greetings to another video today i'm going to talk to you about i think this is the tardis
and the toughest thing to actually train for endurance you've probably guessed it
but it is your mind and this is something that i'm still trying to get better at i'm
just going to share some of the things that i've learned over the years that helped me
kind of push myself and i don't know keep me what's the word like just keep me motivated to
ride when you are feeling a little bit low or you have slumps because a lot of the questions
that you asked in the q a were about like how do you deal with low points how do you
keep going when you really don't want to and it's all about your mind it doesn't
matter if that ride is like 50k or 100k 500k or 1500k it's all relative we've all got to
use our minds in a way that is productive and not destructive and i actually want to show you very
quickly a little bit of footage that i took before i started all points north because i was
so nervous i normally get a little bit of like nerves excitement but this was like
extra nerves but like i've got back and i've got change and now i'm like
scared and it's just right in the back i need to tell myself that and like tell you tell myself why
i tell you that but i think there is a possibility that i might not complete this and i think
i guess that's what makes it a challenge actually it's just riding a bike done it before
i'm trying to talk myself into it and then i'm talking myself out of it just about using
your mind in the best way possible so the first thing is breaking it up into sections so i can't
comprehend thinking i'm going to ride 300k or i'm going to be out for like 12 hours i have
to break it down into little sections of like 5 or 10 or even 50 kilometers tricking your mind
to know that you can do what you've already done and that leads me on to the second tip which is
use old experiences of tough rides that you've done and you've got through for me like when it
was raining in the middle of the night i did um an event called great escapades i think it
was last year and it was just so wet and muddy and i just kept thinking yes it's raining yes
i'm fixing a flat but at least it's not muddy 10 to 3 in the morning it's been raining for about
12 i can't say i'm really enjoying this or if there was like a bit of like windy weather
i was like well i rode from like london back to manchester and i had pretty much
it was like a really strong cross headwind the whole way back i was like well if i can do that
i can do this another thing that i do as well as i like tell myself you're doing really good like
tell yourself every so often you know what you you're doing really well like my achilles i'm like
you've not been great like for a year and you're doing really well and i think it's just like
telling yourself and like patting yourself on the back sometimes and being like do you know
what you're doing well you're doing good you're doing the best you can do and it's just like
getting yourself into that positive mindset and that positive mindset doesn't need to be like
this is amazing i'm having the best time ever like wow this is fantastic sometimes it's just kind of
keeping that i guess i don't know keeping that like level if that makes sense i'm not getting
really over excitedly happy because then you're going to get like really low just try to keep it
like really even just like i'm doing this i can do it and just keep it like that positive outlook the
next tip that i learned was from a book called the cycling mind i'll leave a link to it below
and in that it talks about um that thoughts are not facts when i set off on all points i think one
of the toughest parts of that ride was the start it was probably like the first i'd say three hours
my mind was just saying why are you doing this you're not good enough to do this like you've
done it before and you failed it like go home like don't do it don't put yourself through it again i
had to keep telling myself these are just thoughts these are just my fears and they're not facts and
the facts of this are have you done the training yes i've done enough training my route is good
i've got everything with me that i could possibly need got enough food i've got enough water and
yeah that's what i had to keep reminding myself and like thinking logically not the fear side of
me thinking like the worst i was telling myself all this and then i don't think my voice enough
was what on alert alone sorry was enough then i had to put the audio book on of the cycling
mind because that just it was almost like just to take my mind off it and i was just listening
to it and i was like okay okay i can do this it just put me in a really good frame of mind
i'm gonna ask how i listen to him um but yeah i use shocks these are bone conducting headphones
and they sit on the outside of your ear so you can still hear the environment you can see the traffic
they're phenomenal if you look back on all my old long distance videos i've always got them on
because they're just incredible i kind of feel like they're like my little secret weapon when
i'm not feeling great they and i'm gonna tell you the different ways that i use them to help
kind of keep me going when i'm not feeling great the next tip is music you don't need me to tell
you how much music can like boost motivation i did this on some of the night ride i just
put music on that just really like put me in a good mood and just kept me going and just yeah
motivated me and the next thing is i'm sure she won't mind me telling you about this but
my friend nikki who was the first woman back she was having a bit of a tough time and again like
it's only because i've spoken to her that i know this sometimes when you just see like i guess
leaderboards you just think they don't that people don't go through this everybody goes through this
um but she yeah i'm not having a great time and she decided that she was going to pack it in so
she started riding towards durham train station and she got towards there she spoke to a friend
a friend basically just like just have a nap like have something to eat and see how you feel that
worked and then she just basically was like no i'm not packing this end i'm going to finish it so she
did that code on was the first woman back which is just amazing and i had similar so some of my low
points i think it was like the second day where i was quite tired it had been raining for so long
and i'd had a really long headwind and i spoke to my friend
i was just like i don't know whether this is for me again the same thoughts thinking
i don't know whether i can do this and he just basically said you've been so excited for this for
so long you've done all this training you know you can do it and i know if you pack it in now like
future katie who's not tired who's not a little bit hungry a little bit mardi will regret not
being able to finish it and it's just knowing that if you just push through those moments
you're gonna feel better again like it just doesn't i think this is again this is another tip
that i've learned is that it doesn't consistently get worse if you're having a low moment it doesn't
just get worse worse worse worse not that i've found having that friend to call is just
i can't recommend it enough and i have another friend darren who you've probably seen in videos
um we've got call like an ordax helpline so that if we're both either on an old axe and we're not
with the other one that we can just ring each other up and be like i'm having a bit of a tough
time and then we'll try and talk each other like into finishing it obviously not if you're like in
absolute pain or agony or something's physically wrong but some most of the time it is because
you're a little bit tired and you're a little bit hungry or you're a bit dehydrated so just trying
to take care of those things really helps also my little secret weapon because for music for audio
books to talk to a friend because you can use these for phone they've got a microphone on them
just amazing i've used them for years and i feel like i don't i'm not don't think i've done
one ride without taking them because i just feel like if i do feel that low
i've always got these as like a backup almost just to be able to like get me out of it
they have sponsored this video i'm so happy because even if they hadn't sponsored this video
i would still promote them i still recommend them because i think they're phenomenal so these ones
are the i'll show you probably better on my head so you can see them these are the open run and
these come in a regular size and they've actually come in mini now and i actually prefer the mini
because i have a little p head um but they don't interfere with like your helmet or your glasses
and they just sit really well and the main thing that i love about them is you can hear traffic you
can hear people you can hear just the environment of riding because that's why we ride isn't it
like we want to hear like the birds they are ip67 waterproof so that means if you're sweating a lot
on rides um they're going to be fine and they've also got like a quick charge function so that
they've got i think they've got eight hours um like total battery time i've had about nine and
a half out of them to be honest um but if you charge them up for 10 minutes you get an extra
like one and a half hours charge time from them the sound quality is really good
the audio quality for voice calls is actually really good as well i love them i wouldn't
be without them for my long rides they've also given us a 10 pound discount code i've not had a
discount code before so i'll leave all the details below and it's only for a limited amount of time
so i'll put all the details below if you've got any tips as well i know a lot of you will have
on how you i don't know help push yourself on endurance wise leave them in the comments
and any questions as always leave in the comments as well and i will see you all next video this
squeaky chair does my head in i need to uh i need to buy a new chair can you hear it anyway goodbye