like we've looked in, like how many people actually ever do a marathon is some miniscule numbers. It's a marathon. It's less than 10%. And then how many people ever do an Ironman? It's like 1% of the population, isn't it? Or? Less it's maybe it's less than that, I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean that remains live in around for like.
Speaker 2:The 80s.
Speaker 1:It was 1980 at least 43 years, but yeah, no, so that I mean, that's something I like to like is just do some things. Obviously now it's a lot there. This wasn't. There, wasn't the opportunity to do organized races like this, necessarily, even like a hundred years ago. Really it's in the last like hundred years all this stuff become a possibility, but it's so the atmosphere to everyone's very nice, everyone's super encouraging. It is it just just start something and just try new things, and maybe you do it once and you don't like it, yeah, but it's good to try new things in life, I think, and get outside your comfort zone and you don't have to start big.
Speaker 1:That's the that's the craziest thing I tell people just go outside, go walk for 10 minutes or go for like a quarter mile run. If you start somewhere and you keep moving forward, you're gonna be Ten times farther than people who never started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's the key, a hundred percent. It's cuz you just got to do it. Like you say, okay, I can't do this, I mean I can't train for a year. Just go out and do something for a couple days and just do it. You know, you just got to do it and you'll find after two weeks of doing it, you you'll start looking forward to it. I mean you will. It's just getting over those first few days to a week or two. You gotta get over that period. But if you do it, I tell you you're gonna be glad to get here.
Speaker 1:I mean this one comes up a lot. So I'm training, I'm in two weeks. So, for example, the other weekend I did a mile and a half swim. On a Friday I ran three hours on Saturday and then on Sunday I biked five and a half hours and ran 30 minutes after, which is a brick workout.
Speaker 1:But people who, when I'm training, will say well, you just have so much motivation. I wish I could have as much motivation with you. And my biggest thing is and I think other people would agree is I don't think it's motivation, I think it's discipline, because I don't want to you feel motivated when you watch a YouTube video and you're motivated for two minutes. It's very short term Discipline has very long term results. So I'll know I'll have a week planned out and I know I have to do this, no matter what. And if you have the discipline to get your shoes on, get yourself out there, it's so much easier to keep going. So I think discipline, if you can just be disciplined for a week and make yourself do something healthier or try to start a habit and just stick with it, give yourself a week or two at a minimum, you have such a higher chance of continuing it, or then finding something sustainable.
Speaker 2:I mean, just try it. Just challenge yourself just for a week. Try to walk every day. Say I'm gonna walk a half an hour every day, no matter what, and just try it. I guarantee at the end of that week you'll be on the track to not giving it up. You'll say this is pretty easy and you'll start increasing it. You'll probably go longer. I mean and think how much better that is for you than sitting on the couch for half an hour. I mean, time flies on the couch and you eat snacks and stuff. Just try walking by yourself, or get a friend and do it.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, walk the friend, talk to someone if you want put in the podcast or put in an audio book or music, whatever you need to get started. Sometimes just that's the hardest. I think that's the hardest.
Speaker 1:Going for your first run is probably the hardest thing, or going for your first new activity is probably the hardest thing to do, but yeah, I mean, I think it has tremendous impact on your life if you can and I mean it doesn't have to be running or this or that Maybe you wanna go to like a rock climbing gym or you wanna go start playing basketball or find, you know, or bike you know, start biking or swimming, you gotta get outside your comfort zone.
Speaker 1:It's so easy to sit inside our comfort zones, do something differently, get out of that level like day to day and week to week doing the same old things, just coming home and doing the same exact thing you always do. And what's that gonna say?
Speaker 2:Well, I think you're just saying it because it's true. You definitely won't grow in life unless you get out of your comfort zone. If you always stay in your comfort zone 100%, you're never gonna change. Nothing's ever gonna be different about your life, and so you getting outside your comfort zone, trying new things, is really how you grow as a person. I think I mean 100%, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:And the other thing is and we talked about this a little bit earlier, but comparison is the thief of all joy. So when you are getting started, don't look at what, don't worry about your times. If you say you are going running, biking or swimming, don't look up what an average time is, don't look at your, don't even worry about your times. I would just go about how much time you spent doing the activity, like go, try to go for a 15 minute walk or a 10 minute run and just work, I would say for even like a couple months. Same if you started weightlifting go at least a couple months before you even entertain the thought of looking at times, because that's how you sit there and just say, oh, I'm not good at this or people are better. Who cares? And unless you're trying to train to be an elite athlete or go to be a college athlete or something, don't worry about your times and don't worry about your all this other stuff, just worry about the act of doing something.
Speaker 2:And take the I can't out of your vocabulary Cause I think a lot of people say I could never do Ironman, I could never do a marathon, I could never do a 5K, I could never be a neurosurgeon, you know, you got to take that out of your vocabulary. You can do a lot of those things, but you just set yourself up for failure by saying I can't. Start saying I can, you can Again, unless you have a physical or you know, or a medical condition that doesn't allow you to do that. I understand, but just for the average healthy person who's able to exercise, I mean, take I can't out, you can. You just need to do it. Like Kevin said, you got to just start being disciplined.
Speaker 1:That's a massive mind.
Speaker 2:If you, if you say you know if you can, say, if you can say that about anything in life.
Speaker 1:how much more you it's easier to say to not try, and say I just can't do that versus to try, and maybe it fails sometimes, but you're going to be a lot. I'd rather fail and be a lot further than to say, oh, I don't know, I never tried, and be all the way back here. Here's like another thing. If someone asked you five years ago about doing Ironman, you probably would have thought before five years, before you did it, what could I even do? This Cause, if you just sit there and look at Ironman Cause you think of Ironman.
Speaker 2:That's like you know. Ironman it's like how do people these are like elite athletes.
Speaker 1:They're not, they're not, yeah, but if you look at something just right there, he was already had a good aerobic base buildup and then he trained for 12 months. You, it's impossible to see how much training will impact your body over 12 months, like so to go to, to build up to that. You don't just become something overnight, just like an even farther extrapolation is becoming a neurosurgeon. You don't sit there and think about becoming a neurosurgeon. 10 years later you're sitting there in your maybe biology class and undergrad and you know I need to just get through this class, pass this class, to get to medical school. You know you break these longterm goals into the smallest possible tasks you can and you just you execute on each one of those.
Speaker 2:But even even beyond that, like when I was a neurosurgeon, you don't, you don't think. I thought I can't be. How can I operate on somebody's brain? This is before I did this stuff. I mean, people think of brain surgeon, like how do you operate on somebody's brain? That's how I thought, you know, and I thought it would creep in my mind. There's no way I can do this. What am I doing? I'm crazy, you know, and but. But that's about making a commitment and just getting outside your comfort zone. I said I'm going to try this and if I fail, I fail. But but you probably won't, because you know. I mean, I went through, you know, medical school and then residency is a training program. It's all set up to make to for success. Right, you're set up for success. You have to have the discipline and put in the time, but it's all set up for success and I think many things in life are set up for success, as long as you're willing to take that chance and you're willing to be disciplined and put in time, don't you agree?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and the world's a lot more malleable than you think. But if you, if you start doing stuff, it's crazy how the world will bend to your will almost. If you start, what can come of things If you just with such a simple habit of just exercising every day? Or there's a famous speech of Navy Seal, or I believe it was, or no, he was an admiral, I believe he just making your bed every day. It's just, it's just simple things, where if you do something, if you can start your day with a win or A success, right, yeah, it just sets you up for success. And if you change, because you're shifting, basically you're shifting your mindset for someone who can't do something to who can't do something. And so, yeah, I'm doing the chat, I'm a new Ironman in two weeks I think it's the September 24th, it's that Sunday, but we'll definitely keep you updated on that, I'll post some stuff and-.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us how's your training going Like. What's it been like for you, Cause now you're getting in the big. You know he went away the other day for eight hours riding his bike and you know it's some I remember doing that. I can't hardly remember cause it's all blur. Now. I mean the first what's it like?
Speaker 1:Cause that was I had done a half Ironman before, so the longest I had ever been on my bike was like three or three and a half hours, and then like back to back to back weekends. I'm riding like four hours, five hours, six hours, and then like running after that to get used to coming off the bike. But yeah, it's just. It's so much different. But each time I do that I feel a great sense of confidence. I feel super. I'm like okay, if I can do, if I can do this. I know it builds up that confidence. So I'm I'm race day. I'm not like, oh, can I even do this?
Speaker 2:And what do you think the hardest part is, right now that you're going through, like, what's the hardest part of all this For you? I've been.
Speaker 1:so I was getting, I was trying to change my swim stroke and the swims. The swims going to be the shortest part, but for me I've not swam nearly as much in my life, like in training, as I have Ron and bike. So the swimming to me like it's downstream in Chattanooga, so that's nice, but I don't Downstreaming.
Speaker 1:he's kind of with the current, I'm with the current but so I know I know I can for sure do it, but like in terms of time wise and like that's my weakest discipline. So I always like to just get that that part done with. So and we'll see, cause I was changing how, I was trying to change my breathing technique and stuff. So I'm still just trying to find my, my stroke. But I mean, the hardest part is too I mean that's technically hard, but I would say just your inner thighs and your back after riding on the bike for a long time that you just have to start put, once you're on there, for four hours you have to. I might be on the bike for seven, eight hours, I don't know, depends what the conditions are on the day, but man, that gets very tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's like I remember. So I, wisconsin's really hilly, really hilly course is one of the more hilly courses of Ironman and my biking took me eight hours. I just, you know, here, so we're, we train. I don't know how Kevin's been doing exactly, but there's no hills around here. I'm in Toledo, ohio, so I I didn't have any hills to really train on, just these little tiny hills that I go up and down a million times, but it's not the same as riding up big hills. So my ride took me eight hours, which wasn't awesome, but my back was killing me.
Speaker 2:I was Cindy, was there, my wife when I got off the bike and I told Cindy, cindy, my back hurts me so bad, I can't run a marathon, I just can and she really encouraged me. She said come on, you did all this training, don't give up. And I didn't. And I it was. I hurt really bad the first few miles and I got into it, but that's one. It's just all this all together.
Speaker 2:You know you're going to have these episodes in life, whether it's an Ironman or whatever, where you're going to say I can't, I just can't do this, you know, and you have to push through. That it's all about pushing through and that was like the hardest part. But I'm telling you, when you finish it you're so glad you pushed through and you didn't give up. I mean, there's just such a sense of accomplishment. And I got to ask, kevin, because doing an Ironman one of the big things about finishing an Ironman is everybody gets that Ironman tattoo on their calf or somewhere on their body to show that you're an Ironman, Right? I think the majority of people do that.
Speaker 2:You don't have it I know, and I just never did it. I don't know, I just didn't. I just felt like I'm showing off by having it on. So I just want to. I don't like to try to be a show off and act like I'm, but anyways, I'm curious. If Kevin's going to get along, he finishes it. No, you're not going to do it.
Speaker 1:No, I think the same thing. I mean props to everyone. I like, like, love people who, when they have it, I'm not knocking at all, I just it thanks to me.
Speaker 1:I always think that's a cool conversation, so excited to talk to him. I don't know, I don't, maybe one day I will. For now, the only tattoo I have if you can see the video, I have a tattoo for my brother's only tattoo I have on my wrist. It's a blue heart on my wrist for anyone with an infinity sign for my brother, brian, who died forever. Who's listening? Still, I tattoo I have right now to me Like it has to be super meaningful. Maybe one day I'll get stuff, but I don't know. I don't really like the look of the Ironman tattoo.
Speaker 2:And that cool. But I don't know. I don't have any tattoos on my body, so I just forgot. I'm not going to.
Speaker 1:Because to me it's got. It's got a look, I don't know. I like that, I like the meaning behind tattoos and the aesthetics. So I don't, I don't know, maybe one day I'll change that, but I just wouldn't, because you have to have it too. If you're going to get it, you want it to put it somewhere visible, and I wouldn't really. I don't know, I don't like the like the back of my calf or like ankle, I don't know. Just not, not for me.
Speaker 2:But I mean for me, I think it's just good enough. I know that I did it and that's what matters. I mean everything in life that you guys do, that everyone should do. It should matter mostly because you know you did it and not not that you're trying to show off for other people that you know you, you accomplish something.
Speaker 1:I think that's something I think I and that goes hand in hand with the time thing and everything else is. At first, when I would do stuff I used to like post more about, like the races. I'm doing stuff and it feels good, people are comments like that's amazing, you did a marathon or this or that. But then, after some times too, I would think, like am I what I do this if no one could see? So I would do races where I didn't tell anyone, I never posted about it, never told anyone. Like I did a marathon, the marathon last year, I never said, I never posted anything about it, never told I never.
Speaker 1:Probably most people know me, know, even though I did that, cause I, like you, want to find that balance of like you got to make sure you're doing it for yourself, and so I want to make sure I could do stuff and not with even if no one ever knew, even if I just only I know, cause I think that's the most important thing to me is is it's that lifestyle of being healthy and pushing yourself and test, testing out who you are. I've seen who you are on these tough. We live in very, most of us live in a very. We live in houses we live, you know we live in comfort. It's not like we're hunting for our food and stuff like that. So introducing some hard aspects to your life is important in my mind.
Speaker 2:And this crazy house supportive people are. I mean, when you do your Ironman or marathon, all the people that come out and spend their day cheering you on. It's incredible. I mean like you did all the training and stuff, but I mean these people come out and spend their time cheering you on who don't even know you. It's incredible. I mean, it's really amazing.
Speaker 1:I always try to make it a point when I'm doing it. I try to like think every single volunteer I see and I always I love when there's like little kids on the sideline and give it there. They're so happy if you'll give them a high five.
Speaker 2:A lot of people around. Yeah, I love getting treated like rock stars. It's like you know, you're the rock star. You're out here cheering me on.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, no, I love that people with the cow.
Speaker 2:The kids are awesome.
Speaker 1:The cow bells and everything. But yeah, that I mean that there's just, there's a fun atmosphere to it all and it's all, it's everyone. It's just about, you know, community and being, I don't know just it's all about inspiring people and being inspired, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think when you do something like this, it inspires the people who are watching, especially little kids. It inspires them for greatness. And then they inspire you because, I mean, there they are treating you like a rock star when you don't even know them, and it's like it's really inspiring. It's like humbling that people come out to cheer you on for no reason, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's pretty cool. I don't know Crossing that finish line, it's it's. Also it's very fun because, yeah, there's so much positivity around in community around racing and stuff like that. I think, because it's just a lot of things. Once you like pass high school, it's, you don't really play sports in a way like football, baseball, soccer, tennis. You don't play in that competitive sport atmosphere. So race like racing with, like running and like triathlons and stuff, you still have that, but it's like it's. It's competitive and yet obviously people are going for times. But no one's like it's not me versus you, it's just me versus me, you versus you.
Speaker 2:I gotta tell you a funny story when I did the Ironman I was coming down the elevator and you take your brakes from your hotel room. Then this guy had his bike and his wife was with him and he wasn't didn't seem like the best shape guy I've ever seen, but he's done a bunch of Ironmans and he's got his little basket. I said what's in the basket? Well, this is my lunch and I said your lunch. I said what are you going to do? He said well, just stop. He said I stopped a few times and enjoy myself and I have a nice lunch and he's. For him it's the whole experience, right, he makes an experience out of, he likes to do these because he has fun with it. He's not trying to make a time, he just wants to finish and enjoying the whole experience of doing it. You know I'm saying because there's an atmosphere out there, right, when you're doing Ironman, it's a whole community atmosphere. It's all about the Ironman experience, not just the runners or the volunteers or it's everything all together.
Speaker 1:So much energy out there. I think too what I think he liked the energy you know what I think about, like when I run it, because the biggest thing you have to do is you have to come up with your why to do things? Yeah, like for me, like running and movement. I want to be in shape my entire life and be very mobile when I'm older. It's why I do.
Speaker 2:You said you want to live to your hundred. He said to me the first generation of the hundred.
Speaker 1:Well, there's, people.
Speaker 2:One hundred and twenty.
Speaker 1:You said OK but I think I think people who are older don't enjoy being older because they're not in good shape, they can't move. So I want to have always continue to enjoy life and be in great shape and like mobile and stuff. So I do a lot of mobility work too, so that I think it's important not just the short term doing stuff, but just that long term. Who it's your identity. I love when I travel new places. Running allows me to explore like we're in Arizona, I go out on the trails Allows me to explore for a couple hours. When you do races and you go somewhere, it's a reason to go on big cake like go explore a new area. Obviously it's not the same as vacation. You're doing stuff but you're going to chat new though that's something I wouldn't have done if I wasn't Doing a race. So there's lots of different facets like that, but I like, I love. I love how that all our twines and I just want to be an active person and it kind of explore.
Speaker 2:And I think you know me, part of this podcast is really to maybe Show people to real life examples and and maybe encourage you guys to just look in this doing some things like this. You know it's a yeah.
Speaker 1:I tell people all the time. So if you say you don't have time, there's one thing obviously there's always. There's, there's reasons not to train if you're injured, if you have specific conditions that you can't. So by by no means are we saying anything like that. But for the people that all the time people said to me I don't have time and I just use the example my dad, he's a full-time neurosurgeon and he trained for a full Ironman. So if you say you don't have time, like, really, look, just sit for a week and write down how you spend each hour of your day. For a day even, or a week, if you can, there's a lot of time. You're just sitting there, wasting on your phone or watching this or doing that Obviously different for every single person.
Speaker 1:But there's, there's ways to find you make time. You can prioritize things, but just prioritize in some way of something that's healthy for you. You know, whether that's cooking a dinner, going for a run, going for a walk. Do so. I, you know it makes a big difference in your life. I think we're just. I think part of it is just discussing our life, being positive, yeah, and the things that we know a little bit about. There's people who know much.
Speaker 2:Right, as I was to say, because by no means are we sitting here trying to tell people how to do a triathlon or how to do this or that, because obviously there's people who do this for their careers or their living and they could blow us away and all the stuff we're going over, I mean in detail, but we're trying to give you a sense of what you can accomplish in life, I think, and and things that can be healthy for you, and I think it's good conversation and how to be positive in life and have a positive Don't. Let's get rid of that. I can't say I can, or I'd like to at least try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, positive, a positive attitude makes a huge difference. Just, I mean, you're gonna enjoy your life a lot more and people around you, yeah, are gonna enjoy you a lot more. You like someone who's very upbeat and positive and has that can do attitude versus someone who who's makes excuse? Yeah, debbie Downer makes excuses about everything, but yeah, so I will probably do another podcast in a couple weeks. After I've done it, maybe we'll do one in Chattanooga.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're gonna drive down, so my wife and I are going and Kevin's girlfriend's gonna go, and we're gonna go spend three days and It'll be fun. Yeah, no, so. I'm glad I'm not doing it right now, but that's.
Speaker 1:That'll be exciting and yeah, I'm excited to see how it goes. But I was probably hopefully I could that that would be like a little. I remember writing, you know, after races I'll do journal and true sometimes, but there in a podcast would be cool. Just all those thoughts in your head, that kind of Disappear a little bit over years. It's hard with the imaginary race again. It's the biggest thing I remember during my. I Remember during my half Ironman in Wilmington, north Carolina, my mom was there with me but I just remember the entire, the entire time just waiting to give my mom a hug at the end. I got very drained after because you, it's shorter but you're putting, you're exerting a lot more effort over a shorter period of time.
Speaker 2:Well, I think in the shorter ones you think you can it's a shorter bike ride, a shorter run, so you think you can put more energy into it. You know the full Ironman, you know you have to pace yourself, but the shorter ones is like you think you can do these bursts because they're shorter.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it catches up to you because I did the swim pretty fast, I mean after my bike. I biked at like night a little under 20 miles per hour for three hours, but then my, I had fallen behind on my nutrition big time. My, my, my run was slower than I thought it could be.
Speaker 2:Well I remember from marathon Part of the Ironman I stopped at every single stop that they had. Every mile they would have a stop for either oranges or juice or water. I made myself stop and eat a piece of banana, or every single time, and I lost 20 seconds or 30 seconds.
Speaker 1:I made sure I had every mile and every, and you know what.
Speaker 2:I didn't even have to go pee because You're sweating out so much stuff. I was drinking but I didn't even have to. You know, people worry about that. You know, cuz, let's get down to it, right. Some people worry about you know what, if I have to go to the bathroom, you know, out there, and they do have porta-potties and, but Jesus, if you have to stop and go, I mean yeah, just I mean never.
Speaker 1:I won't worry about your time, but yeah, don't worry about that usually a lot of times you don't have to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2:You think you will, but you don't yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, I mean, obviously you try to go to the bathroom before you start, but that's just something to there's porta-potties.
Speaker 2:It's always at the beginning, because it's your nerves at the beginning that really gets you. Once you get, once you get into it, I think you just fall into a groove and then you're not.
Speaker 1:The nerves go away you know, don't think, and you yeah, and you fall back on your because it starts feeling like training. Yeah, I've true that. That's why it's probably much harder If you've done a lot, you have a conference because you've been there many times before, or if you've done. It's why it's important, especially for your first one, to do a lot of training so you have that confidence knowing, okay, I can't do this, because, no matter what your race is gonna be your farthest distance You've got, you're not gonna have trained, had a training day where you want 13 hours or or however long it takes you, it's very doubt You're not gonna do, just break your body down too much in training. But yeah, I think that's that's the wrap for today's episode and, as always, let us know what you guys think and if you have topics you know.
Speaker 2:Try to shoot us some. How can they? Context of her topics?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you might want a podcast.
Speaker 1:I want you to let us know you Any any of the social media is commenting or messaging us. We look, we look through on that, as always Trying to think there there's a couple good ones that have been some recurring themes about Some questions. So I think, because I think what we want this Podcasts with you know started. They wanted to start and just do something that's unique to us. That's just around our life, which is, you know, grief, with my brother dying, al called Cation, him being a neurosurgeon. We train a lot diet, so we're just gonna keep Following our curiosities, talking about stuff like that. People seem, I Think, to relate to that in some ways, just being open about conversations and other things, and we'll see where it takes us. But we're very open to talking about different things you think would be interesting for us to talk about, so just let us know.
Speaker 2:I can't say we're experts on anything but but um, sometimes it's fun to talk about different topics, you know. Just give a perspective, whatever you happen to think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just pretty soon. Here we're just trying to get some Raps under our belt of just setting up the, the podcast we want to, over time, like kind of make him more and more professional in a way, so we can get better audio video. But also, let us know if there's any guests you think we should try to get or you know, let them. Let us know, because I think that'd be a cool perspective of different people, because my dad's a neurosurgeon and then myself, of just asking people, you know, in two different you know picking people's brains in two different ways. So that more to come on that soon. But yeah, every every Saturday and new episodes every Saturday morning. So, yeah, have a good day everyone. All right, stay positive.
